Related Posts

• J-Duck Chronicles Volume II - The Trip of a Lifetime, Stuttgart Arkansas 2009

  I?ve had a serious love for waterfowl hunting ever since my father took me to a damned up part of Black Creek when I was 8 years old. Growing up we mostly hunted in swamps for wood ducks and the occasional mallard.  Then later in life I moved to, and started hunting, the coastal regions of North and South Carolina where the average bag contains mergansers and the occasional diver.  The thought of the ?KING? of all ducks? the Mallard? completely filling the skies with cackles and quacks was something of which I had only dreamed.   I guess the first time I had heard of Stuttgart, Arkansas referred to as being the duck hunting capital of the world was when I was in high school. As Ducks Unlimited got more and more prevalent in the 90?s, I attended more banquets and started receiving their magazine. During this time I started to read of this great place named Stuttgart. Stuttgart is a distant location in Arkansas and by distant I mean? you can?t get there from here! ...

• The Best Time of the Year

  In the woods behind me, I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer approaching.  The leaves on the forest floor crunched with every step that he took, and I wondered how close he would get before sensing my presence.  It didn't take long.  The deer snorted twice and bounded away with the sound of his hooves pounding out a rhythm as he ran.  I threw another log in my backyard firepit and grinned in the darkness, surprised that the deer had gotten as close to me as he had.  He would have had to have smelled the smoke from my fire, and I hadn't been particularly quiet whenever I poked at the logs in the pit. I took a sip of wine and turned my attention inwards.  I was in a reflective mood tonight and wanted to take the time to "recover from the past and store up for the future," as Robert Ruark's Old Man once put it. A month and a half into deer season, and I've only gotten one doe ...

• It's Time for another Soil Sample + Remote Food Plot Update

       The Remote Food Plot at the 1st of August This week has been very busy with all that we?ve got going on, but that is fine by me.  As we continue to monitor the food plots, we have to get ready to plant the fall plots as well.  So, when we got back from the Pee Dee Deer Classic, we journeyed out to the woods to check up on the remote food plot.  We also went and took a new soil sample at a location where we?re going to try to plant ...

• Sometimes You Just Have to do the Right Thing

  The below blog entry was submitted by a SC hunter who wanted to share his story and lesson learned and who has also asked to remain anonymous: Everyone learns the tremendous difference between right and wrong at a very young age.  Some of us choose to do the right thing and, often times, some of us choose to do the wrong thing.  The sum of the consequences of our choices is what comes to define us as individuals. Doing the right thing is not always the easiest path to take, but it is definitely the most fulfilling. The following is a true story about what recently happened to me and how I chose the hard path to do the right thing.  About two weeks ago, I was in a deer stand hoping for a buck to walk out.  A few does and a fawn or two had come out, but no bucks.  About an hour before dark, what I thought was another fawn walked into the shooting lane.  I brought the rifle up to look at it ...

• SC Swamp Turkey

       Mr. Puette sitting at the base of the tree Turkey season starts on April 1st in my county because I?m located in the upper part of SC. I?ve been looking forward to it and have been counting down the weekends until turkey season got here.  This past weekend was the opening weekend and on Saturday morning I went turkey hunting again with Mr. Bruce Puette in Marlboro County. ...

• Bucks Chasing Does, Rain, & Sponsorships

  This past weekend was a good weekend to be in the woods.  A cold front with some rain came through, a lot of the leaves are off the trees, and the bucks were out chasing does in our neck of the woods.  I don?t know about everyone else, but cold weather, good visibility, a little rain, and the rut gets me excited to hunt!     Friday I was able to get a climbing stand out on the ridge top that I?ve frequently written about on this blog.  Saturday morning I trekked it up to the ridge and got in the climber (and yes I fell on the way up the hill).  It was a good cold and crisp morning and I had left earlier than normal in order to drive the truck out, unload the 4-wheeler, drive to the section of the woods where I park, get off, trek up the ridge, then climb up a tree in the climber.  This whole process took me about 25 minutes.  I left earlier to factor in time for all of these ...