Kentucky Hunting Articles
Coyote Hunting East of the Mississippi
If coyote hunting was only as easy as it's portrayed on television. You just set up on a big, open area, turn on the caller, and within minutes coyotes come running from all directions. Heck, the hardest part is deciding which one to shoot! In the real world, however, it seldom works out that way (For me, it NEVER works out that way). What you don't see in those 30 minute shows is all the times that the hunters set up, called, and didn't see anything.
Setting Goals for Hunters
It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone. 2011 is long gone ...we're well into 2012. And with a new year comes hopes of better days ahead. It is a time when the slate is wiped clean, and we have the opportunity to make the new year better than the last. Many of us began 2012 with resolutions. For some, those included plans to eat healthier, exercise more, and hopefully to weigh less. For others, it may have included a promotion, a career change, or maybe the beginning of a new business venture. Very rarely, though, do you hear any of us diehard hunters talking about our hunting resolutions for the new year.
Deer Behavior During the Rut
Big, mature whitetails don't get that way by being dumb. A true trophy deer has figured out where to bed, when to move and when things just "don't seem right." It's as if they develop a sixth sense. There is a brief window of opportunity, however, when his defenses go down and that big buck turns his attention to other matters. To an avid deer hunter, there is no more exciting time of year - it's the whitetail rut. There seems to be a lot of confusion amongst hunters - almost a mystique - about the rut. Maybe that's because so much has been written on the subject.
Sweat the Small Stuff: Whitetail Hunting Primer - Part 2
Continuing from the first article that primarily covered how to find the right spot for your deer hunt. If we chose wisely and set up correctly it's simply a matter of time before game will pass by. When it finally does, you have little time to wonder or be surprised. You must simply react and do it as quickly as possible. No, this doesn't mean we jump up, raise our gun and release the safety right now. It does mean we need to formulate a game plan (pun intended) immediately, however. Make sure your movements won't be seen as you ready your rifle and make sure you do not slide your safety off until you know you want to shoot and also you figure it will (the safety) not be heard.
Sweat the Small Stuff: Whitetail Hunting Primer-Part 1
There have been hundreds of books written on the subject of hunting whitetails. In no way am I about to give anyone a thorough lesson that will make you a complete whitetail hunter. After all, I am still learning myself. I have been hunting deer for over 40 years, but must admit to having lost most or all of 12-15 seasons while I was a pilot in the U.S. Army from the late '70s through the late '90s.
For the Traveling Sportsman
Every year thousands of hunters across the continent book outfitted hunts. Some are booked in their home state or province; others require considerable travel by air. For those with the means, exotic trips abroad are a unique privilege. But regardless of where a hunter goes, the research, booking and travel aspects are imminent. Simple or complex, logistics are a part of the game. I've seen it more than once with first time traveling sportsmen.
Bag Your Bird on Opening Day
There's nothing more discouraging than arriving at your favorite hunting spot on the opening morning of turkey season, and not being able to get a bird to gobble. That's exactly the situation I found myself in back in April of 2008. The fact that the temperature was hovering right around the freezing mark and there was a heavy frost on the ground probably didn't help matters any. Despite the lack of gobbling activity, I knew from my time preseason scouting that birds frequented this field and it was a popular strutting ground for at least one mature gobbler.
Find Next Season's Buck Now!
Nothing is more depressing to a die-hard deer hunter than watching the sun set on the last day of deer season. Regardless of how good or bad of a season it was, you always wish for one more opportunity to sit in the stand. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and once you've accepted the reality of the season's close, it can be real easy to settle into "rest mode" and wait for turkey season. The truth is, though, there is no better time than now to start preparing for the next deer season.
Getting and Keeping Your Kids Involved in Hunting
I have accumulated a lot of special memories over the course of my twenty years of hunting. I can still vividly remember the details of my first successful deer hunt, my first turkey, and my first good buck with a bow. But all of these events pale in comparison to watching my eight year-old son squeeze the trigger on his very first deer - a big, mature doe; or watching him harvest his first gobbler this past spring.
Extreme Scent Control
Every hunter alive has probably read, heard or watched on television about the importance of personal scent control. It has been drilled into our heads to wash our clothes in unscented detergents and wash our bodies with soaps produced specifically with the big game hunter in mind. Unfortunately, there are still some hunters out there that know very little about the subject, and others that are still disbelievers as to how important it is to eliminate as much human related odors as possible. They feel that they have been successful without following a scent control program and using such products, so they believe it is all hype.
Deer Diary: How to Keep a Hunting Journal
Twentieth Century philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." Chances are he wasn't thinking about deer hunting when he spoke those words, but the principal still applies, none-the-less. If you are like me, just remembering what happened on your last hunt is challenging enough. Being able to recall specific details of the hunts from years past would be dang near impossible without having some type of written account. That is why a hunting journal can be such a great resource for the serious deer hunter.
Hunting High-Pressured Longbeards
The first rays of the morning sun had just cleared the trees and began to cast a glow on the field of native warm-season grass as we quickly set up on our second turkey of the morning. Our first attempt had been foiled when our decoys were out-competed by a group of eight hens and a jake, keeping the gobbler just out of gun range. Now, just 20 minutes later, we were repositioned along the edge of the same field trying feverishly to spot the source of intense gobbling. With every series of yelps and clucks, the old tom would quickly remind us that he was patiently awaiting our arrival.
Fall Turkey Hunting Tactics
"There is something about running right into the middle of a flock of wild turkeys, screaming like a madman that just doesn't seem natural," I thought to myself as I watched the group of twenty-something hens and jakes fly off the ridge in all directions. For a guy whose turkey hunting experiences had been limited to the spring months, the whole idea of "busting up a flock" didn't make a lot of sense. However, I had been assured that when chasing birds in the fall, it was a perfectly acceptable practice.
Hunter Etiquette & Responsibility
Respectable hunters live by both a written and an unwritten code. Most of us acknowledge our responsibility to follow the formal and informal rules of etiquette. Webster's dictionary defines etiquette as, "rules governing socially acceptable behavior." Unfortunately there are those among us who choose to ignore etiquette, conducting their hunting activities with only self-serving interests in mind. At a time when our heritage activities are under constant scrutiny it behooves us to heed the importance of etiquette and ethics. As I contemplate this issue I can't help but conclude that it's really all about respect - respecting the law, landowners, the land, as well as non-hunters and hunters alike.
Bowfishing 101
One of the fastest growing outdoor sports in the country right now is bowfishing. Bowfishing is a cross between fishing and bowhunting. Across the United States and the entire world, fish like the common carp, garpike, and Asian flying carp are taking over our rivers and streams. There are very few ways of controlling these invaders, but one way to get rid of a few and have fun at the same time is to shoot them with a bow.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He had approached from behind and was standing 30 yards to my right and glared in my direction. His eyes seemed to search through every inch of the grass that I lay in, trying to locate the rabbit that lured him in. I remained still, waited for his shoulder to appear in my scope and squeezed the trigger. As I made my way to the coyote, I couldn't help but to admire the ghillie suit that had kept me hidden so well among the grass and wonder why I hadn't tried this before.
Turkey Hunting: Scouting Early Equals Opening Day Success
Very few hunting sports have grown as quickly as turkey hunting has in the last few decades. When I started turkey hunting, tagging a longbeard wasn't as difficult as it is today. Toms used to come running every time I let loose on my favorite box call. If I made a mistake or two on a tom, most of the time he could be called right back into shotgun range. Gaining permission to hunt was a piece of cake.
Bucks in the Rain
The moment you have waited for all year is on the horizon, the beginning of another archery season will soon be at hand, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself and what you have done to prepare for the new season. You took your compound to the archery shop had a safety check done on it, greased the cables replaced that worn serving and waxed the string.
5 Steps for Approaching a New Deer Property
I met a guy who knew a guy, and that's how I secured permission on one of the best properties I know. But then the work began; to hunt it effectively, I had to learn the property and what the deer are doing on it. Approaching a new property can be a daunting task, particularly if it's a sizable piece of land. The property I just referred to is three quarter sections large, that's 480 acres. Roughly half of it is covered in a matrix of old growth aspen and spruce forest.
The Year-Round Deer Hunter
Most of us, at one time or another, have flipped through the pages of our favorite hunting magazines or browsed the pages of our favorite hunting websites and commented to ourselves on how "lucky" some of the featured hunters were to have harvested such tremendous animals. For these hunters, fortune comes in the form of months of preparation and time in the field. The end of the season for these guys is merely the beginning of the next. If your goal is to harvest a trophy buck this year, then don't wait until September to start scouting. Follow this simple four-season schedule and become a year-round student of the deer!