Places to Go: Pettigrew State Park

Unlike my last post about Lake James, Pettigrew State Park is a little hidden.  Not that both aren't a decent drive get to, but Pettigrew is very much a "Oh wow look there's a state park here" kind of place.  However, it is a very nice place to visit.  Here's a few reasons why:

- Plenty of hiking is around Lake Phelps at Pettigrew SP, the second largest natural lake in NC.  The lake is not fed by any creek or river, only by rainfall.  The exact reason as to why the lake originally appeared in the first place is a mystery.  There's a swimming area, a boat dock/ramp, and plenty of fishing.  The swimming area is in about 4-6 feet of water, the lake is fairly flat, with an average depth of 4.5 feet and the deepest part being 9 feet.

- There's also a lot of hiking to be had out at Pettigrew.  Several miles of trails lead you to overlook around the shoreline of Lake Phelps.  Animals that can be seen around Lake Phelps in Pettigrew SP are deer, bear, tundra swan, bobcat, muskrat, and more!  

- Camping and picnic spots are available as well!  Camp at night and go fishing in the morning!

Dock near the boat ramp

Swimming area in Lake Phelps

Be sure to spend some time out at Pettigrew State Park when you're on the Albemarle Peninsula of NC!

Also big thanks for the Pettigrew SP Fact Sheet for providing some of the insight in this post!

Places to Go: Lake James State Park

Wherever you are, do your best to take time to see what kind of outdoor beauty is around you.  It can be as simple as a bee on a flower, bird on a feeder, or a hike in your local park.  There's plenty of places to visit that can be hidden from plain sight, you just have to look for them.

However, this is not one of those "hidden" places.  This is an NC state park!  I hadn't been to this park before, and I had the opportunity to visit Lake James State Park for a short time while in the mountains.  I'm thankful for it, as I have a good feel for where I'd like to spend more time in the park when I go back to visit for a more extended time.  

-The park already has miles of hiking trails off the two main accesses of the park.  If you like mountain biking, they've got you covered too!  Two shorter loops and two longer ones so you have choices depending on your time and ability.  There's also planning of rental cabins, RV and group camping, more trails, and when I visited, looked like a state-of-the-art new visitors center under way as well.

-Plenty of camping at the park as well, however, some of those sites are access by boat only, which can be kinda cool, gives you a sense of seclusion with no roads being right behind your tent.  

-Speaking of boats, make sure to bring your boat, kayak, or canoe.  Oh and fishing gear.  Oh and swimsuit...in the summer anyway.  Not right now, it was 32 degrees and windy...like 20-30mph gust windy.  So yeah.  BUT, once it's warm, bring that boat down!  There's plenty of fishing to be had here, with many of the popular game species existing in the lake.

If that doesn't help you decide whether you should visit the park, then well maybe I can convince you by showing you some pictures.  As soon as you drive in, you see an overlook to the Linville Gorge.

Then you get to the lake and get these views:

How's that for you?  It's quite the scenery.  It's stuff like this that make you want to go back and visit again.  To see what else the park has to offer.  To hike the trails, fish the water, camp the woods.  If you're up in the NC mountains, give Lake James a try.  

Speed Scouting for Deer Season

 Fall is here everyone!  It's gotten a little chilly down here in central NC, especially after Sally came through and brought so much rain.  Either way, for those of you who see my social media posts, you know I've had quite the last few months!  Graduating college, starting a new full time job, and welcoming a new daughter!  

That doesn't leave a lot of time to scout for the upcoming deer season to pinpoint new spots.  If you're pretty familiar with the property, then great, head start!  You may not need to find out where deer hang out on the property, as you may have that down.  But, there may be new bucks in the area or some new patterns individuals may have.  So, keep your cameras going!

If you're unfamiliar with the area you're hunting, like trying out public land, then you need to get started quick!  Hunting apps like HuntStand or OnXMaps are really useful here to get a grip on an aerial view to identify possible pinch points and routes to and from food/bedding.  On the ground, if you find an oak ridge, or a flat spot between two slopes where there's an oak stand, great!  Or, maybe is a lower area between to slopes where deer may travel from bedding to food.  Look for natural barriers that may attract deer movement.  

If you're hunting a smaller property, like so many suburban hunters, deer are likely in the thick stuff.  Deer love the thicker sanctuaries because quite frankly, they don't have many other places to go.  And that's also where people are less common.  Bottom areas where there is a creek with woods and some thicker undergrowth is a good place to start when trying to find deer, as often those sites aren't buildable and therefore are left alone. Where law allows, you can possibly attract deer and hold them on a smaller property with some corn feeding or even a mineral site.  Quite possibly a small food plot can be planted and if well managed, you're in the gold.  But that's more of a long term thing, we're talking speed scouting!

Again, you're speed scouting, trying to narrow down quickly where deer are and aren't.  Not only scan for landmarks and land/food qualities, but be on the lookout for any rubs, scrapes, or beds in the area.  It's amazing how often you will stumble onto stuff like that.  When you see something of note, mark down that spot!  If you do so, patterns may start to emerge on the map that you may not have noticed otherwise.

My 2019 Experience

Better late than never, given that this is a reflection of 2019 coming in April 2020.  Since I've got some time, I thought I'd write about some thoughts I had during the close of last deer season.  As many of you can tell, I didn't write much during 2019.  During 2019, I was going to school full time, working 2 part time part time jobs, got engaged to start the year, married in August 2019, and have a baby on the way due May!
Needless to say, I didn't have much time to be an outdoorsy person.  That's not to say I wasn't outdoors.  I still went fishing, hunting, hiking, just not as much.  I went with some close friends to Hanging Rock State Park and had a blast, hiking and dipping into waterfalls to cool off.  I took a day trip with my family to a park up in Virginia where it rained cats and dogs on us halfway through a 3 mile trail.  My honeymoon in Ashe County, NC, and my wife and I hiked and fished at sites like Mount Jefferson State Park and New River State Park.
During the fall months, if I wasn't working, I was at school.  Sometimes, I was working at school as a tutor for my community college.  My first hunt didn't come till October during fall break.  I got my first deer of the year on November 17th, my youngest brothers 7th birthday.  Ironically, I think every deer I've ever shot, save maybe one, has come during or after mid November.  That story can be read here.
I had one evening where I had 5 or so deer in front of me three different times while I was hunting on the ground, sitting by a tree.  They got to within 20 feet of me several times.  Sadly most weren't big enough to shoot, and those that were, came when there were too many eyes close by for me to comfortably move.  Sitting so still never took so much effort.
My last hunt of the year was on the closing day of the season.  I had some luck, saw a few deer to start, then nothing.  After some still hunting, I came upon some does near the corner of a field, and one caught my eye.  A nice doe, perfect.  I stood up to shoot, the problem facing me, was that I was having to be offhand, nothing to rest on.  As I put the crosshairs on the deer, a good 75 yards from me, I paused.
And I thought of everything surrounding that moment.  I thought of the adventures I had that year.  Exploring parks with friends and family, having my siblings come over and help me with retrieving a deer from the woods.  Starting a new life with my wife and being on our own, yet still being close to family.  The experiences I had with my few hunting trips during the year, the crazy things that happened.  Sitting beside the fireplace on winter evenings and feeling content.  It's amazing what can happen in split seconds, all the emotions you can feel, even when looking down a scope at your target.
I was been blessed beyond belief that year.  God was good to me.  A man once said there is "a time to kill, and a time to heal."  This deer would live.  Sure, I had an offhand shot that  wasn't easy, and I could make it, but that wasn't the point.  Sometimes, it just doesn't feel right.  Sometimes, the right thing to do, is just to enjoy the moment and reflect.  Not every shot has to be fired. 

Lucky 7's

Well, spoiler alert, one isn't so lucky.  However, I couldn't help but realize the crazy coincidence of this story.  I had been watching a buck on this one property, whom I considered naming Lucky 7, but hadn't decided on it yet.  He was a nice 7 point, very active in the area I was looking to hunt.

I decided to see if I could pattern this buck.  He wasn't the biggest one on the property, there were two massive 8 points on the property too.  But this guy showed up the most so I thought I could give this one a shot.  I hunted in October during my college fall break in what seemed to be a secluded buck haunt, no luck.  That and the fact that with no treestand this time, the tree root I sat on gave me a lot of discomfort so I wasn't out as long as I'd like to have been.  I would hunt soon after, no luck, I saw three does but they decided to turn around before they would get in bow range.
November 17th was my little brother's 7th birthday.  After a lunch celebration, I decided with some prodding from my wife, to hunt some that evening, even though I'd be getting out later than I'd prefer.  I set up near a field, but didn't see anything after a while, so I decided to still hunt some.  I had gone about 60 yards, and stopped near a tree.  Light was starting to fade when I hear the familiar crunching sounds of a deer walking.  It was to my right, and the way I was facing I knew I'd have to shift my whole body in order to possibly get a shot.  Not only that, but there was an old fence that was between myself and the deer, so I'd have to stand up as well to make sure the bullet cleared the fence.  So I've got some things to work out here.  I notice the antlers now, it's the seven point.  Keep in mind, I had thought of naming him, never officially did.  I waited till he was behind a big tree to shift myself to face him.  He stopped and looked, hearing the leaves rustle from my movements.  Now came my biggest challenge, having to quickly stand up, look through the scope, aim, fire, before he realizes what's happening.  And deer are usually pretty quick at realizing danger.  He clears the tree, he's now full broadside some 20 yards from me, I jump up and aim, place my crosshairs on his shoulder, and fire.  It all happened so fast, but surprisingly, so slow.  He took off running, crashing just out of sight.
I decided to track him down with the help of my siblings, birthday boy included.  They enjoyed it very much.  It was an easy tracking job, the hard part was getting him out of the woods.  But they helped me with that even.  Be it helping drag the deer or lighting the way for us to walk with flashlights.

My siblings who came out and helped

Birthday boy!

A seven point, on my brother's seventh birthday, on November seven-teenth, how's that for ya?  Yeah  I get it's not a perfect 777, but it's close enough!  He ran out of luck before I could even name him Lucky 7.  But, maybe that is a fitting name.  He may have run out of luck, but I think I had some on my side that day.

Montana, Part 2

Up from Yellowstone and Wade Lake we went, to the wilderness of Glacier National Park.  Unlike Yellowstone, which has a great system for handling high traffic, Glacier is packed in the places you can park, not to mention there's only one main road in the park.  That is, one road that stretches all the way across it, there are other roads that cut into the park but they do not connect.  And for good reason:

                           

Good luck getting a few connecting roads through that...but beautiful scenery.  Don't let the parking scare you away, if I had to choose, I would go back to Glacier over Yellowstone in a heart beat, believe it or not.

The park has, if I recall, 700 miles of trails in it.  Fishing the the mountain creeks and lakes, glacier overlooks, and enough hiking to last you till your feet came off!  The first day in Glacier, we went to Avalanche Lake, supposedly a two mile hike.  What felt like 10 miles later, we made it to the lake.

The lake is mostly inhabited by cutthroat trout.  It's shallow for the first couple feet and then drops to 40 feet (as I was told), very quickly.  The water is so clear and blue, surrounded by mountains, it was fantastic.  However, me and my floating line were presented a problem.  How to I get my flies to sink?  Turns out one trout made sure I didn't have to worry, as he kept coming up for bugs on the surface.  I made a perfect cast to where he had been feeding and put a beetle right in front of him.  Side note, if you've seen The Lego Movie where Batman tries to hit the button with his batarangs, and tries about a 100 times, that was me attempting the perfect cast.  Not gonna lie.  Might have taken me 10 attempts, not sure.  Anyway, he took the beetle, and I was able to bring him in, a trout from a high mountain lake in Glacier National Park:

That's a Captain America shirt, not Cowboys

If you want to fish surrounded by great scenery, Glacier, in my experience, second to no one.  Behind me are cold mountains with snow on them...in August.  In front of me, behind the camera, is a cliff face with waterfalls that are feeding into the lake.  It's such a majestic place.

We spent a couple more days in and around Glacier and Whitefish, but sadly, we had to leave.  There was so much more to explore, I merely got a taste of what's there, and I want to go back.  There's a small lodge on top of a ridge that makes a for a good place to take a break on a 7 mile hike, only to walk the last 4 miles almost all downhill for a total of an 11 mile hike. That was a rough last 4 miles.  But there was so much to see and explore, pull off trails leading to Glacier overlooks, Two Medicine Lakes, Many Glacier, so much to see, so little time.  It was sad moment for me as we lifted off from Bozeman airport.

Until next time Montana.

On the banks of the Missouri River

Montana: Part 1

It's nearing dusk as the wind starts to whip the surface of the water.  I had to move to a protected area to have a hope of casting any distance, or at least have the wind help my cast versus push against it.  My little ultralight pole with a 6 pound mono wasn't quite the gear you'd imagine for this fishing, but it'd have to do.  My weedless spoon out in the water, all I could do is wait for a bite.  And I got one.

Around early to mid June of 2018, my parents and I planned a special trip for me for a location of my choice.  My choice of location: Montana.  Montana has been on my bucket list for a while, mostly for an elk hunt I want to do in the future.  But Montana also has some great scenery and fishing, so that also added to why I wished to come up.  I bought my license, got my gear ready and packed, and a day after my summer college semester ended, we headed out.

We stayed at a house overlooking Wade Lake in south-western Montana near the (apparently world famous, I would find out) Madison River.  I didn't know at the time, but it's famed for it's trout and for it's "50 Mile Riffle".  A river or stream is normally broken up into natural riffles, runs, and pools caused by the flow of the water.  Riffle is fast, shallow water.  Run is a steady flow of deeper water.  And a pool is slow moving water deeper than the run.  However, the Madison has a riffle that is nearly 50 miles long.  Unless I am wrong, a riffle that long is almost unheard of.  No matter, it was fun to fish.  I didn't have any luck there on the chances I had, but that's ok, I have a feeling I'll be back someday.  I did see a really nice trout, but that's not quite the same as catching it!

The Madison River, this is part of the 50 Mile Riffle

Wade Lake was an interesting one.  I fished it with my spinning rod versus my fly rod.  I did manage to catch a nice rainbow there, but during the day a lot of the shoreline was crowded, as it is a good kayaking/paddling lake, and has a campsite.  Which does make it a good weekend vacation spot I'd say.

Wade Lake Rainbow

While down in southern Montana, we visited Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.  The views in Grand Teton were amazing, and I would definitely go back there.  Yellowstone, was also a great destination, though I think it felt different compared to the other national parks I've been to since the traffic and commercialization of the park have affected it in some ways.  A great place to visit, yes, but if you ask me, I'm probably going to Grand Teton and Glacier National Park(s) before Yellowstone again.  But, you won't be disappointed with any of them.

View of Grand Teton is the far left peak

Next up, Glacier National Park!

Drury Outdoors Video Highlight

How's hunting going for everyone?  NC Central rifle season starts tomorrow!  Even so, I'm still tempted to try with my bow.  Maybe I will.  We shall see.

Anyway, this is the highlight I have for today.  The video is from Drury Outdoors Heartbreaker series. 

It truly is a hunting heartbreak.  To chase a deer so long and to hope for a even better deer the following season only to have the deer die of disease would really disappoint.  But, this is hunting.  Not all stories end in success, and this is a great example of a great story that still had "a silver lining".

Deer Society "Mr.Maybe" Video Highlight

As I sit here on a Friday evening listening to the rain pour down on the North Carolina countryside, and thinking about the buck I saw in the front yard this morning, I got an itch to watch some hunting videos.  Yeah yeah "you might be a hunter if (fill in the blank)".  That may be a good idea to try sometime, let me know in the comments if you have a "You might be a hunter if..."!  But seriously, if you can't hunt during deer season, do the next best thing: watch footba, I mean, hunting videos.  So, here's a thought.  I'm going to be posting some video's of hunts/stories with the tactics they use to get the deer, and provide my thoughts.  With my own story of Prince last year, I may do a little video of my own if that appeals to anyone!  I don't have any hunt footage, but I can share pictures and narrate my story!

Normally the video's will be fairly short, though this one is a little more than 10 minutes, but worth the watch to me.  So here's my video highlight pick, a video by Deer Society of a buck called Mr.Maybe :

The tactic of using buck scent, in addition to the water source, is a fantastic setup.  Given the conditions of drought, in combination with the fact he was a dominate buck, just shows how a little ingenuity can tip the odds in your favor.  Being the dominate buck, he would need a challenger to face him for him to even be interested.  But he knew all the bucks in the area.  So by using unfamiliar scent in his core area, it nagged and annoyed the buck.  Which was the bucks undoing, and the arrow that shot him literally had his name on it.

Hope you like this new spin on things.  I plan on bringing out a couple more video's in the future, in addition to telling you about my trip to Montana back in the summer!  Keep hunting!

Fishing Shallow Rivers

Recently I've started fishing the local Haw River at different spots and the adjoining creeks, such as the Great Alamance Creek.  And when I went looking for tips on shallow water fishing, and even specifically the Haw, I came up with little.  So I've been exploring and fishing and experimenting different spots along the river, trying to learn about this local resource. While fishing in rivers is still new to me and I have plenty of room to perfect my performance, here are some of the things I have noticed that may come in handy for those who fish the Haw.  And it's likely that some of the things here apply to other small/shallow water bodies as well.

Fish the pools, not the main current
While trout may enjoy the main current of a stream or river, many fish simply do not.  Target calmer areas of the water made by rocks or sandbars.  Those calm pools and eddy's will generally house more fish.  This is especially true when the faster moving water, as is the case with the Haw, is particularly shallow and does not allow bigger fish to swim in those areas.

Try smaller lures
When fishing the shallower water, a surface lure can do the trick.  I like to use a Heddon Teeny Torpedo and I catch decent brim.  The smaller fish are especially fun on light tackle.
Another lure I like to use is a minnow with a spinner blade, such as Mepps Comet.  This will especially attract the smaller fish, such as brim or pumpkinseed.
One thing I would tell you?  Give fly fishing a try on smaller rivers, it's a blast.

Different spots for different fish
May sound a little obvious but hear me out.  Depending on what you want to catch, how much you want to catch, or in some cases WHO you bring with you (such as little ones) you need to try different spots to suit your desires or audience.  Smaller pools generally house the brim, which are fun for fishing newcomers and kids especially.  Those fish are fun, don't discount them.  AND, it provides an experience different than a cliche lake or pond to take new fisherman to (not saying in any way lakes or ponds is bad, they're a blast, it's just different than the norm).
If there are islands in the river, try the downstream side where there is generally a much bigger area of calm water.  That is where you will find fish such as bass or catfish.
If there is a slower moving creek (or if the river splits) with features such as big rocks or logs, try in those areas because bass be in the slower moving water and cover.

Caught this Pumpkinseed on a minnow jig

Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14

Last year I decided to buy a new game camera because the ones I have are wearing out.  After shopping around a little at Dicks, and with the help of a sales associate, I decided to buy the WGI Mirage 14.  In brief, I am very pleased with this camera.

Excuse my cell phone being reflected by camera

User Interface

The camera is very simple to operate, you use up, down, and enter keys to make selections.  And you see what you select on the screen.  Normally at the top of the screen the camera will show many pictures have been taken and the time, but with no SD card inserted when the above image was taken, nothing was shown.
You can set it to take pictures day and night, or just day or night.  You can select the quality of the pictures, the higher quality, the fewer pictures that can be stored on the SD card.  The tradeoff is better quality pictures allow you to pick out details of individual animals and just better viewing quality.  However, if you were just planning on leaving your camera out for weeks at a time without checking it, say in the spring and summer at a food plot, then for just scouting and deer census, lower quality/more volume of pictures might be more useful.
On top of that, you can adjust camera light exposure, how sensitive the motion sensor is, and how often it takes a pic, even set it for (soundless) video.  The customization of the camera is one of the big selling points for me.

Performance

The performance is very good in my opinion.  It is a 14 MP camera with less than a 1/2 second trigger speed with an illumination range of 75 feet, and an invisible flash (specs from WGI website).  I've already shown some pictures taken by this camera on the blog, but here's a few more just to show.

The video is bright (and sped up!), yes.  I don't know whether it's the camera's fault or my own.  Facing the camera angling down toward the ground might have caused the light to reflect back towards the camera, making it really bright.  I'll have to experiment more to find out.  However, having the capability of video is always a nice feature.

 

This owl seemed to like this perch

And this fox likes the mineral block

So, theres a little taste of the camera.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new game camera.  Right now it's about $70, but you might be able to find it cheaper.  Until next time!

Happy Birthday SCO!

Snow Camp Outdoors has been up and running for 6 years!  It's crazy to see how far things have come since I first started writing.  Back then, I wrote about anything from hunting techniques and equipment to survival, a lot of which I honestly never used myself!  Deer drives, Dakota firehole, minnow traps, and so on.  Ok, I did try the Dakota firehole, once.  Now I try to stick more to stories or some tips and strategies...that I actually use.  When I first started writing in 2011, I had yet to shoot a deer.  I had gone squirrel hunting before, but I would not shoot a deer until 2014.  I found out writing this that I don't think I posted a pic of the deer, or even a story about it, so, here's the pic:

If you want to hear the story of my first deer, let me know in comments!  Afterwards, I got deer each year, but I wouldn't shoot a big buck till 2016.  If you want to see that story, go here.

This year, I tagged another big buck, named Prince.  So far that's been a highlight of mine for the year, other things include fly fishing fairly often in the spring and summer, and having my blog post, "A Six Year Wait" put on the RMEF web page.  You can see that here, along with a lot of other cool stories! 

Here's to another great year!

A Prince of the Forest, Part 3

Where had he gone?  How could he?  Did I just miss somehow and get a flesh wound?  Nothing made sense.  A few hours before, I was so happy to get Prince.  Now, after two hours of searching and nothing much to show for it, the guys; Justin, Caleb, and I headed home.  I would return in the morning and look some.

I planned to get up fairly early Thursday because I had somewhere to be later in the morning, so getting an early start was imperative.  I had planned to wake up a bit before 7, but restlessness woke me an hour before my alarm, I couldn't go back to sleep.  It was just impossible.

I went out that morning, expecting to find him in a particular area where we had heard crashing the night before.  Unfortunately, though I found blood, I didn't find him.  The trail stopped, and I didn't know where to search.  After an hour and a half, I headed out of the woods.  That afternoon, the guys dad, Mark, came out to help me look some more, still nothing.  There was one last area to look at before I called it quits, the woods across the field from where I shot him.  However, it was going to be Saturday afternoon before I got the chance.  Who knows what could have happened to him by then?  Can I even find him?  The answer from the search that afternoon was no.  I couldn't find him.

Now is when questions and replays of the encounter start going through your mind.  Was my shooting technique bad?  Was I not holding steady on the shoulder?  I told myself: "I know I got buck fever, but I've dropped deer before, I'm not a bad shot."  Did coyotes get him?  And this sounds weird, but is he still alive?  Who knows if he's still alive? The camera will have to tell me. 

Heavy hearted, I grabbed the SD card from my funnel camera and headed back home.  As I pulled out of my grandparents driveway and pulled into mine (we live next door), my grandpa's tractor came out from behind me and headed towards my cousins cow pasture.  Hmm, he doesn't head that way often, whatever.  I got home and started checking photos.  Nothing.  Is this really how it was going to end?  A huge deer just, wasted?  Sure, the meats bad by now, but having some token that said "you shot this deer" would be nice.  But he had just vanished.

Then mom gets a phone call, it's from Grandpa.  He had gone to help with something in the cow pasture, and my cousins son, who was with him, had spotted him while in the tractor.  This deer had ran well over 300 yards from where I shot him. 

Finally, the search was over.  I could see him up close, look at his size, hold his antlers.  All the questions, while still largely unanswered, didn't matter anymore.  All I wanted to do was savor the moment.  We got his antlers off, thanks to my cousin.  Could I have mounted him?  Yes, but my last buck mount was my Christmas present last year.  Kinda wanted something different this year, not to mention limited wall space, haha!  But, I think an antler mount might be in order. 

This buck give me a lot of twists and turns, highs and lows, but in the end, it was worth it.

A Prince of the Forest, Part 2

Recently, I've had a father and his two sons start hunting on the property along with me, they had heard about Prince and they agreed not to shoot him because I had been watching him. 

The evening of November 15th was calm.  Very little wind, maybe a slight breeze.  The two sons had come out that night to hunt and after coming up with a game plan for hunting spots and exit times, we started out towards our spots.  I went to a blind at the edge of a field, they went to a stand around 150 yards from my spot (give or take distance).

In my blind, I prayed we would have a successful hunt, that the guys could get a deer, and that I could get Prince, well any good deer really, but especially him.  After a while, about the time the deer start moving around this area, I hear movement.  At first I thought it was a squirrel, given how rapid the footsteps seemed to crunch the fall leaves.  But, it sounded, bigger.  I looked to my right, and I see a deer walking just inside the woods bordering the field.  Ugh, it's just a doe.  She walks parallel to the field through the woods and into the clearcut and disappears.  Guess I just have to sit and wait some more.

At this point, I was hoping to have seen more deer enter the field, but it was 5:20 pm and light was about to start fading fast.  I sent a text to the guys and said I would get out of my blind at 5:30 if nothing showed up in the field.  Put down my phone, and hear crunch, crunch, crunch.  It's coming from behind me now, the one place I can't see while in my blind.  I knew it was a deer, no mistaking that.  It had come down a path behind my blind that deer have come down in the past, an old logging road through the clearcut leading to the top of a hill.  I leaned over to see through the window on my left.  I saw a big deer, with antlers shooting skyward.  It was Prince.  A stroke of luck to see a buck come out so early when all I had were night pictures and the fact that there were no does in the field to "attract him".  My guess is he was hungry.  Quickly, I put on my ear muffs and cocked the hammer on my Winchester and aimed.  He was now about 45 yards away, and walking down the edge of the field.  The gun was pulled up, I made a "MEH" sound, at he stopped broadside.  Perfect.  Crosshairs landed on his shoulder, the hammer came down, BAM!  He hunched his shoulders and ran up into the woods.  Thank you Lord, I got him!

The easy part was over.  The guys came and helped me blood trail, but we only found little splotches of blood on the ground.  Sometimes we'd lose the trail, but we'd pick it back up again.  In the end, after two hours of searching, we couldn't find him.  Where was this buck?  How could he run this far?  Didn't I get him with a heart shot?  Just, how?!? 

A Prince of the Forest, Part 1

There are bucks that have pep and are fun to watch, but are too small to shoot.  There are good bucks that you see, but not shoot.  There are bucks that love a certain area, a certain time of day, have unique antlers, all sorts of things can set a buck apart.  This buck, he liked a certain time of day and had unique antlers.  A nice bodied 8 point with a curved main beam, long G2s and 3s, and loved the night.  His name is Prince, named after Bambi's father, the Great Prince of the Forest.  I thought it fit, whether or not it was an original name.  Here are some pics of him:

Sorry for the blurry pic!

Pic from my new Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14

I had a problem.  As you can see, all these pics were taken at night, and not just that, but well before (or after) shooting light.  The earliest he ever came out is 6:50 pm, just 20 minutes after I had left my stand that evening.  The latest in the morning?  5:55 am, too early to shoot.  He wasn't coming out when and where I want him to.  So I had to figure out where he was in the daytime, which can be a challenge if you don't exactly know where to start.  So, I set another camera out in the woods to hopefully catch him in the day time, meanwhile, my other camera kept getting pics of him at night.  

With the whitetail rut coming up I knew and heard the best time to get him would be the next three weeks or so (about mid to late November).  I knew a doe group was in the area, not to mention all the other does that liked to hang out by themselves, so I would have plenty of chances to see rut action.  All I could do at this point was be where does were and patiently wait for him to show.  

SCO Update with Pictures!

It's November y'all!  Time for the whitetail rut to start, not to mention all the other small game seasons kicking in!  I thought I'd give you guys an update on what I've been up to recently.

My deer hunting is business as usual.  I haven't gotten anything yet, but believe me I will post when I do!  The last 3 times I've been out in the stand, I've seen 13 deer and haven't gotten a shot.  I take that back, I could have shot.  However the deer was much to small, must have been a yearling at most.

Secondly, I bought a Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14 game camera.  14 MP, shoots video, adjustable light exposure and picture/video quality, stylish little camera.  I have it out in the woods at the moment so I'll try to do a product review once I see what the camera can do.

And, here are a couple pictures!

This group regularly visits the area

And a squirrel for you

Until next time!

Predator

No, this is not a movie review of Predator starring Arnold Schwhatshisname.   This is a short story about a recent hunt of mine that ended, well, unexpectedly.

I was in the stand about 4:30ish.  Maybe some people will get on to me and be like "be in the stand earlier!" Don't care.  I've got it down to where I know deer appear around 6 in the early season and 5:15 in the late season.  So I'm there a while before the deer are.  After about an hour and a half, right at 6, I look right and there is a 6 point buck, he just kind of appeared, I never heard him walk up, but ok then.  Not big enough to shoot (maybe half the size of the 8 point I got last year) , I decided to let him pass, a doe came out.  I stood up slowly when the deer weren't looking, but I never got a shot on the doe.  They simply walked off into the woods at my 2 o'clock.  Still standing after about 5 or so minutes, I look to my left into the woods at my 9 o'clock.  I see 4 legs walking through the brush, but I notice it's not a deer...this is a coyote.  Now I beg for him to turn right, towards my stand, so that I could have a shot.  Sure enough, he does.  I wait till his head goes behind a tree to draw, and hold on my anchor point and aim.  The coyote, after coming from behind the tree, is still hidden by briars grown up next to the tree.  I hold the bow back for another 10 or 15 seconds (forgive me for inaccurate time, it seemed like I held the bow forever when it was probably just a few moments), and finally I get a shot.  20 yards, WHAP!  The sound of an arrow hitting its mark.  The coyote did not make it a few feet before it fell, the Muzzy Mx-4 having done it's work.  After giving it a few minutes to expire, I got down from the stand to see my first coyote kill.

Sorry for the blurry selfie

Now to attempt at a deer!  Keep hunting and stay safe! 

Summer Pictures

Been a while since I've done one of these!  I honestly haven't had my camera out very much this year, so I don't have a ton of pictures, but heres a few I have gotten recently:

Most of the coyotes in my area have been trapped by neighbors, but looks like at least one got away...

I saw these bucks hanging out with each other, or another deer, a lot.  During the summer, it is interesting to note that while bucks are normally solitary animals (with the exception of the rut), during the summer they will group up together in "bachelor groups".  Sometimes these groups will contain up to 4 or 5 animals (possibly more!)

Ooh, nice little 8 point

And I believe this is him again

I know it's a very short post, but I hope you enjoy the pictures!

NC State Parks: Hanging Rock

A few weeks ago (I am very behind!) I was able to go to Hanging Rock State Park in NC.  I would highly recommend this park, and here is why:
1.Great hiking trails.  Trails surround the park lake, go to an observation point, and of course lead to the hanging rock, the main attraction.
2.Fishing.  While I didn't catch anything, sadly, I still had fun in the parks lake.  I tried fly fishing and regular spinning rod.  Fly fishing wasn't easy because you could only do it in select spots and the fish weren't biting flies or regular lures (timing may have played a part, it was mid afternoon). Oh well.  And, there is also more fishing in the Dan River, which borders the park.  Which brings me to my next attraction.
3. Boating.  More specifically, kayaking or canoeing.  You can rent a boat for the lake, but you are free to bring your own boats for the Dan River section of the park.
4. Swimming.  In the summer, swimming is open in the park lake.

5. Opportunity for pictures.  Great scenery, especially from the top of the mountain or observation tower (even the visitor center!), provide great places to take pictures.

You gotta try it sometime.

Spring Season

Since the last post, I haven't been up to too much, yet that doesn't mean I've done nothing!

Back in April, I went to Cabela's and shopped around for some fly fishing gear.  I had to be careful looking around because, given enough time, I would buy the store!

After I got the fly fishing lures at Cabela's, which were poppers, the family and I decided a week later that it would be a great day to kayak.  I took my fly rod, of course.  And I brought an ultralight, which I let my siblings use.  I started using a small frog popper and had a lot of luck, if you consider bites and not set hooks luck.  The panfish were just too small to get their mouths around the hook.  I was ready to try a smaller popper when I realized, I had left my tackle bag on shore with my siblings.  So, I continued fishing.  Eventually, I got lucky and a small bass bit the lure and didn't let go.  Yay!

Also in April, the mount of the 8 point I shot back in November was finished!  I got him back and he is now on my wall.  Shout out to Jeff Poston of Living Image Taxidermy for doing a great job!  I would definitely recommend him!

The picture does not do it justice!

That's all for now!