White Coyote
During my last trip to South Dakota a friend shared these pictures with me. His name is Jerry and he manages a big cattle ranch for my buddy’s relatives. Jerry also does some government work controlling coyote populations in the area and has been doing that for nearly 40 years. About 30 years ago Jerry shot an all-white coyote. Against the odds, he shot another all-white yapper this past fall. While the skin around the face, ears and other thinly-furred areas was noticeably pink, both eyes were blue as could be. It was an adult coyote, and is being mounted life-size. Jerry’s not yet sure where it will be displayed, but we’re trying to see if Cabela’s might be interested in displaying the mount in their Rapid City store. There has been two white coyotes documented being taken in Buffalo County, SD, I’m told. Jerry shot both of them, about 30 years apart. Maybe he should look into a lottery ticket!The cream contains aciclovir that works to stop treat the virus. One of the most well known is Kamagra. What consumers talk about real viagra for sale or generic viagra for sale? It's active ingredient is Sildenafil. The definition of sexual [...]
P90X…Again!
I’m back on the P90X wagon. Last year I started P90X but half-way through shifted my workouts to a more intense weight program. My goal changed from the year before, where I stuck religiously to P90X. Last year I wanted to gain more muscle mass and as a result added 17 pounds to my 5’10” frame. By hunting season I weighed just over 200 lbs. for the first time in my life. As expected, it had it’s benefits and drawbacks. The benefits were added strength, which helped immensely when packing/handling elk in the backcountry. The biggest surprise came during wilderness horseback hunts, where I’ve never felt so solid and secure on a horse. As expected, the drawbacks of added bulk came in the form of quicker muscle fatigue and lack of flexibility. Face it, no matter how hard I try, my 47 year old body isn’t what it used to be. And though it felt good to reach my personal goal of bench pressing 350 lbs.–something I hadn’t done for 11 years–the bottom line was I wasn’t in as good of shape as I should have been for many of the hunts I undertook last season. The year prior, when I [...]
Dry Runs
While I’m blessed to have the job I do, not all hunts turn out with 100% success just because we’re filming TV shows. The past fall found me with four unfilled tags in my pocket, two of which stand out most in my mind. Going after mule deer in MT, I returned to the central part of the state, between the Missouri and Marias rivers. I’d hunted this place two season’s prior, and easily filled a tag with a nice buck (pictured below). Bucks like this, and bigger, were thick during that hunt. We saw an average of over 200 deer a day on that hunt. This past November things had changed. While reports varied from exactly how many deer died-off due to last year’s terribly harsh, extended winter, most people figured a 30-35% mortality. After five days of hunting I’d put it more along the lines of an 80% loss in the area we hunted. During that time I only saw one good mule deer that would have pushed the 175” mark. The next biggest buck was about 155”, with everything else being considerably smaller. My decision to leave that hunt with an empty tag cost our production team [...]
Poached Washington Mule Deer
Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to be more consistent with blog posts, which, in this line of work where I’m often removed from cyberspace, isn’t easy. As many of you know, I spent Thanksgiving away from the family, sitting in blinds and traipsing the hills of N. central WA, looking to arrow a mule deer. Had it not been for a poacher, I would have likely been home for Thanksgiving. I was hunting with Jerrod Gibbons of Okanogon Valley Guide Service, out of Omak. Over the years Jerrod has secured a great deal of private land. Many of the spots Jerrod puts his late season archery hunters in are baited (a new way of hunting mule deer for me, and obviously legal in this state). Once deer start hitting the bait piles this time of year, they usually stick around. Between late rutting activity and easy food, there’s little reason for bucks to leave an area. For over a week Jerrod had one buck in particular that was very regular, hitting the same bait 3-4 times a day, then again during most of the night. We dubbed him the “30-incher.” Though his rack may have been a bit [...]
WA Archery Mule Deer Hunt
The past month has been hectic, too hectic to stay caught up on my blog page..sorry! So, here we go, an attempt to recapture each of my late season hunts, starting with WA mule deer. The last week of November found us bowhunting for mule deer with Jerrod Gibbons, (www.okanoganvalleyguideservice.com). Jerrod had invited us on this hunt several times, and we were finally able to make it work. The hunt took place in northern Washington, near Omak. This was a first for me in two regards: It was my first time hunting mule deer from a blind, and it was my first time hunting them over bait. Both were very effective and fun, with the intent using apples and alfalfa to draw in does migratory bucks. Jerrod had been getting many great bucks on trail camera, and on day one we sat all day, hoping for a 180” 4x4 that had been seen. He never came in, but we did pass four smaller bucks, including about a 130” buck. Day two found us headed to what was a slam-dunk deal. A 30” 4x4 had been visiting a specific bait, several times a day. We were in the blind before daylight, and [...]
Kazden’s First Blacktail: Youth Brings Home Dinner
Finally, after years of waiting, Kazden got to go on his first Columbia blacktail deer hunt. Though he’s been shooting responsibly under adult supervision since the age of two, and has taken small game, turkey, javelina and African plains game, this hunt was for one of the most challenging big game animals in North America. This is the deer several generations of our family have grown up hunting in the Pacific Northwest, and now it was Kazden’s turn. Thanks to Oregon’s recent adoption of the Mentored Youth Program, I was able to allow Kazden (9), to hunt on my general season blacktail tag. He’d already passed his Hunter’s Safety course with a near perfect score, and is a very good shot. To step up our pre-hunt practice sessions, every day after school Kazden was shooting his Nosler .260 off a steady rest, the same rest he’d be using on the hunt. His best groupings came off a Bog Pod tripod with an XSR adaptor; this provided a very steady rest and gave him confidence. He shot several rounds over the weeks into Caldwell’s new Natural Series mule deer target. Being a former science teacher, this is one of the best shooting [...]