By Bill Heavey

The second group, which came a week later, was four small guys chowing down on a carpet of swamp chestnut oak acorns. When full, they plopped themselves down right where they’d fed. I watched two lick each others’ faces and necks for nearly half an hour. Then, satisfied that they looked their best, they clicked antlers a couple of times in a friendly sort of way.

My heart leaped. It was only late September, but the wheels had started moving. It wouldn’t be long before they’d be fighting for real. I resolved to bring antlers and do some light rattling next time. But since then I’ve been tethered to my desk like a resentful Rottweiler. The strain is starting to show. Yesterday I called a manufacturer to chase down details about a new boot they’re marketing. I said I was a hardcore deer hunter.

“I hear that all the time,” the marketing guy said, as if somehow annoyed by the term. “What exactly does ‘hardcore’ mean?”

“I’ll tell you what it means,” I said. “It means that deer are the last thing I think about before I go to sleep at night and the first thing I think about when I open my eyes... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

[Day 1] Whitetails will use the thin cover of a grassy CRP field only during the first few days of gun season, so it’s a logical place to start. Wait for a north or west wind, and push the field toward the large swamp.

[Day 2] Start the morning with one hunter in each of the stands shown. Then, at a designated time, hunters A and B both leave their stands and make a slow push toward hunter C.

[Day 3] The thick vegetation along this stream corridor is a perfect refuge for deer, and it makes a great spot for two or three hunters to stage a simple drive. Again, push it so that escaping deer move into the swamp.

[Day 4] This is the day you spring the trap. Remember, the deer here are already nervous, so a deliberate, quiet push is the best approach. Designate the majority of your group as pushers who remain within sight of one another and walk slowly, pausing at frequent intervals to prevent bucks from slipping back through the drive. Place standers at major escape routes, downwind from trails. If you do everything right, someone is almost certain to score.

--Scott Bestul [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

But Williams had a chance encounter with the deer last winter, and he picked up a shed antler last spring. “Then this summer I had a perfect trail-camera shot of him at a little clover food plot I planted,” Williams says. “Our archery season opens here in mid-September, so I set up a stand near the food plot and waited for the perfect wind before I hunted it. I was in the stand about 5:00 and not long after I heard a deer coming. Suddenly I saw Big Boy’s rack enter my shooting lane at 30 yards. I drew my bow immediately, and when his body appeared I noticed he was looking right at me. He must have heard something, possibly my arrow on the rest. I took the shot and saw the arrow hit right where I aimed. Big Boy ran off, and I heard some thrashing, followed by silence, then sort of a crash.”

Williams waited for 30 minutes before leaving his stand and heading home. He was determined to wait for 2 hours before tracking Big Boy, but as he paced outside his house Phil heard two things that prompted him to head back to the woods; timber wolves... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

I admit, I don’t watch a whole lot of hunting shows on TV. (Actually, apart from recently re-discovering Northern Exposure on DVD, I’ve been watching less TV of late in general.) But I seem to be in the minority. In the 2007 Field & Stream Women Hunters Poll I keep referencing, 80% of respondents said they watched hunting shows on television.
      Well, F&S recently got a press release on a new program. It’s called The Girls Outdoors, it premiered in August, and it’s scheduled for Saturdays at 6:30 a.m. EST on the Great American Country network. The creator/producer/host is Jennifer Wysocki, an all-around outdoorswoman who lives in Midway, Ga (talk about hunting and the workplace!).
      I was curious, and emailed Jennifer to find out more about the show. Episodes feature professional guides, provide wild game recipes, give GPS coordinates for recommended hunting spots, and include excursions like dove hunting along the Rio Grande and bow fishing in the Louisiana Bayous. Here’s some of what Jennifer emailed back for the blog.
      “It is time to get back outside! It is time for us to show our families how to enjoy nature. It... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

I’ve mentioned Karen Lee, editor of Women in the Outdoors magazine in a previous post. She’s a great hunter, and hands down one of the funniest people I’ve ever met—she’ll come out with these one-liners that will have you on the floor in hysterics. She's also just a marvelous person in general.
      Women in the Outdoors (both the organization and the magazine it puts out) has done a lot to introduce ladies to the field. So Karen offered (since I'll be out of town for a few days) to write a guest post on how she got into hunting, and the support that helped her continue with the sport. So without further adieu…--K.H.

      I didn’t grow up hunting or in a family that hunts. We always were more of the canoeing, hiking types. In fact, I didn’t even know my father owned a gun until I started work at the National Wild Turkey Federation and became editor of Women In The Outdoors magazine.
      Thinking back to my... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

Have you seen this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about gun manufacturers offering pink firearms to attract female buyers? It’s currently being discussed by the guys on the F&S news blog (you might want to check out some of their comments involving Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake stickers). The story quotes a number of store-owners and shoppers who have differing opinions on the appropriateness of a pink firearm in the field.
      So how do you feel about pink guns—or any other girl-ified gear for that matter? Is such an item a fun must-have, or an obnoxious must-avoid? When I say girl-ified, I don’t mean a shorter stock or other modifications meant to improve the way a piece of equipment fits its owner; I mean aesthetic adjustments that make piece of gear more, well, girly.
      Maybe the larger issue is that of each person’s self-perception as an outdoorsman. Do you consider yourself a woman hunter, who’s in many ways different from the men in the field? Or are you a hunter like any other, who just happens to be a woman? –K. H. [ Read Full Post ]