By Kim Hiss

     I have some bad news. I just got an email from reader Wanda Hyleman (our own 'Southwoodshunter'), who wanted me to explain to everyone on the blog why she hadn't been posting recently. I was beyond sorry to hear that her oldest son, Jerami Willard, had passed away Monday at the age of 29. It was very unexpected.
     Wanda asked that, in addition to sharing that news, I post a link to the funeral home website , where anyone who's interested in knowing about Jerami could look at photos and read a little about him.
     On behalf of the blog readers, I'd like to express my deepest condolences to Wanda and her family, and my sincere hope that at some point, getting back in the woods can be a source of solace. --K.H. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

You can say that Joe got this deer in two places: the squirrel woods and the living room. Hunting bushytails taught him how to stay quiet and hidden, move slowly, and watch and listen for game. It also gave us an opportunity to look for deer sign and figure out where we should hunt on the youth day.

Additionally, in the months before the hunt, we’d take advantage of any spare moments to get him comfortable with the slug gun (New Jersey is a shotgun-only state). He’d work the action, sight on various objects, and dry-fire while kneeling, squatting, and standing. The gun was sighted in, but he really gained confidence in it by handling it at home on Sunday afternoons.

So when youth day came, he was ready. We got to our brush blind in the dark, and a few hours later, the buck came up a ridge along his scrape line. Joe shot it in the lungs when it paused about 40 yards away. After a short and efficient tracking job, the deer was his.

It was an emotional moment for me. You only get your first deer once, and I consider myself lucky and fortunate to have witnessed... [ Read Full Post ]

By Bill Heavey

A recent school holiday too warm for deer movement, which meant that I had Emma until noon, when she was due to go over to her mother’s.

My daughter would have been happy as a cockroach stuck inside a Twinkie to watch videos all day. Sometimes, however, a parent’s duty is to provoke the storm to get to the sunshine on the other side. When I turned off the TV, the hysteria called to mind Britney Spears being cut off at a bar. “I don’t wanna go to the woods!” she wailed. “It’s boring!” I nodded, then gave her a choice: She could put on her clothes herself or I would put them on her. Well, her socks hurt her feet, and her shoes hurt her feet, and her pants had a seam in the wrong place that might have been drawing blood by the howls she emitted. When she ran out of clothes, she switched to general health, claiming she was sick and that her “hair hurt.” By the time I bundled her into the car, her face was splotchy with a 7-year-old’s rage.

The good thing about my daughter is that her anger often subsides as quickly as it arrives.... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Today’s BuckTracker profile is special to me on a couple of levels. Like most of my entries, it features a great big deer. But this hunting tale also features a close friend of mine who is facing one of the toughest trials of his life. Bob Briggs is my former dentist (now retired), who also owns a gorgeous farm near my home in southeastern Minnesota. Bob has allowed me to bow hunt his place for several years, and wandering this wildlife paradise is a privilege I hold dear. And I have plenty of company; Bob lets several of his close friends hunt there, and his generosity is appreciated by us all.

Late this summer, Bob was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis was not good, but Bob was one of the lucky few with this particular form of cancer that could at least be treated. He was operated on shortly after diagnosis, and spent several weeks recovering. Bob missed the entire archery season, but rebounded in time for Minnesota’s first gun season.

Five days into the hunt, he scored on this incredible whitetail, a 165-inch monster that he... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

     Here's another great discussion topic idea that I can't take credit for! Laura Bell just emailed me this heartbreaking story of a buck that entered her life--and left it just as quick. She figured, and I agree, that most of us have had near misses like this at one point or another. Here's what Laura had to say about hers--complete with a moral at the end! --K.H.

     I'm sure there's been a few times where we've all had close encounters with an animal but just couldn't seal the deal. I remember one Ohio Gun Deer Season a couple years ago. I wasn't seeing anything and my Dad went to put on a drive for me. He was going to walk through a chunk of grape vines and brush, just to see if anything was laying tight in it. My dad walked off and I stood ready for action. Not long after he left I heard the brush cracking and small grunts. A second later a doe trots out, and not 30 yards behind and hot on her heels is a nice, I mean nice, buck! There's also a smaller buck, but my gun is up and on... [ Read Full Post ]

By Bill Heavey

Christmas, the season of obligation, will shortly be upon us. This year, give the people you love If You Didn’t Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat? (Atlantic Monthly Press), a best-of collection of stories by me, Bill Heavey, probably the baldest man ever to write for Field & Stream. My range is astounding, from fishing all the way to hunting. Plus I offer foolproof strategies for calling in sick to work. As a semi-gainfully-employed writer spending way too much money on scent-reducing soaps, sprays, and lotions, I’m begging you to buy a few copies. $23; available wherever books are sold/ -- Bill Heavey [ Read Full Post ]