Dank, dark, damp, skanky beautiful October glory to ya all my deeranddeerhunting.com friends. Are you ever driven to just lay down in the wet leaves this time of year and kick around doing horizontal jumping jacks on the ground making angels in the delicious fall earth? The aroma and essence of the fall environment is so tantalizing and alluring that it just might help us get that much more “down to earth” during this magical, natural predator celebration time of year, which is a rather appropriate description of the hardcore deerhunting lifestyle.
By Ted Nugent
Beyond the MotorCity Madman silliness of such a goofy idea of doing breast strokes in wet leaves, there is actually a very pragmatic function to be accomplished by doing so, for like the earliest of our ancestral hunting clans, pre-hunt ice water stream baths and aggressive wallows in the wet leaves actually served a very effective purpose in overcoming human scents and replacing them with non-alarming earthly tones to better penetrate the mystical olfactory radar of our prey.
God knows we need all the help we can get!
It’s just one of the many unlimited tactical maneuvers in our ever growing predator arsenal in our never ending addiction to defeat the miraculously designed senses of critters that feed our belly, mind, heart, spirit and soul and that actually defines our quality of life in so many ways.
Am I rambling on here? I plead guilty to October deerhunting intoxication, virtually hammered by all the gurgling stimuli of this very special time of year. And I apologize not!
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I hunt everyday and am having the time of my life with ducks, squirrels, deer, varmints and all the legal creatures that call my name. I hunt real hard and actrually get lucky on occasion, but my dangerous wife, Queen of the Forest, Shemane, doesn’t really get out and hunt much. She is very busy writing screenplays and scripts, writing treatments for film ideas, and rather consumed with her wild Zumba dance/exercise/fitness commitments and teaches and trains constantly, so her pretty pink Mathews Jewel does not get much use very often in the field.
However, when the weather is mild and my prodding cleverly applied, she shows an eagerness to get out there in the beautiful fall Michigan woods.
And so it was on a calm, overcast October 13, with lovely daughter Sasha and grandson Caeden in tow, we headed for a dry, cozy Shadow Hunter elevated blind for an afternoon vigil for some special family bowhunting fun.
Dressed head to toe in his Mossy Oak camo, young 5-year-old Caeden couldn’t wait to go deerhunting, and Sasha was as gungho as me and Shemane. To say the positive energy was high would be quite the understatement.
Watching birds and squirrels kept our attention for a while, but it was the arrival of the first doe and fawn that kicked the afternoon into high gear. Within an hour, we had two big does with four button bucks before us.
As they picked at the abundant acorns and shellcorn carpeting the forest floor, all heads jerked erect and Sasha whispered, “BUCK!”
As is always the case, the mature buck arrived like a ghost and moved constantly, never providing the proper angle for Shemane for a long time.
But my girl knows her stuff, and when the buck turned left to nose a big doe, Shemane effortlessly drew back her lightweight, graceful 35-pound Jewel and sent a pink zebra striped 400-grain GoldTip arrow with a razorsharp Muzzy two-blade square into the vitals of the huge stag.
I swung our SpiritWild vidcam on the deathrun as the blind erupted with much joy and celebration at such a phenomenal deer encounter and shot.
The 35-pound Mathews bow propelled Shemane’s arrow clean through the 200+ pound 8-pointer, and the bloodtrail was as fine of a family affair as any deerhunter could hope for.
Watch as Ted plays one of his coolest songs, Fred Bear, around the campfire!
The old homestead forest was afire with golds, yellows, reds, orange and the eye candy vibrant colors that is the heartland autumn landscape, and we were smack dab in the belly of the beast, ultra-alive with tangible spirit and happiness.
Shemane glowed as she relived the incredible series of events on vidcam for our 24-year running award-winning Spirit of the Wild TV show on Outdoor Channel. It was magical and powerful, and my stunning wife never looked so happy and beautiful.
We all chipped in for a short drag to a trail where the Polaris could carry the load, and my big Ford venison-hauling V10 was alive with laughter and family love.
The best deerhunting is still ahead of us all across America. Get out there every chance you can, because the best time to hunt is when you can!
Hunt hard, hunt every chance you can, hunt smart, take it slow and easy, improvise, adapt and overcome, aim small miss small, and don’t give up on pushing your best hunting buddy to join you afield. Keep pushing and they will thank you once they get out there, I promise.
See you at facebook.com/tednugent for the never ending celebration of the ultimate perfect lifestyle – deeranddeerhunting! Case closed. Backstraps forever!
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Awesome stuff, getting the family involved! Just found this blog over here – didn’t know you could write this well too! Will be back more often. Thanks for a great read!