Filed under: 2010, General Tales, Guest Contributors | Tags: Bob Chavez, First Deer, Rochester, Western NY
By Bob Chavez
AHT Guest Contributor
I never had anything against hunters or hunting, I just didn’t grow up in the environment, although living in Western New York since the age of 11 certainly presented plenty of opportunity. I remember well how empty my high school was on opening days of deer season in the fall and secretly wishing I could be part of that. It’s taken me 20 years since that day, but I proudly say I am now part of the hunting community.
I’ll save readers the political rhetoric but the bottom line for me was this: I was growing tired and weary of people around me appearing to be so helpless. While there’s nothing wrong with relying on others for help, too many people these days don’t do things for themselves when they’re perfectly capable. So a few years back, I took up gardening to provide some of my own food. And it didn’t take long for me to want to provide my own meat.
Bob Chavez waited 20 years to try hunting, and needed an extra 17 hunts before he connected on his first deer in 2009.
Props are due at this point to my wife, Amy. When we met and were dating, I was not a hunter. But when I told her of my interest, she was fully supportive and remains so to this day. She even applied loving pressure when she’d remind me that the freezer downstairs remained empty. The freezer we bought specifically for venison!
The 2009 season was coming at me with great anticipation. Blessed with gracious friends like Curt, Andy, Pat and Bubba, they taught me so much. How to scout for sign, where to put my stand, what to do before and after the shot. Curt even sold me my first shotgun, a Remington 1100 20-gauge. Armed with arms and knowledge, I was amped!
Long story short, the bow season came and went. I had a few chances but wasn’t able to connect. My best opportunity came while hunting some land outside of the parcel I’d leased from a local farmer. As darkness drew close, Curt flushed a herd my direction and I had a doe in my bow site. 10 yards away. Perfect. Until I stood up. I brushed my bow against a branch I didn’t see and that’s all it took to send that doe running.
Gun season arrived and I was growing anxious but I consoled myself by knowing the gun season was more forgiving. It didn’t help that bow season was abnormally warm and I was able to witness plenty of other wildlife. Fox. Coyote. Turkey. Fantastic stuff, and it reminded me plenty of why I loved the outdoors so much to begin with.
By now, I’d tried everything. Morning hunts. Mid-day hunts. Evening hunts. I’d seen plenty and had been out 17 times but still was empty-handed. The rut was over, too. Then, the morning of Dec. 7 dawned. It dawned before I was ready and I overslept. Guh. Frustrated, I decided to head out anyway. I didn’t get to my stand until 8 a.m. but by 8:30, I was singing a different tune.
Barely in my stand for 15 minutes, I saw it. Forty yards to the left, sauntering through some thick cover and heading to a lane in directly in front. I froze, then waited. When I thought it disappeared for good, I grunted anyway and a few seconds later, I saw it again. Walking right toward me, up the path I’d taken to get to my stand. A large tree stood in front of me, big enough to shield me. And when the deer kept walking and went behind the tree, that’s when I clicked my safety and rested the Remington on the shooting rail.
Closer. Closer. My heart is pounding and my nose itches, but I don’t dare scratch it. Closer. Closer. I can’t miss from here. No excuse. It’s no farther than 15 yards away now! I pull the trigger, shooting nearly straight down. I didn’t have a broadside so I went for the chest. Immediately after the shot, I see the deer limping off to my left, its right front leg sticking out. Stunned, obviously. But the deer’s movement gave me a broadside and I plugged it with a perfect shot right in the vitals and I stood there in near disbelief as I watched it from my stand, pile up no more than 20 yards away.
Silence. But I wanted to scream. My first deer! I stood and stared to make sure it was all real and once I gathered my senses, the first person I called was my wife. No answer, but she got an amusing voicemail where I sounded like a child who scored his first candy bar. I called Andy, then Bubba, then Curt. Andy lived nearby and came over to help me dress what turned out to be a button buck, and it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. But I dressed it and took it to a processor.
I’ve eaten venison before, but never had I eaten meat harvested by my own hands. It’s a special feeling, looking back at all the work and preparation it took to finally live that moment. Patience and persistence paid off for me and I am absolutely loving life today, knowing that I am part of the hunting community. It took me 20 years of my adult life to join and sometimes I kick myself for waiting so long because I’ve got a lot of knowledge to catch up on. But like the 17 trips into the woods before getting my first deer, it was worth the wait and I am ready for the 2010 season to begin. I just wish it were tomorrow!
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Bob Chavez, 40, is a veteran journalist living near Rochester, N.Y., who has loved the outdoors as a camper and hiker since his youth. He became a hunter, “officially,” in 2010 by harvesting his first deer, much to the delight of his wife and 9-year-old stepson. Until next season, he’s hunting for the best venison recipies available.
Filed under: 2010, General Tales, Product Reviews | Tags: boats, Brad Taylor, duck hunting, Hunting, Toller Boatworks
Skilled craftsmen have always impressed me. I’m no rookie when it comes to working with building materials and power tools, but seeing some of the work that a talented carpenter can do, reminds me of seeing a canvas filled with the aftermath of a fine artist’s brush strokes.
My hunting buddy Brad Taylor is one of these artists. Brad, a full-time school teacher, has been building duck-hunting boats for about as long as I’ve known him. And it seems like with each one he builds, his work gets even more impressive. Brad, under the name Toller Boatworks, spends his summers shaping marine-grade plywood into narrow vessels that any duck hunter would be proud to own.
Toller Boatworks No Fly Zone (NFZ) model
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch the evolution of several Toller Boatworks pieces from the first form being used to their first trip across water. I’ve even had the pleasure to take a duck or two from the confines of more than one of Brad’s creations. The time and detail that Brad puts into making everything perfect are the reasons why I’ve never heard one complaint from one of his customers. Because it’s a part-time gig, Toller Boatworks builds only a handful (no more than four, I believe) of custom boats a year.
The reason Brad and Toller Boatworks are top of mind for me in February (duck season closed almost a month ago) is because I’m hoping to get a shot at one of Brad’s boats next week at our annual Ducks Unlimited banquet.
The DH Mini is just 11' long, yet big enough to get hunter and pooch (plus a couple dekes) to a hunting spot!
This year will mark the second time that Brad has built a boat for our chapter to raffle during our event. The raffle this year, is for a DHMini and I’m hoping to win! It’s a one-man (and hopefully a dog too) duck-hunting boat that I can’t help but see visions of Sage and I sitting in.
For what it’s worth, tickets still remain for the boat. And you do not need to be present to win. If you’re not from these parts, though, you would need to arrange transfer. Tickets can be purchased from Brad directly – details available on his site. Catch up with Brad at www.TollerBoatWorks.com.
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Cat Tales
I’m looking forward to making my first trip to the Dixie Deer Classic next week. In addition to seeing what new hunting-related products will be on the shelves this summer and fall, I’ll get a chance to meet Josh and Tyler from Riverview Outfitters. I’ll be joining a small group to hunt with Riverview later this fall on an archery hunt during, what should be, the middle of the rut.
I’ll be sure to take some photos of anything noteworthy while at the Classic to add to AHT.
Filed under: 2010, Giveaway, Uncategorized | Tags: AHT, Decal, FREE Sticker
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Filed under: 2010, General Tales | Tags: Rushford-Peterson bus deer accident boone and crockett buck
High school bus trips taken by boys athletic teams have a way of leading to long-time memories for those student athletes on them. Putting 15 or so 14- to 18-year-old boys together for more than three minutes has its way of leading to shenanigans. And our trips were no different at Wellsville High School a couple decades back.
But outside of the occasional wedgey-gone-wrong by Jeremy Hyer, we rarely had anything as cool as what happened to the boys basketball team at Rushford-Peterson (Minn.) on a bus trip returning from a tournament last month.
According to the AP, the team’s bus struck a beautiful 180-class typical 10-point on the 28-mile trek home.
A member of the Rushford-Peterson boys basketball team poses with the 10-pointer whose fate was decided by the team's school bus (image borrowed from StarTribune.com)
To top it off, though, the team was able to make the remainder of the trip home with the 10-point buck riding (pardon the pun) shotgun – in the aisle of the bus! Imagine how many pictures were taken on cell phones during that trip. That trip tops a wedgey any day of the week.
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A lot of traffic has come through this blog thanks to the lively discussion of the Wiktor sheds referenced in earlier posts. I’ve purposely decided not to comment to several of the posts. I’ve tried to only post the facts as they have been presented from reputable sources (i.e. – actual published articles, etc.). The debate is great and there stands a strong chance we’ll never know the whole story behind the shed find. That said, I hope those that have come to the site to read about that topic have found other parts interesting too.
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I’m happy to report that negotiations with a fantastic storyteller are nearly complete to have our first contributing writer with an outdoors article at A Hunter’s Tales! Look for a post by the special guest to come in the next couple weeks. Depending on how the weather is in Hawaii, it should have pictures included!
Filed under: 2010, General Tales | Tags: Antlergate, Hunting, Review, Wiktor
I’m not much of a sensitive guy. Hell my wife knows that more than anybody. But this heartache that’s left in my craw this time of year is something that nearly brings me to tears – almost fills any incremental daily thoughts with the what coulda beens, what shoulda beens and the almost wases.
What is it?
It’s Post-Hunting (season) Depression – or what we refer to around our house as PHD.
My fellow hunting brotheron knows exactly what I’m talking about. It’s what’s left of the four-month chase for some of North America’s finer game animals. It’s the internal commencement ceremony for the long, grueling wait until the next chase begins.
The true opening of a hunting season is a good southern dove hunt. Kenny, Sage and I on opening day 2009.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy chasing Spring gobblers – and North Carolina is swiftly becoming a state worth chasing thunder chickens – but few things compare to Autumn’s evolution into Winter and the concurrent pursuit of whitetails with bow and arrow, and ducks alongside pooches and pals.
Tomorrow is the last day of duck and deer season. And I’m going to share this final day being a dad to my little girl. I’m OK with that, if it means not stepping the first foot into the deer woods or into the water. It’s been a down year for many of my personal metrics, but I wouldn’t trade a single day that I shared in the woods for anything.
There was the:
- Interrupted-by-work trip to Kansas with the smoke pole in mid-September
- The start of this very blog in October
- Being able to hunt 2 of 3 days in the first duck split – alongside great friends
- The annual pilgrimage north with Kenny (and his subsequent fall down the stairs in the wee hours of the morning!)
- Finally connecting on venison after the longest wait of my hunting career
One of my favorite shots from this hunting season ... Sage and I admiring the fog in the Piedmont
- Sage and my annual hunt on the Coast of Carolina with several friends
My little girl has been a key part of knocking my time in the woods down quite a bit this year, but I wouldn’t trade that for the world. That doesn’t change the fact that Feb. 1 will once again bring with it a serious element of PHD. Here’s hoping that in a dozen years or so, she too will share in her own bout with this terrible, terrible affliction!
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Cat Tales:
How was your hunting season? Let’s hear about it – feel free to leave a comment!
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I am a faithful subscriber to New York Outdoor News. Proximity to the Empire State makes it difficult to get the publication the same week it’s issued, but when my copy arrived this week, it was interesting to see the story (with quotes!) about Corey Wiktor’s suspicious shed finds. The story, which clearly was written prior to questions about the “find” coming to bear, goes to great detail highlighting Wiktor’s search for the sheds – noting he had once-before caught a glimpse of the antlers on the live deer in Cattaraugus County. The one point in the story I had not heard is Wiktor’s participation in leasing large tracts of land to essentially guide hunters. Reading that shines light on a clear potential motive for him going to such ridiculous lengths with the sheds.
Filed under: General Tales, Uncategorized | Tags: Antlergate, Corey Wiktor, Sheds
Her name has slipped my mind. All I remember some decade-plus later is the duped feeling she left behind.
My buddy Gee and I were headed to a Dave Matthews Band concert in Rochester, NY for which I bought an extra ticket that carried with it the single agenda of getting me a date for the show. And I thought I had the perfect one targeted.
She was sweet as can be, cute as a button and we talked about a number of fun topics in English class – one of which was DMB. I asked her out and she accepted. As it turned out, though, she liked DMB a helluva lot more than she liked me – even though she carried on with just the appropriate amount of flirting to score my extra ticket to the show and a free dinner.
That “got one pulled over me” feeling is sort of the same way I felt when I learned that Corey Wiktor’s shed find (referred to in an earlier post) has been deemed a hoax. Learn more by reading here.
I’ve never met Wiktor and I don’t think I’d care to. However, his doings seem to be a common theme among other knuckleheads out there. Just last month, I read a similar story about a so-called hunter in California. Read that story, written by one of my favorite bloggers Nick Pinizzotto here.
Throughout the years, I’ve tried to do my best in giving hunters the benefit of the doubt when large deer are killed. In my opinion, if you’re going to brag about a kill, a shed find, etc., you would have to be a pure Nimrod to lie about taking it. It’s stories like the one circling about Wiktor that make it harder and harder to think all deer are taken in the proper manner, even though 95% probably are ethical kills with honest stories to back them. It’s sad that it’s gotten to a position where the fellow hunter has to prove his or her kill in order to have it appreciated.
If you read my post on the big bucks in NY and how the what-was-believed-to-be Wiktor find helped drive my anticipation for returning to the woods in New York for the 2010 season, you can imagine that this does temper that excitement a bit. That’s where this story does take a different turn from the one about the DMB girl. Knocked just a bit out of my stride, I returned with excitement to that hunt!
Filed under: 2009, Day Afield, Gun Hunting | Tags: ducks, Hunting, Redhead
As my buddy John tells it, my eyes got real big!
We were hunting Pamlico Sound and were probably getting much closer to picking up our decoys than we were to the start of our hunt.
As hunters do, we started to relax from the ever-ready stance and glance of searching the sky for birds headed our direction. The fog was starting to roll into the Sound and the morning’s rain seemed to provide its last spitter upon these early risers.
Sage and I were on the bow of John’s boat – making no added effort to conceal ourselves into the covered blind area. Our hunting spot that morning was some 20 yards to our left, but a lull in activity led to a chat with the fellas. My Benelli was leaning against the frame of the blind and the only thing being shot at the moment was bull.
Sage waits on ducks at the front of John's boat. I was standing next to her when the Redhead dropped from the sky.
I yelled “Holy (somethingorother)” and threw up the Benelli as fast as my arms could. I snapped a shot off – not sure I was aiming in the right direction. The bird fell.
“That’s a beautiful redhead,” John shouted.
Sage had the bird in her mouth and was returning to the boat shortly thereafter.
Sage, retrieving the Redhead
The duck was one of two birds that will make its way on my game room wall from this trip. Also shot was the prettiest American Widgeon ever taken by your faithful blogger.
For some odd reason, I did not take a lot of photos of either bird, which is quite a bit out of my norm.
The said Redhead
Filed under: General Tales, Uncategorized | Tags: Antlergate, Bucks, Corey Wiktor sheds
If you’ve read many of my posts, you know that I’m proud of my Western NY roots. It was there that my passion for the outdoors was developed and where the majority of my time in the woods is spent – even now when I live some 500 miles away.
That said, there remains a different level of anticipation when you’re sitting 18-feet high in a tree in NY as opposed to another tree in Iowa or Kansas. It’s best explained as a mananged anticipation. That’s because the number of bruiser bucks there is much smaller than the classic whitetail belt of the Midwest. And you rarely hear about many bucks killed to reverse that feeling.
My buddy Greg passed along a couple of noteworthy posts from EmpireHunting.com this morning that will go a long way in helping that level of expectation rise when I return to the stand in New York next Fall.
The first was of the Mctarnaghan buck, which was killed in Livingston County on Nov. 6 (coincidentally, that means that I was sitting in a tree just roughly 45 minutes away when he arrowed this deer).
Matt McTarnaghan arrowed this deer on Nov. 6, 2009. Image borrowed from www.empirehunting.com
Not too far from where Mctarnaghan took this deer, and on the opposite side of my family’s land, a diehard hunter found matching sheds for a true monarch typical buck that will clear the 200″ barrier! Imagine that, the deer is still walking.
Corey Wiktor found this pair of sheds recently in Cattaraugus County, NY. Image borrowed from www.empirehunting.com
Both deer represent what can happen in New York when deer are able to reach their potential. It’s a discussion I annually have with members of my extended family. Changing a half-century long practice of killing whatever buck you see has become a greater challenge than turning the Titanic. You can bet your lucky Buck knife though that both of these pictures will be passed around our camp next fall as a reminder of what could be. To think, our property lies right between where these whoppers have stepped hoof …
Filed under: 2009, General Tales, Gun Hunting, Uncategorized | Tags: Buckeye Bucks, Muzzleloader, Ohio
Don’t get me wrong. I really do enjoy the annual pilgrimage – Griswold style – to Ohio around the holidays to visit my in-laws. They’re good people and it’s nice to catch up with our extended family. And I generally like the state of Ohio. But the last decade of December’s trips across the Ohio River carried with them the added anticipation of hitting the deer woods for the state’s muzzleloader season. And deer hunting in Ohio is always worth getting excited about.
Ohio’s Wildlife Council voted in early 2009 to change the muzzleloader season to Jan. 9-12, 2010 (which, by the way, means that the 2009 calendar year did not truly have a muzzleloader season), making it the first year in many that I will not be chasing the whitetail in the buckeye state. And I’m bummed about it. There’ll be no chance to take to the field with my brother-in-law, normally our only chance to share a few hunts together all year.
According to Dave Risley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife executive administrator of wildlife management and research, “the addition of the extra weekend of gun hunting, decline in muzzleloader season harvest and the compression of the calendar, we felt that a move into January would add a little ‘downtime’ for deer hunters and deer, and reinvigorate the season.”
Each visit to this site makes me more disappointed in Ohio's decision to move its muzzleloader dates
The state’s extra weekend of hunting has seemed to work out to help the state meet its desired hunter harvest, but I’m anxious to see if the move to January will indeed pay dividends. One of those metrics for success surely is revenue from license sales and my gut tells me that this move will not help in this area. I am among the many out-of-state hunters that have forked over the $164 (the 2009 fee) to hunt in Ohio. I will not be making the purchase this year only because my schedule doesn’t jive with the state’s regulations. To the state’s defense, I could purchase my license to hunt with my bow in tow, but the investment becomes greater when facing only three days to hunt and very little pressure forcing the deer out of their nocturnal ways (especially on the heels of the state’s shotgun season).
I can’t be alone. The January muzzleloader season might do some help in getting the state’s resident hunters into the woods a few extra days, the out-of-staters coming into the state for the holidays are less likely to return in January for a three-day season. That is purely my assumption at this point, but the post-season numbers should tell us the facts.
With a couple of out-of-state trips planned for hunting in 2010, my goal is to find a way to get back in the Ohio deer woods in some capacity. Perhaps it will be an extended weekend trip during the rut or something of that nature. Regardless, this year’s trip back for the holidays is going to miss a little something.
It’s not so much a place to escape. It’s different than that. A man cave – for the outdoorsman – is a place to wrap all the goodness that is our pastime into one place making it more of a sanctuary than it is an escape!
Faced with the opportunity to create my own man cave last year, I hit some of my favorite hunting forums and blogs for inspiration on how to resurrect what would become my own Man Cave.
There are some amazing versions of man caves out there. For example, one gentleman I connected with from Ohio created a spectacular room that includes all of his mounts, top-quality furniture and top-of-the-line electronics for him and his boys to watch football on weekends. Others have the beer fridge and a chair … with nothing else! For them, their man cave is a place to chill following a hard day’s work.
Above all things, I learned in my research that a man cave needs to serve its owner’s purpose. In short order, I realized that I wanted the Cavo de Culbert version to be:
• a place to display some of the various game mounts I’ve compiled
• a place to be able to tinker with all my guns, bows and other hunting equipment
• a safe environment to house all my gear away from kids while also protecting it from intruders
• a place for my friends and me to kick back for a cold one and share memories from afield
The first thing I did to the empty room was to paint the floor with a Rustoleum epoxy floor coating. I’ve used it to paint the garages in my current and former home and thought it would be perfect for helping keep the floor of my man cave clean and bright. It’s worked great thus far.
The gun safe was the next “must-have.” I wanted my guns to be protected and safe while at the same time having something that was aesthetically pleasing. In addition to the home security system that is activated throughout all areas of my man cave, the safe gets security checked off my needs list.
Tongue-and-groove knotty-pine boards moved to the top of the list as the backdrop for the game mounts. Everyone I spoke with seemed to agree that it was easy to install and looked good following years of being in place. Framing alongside the knotty-pine wall allowed me to easily wire the entire room with 110v electricity. Luckily, my house’s breaker box happened to be in my soon-to-be man cave, making all the wiring a snap. A coat of polyurethane went over the mounted tongue and groove to add a little life to its rough color.
It took at least two nights worth of cold beer and deep thinking to decide exactly what to do with the work bench. I opted for the “bigger is better” approach and ended up making a 16-foot bench with shelves underneath for storage and peg board above for hanging tools, etc. I had initially opted to build a clothing closet until I was walking through Lowe’s and decided to purchase instead. Made out of particle board, it ended up being half the price it would have cost me to build from scratch. I keep cedar shavings in the closet to keep my hunting clothes from smelling like particle board.
Finally, I added corner shelving to the corner of my cave that filled up far quicker than I anticipated (Read: Too much stuff)! The shelves hold treestands, layout blinds, decoys and the like.
I spent the better part of three weeks working evenings on the man cave. The return has come quickly as in its first year I’ve spent far more hours in the cave than it took to build it.
NOTE: The one thing my man cave is missing is a good name. One buddy refers to it as the “He man Woman Haters Club.” I think that’s a bit harsh. Any thoughts? Leave them in the comments below. Oh, and tell me what you think of my personal version of a man cave.
