It's all right...

to be little bitty...

Where to begin...

Went to a new spot to hunt today. Way the hell out by the back fence on Ft Jackson. I ended up finding a great spot right on a little creek where I was sure they would be travelling during the day.

I have been hunting all my life, but I am really just starting to get really serious about deer over the last few years. I still have a lot to learn before I have my own TV show, but I see a lot more bucks than I used to so I must be doing something right.

I learned several things this year... here are a couple of the big ones...

1. You can take a leak from your tree stand and still kill a deer. I am convinced that deer couldn't care less if you paint the whole tree and half the underbrush around your stand. I had a little buck several weeks ago walk right up to where I "marked my territory" and sniff around for awhile before he moseyed off. I did the same thing again today... almost as an experiment since I had to go anyway... and after I shot one of two does who came along, her buddy wandered around for awhile and stood right under my tree stand looking confused for about 5 minutes before she also slowly walked away.

I'm not recommending that anybody do this on purpose... but if it comes to a point where you have to either climb out of the tree and quit hunting, or just let it fly and hope for the best, I feel pretty confident continuing the hunt.

2. Scent control is everything (at least in thick cover). Don't be an idiot like me and use soap and shampoo on a morning you're going hunting. I missed a chance at another 8 point today because he bolted for no apparent reason while I was waiting for a better shot. I was probably 20 feet up at least, so I was sure he wouldn't smell me. Wrong again. All I can think of is that he somehow got a tiny whiff of my soapy freshness and put two and two together. (the wind was a little gusty today) A big doe also bolted earlier when she got near my tree. There was no significant wind at the time, so I think my hands probably left some scent on the tree while I was putting my stand up.

3. Don't wait for a better shot if you already have a decent shot (see above).

4. My skills with the grunt call are mediocre at best. Apparently I sound like a deer dork when I call. I don't scare them off, so that's good. But they usually just look over at me as if I were the nerd trying to sit at the cool kid's table in junior high. They don't exactly seem to want to come and hang out with me. They give me the cold shoulder.

It's sad in a way, but at least I sound like some kind of a deer, even if it is the Urkel of the forest.

5. The grunt call is like crack. Less is more. PUT THE CALL DOWN. You're trying to sound like a deer who wants a little company, not a deer trying to sell tickets to a freakshow at the circus.

And if you haven't had enough when it's time to go, you can always give it one last extended AWWOOOOOOOOOOGGGAH, Ricola/Tugboat style, just for laughs before you leave the tree. Hell, I'm laughing right now just thinking about it. Yes, I really did it once.

6. Simply shooting the bigger of two does is not a guarantee that it's a big doe. I discovered this the hard way today. I swear I shot the bigger one. I know I did. I replayed the scene over and over in my mind as I carried my doe out... one handed. I shot the third smallest deer harvested so far this year on Jackson.

7. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever... ever... ever ever will I butcher my own deer again. I decided I would butcher this one myself since it was so small. It wouldn't have been economically efficient to pay 40 or 50 bucks to process a 50 pound deer. (Yes... 50 pounds) Uhhhh... yeah, that and the fact that I would have been embarrassed to show up at the processors with a deer that tiny.

I've done it a few times before and I always SWEAR that I will never do it again. It's a pain in the... uhhh.... (Hi mom).

Anyway... we pick up Monday, so I had to take what I could get if I wanted meat in the freezer. I may get another chance to go out, but it won't be at least until the week of Christmas Exodus.

It's late... and I haven't slept nearly enough on this cycle break...

OH YEAH...

JAKE UPDATE...

Unfortunately, there has been no sign of Jake since he made a run for it. I will miss him, but Household 6 refuses to let me buy another snake, so I must move on...

FOR SALE: 9 frozen baby mice.
$1 or best offer...

Interesting...

Check this out if you are at all interested in the way the Democratic party (through the CBO) has continuously misled the American people with alarmist (and false) statistics regarding personal and family incomes.

It's a little dry, but well written and worth the read if you have the tenacity necessary to look at a bunch of statistics.

It only goes from the late sixties through 1995 or so... but you can clearly track the effect that the Reagan and Bush years had as compared to Clinton's first term. I would be interested to see how we have done since then... statistically speaking, not some idiot politician telling me how bad I have it.

I'm back.

In the last ten days I drove around 2000 miles. I think that works out to about 30 hours of driving if you do the math. But of course you have to add about 15 more hours for eating and bladder relief.

Had a good time. My vacation went something like this...

0500 wake up

0600 tree stand

0700-0930 see (or don't see) lots of deer that either aren't quite worth shooting, or are out of range for a bow and arrow

1000 stuff face

1200 stuff face again

1430 tree stand

1530-1730 see above

1830 stuff face once more

2000 snack

2100 coffee and snack (to ensure minimum sleepage)

2300-2400 lights out

0500 repeat procedure

I think I actually got less sleep on vacation than I do in red phase...

Anyway, had a great time. Found out that mom reads my blog. She made me promise not to censor myself... I don't know how that's going to work out. I don't curse a whole lot on here, but expect less F-bombs in the future.

Lot's of stuff I want to write about but I have to get up early tomorrow. Still looking for the big boy. I got that 8 point already, but I'm not sure he would have made it into the double digits on the boone and crockett scale lol. Very nice rack, symetrically, but not very big.

In the land of the elusive whitetail...

size matters.

By the way, I got several offers to take me hunting in my email. That may be the coolest thing to happen in this blog yet...

EXCEPT for the small part I played in Tabby's story. They finally did a follow up on Fox News the other day. Very cool.

But the hunting offers are a close second. Don't be surprised if I show up in blaze orange on your doorstep some day.