How Pristine Where Our Ecosystems Before Western Exploration?

Oh, if only we could return to the days before man got into our wilderness areas and destroyed everything. Imagine how wonderful it must have been. Nature doing a fine job all on its own and then all of a sudden man expands his reach and destroys it all.

This is what I hear all the time. Even our education factories teach our kids this inaccurate history. Few have ever heard of what it was really like. I know I have had many discussions with people about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I admit I was one of those who dreamed about how wonderful it must have been. What could be more exciting to a man who loved the outdoors than to be a member of the Lewis and Clark troop? This would provide a participant the opportunity to see the forests, the plains, the rivers, the valleys, the birds, deer, moose, elk, bison, mountain goats, wild sheep, tons of beaver, muskrat, mink, lynx, bobcat, mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, oh, my. What am I forgetting. I might have been in for a rude awakening had I been there.

Lewis and Clark mounted their expedition from around 1804-1806 and their journey was quite well documented. We know that they took along “professional” hunters and trappers to provide food for the members. Logs show Lewis and Clark spent much of their time trading with Indians for dogs to eat because there was no game.

During the years of 1825-1860, Jedediah Smith, Peter Skeen Ogden, Milton Sublette, Joe Meek, John Fremont, Charles Preuss, Captain J. H. Simpson, and Howard Egan, explored all over the West, both on foot and horseback. They kept diaries and logs of their adventures and these accounts describe a much different picture of what it was really like before man moved into this region and settled.

Jedediah Smith is believed to be one of the first explorers of this region. In 1827, Smith and what was described as two of his best men, set out up the American River, through Central Nevada and ending up at Lake Lake, Utah. Smith’s log describes this trip accordingly.

After traveling 22 days from the east side of Mount Joseph, (Sierra Nevada’s) I struck the Southwest corner of the Great Salt Lake, traveling over a country completely barren and destitute of game. We frequently traveled without water, sometime for two days, over sandy deserts where there was no sign of vegetation and when we found water in some of the rocky hills we most generally found Indians who appeared the most miserable of the human race. When we arrived at the Salt Lake, we had but one horse and one mule remaining, which were so feeble and poor that they could scarcely carry the little camp equipage which I had along. The balance of my horses I was compelled to eat.

This expedition originally began with 14 men and 28 horses.

In 1828 Peter Skeen Ogden led an expedition into North Central Nevada. In an area that is now near Winnemucca, Nevada on the Humboldt River (Marys River), what was seen is described this way.

From clumps of sage on the hillsides, scrawny, brown-bodied men peered out upon their passage. Down in the Valley, now and again, the Indians scurried into the brush ahead of them. They were clothed, if at all, in twisted rabbit skins; They had no horses. They lived on seeds, and what wild fowl they could bring down. Ogden had never encountered a race of animals less entitled to the name of man.

The following year Ogden returned to the same area to do some trapping on the river. He describes the river as being very “unwholesome” and says the antelope, which during this time would be near the rivers are scarce. He declares, “woe to them who depend to them for support”.

In 1832 Milton Sublette led a group of trappers into the Marys River (Humboldt). There was no game and the trappers had to eat the beavers they had been trapping. His reports stated that there was not much for what wild animals there were to eat and that they were forced to eat wild parsnips, which poisoned them. The group had to leave this area and head north where they hoped to find something to eat.

Because of this it became necessary to at once abandon the river, and strike across the country towards the North, where after being four days with almost no food, and several weeks in the state of famine they reached the Snake River above the fishing Falls, they were forced, as they passed through the country, to subsist upon ants, crickets, parched moccasins, and the pudding made from the blood, taking a pint at a time from their almost famished animals.

Joe Meek recalls holding his bare hands in an anthill until they were covered with angry ants and then licking the ants off and eating them like a hungry animal.

Joe Walker later traveled through this same Marys River area and continued on into California near the Truckee River down the West Slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Having left Salt Lake and traveling 14 days into California, the expedition had not seen any game to eat and instead lived off horses they were compelled to kill to ward off starvation.

One man killed a deer, which he carried to camp on his back. The animal was dressed, cooked and eaten, … in less time than a hungry wolf would devour a lamb. This was the first game larger than a rabbit that they had killed since leaving the Salt Lake two months ago. For fourteen days they had lived on nothing but horseflesh …twenty four horses had died in crossing the mountain, and seventeen of these had been eaten.

1825 and 1826 found Ogden covering much of what we all know as Oregon today and not only did his group not find any game but the horses were starving because they couldn’t find even any decent grasses for the horse to feed on. It wasn’t just the explorers finding these wastelands. Ogden relates a story told of an Indian woman in Oregon.

The winter before had been so severe, she said, that her people had to resort to the bodies of relations and children. She had killed no one herself, but had fed on two of her children who died.

Things are pretty harsh when anyone has to resort to cannibalism but to first have to kill somebody to eat them, is unfathomable.

John Fremont and Charles Preuss covered areas of Southern Wyoming west toward the Bear River and then South toward Salt Lake. Things were tough. Game was missing and grazing grasses for the horses were non existent as well. Explorers tried trading with the Indian for food but soon discovered the Indians were starving to death themselves. It was only upon finding the Shoshone camped out along the Snake River, were they able to find a tribe living well from ample supplies of smoked Salmon.

Fremont’s party traveled the Columbia River north into Vancouver finding much the same. They even had to buy firewood from some of the resident Indians. Heading south toward Nevada, local tribes warned Fremont there was nothing for his horses to feed on. They were right.

… They had found nothing but dry, shallow basins, their way “broken by gullies and impeded by sage, and sandy on the hills, where there is not a blade of grass.”

Later Fremont would find Pyramid Lake and gorge on trout.

In all of the travels that are documented by many of these explorers, in what is now the state of Nevada, only one time is there mention of someone sighting an elk, but it is believed the person saw a mule deer and mistook it for an elk.

The Indians in this region mostly lived terrible lives, with little clothing, food or sufficient shelter. They ate mostly rats and insects and what few other birds or small game they might be fortunate to find and kill. We have visions of Indians having access to ample game animals and utilizing the hides for clothing and shelter. Such was not the case in most of the Great Basin.

Howard Egan, Sr. was the first Mormon explorer into the region of the Great Salt Lake. As a matter of fact he traveled there with Brigham Young. Egan covered much of the area between the Salt Lake and west into California as he was in the business of driving cattle there.

Egan recounts for us how the Indians crafted these remarkable corrals they would use to trap antelope. The entire episode of putting on a drive required all the men, women and children of the tribe. One had to question whether the effort put into the building and driving was worth the 24 antelope they trapped in twelve years. But when you’re hungry, some antelope is better than none.

The Indians did a similar thing conducting a cricket drive. No, I’m not kidding. Trenches were dug of about 1 foot wide by 1 foot deep and covered over with a thin layer of stiff grass. All the tribes people would begin pounding the ground with tufts of straw in a concerted effort, to drive the black crickets toward the trenches. Once the trenches contained all the crickets they could drive, they set the grass they had placed over the trenches on fire, killing the crickets. They then used the crickets for food, mostly grinding it up and mixing it with other things to make a concocted kind of flour.

These and more accounts certainly paint a far different picture of how things actually were than what we are often taught about how balanced and bountiful our forests and wilderness were before man arrived. Man certainly made his share of mistakes in being good stewards of the land but in time we figured out what we had to do to sustain game populations and to control the predators that destroyed those.

With the presence of man and bringing with him agriculture and the knowledge to plant and grow crops and tend the land, this began to create a better habitat that would support a heartier and healthier crop of game animals. We controlled the predators so people could harvest the game to feed their families and over time devised a pretty decent wildlife management plan that many around the world now envy.

Sorry, but Mother Nature didn’t really give us a “balanced” ecosystem, at least one that is the most productive. These accounts above I believe more accurately depict Mother Nature’s idea of a balanced ecosystem. There’s nothing wrong with that but I don’t think it is in the best interest of humans to have it that way, nor is it what I think people really want or are thinking about when they speak of “natural” wildlife management.

Tom Remington

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W.I.S.E.: Human-Habituated Wolves In Idaho

Dr. Valerius Geist, a Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science at the University of Calgary, has years of studies in wildlife, including wolves and personal encounters with them. In a republished article I did two years ago, Geist provided for us the seven stages of behavior by wolves leading to an attack on a human. These seven stages are well documented throughout history and yet mostly misunderstood or misinterpreted until Dr. Geist was able to piece them all together.

1) Within the pack’s territory prey is becoming scarce not only due to increased predation on native prey animals, but also by the prey evacuating home ranges en mass, leading to a virtual absence of prey. Or wolves increasingly visit garbage dumps at night.

2) Wolves in search of food began to approach human habitations – at night!

3) The wolves appear in daylight and observe people doing their daily chores at some distance. Wolves excel at learning by close, steady observation. They approach buildings during daylight.

4) Small bodied livestock and pets are attacked close to buildings even during the day. The wolves act distinctly bolder in the actions.

5) The wolves explore large livestock, leading to docked tails, slit ears and hocks. Livestock may bolt through fences running for the safety of barns. When the first seriously wounded cattle are found they tend to have severe injuries to the udders, groin and sexual organs and need to be put down. The actions of wolves become more brazen and cattle or horses may be killed close to houses and barns where the cattle or horses were trying to find refuge. Wolves may follow riders and surround them. They may mount verandas and look into windows.

6) Wolves turn their attention to people and approach them closely, initially merely examining them closely for several minutes on end. This is a switch from establishing territory to targeting people as prey. The wolves may make hesitant, almost playful attacks biting and tearing clothing, nipping at limbs and torso. They withdraw when confronted. They defend kills by moving toward people and growling and barking at them from 10 – 20 paces away.

7) Wolves attack people. These initial attacks are clumsy, as the wolves have not yet learned how to take down the new prey efficiently. Persons attacked can often escape because of the clumsiness of the attacks.

I have summarized the information above as provided by Dr. Geist in his publication. Please follow the link and read the important information about this 7-step process.

Yesterday I posted an article that appeared in the Missoulian in 1916 about wolves killing 113 people and 2,000 animals in one year in Korea. One thing in that article that I failed to point out to readers was an account of how wolves would attack people.

In attacking a man it will follow him for a time and occasionally leap over his head, seeking to unnerve him and cause him to fall to the ground, when it will immediately attack and kill. Oftentimes it will summon its mates to assist in attacking.

Compare that account of nearly 100 years ago with Dr. Geist’s stages 6 and 7 above.

The Western Institute for Study of the Environment posted more of this same information yesterday, along with real life accounts in Idaho of the implementation of these stages by wolves taking place there in the state. WISE also provides links to several articles dealing with human habituation by wolves and coyotes and the consequences that can follow. (required reading)

In a newspaper account of the Lewiston Tribune, January 15, 2010, Eric Barker describes what an Idaho outfitter experienced while waiting for a school bus to arrive and pick up his children.

Popp took his children to their bus stop Monday morning and sat in his jeep while his 6- and 8-year-olds had a snowball fight. The bus pulled up, stopped and flashed its lights. The kids got on and the bus driver pulled into a driveway to turn around. When the driver backed up, the bus emitted warning beeps. After it pulled away, three wolves came out of the woods and walked down the road toward Popp.

He started his jeep and drove toward the animals. They left the road and Popp followed their tracks to see where they had come from. He said it was clear they were sitting in the woods about 30 feet away from the road prior to the arrival of the bus.

“While we were there at the bus stop and those kids were snowball-fighting I know they could hear, and they just sat there,” he said. “They are really becoming habituated to all the sights and sounds that are out there.” …

Dr. Geist responded to this account by saying:

This is absolutely classic! Wolves targeting people sit and watch people. Unlike dogs, wolves and coyotes are refined observation learners.

The a) to h) steps [seven stages] you published below are my addition to Will’s book [Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages] (Appendix B.my authorship was left out by oversight); the original paper given in 2005 is now in press, belatedly. A very similar progression was reported in 1999 for urban coyotes targeting children in urban parks by Bob Timm and Rex Baker. Over 200 attacks on children are reported. We are currently co-authoring a paper on this. So, wolves and coyotes target people in an identical manner!(emphasis added)

It is imperative for people venturing into the outdoors and/or living in wolf and coyote populated regions to understand the entire seven stages of behavior. Separately each stage is quite innocuous, with the exception of the final attack. This isn’t an attempt to try to scare people. This information could save a life.

If one will recall documented accounts of encounters with wolves and coyotes, you’ll find that some or all of these stages have been documented. Because the seven stages are spread out over time, what we as humans witness are often just one of the seven stages. Aside from the actual attack itself on humans, livestock and pets, the rest of the stages seem somewhat harmless and as Dr. Geist describes them as “almost playful”.

If we can understand the seven stages and learn to recognize them, it might save a life. The next time you read about or witness an encounter with a wolf or coyote, think about the seven stages and see if you can make a determination as to which stage of behavior is being displayed. This behavior might also give you an indication of the health of the pack and the ecosystem near you.

Tom Remington

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Uncle Sam As A Destroyer Of “Varmints”

*Editor’s Note*In doing research, I came across this article that appeared in “The American Review of Reviews”, Volume 66 by Albert Shaw, page 550-551, dated 1922.

I found it interesting for a few reasons and thought it would be worth sharing. One reason is that it reveals written history of man’s encounter and struggle with predators as he tried to “tame” the West. Second, it reveals things that people even today deny as common habits for wolves and coyotes in particular – surplus kills by both wolves and coyotes. To be forthcoming, it should be pointed out that often in historic writings of wolves and coyotes in the United States, particularly the plains area, the two names were sometimes used interchangeably. Without knowing exactly the species of canine we are talking about, prairie wolves were often called coyotes.

A third interesting feature written about in the article was a repeated comparison of what these predators were costing citizens, ranchers and the United States Government.

~~~~~

It may be a bit difficult for the average citizen—especially if he happens to live east of the Mississippi—to realize that one of Uncle Sam’s important and difficult jobs recently, has been the hunting down and exterminating of wild animals—wolves, coyotes (prairie wolves), bobcats (bay linx) mountain lions (puma), bears, and like predatory beasts. Yet so much so has this been the case that the subject has been considered in the serious and scientific “Year Book” of the Department of Agriculture, and the article (by W. R. Bell, assistant biologist of the Biological Survey) recently has been republished by the Survey in a special pamphlet. The title of the article is “Hunting Down Stock Killers,” which sounds like the name of a motion picture film, but the process, as conducted, is far more serious business.

On the first page of the pamphlet is shown the reproduction of a photograph of a big touring car, loaded with dead wolves, while a hunter stands alongside holding up a dead wolf, by a hind leg. It doesn’t look much like a picture of a “joy-ride”; and Mr. Bell remarks:

In man’s introduced herds of cattle, sheep, goats, colts and other domestic stock, the original rangers of the country found a ready supply to be preyed upon day after day and night after night. What more natural than for the hungry wolf to draw upon the ever-replenished reservoir discovered in the stock corral or the open range? The nature of the business upon which the predatory kind were engaged was no secret, of course, and gun, trap, and poison were resorted to by the early ranchers, each man for himself, with now and then a community hunt as the needs were more pressing. Learning that they had to contend with protectors of their new-found food supply, the prowlers became more and more wary in approach and kill, until what originated in a mere matter of satisfying a craving for food, has developed into a war to the death.

Uncle Sam, tired of the drain on his resources of $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 every year through the slaughter of domestic stock by predatory animals, now keeps constantly in the field a force of hunters who are instructed to wipe out these nonproducers. In their place, and safe from their depredations, it is the aim to populate the range country with flocks and herds, and in this way to lower the cost of production of live-stock and of meat that goes on the family table.

In some persons the picture of that motor car, full of dead wolves, and the picture elsewhere of the heaps of pelts of dead predatory animals, will arouse a twinge of pity and something very like indignation, that these creatures should be slain because they had eaten when they were hungry; and they will wonder what good Saint Francis of Assisi would have had to say about it. Another point of view, that of Mr. Bell, and his kind, he expresses as follows:

The average destruction of these animals is estimated to be for each wolf and mountain lion about $1000 worth of live stock annually; each coyote and bobcat $50 worth; and each stock-killing bear $500 worth. Statistics may leave the stockman unmoved and uninterested, but a vivid, lasting impression is made when he finds one of his valuable steers pulled down by a wolf, one of his colts struck down by a mountain lion, the scattered carcasses of several of his sheep killed by coyotes for a sheer lust of killing, or a valuable cow maimed or with skull crushed by a blow from the powerful paw of a grizzly.

If, indeed, the world is to be turned over to the human species, and a certain number of them choose to occupy our Western plains and mountains as herdsmen, like those of the pastoral age, it is small wonder that Uncle Sam should come to their rescue, provided there is no other side of the story of their present struggle against the predatory animals, whose natural home has been invaded. Says Mr. Bell:

The following typical cases are illustrative of the destructiveness of the predatory animals, and of the importance of operations for their control: In Colorado a single wolf took toll of nearly $3000 worth of cattle in one year. In Texas two wolves killed seventy-two sheep, valued at $9 each, during a period of two weeks. One wolf in New Mexico killed twenty-five head of cattle in two months; while another was reported by stockmen in the same State to have killed 150 cattle, valued at not less than $5000, during six months preceding his capture by a Survey hunter. In Wyoming two male wolves were killed, which during one month had destroyed 150 sheep and seven colts; another pair were reported to have killed about $4000 worth of stock during the year preceding their capture; while another, captured in June, had killed thirty head of cattle during the preceding spring. The county agricultural agent at Coalville, Utah, reported that wolves had taken 20 per cent, of the year’s calf crop in that section. A wolf taken in New Mexico was known to have killed during the preceding five months twenty yearling steers, nine calves, one cow, fifteen sheep, and a valuable sheep dog. In two weeks at Ozona, Tex., two wolves killed seventy-six sheep.

In Oregon four coyotes in two nights killed fifteen pure-bred rams, valued at $20 each. One flock in Morgan County, Utah, was attacked by three coyotes and $500 worth of sheep were killed in an hour. Near Antonito, Colo., sixty-seven ewes, valued at about $1,000, became separated from the rest of the herd; all were found killed by coyotes.

After a personal investigation in 1917, the president of the State Agricultural College of New Mexico reported that 34,350 cattle, 165,000 sheep and 850 horses are killed annually by predatory animals in that State, these losses amounting to $2,715,250. This involves the loss of 16,000,000 pounds of meat, and about 1,320,000 pounds of wool.

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Dude! Is This A Freak Buck Or What?

I have one report that this deer weighed 440 pounds before it was field dressed. Is this a hunting ranch deer?

Update: Well, seems via some searching on the part of readers, we’ve discovered this “trophy” deer picture on a website that shows the game farm and preserve where the deer was taken.

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It Could Get Dangerous When Deer Fight

I can’t seem to find much information on these photos. They were sent to me by a reader. When everything is put in perspective, even though the focus is on the horn lodged in the buck’s right eye, that’s a pretty good sized deer.

Posted by Tom Remington

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Trapped On Ice, Coyotes Have Advantage

This is not necessarily the taking of the weak and sickly of the Maine deer herd by coyotes.

Reader Al forwarded these photos he received from a friend and fellow hunter. The photos were accompanied by a short caption.

“Tom, This email Is from Paul ***** one of the top cat hunters in the state. Looks like the buck lost out when he hit the slippery ice. Quite common for coyotes to get the upper hand when this happens.”

“Al, I forgot to send these to you the other day. I found this while chasing a cat. I was near the same stream a week before and it was open. Once froze the coyotes ran this big buck out there and ate him alive, but (fish and game) says they just get the sick and little ones! Paul”

Tom Remington

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Field & Stream’s Petzal Bags Kansas Buck Didn’t See Any Deer In Maine

While congratulations are in order for Dave Petzal in bagging a beauty of a buck in the cold and snow in Kansas, unfortunately he does nothing to help Maine’s cause for those hoping to make a few bucks (sorry) from drawing outsiders to the state for trophy whitetail.

Please don’t take me wrong, Petzal did nothing wrong and what he said in his “rantings and ravings“, is nothing more than what anybody else would have said – the truth and the truth is really going to hurt Maine’s whitetail hunting in the near and distant future.

Petzal began his article with, “And so, having hunted in Maine for a week without seeing a deer, I went to western Kansas where I could see 20 deer at a time, or 60 in a morning.” Unfortunately for Maine, this is the kind of negative advertising that is going to hurt for a long time.

For those not aware, Maine has suffered through two recent back-to-back severe winters, mostly above average years of snow. A combination of weather, diminishing habitat, overgrown predator populations and a deer management policy many are now questioning, the deer hunting in portions of Maine is abysmal.

Northern Maine, often just called “The Big Woods”, while never boasting great numbers of trophy whitetail bucks, has had a reputation of producing large-bodied, big-antlered beasts that avid hunters drooled at the prospects of bagging, willing to drop a few dollars on for the chance. The Big Woods is now the big empty woods.

In a previous article today, I shared a report that with over 5,500 hunters entering the Northern Maine Woods, only 90 deer were tagged. That’s worse than bad.

And as the word spreads and highly visible writers like Dave Petzal talk and write about their experiences, it’s not going to get very pretty for Maine hunting. Hunters, as we all know, are great for local economies come hunting season but they aren’t stupid either. They refuse to spend their money if there is no game to go hunt.

It will take years to repair the damage that has been done, both in whitetail deer management and to Maine’s shaky economy. This may destroy some of the guides and outfitters, as well as put “mom and pop” businesses under.

Congratulations Dave! Nice buck!

Note: I want to thank reader “Richard” for keeping me supplied with these news items.

Tom Remington

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Ft. Hood Soldier’s Dream to Come True, Elk Hunters Vow

MISSOULA, Mont. – U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Patrick Zeigler, shot four times at Fort Hood, Tex., on Nov. 5, dreams of recovering well enough to go elk hunting someday.

That wish has become a welcome command for a battalion of hunters eager to help.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization made up primarily of hunters focused on conserving habitat for elk and other wildlife, has adopted Zeigler as one of its own. Members have vowed to make the soldier’s dream come true, as well as support him through the grueling rehab and surgeries that stand between him and his first adventure in elk country.

“When I told Patrick about the offer to go elk hunting, it was one of the few times I’ve seen his eyes light up since he’s been in the hospital. He loves to hunt and fish and be outdoors. He always wanted to hunt elk but never had a chance. Now, that experience is one of the things he’s driving for,” said Zeigler’s father, Pat, a career serviceman now standing vigil by his son’s side.

Zeigler, 28, was wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a crowded processing center at the Texas military base. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 others wounded before police shot and apprehended the accused shooter. Some of the survivors remain in critical condition, including Zeigler who still has bullets lodged in his head, shoulder and hip. A fourth bullet passed through his forearm. He is paralyzed on his left side and has begun treatment at a facility in Austin, Tex.

A graduate of Florida State University, volunteer fireman in his hometown and husband to be, Zeigler served two combat tours in Iraq. He had just been selected for officer candidate school before finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time at Fort Hood.

In the days after the shooting, Zeigler told a chaplain of his elk-hunting dream. The chaplain contacted Jim Zumbo, an outdoor writer and former RMEF board member devoted to providing hunting experiences for military heroes. Zumbo, in turn, called RMEF President and CEO David Allen.

“When I heard Patrick’s story, I knew our members would jump at the chance to help this guy. As soon as he’s able to go, we have a donated elk hunt waiting for him,” said Allen. “I’m humbled at the sacrifices that Patrick and his family have made, and pleased that we can offer him something meaningful to help him through a difficult time.”

Allen added, “We are not going to let Patrick and others be forgotten after the news and headlines go away. He deserves better. We want to be a part of his recovery as well as his life.”

RMEF members are offering moral support to Zeigler via Christmas cards, letters, small gifts and donations to a trust fund.

Although RMEF members are communicating directly with the Zeigler family, other supporters can get involved through Operation AC, a group that compiles and ships supplies, cards and letters to soldiers, including families affected by the Fort Hood shooting. Send to Ft. Hood, Injured c/o OPAC, 560 Peoples Plaza #121, Newark, DE 19702. More info at www.operationac.com or frankie@operationac.com.

The Zeigler family has set up a trust fund at a hometown bank. Send to SSG Zeigler, Patrick Trust Account, American National Bank of Texas, 5809 Wesley St., Greenville, TX 75402; (903) 455-7592.

Zeigler’s friends launched a web site, www.healpatrickzeigler.com, for additional info.

Allen has invited Zeigler to the annual RMEF convention in Reno in March, and is hoping the soldier is “well enough to attend and get to know his new elk hunting family.”

Learn more at www.rmef.org.

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Williams Buck: Trophy Buck Or Not A Trophy Buck

Well, by now you know how these things go. They come in to my email box and I try to authenticate them and most of the time I can’t. However, the pictures are worth looking at even if the story is not accurate. Here’s what I received. You make the call.

This came to me from reader “Jim”.

Here are some early photos of a great deer taken during the youth hunt this year. This buck green scores 203 Typical, NET, not gross. If so, this would place this buck in the top Three typical all time in Wisconsin , and that includes the great Jordan Buck at 207 that was world record for decades. These pictures were taken in front of the Cabala’s store in Prairie du Chien. The hunter shown in the Picture a 15 year old Williams’s boy from Millville , WI the deer was shot between Millville and Woodman the buck was shot with a rifle during the youth Hunt in early October. This deer has 16 inch tines. The manager at Cabelas Offered him $25,000 on the spot the day the pictures were taken. Cabela’s offer included making a replica set of antlers that look identical to the originals and the hunter would be able to keep the cape. The boy and his father turned down that offer. The manager then called the Cabelas headquarters in Nebraska and immediately got permission to offer the boy $61,000 for the rack. He still said no. Writers and photographers from various deer magazines descended on Wisconsin to see the deer so I’m sure you will see more about this buck in the upcoming days and Woodman. The buck was shot with a rifle during the youth hunt in early October.

Posted by Tom Remington

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There Just Ain’t The Deer Around Here Like There Used To Was

Brief disclaimer: I got this in my email box this morning as I get many each day. The email declares that this short story and “postcard” came from King and Bartlett outfitters and camps located in Eustis, Maine. I have no idea if it did or not but the story makes you go hmmmmmm, and of course the photograph/postcard says a lot.

~~~~~~~~

Think about this… 1962 . This is before… Gore -Tex, Thinsulate, Polar Fleece, Under Armor, Climbing tree stands, trail cameras, Realtree or Mossy Oak camo, de scenting soap, spray, detergent, etc… before GPS, Cell phones, compound bows, Polymer tip bonded match grade ammo….. before power bars, cliff bars and energy drinks. before bleat cans, rattle bags, bottled estrus scent, grunt calls, deer cain, antler growth blocks, food plots planted with biologic feed…. etc etc etc……

A hunter left camp with a belly full of eggs, beans and bacon, he drank water from a mountain spring and ate a few homemade cookies during the day. ( The cookies were made with real butter, sugar and eggs. Not margarine splenda and egg whites ) His clothing was wool and his boots were leather smeared with mink oil or bear grease. Most carried a compass, and a 30-30 with open sights.

One week’s kill in Nov. 1962

Tom Remington

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Yardbirds: Turkeys In The Yard

This short narrative and photos come from reader “jes” in Florida.

Nice flock in my yard today, they cleaned up my yard, then went to the feeder in my front field and had a feeding frenzy..These birds are just a year old, except the hens who have had several clutches, and are still producing large broods…photos were taken through the glass window..there were ten in this flock and nine in the flock that came by earlier..
These are the results of keeping feeders active throughout the year….Although I’ve lived here for over 56 years, it’s only been the last 7-9 years that turkeys have been coming through the area where I live…and I’ve been feeding them for at least 9-10 years, hoping to get them settled in ….they wander through the neighborhood, coming back for the supplemental feed that helps get them through …and they are always a pleasure to watch. This flock was probably all from one “clutch”, or one hen, although sometimes two or more “clutches” will get together, and sometime even many more! Later in the year, they will separate, and go different ways, gobblers with gobblers, hens with hens, and then again they will band together, into even larger flocks. If enough neighbors will “provide” for them, they will stay in an area, and live their lives without wandering far enough to go where they may fall prey to disaster..or someone’s dinner table. Even though I hunt spring gobblers every year, I have only hunted one of these “homebirds” One year when I was so crippled from a heel spur that I couldn’t hunt my usual hunting area, I was up at early light, taking the dog out, when I heard the gobble of a bird in response to slamming the door behind me….and after limping to a tree in my front field, sat and called in the first and only bird I have killed on my home ground..and that corn fed bird was mighty fat and sweet…

Posted by Tom Remington

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Black Bear Visits Father And Son Tree Stand During Elk Hunting Season

I was sent this short video by a reader from Idaho. Here’s his caption:

“Tom,
Thought you might like this short video my 16 year old son took on his cell phone during the archery elk season. Don’t worry about the bear population up in North Idaho, we saw 3 different bears out of this stand in just two days. Guess we’re going to have to start eating bear meat. By the way there is no bear bait out in the area I just have a lot of choke cherries and elderberries on my property.”

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Magnificent Muley

This was sent to me by a friend who says his friend sent it to him. This is what the caption said: “Finally had some luck and was able to kill this deer yesterday. I have been after him for a couple weeks and after a blown opportunity on Sunday I was blessed with a second chance yesterday morning. No idea what he might score, but the mass is unreal. By far the most unique buck I have ever had the privilege of hunting.

Hope everyone is having a great fall!!

Matt”

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One Ram That “Hung Around” A Little Bit Too Long

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Dad’s Rifle – A Family Heirloom

By Bob Lane

Robert LaneIn many hunting families, guns are handed down from generation to generation. When a family member no longer desires to, is unable to hunt, or is deceased, the rifles, pistols, and shotguns are often passed on to the hunting offspring or grandchildren of the former hunter. The sentimental value and memories attached to the firearms often far outweigh the monetary value of the guns themselves.

My earliest hunting experiences consisted of tagging along with my father when I was around 5 years old. I’d sneak slowly behind him, emulating his stopping and scanning, until we got to an old stump that he liked to sit on at the edge of a swale that bordered Grant Brook. That jumbo sized base had once held what must have been a magnificent Hemlock tree. It had been harvested by the local paper company long before I had been thought of, perhaps before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, fourteen years prior to my appearance in the little town of Millinocket, Maine.

There was room on that old stump for three men and a boy, and once we got to it we’d sit on there until dark, watching the thickets that bordered the swamp. Dad would lay his old 8 MM Mauser across his knees, and I’d look on intently, looking forward to the fireworks the that was a sure bet when that “Big Old Baster” of a buck that Dad had been talking about, came huffing up from the swamp.

That Mauser was a bogtrotter’s dream. It was light enough to be carried all day through blow downs, thickets, swamps and every other Hell hole the Maine woods could throw up, and Dad hunted them all with that rifle in hand. Whenever I laid eyes on it, I pictured him prowling the perimeter of some swamp, or sitting in a stand of hardwoods as the sun rose and back-lit his breath on a blistering cold morning in November, while he “waited ‘em out” as he liked to say.

Dad shot a lot of deer with that old rifle. A lot more than I’ll ever shoot, and probably more than most people will ever see. He had it outfitted with a receiver sight that he removed the aperture from. It had the original, famed, German Mauser action. The stock had a very thin forearm, a low comb, and a slight cheek piece. In his hands it was a tack driver. I remember him shooting a huge buck one early fall morning with that rifle when I was just a kid. We were sneaking along the edge of the West Branch of the Penobscot River through an old burn when he turned to me and said “Don’t’ move”. I froze and watched as he pulled up, fitted the stock to his cheek, closed one eye, and settled in, taking his time for the shot as he was want to do. The scene was majestic. The newly risen sun cast a purple hue over Mt. Katahdin and softly illuminated the conifers and hardwoods that stretched from the cedar and alder lined edge of the river, to the base of the eminent peak.

Dad squeezed the trigger, and the Mauser roared, followed by the sound of slamming steel as he worked the bolt to drive another round into the chamber with the rifle still at his cheek. All was quiet again while he looked up over the barrel. He turned to me and said “Let’s go” I never saw that deer and didn’t believe he had either, until we got to it, dead in its tracks, 256 paces away.

Over the years the barrel on that rifle began to wear and the bullets were tumbling in flight. Dad finally retired it and returned it to his uncle Henry, who was the actual owner of it. He replaced that beloved gun with the first new firearm he had ever owned, a Model 100, 308 Winchester semi-automatic. Dad went on to kill many a lot more deer over the next 35 years, with that .308, enjoying many more hunts and several trips to Ungava Bay to hunt Caribou. It soon became as much a part of him as had the old Mauser. Read more

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