This past Sunday 60 Minutes did a story about how many extinct or nearly extinct exotic game animals are thriving on game ranches in Texas. Why are they thriving? Because they are valuable to hunters who want the opportunity to hunt them and will pay ranchers for that opportunity. Of course the anti wacko’s are working to end this practice which would be the demise of many of these animals. A rancher needs to be able to make a living and raising critters that no longer have a monetary value to him isn’t going to happen for long. As long as they can sell some hunts these herds will flourish and thrive take that away and they will die off. The wacko’s show how crazy and logical they are when they argue against allowing these game ranches to continue.

The case for hunting and the standard of fair chase

Restoring these animals to their native lands….hunting and hunters help fund these efforts.

The full 60 Min Story (note this is a lengthy clip and on some pc’s may take a while to load)

Animals die everyday whether of old age, disease, hunting by humans, hunting by another animal, and countless other ways. Life is sustained only through the death of another living thing be it a pod of peas being eating in a stir fry at an unscaled restaurant or a wolf munching on a moose calf in the Alaskan tundra. The Circle of Life. The wackos can oppose this all they want but they can’t stop it.

The annual winners of the Wildlife In NC Photo Competition have been announced and once again there are some really great photos. As one who loves photography, especially nature photography, I always look forward to seeing the winning photos. They inspire me and give me some great ideas on how to get some stunning shots my self when I’m out there with my camera.

The Grey opened this weekend with a better then expected opening;

topped the weekend box office with $20 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, continuing the actor’s success as an action star in the winter months.

The Alaskan survivalist thriller opened above expectations with a performance on par with previous Neeson thrillers “Taken” and “Unknown.” Those films, both January-February releases, opened with $24.7 million and $21.9 million, respectively.

But the R-rated “The Grey,” which has received good reviews, drove home the strong appeal of Neeson, action star.

Houston Chronicle

Animal Rights Wackos are up and arms about this movie believing it will turn the average person’s view against the wolf. While the movie is made with computer generated wolves it seems the film crew and cast dined on wolf provided by a trapper to experience what that was like. Of course these Animal Right Wackos are up in arms about that but I’m sure it matters not to them if the crew dinned on wolf or fried chicken.

Director Joe Carnage—oh, excuse me … Carnahan—ordered wolf carcasses flown in for the cast to eat so that the actors would “have a sense of the movie we were making.” He bought the meat from a trapper, meaning that the wolves likely suffered horribly in traps before being killed.

Not surprisingly, Liam Neeson, no friend to animals, was game for eating wildlife.
The Big, Bad Wolf

A film that has the potential to scare more people than “Little Red Riding Hood,” The Grey portrays these intelligent, family-oriented animals the same way in which Jaws portrays sharks. The writers paint a pack of wolves living in the Alaskan wilderness as bloodthirsty monsters, intent on killing every survivor of a plane crash by tearing each person limb from limb. Yet wolves aren’t aggressive animals, and as Maggie Howell, the managing director of America’s Wolf Conservation Center, says, “Wolves don’t hunt humans—they actually shy away from them.”

Don’t just shy away—run away from The Grey.

PETA Files
While I don’t believe I’d eat wolf I have no problem if others want to.
These critters are not cuddly and friendly as some would present but are they frightful as they have been presented in some movies? Probably not but they are a dangerous animal that have and will kill humans. I plan to go see this movie much like I did when I saw Jaws when it came out. I’ll admit that summer swimming was a bit unnerving thinking a Great White might get me …..I wonder if I’ll be looking over my shoulder after seeing this movie every time I enter the woods? Probably not cause I’m usually armed.

Small game season is in full swing here in North Carolina and I jumped at the chance to join some friends as they chased bunnies yesterday near the Cape Fear River. While for many the lack of winter weather around here is a blessing for hunters it has been a curse. Yesterday was the last day of duck season and a pretty dismal season with the unseasonable warm winter we have been having. So I past on the duck hunting and headed out with some rabbit hunters and soon found out the warm weather was having a negative effect on them as well.

The hunting land was some overgrown cut overs that had some of the nicest crop of briars, blackberry bushes and holly I’ve ever seen. My face and arms today show the scars of me trying to push through that stuff to keep up with the dogs. The beagles ran some rabbits but if you weren’t right up on them it was so thick you’d hear the rabbit but never see him. We had a few nice chases and bagged one lone bunny before we called it quits around lunch time. The temperatures by then were close to 60′ and the dogs and us hunters were feeling the terrain and the warm weather.

I got back to the truck and checked my pedometer and saw that I’d covered a little over 6 miles that morning the dogs easily did 3 to 4 times that I’m sure. As I said before hunting success is not only measured in what you bag but the experience you shared.

I’d never hunted with these guys before but I really had a blast. They are a pretty dedicated group of rabbit hunters and hopefully before the season goes out maybe I’ll get out with them again. It would be nice if the weather would turn more seasonable and help things out.

The song of the beagle is a special one to hear. Hopefully before the season goes out I’ll get the chance to experience it again maybe this time that rascally rabbit will pass close enough to me for a shot.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Game Page

I don’t go to the movies much but I’ll admit “The Grey” has intrigued me enough that I might have to head to the theater and check it out. A group of guys stuck in Alaska after a plane crash in the dead of winter and hunted by a pack of wolves sounds pretty good. Sounds like it has some gruesome scenes and a rated R rating maybe not a date night choice.

I see that the Black Bear Blog has a story up about the animal rights wackos wanting folks to boycott this movie because of the way wolves are portrayed….. remember they are really cuddly critters.

Getting skunked on a hunt is never fun and when 3 guys go on a duck hunt and only get one duck it is pretty easy to brand that as a “Lousy Hunt” but in this case nothing could be further from the truth.
Having a young person along and seeing him get his first Mallard Drake made the whole thing worth it for me. We were sitting on a beaver swamp in Harnett County long before shooting light so we could hopefully not scare to many of the birds off. I’ve hunted with Carson and his Dad a number of times this morning Carson and I were in the easier to reach spot while his Dad (who was wearing waders) worked his way around to the other side of the swamp.
There was some open water in front of us and between the moon and the stars once our eyes adjusted we could see the beavers and the wood ducks swimming back and forth only a few feet from us. This was looking to be a great day’s hunt but like wood ducks will do they flew off before legal shooting light leaving us holding the bag so to speak.
Once daylight hit we had some wood ducks fly over us but our poor shooting didn’t help us bag any of them. Shortly after that the mallards started flying many out of our reach but finally some flew our way. Carson threw his gun to the shoulder and dropped one of them in the woods right behind us. He was excited especially when he discovered it was a Drake.
I swear there is no such thing as a “ lousy hunt” when you have young people along they bring you back to your early days of hunting and how exciting every little aspect was an adventure. Take a young person hunting it will a whole new perspective to your hunts and it will do away with the doldrums of a slow hunt.
As we sat in a small dinner eating breakfast and hearing Carson relive the morning hunt with his Dad I thought to myself what a lousy hunt this wasn’t .

Take a Kid Hunting!!!

Tundra Swans winter in the eastern part of North Carolina and one of the few places in the country where you can hunt them. One of the largest waterfowl you’ll ever see and a very beautiful bird. Hunting is an important management tool in managing these birds and by having a limited hunt for them allows a small number of them to be taken each year. To be able to hunt them you have to enter a lottery and draw a tag and unfortunately I wasn’t drawn this year.
NCWRC Tundra Swan Page
I did get the opportunity to take my camera and lay out in a muddy field ditch and photograph a hunt this year.

Conman’s Guide Service is who I recommend to go with if you draw a tag and looking for a place to hunt.

This past weekend my wife’s Uncle Edward lost his battle with cancer but his faith will win the war over death and we’ll see him again. Edward Adams was a country minister dedicating his life to service in small churches all across the southeast. When I joined this family a number of years ago Uncle Edward was one of the interesting people I got to know. At the family gatherings he always seemed to be the center of attention at least until he said grace and we could get to the food. He had a love for the outdoors and he and I often swapped stories about hunting and fishing. I never got to actually hunt or fish with him but the stories we shared were special.
The story that has been sticking out in my mind this week was one he told me at Christmas a while back about how he’d gotten a deer that year. It seems he was driving home after visiting some sick folks at one of the local hospitals when he spotted a buck feeding in a small field behind a house. He stopped at the house and went up to the door and knocked on it. A woman answered the door and he introduced himself and then asked her if she minded him hunting in the field behind her house. I guess cause he was a minister she told him that be fine. That in and of itself is pretty funny but what he did next to me was hilarious but it’s within his character to do. He asked the woman if he could borrow her bathroom to change into his hunting clothes. After changing he went out there and snuck up on that buck and killed it.
That story brings a smile to my face every time I think about it and seeing a deer standing in a field near a farmhouse brings it to mind often.
Uncle Edward loved the outdoors ; chasing rabbits, surf fishing at Carolina beach, hunting turkeys in South Carolina. I’m going to miss him and I’ll miss hearing his tails of adventure in God’s great outdoors. His love for the Creator who made this world and his desire to teach others about God’s Love is even more important. I hope and pray that you have Peace With God like Uncle Edward did and I do.

My doctor told me I was out of shape but I told him last I heard round was a shape. Funny…. somewhat but like many folks I’ve battled with weight and the illnesses & problems that comes with being over weight for a while now.
My doctor’s visit in June my lab work was bad…. A1C was 9.8 (should be bellow 7.0) and the doctor wanted to put me on shots to control my diabetes. I didn’t want to do that so it was a wake up call for me to really get on track.
I started doing some research on my own trying to figure out what the best approach would be. I’ve done Weight Watchers in the past with some success but its the stick to it part that always seems to sink me.

Well I found an interesting book in my research and decided to get it and give it a try. “The 30- Day Diabetes Cure” and I started the program in early September. Pretty easy thing to follow and it taught me some new ways to think and approach what I eat. About 5 weeks into the program I had my labs redone and my A1C had dropped to 7.2 I was 350 lbs when I started and I dropped some weight too. I lost close to 30lbs when I kind of let the holidays side track me a bit.
I’m back on track with the plan trying to eat right and get some exercise. I’m shooting to drop below the 300 lb mark by the opening of turkey season here, about 12 weeks away. That’s about 2 lbs a week ( I’m currently @ 323)

As time goes on I’ll share my journey and the things I’m doing to help reach my ultimate goal of 250. I’ve run into a number of other hunters and outdoor types that share the same battle whether it is 10lbs or a 100 lbs you want to lose we can all help each other.

The alarm went off at 430 am Saturday for me to get moving to head out on a much anticipated hunt. This was going to be a rather unique hunt for a number of reasons the biggest being I was going to get to go on squirrel hunt with dogs. My GPS told me I had a 77 mile drive ahead of me to meet up with my fellow squirrel hunters. The hunters I was meeting on this trip are all members of NC Hunt & Fish a message forum we all participate on. Technology has allowed all of us to connect with each other and throughout the year we have hunts, fishing trips, and get togethers across the state.

We all met up at BiscuitVille to get some breakfast before we headed out to Uwharrie National Forest.

The squirrel dogs (Curs) were anxious to get hunting so after a brief hike into the forest they were turned lose to find some squirrels. Watching the dogs work was really fascinating as they ran around looking for the scent of a squirrel once they found it they would tree it. Our job as hunters was to get to the dogs quickly so we could find the squirrels before they climbed into a den or a hole or jumped from tree to tree to give the dogs the slip.

The first squirrel was treed and it took us a few minutes to find it pressed against the trunk of a tree near the top. My second shot from my 22 found the mark and the squirrel dropped from the treetop. I don’t know who was more excited me or the Curs.

Saturday was unseasonable warm with the temperatures climbing into the 70′s which seemed to me to be less than ideal conditions to be hunting in for a number of reasons. One the squirrel movement seemed to be a bit subdued and the conditions seemed less than ideal for the dogs to scent the squirrels out. Also the warm weather increased the traffic in the forest with lots of hikers but who could blame them on a day better suited for the end of April rather than January.

We hunted the morning and while we didn’t bag a lot of squirrels the hunt was a blast as we got to meet and reunite with friends we talk to more often than not in cyberspace.

I can’t tell ya how fun a hunt this was and I hope to be back out chasing squirrels with dogs soon. If you’ve never tried it find someone with squirrel dogs and give it a try.