Kamikaze Brew

Well, it seems that Brewer has been on a kamikaze mission as of lately. As I told you the other day he almost drowned/broke his leg. Today,while I was letting him get some exercise at the lake,I was looking over a concrete ledge that dropped off about 8 feet. He got a running start and jumped off the ledge, landing on wet concrete covered with algae. It wasnt pretty,and it happened so fast. I saw him hit the concrete before I realized what happened.Nothing broke his fall, there was just a loud thud on impact. He held his right front leg stiff for about 10 seconds and then started swimming so I knew he was fine, but what a scary jump! He still isnt showing any signs of being hurt.I will never know what he was thinking, there was nothing down there to attract him. Sunday, Steffi and I were visiting my parents for Christmas. There are woods in their back yard that create a buffer between their house and the city reservoir. I always take him back there to run around, it is a peninsula so there is only one way in and one way out. We were walking along the shoreline at a place where there was a steep drop off to the water. It was only about 1 foot of drop of though. Brewer was dying to get into the water, but I didnt feel like cleaning him up before we went back inside so I kept telling him no. Well he crept too close at one point and slid into the water face first, when this happened his back left leg went around a sapling and his foot got stuck under the bank at the same time. At first I laughed, but when I saw he was stuck and panicking I tried to help him. He was trying to swim away from the bank to free his leg and couldnt keep his head above water, he managed to turn his body around and bring his front half onto dry land, but this put his leg in a really bad bind(this all happened in about 3 seconds). I had to lay down the hill on the ground and break the sapling in order to get him unstuck. He was fine immediately afterwards, but I know it scared him. He was whimpering and whining and he gave me a face full of kisses before he continued playing in the woods. If I couldnt have gotten to him in time, who knows the outcome. I never let him get more then 75 0r 100 yards away unless we are in an open field for this reason. I would like to say he has learned something from these two events, but I am not so sure.
Deer season is coming to a close in the next few days (unless you are in an urban archery zone), so I will write a couple more deer hunting blogs. After that I want to concentrate on waterfowl and upland hunting for a while. I will cover a lot about dogs and birds in the weeks to come. While I have learned a great deal about training and raising a gun dog over the last few years, I do not consider my self an expert by any means.Hopefully I can get a few guys to weigh in on those topics when we get there.
As long as the rain holds off until dark I will be hunting tomorrow afternoon. I would normally head to my favorite spot, where I took Keith the other day, but rumor has it that might not be a great decision. Keith went back to that spot on Monday morning( I had to work). When he got there he saw 2 guys on 4 wheelers beyond where any vehicles are allowed. Keith approached them and said they wreaked of alcohol and were acting very strange.Keep in mind it is 5:45 in the morning and completely dark. The guys said they were waiting to put up some fence posts in a nearby pasture. I call B.S. I would say those guys were drinking and spotlighting deer all night, probably shooting at them and leaving them to rot.If I hadnt seen this play out other places before I would not be so condemning. Needless to say Keith saw 2 deer that morning, they were not really close. I know there will always be morons like this, but it still makes me angry. We do not need to fuel the fire of non sportsmen by doing stupid mindless things like that. Even if those guys werent spotlighting and shooting deer, they were drunk and driving 4 wheelers in an illegal area. Get a clue you ignants(my new word), dont ruin it for the good guys. I dont know where I will go tomorrow, probably back out to that spot, I will let you know how it goes.

-Andrew

The time is now

Not the whole family , just the ones I have pictures of. It is hard to find a good picture of my mom, she is the one always taking the family pictures. That is her with my brother and me in Baltimore down by the water.


Well, Steffi and I just got back and unpacked from Christmas with the family. She wants to watch The Sound of Music, so what a great time to catch up on some stuff here. Brewer nearly drowned today, but we will get to that later. What I really want to talk about is how the family gatherings just arent the same since both of my grandfathers have passed away, and how I miss them both all the time. I probably think of my grandfathers more then most people do. They cross my mind several times a day, everyday. They were both great men in their own regard. They were both men of faith, one was more vocal about God then the other, but that didnt matter. They both faced health problems for a long time. One had his first heart attack when he was 39 and he lived well into his 70's fighting heart disease. The other battled emphysema for the last 10 years of his life. He literally struggled for every breath the last 3 or 4 years. I cannot imagine what that was like. I . Along with my dad, my grandfathers taught me to fish and play golf, the foundation of my passion for the outdoors. Neither was perfect, but through their struggles they taught me about perseverance, life, death, and leaving a legacy. I aspire to be like them, I feel a deep obligation to carry on what they started. To be a man of character, constantly reminded of my imperfections, yet rooted soundly in the grace of God, hell bent on not giving up until Im taken away. I see both grandfathers in me and I am proud of that. Steffi and I talk about life and our purpose all the time. I told her the other day that I am not afraid of death, but of not walking out my purpose before death comes, and of not continuing the legacy left to me. Jesus went before me and conquered death, my grandfathers knew that and were not afraid to die, neither am I. I always get charged up with purpose any time I go home and spend time with my family. Steffi and I are in desperate need of kick starting our life. We dont know exactly what its going to look like, but we know this isnt it for us. Neither one of us is built for the 9-5 for 30 years and retire. There is nothing wrong with that,actually there is lots of respect and honor in that, and part of me wishes I could just do it(My father and grandfathers did). I am just not built for going about it that way. We are both tired of having good ideas and taking no action. That is why I started this blog, it may never amount to much, but who knows. I am approaching 28 years old, I cannot afford to have another meaningless year, month, day, hour, minute... If I believe in God, and his purpose for my life, then at some point my circumstances just dont matter anymore, its now or never. To quote Pastor Reggie Hunt "at some point you got to start being whatever it is you are going to be, regardless of your circumstances"
How many great Sunday services or inspiring moments does it take to walk by faith. I have been here 10,000 times. I have a purpose to live out, I have a legacy to uphold, if I fail, so be it. I refuse to reach the end and wonder what might have been. To quote Teddy Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I love my family and I am thankful for them , as well as Gods faithfulness and grace that is active in my life. Looking at the news right now, there is chaos and war throughout the world. We need visionaries and purpose filled people to step up and be leaders. Gods people need to make a difference. The time is now. Where do you fit in?

Finally got back into the woods!

After over a week of no hunting, I spent the morning deer hunting with a friend of mine. We went to one of my game lands honey holes, and sure enough, we were the only ones there. I think we saw between 8 and 10 deer.Keith had a nice 8 pointer in his sights that wouldnt stop moving. He was following a doe that had come by a few minutes before. The buck hesitated at about 60 yards and was gone before we really knew what had happened. We also saw a spike, the rest were does. You would think with all of those deer around one of us could have managed a shot, but we couldnt. We sat together on the ground with opposite shooting lanes. For some reason, it was hard to identify which direction the deer were coming from. We could hear them walking, but by the time we pin pointed their exact location, There was really not shot. We sat looking down into a creek bottom that fed into a back cove of a lake. It was pretty thick all around us, but with no leaves on trees, we could see alright. The deer came from almost all directions. All in all, it was a great morning, aside from the constant need to blow my nose( just getting over that winter bug) and the usual cold toes. I love late season because it seems most of the other hunters have given up for the year. If I can get my honey do's done, I might take the Brew duck hunting this afternoon(Steffi has to work all day). Yall stay tuned and have a Merry Christmas..... eve

-Andrew

Response to thedealer8

Thank you for your comments on the Antler Restriction piece. I know exactly what you are talking about. Many times it is very difficult to tell whether a deer has antlers or not at long distances. You are also correct when you mention antler points are more a product of good nutrition then an indicator of age.Generally I find that older bucks have more mass then younger bucks with impressive head gear. There is no doubt that the success of a program like this would face many challenges. First and foremost, hunters are basically operating on the honor system when it comes to how many deer we take, along with when and how we take them. There always has been and always will be people who think the law does not apply to them and people who lack the vision to understand its not all about them. As I mention in one of my entries about deer and hunter numbers, the NCWRC has in place a method used to calculate total deer harvested by hunters, killed in automobile crashes, by poachers and disease. I feel confident the NWRC is not as ignorant as some hunters think when they calculate these things. While we will never be able to get everyone in agreement, what if 50 or 60 percent of the states hunters jumped on board. What a difference that would make. To address another point you made,
Instead of issuing citations for killing an illegal buck, we could come up with another system. Perhaps we could count that one buck as a buck and a doe on the hunters big game tags. Maybe people get a free pass the first time. There are lots of things we could come up with. I would not be in favor of punishing any one except for people who are repeat offenders. Another option that may help to limit people shooting young bucks is to include more teaching on how to field age bucks and does as part of the Hunter Safety class.Sure people will mess up, misjudge or whatever, but as long as we begin to change hunters mentalities we are on the right track. This restriction would be a process just like any other big change in life, but I am confident that most people would adjust in time. I am still not all in favor of antler restrictions, more people are practicing quality deer management now then ever before. It is a great time to be a deer hunter any where. Thanks for bringing up some great points. All of these things you mentioned would be important considerations in creating such a drastic change.

-Andrew

Looking at the numbers part II

Nice gamelands deer taken with Up-close Outfitters in Western NC.

I meant to elaborate more in part 1 of this write up. However I didnt because it was getting late and I couldnt really think well. To sum up what we talked about, I believe, according to the numbers, there are more mature trophy class bucks in North Carolina then the state gets credit for.I suppose that depends on your definition of a trophy buck though. I think mine is a mature buck with a rack of around 120 inches or better. I believe we are slowly becoming a sleeper state when it comes to hunting the big boys. Give it 5, maybe 10 years and more people will begin to realize there is some great hunting to be found right here. Certain areas of the state have produced bigger bucks for many years, other areas have produced spikes and forkies(I made that word up) at best.If the current trends continue,I expect to see a more even spread of good bucks throughout most areas.This is due to hunters becoming more concerned with deer management, since humans are now the single biggest factor involved in controling the deer population. In the mean time,lets find the good bucks now.Here is what I plan to do. Since most of the deer killed by hunters are taken with rifles in NC, I plan to bow hunt more early season,(I like to bow hunt all the time) and not give up late in the season when everyone else has. Concentrating on early and late season will set you apart from most of the other hunters.The goal is to be hunting unpressured deer,or to find the pressured deer. While you may not think this is possible on public land, I know it is. Sure I will hunt during the rut,but it wont be my bread and butter. NCWRC has outstanding resources for studying when and where to hunt. The 1.8 million acres of game lands covers most, if not all regions and habitats of the state. Some places are only accessible through lottery, most are open to all. Our state is divided into 17 river basins.A map of this is available at the NCWRC website. Study the river basins around the areas you choose to hunt. What vegitation/crops are prevelant? What is the make up of the land? Usually areas deer travel can be located on a property with the use of a topographic map. These are easy to obtain.There are many websites online that allow you to customize a topographic map.It usually costs around $10 dollars. What is the deer population density, harvest history? What types of hunting are allowed(dogs or no dogs)? Get to know your area, scout out places in the spring and summer.Take note of wind direction every time out.Shed hunt, I am currently trying to train Brewer to find shed antlers. All of this does not take as much time as it may sound like. A couple afternoons of scouting a month is it. Get out and turkey hunt, or small game hunt a day or two. Deer learn to pattern hunters, how we enter and exit a piece of land, where we choose to hunt.If you pay attention, you will notice that most hunters flock to the same spots on any given property. Take advantage of this, come up with alternate routes, find new areas off the beaten path.I read an article a while back that said something like 80 or 90 percent of hunters dont go further then 1/4 mile from their vehicle.Venture just a little further. By doing these things you will continue to set your self apart from other hunters and increase your odds of finding the big boy.

Looking at the numbers

So the snow never really came, dangit (say it like Hank Hill). Oh well, lots of winter still to come. I didnt get to go hunting at all this week. Between Christmas shopping and coming down with this horrible cold, it just didnt happen. I decided last night that if I was smart, I would have finished all of my shopping a long time ago.I mean, it is the responsible thing to do right, get it all done early so it doesnt interfere with my hunting. That might eliminate the grouch in me. Sometimes Steffi calls me Oscar, as in Oscar the grouch, when I dont get to go hunting. Any ways, on to what I want to talk about.
According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission, North Carolina has a White tail deer population of about 1.1 million. I have read some reports that put the number closer to 1.3 million. Either way, that is a lot of deer. Also the NCWRC reports that there are around 250,000 deer hunters in North Carolina. While this number seems small to me, I can't find any other data to dispute it. In 2008 the NCWRC says that 176,297 deer were taken by hunters. According to the 2008 Deer hunters Almanac, North Carolina averaged an annual harvest of just under 140,000 deer between 2000 and 2004. From 2005 through the present the state has seen a steady incline in the harvest numbers. According to both the NCWRC and D&D Hunting, the vast majority of these deer are consistently taken during gun season. This number does not account for deer killed by poachers,vehicles, disease or anything else but hunters. When these other factors are considered, the NCWRC estimates that around 250,000 deer are killed each year in NC. Breaking down the numbers a little further we see that NC hunters are beginning to adopt stricter deer management tactics in an effort to increase the quality of antlered deer taken in our state. In the past, the majority of bucks taken in our state have generally been yearlings.In many cases yearling bucks accounted for as much as 80% of the total annual buck harvest. This article from North Carolina Game and Fish magazine goes into detail about this. http://www.ncgameandfish.com/hunting/whitetail-deer-hunting/NC_1109_01/index3.html
(Once again I cannot get this link to work, so you will have to copy and paste it) It encourages me to know that other NC hunters are beginning to pass up smaller bucks and take more does. As the article above mentions, bucks and does are recruited equally into the herd, so they must also be taken equally to produce a well balanced herd. That is deer management 101, but we will save that discussion for another day. My original thought, when I came across these numbers of hunters and deer was that with such a large herd in North Carolina, it seems there would have to be a very large number of mature bucks that reside in our state. If approximately 250,000 deer are killed annually, and our estimated deer population is around 1.2 million, you do the math. That leaves a heck of a lot of deer to grow one year bigger and wiser. Things that influence antler growth are nutrients, age , and genetics, in that order.I do not believe genetics play nearly as big a role in antler size as most hunters think. According to NC wildlife biologists, the states deer herd is stabalizing, meaning it is healthy. In other words there are enough nutrients and habitat to support the deer.I personally believe we could probably increase our annual harvest by 25% with no harm done. I know that each year many trophy class bucks are taken, but these numbers tell us there are probably many more to be found. I am not saying that 500,000 of the remaining deer each year are trophy bucks, not even 100,000 for that matter. Lets say that in 2009 180,000 deer will be taken by hunters,85,000 bucks, 95,000 does.Of those 85,000 bucks, lets say 1%(850) are trophy class. Another 70,000 deer will die from car accidents, poachers, disease etc... Of the remaining popuation, 1 million. Conservatively, lets say that 1% of these deer are trophy bucks. That means that roughly 10,000 trophy bucks are still around. I am no wildlife biologist, I have no data to back up this theory. I just believe that we may have more great bucks here then people realize. Where are they hiding?

COME ON SNOW!!!

What is this weather gonna do? I want a heavy snow, probably wont get it though. I dont have much time now to write, so let me send a shout out to Armanti Edwards, senior quarterback at Appstate. Last night you became the first person ever to win the back to back Walter Payton awards. The FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. No one deserves it more.Your courage,coolness under fire and ridiculous set of skills are unmatched. We all hate to see you leave, but cant wait to watch you play on Sundays next year. We may never see any one like Armanti Edwards again at APP or in the FCS, hopefully I am wrong. (We got some studs waiting in the wings) but I cannot wait until next season. Thanks #14 for giving your all for Appstate. GO APPS