The Feeling of Regret Post #7

I finally got a chance to go out and spend sometime in the woods! Last week I decided instead of hanging out with friends I would do something I enjoy way more, I was going hunting. I went out about 4:30. The silence brought me peace.   My dad had drove me out to the stand on the mule. So he could fill the feeder for my grandpas stand. However, it didn't go as planned and the mule ran out of gas in the center of the clearing. He left my uncle, who was also with us, on the mule while he went to get gas and the quad.  During this time, the turkeys decided they wanted to come out. But my uncle was still in the clearing. They didn't seem to mind until they heard the quad coming out. They filled the mule with gas and headed up. Finally it was my time. Now I just had to wait on the deer. After an hour and a half of nothing but seeing blue jays flying around I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. DEER! I finally had seen deer move. But it was just a doe and her fawn. I watched the fawn play while the doe ate. They were there for about fifteen minutes. Something must have spooked them because they ran back to the bedding area. Nothing else moved for awhile not even a squirrel. As it was just getting to the point where I couldn't see my sights I heard something walking towards me on the right. It seemed like it took forever for this deer to finally show itself. By this point I could have taken the shot. It stood broadside from me at 20 yards for at least ten minutes. I kept thinking I could shoot but what if I don't get a good shot? What if its a doe? What if its just a little guy? Well I knew  this was a big deer by looking at the body. The head I couldn't see to determine if it was a buck or a doe. This would also help me age the deer. The longer the distance from eye to nose the older the deer is. So I passed I just watched it feed around. A few days later we pulled the trail cam and looked at the pictures from that night. Well....I should have shot. It was a seven point. But I am glad I didn't I wouldn't be able to live with knowing that I wounded yet another  deer. (I have only done this about twice since I started hunting.) If I am not confident in the shot I won't take it no matter what I am shooting at.

Squirrel Hunting Post #6

Those pesky little things that sit there and bark and run on the ground sounding similar to deer. Squirrels.
 Squirrel hunting is not necessarily an act of enjoyment around my house. It is more of an act to control the population. I can remember in my earlier years of hunting going out early with my pelt gun while we were deer hunting. We would take our gun/bow to still hunt for deer but we would go out and hour or two early. We would sit and wait for the squirrels. We would shoot squirrels until prime hours of deer hunting. After it was dark and we were done for the night we would go and pick up all of the squirrels.
I recently just got a new puppy this summer to be trained for squirrel hunting. My dad is big into competition squirrel hunts. and would like to be able to take her out this winter. She has been doing good so far. (Her name is Sadie.) Sadie is only about five months old and has already gotten two squirrels. She is trained to tree the squirrel and bark so the hunter can find which tree she is in and shoot the squirrel. If  the tree has low branches she might even climb up into the tree. I have yet to take her out on hunts but she sure does love to chase things around in the backyard!
Sadie is a mountain feist and she should grow to be about double the size she is in this picture. She should grow to be about knee height and weigh about 30-40 pounds. However she will be all legs!

Part of her training involves catching squirrels live and you can only imagine how we do that. We use a squirrel live trap. Its basically a black wire box that things can get into but cannot get out of with out a door being opened.
One day I was leaving for work and found my dad outside with a squirrel in the trap hanging from a tree using the dog leash. You never know what you may see at my house! (haha)  I am very excited to get Sadie out on my own and see what she has to offer!

Pheasants Forever Post #5

A few years ago my dad took me on a Pheasants Forever sponsored youth pheasant hunt. It is awesome to see and organization trying to get the youth involved in the preservation of habitat. Raising my own pheasants didn't bring such a big surprise to pheasant hunting. The day we went it was raining and on the chilly side. We all had to wear safety or shooting glasses and have hearing protection to be able to participate. (Who really hunts with shooting glasses and ear plugs...)

The birds had been planted earlier in the morning. The organization got the birds from a family friend of ours, so we knew the blood line was good and that the birds could for sure fly well. When  you plant pheasants you spin the around to disorientate them. Then you place them on the ground with some sort of tall grass or a tree to give the bird cover.

 
Now the fun part begins. Usually the hunters will walk in a strait line across the field with a dog or two running in front of them. The dog will smell the bird and push them up so they will fly up and one of the hunters can shoot. If the dog is trained right they will retrieve the bird and bring it back.

However on the hunt I went on the birds were hid well and the dog didn't flush many. But when we got Gomer over to our group he flushed tons of birds. Gomer is a britney spaniel however he has gone blind and lost his hearing so he doesn't get to go on big hunts anymore. The pheasants forever youth hunt was the last big hunt he went on. At the end of the hunt I had shot two birds and I gave them to kids who had not got a bird because I knew I had birds at home.

I raise my own pheasants at home and we sell them to a lot of guys who use them for hunts. I raise ring necks, jumbos, mutants, reeves, reeves ring neck cross, slivers, amheast, impeyan, and goldens. I currently do not have all of these but I have over the years. We usually keep a breeding pair so we can hatch for the next year. I currently have 50 ring necks at my house to go into the freezer.

Happy Hunting!

Shoot 'Em Post #4

When you thought deer hunting was an early morning, try duck hunting. Getting up by three so you can make it to the draw on time sucks. The worst part of it is that you might not even be able to go. The draw picks 30 party's. From there it is first come first serve. The party's get to pick where they want to hunt based off of what areas in the flats are open. Some areas are not able to be hunted at the beginning of the season due to crop removal or flooding the fields so we can have boat access. However, you don't always have to hunt on the flats or in water. You can dry field hunt on private land.

The first time I went duck hunting I went with my dad, brother, a farm hand and his kid Cody, and Leo Gross. (Which by the way is a state duck calling champion.) We hunted some of his corn fields next to his dairy farm. We had some many ducks flying at us it was insane. The sky would go absolutely black with ducks trying to land in our set. I thought duck hunting would always be like that. Well I was wrong. It all depends on the year and the crops.

It was just getting to be shooting time and we were loading our guns. We took turns shooting so we all had fair play. I of course was the only girl and it was my first time so I got to go first. The first group of ducks came through and bam! I shot not knowing what duck I was told to shoot. (You can only shoot one hen per person per hunt.) There was so many ducks I don't think I had to aim at one and I could have gotten one. Now it was my brothers turn, of course another duck down, Cody too. So when the group returned again we let them circle once before shooting. When they came by the second time I was told to shoot. So I shot the one duck that had landed. Everyone laughed at me and wanted to know why I didn't shoot the one right in front of my face flying. Why try something when there is a guarantee around. They all picked on me for the rest of the hunt. We ended the day with a nice pile of ducks!