As I was frantically trying to get myself and O ready for the day and out the door, I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of these birds at my feeder, just 10 yards away (I know this because of my set up shooting my bow.) There was 12 of them, just picking at the bird seed that was on the ground. A few times, my movement would spook one of them and they could take a step or two back and then go back to pecking. I didn't see any beards and I have not seen this flock since, but I spent an extra 15 minutes taking photos and watching them. In my dream world, I could get up, make coffee, grab my bow and go sit on the porch waiting for them to come back. But, if my pattern holds, my turkey tag will remain unfilled and I...
When you kill a bear in Maine, you are legally required to submit a tooth to IF&W so that the bear can be aged and logged into the records. Each tooth is cut, like a tree, and the rings are counted. Biologists can learn about the health of the bear and it's age. Assuming that the tooth gets to where it needs to be. Typically, it takes a year for the data to be published. The link to the information is usually posted all over social media and eager hunters share how old their bear was. I couldn't wait to find out how old this guy was. The popular vote was about 8 years old. When the data was posted, I searched. I looked up my name. I looked up my guide's name. I looked up the tagging station and the...
That is our mentality as we drag that target outside each weekend and measure out distance in the snow. For three years, I have been after this huge buckand he has stayed nocturnal. After this past rifle season ended and Dad stayed in the woods with his muzzle loader, he saw the deer pattern back to their pre-rifle ways. They were back to traveling the paths that we assumed they used and they were coming out earlier and earlier. Dad didn't shoot a deer but he saw the small buck that we had around and a few does. For the first time, it was blatantly obvious that rifle hunters were moving these deer around. While we had been toying with it, it was clear that we needed to get into archery to try and get the upper hand on those...
This is what the owner of the property found the day before we arrived to shed hunt. He wasn't out looking for sheds, just walking around the property. As bummed as we were to see this, the fact that they now had two years worth of matching sheds for the same deer is pretty awesome. The set on the bottom is from 2015 and the set on top is from 2016.
Staci and I found a great place to shed hunt. We knew that there were deer all around and that we would be in the right spot to find something. It had started to snow when we got there but the forecast called for heavier snow in the late afternoon. As outdoors women, we figured that we would be fine. We just started following tracks to figure out where the deer were traveling from. We headed through a field and towards the woods, looking for beds, feeding areas or yards where the antlers may have fallen off. Our plan was to walk the perimeter of the property to see what we could find. It is always a good sign when you see a rub almost immediately. We have seen the sheds that have been found nearby so...
Remember this guy? I was fortunate enough to meet him last March when he was a brand new black bear. I knew that our awesome bear biologist were out checking dens and sent a message to one of them asking if they had gone to King's den yet and if the cubs were there with her. My timing could not have been more perfect; they were heading to her den the next day! Using the same technology as they did the year before, they found King under a network of cedar blowdowns. She weighed in at 156lbs - four pounds heavier than she was the year before, and looked totally healthy. Last year, King had given birth to a male and female cub. Only the male cub was in the den with her this year. While the female cub could have...
Dan Johnson from The Nine Finger Chronicles started doing listener reviews of bows. It was an unbiased way to hear from everyday people about what was working for them and what bows they liked or didnt like and why. As a beginner and newbie to the world of archery, I offered to review a couple of bows. It also helped that I was in the market to buy one. Dan posted what he was hoping to get for information on each bow and left it up to us. I was the first woman on the podcast and the first woman to review bows. You can listen to the podcast of Dan and me talking about the PSE Stringer and the Mission: Craze...
I was going to get the first shot in. I put the pin on the target and released. Hubby spun around, "where did it go?" I shook my head, "I have no idea" And just like that, I was down to five arrows. We put the kiddo down for his nap and lugged our gear outside. This was the first time that we were shooting at our house and not in the archery shop. I lined up again to shoot and realized that I hadn't lined up my peep with my sight for that first shot. I tried to determine how far off my first shot had been but it was pointless. I still haven't found that arrow. I had Hubby take photos and video so that I could look at my form and posture and attempt to fix some of the early issues that I was noticing; like...
One of the few good things about social media is connecting with folks who are like you in order to compare notes, get tips and tricks and share in successes. One of the coolest women that I have met is Skye Goode who is a rock-star trapper. Learning from the book "Hoofbeats of a Wolfer" by O'Gorman, Skye watched her family members as they trapped mink, raccoons and muskrats. Her uncles got into beaver and fox trapping which helped to give Skye a more complete picture of how to learn each animal’s behavior and habitat and the types of traps, lures and set ups that worked best for each. The tipping point for Skye’s own trapping career happened when she shot a buck, “I shot a buck with my bow in the evening...
