Anything For A Buck

What a weekend! Friday found me hunting most of the morning, heavy rains had caused the river to rise and making getting to my hunting spot almost impossible. I did however find a high spot and hunted uneventfully. I went home and grabbed a quick nap in the chair while the rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for graduation. After pictures and a nice dinner my wife and I headed to the Hump where I assisted in her hooding ceremoniously recieving her Ph.D. It has been a long road and I am so very proud of her! The alarm came early the next morning and I drug myself out of bed to go hunting. With the river still high, I went to some high ground in an attempt to keep my feet dry. I settled into my lock on stand about 30 minutes before daylight. A beautiful sunrise signaled the beginning of the day. I listened as ducks and turkeys began vocalizing the same thing I was feeling inside......the wonderful feeling of being alive and greeting the new day. About 6:55 am I noticed a doe slipping quietly through the woods to my right at about 80 yards. Shortly therafter I noticed a large buck on her trail. I took my grunt call and gave a series of vocalizations and the buck turned towards me and started approaching my stand location at 65 yards. I grunted with my mouth and stopped him in a small opening where the only shot I had was at his neck. I placed the crosshairs on his neck and slowly squeezed the trigger on my 45/70. BANG! and the buck dropped in his tracks. I quickly reloaded and got down. I approached the buck, wow what a sight! I immediately called Dung to assist in getting the deer out! When we met at the truck, he asked me....what did you get a buck or a doe? I told him he would have to wait to see. He was not dissappointed. We slowly but surely got the buck out of the woods and into my truck. After checking the deer in, I went home to show Leanne and Mary Audrey. I found both of them still in the bed, I told Leanne that I wanted to show her the big doe I had shot, and that I wanted to get my picture made with Mary Audrey and the deer. She took her sweet time getting out of bed, while I was about to burst with excitement , but trying to contain myself. When Leanne looked into the back of my truck, my deer cart was covering the deers rack....Leanne said..."My word, that is the biggest doe that I have ever seen! I then jumped into the back of the truck and took the cart off the rack....Her mouth dropped open and all she could say was..."John Long.....Oh My God! The deer is a fine specimen...17 1/2" spread, 20 "main beams, 5 1/2" bases, 180 pounds, and oh yeah....it is definitely going on the wall! Thank you Lord...my cup runneth over!

My Best Friend

There is nothing like sitting in the duck hole with my best hunting buddy Gabe! We harvested a limit of woodducks on Wed. and he performed wonderfully. I found a great log where I could sit down behind some brush and positioned him on a log behind me. Everytime he would make a retrieve he would stop by my log, give me the duck and go sit back down. NOW THAT IS SERVICE! (Too bad he doesn't deliver coffee....I could have used some!) As we sat in silence, I remembered all the good times that we have had together. I remember picking him up from the kennel as a pup. Round as a butterball and full of so much love! As I glanced back at him, I could still see that young dog, even though the reflection of him has changed to much larger and with more gray hair under his chin. His years adding up much faster than mine his eyes looking more distant as if seeing things yet to come. I have cherished the time that we have spent together and hope that I have not squandered any of it. You will always be more than just a dog to me, your my friend.

Success on Annual Hunt!

Dr. Layton and I went on our annual hunting trip on December 3rd. We started this tradition many years ago and I am happy to say that it has continued! We were hunting in a creek bottom that we had frequented in the past. The weather was predicted to have rain and strong winds approaching that night and therefore hopefully make the deer move. I slipped into my stand location and placed 3 cotton balls around my stand soaked in Tink's #69 deer lure. After settling into my climbing stand, I began calling with my grunt call and bleat can. At 4:45 I heard something to my left. Turning around I saw a buck approaching my scent stations. The deer stopped at 10 yards and I shot him with my 45/70. I got down and recovered the deer. 8 pts 12" spread. He is a trophy in my book because it was the first deer that I have taken with the gun that I bought with the gift card I recieved from the Entomology Dept as a going away present. Not only that.... taking the deer with my former boss there made it even that more special!

Fall Feeling

Went hunting yesterday afternoon and set up in a spot that I had rarely hunted before. Found a great funnel between thickets and had acorn dropping all around me! Settling into the stand I was enjoying a peaceful afternoon when I noticed a doe at 40 yards, then another, then another....they fed in front of me for some time and a small buck appeared at 60 yards feeding away from me. The does continued to move around me and then I heard the buck start grunting. Suddenly 3 more does came out at 50 yards and started feeding on acorns. Finally a doe fed to 15 yards and I took the shot, she ran a short distance and then piled up! I got another arrow ready in case the buck showed back up and guess what he did!! I was watching him out of range, when I heard something to my right. It was a grey fox running under my stand. I noticed that my pull rope started bobbing up and down like I had a fish on it, I guess the fox either got tangled or pulled on it to see what it was. I don't know, because my attention was focused on the buck and the buck was focused on the fox. Daylight ran out and the buck never presented a shot. I got down and retrieved my arrow and my deer! There is absolutely nothing short of heaven than bow hunting in October! Thank you Lord for all your blessings!

Bow Season Arrives along with.......

Well, as many of you that have been following my family's blog, we have been blessed with a healthy baby girl! Bow hunting has been slim so far, but hopefully will pick up after the end of this month! Was very fortunate to be able to hunt with my good friend Jacob Brister at his bow hunting only club. We hunted in the afternoons and did not see much, however, I happened to see a spike on one of his foodplots on the last evening I was there. Anytime hunting with good friends is enough for me!

2008 Hunting Season Has Begun!

Wow! What a wonderful Labor Day weekend we had this year! I took off Friday and Brad Murphee and I traveled to the dove field we were going to hunt on Monday. After extensive scouting and big breakfast at a local cafe, I came home and spent the rest of the day doing honey do's. Later that afternoon, I traveled to Phebe to shoot skeet and eating supper with the Ray/Bates families.

Saturday morning came early, with Young and I planting our foodplots. We got started about 7:30 and were finished by 2:00 with little to no drama, which is a record for us both on time and incidents~!

Sunday was spent at church, getting groceries, most especially celebrating Leanne's birthday!

Monday morning was spent hunting doves of which we brought home 9. (See pic above) (Left to Right- John Long, Gabe, Jody Ray, Taylor Ray( nice wallet I wish I had one like it!), Joel Ray, and Dung Bao. Gabe had fun helping us retrieve our birds as well. The weather was cloudy and with Hurricane Gustav hitting the Gulf Coast breezy as well. After the hunt we came back to our house and cooked hamburgers for the hunters and families. The remainder of the afternoon was spent sleeping and watching football! Poor Tennessee!

Non-stop action and good food with good friends made this Labor Day weekend one that I will not soon forget!

Redemption!

After very little luck on fishing the full moon in June, Dad and I had a blast redeeming ourselves by catching some nice messes of bream the later part of June and early July at a farmpond close to home! Here is just one stringer that went real well with fries and hushpuppies!

Great time with Dad

June 16-17th marked the 31st annual Delta fishing trip for Dad and I. We traveled to Lake Beulah and fished for the first part of the afternoon. While we were there we learned that the gentleman that ran the Nibblet Landing on Lake Whittington had died 2-3 weeks earlier. This sad news heralded an end of an era as that dad and I had many great memories of him and our trips there thoughout the years. We then decided to travel to some new water on Lake Bolivar located near the town of Scott. It was a beautiful lake which we had pretty much to ourselves. We decided to spend the night in Cleveland and return on the morning of the 17th to fish and explore. We caught a total of 6 fish the entire two days, however we made some lasting memories. I guess I continue to get even more sentimental as I get older, but I could not help but think of how precious time the time that we have with our parents truely is. Just this past week a person that I knew had lost his dad to an untimely event. I brought dad back to Sturgis just as he had brought me over the years, crossing Red Bank we had returned as we had left together. As I returned to my home late afternoon today, I was struck with a severe case of melancholy. Another year had arrived and another cycle had repeated. I thought back over the two days and realized how quickly it had past. I thought back to us fishing, I looked at my dad as we sat next to each other in the boat as we have countless times before and thought how fortunate I was to still be able to enjoy his company. I listened to the wind blowing through the trees as we ate our cheese and crackers and never wanted it to end. Wanting to place these moments deep in my mind. Thank you so much dad for all the love and great memories that you have given me. I pray that if the day ever comes that we have to listen to the wind in the trees alone that we think of each other and smile.

Goodbye My Little Man!

To my Little Man: Just wanted to take time to write you a little note and say thank you for all the good times that we have had. I will never forget them and the the impression that you have made on my life and my heart.

As the town that you first called home slowly slides away from your view, please know that there will always be those here that love you very much and wish you all the happiness in your new life.

Blame it on Rio!

Well I finally got to travel on my first out of state turkey hunt to hunt the Rio subspecies! My good frined Scott Edwards and I traveled to Ballinger, TX just south of Abilene and hunted for 3 days! Make no mistake, these birds are no cakewalk and are very similar to their eastern cousins when it comes to trickery. Each day we came in contact with mature gobblers calling them in but just out of shotgun range. We have never seen so many turkeys or heard so much gobbling. However, this birds luck ran out on the last morning of the hunt as Scott harvested this nice bird. 7 1/2" beard, 1" spurs and weighed 18 pounds! It was so much fun and I hope to get to do it again someday!

Spring Fever

Its that time of year again.....9 1/2" beard, 1" spurs, and weighed 16 pounds...my lightest bird yet!

Deer huntiing buddies from PA!

The annual New Years hunts with my buddies from the great state of PA got off to a slow start but picked up quickly with Andy Reitz harvesting a nice 10 pt on public land in one of my favorite spots!

Hunting Season

The deer and duck season has been a blast. This year was a great year for deer season. I harvested 5 does which allowed me to concentrate on getting a nice buck. My luck changed however when I lost a 6 point that I shot and could not find and then missing a large 8 pt on Thanksgiving morning.