Search results

Was contacted today to do a webinar, (combination seminar on the web...I guess,) on the four factors that influence deer movement. It is one of my old seminars at outdoor shows, very popular. When it was explained to me how I had to go about it and the compensation, it was easy for me to...

Although I wanted to avoid it, I became involved in a discussion on crossbows. So, some background. For many years, I was an adamant opponent of crossbows-even for the disabled. I spoke in front of the Commission, testifying against the legalization of them in TN. Then, I did some research and...

When I was the editor of Bow and Arrow Hunting Magazine, they sent me all over the U.S. and Canada hunting. Now, with one exception, I do all my hunting within 15-minutes of my house. I have a sizable deer population in my backyard. I don’t hunt them. My yard, joins 34-acres of woodland thicket...

In 1958, at the tender age of 14, I was deep in a place called Cocodrie Swamp. At that time, there were no roads. You went in and out by boat. I was with four “uncles” and we were camped deep in the swamp. I waded a slough and went up a slight ridge to overlook Grassy Lake Drain. I saw then...

Backstory: The land I am consulting on is in south-central, KY-Mennonite country. It is 400-acres of fields, crp and timber. Superb deer habitat and slightly burgeoning deer population. Limit is one buck a year, several does. Baiting is legal. Problem: My client and his wife are good hunters...

The Mystery of Rubs. I am condensing this from almost 3,500 words. This is the bare bones. First, know this: I do not study rubs with the purpose of killing anything. That comes as a side benefit from the knowledge I gain. Second, open your mind. Forget all the things you have read or think...

Some years ago, I wrote a three-part series on “The Biology of Rubs and Scrapes”. I found it hard for hunters to grasp neither were rut specific. Both categories could be broken down, to some extent, into specific classifications. Rubs had types and purposes and so did scrapes. But what...

Understand This: I am not trying to force or advance my theories of deer hunting on any one. I am simply trying to get hunters to think and explore and not buy blindly into some “solid tactic” some outdoor writer invented. Here are two perfect examples. (1) Wearing rubber boots will keep a...

Of Scents and Wind: In 1995, in the canyon country of New Mexico, outside Tierra Amarilla, I bugled a bull in across a canyon. He was over 300-yards away and we were bowhunting-making a video, “Double Teaming Bulls.” No question-no doubt, at 300-yards he winded us, left the area. The wind was...

About a week ago, while on a consulting job in KY, just as a whim, I made two parallel rubs and two mock licking branches. I did it, more to show how it is done than anything. The landowner called a few minutes ago. He videoed a nice 10-ptr. Picking up one of the rubs and the licking branch. I...

By way of introduction: I am a semi-retired outdoor writer and deer manager. At one time, I wrote for 19-different magazines-mostly bowhunting publications and was an editor with Bow and Arrow Hunting Magazine. I currently have, the longest continuously running newspaper column in the...

Last week, I spent two days consulting on a beautiful, 400-acre farm in KY. The farm has it all-fields, streams wooded ridges, heavy cover. It holds a perfect population of deer and turkeys. The owner's major question was why he cannot produce mature bucks with wide racks. His bucks are...

All summer into early fall, my barber had pictures of a typical-twelve. Deer would score about 185. I scored a 173 for him two years ago and this one is at least 12-15 inches larger. Deer vanished day before the season opened. Season closed Sunday---he showed up yesterday, Monday. Two of my...