On Friday the day before opening day of muzzleloader season in NH my wife asked me if I wanted to go hunting. For those of you who have read any of my previous posts you know this is a big deal since I was currently tag-less when she asked. She had been feeling better and later that night I clicked…
Some days you just have the feeling that it’s going to be a good evening in the woods. Wednesday Oct 23rd was one of those evenings. I was itching to go hunting. It had been quite a while since the last time I’d been out, no thanks to a resurgence of my wife’s Lyme disease. Stupid ticks. Anyway, I needed…
Just last week I saw someone’s twitter post that read, “I don’t keep the racks to brag about them, I keep them because of the memories they hold.” I’ve been blessed to hunt in some great locations around North America, but to be honest, shooting a deer with a large rack has never been the main reason to place a hunt in my favorites category. It is time spent with friends and family that makes the hunt memorable and it is hard to choose between all the hunts I have ever been on to come up with my top five. As a result, I am not going to come up with my top five. I’ll just come up with five for now and talk about the others later…
In a previous post I mentioned that when I was a just a young(er) fella hunting with my Dad we discovered the power of a using a grunt call. That experience resulted in a nice buck for my memory vault and a lesson I’ll never forget. Since that time I have been enamored with calling, and as the years have gone by I have continued to study and experiment with calling. I’ve even learned a few more things along the way. This is not intended to be a comprehensive manual for calling deer. There are many factors that I do not even discuss such as time of year, rut phase, buck to doe ratios, etc.. Learning how to call deer is kind of like learning how to perfect your golf swing and it could not possibly be covered in one post. However, there are a few basics that will increase your odds of success and I’ve decided to write about five tips that will help you improve your calling techniques.
Today on the blog I highlight a poem called “Track Soup” that my uncle Dave Biebel wrote a number of years ago. It’s an all too familiar story for most of us. Thankfully, I will not have to eat any track soup this year since I already have one in the freezer, but I’ve had to eat some before. It doesn’t taste good! Enjoy….
Track Soup
“What’d ya see?” inquires the Gramp
As the Boys come into camp.
“Sign,” they grumble, “lots of tracks.”
“Can’t eat that,” the old man cracks.
They settle down around the fire
To see which one’s the biggest liar,
Telling tales ’til half past when,
Then up at dawn and out again.
“It’s daylight in the swamp,” calls Fred,
“And time to get up out of bed.”
So, wolfing down some eggs and toast,
The men rush out into their posts.
But “skunked again” they mutter when
They wander in at lunch again.
“Tracks, BIG tracks are everywhere,
But we see neither hide nor hair.”
Gramps chuckles, “You’re some group!
Tonight I’ll make you some track soup.”
“First you take a pound of spoof
And stir in one filet of hoof…
Add a cup of old swamp water,
Buck lure and a pinch of laughter,
A bit o’ yarn, and empty shell,
A piece of antler mixes well…
Some apples and a big salt block,
But mostly just a lot of talk.”
“And, for dessert,” he winks his eye,
“A generous piece of humble pie!”
– Dave Biebel
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