Meat Pole Deer Mount
Matt send me this picture and asked, "Mike, what do you think?" I replied, "Not for me, but got to admit it's different and actually pretty cool!" What do you think, like the meat pole mount or not?
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01, 2023
19
01, 2023
20 Tips For Late-Season Deer Hunters
If you haven’t tagged out by now it’s gonna be tough. The first and second ruts are history. Other hunters have killed the easy bucks and spooked the survivors into hiding. You’ve got 2 options. Eat tag soup and pack it in until next fall, or bundle up, hang in the woods and try to pull an 8-pointer out of your stocking cap on one of the last days of the season. I reckon you’ll go for the latter, so I pulled together these tips to help you score at the tag-end of the season. Hunt Grains and Greens Thin and weary after weeks of rutting, does and bucks have got to eat, especially when it’s cold and snowy. Corn [...]
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01, 2023
How To Act When You Shoot A Buck
I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. —legendary hunter Fred Bear I am no Fred Bear. When it comes to bowhunting, I could not carry the man’s jockstrap. But for the last 40 years I have hunted and killed deer according to Fred’s mantra. I suppose that is why it makes me uncomfortable and a bit ashamed to witness an episode like this, either in person in the woods or on YouTube or TV: A fellow shoots a buck and watches it topple over. Grinning, he raises his arms high into the air, balls his fists and starts hollering, “He’s down, he’s down,” This is typically accompanied with fist-pumping, strutting and more yelling. There are [...]
11
01, 2023
5 Guns Every Hunter Needs
To have a blast shooting targets and hunting every species of game bird and animal across America, you only need 5 firearms. .22 Long Rifle (LG) Every man, woman and child on Earth needs a good old .22, whether for plinking paper or potting a mess of squirrels in October. It’s the rifle that most of us grew up with. The one you need to get into your kid’s hands as soon as he or she is ready to join our shooting fraternity. Quiet to shoot and with no recoil, a rimfire rifle is the perfect tool for young or new shooters. For those of you who have been hunting awhile, think of a .22 as the perfect understudy for [...]
9
01, 2023
Sheds Dropping Early: ID A Doe!
Cody emailed the other day: “Mike, haven't found any sheds yet, but a guy doing drives with us the other week shot what appeared to be a doe but when we got to the deer it was obviously a young buck that had already dropped his antlers.” This is no big deal, an honest mistake, and most state laws about late season hunting take this possibility into account. But I use the anecdote to point out that bucks seems to be dropping their antlers earlier than usual in many areas, including here in the Virginia Piedmont. Lots more bone will fall off the bucks’ heads in the more usual shedding weeks of January, which is when late antlerless seasons are [...]