Hunting in the Snow

There is nothing better in the world of hunting for me than hunting in the snow.  Not only does it seem more peaceful than any other time but you can really get a good idea of how the deer are moving through your property.  I love to hit the snow covered woods about three or four days after a big snow.  When you go in at this time, the deer have had time to cycle through their routine a few times and you can clearly see where you have a lot of deer coming through on a regular basis.  I like to mark and date these heavily used routes on my maps so that I can reference them at later dates and over time see how the travel routes change or see if they stay the same.  Another thing I make sure to do in the snow is glass.  You can really see how the land lays when there is snow on the ground and you should take advantage of it every chance you get, especially on new properties.  It is a great low impact approach that will help you in the long run. 
The absolute best part about hunting in the snow though is seeing that unmistakable silhouette against a white hillside headed right toward you.  Now is the time, the snow is here and the season is still in.  Get out there and learn what you can, make some memories and mabey even bag that buck of a lifetime.

Hunting Etiquette

The biggest issue we face in leasing land today is past experiences of land owners and their land being disrespected.  Time and time again we hear the stories about actions committed by a few hunters that caused the entire hunting community to suffer.  This is a problem that is very easily solved by hunters practicing good hunting etiquette.  For some this may be harder than others but the fact is it needs to be done by all so that we may continue to enjoy what we love.  Over the next few issues I will give you what we are considering to be necessary behaviors to insure that you are not only respecting the land and the land owners but other hunters that may also be using the land as well.  We will cover property maintenance and improvement, scouting, proper hunting techniques, field dressing and transport, and above all common sense.

By implementing this etiquette it will not only insure respect for our land owners but it will create a respect for us as a hunting community for years to come and will open up endless outdoor opportunities to us all.

Our Deer Woods?

Every year there are some great trail cam pics that come out of deer that most hunters can only dream of.  There are also those inevitable, and quite honestly questionable, photos that keep us thinking and wondering about what is really out in what we think is OUR deer woods.  Many of those photos are pretty blatantly photo shopped while others are a weird combination of common wildlife, foliage, weather and anything else that could skew a photo.  Yet others, like this one from Baton Rouge, Louisiana are just downright creepy.  Is it real or is it fake?  Who knows?  Either way, I wouldn’t want to find it on my trail cam.  The story behind this picture is that a hunter found his camera destroyed but the SD card was still intact and this was the last picture on the card.

Making life easier after the shot.

I bought a new tool this year and it is probably the best $15 I have spent in quite a while.  It is the ZIP Saw by New Archery Products NAP.  I killed a two doe in Kentucky a couple of weeks ago and this tool worked wonders on that annoying pelvic bone.  All there is to it are two short surgical steel rods with a serrated wire connecting them.  Once I split the deer open I just stuck the little metal rod through the inside of the pelvis and with about 5 or 6 zips of the wire saw I had cut clean through the pelvis.  Then all I had to do was drag out the guts and cut it off at the base of the tail. Done.

Frustrated Hunter

I had never hunted public land before but I let a couple of buddies from work talk me into hunting trip to Zaleski State Forest in Vinton County Ohio for whitetail shotgun season.  We did our homework before hand, studied the maps, scouted and had a few places mapped out that looked to be pretty good stand locations.  Opening morning, we got out early and headed to our first pick.  As the sun began to rise, slowly but surely the woods came to life and into focus.  Typically this is my favorite part of the hunt.  Anticipation builds as light leads to visibility.  Deer shaped figures seem to pop out of the woods all around you and every crunch or twig snap is a new possible state record.  Only this time, instead of deer shaped figures I started seeing orange vests.  And instead of hearing light crunches and twig snaps I heard lazy hunters that over slept dragging their feet as they made their way to what they considered their first pick as well.  Frustrated, we waited it out and continued hunting only to have the same hunters’ drag their feet past us again as they headed out of the woods after a quick two hour hunt.  The rest of our trip went pretty much the same way.  Each location brought its own frustrations with other hunters with the highlight of the trip being a hunter who walked down a deer trail toward my stand at 8:30am.  He looked up and waived at me and then walked out about 150 yards in front of my stand and sat down next to a tree.  I guess he thought I had a pretty good spot. 

I vowed then to never hunt public land in Ohio again.  I am not saying that good deer cannot be killed or that there are not a lot of deer on public land.  One of the guys on that trip went back two years later and killed a 199 ¾  inch deer in one of the same places we had hunted before.  But stories like that, while great to hear, are rare and personally for me not worth the frustration.  Not only that, the sheer number of hunters I saw out there and the inexperience that accompanied many of them brought some serious safety concerns to mind.  It is definitely not a place that I would feel comfortable taking my kids to hunt.

As a solution to that problem, as well as the problem I was having finding good private land, my wife Joanna and I created Southern Ohio Sportsmen hunting club.  We now have thousands of acres of land to choose from and the best part is, when I hunt I know that I am the only person that has permission to be on that piece of property.  I now have a safe place to take my friends and family to enjoy the outdoors and it is great. 

That opportunity is available for you as well.  Go to www.huntprivatelandohio.com and apply to be considered for membership with the Southern Ohio Sportsmen.