Are you a hunter or a harvester? Do you hunt or harvest? In my opinion, and many may disagree, if you put out bait for deer or any other animals, even when legal, you are not hunting, you are harvesting. You are not hunting, you are waiting on the quarry to come to you.

The same applies to planting food plots. Don’t get me wrong, I plant food plots and sit in a stand watching the for deer. And I would put out corn and other bait if legal in this area. But sitting near a food plot waiting on a deer to come to feed is not hunting.

Hunting is going out into your quarry’s natural habitat, studying its movements and patterns and then trying to intercept it on its terms. That is why we go quail hunting and dove shooting. To find quail you go into their habitat and try to find them, usually with the help of a dog. But for doves you sit around a food source someone has planted, waiting on them to come to you.

I am not interested in killing a big buck with a pretty rack. The only reason I go after deer is to harvest three or four for the freezer. I am happy to shoot does.

Most of the time I am sitting where I can watch a field where I plant clover, peas and wheat each year. The deer come to it to feed, usually right at dark, and I can harvest one to eat.

Early in the season I do actually hunt. I go out and look for signs like rubs and scrapes near white oak trees. And I put up my climbing stand in an area where I can be hidden from approaching deer but get a shot at one.

I have shot some nice bucks with big racks but most were by accident while I was out harvesting, not hunting. I can take no pride in killing a big buck when all I did was plant something that attracted it. I am much more proud of my first deer, a small eight pointer I killed when I was 18. I actually went out and studied the area where it lived, set up my stand in a good place and was able to shoot it.

It takes some effort to plant a food plot, much more than just putting out corn for deer. But neither is anywhere near the effort it takes to go out and hunt a deer.

The bottom line to me is hunting is going out looking for your quarry, harvesting is waiting on them to come to you because of something you have done to alter their habitat.

There are exceptions. I grew up hunting wild quail and it was hard to find them, even with a dog. And you never knew exactly where they might be until the dog pointed. But one time I went to a paid trip on a quail plantation. It was fun, but it was not really hunting.

A few plantations where you pay to hunt have wild birds but they are rare and expensive. Most put out pen raised birds in an area and you follow a guide with a dog. You do get the experience of watching the dog point the bird, walking close to make it fly then shooting it.

But the guides know where the birds were placed and they usually don’t go far, so they can help the dogs find them. And pen raised birds don’t fly very fast or far. The one time I went I hit 12 birds with 14 shots, highly unusual for me. They are much easier to hit than wild birds.

To show how slow they are, on one point on my trip the bird got up a couple of feet in front the dog. The dog jumped as it flushed and caught it in the air. In a video on the internet you can see a guy actually reach out and catch a quail as it flies by him. That had to be a pen raised bird.

Doves are fun to shoot at, which describes what I do much better than saying I shoot them. And it takes some skill to pick a good place to set up you blind so you will be where they fly coming into the field. But that effort pales in comparison with going out looking for wild quail.

I have never had much interest in killing a bear. Most bear hunting is done by putting out bait and waiting on them to come to it. In many cases it is impossible to find them without bait since they range over such a wide area and are very hard to pattern. In some areas it is also legal to chase them with dogs, letting them do most of the work of finding the bear.

I doesn’t bother me when people say they are hunting when I think they are really harvesting. As long as it is legal it is fine. But I do make a distinction in my mind between hunters and harvesters.

The leaves are finally falling in large numbers. The moisture in the air from the rain and colder weather is making them drop fast. This should help deer hunters see better in the woods, but it makes it even more important for hunters to stay still since deer can see better, too.

When I squirrel hunted a lot I loved it when the leaves finally fell off the trees. With leaves on them, a squirrel could run to the top of most any tree and I would never see it again. While trying to find one, seeing them shaking leafy branches as they moved gave them away sometimes but usually I had to get close.

With bare branches I could sit on a hillside and see one move up a tree trunk or through overhead limbs for a long way. And I could usually slip up on them before spooking them. Sometimes I would just take off running to the tree they were in. They would usually run to the top of the tree but I could make them show themselves by throwing a limb or rock to the opposite side of the tree from where I was standing. That would usually make them move to my side.

Sometimes they would hide in nests. Some of my friends would shoot the nest and hit the squirrel, and it would crawl out and fall to the ground. I did that some until I heard my .22 bullet hit one and it did not come out. I did not want to waste any animal I killed. I kept shooting until the nest would no longer hold the body and it fell, but it was too shot up to eat. That is when I quit shooting nests. I figured I could get the squirrel on the next trip in a more sporting manner.

I would try to wait one out that was hiding in a nest, but never was able to. They had a lot more patience than I did. I could sit for 30 minutes without moving and they would not come out. That was about as long as I could stand not moving around!

Deer season ends in about a month. Plan a squirrel hunting trip with a kid then. They will definitely have good memories for the rest of their lives, and so will you.

Do as I say, not as I do!

Every year I try to warn hunters to check their deer stands carefully before using them. You can get hurt in many ways, and deer stands account for the majority of hunting accidents every year.

A couple of weeks before season I checked all the bolts and nuts on my climbing stands, tested the plywood and canvass to make sure everything was strong, then hung them on the trees I usually hunt. I climbed up removing any new twigs that might be in my way and also made sure my shooting lanes were clear.

I then went to my tower stand and climbed it. The wind made it rock some so I went back down and made sure feet were tied down, and leveled them. I then went back up and checked for wasps, made sure the chair was in good shape and didn’t squeak when turned, and made sure I could still see the areas where I expected a deer to appear.

I went right by the box stand in the middle of my field several times but never stopped. I don’t hunt it until December, when deer are more likely to come to food plots after all acorns are gone, and where I expect to see does only.

The wind was so bad Saturday morning I decided to get in the box after all. When I got to it in the dark I shined my flashlight all around and spotted some old wasps nest. I cleared out spider webs with a stick and eased inside, checking under the chair and everywhere else I thought wasps might hide.

Wasps get off their nests and get in cracks in wood or under anything they can when it starts to get cold. They try to survive the winter that way. But on a warm day they will get active during the winter. I had a very bad experience many years ago that has made me paranoid about them.

Uncle Adron took me hunting when I was about 19 and told me to climb up in a tower stand on an old fire break. It was a fairly warm afternoon and I was almost sweating when I got to the top and settled in the chair.

There was carpet on the floor to dampen any sound. For some reason I moved a piece of it in the corner. There was a solid red mass slowly moving under it. I swear it looked like thousands of wasps!

I carefully lowered the carpet and didn’t move. No wasps came out from under it so I stayed put, too. I have no idea if a deer came by that afternoon since all my attention was on that carpet all afternoon!

Saturday morning as it got barely light enough to see there was something dark crawling on my thigh. I knew immediately it was a wasps and thumped off. When I turned on my flashlight to kill it there were about six crawling on the floor and walls. It was too cool for them to fly or move very fast. I killed all of them.

I kept checking as it got lighter and lighter and saw no more. But at about 9:00 I felt something crawling on the back of my neck. I knew it was a wasps and did not want to hit at it, but was afraid it would crawl down under my shirt.

When I tried to brush it off I could feel a very light sting. I killed it and stayed in the box another hour without seeing any more wasps. When I got home I ask Linda to check my neck. There was a small red spot she touched but it was not where I had felt the sting, it was right on the scar tissue from my surgery.

The next morning my neck was swollen in two places, the one where I felt the sting and the one on my scar. I guess there are no nerves in the scar tissue to let me feel the pain.

I have heard stories of folks being in stands way up trees on in towers when they woke up a snake. So far I have not had that problem. But I did almost have to heart attacks one morning while deer hunting.

My stand was on the far side of a clear cut that had grown up with weeds about knee high. I was walking across it before daylight with my 30-30 on my back, shining my flashlight on the ground to stay on the path. As I made a step a covey of quail flushed beside my foot.

I guess it was a good thing my gun was on my back or I probably would have emptied it at the unknown critter. It is unreal how much noise a covey of quail flushing from under your feet in the dark make! I stood there a few minutes and my heart finally returned almost to normal, and I realized it had been quail.

About ten steps later another covey of quail flushed. That almost did me in. I don’t know how long I stood still breathing deeply, trying to recover my wits. I was afraid to take another step in case I found another covey!

I finally made it to the tree and climbed it and settled down. I don’t think I saw a deer that day. I may have been shaking so hard the tree was trembling all morning, scaring the deer away.

Sometimes the most memorable things about a deer hunt have nothing to do with deer.

Several people got on me about saying I didn’t hear any shooting on opening day of deer season. They pointed out it was bow season. They are right, I had forgotten bow hunters almost always use string silencers nowadays.

Ticks are terrible again this year. I get bit just going out in my back yard and picking tomatoes. If you are bow hunting or scouting for gun season you need to be very careful. Don’t go out without spraying with a good repellant.

Although the CDC says there are almost no cases of Lyme Disease in Georgia each year, a blood test showed I had it about seven or eight years aqo, and every time I mention it someone says they have been tested positive or know someone who has.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection ticks transfer from one host to another. It is supposed to be cured with a round of antibiotics but some doctors say there is kind of chronic Lyme Disease that is very hard to cure. I was sick for over a year, taking round after round of antibiotics, and ended up going to Mobile, Alabama to a doctor that specialized in it.

Growing up we almost never saw a tick, and I don’t think I ever got one on me. But the spread of deer spread ticks, too. Now they are all too common. About 20 years ago I took some ticks I had captured on sticky tape to an entomologists at the Experiment Station and got information on them.

When a female tick lays its eggs there may be several hundred laid in one spot. When those eggs hatch the tiny larvae crawl up a piece of grass or weed and wait on a host. It can be a mouse, squirrel, deer or you. At this stage the ticks are smaller than a pin head and hard to see.

When they bite you or another host they drop off almost immediately. Since you don’t get the itch from the bite for a day or so they are long gone by the time you know you have been bitten. After their blood meal they go into the ground and molt, coming back out bigger. If the host they bit the first time had Lyme Disese in its blood the tick can now infect you.

The small tick climbs back up on something and waits on another host. This time it may be attached for a few hours before dropping off, but are again usually long gone when you know you have been bitten. They are still so small you won’t feel them crawling on you and they are still very hard to see. Since they are more scattered now, depending on where they dropped off, you will have fewer bites. At the first stage you may get dozens at one time.

Again they go into the ground and molt, coming back out bigger. This time you may feel them crawling on you and they stay attached a day or so and is at what we often call seed tick stage. After they drop off the females will breed then get one more blood meal, this time filling up with blood to the big gray stage we often find on dogs. This takes several days.

Than the female, full of blood, drops off, digs into the ground, and lays her eggs, starting the cycle again.

If you find an attached tick get it off and watch the bite to make sure you don’t get the red, infected “bulls eye” typical of Lyme Disease. Even without that sign if you start feeling bad, like you are getting the flu, run down and slight fever, insist on being checked for Lyme Disease if it does not get worse fast like the flu does.

By the way, you don’t have to go hunting and it does not have to be in the fall to get it. I am almost positive I got infected at West Point Lake. After a bathroom break in the woods in April I found three ticks on me, and started feeling bad in late May or early June that year.

Although archery season opened yesterday I don’t think many deer were killed. I didn’t hear any shooting at all.

I haven’t tried to throw sticks at deer for many years. When I was about 13 years old I got a bow, supposedly suitable for hunting. It as a 40 pound straight limb bow and was legal, but I am not sure it was strong enough to kill a deer.

At 15 I got a 50 pound recurve and shot it a lot,

enough to be fairly sure I could kill a deer. My parents did not want me deer hunting with a gun at that age but they felt comfortable with bow hunting, so they let me go with an uncle that was an excellent hunter.

They were not worried about me knowing gun safety but were a little worried about others with high powered rifles in the woods. This was back at the very beginning of open deer seasons in the state. There were a lot of rumors about how dangerous it was to go deer hunting and I think it scared my mom a little. My dad had gone deer hunting one time and hated it, so that did not help.

Uncle Adron taught me a lot about looking for sign and about stand placement. Opening day when I was 16 I missed shots at four deer, using all the arrows I had with me. That was my first experience with buck fever! The next year I got a 30-30 for Christmas so I hunted with it and didn’t spend as much time in the woods with a bow.

In college I hit the only deer I ever stuck with an arrow. A doe came directly under my stand and I shot her between the front “shoulders” straight down. I was so excited I tried to follow too fast and found half my arrow and a big pool of blood, but no blood trail leading from it. That ruined archery hunting for me for several years.

After moving to Griffin I didn’t hunt much for a few years with bow and when I started shooting it again I found I had some arthritis in my right shoulder and could not hold the arrow back long enough to make a decent shot. I never tried a compound bow, I was still using my old recurve.

I got a crossbow and learned to shoot it. But that was before they were legal to use unless you got a special permit because a doctor said you physically could not use a regular bow. I did get the permit but never hunted with the crossbow.

Hunting deer with bow is a challenge and I admire people with the skill and patience to kill a big buck with one. But I will wait until October when I can use my 7 mm mag. I have enough trouble hitting a deer with it nowadays!

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I am excited and having fun trying to learn to hunt wild hogs hunting and trapping them. Although I have hunted for about sixty years and have been hog hunting one time with some guys with dogs in South Georgia, trying to figure it out on my own is very new.

For example, I now know hog and deer tracks are very similar. Although I grew up on a farm with hogs and saw their tracks many times, that was a very long time ago and there were no deer around to leave tracks to compare to the hog tracks.

Learning about hog habits, food sources, bedding preferences and movements has been interesting. They definitely behave in different ways. And trying to figure out how to trap them leads to all kinds of possible traps and how and where to build them.

I am getting more exercise than in many years from walking creek bottoms and hillsides looking for signs. My goal is to get some wild hogs for meat but the process has been fun so far!

–

Got wild hogs? I have beenn wild hog hunting one time, on a trip to South Georgia, and the two we killed were great when I took the meat home and cooked it. Although I have tried to find a place to hunt them around Griffin, so far I have not had any luck. My place on Buck Creek does not have any on it, which is good and bad.

Frank Harris called me last week and said he got a report of some wild hogs spotted not too far outside Griffin on North 2nd Street. There is a lot of wild land out past the city and hogs adapt to just about any kind of habitat. They will eat anything and reproduce like crazy.

Farmers hate them. A group of wild hogs can root up acres of planted seed like corn or soybeans in one night, ruining the chance of getting a crop. They eat and ruin many crops after they start growing, too.

The problem is so bad the state DNR has started a program where land owners with a hog problem can sign up and people wanting to hunt the hogs can be matched with them. Hunters get to hunt and get meat and the land owner gets the numbers of hogs reduced. Sounds like a win-win situation!

We hunted with dogs in South Georgia, making it much easier to find them. They don’t move around much during the day so night hunting is the best way to get them without dogs, especially where they have been hunted and have become wary.

Get yourself some pork and do a farmer a favor – shoot a wild hog!

Can I make a rabbit box big enough for a wild hog? I grew up making boxes that I set out for rabbits and possums and was fairly successful with them. For rabbits no bait was really needed. But I put old apples from the local school cafeteria, where my dad was principal, in some, and possums loved them.

I could get 75 cents to a whole dollar for a live possum back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when I was catching them. Rabbits usually bought 50 cents. All was good money, I could buy a whole box of 50 rounds of .22 long rifle bullets for one sale of either!

And even at 12 years old, I could buy .22 bullets.

It was weird, in 1968, just before I turned 18, I suddenly could not buy .22 bullets I had been buying for years because I was not old enough! A new federal law that had nothing to do with hunting, kids or common sense banned selling .22 bullets to anyone younger than 21 since they could be used in a handgun. That was the first time I realized how stupid gun control laws were.

I always kept my rabbits and possums alive by shaking them out of the box into a croaker sack, tying it up and taking it to town to sell. Back then a lot of folks did not have refrigerators so they bought fresh meat every day and cooked it that night.

I could stand in the parking lot of one of the six local stores that sold groceries – and everything else you could ever need, from bullets and hooks to boots and overhauls (overalls now). Anyone seeing a kid with a croaker sack in the parking lot knew what they had!

Rabbits were eaten that nigh but possums had to be cleaned out. They were put in a small pen and fed food scraps until they were deemed clean of the possibly rotten food they had eaten in the wild. Then they were baked with sweet potatoes!

I have been told there are hogs running Buck Creek where I have some land and have a possible place to hunt out there. I have done some research and found out the only problem is that hogs are nocturnal and you need to hunt them at night unless you have hog dogs. So I am thinking about trying to build a trap for them.

Wild hogs are very smart and I have been told their sense of smell is much better than a deer’s, so you have to be very careful when hunting or trying to trap them. And if you set out a trap and catch one you have to move it. The rest of the passel of hogs will avoid it.

I was happy to hear about a processor that will take hogs locally since I want the meat but really don’t want to have to butcher one if I get lucky.

If you like deer hunting, the bad news is, “deer season is over.” If you like small game hunting, the good news is, “deer season is over.” For another month those of us that like to hunt squirrels, rabbits, quail and other game have the woods and fields to ourselves.

There is little danger from a deer hunter shooting someone in the woods hunting squirrels, but you still worry a little, even if you are wearing fluorescent orange. Even when on my own land I wear an orange vest when walking in the woods during deer season. Nobody else is supposed to be out there, and I try to be safe, but still feel a little uneasy.

During February there is little worry anyone will be in the woods deer hunting and you can enjoy trying to outwit a tree rat as it goes around a tree trunk to hide from you. With the leaves off the trees you can see them moving a long way off and stalk up to them. But the leaves off the trees also means they can see you coming so you have to be even stealthier.

Hunting rabbits without dogs is difficult but can be done. It is easier to find where they are feeding now that most plants are dead and kicking a brush pile near a green field might give you a shot. Quail hunting it just about useless without a dog, though.

Unfortunately, coyotes, fire ants and changing land use means rabbits and quail are much more rare than when I was growing up. So take up coyote hunting. There is no season on them and this time of year is tough on them, too, so they are more likely to come to a wounded rabbit call.

I have had the chance to shoot a coyote from my deer stand a few times but it is hard for me to pull the trigger, they just look too much like my pet dogs.
But if you concentrate on the damage they do to native wildlife, and the fact they are not native and should not live around here, it is easier.

Growing up I hunted squirrels as fanatically as I bass fish now. I often went in the mornings before school and almost every afternoon after school. And every Saturday in season I was in the woods at daylight and stayed till dark. Back then you could not hunt on Sunday so that was my only day off.

Squirrel hunting is a great way to train a kid on safe gun handling in the woods and how to stay quiet and learn the ways of nature. It is also a good way to teach them to use what they shoot since there are many ways to cook tree rats. If you have a kid that wants to hunt, take them squirrel hunting. They will be a better deer hunter in the future if you do.