Turkey Calls

Cluck

The cluck consists of one or more short, staccato notes. The plain cluck, many times, includes two or three single note clucks. It's generally used by one bird to get the attention of another. It's a good call to reasure an approaching gobbler that a hen is waiting for him. 

Putt

The putt is a single note, generally associated as an alarm, could be several notes sharp or rapid fashion, usually means they have seen or heard something, means danger. 

Tree Call

The tree call is usually a series of soft muffled yelps given by a roosted bird. Sometimes it picks up in volume as fly down time nears. Maybe accompanied by soft clucking. Generally acknowledged as a call to communicate with others in a flock. 

Plain Yelp of Hen

The yelp is a basic turkey sound. It is often delivered in a series of single note vocalizations and can have different meanings depending on how the hen uses it. 

Cutting of Excited Hen

A series of fast, loud, erratic single notes is referred to as cutting. It's a modified cluck and is a distinct abrupt call with a somewhat questioning nature. It can be heard at a great distance and is often used by a single turkey looking for companionship. 

Adult Hen Assembly Call

The adult hen assembly call is a series of loud yelps in order to assemble her flock or young poults. 

Fly Down Cackle

The cackle is generally associated with movement. It can be heard when a bird is flying up or down from a roost, flying off a ridge, or flying across a creek. A cackle usually consist of three to 10 irregularly spaced notes. It's a movement call, so use it sparingly. 

Kee Kee Run

The kee kee is the lost call of young turkeys and variations made by adult birds. It's often associated with fall hunting, but can be used successfully in the spring. This is what it sounds like. A variation of the call, the kee kee run is merely a kee kee with a yelp. 

Purr

Purring is a soft, rolling call turkeys make when content. It can usually be heard by feeding birds. This is not a loud call, but is good for reassuring turkeys as they get in close to your position. 

Cluck and Purr

The cluck and purr is single note or notes often associated with flock talk or the feeling of contentment. Sometimes amplified. It is a cluck followed by a rolling, almost staccato call. 

Owl Hooting

The eight-note hoot of the barred owl is often used as a call to locate gobblers in the early morning or late evening hours. 

Gobbling

The gobble is one of the principal vocalizations of the male wild turkey and is used primarily in the spring to let hens know he is in the area. 

God Bless and Happy Hunting.

Info from National Wild Turkey Asscociation. (www.nwtf.org)

Skinning

Field Dressing Your Dear

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Your persistence has paid off; your deer is down, now what do you do? What you do now will determine the quality of your bucks meat at the table. Proper care of your deer is very important in making sure that its taste good when it is served at the table. This article is to tell new hunters how to field dress, skin and prepare a deer for butchering. Experienced hunters might also learn something new.

False Hoods

One of the most persistent beliefs among hunters is that you must bleed your deer by cutting the deer's throat as soon as you get to it. This is suppose to bleed the deer off blood and make the meat taste better. Never cut a deer's throat. This has no positive effects. Once a deer is dead the heart no longer pumps blood. If the blood is not circulating then cutting the throat will not bleed any blood from the deer. It can however mess up a cape (the deer's hide around the head, neck and shoulders) if you decide to mount the deer. It opens the deer's up to dirt in an area that would otherwise have been protected from dirt and bacteria. It is in a word "USELESS".

If you want to bleed your deer you will first need to hang the deer (best done head down) and then make a cut at the lowest point so that the blood can gravity feed out of the deer. I don't do this myself. I get the blood out of the deer after the deer is home via soaking the meat in an icechest for a few days. This has the added benefit of ageing the meat a bit before it is frozen. 

Another fallacy is that you must cut off the tarsal glands of the deer or the meat in that area will be ruined. This is nonsense. It didn't taint the meat while the deer was living and it will not taint it after the deer is dead. You don't want to touch the tarsal gland and then touch the meat however. If the animal is not yet dead, simply shoot the animal again. It is very dangerous to approach a buck that is wounded from the front and down right stupid to try to cut its throat with a knife.

FIELD DRESSING A sharp knife is better than a dull knife when it comes to field dressing a buck. A sharp knife will actually reduce bad (unneeded) cuts and will make the entire procedure easier. Take your time when dressing a buck, mistakes due to haste will often require you to make a trip to the hospital to get stitches.

Prop the animal on its back and begin field dressing by making a cut from just above the genitals up to the rib cage. You now have to make a choice. Some people cut through a number of the ribs in the rib cage to make it easier to reach up into the deer's chest. I find this unnecessary but its up to you. If you do plan to cut through some of the ribs you should do it of center to avoid the sternum. When you make this cut from just above the genital to the sternum take care not to cut too deep. You only want to cut through the hide and through the animals stomach muscle. If you go to deep you will puncture the deer's intestines and you will have to deal with the smell.

NOTE: If you plan on having the deer mounted don't cut any further up the belly than the sternum to save the cape.

Now turn the deer on its side and allow the guts to fall out. They will require help from you by cutting away the fat that will hold the intestines in. This is usually at the top of the cavity in the area near the spine. Care must be taken to not puncture or break the deer's bladder. The bladder will be in the area where the cavity narrows down at the hips. I leave this part of the deer's intestines intact but many or most do not. If you plan on removing all of this then you must have a very sharp knife and must ream the deer out from the back. Cutting around the anus and tying it off with string. Then cutting either forwards or backwards from the abdominal cavity to remove this entire area. Easier said than done. Care must be take not to puncture anything here this is where the deer droppings and urine are located. The deer's abdominal cavity is separated from the chest cavity by the diaphragm. This separates the lung and heart from the stomach and intestines. This must be cut out to remove all of the intestines.

This is how it usually works for me, with the guts half in and half out I cut the diaphragm away from the deer's chest cavity, I then reach as far up into the deer's chest as possible and grab the deer esophagus. With the other hand I carefully slide the knife into the deer's chest and work my knife up into the chest to cut the esophagus just above my other hand. After it is cut I simply pull the heart and lungs out and with it comes the rest of the intestines.
Wash up.
Drag the deer out.
Load in truck.
Go home or to camp for skinning.

SKINNING

When skinning a deer it can either be hung head up or head down. I have always hung mine head up. Begin by making a circular cut around the deer's neck. Connect this cut with the cut made in the stomach during field dressing. Remove the hide by grasping the skin and pulling down hard with both hands. Use your knife carefully when freeing the hide from the carcass to avoid cutting the skin. If the flesh begins to pull off with the skin, stop pulling and try again after cutting the flesh back with the knife. 

NOTE: If the cape is to be saved, you can cut the middle and rear portion of the hide free by starting skinning just behind the shoulder and working down from there. 

When you have the hide down around the shoulders you will have to cut off the front legs with a hacksaw just above what you would think is the deer's knees. Then on the inside of the deer's legs cut toward the chest and connect this cut with the one made up through the chest and abdomen during gutting. After you work the hide free around the front legs with a knife. You can continue to work the hide down the deer's back towards its feet and tail. 

Once you get the hide down around the deer's tail, simply cut the tail off with a knife. Let me say this again. When you are pulling and cutting the hide from the deer and you can see that the hide is now coming off of the tail, you can now simply cut the tail free. This cut you understand is not through hide but only through the tailbone itself because you have pulled the hide down far enough so that it exposes the tailbone under the hide. That's a long explanation for something simple just so you will not get confused. Continue until you get the hide down around the deer's tarsal glands (the dark patches on the inside of the hind legs) then take a saw and cut through the leg just above the tarsal gland. 

By now you are tired from unpacking, driving, getting up early and dragging the deer out of the woods, skinning and gutting. But you are not finished yet. You must still store the meat for butchering. I will not go into great detail at least not today but this is how I do it. I first cut out the backstrap and tenderloins out and place in an ice chest. Then I cut the front legs free (no bones to cut) and place them in an ice chest. Then I cut the back hindquarters free with a knife. You can works a hindquarter free with just a knife if you work your way to the ball and socket joint that holds the hindquarters to the hips. Just work the point into this joint and work around the ball. 

Once both tendons are cut the hindquarter will be free. Place any other meat such as ribs and neck into the icechest. Now place a bunch of ice in the icechest with the meat. I am now totally exhausted from all the work. So I am in no mood to begin butchering the deer. So I usually wait a couple of days before I begin butchering. 

Each day you need to drain the water and add new ice. I usually will do a little butchering each day until I am finished, this usually takes me 5 to 7 days. I could do it all in one day if I wanted to but cutting up one hindquarter is easy but butchering an entire deer is work so I spread it ou

For giggles and grins

An older gentleman that I know would always say that we should do something for, "Giggles and Grins". Here's a couple....

There is a farm in the country where a Dad and Mom live with a son. One day, the son and dad had to go to town to get a part for their broken tractor. Never going to school or having ever been in a city, the Dad and his son got lost pretty quick. By accident, they walked into a very large hotel and sat down in the lobby.
Watching the traffic of people and customers go by, the dad and his son saw an elderly women with wrinkles all over here haggard face walk into the elevator. Having never seen or heard of an elevator before, they watched as she walked in, the doors shut and the lights went up to the fifth floor and come back down to the lobby. As the doors reopened, a beautiful blonde walks out and without even flinching the father says,
"Son, go get your momma".

Inside a Deer's Mind

Deer only think about 4 things in their entire life: Eat, Sleep, Mating, and Running Away from Predators. You can use all of these to your advantage.

Eat/Sleep: Deer travel from their bedding area to their feeding area in the last few minutes of daylight, and travel from their feeding area to their bedding area in the first feww minutes of daylight. This generally gives you 2 thirty minute windows in the morning and in the afternoon when they are MOST active. This doesn't mean deer won't be wondering around during the middle of the day. In fact, I've seen as many deer in the middle of the day as any other time.

Mating: If it's mating season, then the deer sexes will usely follow each other. This means that if you want that big buck and all you're seeing right now is 4 or 5 does, then don't take them quite yet, wait a little while ans see who's following them. This works vice versa if your hunting for doe and all you see is a little two pointer. By the way doe meat does taste better.

Running Away: This requires more than 1 person, and the more you have, the better. One hunter can be sitting/standing in a stand/blind, while the other does a loop out and walks toward them from several directions. This works in that the deer are running away from the hunter who's walking while the other sitting hunter waits for the deer to pop up in front of him. The deer only get concerned about one hunter at a time, so when they're running away from the koving hunter, they'll move toward the stationary one. They might even run back towards the moving hunting when they get shot at by the stationary hunter.

God Bless and Happy Hunting

Jerk Fishing

I watched as the line on my open cast rod wound round and round. You could distinctively tell the difference between the line that had been in the water from the hint of murky brown that it carried. To my surprise I found myself in a mid yawn as I glance at my watch. The digital face showed 6:30 p.m., 7 hours after I'd started fishing. It was Sunday afternoon and I didn't look forward to the Monday ahead, I mean who doesn't?

Suddenly, the line jerked and a fish was on! I realized that this was my 4rth fish! And when I pulled it out of the water, it was a nice sized bass, the same as the 3 before it. Then it occurred to me that I had set a new record as far as fish caught versus time spent in my pond. Why was I doing so well?

Jerk Fishing. That Sunday afternoon was the first that I had tried this new method of fishing that I heard from a friend. All you simply do is mimick the movement of the minnows near the bank. Just jerk the rod very gently and just enough do make it dart through the water a few inches. Then real in the slack and repeat the proccess. By the way, the person who told about this said the recent science had proved that this triggers some genetic response in the fish and causes it to bite out of habit. It worked for me and it can work for you!

God Bless and Happy Fishing

Today

Every seasoned hunter knows what it's like the first couple of times. You get excited and your adrenaline starts to flow. More than anything, you don't want to mess up and some hunters even feel guilty for killing such a beautiful animal.

Here's a tip. Whether it's your first time or your 50th time, always keep your cool. Usually the deer doesn't know your there till you shoot him, so you don't have to worry about him running off anytime soon. So take your time moving your gun from it's resting position to your shoulder. Get into the breathing motion you practice with and wait for the BEST SHOT POSSIBLE
**(Quarterting away works best for me)**

Hunting tip

When hunting a deer, make sure you're downwind, and that your phone is off!
Joke of the day:
Two hunters were dragging their dead deer back to their car. Another hunter approached pulling his along too.
"Hey, I don't want to tell you how to do something ... but I can tell you that it's much easier if you drag the deer in the other direction. Then the antlers won't dig into the ground."
After the third hunter left, the two decided to try it.A little while later one hunter said to the other,
"You know, that guy was right. This is a lot easier!""Yeah, but we're getting farther from the truck," the other added.

Gander mountain online-Fishing section

At gander mountain right now you can save up to 15% on rods, reels and combos. This sale is sponsored by Wet'n'Wild waterpark. By the way, that rod and reel sale is only available online. I guess that really doesn't matter, because if your reading this, you have internet access anyway. The sale includes spinning combos from $29.99 to $79.99, Baitcast combos from $49.99 to $129.99,  Spincast Combos from $29.99 to $49.99, and Specialty Combos from $64.99 to $99.99. Altogether that's a savings of $5 to around $20!

They also still have mother's day sales going. So if you forgot, you better hurry up! I guess the sale ends today.

As for me, I already have on open faced rod that I love. I'll put a picture of my pond on my blog later on in the week.

God Bless and Happy Fishing

My Gun

My gun is a 30 alt 6 (30 cal), made by a company by savage Arms. In the picture, it's the second gun from the bottom. This was simply a collection of guns from me and my buddies. The magnification on the scope is adjustable from 3x to 9x and it goes for around $500. I don't know the excat price because it was gift rom my mom and dad. It's a nice solid gun, with a wooden stock and obviously a bolt-action. Very accurate. The first time I shot it, i was aiming at a wooden horse (like in carpentry) on the other side of our pond. Taped onto the horse was a target with a bullseye. Well when I shot it, the bullet when straight through the bullseye and knocked the horse over!

Happy Hunting

My stand

Well I bought a stand from Gander mountain cause a guy that I know told me that they were having a sale on their stands. I bought a 15 ft. ladder Stand made by Riverside. It's mud brown and currently resides i nthe field behind me house. Other than there not being any handrails and the seat is extremely small, it's the best thing I've ever done with 70 bucks. I'l have a picture of it later

My first deer Hunt

Here's my first deer hunt with someone else in a blind that is.

My mom has a friend named Rich who's worked with her for ages. Well Rich hooked me up with his brother Chad to go huntin, cus he hunts a lot, and so I could see how you skin a deer. Well Chad had a wooden blind on stilts in the woods on the far end of this field behind his uncle's house. This stand was on the top of the hill cause the field sloped down to the other side ever so slightly. This way we could see the while field.

The blind could fit two people in it and it was insulated, so it was like sittin in a little house. The windows were about a hand length tall and about 2 to 3 feet wide. They had that green carpet stapled to the bottom like the carpet on a pool table.

Well we got there at about 3 o clock in the afternoon and we waited the whole afternoon for the deer. He knew where to look because he knew where their trails came out into the field. They were on the other side of the field. Thsi field was about, 200 yards long give or take. And all through the afternoon their were a few cows in it. 

Well we were pretty much ready to pack up and leave when through our scope one of us saw a white tail in the field.

Chad said"Wholy Crap!" in a hushed voice, "Do you see that?"

I said"I see em"

Chad,"Oh Crap there're two of em and they're lookn right at us!"

me,"I only see one of em"

Chad,"Well go ahead Gilliam, shoot you one"

me,"I can't, all I can see is the white of their tail!"

Chad,"Alright well watch this..."

me,"watch wha...."

BANG!!!

Man of man I aint never seen a deer drop so fast. It looked like it's legs collapsed on it or something. The funny thing was I wasn't half way through my sentence whenhe decided to take his shot. Well the reason I couldn't see the deer was cause his scope can see a whole lot better in the dark cause like i said earlier, it was dark when he shot it. When he shot I was also thinking, "I hope that wasn't one of your uncle's cows!"

Happy hunting

Intro

Hey to all yall hunters, i'm just another hunter like you who likes to get the adrenaline runin every time i see a deer, a turkey or whatever it is you hunt. Contact me at gilliam.hill@gmail.com

Happy Hunting

Great Deals at www.gandermountain.com!