--Theodore Roosevelt, The Wilderness Hunter (1893)

Apologies to any of you whitetail fanatics out there. But after another long day in the mountains without seeing any sign less than a couple weeks old, I'm starting to agree.

Freedom works,

Derek

Merry Xmas ... Nick

Para-phrasing O'Connor, who said, "you can tell the ability of the hunter by the quality of the whitetail heads on his wall..." I'm fortunate in that I have a PA 10 pt, an Idaho 10 pt and an OK 4X5 - among several lesser racks scattered from garage to shop.

Prefer to glass - with binoculars - and stalk in the West, rattling and grunting, just sneaking through the PA mts., or the after opening day man drives in PA. Not much for tree stands, as they're a bit boring for my taste, but others do nothing else but stand hunt.

Point: if you choose to hunt the whitetail, put in the effort to learn a bit about him, his habits and his habitats, and hunt him on the ground - then you'll probably have an overall satisfying experience.

John F: If you saw sign and it was two weeks old, then the wily old bucks have snuck off to a less harried home. Gotta' figure out where that is.

Am off to get the oysters for the stuffing. And, there's already a Fox Sterlingworth 16 ga. with a BIG red ribbon on it standing by the tree . Must'a been a good boy this year, or clever.

So, I guess feathers are next, probably in SD.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy Holidays!...glenn

[This message has been edited by glenn (edited 12-24-2001).]

I sure have. you could say he's kinda semi-famous around here. I believe his son was boxing but for whatever reason hasn't panned out. Lopez Sr. has done quite a lot of work with the Police Athletic Leagues youth boxing program over the years. A fine example of giving back to one community.

Freedom works,

Derek

quote:

---

Originally posted by beemanbeme:
apparently Ole Teddy had trouble spotting 'em and hitting 'em...............too.

---

I must be getting better -- today I at least jumped one. Heard it, didn't see it. Good thing, too, because not until I checked my map did I know just how close I was to the road. I swear the darn things read the county ordinances.

Needless to say, there was a happy ending (for someone else) ... as I was combing the area where I jumped him, looking for some tracks in the leaves in the hope of at least figuring out where the heck they go when spooked, I heard a single gunshot from the direction he ran.

I agree that whitetails are extraordinarily challenging animals. I need to go to Anticosti or somewhere like that for a confidence-building hunt!

Personally I prefer to hunt species where you can regularly either (a) see the animals, no matter how far away, in a legal hunting area during legal hunting hours, so you know you are not chasing a purely theoretical beast, or (b) see some kind of sign that can be definitively dated, like FRESH tracks in the snow or WARM droppings.

I'm thinking about spending more of my Virginia hunting time on ducks. I went duck hunting yesterday and at least I saw some ducks and enjoyed a good conversation in the blind. Not getting off a shot was my own damn fault. :-(

John