Happy 26th Birthday, Victoria!

My sweet Granddaughter, you should know that today, and every day, you're one of the most special people in my life.  I love you so much!  Happy Birthday!  Gran Gran

In Memory of My Brother

Today is the 4th anniversary of my brother's death. A picture of Marion (Buster) Edward Love, Jr., as a little boy, about 2 years old with our Dad, Marion Edward Love, Sr.  My brother was born on January 14, 1945 and died on October 31, 2010. Missing my brother, Dad and Mom!  May God keep my family in his loving arms until we all meet again.
  

Hunter's Prayer

Dear God...As we go out in the field to hunt one of your great gifts, please watch over us and guide us with care.  Let us come home safely to our wonderful families.  If you bless us with a chance to harvest one of your creatures give us the patience to wait for the shot, to use the skill you gave us to make the shot true, and use the knowledge passed down of tracking too.  May the animal be treated with reverence and used to the full.  Thank you Lord for all of these wonderful things. May your blessing be with us in the Fall and Spring. ~ Amen

A Young Hunter

A Meaningful Souvenir

Matthew Sisk took his son recently for a ride on a tractor to see the cows when his "lil man" spotted this deer skull/horns.  After he found it he told his Dad that he needed to take him hunting.  His Dad agreed and said they were going to build a ground blind together in  the spring for next year and he will be with him every time he goes. This is what you call parenting done right in our great wild outdoors!

Deer Management By The Quality Deer Management Association

Quality Deer Management can help you produce healthier deer, more fawns, heavier deer body weights, more mature bucks, more rut activity, larger antlers, and other benefits. To achieve these goals, you need to see where the herd has come from and whether it’s on course to get where you want it to go. Here are seven simple but important types of information you can collect during the hunting season to help you achieve better deer and better deer hunting. 

1. Observation Data: All hunters record sightings of deer each time they hunt, separated by doe, fawn and buck. Deer that can’t be confidently placed in one of these groups should be listed as “unidentified.” Other sightings you want to track, such as predators or feral hogs, should also be recorded. Additional information should include date of the hunt, location hunted, and total hours hunted. At the end of the season, total the sightings and the number of hours hunted, then calculate all sightings in a “per hour” rate, such as “does seen per hour,” or “bucks seen per hour.” These sighting rates can be tracked within or across seasons to follow trends. Also, calculate the fawns-per-doe sighting rate by dividing the total number of fawns by the total number of does sighted. This is important to track so you can determine the number of fawns surviving and being recruited into the fall herd.

By the way, if hunters are sensitive about sharing their sightings for particular stand locations, keep the location or hunter anonymous in your data, or set up a locked drop box where data cards can be dropped at the end of each hunt. Keep the box locked until the end of the season when you calculate your sighting rates.

QDMA has created two types of data collection booklets to help you record observation data, including a personal booklet as well as a logbook for all hunters on a given property.

2. Weight. After you've killed a deer, there are several items of information to gather, starting with weight. Record the weight of every deer you harvest. Get both dressed and live weights for every deer if it’s possible, or choose one or the other and gather it for all deer harvested. Record each deer's weight along with its sex and other information in a single location for later analysis. You can then track improvements in average body weight for specific groups of deer, such as adult does.

QDMA has also created a data collection logbook for help with deer harvest information.

3. Jawbone Age. Pull a lower jawbone from every deer you harvest, both bucks and does. This will help you assign an estimated age to each deer. Label or tag each jawbone with a number or unique ID that will help you match the jawbone to the weight and sex of the deer recorded in your logbook. You can save the jawbones for after the season and have them aged by your nearest state wildlife agency biologist, or you can learn how to estimate jawbone age yourself by watching our how-to video series.

QDMA has produced harvest data tags that can be attached to each jawbone for ID purposes, and the tags include space for other data like weight and sex.

In addition, if you need a jawbone extractor tool or specialized jawbone removal shears, we have those as well in our online store. 

4. Doe Lactation Status. Check every doe harvested before the peak of the rut to see if it has milk in its udder. If it does, it likely had a fawn that survived that year. Record “yes” or “no” for lactation for each doe harvested. This helps you track fawn recruitment. More about this technique and what the results mean will be found in a separate article on our site. 

5. Breeding Date. When field-dressing a doe, did you find one ore more fetuses in the reproductive tract? If so, you can back-date the age of the fetus to determine the date the doe was bred. Gather enough of these dates and you can pinpoint the timing of your local rut peak. QDMA sells a tool for this measurement. You’ll find more details on this technique in a separate article on our site.

6. Kidney Fat. What percentage of the kidneys were covered with fat? This is an index of deer health; the more fat covering the kidneys, the healthier the deer. Here’s a more detailed look at how to analyze kidney fat as an index of herd health.

7. Antler Dimensions. Record antler measurements (beam length, spread, mass and tine length) from every buck. Combined with age data from the jawbone, you can track improvements in antler size by age class over time. As habitat quality, buck:doe ratio and other factors improve, you will see an improvement in average antler size by age class.

As you can see, collecting these seven types of data will only take you a few extra moments while you’re hunting or while you’re field-dressing and skinning your harvest. It helps to have a location set up for data collection before you kill a deer. Stock the location with scales, gambrel, and other tools and record-keeping materials you’ll need. The more convenient you make it to record the information, the more likely all hunters involved in your effort will participate in the data-collection task.

The information you gather with a little extra effort allows you to adjust your harvest goals and habitat efforts to meet the changing needs of whitetails across seasons and years. The result will be better deer and more exciting hunting in seasons to come!  Goodhunting!

The Quality Deer Management Association

Alaskan Brown Bear

Bow hunter Juan Garcia and Master Guild Sam Fejes, go into the isolated wilderness of Kodiak Island, Alaska.  They are in pursuit of the largest land predator on earth.

Feel the intensity as Sam uses a predator call to lure a gigantic brown bear to within 12 yards of Juan's PSE Omen Max.  Putting themselves into a calculated risk.  Sam and Juan maintain their composure as the bear approaches.  Producer and cameraman, Jake Latendresse, sits back from 20 yards away capturing the entire event as it unfolds.  Its intense, dramatic, rare and special...in fact, its unbelievable!

Special thanks to Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge for allowing us to film, but more importantly, thanks to them for their vision into the management system they have applied to enhance bear conservation.  Since the establishment of KNWR, the brown bear population has doubled in size, strongly led by the implementation of hunting as a tool to control the nature male bear density.  As a result, young bears thrive and have better opportunity to reach maturity.

Treestand

Can I get an Amen!

Ammo Camo!

Awesome Food Plot

Hunters - Check this out!!!!

It's a food plot that was made by hand by the Elmy family from RACKSTACKER and measures 176' tall!!

Hunting South Of Town

I was invited to check out some hunting land this afternoon and was really excited about getting to the woods  today.  I was talking to one of my sorority sisters not long ago and was lucky that she invited me to come down and check out their land when the weather got cooler. When I got the call today it really had me all pumped up!  I grabbed my camera and got to their place south of town and stayed four hours looking around and visiting.  It's so nice to be invited to hunt on private property.  I had to get out of my hunting club, Jasper Bottom, in Claiborne County about 3 years ago.  I have regretted it since.  Last season I was shot out because of having a rupture right rotator cuff.  I'm well enough now to hunt this season and can't wait to get in the woods for rifle season.  I'm fortunate to have been invited to several places this season and should be a great one for me.  Here are a few pictures I took of food plots and hunting stands on the Davis property.    

 

Shooting range.

I was told that I could possibly hunt here on the backside of this office building that has a walkway that wraps around it. The deer walk down below going towards the creek bed on the other side of the property. This building is not far from their two story home.

Mom Hunters

Hunting Humor

The Muskrat Boys

This is the cutest picture of my Facebook friend, Amy Hanneman, sons. They live and hunt in Missoula, Montana.  Let to right is Colter, Connor and Caleb.  Their Dad, Robert Hannerman, is a consultant with Huntin' Fools and a firefighter.  The parents are bringing their children up right in our great wild outdoors! 

Award Winning Elk Footage

This is an award winning clip on the Sportsman Channel for 2010! Unbelievable Elk footage!!! Hunter shoots bull at 10 yards while it is fighting with another bull.

Goodbye Flop Ear

My Facebook hog hunting friend, Kareen Beinhauer, of  Alpine, TX, first saw flop ear on her cam a year or so ago and thought she would never get this big old nasty hog but that all change the other day.  She got her new blind set-up, sprayed with dirt scent, corn/deer feed out, game card in camera and used her new solar light.

Flop Ear split ear.

Flop Ear a-hanging!

Kareen used dirt scent spray from (3D Hunting Supply) and said she would never use anything else.

Hog (aka Flop Ear) weighing in at 218 lbs.

Kareen's story in her own words. - I was out by 9:40 p.m. and I was totally amazed by the green solar light.  It lit up the alfalfa field so well. Before, I needed binoculars to really see the hogs but I don't need them anymore because I could see very clearly.  All that came in was the coons but I finally saw them looking and then they ran off.  Sure enough I could see about 10 hogs coming in and then they were there. The light showed that there was one hog hanging back for about 30 seconds.  It was Flop Ear!  He came in and was not eating but standing there.  Perfect broadside shot so I took the shot. I thought he had run down in the creek.  I was kind of looking around for a blood trail and them my flashlight went out so I left. My husband and I went the next morning to look for him and saw him outside of the alfalfa field to the east.  He had run about 80 yards or so and collapsed and died.  There will be others to take his place but it took me about one and one-half years to get him and I actually never thought I would.  Patience and perserverance finally paid off.  Kind of sad to see him gone, I have to say.  He was a beautiful hog. The legend Flop Ear is dead.  RIP, you were a worthy opponent!  

My congrats to Kareen for another hog kill in our great wild outdoors!

Don't Shoot!

Deer Hunting Humor!

Bryce's 6 Point Buck

Bryce recently shot his very first deer a 6 pt. buck which was shared on a Facebook site called, Parenting Done Right Outdoors. My sincere congrats to him in our great wild outdoors!  

Looks like the traditional initiation into hunting is more than I have ever seen.  What a proud hunter he must be!

Shot Placement For New Hunters/Kids

I came across this interesting site of shot placement for new hunters or kids. Check out this site (Click Here) to read the explanations on each part and how to find it.    

A Morning Deer

My congrats to Amanda who got a deer this morning according to her Dad, my Facebook friend, Tim Wieland, with a youth shotgun. Usually you see a picture of a deer harvested in the woods and first time to see one laying in a cornfield.  You can tell that she is one happy little girl and I know her parents are so very proud of her.  

Pix of Wildlife In The Park

The picture above was taken by my Facebook friend, Marty Kittrell, of Vicksburg, MS.  Marty is a great photographer and has seen and photograph deer in our Vicksburg National Military Park. He even gave me a print of a deer standing by a cannon in the park at the Old Court House Flea Market a few years ago.  

I have yet to see a deer in our National Military Park and have lived here all my life and walked for years in the park.  I have seen turkey's there and did not have my camera with me at the time.  A big mistake! There are also hogs in the park but have never seen one but was a big write-up in the paper a couple of years ago.  Click here to read the article on the hogs.  

Lucky are the wildlife that live in our great wild outdoors in the park that is protected by the hallowed grounds where many fought and died in the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War.  

Cotton Fields & Canton Flea Market Pix

My daughter and I took off for the Canton Flea Market this past Thursday and really had a good time. We went the back way on Hwy 22 towards Flora, MS and then on to Canton. Stopped and took some pictures of fields and fields of cotton being harvested and a sea of cotton waiting to be harvested.  It was a beautiful site to see especially when you are a city girl and don't see this everyday.  Here are some pictures I took while at the flea market which is held twice a year. The temps were in the high 80's.