My First Buck.

The weekend of November 21 through the 22 I had the opportunity to go down to Mississippi to go deer hunting. The reason I cannot hunt here in Illinois is because I cannot handle the kick of a shotgun. I went with an organization called A Hunt Above. It is a hunting organization which gives kids with uncurable conditions and life threatening diseases. I hunted with a Mossberg 100 ATR .243 rifle. The first morning of the hunt my dad and I were the only people in the stand. Unfortuneally we did not see any deer. After we had eaten lunch we headed out to a stand in front of a food plot. The first deer came out about 3:00. It was a doe. After about 45 minutes a small buck entered the food plot. At the moment I did not want to take this little buck. I decided to shoot a big doe across the food plot from the buck, but all of a sudden a bigger doe came out of the woods, so I decided to shoot her instead. I was just about ready to shoot the doe when I saw the buck out of the corner of my eye. I saw that he was bigger than I originally though so I decided to take him. He walked a little bit behind a tree but thankfully turned back around. I waited until he turned broadside and then fired. After I looked out of the scope and looked where he went. It turned out that he didn't go any where. He dropped right in his tracks.

Tips on Squirrel Hunting

I found this article on Field and Stream's website about Squirrel hunting. The first tip it gives is to listen for falloing debris from squirrels feeding. Secondly, move quietly through the woods. If you just go barging in you will scare every single squirrel in the woods. Squirrel hunting is basically deer hunting in miniature style, so its a great way to tune up your deer hunting skills. Thirdly, make sure you are a sharpshooter before you get out to tyhe woods. When you spot a squirrel, move slowly into a better shooting position to take the shot. Lastly, always make sure you are shooting in a safe direction. Never take a shot in the direction of a house or a person. Also you want to kill the squirrel efficiently. If you don't think you can kill the squirrel,k don't take the shot.

Shotgun season is coming.

On my last blog I gave info on bow-hunting. This time its shotgun season's turn. First of all there are seven gauges, or bore sizes. There is 8 gauge, 10 gauge, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge, and a .410. An 8 gauge shotgun is the biggest bore size and .410 is the smallest. In Illinois the biggest shotgun you can use to deer hunt is a 12 gauge and the smallest is a 20 gauge. There are also to types of ammunition you can use. There is what is called shot, and there are slugs. Shot is used for water-foul, upland game, turkeys, and varmint animals. Slugs are used for deer and other big game. If you are bird hunting, any gauge shot gun is legal except an 8 gauge. 8 gauges are used for very large animals. Sometimes 8 gauge shotguns are used for bears.

It's Bow Season, are You Ready

The first of October is a date burned in the mind of hunters all over Illinois, Why, It' The start of Bow Season. I personally am not a bow hunter, but I understand all the planning that goes into a successful hunt. First of all, if you are'nt in a treestand or in ground blind, good luck. Second you must wait for a closer shot than you do if you are hunting with a shotgun. Bow Hunting allows for more of a challenge which most hunters love. There are also many choices that come with bow hunting. First off you need a bow. There are at least four kinds of bows. Longbows, Recurve bows, Compound bows, and Crossbows. After you choose your bow you must pick out you arrows. Arrows are made from wood or carbon fiber. Lastly are arrowheads. There are also many types of arrowheads. Blunt points and JUDO points are for small game like squirrels and rabbits. Field points are for target practice. Fish points are for bowfishing. Broadhead, and expandable blade broadhead points are for big game animals like deer. After you have decided on these things, you are finally ready to get out into the field and hunt.

Hunter vs. Anti-hunters

This week I am going to discuss the ever popular issue of animal rights. There are several animals rights organizations such as, PETA, the Humane Society, and a group called Compassion over Killing. There are several key things that these organizations fail to recognize. If you hunt you know that hunting is not all about killing animals. Most of the Conservationists in the U.S. are hunters and they are the ones who really understand conservation. Conservation does not mean that you cannot kill anything. There are many laws that are in place to prevent over hunting and fishing, there are just a few individuals who give the rest of us hunters a bad name. Another thing that anti-hunters don't realize is that many harvested deer are donated to organizations that help feed the the hungry. If you take hunting away it's like taking away peoples food. Now there are some people who support hunting as long as the meat is eaten. There are others who will not support hunting no mater what. I've heard of people who say "Don't kill innocent animals. Buy your meat from the store where nothing has been killed" If they honestly believe that then the are crazy. I will discuss more of this later but this is getting long.

Tough Deer

How tough would you say a Whitetail is? If you said tough as nails, you're right. Scott Bestul, a columnist for Field and Stream, Asks his followers to tell their best, the deer taht got away, stories. Some guys buddy, who practices the art of Taxidermy, had a buck come in during gun season that had a Broad Tip stuck in its jaw. Aparently the buck had been shott a couple of weeks earlier during bow season and surved the shot only to be taken in gun season. Another guy, shot a doe that had been peppered with 00 buckshot. The deer had 11 holes in its torso. A different guy shot a doe with a 300 Win Mag right in the chest. the guy never found the deer. None of this points to the fact that deer are invicible it just means that deer are very tough. as long as you try to stay close to the vitals, you have no worries.

Hunting and Fishing

In this blog I'll share every thing I know about hunting and fishing. First of all I have been hunting for about four years and this past November my dad and I harvested our first buck. It was a two and half year old eight point. I know where to shoot a deer, how to field dress both doe and buck, and know quite a bit about deer behavior. Also I am on the bass fishing team at Moline High School. I know quite a bit less about bass than I do deer. I know that bass are predatory and are very finicky when it comes to presenting bait to them. I am hoping to learn more about bass fishing as well as other game animals while I do this blog.