I hope your year was as good as mine. I turned 65 on 12/20! I’m a senior.
Yesterday the young girl in a McDonalds served me a “senior coffee”
without even asking for it! C’mon man, how’d she know I had a birthday? I reckon I have that “senior” look going
on. Tell me again how I got to 65? Seems like only yesterday the body looked
sleeker, the legs moved far faster, but for sure, the years aren’t slowing down. Lets hope the best is yet to come and that 65 is the new 40! One of
the things I want to do in 2019 is to write more. This will be my first
shot. If you get bored, I'll need to
work harder. And yes, just like you, I
miss the hunting season, any hunting season.
I miss the early morning stars. I
miss the steaming hot coffee spilling in my lap. I miss the glass hanging around my neck. I miss the mid-day sun that provides a
mid-day siesta on whatever out-of-the-wind place I feel like. I miss grunting putting on my boots. I miss making darn sure the TP is in the
fanny pack. I miss the rush of getting
to where you want to be when first light shows in the east. I miss the laughter of friends. I miss the anticipation. I miss the sights and sounds and smells of it
all. Whether it’s winged fowl, bulls,
bucks or song dogs I miss it. I know you
do to.
2018 was a fun year. If laughs were money, I’d be filthy
rich. I started my hunting season off
with a trip down south. Way down
south. South as in Argentina.
I chronicled the trip in a post that can be
found here, just click on the link:
By the time you read this I will for the first
time in my life, be a Tennessee resident.
We bought some property in Cumberland County in
2005 that is now our permanent residence.
I hope to have the opportunity to wear out the coyotes, fox and cats in
the coming years so don’t hesitate to inquire if “your” fawn crop could use some experienced help in the years to come. If
you want to be killing those big bombers down the road every coyotes death today helps your cause. My grandfathers were both good
trappers; I have always been a good student.
Trapping my way through college is what gave me an early “stash” to head
west to find some opportunity in California a short 40 years ago.
And speaking of trapping I am here to give-back. If you, your son, daughter or grandchild
would like some instruction don’t hesitate to ask. If the trapping community doesn't get more younger people involved these days the future is dim. Trapping built this country. I can speak coyote. Passing the torch is
something I can do and getting help can do wonders on your coyote intel. Many, if not most, novice coyote trappers do an
excellent job of coyote education and it can raise havoc with a beginner’s
confidence. Remember, it is far more
difficult to reeducate coyotes to get caught than it is to educate trappers!
I do business with and have learned the
lessons from some of the top trappers in the nation and have taken coyotes from
sea-to-sea and a lot of states in-between. Guys like Tim Caven, Dave Amberg, Ray
Milligan, Bob Young, Mark June, Gary Meis, Mike Martinz, Dwaine Knouse and John Graham all have
contributed to my understanding of song dogs.
I like to think I have a lifetime of coyote education behind me and like
a coyote, being an opportunist, in understanding
what I am to look for and what is before me, has helped me in life.
It's been a short 40 years ago for me. In January of 1979 I loaded my Mazda and
headed west. It was 30 degrees below
zero when I left Minnesota and took off for San Diego. I
spent 10 years in California and wouldn’t change a single day of it. It was good to me. I may never again set foot in the state but
the 1980’s served me well and hunting mule deer on Camp Pendleton was a
highlight. I guess the only thing I
would have changed would have been to own a bigger sailboat. Living in San Diego and working in LaJolla
was living the dream. I miss the
ocean swims and my only regret is that I didn’t hunt Baja Mexico or kill enough
migrating sea ducks.
As I have gotten older a lot of things have
crystalized in my thinking of what hunting is all about. To me, hunting always meant a lot. Hunting started
early for me. I was fortunate in growing up. I had parents who cared and later in
life I learned I chose great parents. I had a dad who wanted me to hunt with him. A dad who took me gopher trapping in the
first grade with a kid who remains a very close friend of mine today, Dave
Amberg, creator of the Amberg snare. If
you are a serious trapper you know Dave Amberg.
I hunted with Dave again this fall. Back then we earned a quarter for
every pair of front feet on a pocket gopher.
That was big money in the first grade!
Growing up, Dad gave of his time, we didn’t
have much money. Dad was a role-model
who growing up was the first guy in his office. In 1944 he volunteered for the US Army Air
Corps where he served until the end of the war and was a bomber pilot. In my early youth Dad ran his own business and
was a member of a flying club. As a kid he would fly us around west central Minnesota looking for big whitetail bucks that lived in those cattail
swamps that no one could ever get to.
I had good mentors. My boss in Montana, pushing 96 years of age today was a very hard worker. My grandfather, a simple farmer who quit school in the 8th grade to
work the farm, the one I lived with in college was the hardest working man I
have ever met in my life. Trapping in
college started me on my way to an education that my degrees in economics and
social science never could. Outside of
working on a ranch, at the moccasin factory in high school in Pine Ridge, SD and at the State of MN Highway Dept in college I have never had a real job in my life.
I never, ever had a salary or a guaranteed paycheck, in my life. My entire
income in life has always been based on me getting out and getting the job done
without a boss telling me what to do.
I’ve not had any daily instructions from a boss, never had a “job
description”, and never had anyone give me “creative” direction, I always came
up with that on my own. My job was to
help people.
Trapping taught me about
hard work, to never quit, the early bird gets the worm, to keep hammering and
to understand that hard work also required smarts and increasing the learning
curve to make more money. While I am on
the subject, the job I had at the State of MN was the worst job on earth. It
was my first exposure to how taxpayers get hosed, of how brown-nosing works, of
how politics often plays such a huge role in getting ahead and how hard some state
workers “work” to not get caught not working!
Yuck, just thinking back on it gives me nausea and I am sure not much
has changed in working for the man. If
you are in a job like that you are on my prayer list.
For anyone interested my career can be
readily covered by a quick click on this website:
https://www.nativeamericanadvisors.com/
My first deer hunting trip was to the big woods of northern MN. I was in the 5th grade in November of 1964. I was 11 years old, 5’4”, 75 pounds and my license cost $5.00. I was using a .30-.30 and missed 2 deer out of a stand that was so poorly constructed I am amazed I didn’t fall out of it. I missed because I got too excited. I still get excited. I still miss. I hope you do to. It’s one of the quarter million reasons I still hunt. Here I am on my first deer hunt. 50 years later I still have vivid memories of what happened on that trip! Good stuff and the start of bigger things.
We all have our firsts in life. Like you I remember the first deer I killed. The second and third not so much but the memory of Deer #1 probably stays with you too. I shot this doe on the 5th shot with a .30-.30, open sights, shooting nearly straight down into the North Dakota badlands on opening day. I skipped school that day (parents approved) as the ND rifle season started mid-day on a Friday. Emerson Baker, my junior high basketball coach literally kicked me in the ass when he saw me in the hall on Monday. He kicked me so hard he should have broken my pelvis. If he were still alive and I saw him on the street today there is a good chance I would kick his ass. You see, he was a control freak. A coach with a problem, there are a lot of them. He reminds me of Nick Saban berating his players these days. He was about 6’7”. He kicked me for going deer hunting instead of going to his basketball practice. These days he would have been convicted of assault. I got my first deer wearing orange, it was the law. Dad said deer can’t see colors and it will keep you safe. I listened and preach orange today. I like to think I had my priorities in order then. I hope I still do today.
My first 4-point, (western count) came in the fall of 1970 in the southern end of the Black Hills above Angostura Dam. We were actually on a deer drive for muleys and this buck busted out. Missed the first shot and he then ran towards me and killed him at close range. Note no sling, no scope. I probably killed my first 25 deer with no scope as Dad couldn't afford spending money on a scope.
This fall, like every fall before was memorable. The little things make it the best. Here is a weasel in winter coat.
In 2014 my wife and I made a dream happen. Growing up I worked on a large ranch in MT during
my high school years. We bought some
property in Montana. 452 acres on the
tax rolls to be exact. Two miles of
river front on an oxbow on the Yellowstone River. A property that with hard work has improved its
capacity to grow deer to maturity. We
took three bucks this year and not enough does.
My brother-in-law, Adam Hild of Crossville, TN and his son, Nathaniel
Hild kicked things off with these two dandy’s. The buck Adam killed would have probably been
dead in another couple of weeks. It had
a bad smell, weighed maybe 125 pounds and had a fecal problem as you can
see. Nice double droppers on Nat's buck!
The buck also had these lesions on its brisket. Rough.
Nathaniel understands the importance of hard work in putting
in time and effort to kill mature deer in TN and in years to come will no doubt
show you some good racks. Here is a buck
he killed in TN this fall. His screen
name is NEWT. Give him a shout-out!
My good friend Ron from Tifton Georgia came out and killed a
nice buck. Ron and I have been hunting
together since the fall of 1992 when he invited me to hunt his family farm in South
Georgia. I didn’t have any of my orange
gear so I made do, used his .35 with open sights and with no climbing stand, shot
a small buck while standing on a stump.
It was the first deer I shot after the birth of my first son. I know what you are thinking. Yes, a corny picture but it cemented a hell
of a friendship and started the carnage on a good number of elk and deer across
the country.
Ron has a genetic defect.
We call it the lack of a hold-back gene and Ron has been married several
times to prove it! Ron just can’t help
himself at times and as many times as I told him to just sit back and give
himself time to find a really big buck on my Montana river bottom what did he
do? Yup, you guessed right. The very first buck that walked by his stand,
at first light on the first day of a planned 7 day hunt he didn’t hold
back. He hammered a dandy.
As you can imagine, the buck/doe ratio is wacked on my ranch and there isn't much I can do about it. Nonresidents pay nearly 3 figures to kill a lonely doe. We took several does off the property this fall. Here is a friend of ours, Parker Smith, from Belgrade, MT who shot a fine doe. Parker also killed a cow elk and a nice Pope n Young black bear last fall. He goes hard and is a good hunter.
As for me, I didn’t kill a deer on my property in
Montana. In fact, never killed a deer in
Montana last fall for that matter. Saw
a monster whitetail, didn’t get a shot. My oldest son, Hunter, now a Captain in the
United States Air Force didn’t kill either.
He passed on some great bucks and killed a coyote. We like to hunt. I don't know who had more fun. It’s not about the kill. It’s about the right buck and some luck. My youngest son, Jordan, now a senior in
college at the U of GA, majoring in electrical engineering didn’t even draw a
Montana hunting tag. Even though his
parents pay thousands in property tax and feed a couple hundred deer year-round
he was shut out of the opportunity to hunt.
That’s life.
Hopefully next year.
I had an elk-deer combination tag in Montana and had the
privilege to hunt a 25 section (640 acres is a section or square mile) ranch after the owners party departed.
They shot 5 bulls on the property the first week and like last year
had pretty much ran all of the elk OFF the property before I got in there. Elk are nomadic, not like deer that are
territorial. Elk just leave after the
gun fire erupts and will run 10 or 20 miles after a barrage. Last fall I never saw a single elk on the
ranch. This year I saw 4 elk and killed
this bull. I was hunting an area that
with the sun and wind conditions I thought could turn one up and I got
lucky. I killed the bull on the second
shot, dead run, double lunged him with my BAR .243, probably 85 yards out. He was bedded with a cow and a calf and he
followed them at full tilt. Yea, sure,
you might say, a lucky shot. No, just 50
some years of hunting smart and shooting animals on the move. Coyotes, fox,
beaver on the river, I have probably
killed more deer on the run or trot or walk than most people have ever
shot. I have wounded and lost 2 deer in
my life, neither running. They still
haunt me. One a great whitetail in ND,
and the other, a fine muley in MT. I
doubt either animal died but there was blood initially in both instances.
I love hunting alone and in big country. When I
am way from it, it keeps tugging on me.
I am still undecided if it is the actual hunting or just being in such
remote and desolate country that I enjoy but either is enough to keep me doing
what I grew up doing and what I love.
The winter last year was horrendous on wildlife in
Montana. I found 27 deer carcasses on my
property in March. Many were killed by the
maker of these tracks. Coyotes and bobcats found yearlings weak and easy meals.
I also found 11 dead this fall, all fairly near a water
source. You guessed right. EHD or blue-tongue get some every year on my ranch.
On the last day of the season I made the 93 mile jaunt north to give a big muley one last whirl. It is always such a great feeling to strike out from the truck in the dark and be in position to find movement early. At first light I found a great buck on the hunt, moving along at a solid clip. I knew I had to back off the canyon rim and run to get caught up to him as he was about a half mile from a boundary fence and I had to catch him. I have always said that killing big muleys and big bulls invariably is a game of nanoseconds and inches. And oftentimes being able to run is important. Well, I got up to the rim, caught my breath, and slowly, ever so slowly, shooting sticks at the ready moved up to get a glimpse of Mr. Big. I figured it would be a downhill 250 yard shot at most. Well, even the best laid plans go to hell in a handbasket. The buck was somehow coming up the canyon rim on a trail and we came face-to-face at about 10 yards. Geez. It all happened so fast. He busted out along the rim and there happened to be a small hill between us so I had to run around the hill and try to catch a shot but it was futile. Maybe next year if he makes it. It was the only deer I saw that day. 25 sections, 1 deer. The deer population in that country is terrible. Winterkill was hard to believe and it will be years before the population will get back to where it was just a few years ago. Coyotes, cats, eagles need to eat. The population is without a doubt less than one deer per square mile. I doubt MT Game Fish Parks biologists will recommend any changes in the harvest. Too much money at stake. I wish MT would shut down the season on mule deer bucks on November 15. Wyoming, Utah and Colorado all give their herds a shot at breeding without gunfire. Those big boys get awful stupid and most residents simply do the "Ford-Sneak" and bag their deer from the truck in the last couple weeks of the season. If they shut it down earlier it would allow more bucks, bigger bucks and better hunting for guys like me who ground pound the rough stuff.
In early December I headed to Colorado. I hunted with an outfitter and had a landowner voucher which gave me a non-resident license to hunt anywhere in a specific GMU, game-management unit. It was good fun on the eastern plains, saw some good deer and learned that killing a deer in wind gusting to 55 mph is impossible. All in all it was a good hunt. I killed a buck at 435 yards with a 6.5 Creedmoor. He went down and never flinched. Nice caliber, I was impressed with the lack of recoil. I think I would like to own one and will start my due diligence in late January.
All too often I have found myself, having lived in Texas, in
a group where the subject of hunting arises. Many people who only have a TV hunting show for reference think I spend my
time “hunting” in a elevated stand with corn feeders blazing away at pigs. I do my best to explain to them my desire to
hunt deer far away from that type of setting but it usually reverts to the concept of shooting and not hunting which makes my eyes glaze over after a few minutes, similar to when I am at a cocktail party and listening to
small talk which I often refer to as ego-generated mind babble.
History doesn't have a reverse gear and there are no do-overs in parenting. We all have the same amount of time every single day to do our best. I always tried to accept the world for what it is and work hard to exploit the opportunities I was given. Sometimes they are hard to see. This past year I have shut off the TV and stayed away from the trance of the lies and bias of a defeated establishment. Hunting has shown me how important pacing one's life is and how important being able to haul ass is too. It's proven that you are only out of the game when you quit. There are alot of high peaks and deep canyons in life, all possible to get over if you want to pay the price, your price, not mine. Those trips many times will take from you, to get you out of that comfort zone. Those ridges and that rough water will always be there. In my mind I live deer everyday all year long and have for years. What keeps me going is that I know my time is limited for quality hunting. The day will come where I won't get to hunt like I did. The legs won't allow it, so I feel like I have to give it everything I can, while I can. I still can. In closing let me tell you what I would like to see at 65 in
2019. To see less fraud
and farce. To see fewer lies from society. To see less instant replay and less end-zone theatrics. To see less bullshit and more personal
responsibility. Less government ie my tax
dollars and more man up and do it. To
see fewer tweets from our President on the stock market and Hillary Clinton brought to
account. To see a far smaller balance sheet
at our Central Bank and a Fed audit. To
see a level playing field in our capital markets infrastructure. To see
less war and less class warfare. And to
continue to hear a large sucking sound in D.C. and in a perfect world to have the Montana legislature shorten the mule
deer season by a week to 10 days. More bucks, bigger bucks for
the kids and hunters who hunt. Hey, 65 isn't too old to dream! And thanks for coming along with me!
