Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog

Whitetail Hunting: It Pays to Stay on Stand

The following deer hunting tip will be old news to anyone who has been hunting awhile.  But if you're new to the sport--or if you're like me and often ignore what you know to be true--it is one of the best pieces of advice you'll ever read:

STAY IN YOUR STAND!

Roughly 75% of the deer I've harvested have been taken in the afternoon.  The reason for that is that I stay in my stand until dark.  In the morning though, I have a tendency to go home way too early.  I get cold; I get bored; I get frustrated; I think about all the things I need to get done that day.

Since most of the properties I hunt are within a mile of my house, I'm often home empty-handed by 8:30.

But this past Saturday--the final day of Virginia's statewide deer hunting season--I had a different atttitude.  It was cold but not bone chilling; I was relaxed and taking in the scenery.  

"I can stay out here as long as I want," I told myself.

It helped that I'd seen a herd of about 20 deer just after daybreak.  They'd disappeared into the woods a couple hundred yards away, but they kept coming out in pairs all morning--even after the hunter on the property behind me fired a shot at 7:30.

By 9:00 I was getting antsy.  I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of that same hunter.  I'm not sure if he'd been in his stand all that time, if he was looking for his deer or what.

My next instinct was to get out of the stand.

"With him out there moving around the hunt is definitely over," I thought.  "But then again, maybe he'll push something out of the wooods."

When I looked back again he was gone, and within 10 minutes two deer from the herd I'd seen earlier bounded across the field at a distance.  I thought about leaving again.

I looked down to my right.  A doe ran past at top speed.  I looked up.  The rest of the herd was running now.  Right to my stand!

The next two seconds or so were a blur of brown and white.  As I thumbed back the hammer a doe stopped at about eight yards.  The Thompson Center Impact roared.

Another blur of brown and white, this  one shrouded in smoke.  When it cleared I saw that the doe was down.

My decision to wait had been a good one.  Hunters for the Hungry got another deer. . .

A Good Problem to Have

I made a great addition to the Bright Idea Outdoors bow hunting empire this season, picking up a 60-acre property just across the road from Camp Cowboy and my primary hunting grounds.  The landowner is an extremely nice guy and a good friend who is eager for me to thin the deer population on his farm.

The only problem is, he just got a new boat, and he keeps asking me to go fishing.  Last Tuesday, we ran out of Leeslyvania State Park.  Sunday, it was Lake Anna.  Now he wants to fish the upper Potomac and is even thinking about hiring a guide for the first trip.

With all this fishing, when am I going to have time to hunt?

This is just the kind of problem I've always wanted!

Virginia's Youth Deer Hunting Day is September 25 and other news

Young hunters in Virginia will once again have the opportunity to take a deer well in advance of the their adult counterparts.  The state's second annual Youth Deer Hunting Day takes place September 25 throughout most of the Old Dominion.  Click here to read my article on the event on www.examiner.com.

There's also some good information on the youth deer hunt in the latest edition of the Virginia Outdoor Report.  This monthly (or is it twice monthly?) report prepared by David Coffman of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is an excellent resource for anyone interested in hunting, fishing, boating, conservation or general outdoor recreation in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  It contains a wealth of information, and Mr. Coffman must put a ton of time into producing it.  The report is available by free email subscription.

In other news, my home county of Loudoun is looking at killing the ticks that carry Lyme Disease while they are still on their main carriers: whitetail deer.  I read about this in last week's Loudoun Times Mirror but can't find that article online.  I did find some information on the proposal in this May article by Jason Jacks.

Apparently, the strategy would involve installing deer feeders with corn framed by pesticide-laden brushes.  When a deer sticks it's head in, the pesticide would rub off the brushes onto its neck, supposedly killing the ticks it carries.

Lyme disease is a huge problem in our area.  I know; I've had it twice. 

So has Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) who is working on the proposal.  Still, I'll need a lot more information before I'm comfortable with this plan.

First of all, feeding deer is illegal in Virginia throughout much of the year and is discouraged at any time by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.  Would this be allowed during the feeding ban period of September-January?  Second, for this pesticide to work and kill ticks all over the deer, it would have to enter the whitetail's bloodstream.  That leaves me wondering if the meat will be safe to eat.

Anyone who hunts, eats venison or is interested in wildlife management in Loudoun County needs to get the facts on Burton's plan before it moves any further.  I'll see what I can do to help with that and report back when I get some more information. . .

A Bed and a Prayer

My youngest son's "big boy bed" sat in the hallway in pieces for months.  Even though he's a strapping nearly-three-year-old, we put off taking him out of the crib.  One reason was that we thought it would be difficult to make him stay in a regular bed.  The more important reason though was that I was too lazy to put the new bed together.

If there's an excuse to put off a home project, I've used it.  It takes me a long time to get anything done around the house.  I'm not proud of this, just being honest.

The crib was no different.  It didn't look like putting it together would be hard, just time consuming, tedious and--I could tell by looking at the parts--somewhat frustrating.  I put it off and put it off...

Then last week something swept over me, and I started getting things done.  I cleaned up the basement and reorganized my office.  I built canoe racks for my truck.  I pruned the trees in my front yard and installed three new light fixtures inside the house.

It may not sound like much, but each item took at least a whole evening.  The light fixture project started with a Home Depot Trip at around 3 p.m. Saturday and concluded as darkness fell just after 9:00.

I knew then that my son's bed was next on the list.  At midnight, just before I went to bed, I did something I've been doing off-and-on for nearly 10 years now: knelt beside the crib and prayed with my sleeping child.

Down on my knees, it occurred to me that I might be performing this particular ritual for the last time.

"No," I thought.  "He's not going to stay in this bed the first night we put him in it.  He'll keep getting up and coming in our room until we're forced to put him back in the crib.

"I may not pray many more times next to the crib, but this won't be the last."

For awhile yesterday , I thought the bed assembly might not get done.  I had setup duty at church; then we had friends over for lunch.  They left at around 2:30, and I really wanted to put those new racks on the truck and take my two oldest boys out in the canoe.

"I'll put the bed together when we get back," I said.

Realistically though, there was no way I was going to get it done after paddling for two hours in 100 degree heat.

"Can you come help me put it together now?" I asked Kim.

She and I, along with all three of our sons, got the bed put together in about an hour.  Kim went to get some sheets, and when she got back the big boys and I went canoing, returning home just before dark.

It took awhile, but I finally got Brett to go to sleep last night.  He had no intention of getting back in that crib, and I doubt he ever will.

My children's bedsides will continue to be among my favorite places to talk to God, but I guess my days of praying next to that crib are over.

New Friends and Old at the Nation's Outdoor Sportsmen's Show

My family and I had a great time over the weekend as I delivered three seminars on Hunting With Kids at the Nation's Outdoor Sportsmen's Show in Chantilly, Virginia.  Actually, I flew solo on Friday night, heading over to the show right after work and speaking to a small audience.  The crowds were larger on Saturday, when my whole family joined me, and on Sunday when just my two oldest boys tagged along.

This was my second time participating in the outdoor show as a speaker and the third year in a row I've attended.  What I always like best about it is the people I meet and get a chance to talk to.  One of my first stops was at the Ducks Unlimited booth where I caught up with Dave Elwing of DU's Pentagon Chapter.  Dave is a really nice guy who helped me out last year with a post I wrote on the Wounded Warrior Blind Project at Quantico Marine Base.  He spends his spare time building duck blinds with wheelchair access for disabled veterans; like I said, a really nice guy.

At the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Booth, I met Rudy Hassalll of the Winded Bowhunter blog.  Rudy shares my passion for getting kids outside and writes about conservation issues that affect sportsmen across this nation.  Rudy and I are practically neighbors, and it sounds like he'll be hunting not far from Camp Cowboy next fall.  I hope we get a chance to talk again.  Maybe it's time to finally hold that Regional Bloggers Summit . . .

Speaking of bloggers from my region, another one I met for the first time was Steve Moore of SwitchFisher.com.  Steve, who was working the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries booth, writes a strictly fishing blog and focuses on the region comprised of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  He added my blog to his blogroll in the "local blogs" category, which got me to wondering if I should create something similar. . .

I also had interesting discussions with the outfitters from River Ridge Outdoors in Independence, Virginia and the professional hunters from Molopo Kalahari Safaris in South Africa.  It will be a long time before I can afford an African hunt (or even a "semi-guided" hunt in southwest Virginia) but it's always fascinating to talk to people who make their livings in the hunting business.

Absent from the Nation's Outdoor Show this year was Kevin Paulson of HuntingLife.com, who was out of town at a slightly bigger event.  I mention Kevin because it was he who first gave me the opportunity to speak at the Nation's Outdoor Show when HuntingLife.com sponsored the event in 2008.  Even though Kevin was not directly involved with the show this year, he put me in touch with Annette Elliot of C&E Gun Shows, once again helping me advance my "career" as an outdoor writer and speaker.

Thanks for your help Kevin, and I'd also like to thank Annette and her husband Steven; I wish you all luck and hope to see you again later this year!

Second Half Gets Underway

We're just past the halfway point of 2009, and I'm happy to have most of the summer and all of the fall ahead of me.  The second half of the year is definitely my favorite half of the year.  Here are a few reasons why:

July 4th; my wedding anniversary; beach trips; my kids' birthdays; Labor Day; hot summer nights; crisp fall days; football season; the World Series; fall campouts; Potomac River smallmouth fishing; Halloween; Thanksgiving; Christmas; the long days of early summer; the long nights of early winter; lightning bugs; fall foliage; thunderstorms; snow flurries; goose hunting; deer hunting (bow); deer hunting (muzzleloader); and deer hunting (modern firearms.)

I hope you're looking forward to the rest of 2009 as much as I am!

Deer Season Finally Over: That Was Weird

All the signs of spring were evident as I sat in a treestand late Saturday afternoon: a light rain fell; robins flitted from fencepost to field; flowering trees looked ready to pop; and the clover in my food plot practically grew before my eyes.  Yes, spring is here, but nary a deer wandered by the treestand on that drizzly late March evening.

Just as well I guess; even here in the land of the nearly endless deer season my heart just isn't in it when it comes to spring whitetail hunting.  There's something that feels weird and unsettling about hunting them this time of year; like I've violated some kind of agreement.  Luckily for the deer, I won't have a chance to change my mind.  Our long season finally came to an end as darkness fell on Saturday.

So now it's on to the things I do when it's not deer season: working, fishing, camping, turkey hunting (hopefully), and thinking about deer hunting.  Oh yeah; I'll try and fit some blogging in too!

OBS Challenge: Why the Outdoors is for Everyone

Outdoor Bloggers Summit Chairperson Kristine Shreve recently issued a challenge for OBS members to write about our thoughts on why no one should be excluded from hunting and the various other outdoor pursuits we blog about.  The challenge came about in response to a controversial article that I'm not going to even bother discussing, but if you want to be offended click here.

The Non-Traditional Faces of the Outdoors challenge has been a tough one for me.  The answers to the question of why the outdoors is for everyone may at first seem pretty obvious:

• Hunting needs more participation by more kinds of people if it is to survive as a sport;

• Groups of people that were once excluded from other sports have gone on to make some of the greatest contributions to those sports;

• The number of female hunting bloggers is clear evidence that ladies like hunting too;

• We live in a free country; and

• If you can get your wife to try hunting, maybe she'll be a little more understanding of why you'd rather hunt than paint the kitchen.

Which brings me to why this challenge required a bit more thought for me than some of the others have.  My wife doesn't hunt.  She doesn't fish.  She goes camping with me about once every 10 years and even then only in a heavily-controlled environment.  She won't even eat my venison.

My kids are into hunting, but all three of them are boys, so I don't have a daughter to introduce to the outdoors.  I've also never had the opportunity to hunt with a black guy, a disabled person, an immigrant or anyone else that might fit into the "non-traditional faces of the outdoors" category.  But I'd love to introduce someone, anyone who might not otherwise get an opportunity, to my beloved outdoor pass times.

So in response to Kristine's challenge, I'm going to issue a few challenges of my own:

First of all, I challenge my wife to sit in a tree stand with me at sunrise.  She doesn't have to kill anything or even carry a weapon.  In fact, I won't plan on shooting either, and we can even do it in the summer if she wants.  I think if she could just once experience the magic of a deer emerging from the shadows, she would have a much better idea of where I'm coming from.

Second, I challenge my sister to allow and encourage her oldest daughter to participate in at least one Bright Idea Outdoors sponsored event this year.  I'm not saying she's got to let me take the little girl hunting.  Perhaps a fishing trip would be more her speed.  And I bet she'd enjoy plinking some cans off the roof of the Lodge with the Red Ryder.

Third, I challenge anyone who has never had a chance to hunt to ask me about how I got into it and discuss what we can do to get you into it.  If you're willing to put in the work and take a hunter safety course, I'll find a way to get you on some game next fall.

Finally, I challenge myself to this year introduce at least one person from the "non-traditional" category to hunting.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Get Your Own Camospace

I've been hearing about Camospace for awhile but had never even looked at it until recently when Mel wrote that he'd joined.  I myself finally joined last week, probably around the same time Deer Passion signed up.

Since then, I've been fielding tons of "friend requests" from other members.  Like most things involving the Internet and computers, Camospace confuses the heck out of me.  Every time I take on something new, my head spins a little faster when I open my laptop.

It does, however, look like Camospace could be fun once you get the hang of it.  If nothing else, it's a great way to see just how many people out there have outdoors-related businesses they're trying to promote.  Take a look at my Camospace "friends" and then go look at their friend lists, which sometimes number in the thousands. 

Some of the people you see and what they're promoting will surprise you.  Just be careful, it can get addicting...

Sick

I had planned to write today about the Nations Outdoor Sportsmen's Show that took place over the weekend in Chantilly, Virginia.  The kids and I went on Saturday, and I went back yesterday with a friend and a notebook to look for the "big story" for this week.

Only, right after we left the show I started not feeling right.  By 8 p.m. I was shivering in bed with a fever.

I feel somewhat better today, but I'm just not feeling it when it comes to writing anything of substance.  Hopefully, I'll be back to full strength by tomorrow.