The Buff Pad

Selfish Ambition.

2012-01-23T20:40:00.001-06:00

The Man Minute - sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. - James 3:16

As with many men I know, God did me a great favor when He planted my wife into my life twenty years ago. Little did I know then that she would become the one primarily responsible for slowly de-constructing my precious ego. I'm not bitter about it. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

I feel an impulsive need to offer my disclaimer to the world, for you must realize, friend, what I was up against in my formative, early years. I was an only child. Moreover, I was the only grandchild on one side of the family. Stop right there and you have the perfect storm for a soon-to-be adult with little hope for social harmony. Add to that the truth that I was the son of a PGA Professional and thus became obsessed with the game of golf; thus, I was the ultimate test case of a man-in-the-making with an only child disposition, who also possessed an insane obsession for a game that was all about you and your personal performance. Needless to say, it doesn't take a degree in psychology to surmise that in most situations, whatever "it" was, you can bet it was going to be about me.

Marriage, and the one I'm married to, helped me quickly see how destructive selfish ambition can truly be in this thing we call life.

Selfishness is an emotional baseball bat swung wildly into your circle of relationships. Swing that bat, friend, and things are going to get broke. Selfishness breaks things, and those "things" tend to be real people who are capable of being bruised ... by you. The end result is, as James tells us, disorder and every evil "thing" that comes with it. Jason Cruise

The Skinning Rack....part II

2012-01-17T18:14:00.000-06:00

First up to bat at the Skinning Rack is Will Thomas and a passel of young'uns! Being the awesome dad he is, Will took daughters, Adickes and Leighton along with Banks (a friend of the family's) to the woods in Yazoo county. As it turned out, those kids were better than any pack of hounds - Will shot a doe and small rack buck in one sitting! As if that wasn't good enough, Will took his daughters back to the woods (to the same stand, mind you) and harvested an awesome 14 point! I think he is going to have the girls a couple of custom made safety harnesses and climbers so they can hunt everywhere with daddy!

Next is Scott Berry. Scott has had a stellar season. The first buck photographed below was harvested on public land in the MS delta while the other two were on private land along the MS River.

Doug Baldwin harvest this cull, that's right - CULL, off an exclusive hunting club on an island in the MS River. Nice to have friends in high places!

Introducing.....Benjamin Wiley! Benjamin harvested his first of what is sure to be many, many deer. He was with his dad, Tom, hunting on their family farm in Starkville, MS. Now that you've got deer hunting figured out Benjamin, its time to get ready to take on Ol' Gallberry Joe!

Meet Scott Watkins. Scott and I have been going to church together for years now but have never really gotten to know one another. After a nudge from a mutual friend of ours, Scott and I made plans to take to the woods together in search for Scott's first whitetail. Well, we've since found Scott's first, second and third whitetail and he is hooked to say the least! One thing is for sure....my brother can shoot!
Here's to many more days afield Mr. Watkins!!

Here's a group of CATS if I've ever seen one! Gary Simon recently invited a group of friends hunting on his property in Leake county. Some were hunting for meat, some for horns but all were there for fun. From the looks of this photo, I'd say they were most successful!!!!

Gary later went back out to his place and was rewarded with a much deserved SAD DADDY! This was Gary's biggest buck to harvest on his place. The buck had 12 points and lots of mass.

Jonathon Breakfield harvested this buck on January 16th. He named in Sky Scraper for obvious reasons. Talk about down to the wire; Jonathon's wife is due to deliver their second child this week and this was his last hunt of the season. Pretty good way to cap things off!

Dungan-Polk Hunt III

2012-01-08T08:33:00.017-06:00

Friday, January 6th marked the 3rd Annual Dungan-Polk hunt held in Columbia, MS on the banks of the Pearl River. Here's an account of the weekend's events as I witnessed them.

I arrived in camp around 3:00 pm on Friday just in time for the evening hunt. Everyone had just drawn for stand locations and been briefed on harvest guidelines. Harvest guidelines were simple: mature bucks only and bow hunters were allowed to harvest a mature doe. Les and Jeff run trail cameras extensively on the property and had identified numerous "shooter" bucks at the beginning of the season. Experiencing a better than average season thus far, they went into the weekend with only two shooters remaining (Burt & Lucky). Naturally, it was likely there were other shooters on the property that they had not photographed. However, there was one other that Jeff had shot with his bow on December 23rd and not recovered. Jeff was pretty sure this buck was one they named Crow. They had not photographed him since this incident and assumed the worst.
I quickly grabbed my gear and headed to get into Les' truck. On my way, Eddie Polk cruised by and instructed me to "get the Buff Pad fired up, I'll have a story for you later tonight"! Les, Romney and I headed to the south end of the property while the remainder of the guys spread across the rest of the property.
The afternoon hunt was pleasant. Temperatures were in the 60's and I was actually swatting mosquitos in January! My particular stand was close to a state highway which was so loud it covered a report from a rifle inside the property. Upon returning to the truck, Les relayed the news to me and Romney...Eddie had shot! As we rolled into camp, Jeff approached the truck and provided more information regarding Eddie's kill. According to the last text Jeff received, what Eddie initially reported as an 8 point turned out to be a six point. As we walked up to the camp fire, Jeff joked about having to call a tribunal at the fire and exstinguish Eddie's torch! The joking, ribbing and teasing was fixing to reach an all time high. Soon the truck pulled up carrying Eddie and his deer. Everyone hurried to the truck to have a look.
Well, as it turned out, the joke was on us. Eddie had indeed killed a fine buck. In fact, he had harvested the buck they named Burt, and was messing with Jeff about shooting the six point. But as we would soon find out, this was just the beginning of the twist to this harvest.

Burt's antlers were measured carefully and found to gross a total of 118 inches. Eddie filled us in on the details of the hunt. Simply put, a doe stepped out and moved across the plot with Burt trailing not too far behind. An obvious neck wound indicated the shot placement. Plenty of photos were shot and then it was time to move to the skinning rack. The buck weighed in at 170 pounds. Kevin began the process of skinning the buck and made quick work of an otherwise long process. During the procedure, Kevin had found the mushroomed rifle bullet in the offside shoulder.

He had just removed the back strap and was working on the neck just in front of the left shoulder when his knife struck some sort of foreign object. Upon further inspection, it was a 3 inch portion of an arrow shaft tipped with a two-blade Rage broadhead!

This was the buck Jeff shot just a few weeks prior on December 23rd! We immediately began inspecting the buck's cape again and realized the wound that was so obvious on the buck's neck was from the broadhead. Dried blood around the wound validated our assumption. "So where did Eddie hit the buck...or did Eddie even hit him", Jeff quickly asserted.
We closely inspected the animals cape but couldn't find a bullet hole. It wasn't until we looked at one of the photos we had taken of the buck after the shot that we noticed a spot of blood about two inches above the larger wound. Sure enough, we looked on the cape and found his bullet hole just above the broadhead wound.

Even so, that didn't stop Jeff and a few of us from questioning Eddie about "what really happened". Several hypothesized that the buck wasn't chasing the doe at all, but simply staggered into the plot where Eddie was able to finish him off. We had quite a time listening to Jeff and Eddie go back and forth about who gets to claim the buck.
In all seriousness, we were amazed at what these animals are able to tolerate. This is the second buck in a year that I've seen shot high in the neck/shoulder area and carry on as if nothing happened. So what's the take away from all this: when bow hunting - aim low and stay away from the shoulder; when hunting River Bend - carry a video camera on every hunt so you'll have proof of your harvest.

As for cousin Eddie, he finally admitted that he walked up on the buck and finished him while he was spinning in circles trying to bite his tail.

Master of His Domain!

2012-01-07T21:58:00.006-06:00

Friend and former co-worker, Brigg Abercrombie, submits a play-by-play of a day he will not soon forget in The Whitetail's woods...enjoy!

Well Mr. Polk, it goes a lot like this....

After ringing in the new year with friends and family, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the 2nd day of January, 2012, than in the woods chasing the elusive whitetail. It’s this chase that brought me face to face with big nasty. The morning brought cold temperatures escorted in by the previous days dry cold front and strong north winds. The winds kinda stuck around though and had deer movement quenched a little for the otherwise beautiful cold morning. Between daylight and 8:30 I’d only seen one small deer, which turned out to be an 8 point, and watched him feed for several minutes on the acorn flat I hunted nearby. Shortly after, another deer was spotted slipping along the edge of a rim adjacent to a creek bottom. The deer acted extremely nervous and edgy, which I attributed to the wind, which by now has increased in velocity to a steady 15mph from the Northwest, occasionally gusting to at least 50. It was about that time that I caught movement in a tree top in a cutover to my north. From the top emerged 2 does, working their way up a ridge into a neighbors pasture only to disappear from sight. Being the great hunter I am, I quickly dismissed these deer as being bedded in the top, not once thinking that a monster might have been pushing them from a distance…. WRONG! The difference is this time when I caught movement, the deer was on the edge of the pasture, and the sun gleaming off his antlers made it look like he was carrying a Cypress tree above his ears. I actually think it was a nice 5 year old 10 point we’ve gotten a few pictures of but are attempting to let him grow one more year. We’ve actually started seeing a significant difference between 5 and 6 year old bucks, with the 6 year olds adding 20 to 30 inches of antler…. Or that’s what it looks like in the pictures any way, judging deer we’ve got a history of pictures with. Anyway, this deer raised his head and galloped through the pasture, apparently chasing after a doe, and taking with him any hopes I may have had on ending his life prematurely. That’s ok, he wasn’t the deer I was hunting anyway. The deer I was after was a big heavy horned main frame 8 point, with a 3 or 4 inch kicker coming off his right G2. This monarch has struck so many poses for the cameras in daylight as well as dark, it’s almost like he was on a schedule. I just figured I’d wait him out…. Besides, it’s just now 9:30 or so. After seeing these deer, I decide it’d be a wise idea to turn my attention to the cutover instead of the acorn flat I just knew the big 9 would use as his point of interest. Remember, I am the great hunter here! Well, my instincts proved true, as I began seeing deer move and feed through the cutover, but no big bucks. All said, I believe I saw 5 different bucks and 6 different does make their way through the cutover and out of my life…. It’s about 10:00 and the deer movement has absolutely stopped. With a huff and a groan, I turn my head in frustration back to the acorn flat only to catch movement within 30 yards. Like a banana dipped in liquid nitrogen, I froze…. Only my eyes moving to get a better glimpse at the deer I knew would be the big 9 with the kicker. When my eyes beheld him, I realized that right there within 30 yards, I’d let a true 1 year old cowhorn spike slip right in and get downwind of me! HA….. little sucker never knew I was around. I guess the bath worked after all! It probably didn’t hurt that the 15mph wind had now turned into a steady 25-30mph, with some gusts reaching 100. The minutes ticked by, and after not seeing another deer by 11:00, I decided I’d had enough, and that until the wind subsided I had better go get some work done, or at very least grab a bite to eat and watch some of the great football games.
You’d think that folks would schedule football games at night and wouldn’t try to interfere with perfectly good days of hunting, fishing, trapping, 4-wheelin, snorkeling or any other outdoor activities many of us hold so dear. Guess we’ll blame it on the media or something, cause it sure ain’t the boys in the SEC…. they’ll play their game at night on January 9, and I guarantee that once again an SEC team will walk away with the BCS National Championship to their name, carrying on a tradition for another year.
Like I said, you’d think folks wouldn’t interfere with hunting like this, but it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, and with 3 different bowl games going on, time kinda slips by. It’s tough when you’re stuck in the middle of the swamp with games on 3 different channels, trying to be a remote control guru only leaves you frustrated, with lots of down time between channels. Next thing you know, sandwiches are long gone and it’s 2:30. So much for the middle of the day hunt. Missing that part of the day may not be that big of a deal anyway… that wind which was blowing steady at 25-30mph aint quit yet, but the 100mph gusts have settled to no more than 60. With the winds still rocking along pretty good, and the way deer movement had subsided in the woods, I figured a nice, lush, green food plot would definitely be the place to hang my hat that afternoon. Deer wouldn’t be nearly as skittish, and would come out early into the food plots to feed up prior to the cold blustery night ahead of us. I’d by in a stand by 3:00, and figured I may even get off a shot on the way… I am after all, the master of this domain!

FOUR O’ CLOCK…….. ain’t even seen a squirrel. I’m worried that me and Toto may not be in Mississippi any more after these gale force winds lay down. .. IF they ever lay down. About 15 or 30 minutes drag by, look at my watch FOUR O’ FIVE… five stinkin minutes. You know the cow that flies by on that Twister movie…. Just passed by me. I’m seriously beginning to question my hunter abilities, and it’s now 4:30.
Getting close to 5:00 and I can’t hold my eyes open. Been up and gone since 4 something this morning, and ain’t seen a deer (or anything else for that matter, other than that one cow) since 10:30ish. You know how it is when your mind starts rambling and you start thinking about all the other crap you could be doing instead of whatever it is you’re doing at this very moment. Well, I start thinking about fishing. WAAAYYY too windy to be fishing, and since I really don’t have any other hobbies and sure don’t want to be at work right now, I guess I’ll sit here and look for the next cow to fly by, cause I’ve done concluded that I’m not going to see another deer on this day.

Quick nap later, it’s 5:05. Five minutes may not seem like that much, but I’m revived. Feel like a million bucks now and am going to concentrate and focus intently for the next ever-how-long-it-is until dark, to see if I can spot that cow again.

5:10 and I just heard something. A bird! Big deal right…. Heck yeah!!!!!!! I actually heard a bird over the 95mph winds that had threatened to relocate me somewhere else just a little while ago. There it was again. Whew, I may get a break after all. Probably means I ain’t gonna see that cow again, but I’m thinking I may at least see a squirrel now, and can almost guarantee I will be able to walk back to the golf cart without being in danger of being blown into the next county.

5:15…. I think I may have actually seen a deer. I did… I did taw a deer (think Loony Tunes). Sure enough, a big ol’ nanny comes easing into the food plot. Here comes another one… and another… and another. One minutes time and I’ve gone from seeing squat to looking at 4 deer. 2 of em are does and 2 little ones, and I’m sitting there judging the size of their backstraps, cause by now, I’m MAD. I ain’t killed a deer since somewhere in the first gun season (pre-December) and am in desperate need for more meat. My wife says just to raid her Daddy’s freezer, but she just don’t get it. It’s a pride issue, and at this moment, the biggest doe at the other end of this little stretch of grass is really looking good to my pride.
Being the great hunter I am, I choose to defer the shot just a second or two since I had seen that one beautiful specimen of a deer earlier in the morning come in after those 2 deer in the cutover. It’s funny how things like that stick with you and make you a better hunter. I still remembered that very encounter, and it had been almost 8 full hours or so…. I’m pretty proud of myself for that.
Anyway, into the plot enters another deer. And another and one more. All does, but since those winds have now all be quit blowing altogether, I hear a distinct sound. It was a grunt, and it’s repetitive and it’s getting closer. That’s right, ol’ mister bucky is grunting his way directly into this field and into the line of fire. Well, here comes a doe busting into the field around 200 yards or so away, and this buck is after it. I ain’t lying, he wanted this chick. All these other deer just look up and watch the show as this deer chases this one hotty all around the plot. Apparently he thought she was hot anyway, cause she was the apple of this dude’s eye. I’m thinking there’s 8 does watching this one buck chase this other doe around the field and I’m just sitting there hoping he’ll stop so I can tell exactly what he is (although I pretty well knew he was safe).
Earlier in the year, we’d burned the plots off and this one at one time had a strip of privet growing in the middle through the length of the plot. Not sure if you know what a deer looks like when he stops moving in a strip of once alive, burnt, now dead privet, but he frickin disappears. Finally, the sucker moves and I start seeing headgear. He’s an 8 point, with some weird stuff going on, but clearly an immature deer and definitely not a shooter according to those high standards we try to uphold!!!!! So I’m back to looking at some of the does and wondering which one has the biggest backstraps and I notice movement once again from where this other buck had entered the food plot. I see horns and a big deer coming in the field and another deer behind him. Well, being the great hunter that I am, I immediately lay my gun out the window of the stand and look to the deer that still ain’t in the field completely. You know if a big buck comes into the field and another deer is behind him it’s GOT to be another buck and there’s probably about to be a WWE cage match go down right smack dab in the middle of this field, and I’ve got a front row seat.
It’s a doe…… a stinking doe behind a jolly old giant.
Being the pretty amazing hunter I am, I take interest once again in this buck. He’s BIG…. I mean BIG. Looks like a brahma bull up there and starts absolutely ripping up a cedar tree along the edge of this field. Sounds like a logging operation as he’s de-limbing this thing and me and every other critter around are watching him. This other buck is especially watching him as he finally decides that he’s thoroughly killed that poor little cedar and begins to walk towards this other 8 point. About 3 steps is all it took and the young fella decided he didn’t want none. I’m outa here dude and he quickly exits left. Now it’s me, a scared 8-point who’s took cover at the other end, but doesn’t want to totally walk away from the hot chick he was so intently chasing, 8 or 9 or 10 more does and little ones and this big buck.
Now when I say big buck, I’m really just talking about the physical stature of this critter, cause he certainly won’t set any records with his horns, but his backstraps and hind quarters were BIG.
I’m in a zone now, and have pretty well all but skinned him out before I even pulled the trigger. All he has to do is turn sideways and that’s it. Close the curtains, Katie bar the door, he’s outa here, game over…. You get the idea. Well, dude just keeps waking straight towards me. He’ll act like he’s gonna turn sideways and change his mind. Just keeps coming my way.
It’s amazing how this stuff happens and the amount of time it takes, cause it ain’t even 5:20 yet. All this in 5 minutes.

Finally, after an eternity, or at least 45 seconds, this sucker turns sideways and starts making a scrape. Now he’s a brahma bull throwing dirt in the air. I put the crosshairs on his shoulder, slide the safety off on the Browning, and slowly squeeze the trigger. I guess I was a little closer to the scope than I should have been, cause it turned my hat sideways. No harm done, and I got to see him go down. He went down where he was standing and didn’t even think about going any further. After the other deer watched him taking a nap for a while they decided to exit premises.
I get down, going to look at him, praying the whole time that he was as big and old as I thought he was, not knowing what I’d do or how I’d feel if he got little the closer I got. Thank goodness, it wasn’t an issue, and I may have killed the oldest deer ever killed on the property.
January 2nd was a pretty good day….. Wonder where that cow ended up?

If this doesn’t get published on the Buff Pad and I get advance notice of publishing, I’m gonna be real upset

They called him FRANK!!!

2012-01-01T20:19:00.005-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen - here is the story of Frank. As my brother will tell you below, this is one legends are made of - and indeed it is. You see, hunting in the piney woods of south Mississippi doesn't have the glamorous appeal of the river bottoms of the MS River, the soil of the Black Prairie or the agriculture of the delta. Trophy bucks are measured many ways but for those who consistently harvest mature bucks (regardless of rack size) in the piney woods...well, they can get it done anywhere in my opinion. Kevin, aka Chunk, was not only able to harvest a mature piney woods buck but one that unofficially measured 137 inches...Congrats Brother!

The buck's name was Frank and the quest for him was one of legend. It began the first day of December. It was then my brother in law, Mark Rogers, first photographed the brute. As the month progressed, we continued to get several photos of him within a half mile area. Chad Odom, Mark Rogers and myself theorized on every aspect of Franks day to day activity. It got so intense I was cross referencing weather patterns with the trail cam photos we had taken. Crazy huh! My conclusion was Frank always moved on a southwest wind. Fast forward to the December 31st and guess the wind direction.... that’s right, southwest! I had decided that with the moon half full the deer may move mid-day. So, I caught up on a little sleep and got to the lease around 8:00 a.m. Figuring I would continue my pattern of trying a different strategy, I parked just inside the gate and walked a half a mile into the lease. Typically, I drive most of that route. At any rate, I toted my climber to a pine that over looked a three year old cutover. My plan was to get high. I’m talking so high I needed an extension on my pull-up rope....yea, that high! I was surprised how well I could see throughout the cutover. I couldn’t have been in the tree no more than 10 minutes when I spotted a doe coming up an old dummy line. This was a road we theorized the deer were using. As she continued up the road, I soon noticed her yearling bringing up the rear. My heart sank! I was confident that since she hadn't abandoned her yearling then she wasn't in estrus therefore no buck would be trailing. Any how, the two dumped into the cutover and I figured that was that. As I began to settle down from the encounter, I noticed a third deer following the same trail. I threw up my .308 to find that this deer had head gear! He gave me just enough time to know he was one of our better bucks but at 300 yards I wasn't sure which one. He progressed up the road but soon ducked back into cover. My heart sank thinking he was surely gone. Thankfully, he popped back out on the dummy line. Like a blood hound, he had picked up the does trail and was about to enter the thicket she had disappeared into only seconds sooner. It was then that I used the deer call that has worked for me many times in the pasted. In fact, I've found that 60% of the time, it works every time...I yelled HEY!!!!!!!!! He stopped dead in his tracks. As he stood alert, I settled my cross-hairs along his spine and tripped the hammer. "I pulled", I said audibly as the report from my rifle still lingered in the air. I knew I pulled and now, there was no deer was in sight. Immediately I called my brother-in-law to tell him what had happened. To say I was shook was an understatement. HAHA...don’t take much for me! Anyway, Mark advised me to stand in my stand and calm down. I'm glad he did too. It gave me time to sit and reflect and thank the Lord for the opportunity. Feeling as though my shot was off, I tried to just be thankful for the encounter. When Mark got there the two of us proceeded to the place where I thought the buck was standing. Panic began to set in. This idea of just being thankful for the encounter didn't seem so good. Mark asked me if I was sure the buck wasn't further down the road. He began walked on down the road when I heard him holler, YOU KILLED HIM....YOU KILLED FRANK!!!! Just as expected, I had pulled my shot. The bullet struck the buck in the neck, dropping him instantly.

Taylor and the buck we called "Squatty 8"

2011-12-26T07:50:00.005-06:00

This year marks mine and Taylor's fourth year to chase The Whitetail together. As hunting goes, we've had our ups and downs. Last year, Taylor harvested his first buck on New Years Day. We were hunting off the ground that morning which made for an interesting hunt; however, it was the tracking after the shot that was the most memorable.
Then there was the hunt that took place on the next to last weekend of last season. Taylor and I had a fine buck chase several does in range but we were unable to seal the deal. There are numerous stories I could tell that have transpired over the years but the one that unfolded Saturday, December 24th will be the one that we both will be telling for years to come!
Taylor and I live in Brandon. In fact, we live in the same neighborhood. So, with an hour between us and most our hunting spots, we have plenty of time to talk strategy or, for Taylor, plenty of time to catch a few more winks. With overcast skies and winds out of the north, I had concluded that we'd hunt a stand over looking a 250 yard long lane running north/south through the center of a 3 year old cut over. This spot has been hunted only once this entire season. Over the last month, my trail cameras have shown a couple of mature bucks using this area of the cut over quite often.
We arrived with plenty of time before daylight, gathered our gear and headed toward the creek. The stand lies just beyond the creek which means that we'd have to cross a log in the pre-dawn light. Its a rather large log and I assumed Taylor wouldn't have any problems scampering across. Well, little did I know that Taylor was basically sleep walking behind me. Once I crossed the creek and turned around to watch him, I just knew he was going in the water. You would've thought we crossed on a high wire instead of a 24" beech tree! Thankfully, he made it across without testing the water.
After a short and quiet approach to the stand from the creek, we assumed our position over looking the clear cut. The wind was steady around 5-10 mph and had me and Taylor shivering. I proceeded to rattle, grunt and bleat every 20-30 minutes. It produced no response...that we saw anyway. With Taylor shivering violently and my confidence diminishing, I decided to make a move. It was near 8:45 a.m. and I knew of a spot that we could slip into relatively fast and easy.
Our transition from one location to the next went smoothly. We were now heading to our new location with only a few minutes of time lost. Our new setup is located in a thinned pine plantation. It's a small stand that receives virtually no pressure. Basically, its overlooked. It's on the northeastern most portion of our hunting property and is bordered to the east and south by unusable habitat. I recently put a 12' ladder on a cut corridor only 120 yards off the south line.
As Taylor and I crossed the fence into the pine stand, we bumped a doe that happened to be between us and the ladder. "No big deal", I told Taylor. The doe was upwind of us and simply didn't make that big a deal of us being there. I instructed Taylor to continue ahead to the ladder while I would stay about 70 yards back to observe and call. It was now approximately 9:00 a.m. At 9:10 I grunted and bleated. Soon after a rattled and grunted some more. I watched Taylor through my binoculars as he sat motionless waiting for movement. It was now around 9:25 and I was starting to get antsy. We had to leave the woods by 10:00 so I decided I would slip around to the west and try to bump something out of the nearest hollow over to Taylor. Just as I was moving from the pine stand into the hardwoods, I hear Taylor trip off the rifle! I immediately began moving quickly in his direction. Once I made eye contact with him, I could see he was giving me the thumbs up! I walked to within feet of his stand and asked if he shot one. Taylor said, "yep, he was standing right where you are!" "HE", I asked! Taylor re-confirmed that it was a "HE" and that he was big. According to Taylor, he heard 3 grunts soon after I rattled. Looking back to see if it was me, he realized I had moved. As he turned his head back around to survey the landscape, he caught movement only a few yards off his left shoulder. He literally watched the buck take two steps, shouldered his rifle and fired!
He and I looked but couldn't find any blood at the scene of the crime. Since he was confident of his shot and thought he heard the buck crash, I decided to head in the direction he last saw the buck. Noticing the buck before he did, I told Taylor to come look over near me while I got the video mode on my phone ready. I was able to film him as he found his buck piled up not 40 yards from his tree!

The buck was one that we've photographed for 3 years. We named him Squatty 8 due to his rack shape and tine length. He had been very photogenic the last two years but this year he's been quite shy. It's very likely that he is a 5 year old deer. He weighed 180 pounds, had 10 total points, 18" main beams, 4" bases and a 16" spread.

A Joyful Heart

2011-12-19T22:23:00.003-06:00

The Man Minute - sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

There is something unique in all of us that is reconnected to the soul during the Christmas season. I suspect for each of us it may be different, but Christmas has a way of bringing out in us all those things which get lost throughout the year. At least that's the case for me anyway.

"Confession is good for the soul" says the ancient axiom. I must confess that this year I have not been the best friend to those around me. I have not been nearly as available in mind, or body, as I should have been or as I wanted to be. I found myself spread far too thin as December approached, and in the thinning I found that I couldn't capture some of the mojo that the Christmas season normally brings to my life. Too many deadlines, projects, and all those other things that, for whatever reason, seemed too important in the moment to cause me to slow down and capture whatever it was that I was losing sight of at the time.

All of this is a feeble attempt at getting to my point: I want to thank you. All of you. The Man Minute is read by thousands of people, and I have the joy of often getting very real, very sincere feedback from many of you who have told me that it helped you through a decision, or that a simple devotion on a Monday simply brought clarity from the Word of God as He spoke to your current situation.

So here it is December 19th and my heart spoke clearly telling me that I needed to spend time this week writing notes to my friends. Telling them how much I loved them, how thankful I am for their journey with me over the years, and how much I desperately needed them in my life. Journeys are better when you have someone to share them with, for no road is safe to walk alone.

I knew that my first thank you note had to go to you, for whatever measure I have sown into your life, the harvest has been equally as much mine as it has been yours because of the outlet you provide by giving me a place to share thoughts concerning the Lord who is the master of our souls.

I am thankful to share the road of following the man from Nazareth with you.

Jason Cruise.

The Skinning Rack....part 1

2011-12-19T22:21:00.004-06:00

Chad Odum smoked the buck in the first photo on December 17th. Chad was hunting as a guest on a friends place in the Mississippi River Delta. As you can see in the background, the Big Muddy has been on the rise and the water had this buck cruising a high ridge where Chad just happened to be waiting!
The second buck was shot on December 22nd in Covington county. I received this photo literally as I was fixing to post this, so I've not gotten the details on him yet.

Now let me introduce y'all to the Burgess boys. These boys have been whacking and stacking! The first photo is of Lane and Bradley. Lane harvested this bruiser with his pawpaw. Lane has already killed multiple bucks this season and he's only 10 years old.
The second photo is of Bradley. Bradley was hunting with his dad, Michael, on this hunt but not in the same tree. This was Bradley's first official deer to kill while hunting on his own...way to go Bradley! That's a heck of a good buck!

Here's a buck killed by my friend Blair Marble's cousin, Jody. He was harvested in Hinds county in early December. The buck was all by himself feeding on acorns up in the middle of the morning. He scored in the lower 160's

Rich Nichols sent me this photo of his brother, Todd's buck harvested earlier in the season in Claiborne county. Todd was hunting his lease and watched this buck fight with another smaller buck right in front of his stand. What Todd didn't realize was that the neighbors cows were in the nearby thicket. According to Todd, when he shot this buck the world seemed to be coming to an end as all the cows busted out of the thicket and stampeded through the woods!

Last but not least we have a harvest report from Jim "Ironman, White Hi Nee, Peewee" Cole. Here is his account of the hunt for this nice MS River buck:
Killed 12/3/2011 approximately 7:45 am. Scored him at 132"

With temperatures ranging in the upper 50's to mid 60's I really didn't have
high expectations for this hunt. In my mind I was just going to try to put
some meat in the freezer with a doe. I decided to climb a tree on the side
of what we call the Big Lake, which is in South Warren County near the MS
River. Right at daylight I had a doe come out around 50 yards to my right.
I kept glassing to see if I could find a fawn but no luck, so I let her pass
to be on the safe side. I turned as she got behind me and low and behold a
fawn appeared with her. By that time I had no shot so I was bummed about
that. I noticed another deer while watching her walk away, it was a 1.5 year
old 5 point. Right after that I saw another small buck following a doe.
They went on their way. Around 7:30 I picked up some movement in the cutover
to my right about 90 yards away. I put the binoculars up and knew it was a
pretty good deer but I couldn't determine his width or spread with the view I
had. He turned to walk across the cutover and I turned and grabbed my
muzzleloader. By the time I got the gun turned around he had made it to a
thicket and no shot was available. I was able to watch him for about 10
minutes in the thicket and I could see his head and antlers but I still
couldn't determine how big his body was. I sure didn't want to make a
mistake and shoot a young buck. We the buck walked out of sight and I text
my hunting partner Robby and let him know I had just let a possible shooter
get away. He text me back and I glanced over my shoulder behind me and there
he was walking in the wide open. I could see then he had a huge body so I
had to hurry up to get a shot. I stood up and turned around and found the
last opening I could have shot through and he stepped in it. I let the smoke
pole sound off and place a perfect shot on him. He never took a step. I
aged him at 4.5 and he weighed 236 pounds. He had 16.75" spread and 21.5"
beams. He had a 10.5" G3 on the left beam. One of my best deer yet. I
scored him at 132.5"

One Proud Papa!!!

2011-12-19T22:09:00.006-06:00

Fellow Super Hunter and friend, Chris Foster shares the story of his oldest son's first buck taken back on December 10th - ENJOY!

Well, my oldest boy, David, done gone an done it now! He got his first deer this last Saturday! WE WERE PUUUUUMPED! Lemme rewind a 'lil....

This all started last year. That was the first year that he really showed an interest in deer hunting. I have always made hunting available to him, and he has hunted some over the years, but last year he got "the bug" to kill a deer. He had killed some squirrels and hunted a little, but I was kinda concerned about deer huntin, because he can be a tender hearted little fella. Well, last year we killed a buck together and it fired him up so I knew he was ready to go.

Now I hunt in a deer rich camp, but we haven't planted food plots in the last two years due to extenuating circumstances, so it was old school hunting...acorns, trails, etc. We were also limited on two man stands and with our camp being pretty thick, ground hunting opportunities are limited. So, we hunted all last year with the culminating hunt being a miss on a FINE 8 point on the last weekend (due to a dropped rifle and scope bumpage) on the way to the blind. Fast forward to this year. I had purchased a couple extra two man stands and done more preparation. I had spied several nice bucks during bow season and had seen a real nice deer two weekends ago that I had hoped David or his younger brother would have a chance to get. I also had four other nice bucks on camera, so needless to say, the stage was set.

We arrived at camp last Friday after a half day of school, quickly dressed and headed out to set up a ground blind and hunt the small, overgrown pasture that I had seen several of the good bucks in during bow season and had let one walk the week before. This little field is a magical place. It is bordered by a very steep banked, cane lined creek on one side, and a 5 acre privet, briar thicket on the other side with a mix of oaks around the edges....and a bean tree for good measure. Well, as most always happens, the best laid plans went awry. We jumped two deer going in, and the wind swirled on us all afternoon. Deer 116- Us-0...

That night, as you all know, you could run wind sprints through the woods cause the 150 million candlepower moon was up all night. Needless to say, I didn't have the highest hopes for the next morning. We awoke to a light frost as the moon set, and soon founds ourselves perched 16' off the ground overlooking one of my favorite cutovers. My thinking was, at least we may catch'em moving around the edges. As the sun crept higher, we spotted a buck and several does on the far side of the cutover at about 250 yards heading our way. So we waited. Now, the only problem with this particular stand is that as the sun clears the far tree line, it's in your face, BAD! So there is about a 10-15 minute window where optics are useless until the sun gets a little higher. We were about five minutes into this window when deer started filing up onto the finger ridge in front of us at about 125 yards. As they filter up, I can see that two of them are bucks, I have no idea of their size, just that they have racks. By now, David is getting excited because the deer are working their way along the face of the ridge and only need to clear some sweetgum brush to present a shot. About that time, one of the bucks breaks formation and comes to the edge of the timber. David is now down on his gun, but he his having trouble locating the buck in his scope due to the bright sun. After a tense but quick conversation with him, he tells me that he can see the deer in his crosshairs. I reach over to his .243 and flip off his safety and slid down beside him, coaching him to breath easy, settle the crosshairs and squeBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM! The deer hunches up, HARD, and kinda tip toes about ten yards and stops. The other deer bail for cover leaving their mortally wounded compadre as a sacrifice. I grab the gun as David exclaims I GOT A DEER!!!! I quickly shuck another round and say "Shoot him again!". He bares down, and BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM! The buck pile drives into the pine straw, only to lift his head one more time before giving up the fight. David had his first deer! I hear his voice quivering behind me and turn to find him with tears streaming down his face. UH OH! Then, as if to reassure me, he exclaims "TEARS OF JOY DAD! TEARS OF JOY! I LOVE YOU!" Man, all I can say is....well, it was freaking AWESOME! We climbed down and called momma as we skirted the edge of the cutover, to tell her the good news. We then called pawpaw (who I owe a deep debt for helping us with little brother's hunting adventures....thats a whole 'nuther story) to tell him the good news. As we slipped up on the deer, I was trying to tell him that we needed to make sure he was down before we approached...THERE HE IS! MY DEER! Yes, there he was, his first deer! A dang fine seven point. Hugging, high fiving, celebrating life, death, and thanking God for His creation.

What a hunt!

Skin in the Game

2011-12-14T21:38:00.001-06:00

The Man Minute - sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

If you have been following Christ for any amount of time, then surely by now you have confronted the brutal reality that you serve a God who is continually calling you to take risks in all matters of life as it relates to your faith.

In the Parable of the Talents, the master makes what appears to be a risky move by allowing his servants not only to take large portions of his money, but also to be entrusted to manage his land while he's away on the journey. Land and money. The two greatest possessions a master could own. (fyi. a talent was equivalent to one year's salary)

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. - Matthew 25:14-18

The servants surely must have felt over-exposed. I know I would have. I'd have felt an immediate sense of panic to know that, for the first time, I've been called up to the big leagues. Even though two servants made successful investments and one did not, surely all three felt, as we say, in over their head.

The next time ... and there will be a next time ... when God calls you to stretch beyond your borders remember this simple truth: though you may feel incredibly vulnerable and ripe for failure, do not believe the lie of the enemy that you are the one taking the risk. There will never be a time, my brothers, when you are the one with the greatest amount of skin in the game. Be obedient and enjoy the journey, the risk was never in your court in the first place. Jason Cruise

For God so love the world that He gave His only son ...

Heeerrreee's Johnny!!!

2011-12-12T16:52:00.006-06:00

The following is the account of the pursuit of Johnny Carson, a Yazoo County buck harvested by my dentist and friend Shaun Mayette...ENJOY!!!

This buck is one I named Johnny Carson because he always came on camera late at night. The other bucks I am hunting also have names like Conan, Arsenio, etc. Conan is really the one I am after...he is a ten point and a fair amount bigger than Johnny.

The last two weeks I have noticed a large amount of buck sign(rubs/scrapes) in this area that I was getting these photos. Saturday evening the wind was right for me to hunt in there. I really wasn't anticipating the opportunity to see a good buck just yet...it was still a week early for the "magical" time of year.

The area I was hunting is a creek bottom surrounded by hilly terrain. There is a 100 yard wide area of grown up bedding area along the creek then a long narrow food plot that runs roughly north and south. On the other side of the food plot is a large block of mature hard wood timber. The north wind was right in my face. As daylight began to wane deer started coming into the plot... Does and small bucks. The small bucks were giving those does "up the country." Chasing them around and grunting, basically acting a fool.

I was very entertained and content watching this pre-rut/beginning of rut activity take place right in front of me. I had only read and watched on TV the things I was witnessing. Right before dark, I started hearing something coming from my right, about 50 yards to the north of my position in a 20 foot tripod. I could hear a grunt every now and then as the deer approached. It was a much more "laid back" vocalization compared to the young bucks I had been watching. Finally, I saw deer entering the food plot from a trail that I had noticed in my scouting. First, there were two does and then as if he appeared out of thin air...it was "Johnny." He just stood there like a statue as the does walked out and started feeding. He looked regal standing there in one spot surveying his surroundings. I quickly saw that his antlers were wider than his ears and knew it was Johnny due to the many pictures I had gotten of him.

I quickly grabbed my 45-70 as he was standing broad-side. I shot him at 50 yards. He is my best buck to date and am thankful God allowed me the opportunity to experience that hunt.

Merry Christmas,

Shaun

Smart Phones

2011-12-05T21:05:00.001-06:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

How did we even live before the cell phone? Actually, we got along just fine! You've got to admit, you know you love the convenience. My choice is an iPhone, clad in a Realtree APG case, so that all the world may know I AM A HUNTER.

Smartphones are amazing, especially when trying to partner with your oldest son as together you create a manipulative scheme to get him a foul ball. On this given night at the ballpark, it had been raining for hours. I told Cole that there was a small chance the rain would stop just in time for the first inning, and yet, in doing so, cause everyone to assume it was going to rain out the game, thus leaving the ball park virtually empty. Brothers of the Man Minute, I testify to you that this is exactly what happened. The Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers is the Nashville Sounds, and they were playing the Omaha Storm. A fitting team on a rainy night. The ballpark was all but ours.

Because we were sitting by the first base dugout, we created a plan. Using our iPhonic resources, we searched the web and found the Omaha website, seeking to uncover the first baseman's name. Every other kid was, in total amateur fashion, yelling for a "ball." The idea was that Cole would make it personal and scream the player's name as he ran to the dugout. Now this concept of personalizing a request would be expected and even routine at a Major League Game where players are well known. This was a minor league game, however, we were going to play it on the Major League level because that's how the Cruise boys roll.

We discovered quickly that Omaha's first baseman was a softy, for he continually gave baseball after baseball to little girls. This diamond baller was proving to be quite the adversary. Then something happened.

Unbeknownst to me, a spiritual collusion had been brewing. An unseen force had permeated the crowd, but no one person was talking about it. It had, up to this point, remained dormant, waiting for the timing of, no doubt, the Holy Spirit. In the sixth inning, Cole went down to the dugout, once again, to hold up his arms, his little baseball glove in hand, and shout the first baseman's name as he trotted toward the dugout. This time, however, when Cole opened his jaws to shout his name, the entire first base side of Sounds fans started shouting in unison "CLINT, CLINT, CLINT!" as they pointed to Cole. Cole opened up his mouth, but 60 voices filled the airwaves, making his voice thunder like one of the apocalyptic four horsemen. So much so that Clint, who had his eyes on yet another blond-headed dress wearer, turned to see the clamor, only to be staring straight into the eyes of a little boy with his glove held high.

When the ball rolled across the dugout, my son swallowed it up like a vacuum cleaner on jet fuel. The entire first base side went nuts.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

"Blessed are they that shout, for they shall be heard." 1 Jason 3:1

Jason Cruise

Thick Horns....AKA...The Steed Buck

2011-12-01T20:51:00.003-06:00

I am a strategist when it comes to chasing The Whitetail. I love it! From collecting trail camera photos, to reading maps, to hanging stands, I love formulating a strategy and seeing it produce. More times than not, things in the whitetail woods never go according to plan, but every now and then it does. I'm hoping this season will be such a time. If you've followed The Buff Pad since last deer season you may recall my post regarding one of my last hunts of the season. I was with my good buddy Taylor Steed. During that hunt, we encountered a buck we had named Thick Horns. Thick Horns followed "Plan A" but Taylor was unable to collect him due to an error I had made. More on that story here.
Anyway, Thick Horns, aka The Steed Buck, was top of our list coming into this season. My cousin has collected numerous photos of the buck on his side of the creek. As the rut approaches, slowly I might add, it seems that Thick Horns is traveling a bit more and I am now picking him up on my side of the creek. As you can see from the trail cam photos, he is moving a couple hours just inside of dark.

The source of his activity lately has been a cutover that is now in its 3rd season. It is prime! I've not hunted the cutover that much with hopes that Thick Horns or possibly another shooter buck will step out with plenty of daylight left and give Taylor a shot at redemption. Heck, I hope he steps out in bow range of me for that matter...sorry Taylor!

Check back in from time to time to see if ole' Thick Horns slips up!

Dreaming...

2011-11-28T12:23:00.002-06:00

With a steady drizzle out side and probably an inch plus of rain already on the ground, there ain't a whole lot of logging going on today. So, while I'm sitting here in front of the computer I thought I'd run something by you guys...and girls too.
I've had this pie in the sky dream of creating a website that would incorporate a blog as well as some video of hunts present and past. However, I wasn't sure how many folks actually watched hunting shows online. There is one that I've grown quite fond of called Midwest Whitetails (www.midwestwhitetails.com). It is a excellent show slam full of useful information and some sho-nuff STUD whitetails. Check this site out...especially, if you never have before, and then let me know what you think. Can something like this work in the south?

Abiding

2011-11-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

A few times a year The Man Minute will come to you via video. This is one of those times. Hope you like it - Jason Cruise.

The Man Minute November 7, 2011

BOOM STICKS...they're a coming!!!!

2011-11-14T21:25:00.003-06:00

That's right, this Saturday officially kicks off the 2011-2012 Mississippi Rifle Season for The Whitetail. Actually, we're on the tail-end of a two week youth season and a week long early primitive weapon season, but make no mistake about it, this weekend is when every Tom, Dick and Harry that's thought about hunting will be in the woods! So, y'all be sure to wear your Hunter's Orange:)

Below are a few updates from guys who have found success in the fall woods thus far:

Russell Ingram is shown above with a Mississippi buck of a lifetime! Here is his account of the hunt - Shot this buck the afternoon of October 20th at 6:43 PM. Haven't scored him yet but his inside is right at 22" w/ 25" & 26" Beams. I knew the
buck was in the area but all previous pictures of him have been at night.
Deer moved this particular afternoon more than I have seen in quite some time. Had
him snort wheeze at a smaller 8pt before I actually saw him coming out of
hardwood bottom. Shot him at 25 yards quartering to me and actually made a
pretty bad shot however the Rage Broadhead saved the day. Let him lay for
about an hour before I went in there finding NO blood until I literally
walked right up on him about 40 yards from the shot. We passed this buck
last year as a 18" 8pt and it looks like he put on 30" in one year. I am
anxious to see how old he is but just guessing I'm only saying 5.5 (maybe
4.5). I'm VERY excited about this buck and truly blessed to experience the hunt of
lifetime with a bow in hand!

Josh Thrash has been keeping it real in Rankin county this year. He sent me this pic the other day from his cell phone. The subject line read - View from the Tree! I'm kinda partial to that sort of view myself!!!

Jonathon Breakfield sent this one in the other day. His subject line read - Slumpbuster!

Lastly, I wanted to bring you an interesting story I heard a couple of months ago. Corey Dale, a friend from my home town of Prentiss, shot a hum dinger during the first couple of weeks of the 2010 bow season. As soon as he released the arrow, he knew his shot was high. After a lengthy blood trail and exhaustive search, Corey emerged from the woods with little hope of ever seeing this buck again. Fast forward to the summer of 2011 and Corey's dad just happened to bump into a man in need of some tractor work on his hunting ground. Naturally, Mr. Dale asked where the property was and was surprised to learn this fellow hunts across the creek from Corey. But the real surprise didn't come until the man mentioned killing a big 10 point the previous January. Mr. Dale thought about Corey's buck but this was a little over a mile from where Corey had been hunting. It wasn't til the man mentioned finding a Rage broadhead in the spin of the 10 point that Mr. Dale knew this was Corey's buck. The two men exchanged phone numbers and Corey was able to speak with his neighbor to hear the details of how he harvested the trophy. The neighbor sent Corey photos of the buck and the broadhead. How crazy is that!

Late Reports from North and West

2011-10-10T19:31:00.004-05:00

Now that the dust has settled on August and September, I can report on the trips taken out west by friends of The Buff Pad.

Unlike years past, this year's traveling hunters found limited success. That's just how it goes some years...I guess. Out of the three guys I personally knew who chased elk this fall, none brought back meat. For some opportunities presented themselves and for others there was no such luck.

Josh Thrash was one of the few that did collect on his trip. He, his dad and a couple other friends ventured north to Quebec, Canada back in late August in search of a migrating herd of Caribou. Upon touching down in base camp, they were instructed to get there gear and get in the boat. A massive herd was within striking distance and the guides knew that they needed to take advantage of the opportunity. That afternoon Josh's dad tagged a bull right off the bat. Josh and his dad ended up filling both of their bull tags with Josh harvesting the biggest bull in camp that week. Josh said he learned a lot: Caribou seldom stand still for the shot, the average shot is well over 40 yards, and take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves cause the migration could "dry up" at any moment. Here are some photos from the trip; I sure wouldn't mind doing this one day!

...on my LAST NERVE!

2011-10-07T12:37:00.004-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

We've all got our last nerve. That raw place where people don't know how sensitive you are to something until they step on it. In that moment it's immediately apparent to everyone that your last nerve was just stomped upon! I try not to have many places in my heart where a last nerve resides bare and unattended. Even still, I'd be lying if I said there were no spots in my life where I can go from 0 to 60 in the tachometer of angry.

One such place is when I must put up with a person who has proven, over and over again, that they have embraced a bad attitude as their choice for living. I realize that every one of us will have seasons, actually more than once if we live long enough, where our attitude is broken down like an old truck on the side of the road.

Here's the issue. Life can and will bring all kinds of stuff my way which can quickly attack my attitude. The problem is, attitude affects everything. Attitude is the game changer, fellas, but it changes the game only in how I decide I want it changed; that is, a win or loss is put in the stat column based on what kind of game I want to play. When Jesus changes a heart, He infects the whole person. His cosmic grace, power, strength, and joy soaks through the DNA with no strand uncovered. My attitude is my witness to a lost and dying world that my joy, my hope, and my grace for living out each and every situation is not up for sale to the highest bidder of circumstance.

"... be transformed by the renewing of your mind ..." Romans 12:2
Jason Cruise

Later Gator!

2011-09-25T13:40:00.010-05:00

Time has a tendency to get by before you know it. Such was the case as summer began to give way to fall this year. I had every intention of planning another men's fellowship on the river like we did last year, but with a new job and Josh's (the camp owner) busy schedule it didn't look like it would happen. Thankfully, Paul Hand stepped in and took the reigns.

Originally, we figured on bow fishing just as we had done the previous year. However, those plans unraveled as the date drew near. That's when Josh let it be known that he had a couple private land alligator tags...that's right, alligator tags!

After arriving early Friday evening, a couple of the guys went with Josh to check trail cameras (I've been sworn to secrecy on the contents) while the rest of us shot bows. Instead of spending all our time cooking this year, we had some fine pulled pork from C'Paw's in Brandon. Before, during and after dinner, numerous war stories were told about hunts past...that's always my favorite part. Then we jumped into some Word. After our Bible study, Scott Berry was anxious to get on the water in pursuit of a gator. Naturally, there was no shortage of spectators. Myself and several others hung back at the camp and told more stories while Scott and his crew tied into a 9'1" female...gator that is! The boys motored up to camp in the boat whooping and hollering about their success. Turns out, the female gator was only a few several inches from the state record. Having never been that close to a gator that size, I was impressed by her mass, as well as the size of her back feet. After a lengthy picture taking session, another attempt was made for another gator. It didn't last long before sleep deprivation got the best of everyone.

Saturday morning started off right...scrambled eggs, whop biscuits, bacon and orange juice! Several of the guys packed their stuff up to head back home, but Scott and Josh gathered their gator hunting equipment. Josh had been eying a big'un in a borrow pit off the levee of their camp property. I decided to hang out to see how this would unfold. Having never viewed the gator any closer than 100 yards, Josh really didn't know how big this thing was. Let me just say that if he had known he would probably have chosen a more worthy vessel to pursue this gator in! What was supposed to be a quick kill turned into a 4 hours battle with a 12'10" jurassic size alligator. I'm pretty sure there's a rule that states that the vessel you're hunting out of should be larger than the gator you're pursuing...if not, there should be!

Bountiful Harvest...

2011-09-07T21:12:00.001-05:00

One can only hope - right?

I took this photo on gorgeous property outside of Utica, MS today. Acorns, from both red and white oaks covered the forest floor. No doubt, tropical storm Lee had a lot to do with that. I noticed a few white oak acorns on the ground in Prentiss too. On the surface, it appears that our dry hot summer didn't have too much of an affect on our mast crop this season. But I my survey was hardly exhaustive, you'd better get out this weekend and look around for yourselves.

Polky

The Record Book

2011-09-04T22:43:00.004-05:00

For those of you who read my blog from time to time, you've probably read one of the many Man Minutes that I re-post with permission from my friend Jason Cruise. Jason has a passion for all things wild and a passion for sharing the message of Christ with outdoorsmen. Within the last year to 18 months, Jason has played a major role in producing two incredible DVD's - The Lord of the Spring and The Record Book.
Both projects are packed full of useful information for both deer and turkey hunters...in more ways than one! Trust me, these videos are legit; nothing cheesy or boring for that matter. But don't take my word for it, view the clip below from the Record Book or log on to there website and order a copy. These DVD's are an awesome way to share Christ with guys in your camp or folks you know that hunt.

www.recordbookproject.com

Record Book Intro from Outdoor Nation on Vimeo.

Is Your "Religion" Worthless?

2011-09-04T21:38:00.002-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

Because in his letter James uses the word "brother" so very often, you cannot read his descriptions of how to live out the faith without filtering it through the connection of brotherhood. Kinship. Family. As my friends in Mississippi say, "How's ya mama -n- them?" Family matters.

James gets to this place where he goes straight to the bone of how brothers are to live, then, in the light of what it means to have kinfolk in the name of Jesus. "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless." (James 1:26)

If you are the least bit concerned with a solid understanding of God's word, then there are non-negotiable rules one must use when it comes to the interpreting the Scriptures. Of these basic fundamentals is the fact that you cannot simply read a passage in context, that is, what comes before and after it. You must go further and read the passage in light of the entire book in which it's written. To get a tight grip on what James 1:26 is all about, it must be understood in light of all of what he's saying about God, life, faith ... and brotherhood. This way you can see what he's getting at when he talks about the tongue as it fits together as a whole, not just as a chapter.

Then it becomes all too clear ... brothers do not slander brothers. Jason Cruise

A New Tradition

2011-09-03T22:14:00.003-05:00

Last year, Tom Wiley invited me to try something new - an early season goose hunt. It was so much fun I made sure to drop Tom enough hints so I could get an invite again this year.
Thursday morning I tagged along with Tom and three other men to the same farm we hunted the previous year. In fact, Tom has hunted this particular farm for nearly 10 years. Naturely, Tom has a lot of history from prior seasons but each year is different. Due to a demanding business schedule, Tom was unable to scout the field the prior morning. This is critical as the geese will likely return to a field morning after morning until they are disturbed or they find a better meal somewhere else.
Well before daylight, we set out 4 or 5 dozen decoys and 5 layout blinds. The stage was set for fun, but the geese had another location in mind about 3/4 of a mile north and east of our position. It was time to enact "Plan B"! After piling all our gear onto Tom's trailer, we headed for the local watering hole. The landowner had informed Tom that the geese were consistently using one of his ponds everyday around 9:00 a.m. With very little cover, we nestled our blinds in the grass on the levee and scatted a couple dozen decoys between us and the water's edge. In minutes, the chatter of geese taking flight tickled our ears and we got ready. What happened next is hard to describe. It falls in the "you had to be there" category! In a nutshell, we had about 80 - 100 geese fall into the pond - within gun range I might add! However, when our hunt master (who will remain anonomous) gave us the "take'em" command, the geese came to rest on the water. Some how, some way, 5 trigger happy hunters let all those geese swim out of gun range without firing a shot! Like I said earlier, you just had to be there.
We eventually spooked those geese off the water. Two of the guys had to leave early which left me, Tom and Steve Snell there to restore some level of pride we had just lost. It wasn't long before another wave of honkers were heading our way. This time there was no second guessing. The birds worked wonderfully and we made the most of the opportunity given. All total we headed home with 11 geese...just enough for Tom to have some goose sausage made.

Wisdom and Revelation....why???

2011-08-01T21:27:00.003-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

Praying for wisdom is one of those prayers where God promises to give you exactly what you want, for James tells us "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (James 1:5)

The point of God granting you wisdom is not just so you'll make better decisions that ultimately honor His name. The grand design of His granting you wisdom is so that you will actually know His heart in ways that you didn't beforehand.

I do not have a favorite Scripture, for I find that the other ones get jealous. In my top three of all time, however, is a prayer Paul prays for his friends in Ephesus, where he tells them:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. (Eph. 1:18)

A spirit of wisdom and revelation ... the ability to see beyond the surface. To see what is actually there instead of what appears to be there. So that you may know Him better ... thus the goal of being granted the favor of wisdom and revelation. Knowing the heart of a God who always has your best interests in mind. Jason Cruise

"Short-term Gain; Long-term Loss"

2011-07-24T20:46:00.003-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

Stupid decisions look even more stupid after you've had a few years to think back on what you did in that one moment. The story of Jacob and Esau carries with it a ton of dynamics, yet one that so easily sticks out is that Esau would be willing to sell his "birthright" for a meal ... and it wasn't even a big meal at that.

Like many of you who read the Man Minute, Esau loved to hunt. The difference was he hunted to survive while we hunt for sport. Esau most likely hadn't eaten in a while, and he was, in his words, "Famished." Jacob, his own brother, was cooking up some stew and tells him he'll share it but Esau must grant him his birthright. Now this was no small thing, for they were sons of Issac, and Issac was the son of Abraham. A birthright meant all of the benefits of the family name, and with a name like Abraham, that would be a birthright you'd want to keep!

Esau let his emotions drive his brain. He makes the deal.

It was a short-term gain for a long-term loss.

At its core, this is the very nature of temptation. It's the masking of a truth, where you accept the offer of temporary relief, even though you know there most likely will be long-term ramifications. How many times, looking back on it, have you wished you'd never done it?

The next time you're faced with a decision that feels like it needs to be made quickly, step back. Very, very few situations in life actually demand quick decisions. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. You don't have to sell your soul, your birthright, just to gain a few yards. Keep the end in mind, and you'll be able to honor God when you do. Jason Cruise

"From the Inside Out"

2011-07-17T22:59:00.002-05:00

The Man Minute - sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

I have forever found it a weird concept when I think of having to "defend" the gospel.

I understand the terminology, that is, that Christians are to be able and willing to make a case for faith. Peter tells us to have a ready defense; that is, the ability to share why we believe. I live by that, however, I do not feel the need to have to protect God as if He were vulnerable to demise! As it plays out in every day life, however, I do not feel a need to defend God, nor His truths. Who is able to defend such a splendor as a Creator God in a manner worthy to do Him justice? It cannot be done. Mere mortals must bow the will to His reality, and refusal to do so is the epitome of arrogance worthy of divine judgment.

Truth is something that every person must reckon with, whether they want to or not. It's a common line of thinking that a person who denies Christ does so on the basis of the rejection of facts presented from a Christ-follower. The truth is, in order to deny Christ, one must do so by not rejecting facts, but by suppressing truth. God created in every heart His reality, and in order to deny that reality, a person doesn't reject him from the outside in, but from the inside out.

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is know about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." Romans 1:18-19

The "Hollywood" Marriage

2011-05-23T06:57:00.005-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

Hollywood portrays the idea of love as something akin to a life filled with intense passion, long nights of romance, brilliant struggles to keep one another's heart, and so on it goes. All in all, the "picture" we often get of love is one that is a life lived with the volume turned up and the heart set on full throttle. It's a life centered on passion and emotion, or, at least that's the scene we watch play out on the big screen.

While love is most certainly passionate, love that lasts more than the typical Hollywood marriage of twelve months, is a love not based on emotion, it's based on a promise. Lasting love definitely contains emotion within it, yet it's foundation is not emotional.

Think about it: if you were building a house, would you want a foundation that is moody, volatile, and emotional? I dare say nobody would want that house. You'd want a foundation that is solid and steady, regardless of the situation.

Scripture tells us that real love "... is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." (1 Corinthians 13:4-5)

Love is patient. That's a choice, not an emotion. Love is not self-seeking. That's a choice. Love is not easily angered nor does it keep a record of wrongs. That's a massive choice, when one chooses to overcome the emotion of anger and bury a wrong done.

You can have infatuation and passion, but never be deceived into thinking that infatuation and passion will guarantee love, because that's a life built on a fantasy. The older I get, the more I see that love which lasts through a lifetime is a love that is passionate, but it always chooses to love, even when the emotional account is temporarily spent. It's real love that wants to honor one another. It's real love that wants to see the best in the other person. It's real love that proves itself by hanging around when wrinkles come and good health starts showing it's age. Real love chooses to keep the promise of continuing to love. The beautiful thing is that you can own love that is both passionate and yet based on reality, because the grace of God can bring the best of these two worlds together into a reality that is certain, if and only if, it's based on the love of Jesus that is active in the lives of the lovers. Jason Cruise

The Real Deal - David Blanton

2011-05-20T19:30:00.008-05:00

Through the years, the Lord has seen fit to allow me to meet several influential people in the outdoor industry. These haven't been just "any" people mind you. I'm talking about men who are as passionate about their walk with Jesus as they are their pursuit of wild game.
Case in point - last Thursday night our church, Crossgates Baptist, hosted David Blanton for an evening with area sportsmen. I don't know about y'all but I've literally followed David Blanton's carrier since the beginning. I can remember seeing him for the first time on Primos' Truth 2 about Spring Turkey Hunting. At that time, David hosted a show in Georgia called Outdoors in Dixie and, if I'm not mistaken, he was wearing Mossy Oak! It wasn't long before Bill Jordan came calling and the rest is history. This was a lot of what David shared with folks Thursday night along with some of his personal testimony about his walk with Jesus.
I'm not going to try to summarize it here because I couldn't come close to doing it justice. However, I will say that Mr. Blanton is one of the most sincere and transparent men, regardless of his celebrity, that I've ever met. I'm honored that he saw fit to share his walk of faith with us and hope that you too will get to meet this man of God one day. As one of my buddies said so eloquently, "man, I believe that guy would sit on the tailgate and spit with you." I believe he would too!

If you would like to hear his message from last Thursday night, it will be posted on www.crossgatessportsmen.org soon.

The Quest

2011-05-16T08:01:00.006-05:00

The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood.

Beyond question, my favorite time of the year exists in the spring. From mid-March to mid-May, when strutters are on the troll, I find myself obsessed with the chase. Were I forced to choose between elk, whitetails, or even fly fishing, I'd no doubt choose the six to eight weeks of spring to satisfy my outdoor obsession.

Just this past week I introduced one of my soul brothers to the addiction that runs through my veins. He asked for it. He wanted to see what the Siren call was all about, and though fully warned about the potential life changes that could ensue, even still he chose to enter the woods. Two hours later Russ Rankin was staring down the barrel of a Thompson Center 12 gauge, violently introducing his first tom to Winchester Xtended Range. Walking out bird in tote he looked over at me and said, "You know, I've always understood why guys would love to hunt trophy bucks because of the big antlers, but I can see how this would totally capture a man. It's because of 'the game' you play, isn't it?"

In that moment, I knew Russ needed no further mentoring in the world of feathered fever. In the short span of the 120 minutes it took to throw this bird over his shoulder, the seductive sounds of the gobble and yelp had saturated his marrow. He now understood why these spring chess matches are incredibly intoxicating.
When I enter the woods to chase a tom, I never, ever know the outcome, and I'm convinced therein lies the secret with why countless numbers of men are incredibly uninterested in the idea of "church." Tozer once said that we've reduced God to someone who will "never surprise us, never astonish us, never overwhelm us, nor ever transcend us."

I will get up at 3:30 am, battle intense humidity, ticks, the possibility of stepping on a copperhead, and the likelihood of coming home empty handed, just to experience the drama of a journey with which I know not the outcome. Your personal faith journey can look just like the hunt of a lifetime, and that constant sense of adventure alive in your own life can have fast, transforming effects on the people you go to church with as well. Jesus never once called a person to a destination or life under a steeple. He only calls people to a relationship, and every relationship I've ever experienced had ever-changing dynamics. Oh that we could all, brothers, lead our churches, and the people in them, to settle for nothing less than faith journeys which scoff at the idea of rote approaches to this eternal God who has made Himself accessible through Jesus The Christ. May we forever be on a quest to experience the astonishment of His great surprises. Jason Cruise

The Boog...gett'n it done in Tennessee!

2011-05-15T21:00:00.014-05:00

In this post, The Buff Pad stretches its far reaching arm north to hear from a Tennessee turkey hunter that's been in here before...David "Booger" Maynard.

We had a pretty good year in Tennessee. 12 long beards were taken off the 1300 acres. I was on 8 of the kills and had lots of fun fooling with them.
I want to introduce you to Adam Crews. We work together for the same wholesale company and helps me out with my customers on a daily basis. He is also a two tour duty Marine Corporal that was in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. He was in the 8th Engineers where they conducted weapons raids uncovering hidden weapons within Al Qaim, Iraq. They worked with EOD blowing up enemy weapons. They also constructed Sea Huts which is living facilities for Marines, Navy and Army personnel to live in. He is a very special person in the Boog's life and I would like to share our recent hunt.
He has had a little trouble in the turkey woods this year so I took him this past saturday to see if we could get a gobbler. We sat up in an area were I worked a turkey the past saturday, hoping that he may still be roosting in the area. Well, we waited until the break of day light and I hooted to no avail, but Adam heard one about a 1/2 mile away so we started our move. Little did he know that the ole Boog still can get from point A to B in a pretty short time. The turkey gobbled again and we got within a 100 yards. We sat down on a ridge over looking a bottom and he was roosted on a fence line and gobbling his head off. We got comfortable and I let him know our location with a soft tree call. He gobbled back and the game was on. A few minutes later three hens pitched down and started feeding about 75 to 100 yards out from us. It was well after light and he was still in the tree gobbling his head off and I could not believe he was still in the tree. Finally he pitched down on the low side of the hill and that gave Adam time to swing his gun into position. I made a soft call and he came up the ridge in and out of strut mode steadily moving within range. The gobbler raised his neck and looked right at us, and told him to take him if he felt comfortable with the shot. Well, so much for that turkey gobbling on the limb any more. He put the smack down on him and the turkey did not even have time to get dew on his feet. I love it when a plan comes together! Adam ran to make sure he was expired. The turkey was 20 lbs, 9 in. beard and 1 1/8 spurs. Man what a classic hunt. I said a little prayer of thanks to God for allowing me and a great new friend to share such a great time in God's great outdoors in pursuit of one of God's great creations. It was a special day in my life and one I will always cherish the rest of my days. I would like to say thanks to Adam Crews for fighting for our freedom and also becoming a part of my life and such a good friend.

This was my last gobbler killed on 4-28. He was with 2 other long beards, a jake a three hens. I made a couple of set ups and a little calling to no avail. Eventually, I made a big loop and got ahead of the birds thinking they may cross a creek and work their way back to where they roost at times. I worked these birds for a least an hour and a half, got reset up and was getting ready to call but for some strange reason this ole boy left the other gobblers and hens, and walked right down my barrel. I will take luck any time I get an opportunity in the turkey woods; I got lucky, took a hunch and it worked out perfect. My afternoon trophy was 25 lb and had an 11" paint brush and 1" spurs.
Wow, after 27 years of turkey hunting I harvested my second and 3rd best turkeys to date! What a great way to end my season and fill my four tags, especially with two stud muffins. I know one thing for sure, you have got to spend your time and patience to kill em.

May God bless and good luck in the woods!
David Booger Maynard
Lebanon,Tn.

He's not an "it"!

2011-05-09T07:13:00.001-05:00

The Man Minute Is Back. These past few months have been great time as I've been working on a new project for a publisher, and the writing time has been good for my soul.
Can't say enough about the encouragement and appreciation I've seen over the past few months with those of you who've encouraged me to get the Man Minute back online. It means more than you know. Now to today's "minute" ... Jason Cruise

The Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is a person, the very person of God. It's a tough mystery that we must receive in faith. I've been reading through John this spring, and in John's gospel the Spirit is described as a Counselor. We've seen that reference many times, and understand that role pretty well as we receive His leading. However, He is also described as a "Spirit of truth." He provides a great and supernatural filter to keep us from believing a lie about ourselves, our circumstances, or the people around us.

Jesus doesn't stop with the descriptions, though. He said something about the Spirit that, for whatever reason, dropped off of my radar in past readings of John. Jesus tells us that the Spirit will "bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:26)

Fellas that's massive. That knowledge is a game changer, for it tells me that in times when my mind is dull, confused, or simply unresponsive due to my mere humanity, the Spirit's role is to remind me of the truths of God's faithfulness so that I may navigate the journey of manhood. I look back on my life and see time after time where God has brought to the forefront of my mind random times where He's proven Himself sovereign. The next time that happens, I can realize that it's not just God at work in my life, it's literally His Spirit doing for me what I cannot do, so that I remember His benefits.

Finishing up in Mississippi

2011-05-08T13:48:00.012-05:00

As is often the case, things began picking up in the turkey woods as April got under way. Limits were filled and multiple beards were killed. Gators were snagged and turkeys were tagged. What can I say...it was an exciting, and for some, frustrating end to the 2011 Spring Turkey Season.

Sam Berry slipped into a tract that he's hunted for years in Copiah county and managed to collect this multi-bearded gobbler. The hunt happened rather quickly. Sam slipped into an area frequently used by the birds and waited to see what happened. As it turned out, Sam was between two gobbling birds. The first to approach had Sam down on his gun and ready; however, as best Sam could tell the bird was an impostor (or jake). He let the bird pass and soon realized the second bird was on his way. Sam made a slight adjustment on his tree to accommodate the birds approach and smoked the double-bearded gobbler at 25 yards.

Speaking of multiple bearded turkeys, check out these freaks! I don't know the details on who, how, when or where these birds were killed but I thought y'all would like to see them anyway!

The 2011 season is one that David Briggs will not soon forget. An unexpected double ended his season with his wife at his side. In fact, Mrs. Dana was actually supposed to be the shooter. The two of them ventured out on an afternoon hunt in north Mississippi when they struck what they thought was a single gobbler off in the distance. As it turned out, three full fans appeared over the top of a rise out in the pasture. Soon, the pair had their guns trained on the approaching gobblers with their sites set on pulling off a count down double. David whispered to Dana to go ahead and take her bird; one problem though, her gun didn't fire! The action on her Benelli automatic had not closed all the way, so the firing pin didn't reach the primer when she pulled the trigger. David first reaction was to try to help Dana but with three long-beards alarmed and slipping off, he simply drew a bead on one and squeezed the trigger. At the report of the shot, two long-beards lay flapping on the ground. David said he never intended on shooting two in one shot but he would take it. Having done the same thing several years ago, I know exactly what he means!

Here is my friend David "Boog" Maynard from Tennessee. I've introduced David in blogs past but for those of you who don't know him, let's just say that the man knows his way around the woods! David had another great season collecting his limit and calling in a few for friend too. Here's a pic he sent during the season. I'm hoping to get the full story on this bird and the others from him to post at a later time...that's a hint Boog!

Ok, so you're probably wondering after reading the introduction why I referenced alligators. Well, Les Dungan HAD a little gator problem. He enlisted the help of the Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to remove this prehistoric looking monster from a bar pit on his property. Talk about a trophy! You know, I forgot to ask him if he was getting a full body mount on him or not.

James Fagan and a convoy from south MS made their annual trip to New Mexico. According to James, pressure on the public land out there increases year after year. That be the case, James has still managed to harvest a couple of fine Merriam gobblers in the past just as he did on this trip.

Without a doubt, I experienced one of the fastest turkey hunts ever during the last week of season. My brother, Kevin, and I joined our cousin, Les Dungan, on a trip to the Turkey Factory in hopes of finding a lonely, late season gobbler. Well, it seemed that even the Turkey Factory wasn't immune to the oddities that have come with this season. We didn't hear a gobble on the roost which is really the exception on this place. After prospecting a while, we stumbled upon a couple birds in the neighbors field but they wouldn't have anything to do with us. I decided it was time to throw in the towel and head out. Kevin and Les agreed to do the same. I was leading the pack in my truck as we proceeded to vacate the premises. Passing through the gate I rounded the corner to see a gobbler in full strut about 250 yards down the dirt road. I grabbed my binoculars and noticed he was slowly heading in our direction. Once he turned away from me, I threw my truck in reverse and backed out. At that point, Kevin and Les had pulled up and we surveyed the situation. I felt confident we could kill the bird with a little time so we decided to back our trucks up into the property and wait the Tom out. This is where things really speed up! Jumping out of the trucks, we all grabbed out shotguns and began loading. I jokingly made the comment, "are we all going to shoot him at the same time?" Without hesitation Les said, "sure, that way he want go on any of our limit!" Now that's thinking...ha ha! Kevin and Les crept side-by-side in front of me in hopes for one more glimpse before we began calling. Just then I see Kevin grab Les and say, "get down, get down, he's running"! Friend - he wasn't lying either. I squatted down just in time to see a big red head round the bend and run straight into the load of number 6's Les was shooting. In less than 5 minutes and 50 yards from the trucks, this 3 year old gobbler had committed suicide. We all sat there laughing and recounting the events for much longer than it took for the entire hunt to take place. We're still not sure why that bird came running down that road straight to us but like Les said, "we'll take it"!

Last but not least, my brother decided to ditch me on the next to last hunt of the season and now I know why! He and long time hunting partner, Chad Odum, teamed up for only their second hunt of the season to try and get Chad a bird. Due to a heavier than normal work schedule, Chad had only been in the woods twice.
As it turned out, the duo found three gobbling birds on the edge of a huge cotton field. With one bird pitching out in the field and working to Chad's calls, Kevin decided to chase a different bird that had staying in the woods. Turns out that Kevin's bird stopped gobbling as they often do, so he slipped back to the field to see where Chad's bird was. Immediately, he could tell that the bird had lost interest in Chad's calling and was fixing to give him the slip (or at least that's what he told me). Kevin made a quick move for a nearby cove in the corner of the field. According to him, he barely had time to sit down when the bird rounded the corner and saw his decoy. Kevin watched the show for a little while (about 30 seconds) and proceeded to collect bird # 2 before season closed the next day. In case you're wondering, Kevin and Chad still remained friends!

Now that the season is over, most of us are left wondering what's next. Well, I'd say little Thomas Nichols has got the right idea...it's time to wet a hook!

To Gobble or not to Gobble....What's up with this season?

2011-04-03T20:36:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure what you are experiencing this season, but it has been one that I will not forget for many years. It stands out not due to early success or even number of birds worked, but rather the lack of gobbling. I've been in areas where I know birds are and not heard a single gobble. And it can't be blamed on the weather either! Saturday, April 2nd, the sun peaked above the horizon with no competition in the sky. The wind wasn't blowing and the resident owl population put on a clinic of all the different sounds they can make. We heard ZERO!!!

What say you? What you are hearing? Are the birds gobbling where you're at? I'm hoping April will will bring nesting hens and lonely gobblers!

March Successes...

2011-04-03T15:42:00.007-05:00

Will Thomas and Russel Ingram wasted no time finding The Longbeard this season. Here's the story of their opening week success. The birds were roosted over a swamp in hardwoods with pastures on both sides. They were roosted closer to the pasture we didn’t have permission to hunt. We put the sweet talk on and the hens pitched our way and landed in our pasture. The gobblers pitched into the hardwoods and came the way the girls went. It was a pile of jakes and longbeards. Russell is to my left and the turkeys were coming from left to right so they came in front of him first. He was extremely tempted to shoot the first longbeard. There was a discussion and I persuaded him to wait. When we both had mature gobblers in front of us Russell fogged off at one and “CHAOS ERUPTED” I missed first then connected on my next shot. We sat still and in less than a minute two longbeards were strutting behind the hens! We enjoyed the show until they were well out of sight.

Leading up to the 2011 season, Les Dungan had harvested 3 out of the 4 species of turkeys in the United States. Les took advantage of an invitation to south Florida a couple weeks ago and on the first morning completed his quest for the ever elusive Grand Slam! Congrats Les!!!

This is Mrs. Dana Briggs. As you may have guessed from her smile, this is Mrs. Dana's first turkey. What you would probably not guess is that it was called up in the afternoon while on only her third turkey hunt. Her guide...her husband, David Briggs. The two left Brandon a little after lunch on Thursday. Arriving in north MS a couple hours later, they went straight to the woods. David already knew where he wanted to setup and begin calling. Having nestled in some cover on the edge of a partially grown up field, David began working his magic. Having run his diaphragm call and a Woodhaven friction call with no response, he reached in his bag of tricks for his most reliable call - the Primos Power Crystal. David and I always joke about "pulling out the power crystal" but truth is many a wiley longbeard has fell prey to the lustful sounds it emits. This particular evening would be one of those times! Directly behind the end of his last note, both David and Dana heard a bird responded just within earshot. As it is prone to happen on an evening hunt, this bird wasted no time moving in their direction. Within just a few minutes, Dana was looking down her barrel at a spring spectacle like she'd never seen. The longbeard spied the decoys and proceeded to "mean walk" straight to'em. The recoil of her Benelli shotgun was hardly felt as Dana watch David sprint out to her first longbeard. By David's on admission, he moon walked and danced for 10 straight minutes!

Perspective

2011-04-01T20:16:00.003-05:00

My friend, Will Thomas, sent this to me this morning and I thought it was well worth sharing. Will brings up a point that it seems I have to learn monthly...if not, weekly sometimes!

I haven’t heard a bird in a while and this morning I was getting just a little frustrated. As I was waiting on the sun to rise I was standing at the edge of this really high plateau and decided to kneel and say a prayer. It was a perfect time to talk to God and it was a good conversation. The song birds were really going strong, the air was brisk, and I just knew I was going to hear a gobble and it was going to be close. I did hear one but it was way off.

I ambled over towards that bird and stopped frequently. I stopped in this one little hardwood flat on the edge of a creek and noticed what I thought was a shed but I thought surely not because surely it wouldn’t be that visible. Well it was-see attached Ole Uno dropped it for me. It’s hard to tell with this picture but it has a ton of mass.

As I was leaving I thought about how God was probably laughing at me because HE gave me an awesome morning even though I didn’t hear a turkey. I’ve got to stop more often and appreciate the beauty of the hunt and PRAISE GOD FOR THAT and not worry so much about killing something when I go. I say it all the time but it is hard to keep in the front of my brain. If there is one thing I have learned over the years is no matter how much luck you have harvesting animals you will never be satisfied doing it. You will get temporary satisfaction but tomorrow the game starts over. Next time you are in the woods enjoy the hunt and thank God for letting us go!

Super Hunt 2011 - Donkey Stomp'n Longbeards!!!

2011-03-22T20:14:00.014-05:00

The 2011 Super Hunt will go down as one of the best ever. Of course, I thought that after each Super Hunt prior to this one! As the years begin accumulating, so do the chores and responsibilities in the lives of each member. It's darn near impossible to get 11 men in one place, one time a year to chase The Longbeard. However, that's exactly what happened last weekend.
Back in the day, Super Hunt was hosted at my old hunting club in Jefferson Davis county. Since my exodus from the club, we had to get creative if Super Hunt was to carry on. So, we decided to utilize the accommodations of one of the beautiful state parks in central MS, and hunt literally thousands of acres on the neighboring National Forest and Wildlife Management Areas. The hunting was tough but we came to enjoy the challenge of matching wits with those wily public land birds. In the back of my mind though, I really wanted to get Super Hunt back to my home county. The problem had always been a place to stay...up until this year! With the blessing of my dad and aunt, we were able to stay in my grandparent's old house just south of Prentiss. The location was the perfect "hub" for our weekend activities.
Upon arriving Friday evening, I found Kevin Polk, Josh Thrash, and BJ Berry sitting under the shade of a Live Oak. Soon, Les Dungan, Brad Shivers and Justin Harrison arrived. As the afternoon wore on, me, Josh and Les broke camp and went to the woods to try and roost a bird. Kevin hung back at the camp to welcome Hunter Ponder, Chris Foster and Chad Odum once they arrived. Plus, Kevin also had the honor of serving as camp chef. Steaks were on the menu and there is no one I trust at the helm of the grill more than "Chunky"!

After a fine meal, everyone then retreated to the campfire. I'll be honest, my favorite part of Super Hunt is the campfire stories. Trust me when I say, we've got some pretty animated story tellers! Between telling stories and strategizing on the next mornings hunt, we stayed around the fire until midnight.
The next morning the hunting groups were as follows: Les and BJ; Brad and Hunter; Justin and Chris; Me, Kevin and Josh. Chad was the lone ranger and decided to run back and hunt a bird at home.

BJ and Les has a fantastic hunt. BJ finally ended a 7 year drought in the turkey woods. He and Les had two longbeards play the game perfectly. Whether the pressure we put on him around the campfire the night before had anything to do with it or not, BJ missed the bird on his first shot but quickly recovered by dropping the bird like a rock out of the sky on the second. BJ was one happy boy!

Justin and Chris didn't hear a peep. Chad,Brad and Hunter worked a birds but they didn't want to play the game. The same happened to me, Kevin and Josh at first light. We had one gobble a few times on the limb but then shut up.

This left us running and gunning hoping to raise a lonesome tom. We were unsuccessful. At 10:00 am we all met back up at camp and then dispersed to knew areas. Josh and Justin went back to the bird we heard earlier that morning. The boys knew the bird was within a specific area and were willing to sit patiently on one ridge to wait him out. The result was two days, 13 hours, a hand full of gobbles and 1000's of spit'n & drumming before they sealed the deal on a very content two year old gobbler. My hat goes off to them for exhibiting the patience possessed by few turkey hunters today (me included).

Lastly, Chris was working hard on a two year streak of not hearing a gobble during Super Hunt. So, he did the only wise thing he could do with one morning left to hunt...go with Chunky! Chunky had a good idea were a bird was hanging but he wasn't saying much on the limb. True to form that morning, the boys heard the bird sound off one time and that's all it took for them to b-line in that direction. As they approached the woodlot the bird was suspected to be in, a gobble range out confirming their suspicion. Having only hunted a hand full of times together, Chris assumed Chunky would shoot if he got a shot and visa versa. Well, Chunky had no intentions of shooting. His number one goal that morning was to get Chris a bird. So, as the hunt unfolded the bird began closing the distance fast! Chris thought the bird was going to approach through the timber and set up accordingly, while Chunky was sitting on a road bed opening. As you've guessed by now, the gobbler hit the road bed and strutter within 5 yards of Chunky without Chris even knowing the bird was there. A slight move of Chris' hand and it was all over. The two guys came back to camp and got out of the truck with this bewildered expression on their faces. In the words of Chris, "I didn't know you could get a turkey in to 5 yards and not kill him!" Yes, Chris, yes you can get one in to 5 yards and not kill him...hahahaha!

As for me, I hunted with Jim Cole early Sunday morning. We managed to hear 3 birds across the creek we were hunting near. In our early morning pursuit of these birds, I managed this series of photos of Jim crossing the log. He may be a Tri-Athlete but all I know is he better be glad "log crossing" isn't part of the race!

Naturally, after we got across the creek the birds stopped gobbling. That was about the time Jim, aka Peewee, leaned over and said,"maybe we should think about a Super Fish weekend next year instead of a Super Hunt!" It was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing. Now that I think about it though....how bout we just do both!!!

Let Everything That Has Breath....

2011-03-10T18:34:00.008-06:00

Spring is rapidly approaching. In fact, our special youth season for turkey is already here. I've been out to listen a couple times but things just haven't started hitting on all cylinders yet. For those of you who pursue The Longbeard, you know what I mean. Standing in the spring woods at first light is similar to listening to an orchestra warm up...in the beginning you distinctly hear each instrument tuning up. However, once they begin playing in unison they all blend together to make a sound so beautiful its hard to tell any one instrument apart from the other...with exception to the cymbals. No one "warms up" on the cymbals. They are simply crashed together with a fury and in perfect timing.
So goes it in the spring woods as dark gives way to light. Whippoorwills, Cardinals, Thrushes, Owls, Crows and a host of God's perfect creation begins "tuning up" and its seems at some predetermined time they all begin singing in unison. No one is easily discernible from the other until the "cymbal" crashes!
That gobble is unlike any other sound in the woods. The Longbeard demands to be heard above all else and most often times, he is!

This spring, when you're standing in the pre-dawn darkness and begin hearing creation's orchestra warming up, remember the scripture below:

Psalm 148
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
2 Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
3 Praise him, sun and moon!
Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
4 Praise him, skies above!
Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
5 Let every created thing give praise to the Lord,
for he issued his command, and they came into being.
6 He set them in place forever and ever.
His decree will never be revoked.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you creatures of the ocean depths,
8 fire and hail, snow and clouds,[a]
wind and weather that obey him,
9 mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all livestock,
small scurrying animals and birds,
11 kings of the earth and all people,
rulers and judges of the earth,
12 young men and young women,
old men and children.
13 Let them all praise the name of the Lord.
For his name is very great;
his glory towers over the earth and heaven!
14 He has made his people strong,
honoring his faithful ones—
the people of Israel who are close to him.

Praise the Lord!

That's right, the "orchestra" you hear warming up is doing what Jesus created them to do...Praise Him! Why don't you do the same? Praise Him with your words and with your actions too. Don't fall prey to the enemy schemes and tactics that would have you praise the creation instead of the Creator. His name is Jesus. His name is very great. His name is greatly to be praised. Let everything that has breath praise Him!!!

Pursuing Him this Spring,

Polky

Youth Season... x 2 !!!

2011-03-07T12:48:00.005-06:00

My old friend, Jimmy Barton, sent me this email earlier today. Jimmy and I grew up in church together and shared a few hunts back in the day. Its good to have him back in The Buff Pad!

There are certain things that people do and see in life that are engrained in their memory. As I spend more and more time in the outdoors with my boys my hard drive continues to fill with moments that I will remember and cherish if I live to be 100 years old. First duck, first deer, first baseball games, etc etc. Well this past weekend has to rank right at the top.

Saturday’s hunt, no time to flip a coin……

When I picked Tristan up after school Friday he said “Daddy are we going turkey hunting in the morning” I said I hoped we would be able to but the weather may be bad so we would have to wait and see. He commented “every morning this week when I woke up I hoped it was Saturday”. I simply grinned and said “me too”. Tristan is 10 and he has already killed some turkeys, his first being one here at home with 4 beards totaling 23 inches and a very nice Rio in the Texas Panhandle. Drake, age 6 on the other hand, hasn’t had much experience with turkeys. Drake only got to go a couple times last year and fell asleep on my lap each time. With great anticipation I watched the weather forecast which was calling for heavy rain all night Friday and into Saturday morning. No sane man would go turkey hunting with a 6 and 10 year in down pouring rain right?????? WRONG. Turkey hunting in the rain to me is like catching fish in a barrel, well maybe not that easy, but any way I love to turkey hunt in the rain. I picked a location that had a nice covered shooting house overlooking a grass patch. I knew the stand would be a good dry location, easy to conceal 2 rowdy boys and that as soon as the turkeys began to move they would not be able to resist the green field. We arrived at around 5:50 am greeted by a steady light drizzling rain. We got into the stand with all of our face masks, gloves, Gatorade, shells and all the other essentials. Keeping up with all the “stuff” that is required to hunt for 2 boys and myself is quite an adventure and one I have perfected while duck hunting, well almost perfected. I wanted the boys to get a close shot if the birds hit the field and felt sure that the gobblers would be henned up as I had not heard many gobbles during my recent scouting trips so I decided to setup a decoy. I set a Primos Killer B gobbler decoy in a nice mounted position over a submissive hen at 12 steps from the shooting house, prolly a little too close. At 7:05 am 5 hens came in from our right which is where I assumed they would come from as that is where the birds were roosting. They milled around in the food plot and showed some curiosity toward our decoys. We hadn’t heard one single gobble that morning and the boys were getting frustrated as the rain had picked up to a torrential downpour. They both commented that there was no way a gobbler was coming to that field. Keep in mind that kids this age don’t have a great attention span and both had reclined back in their chairs and began to nod off. Around 7:45 am I looked to the right and saw a line of hens, 8 to be exact pouring into the field. Just a few seconds later I saw a beautiful swollen, red white and blue head that looked like a Fourth of July parade coming from the same area where the hens had come. Drake was sitting in my lap half asleep and Tristan was to my right and he was dosing as well. I bumped both of them and told them that there was a huge gobbler headed our way. They both said you are joking right??? I said no and told them to get ready. By this time all of the hens had proceeded into the center of the food plot and were out of reasonable range if the gobbler decided to go that way. As the old wary tom saw the Killer B decoy he immediately locked his eyes in and began to strut. He closed the distance to the decoy which was about 75 yards from where he first saw it in less than 10 seconds in a full strut. I don’t think he would have come within range since he was traveling with all those hens if he hadn’t seen the decoy. We have a little agreement among us boys which I will try to describe to you. The way it works is that when we hunt together Drake sits on the left and Tristan on the right. We agree that once the animals, whether it be deer, hogs, turkeys, whatever are within range I quietly count to 3 and they both shoot. Well we have had some funny stories over the past couple years where 1 2 3 didn’t work and one or the other would burn powder at lets say 1.75. They were both really itchy to shoot the turkey first and it was all I could do to keep one of them from blasting off especially Tristan since it came from his side and he had a clear shot. At about the 9 second mark on the gobbler’s stampede to the decoy both boys had their shiny silver beads on his head. I had hoped to wait for 2 gobblers but he was literally about to murder the decoy and I knew if he attacked the decoy and realized it was plastic he would be gone. Since there was only one bird and no time to flip a coin both boys hammered down on the count of 3. Tristan was shooting a 2 ¾ inch 12 gauge Hevi Shot and Drake a 3 inch 1 9/16 Nitro from a 20 gauge. The big tom dropped in his tracks and my decoys surely have some nice new vents in the form of number 6 shot. We all went wild and sounded like some cheerleaders at a pep rally. We ran down and recovered the bird and did the traditional high fives and hugs. The turkey was an awesome bird and a great first bird or half of a first bird for Drake. He had 1 1/8 spurs and sported a 10 ¼ inch beard. Sorry about the wet turkey in the photos.

Sunday morning….. a bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush…..

We were invited by a friend to hunt at his hunting club in Claiborne County on Sunday. He told me that he wanted to see my boys kill a turkey and that they were overrun with unpressured birds. I watched the weather closely and saw that the rain would move out by midnight on Saturday. We were excited because we would have 1200 very nice acres to ourselves to turkey hunt on. We arrived near the wonderful town of Pattison, MS at around 5:45 am with 2 boys asleep in the back seat. We got all of our gear together and sat at the edge of a food plot which is surrounded by some of the most beautiful hardwoods and pines that I have ever seen. We had heard a coupled distant gobbles in the area where we set up. After being there only about 20 minutes we saw a couple hens with one gobbler approximately 80 yards away but they showed no interest in working with us. We then walked for a couple hours and several miles and did not hear much activity. We then decided to go check a creek bottom on the other side of the property. As we were walking in we saw a coyote and then proceeded about 1/8 of a mile to another food plot. We took a break from walking and made a couple yelps. We immediately heard a loud close gobble and heard some hens calling as well. We immediately set up without time to deploy our decoys. Within 5 minutes the first gobbler appeared but he was some 90 yards away in some thick underbrush, followed by 19 more turkeys including some other gobblers. As they made their way to the food plot where we were setup something spooked them, I think it was the coyote as we were concealed very well. As they were spooked we counted 20 turkeys in a single file line headed to the creek bottom. My friend said we should try to cut them off as he felt like they were headed to a big pasture nearby which is where they normally go around mid morning. We tried to cut them off and were trying to set up on a high ridge but the turkeys made it there before we did. We then traveled to a large pine thicket. The thicket was made up of 10 year old pines and the lanes in between the rows of trees were somewhat clean but still had some cover on the forest floor. We saw the turkeys in a line headed to the pasture, the same pasture that we were headed to in an attempt to cut them off. We looked up and we were within 125 yards of this huge group of turkeys. We could not move and were having a hard time sitting down as we didn’t want to be busted by all those eyes. We made a few soft yelps and the boys and I were able to back up to a pine tree. At that time I had one gun propped up on one knee and one gun propped on the other knee. GUESS WHAT, Tristan was now on my left and Drake on my right which threw our normal routine off. My friend could not move as he was in line with the row that the majority of the turkeys were on. He did manage to lie down on top of the decoy bag in a prone position. We made several calls and the birds did not seem to want to cooperate and did not want to leave the hens. They put on an awesome show in the pines and the 3 big mature toms were strutting and fighting with the 5 or 6 jakes in the group. Since we weren’t getting much response from the birds I let out a couple gobbles hoping it would make one of the old toms want to come in for a fight. Once I did that the jakes left group and started heading our way. The gobbling of the big birds literally shook the ground and Drake’s heart was beating like an old African drum. The jakes continued to get closer and one of the big toms had circled to my right in an attempt to head the jakes off but I hadn’t seen him at this point. By now the jakes are within 20 steps and both boys were supposedly on their bird, Drake on the right and Tristan on the left. It was somewhat difficult as the rows of trees were straight but the birds were zig zagging in and out of the rows to get to us. My friend was 5 yards away from me and told me later that the big tom was within 15 yards of him to the right. He kept looking over at us and whispering don’t shoot me but we never saw the tom. He was worried that the boys would see the tom and shoot right over his head. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. During my count to 3 Drake hammered down on the trigger at about 2.75 and dropped the jake that was in essence Tristan’s bird. The bird drop and in a mili second Tristan pulled the trigger on the same bird. We only made it out of there with one turkey, which was a young jake. We should have had 2 turkeys with at least one a long beard but a 6 year old can only wait so long. Like I told them a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush all day long. We worked hard for this turkey and had some close encounters with some other jakes and long beards but could not close the deal. We worked hard that day and walked our tails off.

One More Deer Story!

2011-03-05T22:03:00.004-06:00

Ok, so I have really been slacking on updating my blog. Here it is opening day of youth turkey season and I'm posting stories from deer season. Oh well, these two stories are definitely worth recording.

On January 22nd, Taylor and I headed to Prentiss to hunt some of my family property. A few of you may recall the photo below from a previous post.

I knew this buck was hanging in the area a lot and was moving pretty frequently in the daytime. So, with little coaxing needed I talked Taylor into bundling up and braving some very frigid temps in an effort to harvest the buck we named "Thick Horns".
I had devised somewhat of a game plan. My plan had the two of us starting out over looking a large food plot at first light to cover a lot of ground in case the buck was cruising. Around 9 a.m. we would get down and move into some mature hardwoods, where I knew several mature does liked to frequent.

Well, about an hour into our sit at the food plot I decided we would abandon it sooner than later. Taylor and I gathered our gear at 8 a.m. and moved into the hardwoods to a spot I had cleaned out up against a large blown down tree. The set up is really cool. A small Holly tree leans right in front of Taylor and serves as a good rest for his rifle. The woods have little to no ground cover so according to my rangefinder we can see (and shoot) 100 yards through these hardwoods.

Taylor and I didn't have to wait long. At approximately 8:40 a.m. I picked up movement at the far end of the hardwoods. I raised my binoculars and began seeing multiple does. "Get ready Taylor, there's a good chance a mature buck is with them". Sure enough, ol' Thick Horns showed up right behind 3 mature does. The does began running straight to us and the buck was following close behind. At 25 yards the does stopped right out in front of us to look back and find the buck. The buck on the other hand, decided to stay closer to cover remaining on the edge of a thicket. Soon the does filed right past our location at a mere 15 yards. "Get ready Taylor, that buck fixing to follow these does". And that's exactly what he did! Thick Horns ran in fast and close. He stopped at 30 yards broad sided to our position. By this time, I am literally in Taylor's ear commanding him to shoot. I could tell Taylor was having some difficulty finding the buck in the scope but soon he let me know he found him. Boooommmm! The buck flinched but didn't run. I was barking orders at Taylor like a Marine drill sargent...bolt the gun, shoot him again, get on him Taylor! The buck simply turned around and stood behind a White Oak and a Spruce Pine and the does just stood there in the wide open. They all seemed oblivious to the shot. I bet we sat there in stail mate for 2-3 minutes before the does finally bugged out. When the buck finally came out from behind the trees, it was at a fast pace and Taylor was unable to get on him.

My friend was DEJECTED! After we replayed the hunt again, I realized that I had left his scope on 10 power when we moved into the woods from the wide open food plot. No wonder he was having a hard time finding the buck in the scope! Oh well, ol' Thick Horns will live to roam this woods another year and me and Taylor have another memory to last us a lifetime. In fact, I think it would be appropriate to change Thick Horn's name to The Steed Buck. The 2011-2012 whitetail season can't get here soon enough for Taylor...he's got a score to settle!

"Snake Bit"

2011-02-01T21:24:00.006-06:00

Have you ever heard the expression, "snake bit"? I'm not talking about a literal snake bite but instead, a two word description of ones luck in the woods. When someone says they are "Snake Bit" then things just haven't been going well in their woodland pursuits.
Taylor Steed and I recently concluded our third winter chasing The Whitetail. I can sum up our first two season afield with just two words - SNAKE BIT! Being the optimist that I am, Taylor grew numb to me telling him "today is the day" before every single hunt. So, this year, before each hunt we would look at each other and agree that today we would likely see nothing at all. Of course, both of us would fall out laughing and hope that our half hearted attempt at being pessimist would be short-lived. Thankfully, it was!
Our first hunt of the season set the stage for what would be our best season yet. Shortly after crawling in our ground blind, a doe and yearling walked out in the food plot only 50 yards away. In an attempt to capture the hunt on film, I cost us a golden opportunity. Soon after that encounter on the same morning, we had another doe and yearling step out. This time they were much further, so I advised Taylor to just let them come. Mistake - both deer simply stepped into the brush and left me looking pretty foolish.
Because of a crazy holiday schedule, Taylor and I weren't able to hunt much in December. On New Year's Eve we were able to get together once again and head down to Prentiss. The rut in south MS is really starting to heat up during this time of year. I decided that me and T-man would go to a relatively new property that I have to hunt. We haven't had much luck there but its one of those places that I thought was over due to produce. On our way into the stand, I decided we would hunt off the ground looking down a single log road that separate a hardwoods swamp from a pine thicket. The wind was hitting us in the face and the foliage of the Magnolia tree we were sitting against provided perfect cover.
I had just warned Taylor that "if it happens, it going to happen fast", when I looked up and watched a deer walk right across our shooting lane. "Was that a buck", Taylor asked. "Sure was", I replied. The buck was a spike and I had a good feeling we called him out of the pine thicket with a series of grunts and doe bleats we just finished. I asked Taylor if he would like to shoot him. His reply was simple - "YEP"! Reaching for my grunt call, I instructed Taylor to stay ready once again. After a few short grunts that I was sure made their way to the young bucks ears, I began scanning the woods for movement. It wasn't long before I spotted the youngster working a licking branch and pawing in a scrape in the thicket off our left shoulder. The buck was oblivious to our presence making it relatively easy to get Taylor re-adjusted. However, the brush between us and the buck was just thick enough that Taylor couldn't get a clear shot. The buck was about 50 yards from us and I told Taylor that when he finished laying down his scent he would likely walk straight at us. If so, my instructions were simple - shoot him in the neck!
It amazes me how deer know exactly where sounds originate from. The curved antlered spike began walking straight to our tree. Things grew rather intense as the buck closed to about 15 steps. Taylor was unable to find the buck in the scope and soon that rascal buggered and scampered back to about 30 yards. At that point, Taylor found him and began tracking him as he slowly circled our position. I was right in Taylor's ear the entire time barking orders - "Shoot man, you better shoot, he's fixing to leave, you better shoot"! Taylor took it all in stride and just before the buck stepped out of position, my man squeezed off!
Immediately upon the shot, the buck buckled and ran deeper into the swamp with his left leg raised off the ground. My first instinct was that he had smoked him. However, after taking up the trail, we both had a hard time finding blood. What little blood we were finding was specks. I began worrying that he may have shot the buck low in the front leg but I didn't let Taylor know that. I tried to keep his spirits high while we continued on the trail.

After about 60 yards or so, the blood really began picking up. I felt certain the buck was just ahead of us, and I was right. The only problem was he was still alive! That's right, we jumped him. The buck tore out of a ditch that Taylor had just jumped down in while following the blood. I tried to get the gun from Taylor fast enough to finish the deer but I was slow on the draw. I watched the buck cover about 40 yards down a log road and then go out of sight. It just so happened that a severe weather system was moving through too and it had just started raining. I told Taylor our only chance was to try to push the buck, jump him up and try to get a finishing shot on him. My biggest fear was that the deer would hit the creek and swim to the other side.
Taylor and I fell in behind the deer and began trailing good blood right down the woods road. Just as we reached the point where I last saw him, we lost the blood. I doubled back and my greatest fear had come true...the buck baled off in the creek. I scanned the off side bank but really couldn't see tracks or any place where a deer would have come out. Not willing to waste any time, we both started further down the creek to find a log to cross on. After going about 80 yards down the creek, we reach a log that would serve as our bridge to the other side. I was first out on the log. Just before reaching the half way point on the log I decided to turn back and check on Taylor. He was making his way on to the log when I happened to glance down in the water underneath me. I couldn't believe my eyes. "Taylor, look what I found in the creek?" "Blood", Taylor replied! "No man, in the water underneath my feet!" Just as sure as I'm typing this, Taylor's buck was floating under the log I was standing on. How cool is that? I assume that buck drowned when he baled off in the water and floated 70 to 80 yards down the creek until he hit the first obstruction...the log we decided to cross.

I layed down on my stomach and used a limb to fish the buck out with reach of my hand. I floated on over to Taylor and he did the rest. Our drought in the deer woods had finally ended. Taylor shot the buck just a little forward in the brisket.

Taylor is growing into a fine sportsman not to mention a fine young man. With March here and turkey season upon us, stay tuned to see if we can get this up and coming hunter his first long beard. Turkey season is his favorite!

Record Book Bucks...in Mississippi???

2011-01-16T12:29:00.011-06:00

You better believe it!

Each season there are a few bucks taken from across the state that really stand out and this season has been no exception. For instance, in early December the Clarion Ledger newspaper in Jackson ran a story about the buck harvested below. Turns out, the trigger man was talked out of going to his traditional hunting spot by his dad just before he left that evening. His dad convinced him to hunt "behind the house" for a buck that he described as having a rocking chair on top of his head. According to the story in the paper, this brute stood up from a broom sedge field right before dark. The rest is history. To top it all off, this 197" buck was harvested in the piney woods of south Mississippi in Walthall County. SWEET!!

Next came rumors of a possible new state record being harvested along the Mississippi River in Jefferson County. It wasn't long before rumors were laid to rest. Will Rives smoked this Sad Daddy with a bow late one evening in mid-December. From what I've read, the buck grossed +/- 197" and will almost certainly be the new archery record.

This next bruiser is one that has been hard worked for in more than one way. The hunter is Steve Ingram. I have actually had the opportunity to meet Steve and his son, Russel. In fact, Russel was in the Buff Pad earlier this year with a nice bow kill. The Ingrams are into whitetail trophy management like Mr. Goodwrench is into cars! Not only are these guys into growing big bucks, they are into killing them too! This buck conservatively grossed in the upper 170's making him Steve's largest to date.

No doubt there will likely be others to surface before the end of season. In fact, there is already word of another 170+" buck being harvested in south central Mississippi but I've not been able to confirm. At any rate, Mississippi is consistently producing some very respectable bucks in some not so traditional places. Now if I can just find one like this on my place in Prentiss!

Mid-December thru Mid-January = PRIMETIME

2011-01-16T11:26:00.005-06:00

Since mid-December I've been collecting harvest photos from all over. Here are a few from several friends, and friends of friends:

This is Jeremy Blakeney. Jeremy is a friend of Josh Thrash. Jeremy hunts a piece of property called Magna Vista Plantation that lies inside the Mississippi River levee north of Eagle Lake. Jeremy harvested this 155" monster with his bow on December 24th. According to Josh, this was Jeremy's best buck to date and he harvested it with a bow to boot - Congrats Jeremy!

Here are a couple more MS River bucks taken by my good friend Jim "Peewee" Cole. Peewee and his daughter Merideth sat a stand in mid-December when they experienced their first taste of success in the deer woods. Their buck was 13.5" wide, had 5.5" bases and 20" main beams.

On the 23rd of Demcember, Peewee was back in a tree and harvested this MS River stud. This was Peewee's best buck to date - 20.5" wide and 21" main beams. Peewee harvested both of these bucks on the heels of a serious shoulder injury he sustained back in August. It appears that the "Ironman" is back!

Here's another buck nasty taken by my boy Chris Foster. Chris shot this nice 10 point just after daylight on morning in Warren county. Chris spent a lot of time hunting with is oldest son David this year and had some really great stories. It's just a matter of time before we post David's first buck picture on the Buff Pad.

This is Todd Nichols and this is his best buck to date. Todd is the younger brother of Rich Nichols who is a regular in the Buff Pad. Todd harvested this buck in Claiborne County.

Last week, I jumped in a stand before heading to work just to see what was moving through an area of pines that a buddy and I have neglected over the years. Well, at 7:00 am I had a doe approach my stand. At 40 yards I decided to take the shot. The result was a very bad miss. After replaying the shot in my mind, I decided to get down and head to work, but before I decended from my perch I spotted several hogs heading my way. I decided to gather my stuff and try to head them off. This plan actually worked. I closed within 25 yards of 4 juvenile hogs and proceeded to put a PSE shaft tipped with a 125 grain Muzzy through the rid cage. Can you say PORK SAUSAGE!

Corey Dale is a fellow native of Prentiss. Corey and I hunt the same swamp but on different ends. As you can see, Corey has been more successful than me thus far. He harvested this nice 10 point one afternoon just a week or so ago.

Les Dungan sent me this photo yesterday. This is Sadie Willis. Sadie is posed here with her first buck. According to Les, they had quite an eventful hunt with a couple of missed opportunties before Sadie settled in and made the most on this nice first buck!

No Coincidence!

2011-01-13T20:42:00.003-06:00

Man, I've got a lot of catch up work to do on the ol' blog. Lots of nice bucks have hit the ground since my last post. With any luck, I'll get them posted on here before turkey season - ha!

Before I get to some of those, I wanted to share with you (especially, those of you in South MS) what I found yesterday and then later today. As it turned out, I had to run to Prentiss yesterday to make preparations for some tree planters that would be visiting the property this morning. While I was there I thought I would check my trail cameras. By the time I made it to my last trail camera, it was a little after 1:00 p.m. I was unable to view the card in the field so I carried on with my work and then headed back home. Once I arrived home, Caleb and I reviewed the photos. Wouldn't you know it...just 45 minutes prior to me getting there a nice buck was on his feet right smack dab in the middle of the day.

Well, at noon today I swung by a friend of mines property in Simpson County to pull his trail camera card. He had been getting some really good photos in daylight hours about a week ago but hadn't checked it since. So, I pulled the card and upon reviewing the images found one of a really nice buck during daylight. I reviewed the date and time stamp and thought it looked familiar. After going back and looking at my trail pic from yesterday, I just laughed. Two mature bucks, photographed on the same day, during the same hour, right down to the same minute! How cool is that?

So, when you read or hear an old timer recommend hunting from 10 til 2 in the day...take it to heart especially this time of year. The old men of the woods are cruising and they'll most likely do it when there is the least amount of pressure - right in the middle of the day!

Early December Success

2010-12-18T09:21:00.003-06:00

You should recognize this young man. Trey Elliot harvested his first deer, a doe, just a couple of weeks ago. After his first taste of success in the deer woods, he was anxious to get back out there. Well, he and his dad did just a that the following week. John said that deer literally moved all afternoon. Having seen a trio of small bucks earlier in the day, they held out hoping they might show up in the food plot they were hunting. With plenty of daylight to spare, the trio made there appearance much to the Elliot's surprise. Initially, John held Trey off from shooting because the bucks were so far away (~150 yards). Fortunately for Trey, the bucks fed a little closer. After questioning Trey a couple different times, John concluded that he was prepared to take the 100 yard shot. At the report of the shot, the buck hit the ground. Naturally, father and son celebrated but soon they noticed the buck back on his feet and fleeing the scene. After jumping the buck, John thought it best to utilize a friend of a friend's lab to help track the buck. The dog hit the ground running but soon his handeler reigned him in and as John put it, had a short talk with the dog. The conversation ended with the fellow shout, go get'em! According to John, it took the dog about 5-10 minutes before he was sitting on top of Trey's first buck...and a dandy one at that!

Meet Saggy! Saggy is the buck's nickname, not the boy. He is Forrest Dungan. Forrest is no stranger to The Buff Pad. Saggy has been on his hit list since August when he began showing up in velvet. Until now, Forrest nor any one else had seen Saggy from the stand. But on December 7th, Forrest picked the right stand on the right evening. Two does stepped into the food plot and proceeded to feed in close proximity to the stand. Saggy made his appearance out of range from his stand but took notice of the does. After disappearing for a few minutes, Saggy made his second appearance in the plot but this time was well within Forrest's gun range. He made the most of his opportunity and harvested his biggest buck to date. Saggy weighted 190 lbs, scored 133" and was aged at 5.5 years old. Awesome buck Forrest!

Chad Bull harvested this buck in Alabama just a week or so ago. I haven't heard the story yet but his email said that the buck scored in the low 150's with only a 13.5" spread. That's one unique buck!

Picking up the Pace in Rifle Season

2010-11-29T21:04:00.008-06:00

We're well into the 2010 rifle season and things are off to a fast pace...in terms of mature bucks hitting the ground. This year, unlike previous years, I've heard more guys report rut like activity already. For central and south Mississippi, its pretty early to be seeing this sort of thing. Usually, pre-rut and rut activity doesn't kick off until the first week of December. One might be tempted to blame this on the weather, but its kinda hard to do that when we've been in the 70's and 80's most of November. At any rate, you can't kill'em if you're sitting at the camp...so get out there and send me some pictures like these guys have!

Drew Horton, youngest son of Brian Horton, scored big time on opening day of rifle season! Drew downed his first buck at their camp on King's Point Island in the MS River. Brian has shared several trail camera pictures of several different "shooter" bucks but none of them were of this unique trophy. I'm not sure what his buck scored but it looks like it should gross in the 150's...at least!

I was fortunate enough to retain exclusive rights to the story of a buck harvested by Cabelas' male model of the year - Kevin McGuffee. McGuffee has a piece of property that he has hunted for years near Eagle Lake that consistantly produces really nice bucks. This year has been a bit different than years past as there isn't nearly as much water on the place as there typically has been. The drought we experienced practically state-wide dried his place out. According to Kevin, this made patterning deer activity a bit more difficult. Why? Well, more dry ground equals more area for the deer to travel. Based on his past history on the property, McGuffie had a stand picked out for opening day of rifle season. His hunt ended with him having heard two bucks throwing down. According to him, these bucks weren't sparing; they were trying to kill each other. The next morning he decided to try the same stand sight but this time he would have his rattling horns in hand. Just as the woods became light enough to see, Kevin slammed the horns together. To his surprise, this 140" 10 point showed up before he finished his rattling sequence. Being the veteran hunter he is, he devised a plan as the buck watched his every move. He layed the horns down, picked his rifle up and parked a well placed bullet at the base of his neck immidiately ending his hunt. This is Kevin's best buck to date!

By the way, a friend of Kevin's photoshopped the original photo and dubbed him Male Model of the Year...good times, good times!

There's nothing like the Thanksgiving holidays. Deer season is in full swing plus duck hunters get to see there first action of the year (excluding an early teal season). Josh Thrash took advantage of both. Mr. Thrash busted ducks Friday and Saturday morning and then whacked a doe with his bow cannon before church Sunday morning for good measure. Although you can't really tell, the doe he harvested didn't have a lower jaw bone. Josh said he was amazed that even without it she appeared to be healthy and had a yearling feeding with her...Amazing!

Mark Rogers of Collins, MS has been seeing a lot of early season action this year too. His daughter shot a nice 10 pointer during youth season. Now, daddy has scored on a nice one too. Similar to his daughter's hunt, Mark had several bucks enter the field. Most proceeded to feed while a couple of others began sparing. Marked picked out this nice 7 pointer and lowered the boom on him. Mark is off to a smoking start this season and after further inspection of his photo it shouldn't be a surprise why....the man keeps a rod'n reel tipped with a beetle spin in the back of his truck...that's hardcore!!!

First Deer

2010-11-25T20:43:00.005-06:00

“One Proud Daddy” - by Shane Easterling

The time had come and I felt like at the young age of 6 that my oldest son Riley was ready to hunt. I took him out and let him practice several times with his .243 and I was confident that he was ready. I was gone to Kansas during youth week and was filming the “Wheelin for Sportsmen” hunt that weekend, so it was Monday Nov 15 before we got a chance to go. Didn’t see but two lil ones that afternoon because the wind was wrong for the stand I picked, which in hindsight I was glad he didn’t kill one his first time out. The next afternoon we went to my front plot and hadn’t been there 15 minutes when a big doe stepped out. I started the camera rollin and told him to get his ear muffs on. (Tip: you can get a pair of electronic ear muffs for $29 at bass pro shops and they work great for young kids, you are able to talk them through the shot and the sound of the gun is cut off from damaging their ears or scaring them. These work great!) The deer had us pegged for the first couple of minutes and we had to wait for her to calm down and start feeding before we could get in position for him to shoot. I finally got him in my lap and gave him the gun and got him ready. I told him to wait for her to turn sideways which she did just briefly before turning and walking a lil farther away. At about 60 yards she turned broadside, I checked the camera to make sure it was still on her and told him to put it on her shoulder and squeeze the trigger and that’s just what he did. He put one right behind the shoulder and the 120lb doe dropped and was done. Needless to say, we both went crazy! There was some hugging and laughing and high fiving and screaming and all kinds of celebration going on up in that box stand. After we calmed down a lil, we packed everything up and made our way to his first deer. It was an experience that I will never forget and was tickled to capture it all on video.

As I thought about how excited I got over him killing his first deer, it reminded me of how as Dad’s we get so excited over worldly things sometimes. Whenever our kids hit a homerun, or score a touchdown or kill a big deer, we go crazy and tell everyone. But how excited do we get about our kids spiritual lives. When one of our kids excepts Christ to be their personal Savior, we should go OUT OF OUR MINDS with excitement. We need to show them how important that is to us. It’s a better day than the day they were actually born, because now they have been born again. Now, they have the same gift of eternal life that we have and we need to show them how big of a deal that is to us. They need to know that as Dad’s we have never been more proud of them in our lives!!!

Here's another proud daddy!

My buddy, John Elliot of Brandon, called me early Wednesday afternoon to tell me that he and his oldest son Trey were going to try their luck in the woods that evening even though temperatures were unseasonably warm. John and Trey picked a stand that would put their scent over an old oxbow lake with little to no chance of any approaching deer alerted to their presence. Not long after getting settled in, a mature doe and yearling emerged from cover to grab a bit to eat in the food plot. The father/son pair discussed shot placement and whether or not Trey wanted to shoot one.

Trey made up his mind and locked in on the larger doe. After confirming he was steady on his target, John gave Trey the green light. Trey tripped off a round from his .223. John felt confident he made a good shot and since there was still some daylight remaining they got down to inspect the crime scene. Having marked the last spot he saw the deer run, John proceeded to that spot and entered the chest deep cover. Instantly, he spotted Trey's doe. Trey had made a perfectly placed shot and the two guys celebrated over Trey's first deer. Awesome!!!

A Much Needed Lesson from a 5 Year Old!

2010-11-23T06:01:00.003-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Recently my five year old son, Cole, went with me to worship. Mama stayed at home as she was just days away from giving birth to our son, Tucker. The band started
cranking the music and Cole, on his own, starts clapping. For the most part, he was clapping in time with the beat, which surprised me even more! The thing was, nobody else was clapping. It wasn't really a clapping-type song. Didn't stop my boy, though. He was clapping because the mood just hit him. Out of my periphory I see two small hands stretch toward the heavens. First he was clapping, now he's a hand-raising five year old. Just singing away.

My heart was full. Mainly because, to be really candid with you, I know that in my attempts to worship the Lord there are times when I am repressed. I am far too concerned about what someone else may think of me. Which is stupid, I know, but it's the truth. My heart was full because my son has yet to learn what it means to have other people tell you how to worship. He was happy, and he wanted to show God that he was happy, in a way that made sense to his five year old mind. So he clapped, and raised his hands, because it felt right.

Here's what I've learned about reverence. Reverence is a state of the heart. An attitude. Church culture has always taught me that reverence is about trying not to offend God by the way you dress, or by making too much noise when you sing, or by making sure you don't move around too much, because God might see you moving and grooving and then He's gonna hammer you for it.

The facts are that a man can come to church in an Armani suit, wearing a Rolex, and stroke a large check for the offering plate, and yet the entire time be a fowl smell in the nostrils of God because that man's heart is a stiff as the starch in his shirt. Reverence might have a bit to do with dress codes, but it has far more to do with a heart set free than a heart bound to traditions that God never created.

The worst thing I could have done with Cole would have been to shut him down in a moment that would have forever taught him that God was not a fan of his happy self. Whether he fully understood what he was doing didn't matter to me. What matters most is that as a dad I allow him to do worship in a way that makes sense to him.

That day, sitting beside my son, I saw first hand what liberated worshiped looked like. And it was beautiful.

"I never saw the members of my father's church enjoying themselves." - Friedrich Nietzsche, when asked why he rejected Christianity. He's the father of modern atheism who is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of all time. He is the man who coined the concept of "nihilism" ... the idea that life has no real purpose, therefore, life however you want to live. Never think that your ability to live in the joy of Jesus has no profound affect on those around you.

Missouri, Illinios, Wyoming...

2010-11-18T20:53:00.008-06:00

If this fellow looks familiar, its because you just saw a photo of him two posts ago with a nice 8 point he shot with his bow on the second morning of his Missouri hunt. Well, Chad hung in there until gun season opened, and after much scouting he was able to get within gun range of this 144" stud! Mr. Shivers is currently chasing whitetails in Texas so check back to see what that trip holds in store.

I'm not sure who this gentleman is but I know his outfitter. Waldo Cleland, archery pro from Columbia, MS, has a place in Illinois that he's been hunting for several years. He, as well as, a couple others have connected on some seriously huge whitetails in the previous seasons. Well, looks like the tradition continues on as this lucky hunter shot this magnum 15 point, 184", 280 pound war horse!

Now this guy I do know! This is my friend, John Smithbaker, from Wyoming. John is the founder of Fathers in the Field. He recently returned from a late season hunting trip in the mountains of his home state. To say his trip was successful is a gross understatement. Mr. Smithbaker managed to harvest this 372" bull elk and this monster mule deer buck...MOST IMPRESSIVE!

Ups and Downs

2010-11-18T20:29:00.002-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Sometimes I go through seasons where my prayer life is just off. Plain and simple, I neglect spending time with God. I pull out of it, but then it happens again. You know the story.

It's natural to have ups and downs in all matters of the Spirit. I think that's why Jesus didn't let Peter, James, and John stay on the mountain where He was transfigured. Where can a man go from there? Once you've seen that, my man, you've pretty much seen all you need to see. You either go on to glory, or you go back down the mountain!

Life was intended to live on the peaks, in the valleys, and all in between. You cannot live on the mountain every single day. I get that. However, I think I'm too quick to chalk up my lack of God-conversations to the natural world of ebb and flow.

I think my neglect to pray is, in its truest sense, rebellion. It's me wanting to live life on my terms. In the end it's not only immature, it's dangerous.

When it rains, it pours!

2010-11-09T12:11:00.014-06:00

I've not been able to get to the woods with any regularity this season. So, I've been depending on updates from friends and stories from their successful hunts to keep the ol' fire stoked. Well, last two weeks you would have thought the season was over. I couldn't understand why my buddies who were hunting the mid-west were not reporting on anything. That is...until I came into work Monday morning! The bucks are starting to fall and not just in the mid-west either:

Dogwood Outdoors - On a roll!

If you're looking for a speaker at your next wildgame cook'in then look no further than these guys. Shane, Landon and Jonathan love Jesus and love chasing The Whitetail. As it turned out, each of the three guys all harvested bucks over the last few days in different states no less!

Shane Easterling harvested this buck in Kansas on the morning of November 7th. Shane fought variable winds and temperatures to put this fellow on the ground. To top it all off, he captured the hunt on video by himself. Pretty strong!

Jonathan stayed close to home and proved that a fellow need not travel out of state to harvest The Whitetail. After studying numerous trail camera photos, Jonathan had a good idea where and when to intercept his buck. His third time to sit the stand, the buck showed up right on cue. He was accompanied by several other deer which made drawing difficult. Well, Jonathan finally got to full draw and took the shot. The buck reacted immediately to the sound of the bow which resulted in his shot being less than desirable. However, after some assistance from a buddy and his trusty tracking dog, Jonathan recovered the buck.

Oh and I almost forgot about Landon. Landon traveled to the great whitetail state of Illinois with some friends to hopefully collect one of their infamous monster bucks. I'm not sure what morning of the hunt it was but as he was preparing to descend from his tree stand he happened to notice a buck that was barely legal for harvest. From what I understand, he had just enough time to collect his bow and make the shot...

As Shane so appropriately put it, "Landon, nobody deserves to kill a 160 class buck more than you...except for me!" Shane went on to tell me that due to excessive lust, jealousy and convetness, he will no longer be able to remain friends with his life-long buddy Landon. Well, that's just how is goes sometimes - haha!

Prentiss Boys - Get'n it done!

A few of my buddies from my home town of Prentiss, MS have done went and lowered the buck population in Missouri.

Chad Shivers hopped in the truck Sunday and made the long road trip to northern MO to hunt the last week of bow season and opening weekend of rifle season. The action for Chad was fast right from the start. His first afternoon hunt ended with him seeing several respectable bucks cruising and/or chasing does. The next morning found him on a field edge with high hopes. After passing on several smaller bucks, Chad grabbed his grunt and CAN call to see what he could stir up. A buck responded almost immediately to the call crashing through the woods and stepping in to the field edge heading his way. Chad sized him up, drew his bow and put an arrow through the top of his lungs. After the shot, he was a little concerned he acted to hastily and shot a small buck, but upon recovering him, all worry or doubt was set aside. His MO 8 point scored 130" on the nose!

Eric and Corey recently returned from their trip to northern MO too. I haven't been given any details on their hunt but as they say "a picture is worth 1000 words".

Last but not least!

It doesn't get any better than this! Little Anna Rogers tagged this fine 10 point in Covington County opening weekend of youth season. She and her daddy, Mark, were sitting in the stand when the woods seemed to come alive. Two nice bucks walked into their plot and begin sparing which must have aroused the curiosity of the neighbors. Several other rack bucks soon came on the scene leaving Anna with her choice of bucks. Mark said she picked out this 10 point and the rest is history. Mark - I hope you budgeted a little extra money for taxidermy this year!

The Truth about....Mariage - Part II

2010-11-08T12:49:00.005-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Last week I wrote about the need for every man to stay faithful to his vow to love his wife until death parts the marriage. I promised to give you some insights into my marriage that have, over the years, kept Michelle and I climbing toward our future. After thinking about that for a bit, I realized that there is no possible way to share what we've learned about God, our selves, or one another, inside of sixty second window that the Man Minute promises!
So ... I'll choose one area, one place, that is forever at the top of our list. I'll write on many more in the Minutes to come, yet for now, I'd be quick to say that the present reality of "grace" has been the Duck Tape bonding our hearts in this ever growing journey. I think most every believer is quick to grasp the idea of God's grace to us as individuals. While we may not ever fully understand it, we at least understand that there is no possible reason for God to love us other than the fact that He just wants to - so we get the idea of grace from above. Grace to one another ... easy to talk about, but very hard to live out. I am quite sure that most every believer struggles to let grace marinate our relationships. So very often we say we have grace, yet in reality what we really mean is that life works best (for me) if you will like what I like, think the way I think, see pretty much everything from my perspective, and basically operate in this world in ways that make sense to ... me!
Have you ever noticed that you are the only one in your world who is truly normal? I'm serious. My definition of "normal" is what I think normal should be, and every person who deviates from my definition of normal is, well, just off. Not right. Weird. Do you realize how toxic this can be in any relationship, especially in a marriage? When you cannot let a person be who God created them to be, frustration and failure are soon to be the winners in any relationship. It was about year three in our marriage when Michelle and I finally stopped trying to change one another. Michelle believes the glory of God is found in structure and predictability. I believe the glory of God is found in adventure and absolute non-predictability. The truth is, the glory of God is found in both. He wired us up to be the way we are, and when we discovered that simple truth, the pressure was off. Slowly we began to let each one be ourselves ... without penalty. It was grace reborn in the both of us.
I'd say the greatest proof of grace that we now extend to one another is found in the fact that we have stopped looking to one another to fulfill our every desire. I discovered that Michelle cannot, ultimately, make me happy. She discovered that truth about me long before I came to that same realization. The truth is, God never, ever intended my ultimate fulfillment to come from Michelle, nor did He intend for her to look to me to complete all of her dreams. The reason is simple: why would God ever want any of us to look to another person to bring us ultimate happiness? It cannot be done. God doesn't want any of us to look to another sinner, a person far less than perfect, to be the source from which we get our joy and identity. Only God can make me truly happy. Only God can fulfill all of Michelle's dreams and desires. So when we stopped expecting the impossible from one another, we began to see grace flow into places we'd never before seen it. I found myself starting to think about how my decisions would affect her, yet all the while looking at my decisions through her lenses instead of mine. She began to see that she could let me be my erratic self, and in doing so, her whole entire world would not, in fact, explode. Grace abounded. Grace. It's at the top of our list for the reasons we've continued to stay faithful to one another in our promise to stay married. Thank God for grace that is only found in a relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. - 1 Corinthians 16:23

The Truth about....Marriage - Part I

2010-11-02T13:04:00.007-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

This Man Minute will go a bit more than 60 seconds today. It will be worth your two minutes.

Over the past few weeks it seems like every day I'm hearing news that people I know and love are getting divorced, are separated, or are on the brink of either of the two. The Man Minute goes out to thousands of people, and I hear reports all the time that many of you forward it to your brothers who walk with you in the Lord.
So,I know that by the simple law of averages, many of you who get the Man Minute have been divorced. I cannot imagine how painful that chapter of your life was both then and even now, as it's still a part of your story. Therefore, the last thing I want to do is to heap any coals upon your head, because I know that any man's marriage can come to an end. I fully believe with all my heart that no person ever
gets married anticipating a divorce in their future. Things just happen and you end up one day in a place you never thought you'd be. However, I cannot help but say to every man who gets the Man Minute, that unless there are clear, biblical grounds pointing to a separation, God's best for your life is to stay married. Yes, absolutely yes, there are at times circumstances where a marriage simply cannot make it. One party walks away and decides to quit, no matter how hard the other one tries to keep it together. Sometimes a person grows a heart that is like cement toward their spouse, and thus there is no possible option for recovery unless that person turns their heart toward God; and, you cannot make your spouse turn to God. Only they can make that decision. So I understand that. The thing that is grieving me the most is that what I'm seeing in the lives of people I know who are on the brink of divorce is that one, or in some cases both, of the people in the marriage simply want more freedom ... aren't having their needs met ... want to go back to a fantasy of high school dating, club hopping, etc, etc. In most cases I see around me right now, for the person who has chosen to end the marriage, there are absolutely no biblical grounds for it. It seems that the grounds for divorce these days are simply and purely selfish. My marriage is hard work, but not because my wife, Michelle, is hard to live with; she isn't hard to live with (most of the time!) It's hard because
relationships are tough. However, I've never seen anything so rewarding as marriage.
Michelle and I have a great marriage, but it's because we want to stay married, we
want to honor one another, and above all, we want the anointing of God on our lives.
All of this means that it takes work, but anything worth having is worth the work.
Life-long relationships are tough!! What makes any of us think that we can live with one person as a friend, lover, and spouse for an entire life time and yet think that it's not going to, at times, be completely a marathon that must be endured?? In the end, you cannot force a person to stay married to you. You can, however, do everything you can possibly do to honor your vows. You stood before God and your spouse and you told both God and your spouse that you'd stay in this relationship until death parts you. Stay married. When I was 16 years old my mom and dad thought they could no longer live with one another. After four months of a separation, they even filed papers for divorce. There marriage was virtually non-existent, even before the papers were filed. Yet, my mom and dad both surrendered their hearts to staying together. Within the next 24 months all three of us gave our hearts to the Lord Jesus. I've said many times that the marriage I grew up watching isn't the marriage my parents have today. They are two completely different people when it comes to how they love one another. I watched with my own eyes that when two people decide to make massive changes in their lives, stop being selfish, and choose to love the Lord so that they can learn to love one another again, then any marriage can thrive. It can be done.

But He said to me,"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

*** Next week I'm going to share some personal experiences in my marriage that have
taught me a lot about God, myself, and my wife.

A Quarter of the Way Over!

2010-11-01T12:56:00.006-05:00

I was talking with Josh Thrash a few days ago and he reminded me that with the passing of October the Mississippi hunting season was a quarter of the way over. Man, how is that for a glass half empty!

Well, Mr. Thrash obviously could feel the season passing by faster than usual, so he ratcheted up his game...just a little bit!

On the afternoon of October 29th, Josh arrived at his camp on the Mississippi River. A front was pushing through and although the temperature wasn't exactly freezing, Josh said he just knew it was going to be a good evening to be in the woods. Not long after getting in his tree, he spotted a few does closing into his set up. The dominant doe circled his position and knew something wasn't right. Josh said that he could have shot her but decided he wouldn't IF she didn't blow at him. Well, this wasn't this old does first encounter; she waited until she was out of range before she started blowing! It was early so Josh wasn't too bummed about the events that had already transpired. A few minutes passed and a borderline shooter came just outside of Josh's shooting range. The buck didn't waste much time in the area and proceeded on toward the northwest of Josh's position. Not long after the buck was out of sight, Josh heard the unmistakable sound of horns clashing. Apparently, the 8 point that just passed by had a score to settle with another buck lurking just out of sight from Josh's position. Well, several does then began feeding very close to his tree. Josh was content to watch them when he spotted movement from the direction the previous buck came from. Upon closer inspection with his binoculars, he immediately recognized this buck as one he had several trail camera pictures of.

Josh traded his binoculars out for his bow and got ready. The buck followed along the same path of the 8 point did earlier. Josh figured the shooter would continue on and not offer him a shot but that was not the case. As it turned out, the buck walked just out of sight and then double-backed behind Josh's tree. When Josh realized he was there, the 145" twelve pointer was a mere 18 steps. Trust me when I say, that's the last place a whitetail bucks wants to be with Mr. Thrash in the tree! Josh put the arrow where it needed to be and the buck expired in quick fashion. Not a bad start to the 2010-2011 season, huh?

Scott Berry is another who started the season off strong. He was fortunate enough to draw a coveted early season muzzle-loader tag at one of the state WMA's along the Mississippi River. With the advice of a friend, Scott enter the woods well before daylight on the first morning of his three day hunt. Within 5 minutes of getting settled in his tree, he had a doe and spike walking by within 50 yards. His confidence was through the roof. With only 30 minutes passing after seeing the first deer of the morning, Scott said 5 does came busting through the woods with two mature bucks on their back trail. With specific harvest guidelines in play, Scott knew he had just a few seconds to size them up and make a decision. As you can see, he made a good choice! Scott's public land buck had 8 points, 6" bases, a little over 20" main beams and weigh a whopping 240 pounds.

Jonathon Breakfield also drew an early muzzle-loader tag for one of Mississippi's WMA's. As he put it, "the deer weren't moving but the hogs were"! Nothing like a little bacon at the skinning rack:)

Rob Paradise, of Ohio, sent a this pic of a bruiser he harvested a couple weeks ago. Rob and his brother Chris don't play while in the whitetail woods! Between the two brothers, they have collected over 330 inches of bone this season...and that is with them harvesting one buck apiece...that's FO REAL!!!

A Question of Competence

2010-10-29T21:17:00.004-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Most every man I've ever met, myself most certainly included, has a deep need to "be the man." Not necessarily from the standpoint of ego, but more from the viewpoint of competence. Every man wants to know that he's competent to navigate life's challenges. The desire of being competent has, in my life, become something that has been a driving force to excel. However, as with any other pursuit, those desires can also become deadly toxins that infect your heart, cloud your perspective, and warp your relationships when left unfiltered by the word of God. Over and over again, I've had to force myself not only to understand, but to truly give over my heart, to the eternal truth that in the end there's nothing I can do to make myself a fully competent man. I cannot be educated enough...I cannot become wealthy enough...I cannot be smart enough ... to actually handle life on every level. In fact, to think that I can is, in its truest form, a carnal approach to life.
The fact that I'm in Christ, the fact that I'm washed in the blood of His eternal covenant, is what makes me competent. It's "Christ in me, the hope of glory" that makes me competent. My competence is tainted with far less than His best. My ability to try and be the man is only as good as the extent to which I know The Man. Knowing that truth, then, allows me to throttle down and live life without the bondage of having to perform. My performance is only measured by the truth of whether or not I am grafted into the Great I Am. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant...2 Corinthians 3:4-6.

Father & Son Big Game Adventures

2010-10-25T21:40:00.005-05:00

Recently, Les Dungan traveled to familiar country out west in Wyoming. What makes it familiar, you might ask? Well, last year Les harvested his first Rocky Mtn Elk with his bow with the same outfitter. This year he would be in pursuit of Pronghorn and Mule Deer with his youngest son by his side. There isn't much that can compare with chasing big game out west in my book. As I read Les' account of the hunt, it makes me look forward to the day when my boys can accompany me out there for the first time!

Peyton's first trip out west was awesome! We were chasing both mule deer and antelope. Our first priority was a mule deer and we set out to find one on Thursday morning. The first day was eventful but we were unable to fill a tag. Friday morning was different and at first light we spotted several nice bucks while glassing a steep hill side.....which I would later reclassify as a mountainside without question!

After a plan was developed we started out on the stalk. As we approached the bachelor group of bucks which included our deer they slowly feed higher and
higher up the .....mountain. A stalemate developed with the bucks not wanting to go over the top while owning an incredible bird's eye view of every possible approach. After about thirty minutes of laying low and watching the bucks milling around a consensus was reached by all for Peyton to try the shot. The shot would be 430 yards up hill. Peyton and I discussed a aiming point with the anticipated 20" bullet drop below line of sight. Everyone got ready and waited for the buck to present the perfect broad side position. Peyton had decided to use my 7 mm rem. mag. Because of better optics and trajectory than the old faithful .270 win (aka meat stick). Well everything was right and Peyton executed a perfect dry fire. During the rifle swap we had failed to chamber a round. I joked that we had planned a trial run. Haha. Not to worry we just started the pre-shot routine over. At the ready Peyton squeezed off
the shot and popped the buck in the chest. High fives were had all around.
Our guide interrupted the celebration with a suggestion that Peyton shoot the buck again considering he was still standing and we did not want him to move from where he was if possible. Not to worry, I want you to know that Peyton stuck another round right through the boiler room putting the buck down for the count and ruling out any question of a lucky shot! I would like to mention also that the outfitter had offered a camera man and we are hoping that this most memorable hunt will be televised as a father and son outing on the "Life at Table Mountain" outdoor show produced by Dave Watson.

Pretty incredible first trip out west for Peyton for sure - Les.

Continued action out west!

2010-10-08T07:34:00.005-05:00

I received the following email from Marc Measells, an old college buddy of mine. Mark is a forester and avid outdoorsman who loves to travel in pursuit of all sorts of wild game. He and a buddy just returned home from their first Pronghorn hunt in the cowboy state - Wyoming!

Well, I just returned from a trip out West hunting pronghorn in SE Wyoming. My buddy and I both drew buck and doe pronghorn tags and successfully filled all tags in 3.5 days of hunting! We both killed our does with shots under 100 yards. Tedrick shot his Saturday while I got mine on Sunday. Neither of us had luck on Monday. We had to check out of our hotel Tuesday morning before we left to hunt so either we had to fill our buck tags Tuesday or drive 50+ miles one way to the nearest hotel so we could hunt Wednesday. However, we spotted a buck by himself first thing that morning and I told Tedrick to get out and stalk him. Within 20 minutes Tedrick had shot a very unique buck with his horns curling to the front. His buck was down by 7 a.m. that morning.

I missed a really good buck while he was cleaning his. However, after we had his cleaned and loaded we had driven less than 2 miles when we spotted another group of pronghorns and the chase was on. I got to within 250 yards of them but all I could see were does before they spotted me. I managed to catch back up to the group again but at this point they had split up into 2 different groups. The closest group consisted mainly of does and one small buck. I decided to stalk the other group which had at least 2 bucks, one of which was a dandy. Well, I found them again at a water-hole but could only get within 300 yards. The big buck and a group of does started feeding up the ridge away from me while this other buck and does stayed at the water-hole. I managed a 295 yard shot on the buck but didn't drop him so I had to shoot him again. At any rate, we both tagged out before noon on Tuesday and had a
cooler full of meat and two nice trophies in hand.

A strong start to the 2010 - 2011 Season.

2010-10-04T11:39:00.006-05:00

Brock Long of Prentiss, MS recently traveled to Kansas for their early muzzleloader season. As you can see, he didn't return empty handed! He harvested this 130 class 8 point early in the trip. Brock said that the bucks were just beginning to break up from their bachelor groups and that all the deer were really hitting the milo crops hard. He told me that he probably saw more bucks in a week than he'll see in 3 seasons in Mississippi. I can relate to that after hunting in Illinois 2 years ago. There's nothing like hunting the mid-west!

Back home in Mississippi, Jordan Goza has been getting photos for at least the last month of this monster.

This big rascal loved the camera. Jordan had pictures of him at all hours of the day. So, come opening day afternoon, Mr. Goza climbed into his tree a little after 1:00 p.m. Naturally, this big 8 waited til the last hour of daylight before showing himself. Jordan parked a Rage broadhead in the old bucks wheel house and that my friends was all she wrote! His buck scored was ~ 145 inches and had 22" main beams and 12" G3's. Way to kick off the MS season Jordan!!!

Here's another guy who knows how to kick off the season right. Not only that, let it be know that Russell Ingram officially falls within the "Harvester" category. I'm telling you, this boy knows how to get it down on mature whitetails. The buck below was taken in the hills of Yazoo county on October 2nd. Russell said that after the shot the buck ran 30 yards and died in the bottom of a huge gully! After a very hard recovery, Russell put a tape on the bucks antlers - main beams pushing 24", inside spread of 19", score...+/- 150"....in velvet too!

Faithful...He really is!

2010-10-04T09:39:00.001-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

The longer I go in my journey with Christ the more I find that faith is every bit as much a mental game as it is a matter of the heart. Faith is about how you look at your world; it's about how you interpret the things that are thrown at you daily. Faith is about knowing something is true, not just believing that something is most likely true. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me ..." I've read this verse countless times, but it struck me today that Jesus told me to "learn" from Him. So the question becomes, "learn" what? Is there a connection between learn and rest?
It seems to me that the closer a man gets to the heart of the God who created him, that man must learn what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. Learning is a life-long progression. A man must learn that God is faithful, and that only comes over the duration of time. Interpreting life. Waiting. Watching, over and over again, day in day out, as God comes through, over and over again. I learn, based on previous experiences in every day life, that He is competent.

I believe that what Jesus meant by "learn from Me" is that He wants me to learn that He is guaranteeing His faithfulness. He cannot lie. He cannot foul up. He cannot lead me in a wrong direction. So, when I learn that He truly is sovereign in every single situation of my life, then I can find "rest" for my soul, and for my emotions, because I have learned that in every situation, He is who He said He is. Faithful.

The "Season" is upon us!

2010-09-28T12:43:00.003-05:00

Mississippi archery season is only a couple days away but several fellows have already ventured out of state to take advantage of earlier season out west.

Dwayne Ensign, editor for MS Bowhunters Magazine, took a trip out west in mid-September. As you might imagine, Dwayne is a hard-core bowhunter. He devotes a lot of time to researching "sleeper" states for hunting trophy whitetails. The evening of September 14th all of his research paid off when this 145" monster stepped out. Dwayne said the buck weighed 260 pounds...what a way to start the season!

I made a post a few weeks ago about my friend, Scott Huffman, and his dad going out to Colorado on an elk hunt. Scott's dad had drawn an early season muzzle loader tag. Spirits were high on day one as both men saw and heard bulls near camp. Scott said the bulls would bugle a few times in the morning and in the evening and that was it. Find the bulls reluctant to come to the call, both guys hunted well used water holes and travel corridors. On day four of the hunt, this paid off for Scott as a 4x5 followed a path to within 13 yards of his position! Scott was able to get his bow drawn and make the shot just before the bull buggered. His shot was a little bit forward but it still did the job. Scott found his bull and went to relay the news to his dad. As the week went on bugling activity picked up and so did the action. However, the guys just couldn't put it all together before the end of the week arrived. Scott's dad had several close calls but was never able to squeeze the trigger. I asked Scott if his dad had a good time..."my dad isn't one to show a lot of emotion and is generally a pretty quiet man; however, every time I've seen or talked to him since we got back, all he's talked about was that hunt!"

Rich Nichols is no stranger to the Buff Pad. Rich falls under the "Harvester" category. He ventured out to Colorado with two other men from Louisiana to hunt the 4th week of September. In true "Rich" fashion, he went to work right away. On the second or third hunt of the trip, Rich found their "bedroom" and worked his way into calling range. As he began calling, it was evident that the 6x6 he hoped to shoot wasn't going to work into range before dark....but the satellite bull would! Rich said he was about to abandon the hunt for the evening when he spotted 12 cows coming out of the oak brush behind him. A 5x6 happened to be bringing up the rear and followed the cows all the way to a water hole that was a mere 45 yards away from Rich. The bull almost instantly gave him a shot which he actually passed up. He really wanted that 6x6 he watched all evening. However, when the 5x6 turned around and came back to the water hole and offered Rich a second opportunity, he took full advantage of it! "My arrow went through that rascal like butter!" The bull ran about 100 yards to the edge of the oak brush before taking his last step.
As it would turn out, Rich harvested the 3rd bull of his elk hunting carrier and also helped the other two guys harvest their bulls too!

And for those of us stuck in Mississippi looking for something to hunt until bow season gets here, just follow Will Thomas' lead and go gator hunting. Always in search of big adventure, Will jumped at the opportunity to accompany a few friends to the Pascagoula River. The 203lb female was 9'3" which ended up being couple inches short of the record for a female gator.

2010-09-23T20:39:00.002-05:00

Man, I've been wanting to post some photos from a couple of recent hunting trips by some friends of mine but I'm gonna wait until I have all the photos and stories. That way I can post them all at once...not to mention procrastinate just a little longer! Seriously, check back soon for some cool stories from Colorado, Idaho and who knows where else.

A Lost Treasure

2010-09-20T08:30:00.005-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Just this past week I was speaking at a men's conference in New Mexico. The men gather to study the Scriptures in the morning, then fly fish the rest of the day. I was working what has become one of my all-time favorite stretches of water, The Rio Grande, in northern New Mexico. Along the Texas border it's a muddy river. In New Mexico and Colorado, it's an entirely new river all together. It can be great water for large trout, yet to navigate this stream means that you also must traverse larger boulders. In the fly fishing world we call it "boulder hopping." I clutched a large, purple, lava rock with my right hand so as to steady my descent back to the water's edge, and as I looked down, tucked on top of a stream side rock, was a lost treasure. A toy truck. An old toy truck. Made for the entertainment of generation before me. Almost as if someone had put it there on display, but I'm certain that the river gently pushed it there over time, for no little feet ever play near these fast waters. I didn't know what to make of it, really. The first emotion I felt, for some odd reason, was a short moment of sadness. It looked battered by the rocks, water, and sun.
Being the father of a son, my mind drifted to some little boy who'd been distracted and probably forgot about his favorite truck, and left it down by the river, somewhere upstream where the water is more gentle, only to remember it on the way home. I wondered where he is today. The question ran through my soul, "Where are you today, brother?" I thought about the choices he's made over time, and how those choices have shaped his future. That once bright red truck had seen better days. Still, the truck did have value, at least to someone, a long, long time ago. My thoughts honestly did veer to something Jesus said about people. "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." The whole point of the fifteenth chapter of Luke is that something of value was lost, and the owner, though he had a surplus of the same missing item, went out and would not return until he found it.
Every man at some point feels alone. Left for gone. As if his choices have caused him to float into places where the tides are simply too strong and his fate is sealed to the current of the unknown. God, the Difference Maker, takes it upon Himself, to search, rescue, and restore this man, every man. For one simple reason ... because every man has value to the Owner.

Changes in Scenery

2010-09-16T10:55:00.002-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

I once read, "When God wants us to experience a change in perspective, He often does it via a change in scenery." It's true. In order to get our attention, God often must change our pace, or even our location, in order to change our heart.
Never fear new seasons of life, even if those seasons challenge everything you know or have ever learned about Him. God may move you only to take you to a place you never would have traveled with Him unless He physically removed you from a situation or a spiritual climate which was holding you back the life of your heart.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

Gator Season!

2010-09-15T09:12:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, a good friend of mine, Will Thomas, joined some friends for opening night of the 2010 Alligator season. They had quite a night chasing gators on the Reservoir. Bobby Cleveland of the Clarion Ledger Newspaper met them at the boat ramp and covered their story in last Sunday's paper...here is his story!

Seven men, two boats, so many rods and reels and hooks, a bow and arrow and a gun, the barrel of which was blown apart. That's what it took to get the 462-pound gator that highlighted Friday's opening night on Barnett Reservoir.

But it was not the only exciting story, nor even the best, told by the hunters who chased the beasts. No, that one belongs to only three guys who took a gator that fell just a fraction of an inch short of 10 feet and weighed 192 pounds.
Permit holder Scott Wynne of Greenwood, Will Thomas of Madison and Doss Earnest of Greenwood had their hands full with their big gator at the area of the upper river known as "The Rocks."
"We'd seen a big one there Thursday night while scouting," Thomas said. "Tonight, we saw this one easing across the river." It took several casting attempts, and about 30 minutes, before Wynne finally got the big treble hook across the beast's back, reeled up the 100-pound braided line and set the hook.

FIGHT IS ON

"I just had it on a 7-foot heavy action catfish rod and the Shimano bass reel didn't hold a lot of line and off he went," Wynne said. "Somewhere during his run, he went under a log and we didn't know it until we started chasing him. We just thought he was laying on the bottom so we started casting trying to get a couple of more hooks into him." Four lost hooks later, Earnest flashed his light in nearby lily pads. "I saw a gator pop up," he said. "When he went down in the water, line started coming off the spool so we knew it was him." Trouble was, the line was still vertical from the boat, and not angled with the gator's run. "That's when we figured out the log thing," Thomas said. "He was taking line and there wasn't a lot we could do. We were running out fast." Wynne said he got worried when he started seeing the reel's bare spool. "I was literally down to the last 30 or 40 feet of line," he said. Luckily, some conservation officers came along and told the guys they needed to snag the line, pull it up and retie to another pole. Fortunately, the tiring gator rested. "If he'd had made a run then, he was gone," Thomas said. "That gave me a chance to snag and cut the line, grab our bigger tuna stick rod and Penn reel and tie the lines together."

What kind of knot?

"I don't know ... a 'get it done fast' one I guess," he said. "Then we reeled quickly to get the knot on the reel." The stiffer rod gave them more control, and in 30 minutes the gator was close enough for a shot with a Legend cross bow built for bowfishing. At four feet, the broadhead, with strong cable-like line attached, found its target. Ten minutes later, it was over. The gator was noosed and shot, and another fun story had its ending.

My Outdoor Nation

2010-09-08T11:30:00.003-05:00

Two blog posts in a day...that's gotta be some sorta record! Jason Cruise, my friend who sends the Man Minute's that I post on The Buff Pad from time to time, just announced the launch of a cool new website for outdoorsmen: www.myoutdoornation.com . MyOutdoorNation is a unique site dedicated to folks who share a passion for all things wild and for all things Jesus!
The site is loaded with fresh content of videos, articles, MP3's, photos, gear reviews and more. The contributors to the site come from all over the country. Check it out and see for yourself what other outdoorsmen are doing to glorify the King while they are pursuing their passion for hunting and fishing!

Father & Son - Heading West!

2010-09-08T08:36:00.003-05:00

Alright, its confession time for Mr. Polk this morning. I am eat slam up with envy. I've made two elk hunting trips in my life. The first with my dad and cousin in 2000, and the second with my buddy Scott Huffman. The first trip ended in success as Les made an incredible 624 yard shot on his first bull in the last minutes of our last morning to hunt.
Mine and Scott's trip was one that dreams are made of. Our week in the mountains of Colorado ended with both of us tagging our first bull elk with our bows.

Both hunts were special and will forever be recorded in vivid detail in my mind. But the bow hunts I shared with Scott were the sort that you replay over and over and over. Now, my partner in stick and string is heading back to the ground where we harvested our bulls, but this time he is carrying his dad. You see, on our way back we both agreed that the next trip we made to that mountain that we'd have our dad's in tow and hopefully have special muzzleloader tags in their hands. Well, Scott's dad drew his tag this season, and as you may have guess already they are heading out this afternoon! I told Scott yesterday that I was probably more excited than he was. He laughed and said that may be true but he knew that neither of us was more excited than his dad....that's what it's all about!

Good luck partner - I'll be expecting a play by play of the weeks events as soon as you get back into cell phone range.

Oh and by the way, I'm over being envious. Now, I have to work on patience cause Lord willing, me and my dad will be making the same trip one year from now!

Light - Piercing Darkness

2010-09-07T08:42:00.004-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

A few fall seasons ago I was chasing what Indians called the "ghost of the timber." This elusive creature has other formal names, such as Wapiti, a name given from the Shawnee, meaning "white rump." This mighty ghost has held true to its name, for "elk" have proven to be a formidable opponent for me thus far in my high country journeys.
I wanted to get high into the timber on this particular November morning, so I left the cabin at 2:30 am. The walk would take three hours in the snow. The moon was perfectly full. The sky was completely clear. I'm telling you friend, it was pure worship for me. There I was on the west slope of the Continental Divide. Clean, cold air. Moonlight travel at 10,000 feet. All but inches kept me from touching the face of God. I stopped for some water, and as I reached into my pack, I happened to look up. Miles and miles away, on another range of the mountain chain, I saw another journeyman. It was about 3:30 by this time. He was on his way up his own set of timber, and he was using a modern day horse ... the ATV. Though miles away, I could see his headlights. Two thoughts occurred to me. The first flash that went through my tired mind was, "I bet elk love those things. They can see you coming for miles
brother!"
The second thought that stirred my mind was, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." Stop and study for a second. Miles and miles away, I could see the light. There was no way not to see the light. I would have literally had to close my eyes intentionally in order to deny that the light was present, and even then, the light would be on my mind. The light was piercing the black night, because that's what light does. In the midst of the Colorado darkness, the light put me in a position where it must be dealt with entirely.
Jesus had a best friend. His name was John. Read his gospel, and you'll see that he saw prisms of Jesus' life that could only be seen from close, yes, very close, proximity. So what does it say about the heart of a man ... what does it say about the heart of humanity, when light pierces the darkness, but the darkness doesn't even know what it is? It tells me that the heart of man is so completely saturated with darkness that light doesn't even make sense; to the point that it cannot be
comprehended or even recognized. Which is why men need a Savior, and a Holy Spirit, to escort that power to humanity, for without a Heavenly conduit, light would otherwise be overlooked ... even in the darkest night.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. - John 1:5

Take'em!

2010-09-01T16:05:00.006-05:00

Today, I experienced a "first" in my pursuit of all things wild. This morning I had the pleasure of kicking off my 2010-2011 hunting season hunting Canada Geese with some great folks outside of Starkville, MS. Good friend, Tom Wiley, actually invited me to do this last season but for whatever reason, the geese weren't using the farm he had permission to hunt. Based on a recent scouting trip, he knew that many resident geese were consistantly using the farm this year. Basically, these birds were dropping onto these wide open hay fields and pounding them.

In addition to me, Tom invited several others to join us for some action: Steve Snell with Gun Dog Supply and Slade Fancher with The Sports Center in Starkville. As an added bonus, the crew from Mississippi Outdoors joined us as well: hosts Amanda and Randy along with cameramen/goose spookers (haha!) Scooter and Rusty.

Just as Tom had predicted the first set us honkers broke the horizon and came into view around 6:45 a.m. It was evident that they were going to head directly toward us with little coaxing needed. However, just before they crossed the point of no return, they spotted something they didn't like and flared. Tom continued calling and although they flanked our position 3 or 4 different times they just would commit to the gun.

Immediately, adjustments were made to our set up and with little time to spare, we had our second group of geese headed our way. This group was noticably lower than the first and followed along the same path. Tom work'em to perfection. On his command, all six of us exploded from our layout blinds and picked a target. Four out of the eight were clipped out of the sky with one of them literally landing in Randy's blind!

Multiple groups continued to work the field but we were only able to get a few of them to commit to our spread. We stuck it out until 9:00 a.m. at which time we hurridly gathered all our gear in an effort to make it to Shipley's Donuts in Starkvegas before they closed at 10:30...we did it!

All in all, this was a great trip! We ended our morning with 7 big'ol Canadas and some new friends to boot. Not a bad way to start off the season in my book...not bad at all!!!

Fish, Foam and Fellowship - Summer 2010

2010-08-21T20:28:00.015-05:00

Last Friday night 10 guys convened at Willow Break Hunting Club near Eagle Lake for a time of great fellowship. I happened to be one of the ten. Our agenda was simple: eat, shoot bows and spend time in God's Word. We did just that.
Josh and Kevin was kind enough to serve as the camp cooks while the rest of us worked hard on our form while shooting a diverse array of foam animals off the porch of the cabin.

After a fine catfish dinner with all the trimmings, we settled in to some time in God's Word. The beauty of this was there was no one person there who's job it was to "preach". Kyle Reno, the college pastor at Crossgates Baptist, open things up by sharing with us what a man truly looks like. He referenced I Kings chapter 2 where David is on his death bed giving some parting instructions to Solomon. After that, several of us shared testimonies, scripture and circumstances that God has used (and is still using) in our lives to draw us closer to Him.
Now to some of you who will read this, you may be thinking we sat around in a circle singing Kumbaya while holding hands. Let me assure you, that didn't happen.

Around 11:00 p.m. we left camp and put the boats in the Mississippi River backwater for some bow fishing action. We shot lots of fish. In fact, Landon Smith dominated over his apprentice Shane Easterling.

For Kyle Reno, this was his first time to ever bow fish. After getting some "pro" advice from yours truly, he proved to be a quick learner (he was actually giving me advice before the night was over)!

After getting our fill on the water, we returned to camp just before sunrise to catch some shut eye.

(side note: everyone had beds to sleep in but I still found Shane & Landon in this twin bed the next morning???)

Paul Hand, however, decided to jump on his bike for a "quick" 63 mile bike ride. That's right...63 MILES!!! He made his bike ride and returned to camp just in time to eat a hearty breakfast of wild hog sausage and big ol' cathead biscuits.
Oh yeah, a word of advice to any of you serious bike riders who are brave enough to stroll up in camp in those tight little shorts...be ready for what the "brethren" dish out! I'm betting Paul will second guess his decision to sport those things around deer camp next time - haha!

On a more serious note, for those of you that think this sounded like something you would like to have been a part of, then take the bull by the horns and start something like this at your camp. Start small. Be intentional about time in the Word. Trust me, the Lord will honor that time. As one in our group said at the close of our day on Saturday, "I had no idea something like this was possible."

A big THANKS to Josh Thrash on behalf of all of us for making this happen!

Are you willing to get your boots wet?

2010-08-16T08:17:00.003-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Do "signs" lead you to act in faith, or does faith move first, then you'll see the signs? Most often we pray for God to give us a sign, but that's pretty much the reversal of what you'll find in Biblical faith walking.
Just one example:God's people are at the edge of the current at the Jordan River (Joshua 3). They can hear the water as it moves over the rocks. They see the eddy currents swirl in places where the water is deeper. The people are not commanded to stand and wait until the waters part before they cross. In fact, the Word tells us that "When those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, (it was then) that the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap ... and the priests ... stood on firm ground in the middle of the Jordan."
It wasn't until they started getting wet did the waters part, which means that every person had to commit to walking into water with full anticipation that the waters would part at any given moment.
Often in life you are thrust into situations where you simply have no idea what to do next. So, then, at that moment, what do you do? You do the only thing you know to do with the information you have at the time. When God places a burden on your heart, when God speaks to an area of your life in which He's calling you to go deeper and further still, more often than not that's all you're going to get from Him. A voice of leading, calling you onward. God doesn't grant anybody a panoramic view of life. He does that for your own best interests. There's no faith in that. You cannot mature with panoramic views.

You can only grow when you glance down only to find that your boots are wet!

As iron sharpens iron...

2010-08-15T20:59:00.004-05:00

As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17
This weekend several guys are getting together at Willow Break Hunting Club to bow fish and shoot some 3-D targets. As fun as both those activities are, I'm most excited about the fellowship with my brothers in Christ. All of us are determined to spend some quality time in God's Word reading, sharing and praying with one another. Don't get me wrong, there'll be plenty of old hunting stories told; however, our expectation is that a new and greater story will be told after this weekend!

I can't wait!

Somethings on the Horizon!

2010-08-09T08:26:00.002-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

I've got something really cool to announce, but I can't announce it just yet. It's coming in about 30 days, and if you're a man, you're going to love it. I will tell you this much ... it's a website. The funny thing is, I've learned something about human nature in the creation phase of this thing that is really, really neat to watch.
There are many people who will be involved in this site over time ... you'll understand that when you see it. Each of these men are contributing in all sorts of different ways to this site's general construction, yet they can see one anothers work as the work itself unfolds in real time.
Here's what I love: I keep hearing pretty much the same thing from each of these men. The conversation normally goes like, "Man, I'm telling you what, I've got to get on my game. People are putting up some high caliber work on this thing."
John F. Kennedy once said, "A rising tide floats every boat." If you want to see excellence in the people you lead, or in those closest to you, then you must pursue excellence yourself. When you raise the level of your game, you can rest assured your level of passion will overflow in the lives of those around, and the tide will rise naturally.

Keeping Your Promise

2010-08-02T08:04:00.004-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Thirteen years ago today, before God and man, I made a covenant promise to my wife, Michelle, that I'd love her and her only until death do us part. Marriage is not easy. In fact, to be completely candid with you, it's hardest thing I've ever done. Marriage is tough ... if you do it right. Any marriage can be easy if you simply co-exist and do not care about one another. True love doesn't live that way. Love is not an emotion. Love is a choice. Love is a promise kept, and only through kept promises do you find the anointing of God, for God never graces a fantasy. He only gives grace to that which is reality. In His grace, we have stayed together, and by staying together, we love one another far better than we did thirteen years ago. And it's beautiful.

I will keep my promise, and so will she.

"What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
- Jesus - Mark 10:8

Summer Plot and Trail Pics

2010-07-29T22:08:00.006-05:00

Well, last weekend me and Caleb was able to make a run to Prentiss for some "country time". The two of us hopped on pawpaw's 4 wheeler and made our rounds through the woods checking food plots and deer cameras.
Cousin Les has a fine stand of forage soybeans and lablab. The forage soybeans handle a little more grazing pressure than do standard soybeans. As you can see from the photo, these have done quite well.

For some reason the deer are walking through the edge of the beans to get to the middle. This is made obvious from the difference in growth the beans show on the edge of the stand as oppose to the middle. These beans happen to be Roundup Ready too. That means you can spray Roundup herbicide directly on them to control weeds.
Soon we arrived in my clover patch. It looks rough!

The clover is barely an inch high in places which had me wondering if the deer was still untilizing it. Well, a quick check of the trail cameras proved that they were practically living in it.

I've gotta say that this little patch of Durano clover has exceed my expectations. It has literally provided grazing for the deer and turkey from November til now. As you can tell from the photo, I've not tried to control the weeds/grasses either. This is something that will have to be done in the future. I am told that Poast Herbicide is excellent for controlling weeds in clover. We'll see next year!
Here are a few pictures from my trail cameras. As you may recall, I had two cameras on one tree. The Reconyx took more pictures than the Cuddeback but both had instances where one took a picture and the other didn't...Go Figure! Anyway, this time of year nutrition is critical for bucks growing horns and does birthing fawns. I didn't have any buck pics (they are all in my cousins bean patch) but I did have a few does that looked like they were fixing to burst.

I bet the next round of pics I retrieve will have a spotted fawn or two on it judging by these photos.

Oh and by the way, if you're wondering how fast the motion sensors are on the new Reconyx Hyperfire cameras...well, see for yourself -

Anticipating the Call

2010-07-19T08:39:00.001-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

I have several habits that need improving for sure, yet one good habit I've managed to develop is to surround myself with a few various men who own hearts that are deep wells of wisdom and strength. One of those valiant brothers is a man named Pierce Marrs.
We eat lunch about once a month. At one of these gatherings we began to talk about fatherhood; specifically, about our son's personalities. Pierce has two grown sons: Nick and Nathan. Pierce said that between the two boys, Nathan was the one that gravitated a bit more to science fiction, especially if it had anything to do with battles. In his younger years, Nathan loved to create battle scenes where he could use swords, and that love for weaponry grew to a collection of various swords that he actually learned to use well.
Pierce said that as a young boy, when it was time for bed, Nathan would often take with him a sword, or some sort of weapon, and place it by his bed. When Pierce would ask him about it, Nathan often responded, "I just want to be ready."

While it may have been a young boy's imagination playing into the moment, Nathan's desire for readiness speaks mountains about the heart of the man who's heart was forming as he slept. Ready. Prepared. Anticipating the call that could come at any moment.
Great men of God are never formed by a passive heart. You won't find passivity in David. You didn't see it in Moses. You certainly couldn't label Jonathan as possessing anything passive in his spirit. Peter, Paul, John, and Mark were contemporaries of that same caliber of heart that played out in the New Testament.
Those men changed the world, and their story is still shaping our story today. That's how world changers do it ... they take what they have been given and they use it for the glory of His greater cause. World changers are at all times ... ready.

A Great Adventurer

2010-07-09T20:11:00.004-05:00

You may have read a recent post by my friend David "Booger" Maynard about the time he enjoys spending with his remarkable father-in-law who still enjoys the outdoors whenever possible.

Well, today, my good friend Doug Payne lost his 85 year old father, Cecil Payne. I only met Mr. Cecil once, but to say his reputation preceded him would be a gross understatement. I've heard numerous stories involving Mr. Cecil that had me either doubled over laughing or slack jawed in amazement. Mr. Cecil wasn't one to sit idle and watch life pass him by. From all indication, he was always full throttle!

Case in point, here is the text I received from Doug this afternoon with the news:

"My 85 year old father passed away this afternoon while hand grabbing for catfish. We rejoice in his life and his death and know that he has gone home. D.P."

Please remember the Payne family in your prayers in the weeks ahead.

Trail Cameras - Launched!

2010-07-09T12:37:00.003-05:00

Well, last weekend I deployed 3 trail cameras - 1 cuddeback excite and 2 reconyx hyperfire (hc500/hc600). I have my cuddeback and one of the reconyx cameras on one tree, as you can see in this photo, over looking a plot of Durano clover that is being hammered. The purpose for having the two cameras on one tree is - as Reconyx's slogan states - to "See what I've been missing!".

Just out of sight of the camera, I have an established salt lick too. The third camera is on the other side of the salt lick between it and a fresh cutover that is covered in browse. My fingers are crossed...hopefully, I'll have some velvet pics to post soon. Check back in next week to see!

Fishing with a Legend!

2010-06-30T21:07:00.005-05:00

The following was written by my friend and fellow Prentiss native David "Booger" Maynard. Thanks for introducing Mr. Wilson to the visitors of The Buff Pad!

How many can say they spent the day fishing with their father-in-law and caught 44 blue gill and l cat? Well, I did today and enjoyed every minute of it. So what is the big deal about fishing with your family member and catching a good mess of fish for the evening fish fry? How many fish with anyone who will be 90 years old in August and still goes at it as if he were 21?
My father-in-law, Garland Wilson of Paris, TN, who moved to Lebanon, TN, in 1980 still fishes once or twice a week year round if weather permits. He is an amazing person in that he still goes and does what he pleases as if he were 50 years old. I have heard fishing stories that I could listen to over and over. Stories about fishing on Kentucky Lake for years and actually working for TVA as an engineer to help survey the lake back in the 1940s. There is no telling how many thousands of crappie, blue gill, bream, and cat he has caught over the years. We go over to their house (my mother-in-law Lottie Lee Wilson makes the best hush puppies you ever ate) about once a month for a family fish fry. The freezer is slap full of fish and we never seem to have a shortage.
It was had to be 90 degrees today and we fished for at least six hours. He is a legend in his own time. He is well known on Middle Tennessee lakes by avid bass fishermen who are always asking him if the fish are biting. He used to bird hunt in West Tennessee. One year back in the 1960s he killed over 200 quail when they had a very short season and only had open season for a few weeks.
The thing that I admire most about him is that he does not talk about anyone unless there is something good to say. He is a Christian man who puts God first in his life and knows the Bible from front to back as well as anyone I know. I cherish every minute with him and hopefully we can continue to do the thing he truly loves the most, being on the lake fishing.

Thanks for listening,

David Booger Maynard
Lebanon, Tennessee

Class...I ain't talking bout school either!

2010-06-21T09:09:00.004-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

A few days ago my (5) year old son Cole and I went to our first baseball game by ourselves. We've been to several so far, but this one was just us, and it was great.
Quick aside ... Nashville Sounds, the Triple A affiliate of the Brewers, down by 2, bottom of the 9th, 2 balls, 2 strikes, 2 outs, 2 men on ... first baseman Joe Koshansky goes yard with a walk off homer. Stadium went nuts!
The greatest thing for me was not just the Sounds glorious ending - it was actually getting to see one of my all-time favorite baseball players in person. Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (Chicago Cubs), most likely the greatest 2nd baseman of all time, (9) consecutive Gold Gloves, is now the Skipper for the Iowa Cubs. About halfway through the game I noticed something. Sandberg ran on and off the field each time he came out of the dugout. Then I began to notice the rest of the team. Every player, every coach, hustled. Every player played with honor in some really small ways that you had to be looking for to notice. What really stood out to me was that each Cubs player wore their sox at the same height. None of this pants on the ground mess, no one player doing his own thing.

What Sandberg has done with his men is not just tell them what he expects... he models it for them. He holds himself to the standards of the men he leads every day. He leads with class. Class is a forgotten concept, yet Sandberg proves to us all that leading with class can be done. If we as men want to lead other men, we must model it, and modeling it is far more than "walking the walk" ... it's about your convictions saturating your soul to the point that everyone around you is affected by who you are and how you live.

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ - Apostle Paul
1 Corithians 11:1

Failures....

2010-06-14T09:07:00.005-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Failures do not measure a man. Failures may measure a man's decisions, but failures in and of themselves are nothing more than pathways to success in many cases; because, failures can often teach you more about yourself, and about God's nature, than successes are able to simply because failures force you to stop and think it through.
Spiritually speaking, my life has grown very little in times where the skids are greased with oils of gladness due to the blue sky I may be under at the moment. Yet, when the sled comes to a halt because the skids are dry and the heart is broken from current circumstances, it's in those seasons where God has my full attention. Failures do not measure a man ... especially when that man is one who gets up from the deck and presses forward. In fact, pressing on is exactly what God intended us to do, because pressing on is the righteous action. It's spiritually "unnatural" for a man to go down and stay down. Rising up to face the future is where we find God's great grace. Faithfully moving forward is the actual stage where the journey is really meant to play out, for it's in that journey that we discover just how big this God of ours truly is ... yesterday, today, and forever.

When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? - Jeremiah 8:4

Slack'n

2010-06-12T20:43:00.002-05:00

Been incredibly busy the last few weeks and so, the blog has suffered. Got tons of things I'd like to post but little time to do it right now. Hang in there Hunter, you're my one faithful reader...I'll have something for you to read asap:) polky

How Things Ended Up...Part 1

2010-05-05T21:06:00.008-05:00

Season is over. Season is over. Its over! This is what I had to tell myself over and over last Saturday. You see, I was minding my own business painting boundary lines in Yazoo county when the unthinkable happened. I was heading out of the woods to my truck when I spotted the gobbler whose tracks I had been seeing the last two trips I had made to the property. He was sitting under a shade tree in the wide open and somehow didn't see me as I walked to the timber's edge. I instantly froze and watched as the bird undoubtedly studied the wood line for what he thought was a hen approaching. After about a minute, he went into half strut. I shuffled my feet in the leaves to sound like a turkey scratching and he immediately ripped a gobble out at me. Oh my...this ol'boy was sitting in a perfect spot and guess who hadn't cleaned all his turkey gear out of his truck yet? As it turned out, I watched that rascal for an hour and enjoyed every minute of it. The funny thing is that once I got in my truck head'n out, I got a call from a friend of mine who I seldom hear from. Want to guess what he does for a living? That's right...he's a law enforcement officer for MS. How great is that!

Anyway, the guys below all finished the season strong.

Chad Odum, aka "Stool", made a late season trip to Texas in pursuit of his first Rio Grande turkey. After extending his trip by one day, he connected on a long spurred Rio right after daylight.

Les Dungan and Jay Osbourne made their annual pilgramage to the mid-west hunting both Iowa and Missouri. Opening morning in Iowa, Les and Jay split up. Les went to a field before daylight where he watched two big longbeards fly up to roost the evening before. As the sun slowly rose, Les could make out one of the longbeards on a limb about 200 yards down the fields edge. Fortunately for him, he had busted a couple of hens off the roost and sent them into the field behind him. As soon as the bird felt comfortable to pitch, he did so right in Les' direction. As soon as he landed he went into strut and continued on a path that almost immediately brought him to within 50 yards of Les. Les decided to end the hunt at that distance since the bird was acting like he wanted to fly a ditch and go into the field the hens went to. As it turned out, the ol' tom was on the ground flapping in a well used cattle path that would have taken him directly to the ditch and surely in the neighbor's field. Good call Les...especially since that dude was sporting 1 5/8" spurs!!!

Josh Thrash added a state to his life-long quest to shoot a gobbler in all 49 states they inhabit. After stopping in Kentucky and harvesting a couple birds there, he and his riding partner mozied up to Indiana. As you would expect, Mr. Thrash made it happen even though condition were not that favorable.

Plan "A"

2010-04-23T11:40:00.008-05:00

It was just after 5:00 am when I met Michael Penn at their club sign-in board. He and I had been plot'n and plan'n for a week trying to get together on a turkey hunt. Although small, we both had found a window in our schedules to try and coax his son's first turkey into shotgun range. He told me we would be hunting his hunting club and although it had birds, they had seldom found success hunting them.

As seasons go, this one had been exceptional for Michael so far. He and his brother, Mark, had recently doubled on a pair of fine longbeards earlier in the season. The very next morning he was able to call in his youngest daughter's very first longbeard. Little Michael or "Catfish" was actually on that hunt and chose to let his sister shoot the bird even though he too had never taken a longbeard. What a little brother!

Michael, Catfish and I pulled down the logging road with plenty of time before first light. We gathered all our gear and headed a couple hundred yards down the road. Michael was quick to inform me that he couldn't hear very well and would leave that up to me and Catfish. He hadn't got the words out of his mouth good when I heard the first bird of the morning fire off several hundred yards down the road we were standing on. We continued to hold our ground in hopes that one would gobble closer. Typically, when you are standing around listening for a bird with company, there is a common reaction from everyone who hears the bird...everybody looks at each other with wide eyes and points in a direction. Well, as we stood there listening another bird hammers straight down the road. I'm guessing he was about 250 yards which put him in easy hearing distance - wrong. I found out that Michael wasn't lying when he told me he couldn't hear well because he nor Catfish so much as flinched when this bird gobbled. I simply asked them, "y'all did hear that bird didn't you?" They both shook their heads "no". I described where the bird gobbled from and we decided to close the distance by walking a little further down the log road. By this time, the sky was getting lighter by the second so I hooted to make sure we didn't get too close. He gobbled just off the side of the road about 120 yards and we all heard him that time!
We immediately went into action. Michael and Catfish walked about 40 yards closer to the turkey and established their point of ambush just off the shoulder of the road. I deployed ol' B-Mobile and a hen decoy right where I was standing then I slipped off the side of the road keeping the Penn boys between me and the roosted gobbler.
Honestly, I figured this was too good to be true. There wasn't any way this would work like I thought it should. Standing behind my tree, I cupped my hand around the edge of my mouth, looked up toward the sky and said good morning...in turkey language of course. He answered immediately! I waited a minute or two and did the same thing again just to make sure the first gobbled wasn't just good timing. It wasn't; he answered me again. With my wing in hand, I began raking it against the tree to simulate a hen getting restless on the limb. I figured he would jump all over that but that wasn't the case. He would only gobble when I called and I was afraid to call too much. Secondly, I was about to die to do a fly down. It was early and I was caught in that time where flying down may be too early if he was one of those birds that liked to see the hen before pitching out or too late if a real hen flew down before me. So, at 6:10 I decided it was light enough. Once again, I cupped my hand and looked toward the sky to make my call. At the first cluck, he thundered. It caught me so off guard, I didn't finish my fly down. I went right back into it again, this time finishing the rapid succession of clucks and beating my wing. I followed that up with beating my wing again but didn't call. It may just be me but once I fly down I like to play an assembly yelp just to let everybody in the woods no "hear I am". Upon finishing that yelp, he hammered again and this time I thought he was on the ground. I contemplated whether or not he was on the ground and figured I needed to try and make him gobble again. Not wanting to call again, I knelt down with my wing to scratch in the leaves. I was just touching the leaves with my wing when BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
I thought I had been shot. I jumped up and ran out into the road to see a longbeard piled up in the middle of the road. "Little Michael just killed his first longbeard", his dad exclaimed! I couldn't believe how fast it all happened. I guarantee the whole hunt didn't last 20 minutes. After talking with the guys, they filled me in on the hunt from their perspective. According to them, when the bird gobbled just after my fly down he was on the ground and just out of there sight. Michael whispered to Catfish to keep his eyes on the road when Catfish saw that white headed heading his way. At 35 yards and strutting, they decided to let the bird continue down the road until he got to 15 steps. Michael told Catfish that he had better shoot before the gobbler got too close and the rest is history.
This ol' tom didn't have a chance. From the moment he flew into the road, he was looking at decoys which were slightly behind the Penn's tree. He never knew they were in the world. He had definitely read the script the night before and chose "Plan A"!

Congrats Catfish on what is sure to be the first of many longbeards!!!

Things are starting to heat up in the turkey wudz!

2010-04-14T20:52:00.004-05:00

If I had to summarize turkey season up until this point it would be "Sporadic". One morning will find 3, 4, or maybe even 5 birds hammering; the next zero, zilch...nada! Guess which morning I always seemed to be in the woods...HA!

Regardless of how sporadic it may be, these folks found a way to make it happen:

Joseph Barnes and Lake Pickle have been chasing turkeys all season long and finally caught up with this Rankin County gobbler last Saturday morning. The boys moved into a hardwood bottom that held 4 or 5 gobbling birds that were all eager to answer their calls. Honestly, this is one of the hardest types of hunts for me to "close" on because I'm always thinking the gobbler in the distance is the one I'm supposed to be on. Not these boys though! Joe and Lake exhibited the patience of a veteran turkey hunter by not moving from their original setup. At 9:00 am a pair of gobblers came slipping in just as the boys started to let their guard down. Fortunately for them, Lake happened to see the birds just in time. After alerting Joe to their presence, Joe jumped the gun just a little bit and shot the bird the first chance he got...some 55 yards through the woods! No matter though cause these boys are posing with a full fan in front of'em - Congrats Guys!!

Josh Thrash, also known as "The Closer", slipped over the state line to chase some Alabama longbeards. He was joined by his brother-in-law and one of their good friends. Knowledge of your terrain is often the key to a successful turkey hunt and according to Josh this was definitely the case on this hunt. The crew found a bird at first light roosted along side a pretty steep hill and thanks to ol' brother-in-law's knowledge of the terrain, Josh was right where this bird wanted to be. As turkeys often do, as soon as he came off the roost he started to move away from Josh, but a little patience proved to the key to throwing this gobbler over his shoulder. The bird soon changed his direction and came looking for the hen he heard at first light. And that my friend was all she wrote! But that's not the end of the story...these boys raised another gobbler on another property and busted him too. Some people hunt turkeys...these boys kill turkeys!

Here's another turkey story involving someone's brother-in-law...go figure! Good buddy, Brad Shivers, loaded his brother-in-law, Clay, up last week and made a thorough sweep of Texas looking for Clay's first Rio. After a short hunt on a new lease in Throckmorton, TX, Brad made the executive decision to jump in the truck and head to their old lease out in Ozona. Ozona is tried and true and Brad was certain they would find gobbling birds. Well, upon arriving there where no turkeys to be found...no turkey tracks, no turkey crap, no turkey sounds...no turkeys! To say the boys were dejected is an understatement. The next morning they were back at it but still heard zero Rio turkeys. Working the lease from back to front, they finally had two birds answer the call well off the property. In fact, these birds were across a county road. Since this was the first gobbles they had heard since being in Texas, they decided to crank on the calls and see what happened. The birds would answer their calls but between a truck driving down the county road and some whitetails running around snorting they didn't hold out much hope. However, once things settled down the boys were pleasantly surprised to hear the birds answer their call on their side of the county road. According to Brad, the birds worked perfectly; gobbling at everything they threw at them and wanting more. Soon the birds were within view. Trying to double, Clay held off shooting until the last minute. Brad gave the command to shoot and Clay soon had his first Rio Grand longbeard flopping on the ground.

There's nothing like hunting familiar ground. That's exactly where my brother, Kevin, and our cousin, Les, found themselves last Saturday. The "word on the street" was that a gobbler or two had been gobbling on the creek. Kevin and Les met before daylight and Les suggested Kevin go on the west side of the creek while he would hunt the east side. As it turned out, Les won the "coin toss" as a lonely Whitesand Creek longbeard gave his location away on the Tank Hill. Les moved in and after a few calls he had the bird worked up in a frenzy. Playing hard to get worked like a charm, as the bird descended from his lofty vantage point. Les ended the hunt as the bird closed within mere steps of his decoy. Kevin, of course, was on the other side of the creek listening to the show. Naturally, the two of them had some fun teasing each other about how the hunt unfolded as the above picture depicts. In fact, upon seeing this picture several people wondered what Kevin was thinking. Well, Kevin answered that question by sending the photo below. According to him, he was thinking about putting "the hammer" down on a longbeard which he just happened to do the very next morning!

Reconciliation

2010-04-12T08:14:00.002-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

It's a tough word.

It's tougher than tough when you're the one who has been wronged. When you are wronged, you get angry. Anger is a natural human emotion. Every good Christian gets angry, and there is not one thing ... not one thing ... wrong with getting angry. The "wrong" comes in what you do with the anger. The storm of problems arrive when you give yourself permission to keep that anger inside your heart. That's the difference, you see, because there's a difference between getting angry and being an angry person.
People are people. People are going to let you down. People are going to wrong you.
It's what happens when you live life on this side of Heaven. On this side of Heaven, life isn't perfect, and we shouldn't expect it to be. On this side of Heaven, imperfect people act imperfectly.
And that's why reconciliation is crucial to your personal survival. When you do not reconcile, when you choose to feast on wrongs done to you, it's you that ends up starving.
God has given you a new life through Christ. God has called you to be reconciled to Him, and He has also called you to carry on the message of reconciliation simply by the way you live every day.
Why reconcile? It's what people do when they know what it means themselves to be forgiven.

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians
5:16-19

"Smoke 155!"

2010-04-09T13:19:00.005-05:00

There are few pleasures in the life of a hunter that surpass being in the woods with someone (adult or child) when they experience their "first". Having experienced this with a few people over the years, I've always looked forward to the day that I share a "first" in the field with my boys. Heck, that's every father's dream...isn't it?
I guarantee you, it was Jason Cruise's dream and wouldn't you know that dream came to past earlier this week. Jason is from Franklin, TN and is the author of the weekly Man Minute that I post on my blog. He is a man who is passionate about Jesus, his family and TURKEYS!!! Take a look at this video and watch Jason and Cole Cruise put the "Smoke 155" on an old field turkey!

Cole's Birthday Turkey-Click Here!.

I hope May takes longer to get here than April!

2010-04-06T21:30:00.002-05:00

Seriously, this turkey season is flying by for me. Fortunately, I was in the right place at the right time on the morning of March 28th. I started this bird at 12:15 Sunday evening and left the woods at 4:00 pm without him. However, I had a good idea where he would be and thankfully, I was right. I set up within 75 yards of his roost tree before the first gobble the next morning. Thinking he'd fly down in some burned pines, I had foregone setting up in a "much too good to be true" firelane and clover patch. Well, guess where he flew down...that's right, in the clover patch. Still, when his feet hit the ground he was no further than 50 yards from me. After waiting for him to get in a more favorable location to call him from, I hit him with a soft yelp that he quickly answered. Immediately, I jumped on top of his gobble with a couple of quick cutts and he answered again. Directly, I spotted him weaving his way through the briars. Once he got to bout 20 steps I figured I could clear a path to him through the briars that were situated between me and him. WRONG! As I recovered from the recoil of my first shot, pannick began to build as I watched the bird lift up from the briars and take flight. Thankfully I had a firm grip on the forearm of my 870 and was able to promptly send another round his way. I can promise you I've never shot any bird as dead from flight as I did this tom. I was relieved to say the least.

Sam Berry found success in the spring woods the very next morning in Crystal Springs. This 2 year old bird was roosted in an unlikely spot but Sam was ready. Flushing the hens while making his approach, Sambo knew that he was in the money! Sure enough, this longbeard hit the ground within sight and proceed to run to the barrel of Sam's shotgun. What a gift!!!

Barriers

2010-04-06T20:31:00.003-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

There are many things that I "live for" which make life so sweet that I can't imagine life without them. Yet, if I were forced to give up so many of these little things, the last one to go ... the last one I'd cling to with a white-knuckled grip...would be turkey hunting. Turkey hunting is a little thing, not a big thing. I know that. I'd never choose to hear the thunder of a gobble over the thundering voice of God, nor would I choose all the times I've slipped through the dogwoods and sounds of singing birds welcoming in the spring in order to set up on a tom over against spending time with my wife and son. It's just a little thing, but man do I love it. So if I had to let every small thing go, turkey hunting would most certainly be the last. I've learned so much about life, and life in pursuit of Christ, from my spring-time matches with the elusive feathered warrior. Not long ago, while filming a hunt with one of my greatest soul brothers, Steve Chapman, we ran up on a bird that is what I have come to call a Hollywood bird. He's just dying to be on camera. The hunt would have been over in 5 minutes after he flew down from his nightly roost, yet it took about 20 minutes before Chap was able to pull the trigger. The cause for the extra 15 minutes was a box wire fence. We didn't know it was there, but after killing the bird, we realized that he was searching all that ime for a way through the fence so he could get to this sweet, sexy, long legged fantasy locked in his brain which was actually me singing words of deception from a mouth call. While shooting the post-hunt segments, Steve and I determined that this gobbler's barrier, the fence, was actually his best friend. He spent 15 minutes determined to find a way through, around, and yet, in the end, flying over that fence to get to the thing he wanted so badly. That fence was, in fact, his best friend because it would have kept him alive had he stopped trying so hard to find a way to get past it. Many times a man chooses a path, only to find constant resistance once he goes down it. It's certainly true that sometimes such situations call for nothing more than sheer persistence in order to experience the glory at the end of the line; however, be sure to check your motives for wanting to run that path in the first place. It could be that God has placed barriers of resistance in your journey because He never wanted you there from the beginning.

Super Hunt 2010

2010-03-30T20:10:00.004-05:00

No matter the hunting season, whether deer or turkey, nothing beats getting together with old friends to share the woods and reminisce about old times. That's exactly what we did this past weekend at what has become known as Super Hunt. The Super Hunt crew is made up of friends, both new and old, and even a few that are family. From all parts of the state, reports have been the same...it just ain't happening yet. We found that report to be accurate. A couple of guys got real close but fresh turkey breast just wasn't meant to be on the menu in camp. One team even had a team of horse run through there set up with their owners shortly behind them in hot pursuit! So goes the life of a public land turkey hunter. Oh well, there wasn't a dull moment in camp and that my friend, is what it's all about!

Worship - 24/7

2010-03-24T21:05:00.003-05:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Recently, or should I say, yet once again, God has been compressing my heart toward getting into shape. My perpetual joke is that around the age of 29 my metabolism decided it had enough and broke up with me, leaving me for some lean, mean,fighting machine of a 19 year old I'm sure. The thing about your body is that the Scriptures tell us that as followers of Christ, we are His holy temple. In the Old Testament, God resided in the temple. His address was there, and the temple was the place you came to meet with Him. In the new covenant of the New Testament, God's place of residence is in His people. We are His address. As one preacher said, "You can choose whether or not you want to go to church on Sunday, but you have no choice for worship. You worship by how you live every day, 24/7, because Christ lives in you."
So my prayer is that God will recalibrate my mind to realize that even what I eat is an act of worship. That doesn't mean that I can't eat a piece of cheesecake, for I am certain that God loves cheesecake. It's not just about what I eat, and it's certainly not about body-worship (some fitness freaks run close to that line for sure). It's about recognizing that I do have a responsibility to present myself, to the best of my ability, as a bodily sacrifice to the Lord. Not to compare my biceps to another man - but to work to present my body ... physically ...to the Lord as an act of worship because He has taken up residence there. What I eat, what I let my eyes fix upon, what I say, even what I think ...is in one form or another ... an act of worship presented to God at the altar of my heart.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

2010-03-17T22:26:00.004-05:00

I wanted to take a second to update y'all on the "happenings" within the first week of turkey season here in Mississippi.

Last year, Shane Easterling finished out the MS turkey season without a harvest. He made sure that wouldn't be the case this season. The bird in the photo below had been hanging out in a small woodlot near his home. After chasing him with his little boy one day, Shane and a friend returned for round two. The two guys settled into their ground blind for an afternoon hunt, only to have a couple Red Bone hounds run through the area and potentially spook any birds in the area. Turns out they didn't. Ol' Mr. Longbeard showed up unexpectantly from a nearby thicket. Having both bow and gun in the blind, Shane prepared for a shot with the stick and string. He took the shot but his arrow found only feathers as it past through the birds tail feathers. Fortunately, the bird didn't spook from his errant shot with the bow. It didn't take long for him to decided to grab the shotgun. With the video camera rolling, Shane drew a bead on the birds head and neck and downed him.

Here's a familiar face...Josh Thrash is on the board. Actually, his has harvested two birds already. Crazy thing is both were double-beards!

Josh Calhoun tagged his first bird of the season down in Covington county.

"LIMB HANGER"! Kyle Bush smoked this bird a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that he had 1 1/2" razor-sharp spurs. Awesome bird Bush!

Scott Huffman found this long-spurred gobbler in Rankin county opening morning.

Tom Wiley of Nikon Sport Optics and Flextone Game Calls found this longbeard last Sunday morning. Wiley called him and another gobbler in close as soon as they fell out of the tree that morning.

"He who comes from above is above all ..."

2010-03-09T20:30:00.004-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

This time of year I'm on the road quite a bit speaking, so this past Christmas my family got me an iPod Touch. Love it. Use it almost as much as my cell phone sometimes. I've been downloading sermons to it, and it's proven to be a great replacement for missing church so much. Not quite the same as being in church, but I still get to hear the Word this way. So I'm driving down the road listening to this fella and he asks this question, "Where will you be when you get to where you're going?" Can't say why, but that really gripped me. As Americans, especially American men, we strive hard, and ever harder, all the time. Nothing wrong with that. Yet, the question loomed over me and then morphed a bit as I began to think, "Yeah, not only where will you be when you 'arrive' but 'who' will you be when you get there."
A verse that has haunted me for almost a year now is John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
John was being branded as The Man. He was a hot marketing commodity in the prophetic community, and when Jesus came on the scene, people began to ask John why Jesus' ministry seemingly had more followers than that of John. The wilderness baptist was quick to let the world know that the greater Brand was fixing His iron upon the hearts of His followers, and this was the expected outcome, for John was just a marketing agent for another Man. Promotion is a weird and toxic thing if it's not carefully guarded. In my world, where exposure is a big deal, the product is most often YOU. You are the brand. Even more toxic when not guarded. I am forever drawn to what it means to learn how to find more and more ways to increase Jesus while, as John did, intentionally decrease myself. When I get where I'm going, I want my heart to be as free as John must have felt that day out in the country when he said to the masses, "He who comes from above is above all ..."

Turkey Season 2010 - It has begun!!!

2010-03-09T19:14:00.005-06:00

It's here! I assume one of the signs of getting older is that hunting seasons come around faster and faster each year. Spring turkey season has definitely arrived before I could get ready. One things for sure, these young men below were ready...ready and waiting for Mr. Longbeard on opening day of youth season last Saturday.

Meet Peyton Dungan. Peyton and his dad, Les, have a reputation for being an effective due when chasing The Longbeard. This year they ventured to their property in Lawrence county to take their place next to a spot they simply refer to as "The Killing Tree". The Killing Tree is located conveniently between a thinned pine plantation and some mature hardwoods. Separating these two timber stands is an open lane approximately 150' wide. Historically, turkeys love to travel, feed, strut and breed in this lane. That's exactly why it was a perfect place for Killer B to intercept a group of 2 year olds who were looking to knock off the "new" kid on the block. The birds gobbled sparingly but enough to let the boys know when to get ready. Once they came into the lane, they wasted no time approaching the strutting decoy. As Les put it, Peyton had to strategically pluck one of the gobblers out so as not to kill the whole bunch. Great bird Peyton!

Here is a quick note from Josh Thrash regarding his hunt Saturday morning:

Just wanted to give ya'll a report of the youth weekend. We had 5 longbeards within shooting distance and two were shot at with one recovered. More gobbling than I expected, but it was obvious that the split up is still happening. Gobblers are on the move, but I was actually able to roost one on Friday afternoon. All of this was on public land, so that made it even better. We actually saw a total of 9 long beards. Pretty interesting story about the gobbler that Cameron shot Saturday at 11:50. We thought he had made a clean miss, so we left and were back in the same spot the next morning. Sunday morning brought 2 more long beards inside of 30 yards and he definitely missed this time. He said that he had buck fever:-)
We got back to the truck on the main road and a man and little boy stopped to talk and said that they found a turkey dead on the creek just below us. We went to look and there is no doubt that it was Cameron's turkey. Apparently a bobcat had caught him during the night and killed him and buried him under some leaves in an old white oak top. They just happened to cross the creek and basically stepped on him. Talk about lucky, but I felt bad for not going to look for the bird on Saturday. I do not think he was catchable, but will still go look in the future. I watched him run for probably 70 yards and he didn't appear to be favoring a wing or anything, but he had
obviously been winged or body shot pretty bad.

Great job Josh and Cameron! Nine longbeards in two mornings on public land is pretty dang impressive!

One of a Kind!

2010-03-01T21:49:00.003-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

I just cannot accept the notion that in 1972 Holy God looked down on earth and decided that the small, southern town of Tullahoma, Tennessee needed one more citizen to populate the community. My hometown had plenty of folks already, which leads me to a clear understanding that when God created me, He had to have specific reasons for doing it. Further still, I'm convinced God, along with creating my bones and skin, also created my personality for specific reasons. A friend of mine once said,"You know, I think if you're a quiet and shy person, and you get saved, then you're going to be a saved quiet and shy person. If you're a people person who loves a party, then you're going to be a saved version of a people person who loves to have a good time."
My friend was right. God doesn't save you only to strip you of the very personality He gave you. Look at the New Testament and you'll see that God wrote His message to humanity throughthe writers, not in spite of them. Matthew was a big picture kind of guy, giving us a general survey of Jesus' life. Mark picked out what he thought was important, said it in as few words as possible, and left it at that. John opened for us deep portals into the heart of Jesus ... just look at how different John starts his gospel from that of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Instead of gospel narratives, Paul gave us practical insights into how to survive a hostile spiritual world. Everyone was talking about the same Jesus, but in different ways. Why? Because they saw things that only their personality could allow them to see. Be you. Be a "washed in the blood" you ... but be sure to be you. It's what God intended.

The Outcast

2010-02-26T07:55:00.003-06:00

Monday morning I was out at daylight check on the hog trap I mentioned in an earlier post. I wasn't anticipating hearing a gobbler but that is exactly what happened. He was a long way off and not that fired up. He gobbled on his own three times. I'm pretty sure once he hit the ground, he shut up. That is typical this time of year. If I had to guess, this bird is what I call an "outcast". Gobblers are still bunched up with the exception to the occasional two year old outcast that usually occupies an area outside the area that the big boys are in. Finding the "outcast" is like winning the lottery in the turkey woods. These boys are looking for love and they usually don't care what it looks like, sounds like or is located! Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to sit down to the outcast. Such was the case, several years ago on a youth hunt with Trent Warren and Justin "Nigel" Harrison. I've posted this story before; it is one of my favorites. To me, stories like this one never get old - Enjoy!

Earlier in the week I got a phone call from one of my very best friends. His question was simple and one I had hoped to receive, "hey, whatcha doin Saturday?"

"Nothing man, gotta wedding to attend but that's it."

"Well, you wanna go on a youth hunt?"

My response was all he needed, "Keith, you know danged well I do....what time and where?"

My responsibility was to help the young man kill his first bird. Keith? Well, he was going to film it (he does that a good bit) and needed someone to "coach" the fella while sitting beside him. I took that on, but never did I realize the impact something like that could have on a kid.

Trent, well he's 12 y/o and my bud teaches his Sunday school class -- that's just Keith, most times giving more than he receives and rarely asking for much.......probably why he has my utmost respect and always will. I didn't know Trent but it really didn't take long to realize what a nice, respectful young man he was. Quick to jump into a story, even quicker to listen, and answers with "yes sir" and "no sir". I don't ask for that, quite frankly, it makes me a bit uneasy cause I ain't old, but after today, I'm quite certain the country could use a few more Trent's.....lemme tell ya, he was cool as a cucumber and deadly as a snake. There was about 10 minutes worth of strutting, spitting and drumming in which this ol' Tom made his presence felt at 20 yds. I know of absolutely no other kid Trent's age that could have stood the pressure -- not sure I could have back then either.

The turkey came up on the side of Trent in which he'd have to move too much to get a shot, so I just made sure he stayed still. And, he did, all the time the gobbler was mere feet in front of Keith allowing for some full framed footage.

The turkey was struck right when we pulled up, catching Keith and I with our pants down -- literally......too much coffee for me, and I figure Keith had some Dr. Pepper or some junk. We circled to position and waited. This turkey wasn't too fired up, gobbling sparingly, but enough that if the hunt ended with no shot fired, I would have called it a blessed morning. Fortunately, I don't have to worry w/ that:

This ol' boy cut a distance of a few hundred yards in minutes. Looking over at Keith I see him give a "he's coming signal", look back and see that big head bobbing.

My question was simple enough, Trent, you see the turkey?"

"No sir."

"Trent, he's right there....you see the......."

"OOOH, wow."

And there he sat, for several minutes, strutting and drumming. At one point a couple of crows started fighting and he HAMMERED. I felt it in my chest and heard the breathing of a young boy quicken.

I gotta tell you, at about the 10 minute mark I was getting worried as was Keith. The gobbler eventually stepped behind a tree, and I told Trent, "it's now or never......take the shot."

For five minutes afterwards, he couldn't speak.

After giving "the account" on film, we packed up and headed home. With Keith and Trent talking it over, I managed a photo:

The terrain we were hunting in was some of the finest turkey woods I've seen in a long time, unmolested by loggers, but laced with some of the most dog-awful hills and ridges a man could ever hate to happen upon. About the time Keith and I had enough, Trent shot out and started running, bird in tow. What makes a kid run for no good reason anyhow? I looked at Keith, and he nodded saying, "I know".

Pretty sure we both agreed we would love to be Trent's age again, careless with only the outdoors to worry with.

This was Trent's first turkey hunt, his first gobble, his first strutting bird, his first turkey kill. Quite honestly, he could stop today, brag about this hunt, and he would have seen, heard and lived more turkey than 90% of the population walking this earth. But, I hope he doesn't. Instead, I hope he tells every waking soul, and I hope my friend calls me next year for another youth hunt.

Truly, the world needs more Trent's!

What's Ahead?

2010-02-22T12:09:00.003-06:00

The following is taken from the weekly "Man Minute" I received from my friend Jason Cruise at www.bethemanministries.com .

Recently I listened to a friend of mine preach a message centered around a verse that is familiar to us all. "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
(Psalm 119:105)
He told me that quite often he'll ask his church, "Where are we going in our journey with God?" - and they respond - "We don't know!"
It's not that my soul brother is trying to communicate that as followers of Christ we should neglect any attempt to plan. I think, in fact, I know, that my preacher friend is on target with his theology because the truth of the matter is we never really know where God is taking us. We can plan all we want, but how many of you reading this Man Minute today are in a job, a church, a relationship, a situation of life ... that you never, ever thought you'd be in today?
I can say "amen" to that. When I signed on with Jesus, I never dreamed I'd be doing what I'm doing today. Never forget, friend, that being a Jesus follower means that you and I are ... followers. We don't lead God. He leads us.
The older I get, the more I value a good plan. A good plan has kept me on target in many, many life situations. However, I never want to mistake "maturity" for what is actually a manic form of insecurity in being afraid to change courses simply because I have no clue what that course may bring.
My wife, Michelle, is a self-professed, high octane control freak who values a secure daily plan. She taught me a great spiritual truth at a time in her life when she had no control whatsoever. I came home one day and she said, "You know, I've been reading Psalm 119. I crave security, but God has shown me that a lamp to my feet is not a spotlight shining miles down the road. It's a light to the path just ahead of my next step."
Oh Great God ... deliver all of us from the addiction of wanting to know what You have coming in our future. Heaven is our home. The rest is just a journey. Teach us to have fun as we walk along the path.

To burn or not to burn...

2010-02-20T19:44:00.004-06:00

A friend and I spent the last two days checking the weather and wondering if conditions would be right to prescribe burn a portion of his pine stand today. Well, Thursday evening we had our minds made up that we were going to light it up; until, yesterday evening when the weather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies and a humidity reading in the lower 50's. No big deal! We had a hog trap to put the finishing touches on anyway. Well, today was anything but cloudy and the humidity at 12:30 today was just below 30%. Perfect burning conditions!
John rounded up a drip torch, while I saddled up the tractor and disk. Our burn wasn't as big as we originally planned due to time constraints; however, the 20 acres we did burned turned out beautifully.

Those that know me, know that I have a little "pyro" in me. There's nothing like conducting a good, clean burn this time of year. The turkeys are going to LOVE IT!
Oh and by the way, we did manage to get the door installed on our hog trap too. It was quite a productive evening...that's what I love about February.