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Hunting in MaineWhitetail Deer

Monitoring Maine’s deer

By | Feb 26, 2017 | 1 Comment | 4 min read

You could ask any deer hunter how the herd is in their area and get a different answer every time.  We all want the best habitat, doe to buck ratio and a very limited number of predators in our area. What I didn’t know, is that like moose here in Maine, we have deer that are collared and monitored in order to help biologists understand the true health of the deer herd. I sat down with Maine’s deer biologist Kyle Ravana to ask him about the collaring program and what he (and IFW) hope to learn from it.    Where are the deer that are being collared? And why those WMDs? Right now, we have deer collared in WMD 17 and 6 and...

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Hunting in MaineWhitetail DeerWildlife Conservation

Really! Stop feeding the deer

By | Feb 6, 2017 | 1 Comment | 4 min read

It's that time of year when deer are yarded up and surviving the harsh winter weather.  I've been fortunate enough to see lots of healthy looking deer while walking through the woods.  In talking with friends about the deer herd in their area, they have mentioned that they want to start feeding the deer to help them make it through the winter.  I quickly respond with NO! Don't feed the deer! It is fun to see deer come out of the woods and munch on grain or corn, but what a lot of people don't realize is that feeding deer these foods during the winter months could have dire consequences and could actually kill the deer that they are...

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Stop feeding deer in Maine
Eating Wild Game

Learning to eat wild game

By | Jan 25, 2017 | 3 Comments | 3 min read

I wrote the following for the Northwoods Sporting Journal. What are your thoughts on eating wild game and teaching kids about where their food really comes from? On the Monday after rifle season began, my three year old’s preschool asked him what he had done over the weekend. Straight faced, he looked at her and said, “Daddy shot a deer and I ate the heart” and walked off to play with his friends. She looked at me in disbelief and all I could do was smile and nod. The excitement of getting a deer was at its peak for him when we drove into the driveway with my husband’s deer. That same three year old rubbed his hands down the back of the...

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Whitetail Deer

Wait! It’s not over yet

By | Dec 29, 2016 | 0 Comments | 2 min read

"All I saw was blue smoke" dad said smiling. One week after I shot my deer and rifle season ended, Dad was still hard at it trying to get one of those big bucks we still had pictures of. But, instead, he squeezed the trigger and got his first deer with a muzzleloader. According to Dad: two doe came crossed three different shooting lanes before starting to talk at him. When he decided to fire at the biggest doe, he lined up the sites and just saw the blue smoke and no deer.  "I got down and walked to where I saw her last.  The second doe was still standing nearby, so I knew she was down.  When that second doe ran off by...

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Whitetail Deer

In less than a minute

By | Dec 26, 2016 | 0 Comments | 4 min read

The snow was melting and dropping off the branches and leaves.  I had been in the stand for only a few minutes when I heard a deer walking off to my right.  It was one deer and too dark to know if it was a doe or buck.  Maybe it was the crotch horn.  I closed my eyes and listened to the deer walking away from me.  At least it didn't seem spooked; maybe it didn't know that I was there. The sky began to get brighter, indicating that the rain predicted was not coming.  I dug into my pocket for handwarmers. I tried to keep the crinkling plastic as quiet as I could as I ripped the first side open.  I waited...

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Whitetail DeerWinters in Maine

It doesn’t get better than hunting on snow

By | Dec 22, 2016 | 0 Comments | 4 min read

There was a storm coming in on Thanksgiving night, so Dad and I started and ended our day in the woods.  It was silent when we walked into our stands in a turkey induced semi-stupor. The silence didn't last long.  For almost two hours, we listened to someone target practicing or just shooting different guns.  It was ridiculous and I still can not understand why, during hunting season, someone would do this when they could have waited until Sunday (when we can't hunt.) When we went to bed Thanksgiving night, the cold rain had turned to snow and on Friday morning, there was enough on the ground to track. Snow turns me into a...

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Wildlife Conservation

United, we win.

By | Dec 19, 2016 | 2 Comments | 4 min read

United, we win. The more involved you get with something, the more frustrated you can become when priorities shift, you see behind that iron curtain and you lose sight of what’s important and made you get involved in the first place. It’s hard to get reenergized and motivated sometimes, especially when there are so many divides. I have been partly amused and partly disheartened to read articles that my fellow outdoor writers have written about how they miss the ‘good ole days’ of hunting when women were home with the kids and not out in the woods.  I hate to break it to you, but women are the only way that the next generation of...

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Hunting in MaineWhitetail Deer

Just shoot a doe

By | Dec 15, 2016 | 1 Comment | 1 min read

There were signs of deer everywhere! Tracks, rubs and fresh scrapes but for some reason, I was not seeing them.  Dad, on the other hand, was seeing deer everywhere he looked. One morning, he watched a spike horn chase a doe and fawn through the woods.  He walked out of the woods behind a doe and fawn another night.  He was seeing multiple does every time he sat or walked through the woods but instead of using that doe tag, he wanted that big, illusive buck that we knew was still hanging around. I hung out in my stands and watched a lot of squirrels.  How could we be spending so much time in the woods and not come...

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Hunting in MaineHunting Tips and TricksWhitetail Deer

Sitting is safer

By | Dec 12, 2016 | 0 Comments | 2 min read

On Veteran's Day, the wind was so bad that I climbed down from the Sky Condo to sit in the ground blind that we had not removed since turkey season.  I am usually all for rocking in the trees but there was just enough extra creeks happening that I felt better on the ground. It sleeted, the wind blew and nothing moved. Saturday was different.  I started off the same way as the weekend before; Sky Condo to tree seat.  I left the Sky Condo a little earlier than I had the week before hoping to see more deer than just the two does.  There were fresh rubs that were a little bigger than the ones the week before, but it...

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Hunting in MaineWhitetail Deer

Back into the woods

By | Dec 8, 2016 | 1 Comment | 3 min read

We had to revamp our hunting plan since we were now one hunter down, but Dad and I stuck with what he knew would work and where we thought the deer were. I started the morning in the Sky Condo and when it was clear that nothing was moving through, I headed to a tree seat not far away.  There were fresh rubs along the path that I used and although they were made by small deer, it gave me hope that the deer would be moving through. I left my pack at the bottom of the tree and climbed the 16 feet up to the seat.  I think I am more comfortable in treeseats than the bigger stands.  I can't move when I am up there because every...

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Hunting in MaineWhitetail Deer

It’s finally deer season!

By | Dec 5, 2016 | 0 Comments | 3 min read

We've waited all year for this!  Deer season was back.  Hubs, Dad and I had a rough idea of where we were going to sit to start the morning, when and where we would move to next and the basic game plan for the morning hunt. But then, I looked at the trail camera pictures. The 10 pointer that we had had on the camera last year had shown himself for the first time two days before at T3. Up until that point, we had only smaller bucks on the cameras.  But this one... we've been watching him for at least 4 years and he was beautiful.  I declared that I would start the season sitting in T3. Hubs was bumped to the Sky Condo...

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Hunting in MaineWhitetail Deer

What makes hunting in Maine so great

By | Oct 11, 2016 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

Hunting in Maine is unique.  Our landscape is different than most states, our predators are a lot more abundant (hello 36,000 black bear roaming the woods) and we have a shorter season that most.  Recently, I highlighted these challenges for the National Deer Alliance and wrote about why they makes Maine such a great place to hunt. Click here to read my article for the National Deer...

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Erin Merrill Hunting Blogger
Hunting Tips and TricksWomen Who Hunt

Must have clothing for outdoor women

By | Sep 16, 2016 | 1 Comment | 3 min read

I did a radio interview recently and was asked about women's hunting apparel and if it is getting better. I ecstatically answered Yes!  Thanks to my involvement with EvoOutdoors, I have been fortunate enough to learn what you really need to be wearing when you are in the woods during bear season, deer season, coyote etc. With the holidays coming up, here are my MUST HAVEs for any outdoorwoman or man.First Lite: I sit while I hunt and I was always getting sweaty on my way in or out of the woods. I layer so that I can stay warmer longer but it would also take me a while to regulate my body temperature after I got warm walking into my...

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Maine Fishing

Catching bass and watching for water snakes

By | Aug 29, 2016 | 0 Comments | 4 min read

I have no idea what Staci said after the words "water snake" came out of her mouth. I went into panic mode wondering if I was going to snag one with my fishing pole or if every bubble that came up from under the canoe was a snake below us. But, the plan was to catch bass and we climbed into the canoe and paddled off to do just that. We started off with frog lures and within the first two casts, I had a bump on my line but nothing hooked. After a few more casts, Staci was landing bass on a regular basis. One of about 15 bass that Staci caught She was out fishing me almost 10 to one and I knew that I needed to hook something.  I cast...

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Whitetail Deer

Trying to capture the twins

By | Aug 26, 2016 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

One of the does that we have around the house had twins.  Our landlord asked if we had seen them and at the time, we had not.  I set up my Moultrie, threw out a few apples and waited. I have gotten some great photos but I have yet to see both fawns, which makes me wonder if the other fawn has died or if this is a different doe/fawn combo. I am running out of apples but am planing on keeping my camera up to see if I can get any photos of the two fawns together.  And if not, I will move the camera and try to figure out where the bucks are around here. I may also move this camera up to the Sky Condo and check out some old rub...

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Women Who Hunt

Every outdoor woman needs…

By | Aug 23, 2016 | 1 Comment | 2 min read

...Other outdoor women who support and push them. Plain and simple. Robin Follette, Taylor Follette and Me. These women make me want to be a better outdoors woman! In the month that I took off, there were blog posts flying around about who outdoor women are, what we like and don't and how, even into adult hood, those damn cliques from high school pop back up. Here are a couple of links to check out in case you missed them: Field & Stream's survey on "real women weighing in on hunting." I took the survey but anyone could have told you the results and at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with my hunting. Following Eva Shockey on...

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Whitetail Deer

What is on my doe?

By | Aug 15, 2016 | 1 Comment | 1 min read

I posted these pictures on the Facebook page and asked people what they thought was going on with my doe's shoulder.  We got a few different responses but I am not sure. Warts? Burdock? a horribly placed bow shot? I am hoping to keep watching her and see.  This is the first time that we have seen a deer with something like this.  On the flip side, she looks very...

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Coyote HuntingTrail Camera Views

I’d rather have a coyote

By | Aug 12, 2016 | 0 Comments | 1 min read

How can you not be excited when you are checking trail cameras? The suspense, the unknowing... one of the first pulls of the season gave us quite a shock. A dog.  A big brown, pit bull looking dog at the Sky Condo. It looks healthy enough but the last thing we want is a dog up there.  Is it friendly? Who knows but now we may need to carry more protection than we usually do when we are checking the cameras and making tweaks to the food plots.  I would rather see a coyote; they are skiddish of people and don't tend to come out in daylight hours.  Plus, you can shoot them on sight and resolve the problem. Dad thinks he...

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