shepherds-pie1

Venison Shepherd’s Pie

February 7, 2014

Ingredients: – 1 lb ground venison – 1 can of peas and carrots – 1 small can of mushrooms – 1 can of sweet corn – 1 jar of beef gravy – 2 packets of instant mashed potatoes – 1 tsp of minced garlic – Badia Complete Seasoning – Salt – Extra Virgin Olive Oil […]

WY_pronghorn 2012

Tagging Wilson

January 17, 2014

When I got in the truck with John for my second pronghorn hunt with him in two years, I was expecting a similar hunt to my first: glassing for hours, seemingly without end, and walking the open prairie mile after mile in search of an antelope to shoot. I wasn’t looking for a conventional trophy, […]

deer_eyes

The Science of Deer Sight

December 26, 2013

Over at OutdoorHub they have a great article explaining the science behind how deer see. The better we understand our quarry, the better we can prepare to hunt it. It’s that simple. The short of it? – Deer are NOT color blind – Deer have a wide band of vision – Deer cannot focus on […]

KY_zone_map

Kentucky in the Big Time

December 26, 2013

For many reasons, my home state of Kentucky has made in to the big time for whitetail hunting over the last two or three decades. There are surely a large combination of reasons why we have larger whitetails and larger whitetail populations that we’ve traditionally had, better land management on behalf of both Kentucky Fish […]

First Lite Buyers: Take Note!

December 26, 2013

After having read a few quality reviews and having used merino wool gear for years while hiking, I’ve recently decided to jump head first in to a full set of First Lite camo. Now I haven’t bought everything just yet, but one thing I have noticed: the Springer Vest seems to run large. I experienced […]

Fascinating

December 20, 2013

The River’s Divide: Fascinating. I’ve already ordered the DVD. Perhaps one day I’ll have a deer like Steve to chase.

trophy_country

Trophy Country

December 18, 2013

When you see terrain from a distance it always seems like it’s no problem; like it’s easily navicable. The angles aren’t too steep. This hill’s not that tall. The deception was so thorough as I looked at the mountain from the closed window of the truck that even out of shape and overweight as I […]

Small-Buck

Counting Points and Game Management

December 6, 2013

Over at Deer and Deer Hunting Nicole McClain makes an interesting point that gets lost in much of the hoopla of hunting television and magazine coverage: that hunting shouldn’t be about killing an animal with a large number of points, but about the opportunity to participate in killing and retrieving an animal. In her article […]

muley_does

A Fortunate Mistake

December 1, 2013

On the first day that we decided to hunt a piece of public land about ten miles north of Upton, WY* we went straight to a spot where John had seen a group of does regularly. Just after sunrise they would feed out of the pine and cedar woods and on to the sagebrush flats, […]

venisonroast

Creamy Mushroom Venison Roast

November 28, 2013

Ingredients: 1 Venison roast (Any game roast will work) 1 Ten ounce can of Cream of Mushroom Soup 1 Soup Can of water 1 Small can of mushrooms 1 One ounce packet Lipton Onion Soup/Dip Mix Montreal Steak Seasoning Western Style Deer Steak Seasoning Instructions: Mix the cream of mushroom soup with the water until […]

BLM-Osage

Ten or Ten

November 28, 2013

When we woke up it was cold. Damn cold. A frigid six degrees in the Black Hills of Wyoming. It was what I had been waiting for in three seasons of hunting mule deer there. Cold and snow. Fresh snow. Four to six inches of it covering up everything. A perfect day for tracking. After […]

antelope1

Busting My Cherry: Tagging Jackson

November 28, 2013

Our third day of hunting was a miserable day. The rain was pouring down, the wind was blowing from the north at nearly thirty miles per hour, and it was hovering just below forty degrees. It was a terrible day for hunting. The pronghorn, seemingly smarter than John and I, were bedded down and weathering […]

WY_coyote 2012

Why Deer Hunters Should Be Coyote Hunters

November 25, 2013

Why all deer hunters should be coyote hunters (PDF): To date, the SRS research has found that coyotes are, in fact, taking a tremendous toll on fawns. Of 60 fawns monitored over the course of the work, only 16 have survived until autumn, when they are old enough to be safe from predation and can […]

deerRifle

My Deer Rifle

November 14, 2013

Perhaps I’m in the small minority. One of those people who wants to know esoteric details about things that don’t really matter, and that no one else cares about, but one thing I find lacking in virtually every hunting article, blog post, and television show is information about the hunter’s rifle (or bow). The only […]

mule_deer_sagebrush

Busting My Cherry: The Search Begins

November 11, 2013

After my badly hurt yet very determined to get away muley buck leaped out of his bed he took two bounds before he was out of sight just over a small ridge about thirty feet in front of us. Rather than make another mistake by following him and pushing him any harder than we already […]

muledeer

Busting My Cherry: The Moment Comes

November 9, 2013

You never know how you’re going to handle killing of a large game animal until the moment comes. Even though you’re no stranger to killing things, the deliberate killing of a deer is an altogether different proposition than busting up a bunch of rats or birds. You think you’ve practiced and prepared for this moment. […]

1stbuck

A Hunter

November 9, 2013

I wasn’t always a hunter. My father never taught me the skills needed to hunt because he wasn’t a hunter either. Nor his father before him. Sure, dad might have shot a squirrel or two on the odd occasion from the back porch of his grandmother’s cabin in rural North Florida, or killed a woodpecker […]