Category Archives: Hunting Stories From the Past

November 1, 2009

The Chase for Perfection

By Author

I remember it well. I was in 10th grade and we were on the road against Allegany. Although I’ve hit literally thousands of baseballs since, I don’t recall seeing a delivery any better than this one from this tall, linky hurler. I remember the feeling of ease as my 31″ Easton bat sliced through the pitch.

I’ll also never forget the jabs I took after hitting that ball deep over the centerfielder’s head and into the tennis courts beyond the outfield. Sadly, there were no fences on this field and my decision to watch the ball travel a distance my 5’6″ frame wasn’t used to seeing, led to getting thrown out trying to complete the inside-the-park homer. I knew it right away though. It was, the perfect hit.

I’m still in search of that perfect shot with my bow and arrow. I came close once – in 1999 when I was able to connect on a heavy-horned nine point. Everything about that shot felt great, but it wasn’t perfect. What needed to change? I’m not sure, but much like that swing on the baseball I think I’ll know it immediately when it happens. Perhaps it was the fact that I needed to close the deal from the seated position or the failed attempt to see where the arrow hit the deer.

In 17 years of bowhunting, though, it was the only shot that has toed the edge and flirted with perfection.

This year could be the year. The thousands of arrows (ironically, also with Easton on their barrels) launched in my backyard and basement over the course of the last five months have set it up well. The new Mathews Monster is sending arrows at faster speeds than I’ve ever had in my arsenal. Yes, this truly could be the year.

1 Comment   |  tags: , | posted in 2009, General Tales, Hunting Stories From the Past, Uncategorized

October 31, 2009

Evolution of a late adapter

By Author

To understand my father’s hesitant introduction to technology, imagine no further than that maddened feeling that haunts so many Americans each April 14 as they’re dropping an envelope in the mail with “Internal Revenue Service” written in Sharpie on the front.

Ultimately, those folks know they have to bite the bullet. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to do it minus a little kicking and screaming.

I imagine most baby boomers feel the same about all of the technology that inflicts change on things they’ve been doing all their lives. My father has a computer and even has it connected to the World Wide Web. He’s been known to grudgingly flip a few e-mails to my brothers and I scattered around the South. But technology might have finally found a fan in my father.

We now have digital trail cameras dispersed all around our property, each doing their part to set the landscape for what animals are roaming our ground. Over the course of the past six years (starting with 35mm film and graduating to digital), we have had almost as much fun getting amazing shots of deer, bear, coyote, turkeys and fox as we have actually hunting.

Coyote

A Coyote makes its way past a trail cam near my house

Someone asked me recently what the greatest piece of gear invented for hunting was. Without thinking too long, I answered the trail camera – especially since the technology has become affordable to the weekend warrior hunters (like I consider myself).

I’d love to tell you that my father has evolved into a Geek Squad-worthy adopter of technology. We’re not quite there yet! He recently let me know that he didn’t like messing with having to take all the photos off the SD cards, so he thinks it’s easier to just buy a new SD card and replace them!

Baby steps, after all. Baby steps.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? What has been the greatest gear invention for common hunters to date? Add your thoughts to the comments.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in 2009, Hunting Stories From the Past, Product Reviews, Uncategorized

October 29, 2009

I said lurker … not looker

By Author

I’m a lurker. In the world of Web forums, that means I spend a lot more time reading than I do posting messages. It’s not that I’m completely quiet, but I’d bet that better than 85% of my time on different hunting forums is just reading what others are talking about.

It never fails that once a month you stumble upon posts from fellow outdoorsmen who want to bash celebrity hunters. The logic behind them typically either cracks me up or infuriates me enough to wonder what kind of people are sitting on the other end of computers. I read a post recently wondering if other hunters were getting sick of Michael Waddell. The preposterous argument was that Waddell was no different than other hunters so why should he be making “millions”?

Guess what, Einstein? Just the fact that he seized an opportunity to make a living at something we all do does indeed make him different than you. While there tends to be jealousy at the root of all the posts with the bashing, one has to wonder if people actually read any of their messages before they hit “POST”.

Of course, many of these posters are the ones who suddenly grab their Sherlock Holmes junior detective kits with every successful-harvest post. It drives me nuts! Hunter A posts picture of a deer he just spent all autumn chasing; Nimrod B points out in a post that the deer’s eyes look too cloudy to be shot during a morning hunt – ending the post with, “Something’s fishy.”

Give me a break.

Before my size 9 Muck Boots step down from this here soap box, let me quickly make a plea for my fellow hunter to quit whanking about cyberscouting. It sucks, yep. I too don’t really want people meeting me at 4 a.m. at my favorite duck-hunting spot. That also is why I don’t post about my favorite places. In this case, Nimrod A all but gives the GPS coordinates to his best spot with pictures in parking lots of public launches, near recognizable markers, etc. Then Nimrod A is complaining about the skybusters that are 75 yards from him the following weekend.

You can’t fault people for utilizing all available resources to improve their chances at success. You fault Nimrod, who opted to tell the world. Cyberscouting, afterall, is sort of like performance enhancing drugs for lurkers!

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in 2009, General Tales, Hunting Stories From the Past, Uncategorized