coonhunter

Paula, I always loved his voice too. He was a great narrator for his own show.

I had hounds and beagles for years. Most of them wanted no part of being in the house. Fresh hay/straw and a good doghouse is what they wanted. There were a few that came in and stayed when it was cold, but most just wanted to stay in there coops. I worried about it a lot more than the dogs did. I can say that these were working dogs, and in some cases, worth a few thousand bucks. They were on high quality food, and they were working dogs that were used to the outside. The little dog we have now is worth about 50 cents, and I have to put a coat on her and she can't take the cold for more than 5-10 minutes.

That's a nice darn day. We haven't been after the perch yet because we have been hitting the crappies really well. We will get after the perch and walleyes soon.

Oh, and Curmudgen, I have always enjoyed the hell out of all the pictures you post for the studies.

When I fill my car up, I always but a ticket for whichever one is higher.

Well Curmudgen, I have to go with the expert, especially when you have pictures to show me. I will have to go back to never seeing a golden yet. I have no idea why I thought this one was any different from the other ones we have seen over the years.

Curmudgen, if this was a bald eagle, it had no white on its chest or head. I am far from an expert and maybe their chests darken up before their heads turn white. I was 40 yards away with binos, and even with it being in the river bottom during a snow squall, I was sure it was a golden eagle. The color sure looked right even with snow sitting on its back. But, mistakes happen. I know it was the first time I ever thought I saw one, and we see balds almost every week flying the river. Even today we saw a couple of immatures go flying through heading south towards rt. 8.

Curmudgeon, two weeks ago we saw a golden eagle in a dead tree right beside the river in Sidney at work. We frequently see bald eagles there, so we assumed it was an immature bald. After a few minutes I was thinking it was huge to be an immature bald, and I got out some binoculars. I was right. It was the first golden eagle that I have knowingly seen.

This is a tough one for me. I have always been good at it, and to try and break it down as to the why and how, I don't know. I can say that I never even shot a rifle with a scope until I had shot thousands and thousands of bb's, pellets, and .22 shells through open sights. Hell, probably the first hundred woodchucks and squirrels were with open sights. Once I had a scope on a .22 and a .22 mag, I couldn't believe how far a person could shoot and be right on the money. I guess my advice is practice a lot, and find out what is comfortable to you, and works. Hit a wall that you feel is inadequate, get someone there with you that is good at shooting offhand. There is a good chance they can pick something small that you are doing to get going ahead again. And, clear your head. Shells are cheap and you can get more. Don't let a bad session get you down.

My wife and I are going out to Texas Roadhouse with friends which is nice because we all work different hours and it is not often that we get to do adult stuff all together. Funny part is that the men don't drink, so we will be the babysitters for the women after they have a few cocktails.

I could not even guess how many books I have. I have been an avid reader as long as I can remember. My wife took a couple years to convince me to let her buy me a Kindle. I wouldn't do it for a long time. Then she showed me a Paper White(?), and I let her get it for me. I love it and in less than a year I have put over 100 books on there. For anyone that likes to read, but have trouble seeing the letters even with glasses, you can make the letters way bigger. I highly recommend this product just for the space it saves you.

My favorite is "Where the Red Fern Grows". It's about coondogs and working hard and life lessons. The movies don't even come close to how great the book is. Anyone that loves hunting or working dogs will love this book and it is easy reading.

I was out before daylight this morning and caught the crappie bite good enough for my brother and I to both get a nice haul of 10-12 inchers on fatheads and jig poles. I think most were on the jigging rods, but the minnows picked up most of the biggest ones. I love ice fishing a lot more when it is warmer so we don't have to spend most of the time huddled in a shanty. 7 inches of clear ice on the pond we were fishing.

I will be on the ice before daylight tomorrow morning trying to get a limit of crappie with my brother. It's supposed to be just above 0 tonight where we are fishing. All we can do is get the shanty up and the heater going as quick as possible. today, I told him to go by himself because I was passing with the cold and wind.

All I can say is wow! Glad I had a shanty and heater today. It was brutal out there. I had to go out once in awhile to free up my tip ups or to drill some holes to get back on the fish. The wind was blowing 20 and gusting 30+ to go with a whopping 12 degrees. I was in full coveralls, good boots and socks, and full facemask. Just being out in the weather for 5-10 minutes and having your hands exposed was bad enough to make your fingers burn when I got back to the shanty and heater. Wish I could tell you it was a great day, but it wasn't for my brother and me. We had to get through a lot of small fish to get the half dozen nice perch we caught on jigging rods. And the tip ups produced a couple nice bass and a few pickerel. But, and it is a big but, it still was nice being out on the lake with my brother and his lady friend instead of working. Now, I work tomorrow and then have 5 more days off that will be spent on some lakes in our area in even colder weather, but the wind is supposed to not be as bad. Hopefully we can get on a good bunch of crappie or some more big perch.

I agree completely with Phade. Over the years you have spent more and more time complaining about how neighboring hunters handicap your hunting for a lot less than this. The problem I think, is that you don't want to be away from your wife and kids for any length of time. It's a tough call for you, but if you want to enjoy your hunting, you may have to go elsewhere and spend weekends bowhunting and/a week at camp. I don't know what your answer really is, but in your heart, you know this is going downhill in a hurry. I feel for you. In the last couple years, I have lost my favorite bowhunting farm due to Amish moving into the neighboring properties. Only took one season to turn into a shitshow. I have not been back. My number 1 farm this year had tons of deer, but I never saw a mature buck all season during the daylight there. The earlier you can get on top of this, the better off you will be. Otherwise, your enjoyment is going to disappear in a hurry..

I never have anything in writing. Most of the time they know me or know of me. I make sure they have my name and phone number on a card in case something happens that changes things. I always make it a point to stop in just to stay in touch and offer some help, which is almost always refused. I have a ton of contacts from my coonhunting days, and so far, I always have good hunting even though I am sharing it with others. A lot of landowners like the fact that i help kids and women out to get deer as well.

I enjoyed a nice breakfast of homemade waffles, bacon ,sausage, and homefries at my in laws on Saturday. Then backed it up with a ham dinner my wife cooked yesterday. As for presents, I got a few ice fishing things and a gift card to Texas Roadhouse to use on New Years Eve. Pretty nice, calm holiday with some nice conversations with family and tomorrow will be a day with my brother ice fishing in the nasty weather.

Get a spud!! And use it as a spud and not a walking stick. Ice thickness can vary greatly on any body of water. Last weekend my brother and I were fishing on 4 inches of nice clear ice. We were moving around a little drilling holes, and I walked ten feet further and hit with my spud. I almost lost my spud through the ice because it was only about an inch and a half thick. That's why you always spud your way around.

I'm in the same boat Belo. I have an old Lites Out that seems like I have used forever. Every year I say I am going to buy a new bow, but come the fall, I still climb up with that old Bear on the hanger, and I keep killing deer with it. I can say for a fact that the new bows are noticeably smoother and seem like they shoot a little faster as well. I don't really care about them being faster, but the smoothness of the break over is a big draw for me. Maybe this will be the year I finally get a new one.

At the farm properties I did most of my hunting this year, we weighed 21 does and 9 bucks. The does went from a low of 98 to a high of 141 and averaged out at a little over 117. The nine bucks went from 112 up to 152 and averaged right at 126. I don't know what kind of scale it is but it is darn near dead on at 100 pounds and repeats every time. This years totals are right about in the average zone from years past and all deer looked healthy and even the bucks still had a pretty good layer of fat still. No button bucks and no doe fawns is always a plus. The guys did a good job of picking out nice does.

What I am curious about is what do the hunters that are pushing for all the restrictions think is going to happen when the number of hunters continues to drop and the deer population continues to grow because we no longer have enough hunters shooting does to put a dent in it? Hunters have become so horn crazy that they spend thousands on leases and plots every year, just to post a picture on a bunch of sites and on social media. 500 acre farms with two people hunting it, pictures of 20-30 deer out in the fields in the daylight, and none of them being shot, and nobody having access to shoot them. I guess I am just old school and enjoy the comraderie of hunting. I have always had access to good to great hunting, and I always try to get permission for a friend or two because I like to have and enjoy success as a pair or group. I have no land that I am the only one that has permission, and I wouldn't want it that way. Hunting to me is being with friends, family, and the youngsters trying to learn, up to the old timers that need a little help. Don't get me wrong, I love killing a big one, but I get just as much joy, or maybe even more, from helping others get their first deer, first buck, first big buck , or even their first deer in a few years. The TV media has almost ruined hunting as a whole. I try every year to keep the tradition of hunting alive in my area by keeping a few people in the woods because once they don't go a season, it gets easier to not go the next. I know there is no hope of turning back, but I will try and keep it fun hunting with me.

Yup, I enjoy reading these stories and look forward to them. I always enjoy dogs that earn their keep doing what they are bred and/or trained to do.

I have thought about this a couple days to come up with an honest answer. I turn 50 in a couple weeks. I have never had a ton of money, but I have been able to afford my hobbies. I grew up in the outdoors and at dirt tracks on the weekends. My father took me hunting starting at a young age. There was no babying and going home because it was cold. He basically did everything wrong according to how it is done now, but I loved it. He taught me to shoot shotgun and rifle, and although I never could compete with him when it came to shotgun, by the time I was 12, I could out shoot him with the .22 mag. He was the one that made me able to remain calm and make the shot when it came, and not before. I had a neighbor that taught me to fish and to trap, so that was even more time in the woods and water. I had a gun shop owner up the road that ran coonhounds. That became my true love and made some money in hides and later in competition. So, unlike a ton of kids, I was given the outdoors and grabbed it by the horns. I consider myself very lucky to have lived the life I have. It wasn't always perfect and I had plenty of personal things come up, but the outdoors was always there. A couple of things I would tell myself is to run hounds as much as you can because deer hunting is going to ruin it in the end, and to pick up the bow right off the bat.

The only picture I have posted of a deer is my facebook profile picture, and that is just a 2 year old seven point i shot the year the bear lights out came out. I hardly have any pictures of the bucks i have shot. My friends and a few relatives have a lot more than i do. I just never cared all that much what others thought about my deer. I have never even gotten one mounted. A couple have been mounted by friends over the years, and hang in their houses. It has never been my thing to want a trophy room. I just like to hunt with friends and share the fun and and trials of deer hunting.