Hunting – Page 7 – The Outdoors Guy

March 19, 2012

Trout or turkey its up to you

Although things are much earlier this year than with previous springs, as soon as the warm weather hits sportsmen (& women) generally fall into two categories.

1) Trout

2) Or turkey

Which one is it for you?

Send me your spring plans and I may feature you in next Thursday’s Outdoors Column. There’s no money involved, though, in case you’re wondering…

Outdoorsguy

(For those who are angry I didn’t mention walleye, bass, shed antler hunting, QC bear hunting, bullheads or spring muskrats..I do apologize)

December 30, 2011

Mature buck taken by Coyotes on Robs property

Our friend Rob St Denis discovered something rather upsetting on his property yesterday.

A big mature whitetail buck had been taken down by coyotes, with the majority of the animal being left for the birds.

“It’s a complete waste of meat” said St Denis of the deer he has seen in trailcam images recently.

“This guy has been passing through my property for the last few months and it would seem he hopped the fence at the wrong time and was killed by coyotes.” he added.

With the ‘wolf-like’ behaviour exhibited by these modern age killing machines, gone are the days when ‘yotes’ were a solitary beast stalking only field mice and rabbits.

St Denis saw clear evidence of a ‘team at work’: “There were 3 sets of distinct tracks in the snow leading away from the site; apparently what little they ate was their fill.”

Rob wants people to realize with these graphic images that even the strong and healthy in our woods are no match for these large predators.

“The big thing here is it shows clearly that coyotes have no problems taking large game (unlike what the environmentalists say that they only eat small game like rabbits and the like.”

One would think that a mature buck like this would be well-equipped to defend against even multiple attackers, but St Denis believes otherwise

“Doesn’t even seem like he gave much chase, the whole mess was within 20′ of where we found him.”

This shocking scene is the grim reality of what our deer, moose and even family pets have to face today.

Do you still believe these predators take only the old and weak? Better ask Rob St Denis about that!

Outdoorsguy

P.S. The image below shows a doe taken by coyotes this past summer from Rob’s property. The coyotes ate only what you see in the photo and never returned. Scavengers took care of the rest:

December 5, 2011

Coyotes running rampant in Ottawa

The coyote problem here in Ottawa has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime that’s the only way to describe it.

Over the past five years we have seen coyote contests, coyote culls, coyote attacks on family pets, increased predation on white-tailed deer, and even one coyote attack on an Ottawa resident.

I know around my place the coyote numbers are insane. Five years ago there were very few predators around and my trail cams were lucky to capture 1 coyote image for every 1000 deer images.

Now I’m picking up more yote pics than deer pics!

My neighbour’s lost their cat this past spring right on their own property, and last week a woman who lives nearby told us her neighbour has an English Sheep Hound who tangled with a coyote in her backyard, and sustained very serious injury. The dog came very close to being put down!

Along with the handful of deer I see and photograph regularly around my place is a doe and fawn who call my backwoods and fields their home. Now, for the past week or so, only the fawn has shown up on its own – looking a bit disoriented and lost.

As we all know, 6 month old fawns do not travel alone or stay on their own for any length of time. Mom is never far away. Although I haven’t yet discovered what happened to that doe, I can wager a pretty good guess as to why there’s an orphaned fawn running around.

Yes the coyotes are running rampant in Ottawa and we are up against a rock and a hard place! Sure, the hunting season on yotes is open year round and trapping is an option too. But are these really viable control options here in the Capital City?

For God’s sake, I’m scared to let my little dog out for a pee for fear that a friggin coyote will grab her!!

I can’t really trap the coyotes around my place(even though I have a license) because there are too many family pets travelling the same fields, and I can’t hunt the coyotes freely because public opinion seems to think it’s cruel.

“What would the neighbour’s say if they saw you shooting coyotes in the back field” says Mrs Outdoorsguy. Personally, a lot of them would thank me but not all of them, and I know that.

And not all of your neighbour’s would either.

Many folks here (the protectionist – preservationist lot) in Ottawa think we should just leave these nice little critters along…so the coyote population continues to flourish at the expensive of our deer population.

It’s bad now and only getting worse!

Below is an example of some of the varmints creating havoc around my place. These images were taken over the 2 weeks alone. I especially like the one of the big coyote taking a dump on my lawn..talk about the ultimate in disrespect!

Yes, something needs to be done about our burgeoning coyote population but I’m at loss as to what that should be..

The graphic image series below speaks itself..for those who have not seen it yet:

November 23, 2011

Local hunter bags goliath sized buck

Last year we heard from Barry Scollan with a magnificent buck he harvested, and this year it’s all about his brother, Art!

Art Scollan took what will surely be one of the heaviest grain fed whitetails this region will produce this fall. Art’s 248 pound trophy is what one might describe as one big fat buck!

Rick Poulin is currently scoring the antlers.
Here’s Art’s story as written by the man himself:

Friday Nov. 11th, 2011 proved to be the best morning of the hunt with a good frost. Shortly after 9am a nice doe with her tongue out came running down a corn stubble field and into a swamp. Just then, about 100 yards behind her was a large buck with his horns shining in the sun. He was right on her tail!

The buck would stop with his head down on the ground, and then he would start running on her trail. The closer the buck got to the end of the field, the faster he started to move. I put the scope of my 270 on him and fired. The buck stumbled and disappeared in the tall grass near the swamp.

My step son Rick was at a stand near by and we radioed each other. After waiting for a spell we started looking for him. The buck as buried down head first in a ditch in the tall grass. Radio contacts were made with fellow hunters, my brother Barry and Jamie, who all helped get the buck out.

The buck was a 12 pointer and field dressed 248 whopping pounds! It is the heaviest deer anyone in our gang has ever seen. The buck was full of fat. We took a five gallon pail of fat off of him. It was a great hunt!

Art Scollan

This photo below (Taken by Rick P) shows the serious injury discovered when Art’s buck was skinned-out) Caution…a bit graphic!

November 14, 2011

Wolf pursuing deer caught on film

The following sequence of trail camera photos depicts a scenario which is, no doubt, a daily occurrence in our deer woods, however, it’s the first time I ever captured it on film.

With the recent increase in predators across eastern Ontario and western QC, our white-tailed deer surely need eyes in the back of their head just to stay one step ahead.

When I arrived at our deer camp in the Laurentians a couple of weeks back, I had my work cut out for me reviewing images on the three trail cams I had in place since Labour Day. I was like a child on Christmas morning scrolling through all the images, it was great!

One camera in particular – my ‘invisible’ Bushnell Black LED Trophy Cam – featured a virtual cornucopia of activity from the past two months, at a popular creek crossing. The images including that of a cow moose, bucks, does and fawns, one 300 pound + black bear, and this bold looking bugger below.

Hey, who says timber wolves don’t exist this far south. My camp is only 2 hours north and although I did see a common eastern coyote (brush wolf) during the deer season, I also captured some tell-tail images of this large timber wolf.

I took some measurements in the area where he passed through; and I estimated this wolf to be minimum 90 pounds and probably closer to 100 pounds. It was basically the size of a full grown German Sheppard.

Pay close attention to the ‘time stamp’ in each photograph.

(A doe puts up ‘the flag’ and hightails it down the trail)

(Her tail can still be seen bounding through the trees)

(Doe bounds out of sight on the right side of the photo – time 5:52 & 34 seconds)

(A large white/black timber wolf suddenly appears on the deer’s trail – less than 1.5 minutes later)

(Wolf tears down the same trail in hot pursuit; now 2 minutes behind)

(Wolf just before it disappeared from sight)

(Both deer and wolf disappear out of sight)

Footnote:

The same doe did reappear on camera 2 days later without so much as a hair out of place.

I suppose in this particular battle the deer came out on top, but what about next time?

Outdoorsguy

November 3, 2011

Pursuit of ghost buck continues

Well, the search for my ghost buck continues……

As this saga enters its forth year I find myself no further ahead in locating a deer we have appropriately called ‘Ghost buck’.

Most of you know I am an avid trail camera aficionado. I find them to be perhaps the most useful scouting tool ever invented. On the other side of the coin, they can also frustrate the hell out of you!

Every hunter should know it is somewhat unrealistic to think you’ll harvest every big buck that appears on your camera, and that locating a particular wily beast will be an easy task.

Although I have seen several bucks over the years during the hunting season and matched them up to photos on my camera, such has never been the case with my old pal the ghost buck.

The first year I captured an image of old ghosty was back in 2009 – 3 days prior to the Quebec rifle season. Although my camera had been in place since Sep that year, ghosty appeared on only one particular evening around 11:00 PM and was never seen again that season.

Until the fall of 2010, of course, when he returned for a visit. You guessed it, he was there again exactly 3 days before the opening of rifle season! This year he was bigger again; sporting a handsome looking 10-point rack with a distinctive forked tine. Well, we never saw ghosty that year and did not capture any more images of him.

The 2011 deer rifle season arrived this past weekend with great anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get into camp and check the camera for my old ghost friend.

After scrolling through several hundred photos of does, fawns and a smaller buck, WHAM! There he was in all his glory and man he was looking better than ever!

This year he mixed up his visit a little and arrived 4 days prior to the season instead of 3.

And as with previous years, we hunted his suspected hang-out spots for 5 days to no avail. The ghost buck was nowhere to be seen and I was starting to develop mixed feelings about the elusive bad boy.

I was certainly pleased that he had made it through at least 4 hunting seasons, but miffed that I still never got a chance to see him in the flesh.

I am beginning to think this old boy may eventually die of old age and I suppose, in a way, he will have earned that right.

Here are photos of my ghost buck starting from 2009 season running through to 2011…Enjoy!!

(Ghost buck as he appeared in 2009)

(Ghost buck as he appeared in 2010)

(Ghost buck as he appeared last week (2011)

October 4, 2011

Big game hunters Bragging Board

OK folks, it is that time of year again…when men are men and the bears, moose and deer are nervous.

If you have enjoyed a successful big-game hunt this fall, I invite you to share your story and photos right here at the Outdoors Guy Blog.

As someone once said, its time to show ’em if you got ’em!

Please keep in mind that all photos submitted by pm should be in a small file format. Usually less than 1/2 GB is fine.

Outdoorsguy

Thanks to Sure-shot Dave for sending in his moose story:

Made the 16 hour drive to Thunder Bay on Sept. 23^rd. Had high hopes of putting my tag on a nice bull. The scouting report was that there were some nice ones hanging around.

Spent the better part of six days chasing them around the swamps, and sitting in stands without seeing a thing. It was warm, but not as bad as 2009, the last time I was there.

Monday (day 3) I got the invite to go down to Timmins to try and fill a cow tag… Resisted the temptation. I wanted antlers. Wednesday (day 5) got another invitation to go down to Timmins… Started to cave a little bit. After the Thursday morning hunt I decided to pack it in and head for Timmins, again after some convincing from Andy. That guy is persistent. Left Thunder Bay at 7PM on Thursday, had a co pilot so was able to sleep for a couple of hours in the truck on the way. Made it to Timmins for 3AM, up and heading to the hunting spot at 5AM. I must be crazy…

Andy put me on a skidder trail and gave me instructions on where to go. Follow this trail to the hydro line, if nothing, come back half way and take the other trail out to a fresh cut. Sounded pretty easy to me. I waited until first light, and slowly made my way up the first trail. It’s amazing how many stumps, root balls and dark objects looked like moose after 6 days of not seeing a thing…

After about twenty minutes, Andy got a hold of me to say that Chris had seen a couple of cows head into a small piece of bush, and I needed to get down the other trail ASAP to cut them off. So off I go. I picked a likely looking spot, but not knowing if I was in the right area, I waited for further instructions. I then moved to the highest point so that I could see as much terrain as possible. Andy was going to wait until the rest of the group could get set up before going in after the cows. After a while, he came out of the bush and motioned for me to come over to him. He said that the cows are probably still in the patch of bush, but that I needed to get to the other end of the bush to watch the beaver meadow. Off I went at a pretty good pace so that I didn’t miss them. Andy said “look for the tamarack tree with the branches cut off one side”. Millions of trees, and I’m supposed to find that one tree. Ok I thought to myself, like that’s going to happen. I walked in to the corner of the beaver meadow, and noticed some cut brush and a small open area. Looked up, and there was the tamarack tree. Well I’ll be a monkey’s arse… I took a few steps to get out into the open meadow, and just as I look up, I see a cow come bursting out of the brush on the other side. She’s trotting at a pretty good pace on the other side of the 200 yard wide meadow, heading for the far end and the tag alders for cover. Great I think to myself, I finally see a moose, but there is no way on God’s green earth that I am going to get a shot at her. As fast as this fat ass could run, I head to cut her off. After about a 75 yard sprint, she turns and heads right across the meadow, right towards me. At this point I still don’t have an arrow nocked, and I’m not even close to being ready. Add to that that I am gasping for air, and things are not looking good. Halfway across the meadow, she stops to look back over her shoulder to see where the danger is. That’s my opportunity. I throw off my gloves, grab an arrow, nock it and hunker down in the grass. After a few seconds, she starts to run again. I come to full draw as she’s coming. 20 more yards, and she’ll be in the bush and gone. I yell “hey” and she slams on the brakes. Of course, she’s right behind a tag alder bush, and I have no shot. She sees me, and walks out from behind the bush to have a better look. Quartering towards me slightly, but I think I can make the shot. I put my 40 yard pin on her, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger on my release. As if in slow motion, I watch my neon yellow arrow head for its target. All the while, I’m praying that it will fly true to its mark. With a thunk, it hits the cow and buries itself 2/3 of the way in. I’m pretty confident that she won’t go far. I call Andy, and he answers in a whisper “what’s up”. Huffing and puffing, I say “I got her!” He says “you got her?” I say “yeah I got her!!” The excitement in his voice grows, and the next thing out of his mouth is “who’s your daddy?? Told you I’d get you a cow!” I tell him not to get too excited yet, we need to find her before the celebrating can start.

I walk to where she was standing, and start looking for blood while I wait for Andy and Roger to come over. Andy comes across the meadow, and before I can even show him where she was, and where she went, he’s on the blood trail. It was a very easy trail to follow. Like someone was pouring blood out of a paint can. If it were a deer, it would have gone less than 50 yards. This being my first moose, I had no idea how much blood they could lose before falling over. We followed the trail for about 150-200 yards, and found her piled up on the edge of a cut over area. Now the celebrating could begin! My first moose, shot with my old reliable High Country bow. If only all things in life were as reliable as that bow! Andy laughed at me for still shooting it, but it’s never let me down. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!!

We spent the next couple of hours field dressing, and loading her into the ATV trailer. Then it was off to the butcher to get her skinned and quartered. That night we celebrated with obscene amounts of alcohol, and I was introduced to sleeping in a prospector tent for the first time. There are stories to tell about the evening, but we’ll leave those for another day. What happens in moose camp, stays in moose camp!!

I sure am glad that Andy was so persistent, and that I made the overnight drive to Timmins. It was the experience of a lifetime. Thanks to all the guys for making it a hunt that I’ll never forget!!!

Regards,

Sure-shot Dave

Our friend Rick P had a great weekend it seems!

On Sunday evening, he took what he’s calling his ‘meat buck’ at 6:30 PM with a ten yard bow shot.

Now Rick is concentrating on the big guys!

Congrats on the nice looking buck!

I finally got out yesterday for my second hunt of the season.

It was a beautiful “summer” evening, kind of hot for hunting but I needed to get out of the basement.

The wind was wrong but I decided “John’s Ridge” stand was calling to me. It is a nice hardwood ridge and I figured I would hear any deer coming. I was wrong. The wind was just strong enough with so many leaves still on the trees to muffle any approaching deer. At least that is my excuse for not hearing him coming.

At 6:30 I glanced to the east around the tree I was in and not 15 yards away was a deer.

I grabbed my bow and had to decide which side of the tree he would present me with a shot. Luckily he came around in front of me and at ten yards I let fly.

The shot was horrible!

I had changed my setup this summer and added a peep. I felt very comfortable with this setup but had not practiced as much as I would have liked. With the deer in front of me I forgot to look through the peep – aarrrgggg!

I watched him run about 80 yards in a semi-circle and then slowly hobble behind some big trees. He then slowly walked another ten yards and seemed to be in distress. I could see blood from the wound.

As the shot was not where I wanted I decided to get out of there and wait until morning to look for him even though it was very warm. I hoped/expected to find him where I had last seen him.

This morning I walked to where he was standing when I left but no deer. Some blood but not as much as I expected.

It took an hour plus to follow a some time good blood trail and some time bad blood trail some 100 yards to a dead deer.

This six point fills my meat needs, now it’s time to get the big one.

Rick P (AKA Whitetail Guru)

Thanks to Alain for sending in this screen of a nice bull taken near his camp.

As you read below, Iggy’s gang took 1 moose this fall. This beautiful 54″ bull was taken by Tony Kennedy at 7:30 on opening morning.

Great job Tony!!

Dave D’Aoust sent in this photo of the big buck he took near Carleton place this past weekend with with Excalibur crossbow.

His buck dressed out at 220 pounds. I like the forked browtines, Dave!

My old College pal Bobby Kuntz, who lives in the Yukon, sent in these photos of a caribou swimming the Teslin river and the ‘meat bull’ he took last week. (Only in the Yukon is a 34″ bull and meat moose!)

Well, our friend Keebler has finally taken his first moose..a unique looking bull I have dubbed ‘Texas Longhorn #2″ Congrats on the nice bull and I cant wait to hear the story!

Hey, when does the wife make you shave off that scruff anyway..hehe

Below is the story of Yukon Bob’s favourite moose hunt:

This is to date my favorite moose. I shot him Oct3rd 20?? The years are getting blurry.

We called him in 2 nights in a row but we couldn’t get him to come out in the open. My buddy had to return to work, so I took him home and talked the girlfriend into joining me.

The new plan was to take him with the bow and if it didn’t work out then Rebel would get her 1^st moose. The plan almost worked perfect. We sprayed ourselves with scent killer(something I’ve never done) and we went into the bush where I thought the moose was doing all the raking the previous nights. The bush was a little too thick for shooting lanes for the bow but we set up anyway. 5:45pm I gave a call and we heard him right away maybe just under a km away.

We never heard any other sounds, at 6pm I gave another call and he started raking trees about 50yds ahead of us. I new what the moose was going but the girlfriend thought he was on a dead right for us. I seen a palm of antler through the bush, I looked back to see how my back up was doing and she was shaking so bad I could have worried about my on safety if I asked her to shoot. I chose to ditch the bow and disarm her.

The moose circled to one side and I got a shot at 30yds and dropped him. It was only then that I got to see the whole rack. 58” I’ve shot wider but I liked the surprise of not knowing what he looked like.

Below is is photo of Chessy’s big buck he took on opening morning. I’m calling it the Salmon River Buck…just because it likes to eat salmon.

That’s Chessy’s son in the photo:

Rob St. Denis picked up images on his trail cam of this bad boy..he says the buck only travels at night..so far!

Below is Iggy’s pal Ron Cutbill (already famous for catching a brookie in the Ottawa river) proves his hunting skill this time, with a dandy 10-pointer.

Nice buck Ron!!

Our pal Chessy managed to bag himself another nice buck! This time he pulled it off with a blown scope and the help of his kids…but he still did it!

A dandy 8-point too:

Bob McNally, who hunts at the camp beside Iggy, took this 4-point towards the end of the rifle hunt. Congrats Bob..love that deer trailer too. Here’s is Bob’s story:

Well in almost 2 weeks of deer hunting I FINALLY got to see one!

Most movement on my trail cam has been at night in fact in the past 2 days there was 1 doe and 5 different bucks but all in darkness.

I had high hopes for today first cause the weather had finally got colder which should get them moving a bit better but also cause tommorrow I”m back to work… 🙁

There was a good frost on the ground this morning. As I got closer to where I would stand I noticed that some of the scrapes had no frost in them and looked like they had been turned recently. I moved slowly cause I was expecting to see something anytime now.

Got to my stand under a spruce next to a pond shortly after 7 am. In front of me about 30 yds was a trail that the deer have torn up with all the scrapes along it. Maybe this would be the day I would finally get some movement during daylight.

I caught movement about 9:20 to my left in some thick spruce where the lower branches were mainly dead. It was so quiet I thought it to be one of the many red squirrels that had been pestering every time I have sat in that area. I suddenly noticed the rack of a buck and then his head which was in a sneak postion. I was surprised to see how slowly he snuck in.

He moved forward about 20 ft and got in behind several large trees and offered no shot. I was hoping he would continue straight ahead as he would reach one of my shooting lanes I had cleared out on my first sit in that location. He stood behind the trees for almost 5 minutes, checking things out before he moved. He decided to go left which meant he was walking away from me and I”d have to shoot quick. He got almost 45 degrees to me at about 30 yds and I fired. I was pleased to see my aim was true and he dropped on the spot with 1 shot.

Bob

ps: I added 2 more trail cam pictures from the 2 days before. I think my buck was sneaking in cause he was the smaller of the deer and didn’t want to get his butt kicked by the bigger bucks!

Here is one of the bucks taken at Keebler’s camp up in North Bay. Sounds like he had one heck of a great year!

Avid sportsman Chris Kemp surely made his family proud this fall with the taking of a buck he is calling the ‘Memorial Buck’..in honour of his Grandfather and uncle who passed away this year:

The Memorial Buck

I took this guy on the last section of the last chase of the week, in a year that we lost two members of our camp.

My grandfather Eldon Kemp passed away in the spring at the age of 89. He was a lifelong hunter who passed on his Savage 1899 .303 to me. I used that rifle to take my first deer, and hunted this week with it his honour.

My uncle (Gord Kemp) was a firefighter who died in the summer of leukemia. A great big, tough guy, he was a tireless dogger who never carried a gun, but was a vital part of many hunts.

Chris Kemp

September 20, 2011

Hunter fatally mauled in Idaho bear attack

The year 2011 has proven to be the worst year on record for bear attacks; especially fatal ones, and the year isn’t over yet.

If you recall, 2005 was one of the freaky years with an abnormally high number of fatal bear attacks in North America. There were 6 fatal bear attacks that year.

So far this year there have been 7 fatal maulings(3 black bears, 3 grizzy, 1 polar), including the most recent attack on a bear hunter in Idaho.

Steve Stevenson a 39-year old hunter from Nevada was black bear hunting in Idaho with his father and two other hunting partners.

A bear appeared before the men – an animal believed to be a black bear – and was then shot-at and wounded. The ensuing attack and subsequent fatal mauling was all part of a terrible mistaken identity.

According to NWCN.com:

“Steve Stevenson’s hunting party shot and wounded a grizzly claiming they thought it was a black bear. The wounded grizzly attacked and killed Stevenson.

Fish and Wildlife expert Greg Johnson says this mistake is common. Six grizzly bears in roughly 30 years have been have mistakenly killed.”

After waiting 45 minutes to track the wounded animal, the men were startled to see that, not only that it was still alive, but the animal was a 350-pound grizzly bear and not a black bear as they first thought.

Steve Stevenson was not the first of the hunters to be mauled, the grizzly attacked his son first, and elder Stevenson jumped-in to distract the beast. Steve was fatally mauled in the process.

It is, I’m sure, a concern western hunters must deal with in an ongoing basis and considering there have been 6 similar cases of ‘mistaken bear identity’ in that region, it could be somewhat of a growing problem.

The attack and circumstances around this fatal mauling bring up a whole host of questions, most notably the mistaking of a grizzly for a black bear.

I would like to think I could tell the difference between a black bear and a brown bear in the wild, but having never been faced with the dilemma could never really say for sure. It was a terrible and unfortunate incident and my heart goes out to those hunters.

My condolences to the Stevenson family on their terrible loss.

Outdoorsguy

Footnote: Just to demonstrate how similar these animals may appear in the wild, here are photos of two bears. Can you tell what species they are?

Which one is the grizzly and which is the black bear? Perhaps they are both black bears, or both grizzlies?

You see where I’m going with this…

Mystery bear #1:

September 12, 2011

Hallowed hunt camp on the horizon

(Photo of my camp wall – before someone stole the moose and deer antlers)

(The front door of sure-shot dave’s camp)

(Chessy’s deer camp from ’97)

(Chessy’s woodstove featuring both wet and dry wood)

(Inside shot of Chessy’s deer camp..looks pretty comfy)

(Photo of Trapper’s camp..looks nice!)

The term ‘Hunt camp’ is as open-ended as it comes and can mean different things to different people.

One person’s hunt camp might be a 4-man tent, while for someone else it could be a summer cottage transformed into a makeshift hunt camp when the leaves start to fall.

Other folks might be members of a private hunt club or an organized lodge, while some might even rent chalets, cabins or quinsy huts and call them a hunt camp. You might convert a fishing or trapping camp into a hunt camp in the fall and you know what, it doesn’t really matter.

Regardless of what four-walls become your hunt camp, tis the season to celebrate the sport we all know and love in your private little domain. Sharing the experience with friends and hunting companions will only served to enrich the experience.

Although it may come off sounding snooty, the hunt camp mentality is something only a true hunter has experienced and will ever really understand. Sorry to all animal rights people, environmentalists and other ‘non-hunters’ out there, you simply cannot comprehend and this post will, therefore, mean absolutely nothing to you.

My father called earlier to say he had just visited our hunt camp, and I had to know every detail!

What did it smell like inside? Any mice around? How about fresh deer tracks in the way in, were there any of those? Did the deer eat the apples I put out on Labour Day? Anyone been around? What is the firewood situation like?

It is a time of year when, like or not, many other things in our busy lives will take a backseat to this special place. We will dream about it at night and long for that glorious day when we first arrive.

After 31-years of this I know, all too well, the hunt camp experience is over in the blink of an eye..so enjoy your time this year to the fullest and for goodness sake, let it all soak in!

You just never know when it may be your last.

So, what does hunt camp mean to you? Please feel free to send in your camp photos by pm, and I’ll post them above!

Outdoorsguy

August 19, 2011

Meet my backyard boys

I know these guys pale in comparison to Rick’s giants, but they’re still nice to look at.

I now have three bucks coming to my place on a regular basis. One is a two year old 6-point; another one is an 8-point three year old and finally my old pal Garfield who’s also a three-year old.

As you will see in the photos, Garfield experienced some real difficulty with his symmetrics this year. One side of his rack is a typical 4 point but the other side has gone all wonky. I can only assume he sustained some sort of injury during early antler growth.

Rick, any thoughts?

You may recall this buck from last year, as the one who had part of his main beam broken off in a fight. From what I know, that breakage last fall would have no effect on this year’s growth, although it is ironic.

The weird antler growth has had no effect on Garfield’s attitude; he is still most dominant of the three bucks.

Still no sign of my ‘Granddaddy’ – I have not seen him since February actually, but he tends to hide most of the summer anyway.

Outdoorsguy

I have been able to follow this buck, I call Garfield, the past three years with help from his distinctive white legs patch, front and back, and a shoulder scar which is also a give-away.

Meet Savage Joe’s buck – he and McDan suspect this is the same deer Savage missed out on last fall walking to his stand.

Here’s a sideview of the ‘Savage buck’ which appears to be a nice clean 5X5. I wonder who (if anyone) will get to see this bad boy during the season?

Here’s a nice shot of mom and the little one stopping by McDan’s Bushnell Trophy cam for a lick.