Live for the season...

Hold on, stop the presses!

Turns out that my 2008 / 2009 deer season wasn't quite over after all. Dwain called me Thursday night & asked if I would mind carrying his Grandson Alex deer hunting on the late Juvenile hunt this past weekend. Mind? Huh? I jumped at the chance! We got to the shooting house on Rick's farm at Mimosa around 3 Sunday afternoon. I told Alex that we'd probably have deer out by 4:30, and they were right on time. First deer out were a spike, a button, and 2 big does. We were waiting for the does to get just a little closer when they left the field. They soon came back & brought some friends. It got pretty hectic pretty fast, but I think we had 5 or 6 does & 2 spikes in the field when we finally got a shot. I was trying to video so I didn't see how the first doe reacted when Alex shot, but deer scattered in every direction. The limit was 3 per day so I helped him reload & quickly picked out another target. The second shot was much harder - about 125 yards & sharply quartering away. This time I was paying closer attention & saw the doe stumble at the shot & then fall about 5 seconds later. After getting down & looking for sign, we decided that the first shot had been a miss - but we did get the second one! A BIG, old, mature doe - a perfect deer to take out of the herd!

Congratulations Alex! I really enjoyed hunting with you & hope to do it again!

2008 in Review

It really doesn't seem right to be typing another "year in review" post. I know It seems like it was just like last week when I wrote my 2007 season review. I guess time really does speed up as you get older. Even though there were no records broken in 2008, it definitely was another great year. Looking back over the last year's posts, I am constantly reminded of just how blessed I am. I'm so thankful for a supportive wife & family that tolerate my exploits and great friends with whom I get to share these experiences.

2008 should have been a good year for the Taxidermists! I added 3 European (skull) mounts, 3 deer heads, a turkey, a pintail, and a bob-cat skin to my collection.   

Right after New Year's 08, I discovered that the shooting house in my river bottom had suffered some pretty major storm damage. It soon turned into a complete re-build that lasted well into October. I did enjoy working on it though, especially the days that my little buddy helped!

2008 was another banner year for Strut'n Tom Outfitters! While our total number of kills was down a little from 2007, we still had an outstanding season. We did take a couple of absolute monsters & best of all, we got to spend a bunch of time in the woods with good friends!

With April came my first trip to Alberta & my first successful bear hunt. I fulfilled one of my life-long hunting goals with this old boy, a 7 ft., 250 lb, jet black boar. Truly the trip of a lifetime even if the big one got away!

June brought the good news that my 2006 muzzleloader buck had made it into the Tennessee Deer Registry. As of today, he is still ranked as #9 Statewide in the typical muzzleloader category.

July found us on the water. First with a trip to the beach & of course, the beach means deep sea fishing. Rick, Keith, & I enjoyed a half day trip & brought home some pretty big Red Snapper. Then later in the month, Craig & I took the girls canoing down the Elk.

August was time for tending trail cameras and prepping food plots. No monsters caught on film this year, but still a fun way to pass the time till bow season opened.

September is always a busy month prepping for the upcoming bow season & this year was no different. Rick & I planted 5 food plots, set 1/2 dozen or more stands, and built another new shooting house. I also got the exciting news that I had been added to the Pro staff at Archery Country.

October brought some serious hunting! I probably bow hunted more this year than ever before. I was rewarded for those efforts with a very nice buck on October 13th. This deer was even more special because I got to share it with my buddy. Craig was in the tree with me & captured the entire hunt on video! And even better, our video was featured on Archery Country's website. I also managed to bag my second ever turkey by bow and I volunteered as a guide for the Kids Hunting for a Cure juvenile deer hunt.

November - honestly, the highlight of November had absolutely nothing to do with hunting. I had the pleasure of spending 5 days in paradise with my beautiful wife. An absolutely perfect trip to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

As far as deer hunting goes, November 2008 was Ricks month. He killed 3 nice bucks on his farm at Mimosa, all 3 in November.

 I did manage to take both a coyote & a bobcat in November, and I got to share a stand with the prettiest little "dear" you've ever seen, but no deer kills for yours truly.

December brought the much anticipated Iowa hunt. A week spent in the heart of big deer country with 2 good friends. I was lucky enough to take a great buck on the first morning, Jeff misfired on a deer the second day, and then Rick scored on day 4.

My buddy Jason also scored in December. He took this good looking buck on my place while I was in Iowa. Definitely a mile stone since it was the first he killed on his own.

Wow - I'm worn out from that little marathon! So many good memories! Not sure what 2009 will bring, but I'm ready!

Quick News

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the photography article I wrote for Archery Country is being featured on their website right now. You can read it here. Pretty neat to see something I wrote published on a site other than my own!

I finally got around to updating our Strut'n Tom Outfitters website. It is now up to date with all 2008 pics as well as 2009 season info. Craig & I have decided to pretty much take 2009 off from guiding other than maybe just 1 or 2 of our best clients from previous years. We both have a couple of hunting trips planned for this coming Spring - plus, we are frankly just ready for a break. I hope to take at least one of my girls on the Juvenile hunt, and then plan to spend a lot more time hunting with Craig & other friends, and maybe even get to go by myself a time or 2 - wow, that WOULD be cool for a change! Anyway, check out the website & let me know what you think.

A little house-keeping...

Still not a lot to report from the deer woods... Craig & I hung a double-set (2 stands together) & hunted in my river bottom on New Year's Eve. I really have a big goal of killing a deer with my bow during late gun season this year - something I would have never even considered possible a few years ago! Would also like to capture it on video, but that would just be gravy :)) We put the stands in the corner of my food plot where the does normally come out. Everything worked perfect except the deer were about 10 minutes too late - I could still barely see my pins, but just didn't have enough light to see through my peep. I hunted it again Saturday afternoon with Keith behind the camera. This time the deer were about 5 minutes earlier. I had just enough light to be able to shoot, but it was still later than I would have liked. OK, no more excuses - I MISSED a big doe at about 15 yards! Video footage was pretty neat though with the lighted nock sailing right over her back. I'm hoping that the 3rd time for this spot will be the charm - that is if this warm, rainy weather pattern will ever break.

I also wanted to share this photo layout that I (with more than a little help from Brandi) put together for Craig. I guess this is going to become a Christmas tradition - at least I hope will if that means we are still killing enough turkeys to fill up one of these pages every year!

Quick recap from left to right:

Me with Trey (from Florida),and his Dad Matt on the Juvenile hunt.

Craig with his first of the year.

Craig with his second TN bird.

Me with my buddy Tim.

Craig with Chase (from Mississippi), and his Dad Lucian.

Brian (from Cookeville Tennessee) showing off his monster spurs.

Craig (from Memphis Tennessee).

Keith, Craig, Me, and Lee with the results from our annual Kansas trip.

Me with my first TN bird of the year.

My brother-in-law and good friend Rick with his first of the year.

My second Eastern of 2008.

Stephen (from Louisiana) with his late-season bird.

Craig with his third Eastern of 2008.

December 9th - Day 5 Iowa (headed home)

Rick & I spent Monday night packing the Tahoe in the cold rain. I haven't talked a whole lot about the weather in these posts because for the most part, it was surprisingly mild - for a couple of days it was even warmer where we were in Iowa than back home in Tennessee! But all that changed Monday night. Forecast was for rain changing to snow with a high in the 20's for Tuesday plus a 25 - 30 mph sustained wind :(( Let's just say that Rick & I were glad to be done & ready to head back to TN!

Jeff on the other hand, decided to brave the elements & get 1 last hunt in on Tuesday morning. He went back to the spot where Rick had missed the big deer on Sunday night but only saw one 1/2 - racked bucked. By 10:00, he had had enough of the single-digit windchill & was ready to head back as well.

Rick & I made it home a little after 9 Tuesday night. The t rip was pretty uneventful except for a little freezing rain when we left, snow in Western Missouri, rain for the rest of the day - oh, and one last stop at the promised land! :))

Another GREAT trip to Iowa. Man, these guys have really found a special farm in THE State to kill a monster buck! Once again, I feel extremely blessed just to be able to take part in a hunt like this, much less bring home an Iowa Bruiser! I'll leave you with a few more of my favorite pics from the trip:

December 8th - Day 4 Iowa

Jeff took his turn Monday morning hunting my blind on the North tract while Rick decided to hunt the ladder stand where Jeff had had the mis-fire the day before. This is a really neat spot - a very tight draw that acts as a funnel for all deer entering the thick cover on the property we were hunting. Both yea rs we've hunted there, we've found a trem endous amout of deer sign in this spot.

We actually caught this buck on the Cuddeback the day before Rick killed his:

I decided to reward myself for an early kill by taking Monday morning off from scouting for the other guys - yea I slept in! Woke up around 8 to a text from Jeff saying that he had heard Rick shoot. After a few minutes, a got a confirmation from Rick - he had just found his buck! This guy was not nearly as big as the deer that he had missed the night before, but still a respectable 8 pt & Rick's first Iowa deer - congrats! Check out the body on this guy - HUGE!

Rick & I spent the rest of the morning getting his deer out & skinned, and both of our deer butchered. We had hung them both in an old barn on the North tract - so when we got done, we figured while we were there, we might as well do a drive for Jeff. I went North & Rick went South, pushing 3 or 4 draws plus some thick bedding cover that all ran out very close to the blind that Jeff was hunting. I think the final tally was 5 does & a fawn that we ran out, but no bucks. I really enjoyed getting to walk the draws though & get a chance to see all the deer sign - kept telling myself "you sure aren't in Tennessee anymore!". Hard to tell from this picture, but even though this rub isn't all that big in diameter, it was actually as tall as my shoulder (I'm 6' 3") - never seen anything like it before!

After the drive, Jeff decided to head to the spot where Rick had missed the buck on Sunday & hunt for the rest of the afternoon while Rick & I started tearing down blinds & taking down stands. Here's another one of our blinds - anyone who has never hunted deer from a pop-up should really give it a try!

Jeff ended up seeing 5 or 6 does before dark, but no bucks.

December 7th - Day 3 Iowa

Sunday morning - I went ahead & got up with Rick & Jeff even though my tag had already been punched. The plan was for me to drop Rick off at the North tract so he could hunt in the blind where I killed my deer the day before. Jeff decided to hunt a ladder stand overlooking a small draw.

After dropping Rick off, I went back to the bean field where I had glassed the buck at dark the night before. I was hoping to spot something that the other guys might want to hunt, but after sitting for nearly an hour, I had yet to spot the first deer. So I decided to walk down to another one of our pop-ups where we had set one of the Cuddeback cameras. Of course, as soon as I get close, there is a pretty nice 9 pt about 50 yards from the empty blind - not sure he was a shooter but he was definately close. Unfortunately there were 0 pics on the camera. Not long after that, I got a text from Jeff saying that his Savage muzzleloader had mis-fired on a big 8 pt. He was stunned as was I - these guns just don't mis-fire - still don't know what happened.

I picked Rick up about 11. He had spotted a monster from my blind early that morning that was out of his range, but had seen nothing since. He was wanting to move to his pop-up where I had seen the 9pt at the camera that morning. Rick saw 4 or 5 does from the blind before 4 when he decide to move closer to the road where I had seen the big buck from the truck the night before. We were hoping that the old boy would mess up & do the same thing 2 nights in a row - he did! Rick rushed the shot & missed him at somewhere between 50 & 75 yards. Believe it or not, the buck was so interested in his does, he stayed put for nearly 5 minutes after the shot. But unfortunately, Rick had forgotten to take his reloads with him & was unable to take another shot - HARD, PAINFUL lesson learned! Jeff had moved to the top of the ridge to watch an alfalfa field before dark - he saw 2 small bucks and some does.

December 6th - Day 2 Iowa

We were up at 4:45, made a quick trip to McDonald's for breakfast, & were off to the farm. Unbelievably, it was 39 degrees when Rick dropped me off at my spot. I went ahead & packed lots of extra clothes because the temps were supposed to drop all throughout day. I saw my first deer 10 minutes before shooting light at 6:50. I actually had a few 2nd thoughts about my blind location after seeing this first deer because it was standing in the exact same spot where I had been set up last year. But those 2nd thoughts were short lived as 2 does popped out 100 yards up the hill from me 10 minutes later - they crossed the field & entered the draw right next to my blind. Then I looked up 10 minutes later & saw another deer standing up the hill where the does had come out - I immediately knew it was a buck even though his head was down. I put the binocs on him as he raised his head and started walking directly toward me - thinking the whole time THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING - I MUST BE DREAMING! My first thought was he isn't very wide, my second thought was his antlers are very thick, my third thought was he has 3's (meaning he has 3 points sticking up off his beams making him at least a 10pt counting the tips and brow tines). This whole time he was walking directly toward me, so by the time I had processed these thoughts he had cut the distance in half. So at 50 yards I put the scope on him. 1st thought was OH YEA, he is VERY thick, 2nd thought was he's got a bunch of trash (bonus points), 3rd thought was THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING - I MUST BE DREAMING!, 4th thought was BOOM! I shot him in the left shoulder quartering to me at 40 yards. After the shot, he ran directly toward me, died 5 yards from my blind, and just like last year slid 20 feet to the bottom of a very steep ditch.

He was actually a little better than I had thought. 5 X 6 frame with 13 or 14 total points although I think only 11 would probably count (over an inch long), and GREAT mass. Not a Booner, but my idea of a perfect Iowa buck - bunch of points and a thick, thick gnarly rack. Body wise, he wasn't nearly as heavy as last year's deer, but still a HOSS - I'll say it again, these deer make TN deer look like dwarfs! Not bad for a 10 minute Iowa hunt!

Since I didn't have a truck, I just stayed in the blind so that Rick & Jeff could keep hunting. I saw a total of 5 more does while waiting, including this 'ole gal that peeked inside my blind. Rick came to get me about 11:30 - we were able to tie a rope to the Tahoe to pull my deer out of the ditch - MUCH easier than the 3 man plan we had last year! After a few pics, we hung him in a barn where I could skin him out of the wind after I dropped Rick back off at his blind. After I finished skinning him out, I parked the Tahoe in a spot where I could glass a bunch of fields till dark. I spotted a ton of deer in 2 different spots right at dark, including 1 buck every bit as good as mine only 150 yards from the Tahoe! I think Rick & Jeff will probably try to hunt at least 1 of these spots Sunday afternoon.

December 5th - Day 1 Iowa (Scouting)

We rolled into camp a little before 8 on Thursday night. We made pretty good time considering tine spent at the mandatory Cabelas stop :)) No snow on the roads this year until we were almost to the cabin. Looked like they had gotten between 1 & 2 inches the day before.

We got up around 7:30 thanks to the wake-up call from girls. I had told them that they could call me on their way to school so I knew I wouldn't have to set an alarm - not a bad way for a Daddy to get woken up when he is away from home I might add!

Temps had been in the high teens when we got in the night before & had dropped considerably during the night. It was still only 12 when I went out a little before 9 to warm up the truck. After a big breakfast and quick check-in with the landowner, we hit the farm. There was still enough snow on the ground to help with scouting. We checked most of the same spots that we had found last year, found several big rubs, and even a couple of fresh scrapes.

After scouting for about half a day, we set up 3 pop-up blinds, 2 ladder stands, and 3 Cuddeback trail cameras. The plan was for me to start out hunting the same tract where I killed my deer last year, Rick to hunt the spot where I got the big 9pt on camera last year, and Jeff to hunt a new spot on the same tract as Rick. We spotted several deer throughout the day including 1 possible buck, but nothing real exciting - a little disappointing after all the bucks we saw last year while scouting, but we were all still very excited about the next day's hunt!

Quick update

Well, I did make it back out to the Grove Monday afternoon. The wind was wrong for the 4 way stop stand, so I hunted on the ground about 150 yards South of the food plot. I saw a total of 6 does but unfortunately, the buck from the night before did not show. That wound it up for me as far as deer hunting here in Tennessee ... well at least until I get back from Iowa! :))

We plan to leave about 5:30 Thursday morning. Should take somewhere between 11 and 13 hours depending on traffic, weather, and time spent at Cabelas. We'll scout and hang stands / set blinds on Friday and then start hunting on Saturday morning. I am EXTREMELY excited about this trip! I plan / hope to update the blog every night so check back often!