Accident or Karma?

Here's one for the "people who shouldn't be in the woods" file.

An man was shot in the stomach yesterday. Authorities believe he was hunting at the time. According to this article, the man had his hunting rights revoked for life following a poaching sting in the early 90's.

It's bad enough that this poacher was at it again, but then the media has to term him a "hunter". I, for one, would rather not be associated with these types. Call it for what it is. The guy is a poacher.

1-800-POACHER
Turn in a poacher.

Ohio Deer Hunters Gain 2,263 Acres

2,200 Acres of land opened to deer hunting WKYC outdoors
WEST UNION, Ohio - Prospective deer hunters must obtain a free permit.
For the second year deer hunters will have access to prime deer hunting land at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in Adams County. In a five year agreement signed in 2006 The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife opened approximately 2,263 acres of land to deer hunting by permit only. read more...

As you know, public land has been on my mind. I was thrilled to find this article this morning! Adams County is just south of Highland County, which we hunt extensively. It falls within zone 3, which allows hunters to take up to 3 deer per season (more if you utilize urban deer permits). Hunters in Adams County harvested 4,199 deer in the 2006 season.

Adams County produced two monster bucks last year.
The 2006-07 season also produced many trophy deer, including two notable ones from Adams County harvested in the archery season. Taken on the 2006 opening day, Johnathan Schmucker's 34-point non-typical white-tailed deer scored 291 2/8, making it the fourth largest non-typical white-tailed deer harvested in the world. Justin Metzner's 12-point typical whitetail arrowed on October 21, scored 196 6/8, positioning it to be the fourth largest typical deer killed in Ohio.
Quoted from this ODNR News Release.

Here is Jonathan Schmucker's 34-point non-typical monster.

Here is Justin Metzner's 12-point typical monster.

I guess I'll be heading to Adams County this weekend to pick up 2 permits!

Hunting Public Land

I'm fairly new to deer hunting, but I am an experienced hunter. I don't have access to private hunting land, but there is plenty of public land available. I learned a lot last year and I plan to do a few things differently. I also want some suggestions. What do you do to improve your chances of success on public land? Do you feel that tree stands are safe on public land during gun season?

Taking the week off
Last year I hunted the weekends of deer season. I also had 2 days off in the middle of the week during the season. I saw one doe on the first day. This year, I burned a whole week of vacation just to go deer hunting.

Find somewhere off the beaten path
Last year I got up extremely early and hiked between 1 to 2 miles into an area that is not easily accessible. I arrived at my spot an hour before hunting started. I still had people walk right by me on the way through the woods. On two of the weekend days, I had gangs of hunters walk right over me doing deer drives. This year I have got to find some privacy in the woods. There are huge National Forests in Ohio, but I have always heard that deer are creatures of the forest edge. Do you have any success hunting deep inside a large forest?

Scouting
I have been trying to visit new wildlife areas this year. I have been to five different counties so far this year. I want to expand my options as well as look for deer sign while I am out squirrel hunting.

Hanging hunting clothes outside
I think I'll try it this year. Last year I wasn't crazy about the idea of stepping outside to grab clothes that are 30-some degrees. There's something I don't understand. How do you do this when you hunt 7 days straight? I mean, when you add up hunting time and drive time, I have 13 hours eaten up already. Do you wash your clothes every night and hang them out to dry? After you've worn the clothes 1 day, what is the point?

Exploring new areas

We hunted a new wildlife area today and I think it will be one of our favorites. The area is located in Athens County in a part of the state that is known for its rugged beauty. There are 421 acres for hunting and fishing, including a 48 acre lake. The woods is filled with oak, hickory, and beech. Walnut and yellow buckeye trees are scattered throughout. I can't wait to come back with a .22 after the leaves have dropped!

This morning I had a doe feeding on acorns within 15 feet of me. I could hear her milling about, but only caught a glimpse of her a few times. I can definitely understand the need for a stand this early in the year. There was entirely too much foliage to make a good shot. She must have been there half an hour before she busted me. There were plenty of deer scat and tracks around the area also. I might just have to give this place a try during gun season.

The good news is that we didn't see any deer carcasses rotting away. Many of the southern counties are experiencing problems with Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) this year. Again, I'm thinking I might spend a few days here during gun season.

Traveling

I occasionally get the opportunity to travel with my job. I couple outdoor activities with the trip whenever I can. I have had the opportunity to see the Texas Hill Country, go white water rafting on the Payette River in Idaho, walk La Rambla in Barcelona, walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and visit the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The picture here is of a herd of elk resting in Estes Park, Colorado.

I have two trips coming up this fall. The first is to attend a one week course in Somers, NY. I found myself struggling with the two dates that were available. One falls in October, the week before I have to travel to Atlanta to deliver a new course for the first time. I could really use the week prior to that class to immerse myself in the material and write up my lesson plans. The other available date falls on the first week of December. I have the week before that off on vacation for Ohio's deer gun season. Choosing the December date would mean that I would not only miss one day of my season, but it would also mean that I would lose one of only four days available to hunt deer with Julie.

Which would you choose?

No dirty ol' squirrels to clean!

Thats what we always tell each other when we go home empty handed. It works for fishing too (ie. No dirty ol' fish to clean!).

We hunted in Franklin County at the Battelle Darby Creek wildlife area. Battelle Darby Creek is a State and National Scenic River. The area boasts 6500 acres of prairie, fields, and forests. Three hundred acres are planted in native prairie grasses. The area is home to aboundant species of aquatic, plant, and animal life, including several state endangered species. There are 800 acres available for hunting and we haven't even scratched the surface of the area yet.

It is a short drive from the house and the closest spot we can hunt. We only had an hour to hunt before sunset, but the main reason for the trip was so Julie could program the parking lot into her gps. We hunted here once or twice last year and didn't have much luck. Julie did get one red squirrel there last year - her first with her new gun. The ODNR opens up additional land here during deer gun season, but I'm just not comfortable hunting there then. It is way too close to the city, which means way, way too many people out there.

Our adventure Friday night

Our hunt got off to a colorful start this weekend. Colorful, like red and blue flashing lights colorful. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The forecast for Saturday was for temps in the low 40s and partly cloudy skies. We were eager to get out to the woods after a hard week back at work. OK, I was on vacation all week and Julie only worked 2 days. Still, we were excited to hunt our favorite squirrel woods.

Friday night we went out to eat. During dinner we decided to make reservations for a hotel down in Hillsboro. Neither of us is a morning person and the prospect of driving 90 miles in the early pre-dawn hours wasn't too appealing. Besides, who needs an excuse for a hotel room on Friday night?

We checked into the hotel then decided to drive over to the wildlife area to take a look around. As we pulled up towards the parking lot, we noticed a car driving slowly away. It is a bit unusual since this is off the beaten path. Then, as we pulled out of the wooded drive from the parking lot, we noticed the same car stopped by the entrance. What the hell?

As I pulled out of the drive, I noticed the sheriff's plates reflected in my headlight. So, I stopped alongside the cruiser and rolled down the window to say hello. The deputy wasn't much for smalltalk.

He wanted to know what brought us out this way tonight. I explained that we were going to hunt here in the morning and wanted to look the place over. He instructed us to pull over and said he'd be right with us. He turned the cruiser around, pulled in behind us and lit up the cherries and berries (as my kids call them).

The deputy requested a drivers license. After I handed him mine, he told me he wants both of our drivers licenses. He explained he just had to make sure that neither of us were axe murderers - no kidding! A short while later he came back to the car and explained that he was out here investigating a report of someone running around shooting at people. Great. Just greaat. Like we say: always an adventure.

Fire water

This seems like an awful waste to me! One could wonder if the driver was sampling the goods he was delivering.

OK, I know it isn't exactly outdoor related, but I do enjoy the occasional glass.

A very special gun

Two weeks ago I mentioned a Winchester Model 97 that is a very special gun to me. I saved the story of this gun for another day. After reading Bryan's recent post on the DeerPhD blog titled Sadness in my Stand, I think I am ready to share the story of this special gun.

I started hunting 25 years ago. I have many fond memories of days spent afield. To that, I owe thanks to my Dad. This is just one of the stories that I remember fondly.

My Dad grew up carrying hammer guns in the field. In the days after school, he and his brother would hunt the fields south of Demorest Road. His brother carried a Winchester Model 97 and he carried an old Stevens single shot. The original 97 was stolen many years ago, but it was always Dad's dream to own another one.

When I started hunting, Dad started me out carrying that same Stevens single shot. Dad carried a worn out old double gun that would launch the ejectors if you opened it slightly too far. After our third season hunting together, he decided it was time for each of us to step up to a pump gun. He found a Model 97 at a local gun shop and bought me an old Remington Model 17. He had originally bought me a Winchester Model 12 in 20 gauge, but it was returned due to a missing shell stop. The Remington served me well for a season.

The following year, Dad bought another Winchester Model 12. We couldn't wait for saturday to roll around so we could hunt pheasants with the new gun!

That saturday, Dad carried the Model 12 and I carried the old 97. As we worked our way back to the truck through a grass field, we kicked up a rooster pheasant. It cackled as it rose above the waist-high grass, leveled out, and flew straight away from Dad. It was the kind of shot every pheasant hunter dreams of. It was a shot that you couldn't miss.

Dad certainly didn't miss that shot. In fact, he never took a shot! Knowing that he was carrying a new gun for the first time, I wanted him to take the bird. Instead, the bird swiftly flew out of gun range without a single shot to chase it. When I looked over at Dad to see why he didn't shoot, I could see him still reaching on the back of the receiver trying to cock the hammer so he could shoot!

Now we always hunted public land and these wild birds were few and far between. Right then and there he handed me the Model 12 and said, "Here, keep it!" That was to be the only day that I carried the Model 97. For the rest of my hunting days, I carried the greatest hammerless repeating shotgun ever built.

This Model 97 is a very special gun to me because it was my Dad's gun. This was the gun he always wanted to carry as a boy and finally was able to buy later in life. It was also the gun responsible for one of the stories that we told over and over again, laughing until it brought tears to our eyes. While he owned many shotguns, the 97 was the only gun he ever carried from that day forward.

Last year Dad and I hunted on September 1st, the opening day of squirrel season. As always, he carried the old 97. This was our first day in the field for many years. Unfortunately, it would also be our last together. Dad passed on two months later.

This year, on September 1st, I carried the old 97 for the first time in many years. I carried it in honor of my Dad, who introduced me to the outdoors and with whom I shared some of the best days of my life. Farewell, Dad. Your days ended too soon and you are still missed dearly.

More EHD Press

Deadly deer disease surfaces in SW Ohio The Plain Dealer
A white-tailed deer disease has slipped into Ohio after killing bucks and does in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

EHD, or Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, has been discovered in deer found dead or dying in Highland County in southwest Ohio, northeast of Cincinnati. The disease is also called "blue tongue," because it causes a deer's tongue to swell and become discolored.
read more...


I saw this article this evening after returning from hunting in, you guessed it, Highland County. I hunted the 25 acre woods and didn't venture down by the creek. There are two ponds within walking distance of the parking lot. I did find a deer skull, but I suspect it met a foul end due to poaching rather than EHD. The antlers and the top portion of the skull had been neatly sawed off.

Highland County Snapshot

• Hunters in Highland County harvested 1,793 deer during the 2006 Deer Gun Season.


• Highland County falls just within the border of Zone C, where hunters may harvest up to 3 deer.


• In July, Mike Hanback blogged about this monster 8-pointer taken in Highland County.

More information on EHD is available at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website.

Is it deer season yet???

It’s not fair that Andy has so many vacation day! With me being in the hospital for over a week at the beginning of the year I lost 7 of my vacation days. I won’t get to take any vacation days to go deer hunting. I guess I will just have to make sure and get one on the weekends that I can hunt. This week after we got back from Montana Andy took the rest of the week off, and yep you guessed it… he went hunting. I am happy for him that he has the vacation days available to hunt, but it makes me want to go that much more when I can’t. I thought about going tomorrow after work, but I would only have just under 2 hours to hunt and that almost isn’t worth it. I guess I will just have to wait until Saturday and get up early (around 5:00 am) and go all day then. That will give me a chance to get all my hunting cloths and other misc. items together. With me having a trach I have to pack extra stuff to clean it with me. I just bought some camo material to make myself a cover for my neck band. The ones that they send me are white. I definitely don’t want to wear a white neck band during deer season! I also bought some camo tape to put over the outer part of the trach so that the white on it doesn’t show. I am planning on sometime within the next week or so making sure that I have all the while on my trach completely covered. Deer season is approaching fast.

EHD in Ohio

This summer's outbreak of EHD has been making headlines for weeks in states around Ohio. This is the first report of suspected EHD that I have seen in Ohio. The article mentions 10 southern Ohio counties which have had reports. Curiously, there is nothing on the Ohio DNR website about the reports.

Its a jungle out there!

The heat wave subsided and we had a perfect day for hunting. I was way too tired to roll out of bed at 4:30am this morning, so I slept in. I headed out for the Buckeye Grove this afternoon for a couple hours of good evening hunting. The woods is like a jungle right now. So much so that I walked into a stick that poked me in the right eye. I lost my contact and injured my eye, so I was hunting half blind. I saw two and brought one home. If you look at the picture, you would probaby agree that even seeing two squirrels was lucky.

I was amazed at how dry the creek was. The shallow side of the creek wasn't even a creek. It was dried up to just a few stagnant pools. The mosquitos were relentless! At least the stinging nettles didn't grow as tall this year. They were only knee high today, compared to chest high last year.

And the season begins!!

First of all I am the worlds worst about writing anything, so don’t expect to see me comment too much. Don’t get me wrong – I love to tell about our adventures, but I am just bad about taking the time to write it all down.
Andy and I love to hunt. So far this season I have only gone four times. Twice in Illinois, and twice here in Ohio. Andy is so much of a better hunter than I am. In Illinois he got 8 squirrels and I only got 1. Here in Ohio he has gotten 1 and me none. He is out hunting right now! I had today off, but was just not rested up enough from our trip to Montana to go. I really got the hunting fever while we were in Montana because we saw several small squirrels. The ones we saw were a dark grayish brown with a black tail. They were small like the red squirrel. Last year we went looking for a black squirrel. I saw one and shot at it, I knew I wasn’t close enough to make the shot but I just wanted it sooo bad. It ran around the tree and Andy was close enough that he got it. This year I really want to get one. We both also want to get a white squirrel. Wish us luck.

Rainy days

We got soaked good today, but not before getting in a nice afternoon hunt. I took our first Ohio squirrel of the season - a big fox squirrel. I also had time to do a little scouting for deer before the rumble of thunder cut our day short. It rolled in fast, so we didn't even make it halfway to the truck before the rain hit. We walked at least half a mile through cold, driving rain. It actually felt good to cool off a little. We got a much needed 1.5" in about 40 minutes.

We hunted the west side of the creek again today. The cover there is much lighter, with a wooded margin along the creek and the occasional fencerow. I don't care for it much, so I found a shallow spot to cross the creek to the island.

The field on the island is not planted this year so it has grown six to eight feet tall with weeds. There were several well used deer trails coming from the island going west across the creek and continuing into the bean fields. Julie scouted the woods at the north tip of the island last year and came very close to getting her first deer. By the looks of the trails, I have to agree with her that this will be the place to be this fall.

All in all, it was a nice afternoon. Now it is time to get packed. We will be away for a few days. We have a somber duty to fulfil in Montana.

Buckeyes

We made a trip last night after work to pick up some Buckeyes. I am going to be starting some trees from seed this fall to plant in our backyard. My mother and sister also wanted a few to plant this fall. Since we were out, we carried our guns.

The buckeye trees had dropped almost all of their leaves. Even though they are growing in fertile bottomland along a large creek, it has just been too dry this summer. The buckeye mast looked strong again this year, though not quite as good as last. There were plenty of them on the ground and still a few in the trees. The nuts are a pretty fair size this year. We did see a few of them that were half eaten. I know the deer eat them and I suspect that squirrels will too.

The spot we went to only has Ohio Buckeye trees. The Buckeye Grove has both Ohio Buckeye and Yellow Buckeye trees. The Ohio Buckeye is the state tree and is probably better suited for our soil at home.

We didn't see the slightest sign of movement from a squirrel. It is just too damned hot to hunt the evenings. Of course, it was also fairly breezy so it was more difficult to locate them. In total we saw six deer. They were all small does or yearlings. We didn't hike to our preferred hunting spot - the Buckeye Grove - because it was just too hot and short on time to make the hike. Had we gone there, I know we would have seen some squirrels.

Squirrel Hunter Diary

My squirrel hunter diary came in the mail last week from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. This is the third year of the Squirrel Hunting Cooperator program. The diary is printed on 2-sided cardstock that tri-folds down to about the size of a credit card. Included with the diary was the pin pictured to the left, a summary of the 2006-2007 results, a red squirrel fact sheet, a quick id sheet for nut trees, and instructions for filling out the diary.

The diary includes places to fill out for the date, county, and hours hunted. For each entry, you mark how many of each type of squirrel were seen, wounded, and killed. On the back is a survey for the quality of nut crop that you observed in your primary hunting area.

2006-2007 Results Highlights

• Of 338 diaries sent out, only 170 were completed and returned.
• Cooperators made an average of 6.8 trips during the season and hunted an average of 3 hours per trip.
• Squirrel harvest was up 31% over the previous year with a similar amount of time afield.
• Squirrel success was 0.72 squirrels harvested per hour.
• Overall mast production declined, but was still above average for all but beech trees.

2007-2008 Outlook
The outlook is very good, but will not equal the harvest of last season.

Changes This Year

• The diary now includes boxes for red and black squirrels.
• The diary now includes a separate tally for each species seen and each killed.
• The nut crop survey now includes walnut.

We did have a banner year last year. Every trip we made, we saw plenty of squirrels. I am excited to be given the opportunity to help the ODNR manage our game resources. If you are interested in participating, I recommend that you contact the DNR to sign up.

For love of a dog

In today's news was a story about a woman who became a hunter for a dog.

Julie pointed this one out to me. It was fitting since we almost brought home a pup this weekend. We have two dogs already and definitely don't need any more animals. One day I would love to have a bird dog. We talked today about whether it would be fair to the dogs that got left at home on the weekends. Would our current dogs understand the difference between playing and training with the new pup? We're going to wait for now, but I would like to hear what my visitors think.

Do any of you have hunting dogs? Are they the only dogs in the household? How do the other pets handle being left behind?

And so it begins...

Our 2007 hunting season is in full swing now after a wonderful weekend in Illinois. There were over two dozen people at the family reunion. We had a safe trip and we spent two beautiful days in the outdoors. What more could you ask for Labor Day weekend?

We arrived at my in-laws around 2am Saturday morning due to some complications. We unpacked, visited for a few minutes, then went to bed to catch a few hours of sleep before the alarm started going off at 4:30am.

Julie and I hunted Saturday in one of our Aunt's woodlots in Morgan County, Illinois. We parked at the grain bin and walked the tractor path to a woodlot near the back of the pasture. We were running about 30 minutes later than planned, thanks to snooze buttons. The air was a crisp 53 degrees with a slight breeze. The squirrels were already awake and moving around when we stepped into the timber. I headed to the top of a rise which had about half an acre of mixed hardwoods. The place was just crawling with squirrels! I took this picture a few minutes before eight.



Sunday morning we met up at our Cousin's house for coffee before heading to his woodlot. The coffee was strong enough to meet us at the front door, but that is just what I needed after sleeping so little. After having coffee, we headed out to the woodlot and sat down in a wooded draw about 30 minutes before sunrise. This timber, like the one we hunted Saturday, was nothing but White Oak, Hickory, Walnut, and Beech trees. This is, without a doubt, the finest patch of timber I have ever had the privilege of stepping into.

Julie split off while I accompanied Jason further into the timber. Jason is a new hunter and I was playing the role of guide. By 8:00, all three of us had a squirrel. I remember the excitement of my first squirrel, some 25 years ago. This day was an even greater excitement to watch Jason make a perfect stalk on a big buck fox squirrel and drop it clean with one shot. While he was stalking his squirrel, I had a bead on a fox squirrel in another large oak. I waited for him to shoot, not wanting to ruin his stalk with my own shot. I lost sight of the squirrel when he shot, but I knew he would still be nearby.

Jason left shortly afterwards for about two hours. Julie and I stayed and hunted side by side until he rejoined us. We sat at the base of a large white oak, near where Jason had dropped his fox squirrel. We sat for a while, then I took the opportunity for a photograph. I laid my gun down, took the camera out, and stepped away to take a shot of Julie in her camo gear.



While taking the pictures, I heard something. After taking a few pictures, I was sure that it was a squirrel barking at me! I walked back over to the tree to put my camera away and pick up my gun. I scooted around the tree to face the direction of the barking. After a few minutes, I located the source. I could see a glimpse of rust colored fur in the sunlight in a crotch between two branches high in the tree. I didn't shoot, for fear of leaving a dead squirrel lodged high in the tree. I simply watched and waited. After a few minutes, he had shifted a little. I saw some motion as he scratched behind his ear with a hind leg. I knew then that he was on top of a branch. I was ready for the shot.

It was a fantastic weekend and a great start to another hunting season. I hope that you were able to get out and enjoy the outdoors over the holiday weekend.