Last August, I had the opportunity to get a fawn that had been hit by a car. I called the warden, got a tag and it was off to the taxidermist. Maybe a little morbid, but unless you are willing to use a tag to shoot a fawn, there are few ways to aquire the young deer. This week, I brought it home to my office. The woman who did the taxiermy work did an incredible job on the fine details. The fawn's eyes, lashes, ear hair and whiskers are exact. It is amazing to look at the small body and the characteristis and then look at the buck above it and the changes and simularlities. The fawn was about two months old and his pedicals were just beginning to form. The skull is close to the same size as my coyote's skull but a bit more rounded on...
In December 2021, my grandfather passed away. Weeks before, I jumped him when I came bursting into his house to tell him and my Grammie that I had shot a buck and had completed my Grand Slam. He laughed at my overzealousness but hugged me and told me how proud he was of me. We made a deal hours before he passed away that he was going to deliver me an 8 point buck since I have yet to shoot one. I held on to that belief all through the year. Dad and I obsessed over trail cam photos throughout the summer and fall, we had three really nice bucks showing up. They all seemed to be nocturnal, but they were around. Fast forward to the start of the season and my morning kicked off pretty well by taking a nice doe in the first hour. I had...
I am a big supporter of teaching the 'why' behind hunting, especially to the youth in my Maine community. So I offered to bring a bear rug and skulls into my daughter's kindergarten class, and it was the highlight of the week for both them, and me.
It was an emotional rollercoaster of a season. All I wanted was an eight point buck. I will save the story for another time, but it didn’t happen. But what did happen changed my whole perspective on deer hunting. After twenty years of hunting, I am done shooting small bucks. I shot my doe in the first hour of rifle season, so having the ability to shoot a doe AND a buck gave me the opportunity to keep hunting and looking for that big buck. I could sit and watch more of the does and fawns at different spots on the property. One morning, I watched a fisher running around my stand. I enjoyed being in the woods, knowing that I had a specific buck that I was after and that I had already put meat in the freezer. This season was more of...
I was trying to think about what to write about for my February article in the Northwoods Sporting Journal. Something that would be timely and start a conversation. As the topics came and went, something made me think of George Smith. It has been one year since he has passed and I starting thinking about the topics that would have him riled up and what I have accomplished in the past twelve months. There are two topics that I would love to have heard George’s take on. The first bring the Right to Food, which was passed into the Maine Constitution when we voted in November. It is the first of its kind in the United States and reads “that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce...
I need to start by thanking my friend Staci and her husband for making this happen. They helped to get the bait site up and running. Staci was as determined as I was to get me a bear. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a hunting partner like her! The 2021 Bear Hunting Season kicks off! My limited view of the bait site Bear hunting season opened on Monday, August 30th, and trapping season opening on Wednesday, September 1st. With my trapping license and Staci and John’s help, I planned to initially hunt over bait and try trapping. The first night with the traps out, we watched as a bear tripped my trap, looked at the cable and walked away. The next afternoon, Staci and I headed out to reset the trap and sit. We adjusted...
There are a few less turkeys in Maine to hunt this year. A few months ago, Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation, captured and released more than 50 birds into East Texas with the hope of rebuilding their population.
I just hit a deer, do you want it? My neighbor sent me this text during her morning commute to work. Had there been room in my freezer, I might have taken her up on it. I had done it before when I watched another driver hit another doe within 50 feet of where my neighbor was. It was the third deer hit that week in the same stretch of road. Why? A landowner is feeding them. A few years ago, I spoke with Maine IF&W’s then deer biologist about the impacts of feeding deer. We talked about the risk of diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease getting into the herd and spreading so rapidly, because of the unnaturally large population being pulled into a small area. We talked about the biological make-up of a deer’s stomach and how the...
Yes, this is an older video but the message still rings true; "...they have concluded, in agreement with us, that yes, sportsmen and women and the activity of hunting, done in a sustainable manner operates as a conservation mechanism the world over..." On this polarizing election day, let's focus on what we can agree on. Conservation efforts, traditions, and the importance of understanding and working for social and biological carrying capacities for all animals in an effort to maintain the resource for generations to come.
