-Paul Nicolucci
I'm sure many of our readers have been waiting for something like this. I know coming from NY I was use to hunting Coyotes at night but was not allowed to do the same in North Carolina. However, that is about to change this year. North Carolina has decided to allow hunting of Feral Swine and Coyotes at night on private land only. This is a step in the right direction and gives many of us additional opportunities to hunt these animals. The news story can be found here.
-Paul Nicolucci
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Below are our hunting season reviews. First up is Paul's end of season recap followed by Cory's storytelling of the late season, enjoy!
Prepared for battle! I set off October 11th for Raleigh to hunt the NC Eastern Zone with my muzzleloader. I got a taste of it when I hunted the morning of the 9th in the Western Zone up at South Mountains Gamelands in Rutherford County and was ready to get to a more familiar place with a better deer population. I had made up my mind the night before that I would hunt where I shot a 9 point on Butner-Falls of Nuese Gamelands back in 2009 so when I saw a small buck laying in the ditch not far from the parking area I knew they had been moving and felt good about my chances. View of the oak plateau I hunted on Friday As Paul wrote the other week, deer season is now open in NC, with archery opening mid-September and the Eastern muzzleloader season opening this past Saturday and the Western one opening today. With it being the 1st of October, most other states have opened at least one of their seasons as well so I hope everyone is being safe while pursuing those whitetail that we love so much (or mulies, blacktails, pronghorn, elk, etc.). I know it's a little - ok, wayyyyyy - late getting this hunting recap up but hurried housework before I left for and work up here in Southwestern Indiana has kept me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. None-the-less, I wanted to let you guys know how my first hunts of the 2012 season went. I'm a little late getting these out to your guys this week, but better late than never I always say, whether its fishing, hunting or hitting the slopes in search of powder to ski in. First up is a little taste of kayaking with a pretty cool video I found on Go Pro's site. I love these little cameras if it's not obvious as I keep posting video's made using them, but what you can do with them is nothing short of amazing considering how small they are. After that I'm setting the stage to get that hunting fire stoked in you, starting with the season 2 trailer for Hallowed Ground Outdoors and last but not least a video showcasing what the website GetOuttaBounds is all about (I will definitely be bookmarking it and going there every time I hop on the internet, I suggest you do the same!). Enjoy all three of them after the break!
-C.B. I'm a little late getting to this due to house closing items and getting started on a new project at work (thankfully I am finally back home in NC!), but here it is none the less, in all it's changing grammar tense glory. Let me set the stage for you: April 14th, 2012. 3:59 a.m. brings you to my pitch black apartment and a crowded bed consisting of myself, my wife and our 92-lb doberman mix. The silence is broken up at 4:00 a.m. by the alarm I had set on my phone, thus beginning another year of what I consider the most frustrating season there is for me as a hunter: Turkey Season. Luckily this year I've got an Ace-in-the-Hole by the name of Derek, my buddy Seth's neighbor who loves the outdoors as much as we both do, and is a much better turkey hunter than I could even claim to be. So with that in mind, I actually looked forward to that alarm going off and hopefully seeing my dry streak end when it comes to getting my hands around the neck of ol' Tom Turkey. I fought through the morning fog that is waking up, getting all my stuff thrown into the Jeep and making the 20-minute drive over to Seth and Derek's neighborhood without any issues. After a quick breakfast (gotta love New Yorkers like Derek and Paul who love a hot breakfast before hitting the field!), we loaded up Derek's truck and were off to public land in the South Mountains along the Cleveland, Rutherford and Burke county lines. The hour and half long drive was a race against the rising sun and breaking daylight, but we were fortunate to race up the mountain, guns and my video camera in tow, just as the Spring woods were waking up. We settled in along a road bed running along the spine of a ridge dropping off the side of the mountain. Gobblers were sounding off below us left and right as night turned to morning, starting our waiting game along that road bed. While all the action seemed to be below us, around 7:30 (or was it 8?) we heard something walking just below our ambush spot in the creek drainage on the opposite side of the road. We waited, debating whether our ears were playing tricks on us or we actually had some kind of animal moving our way. Suddenly I hear Derek yell in a whisper, "Turkey!" and get ready to make a move to a shooting position. After a few seconds, I see a head pop out from behind a bush, then a neck and finally a whole Butterball turkey body. The hen scratched the leaves, feeding her way along the drainage without a clue that two camo clad hunters were waiting to see if she had a fired up gobbler behind her. It turns out she didn't and as we lost sight, and sound, of her, we decided to stick it out on this particular roadbed another 30 minutes or so, hoping a lonely tom would come in looking for our live decoy. When it became apparent we would have to go find Mr. Lonely ourselves, the all familiar sound of crunching leaves made an appearance again, this time coming from the direction of where the hen had went. Once again, Derek yelled while whispering that it was a turkey and of course that was followed by me seeing a head, then a neck and finally what turned out to be the same Butterball turkey body. We watched and videoed the hen scratching and feeding, hoping this would be the time that a gobbler would silently come in strutting to his demise but it just wasn't in the cards. Once she was gone from sight, we gained the 600-vertical feet as fast as we could to the saddle above where the hen had went, trying to either cut-off her and any turkey that may be with her if they decided to go up the mountain or try to coax an old Tom from off the top of the mountain. We thought it had worked when we heard a few clucks and purrs coming from the thick undergrowth below us, but again our efforts didn't pay off. The rest of the day was spent listening to the wind howl up top while working our way along the side of the mountain, just below the top. Another setup didn't produce even a peep so back down we went, setting up one more time along one of the many small creeks in the area before having to call it a day. Even if some would consider that kind of day a bust, the fact that we got some good video of a turkey being a turkey, great audio of gobbling off in the distance and important "recon" information about the turkeys in that area (that will make more sense whenever I get around to typing up this past weekend's recap) made it hardly that. We may have been unsuccessful in filling our tags or getting to lay eyes on strutting gobbler, but it was a worthwhile time being able to get out in the woods with a new hunting partner as well as finally being able to share a turkey hunting adventure with someone instead of going after them solo. Until next time, may your shot always be true. -C.B. The title says it all so I'll let these couple pics and short video tell the story. FYI, these two gobblers were actually flogging my Jeep's tire and followed me 150 yards down a dirt road. Why can't they come running like this when I am actually hunting?!?! -C.B. This is going to be a (hopefully) quick hitting post that all hunters can empathize with and it deals with the news media. I just got done sending out an email to a local news anchor concerning a story she posted today regarding coyote hunting in North Carolina. Now I want you all to check out that link and give it a read, especially you North Carolinians, and tell me what you see wrong with it. If the title isn't obvious that no research was done (or was disregarded to provide a more "controversial" headline) then I don't know what is. The fact is that coyote hunting is already allowed in North Carolina. It's as plain as black and white in the regulations digest, unless reading comprehension is not your strong point. The other big issue with this news story is that either a state wildlife employee was misquoted or they have no clue of the regulations in our state, both of which are cause for dismissal in my opinion for either the news anchor if the reason is the former and/or the wildlife employee if the latter. Now-a-days bloggers are bemoaned by the mainstream media for not being held accountable for the news they break or the information they provide, which is a direct slap in the face to me when I see simple fact checking not done on a regional news story. I hope the anchor takes my email to heart as she reads the corrections to the mistakes in her story I pointed out and makes the necessary revisions. I commend her for bringing our growing predator issue to light but she needs to be more clear in what she is saying; I hope her mistakes don't come from being biased and not getting the whole truth to the non-hunting public on purpose. As hunters we fight an uphill battle in the court of public opinion and when the facts are not accurately reported it makes that battle even harder.
-C.B. As promised we are going to continue our do-it-yourself series on deer processing! In this edition of the series I'd like to take you through the steps starting from the time you have your deer down to the time it lands on your table on a dinner plate. There are many things you need to take into consideration at each step along the way and all are important. Hopefully by the time you are done reading this you'll have a pretty good idea on what it will take to process your first deer!
Decided to put together a short slideshow recapping the 2011 hunting season here in NC. It's not much (I really need to carry the camera more often!) but hopefully this gives you a little look into my passion. Oh, and I have to apologize for the lack of harvest photos with me in them, turns out this year I was a vegetarian, aka the Indian work for "bad hunter". -C.B. |
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