Happy August 28, 2014, and greetings once again my deeranddeerhunting.com venison BloodBrothers! Stoke the SpiritFire, pull up a stump, crack a cold one and let’s get it on, shall we?
By Ted Nugent
CONGRATSALUTE to all you early bird backstrappers out there already enduring the brain frying early season heat in pursuit of his majesty, the mighty deer of North America. I bet you, like me, that every deerhunter in the world wishes we could be out there doing we so love to do in August.
Already now I’m getting glowing reports from my deerhunting BloodBrothers that magnifico strappers are hitting the ground in Nevada, Arizona, South Carolina, Florida, California, Colorado and beyond.
Way to go!
Over the last 50 years or so I’ve done my fair share of early season deerhunting and it is always a matter of predatoring-upping and enduring some serious scorching summertime heat. Hell, even during the regular season here in Texas and most southern states, serious heat is a genuine consideration right up into the winter months.
I’ll never forget those exhilarating bowhunts on the western slopes of Colorado back in the early 1970s with Jerry Bryrum and Michigan bowhunting legend Ron Chamberlain humpin those steep mountains of the Umcompahgre National Forest in 90+ degree heat. Those early season late summer deercamps in God’s country loaded my memory bank with glowing visions and imagery that are as vivid and joyous today as they were on those golden aspen mountainsides more than 40 years ago.
With my Bear take-down recurve in hand and mule deer tag in my pocket, I would stillhunt those rugged, magic grounds just like I did the farmlands and forests of my homestate of Michigan. I had an eight-arrow Bear bowquiver full of fiberglass MicroFlight 10s, with big, high profile, hard helical natural turkey feathers, tipped with a two blade razor sharp Bear Razorhead without the bleeder blade.
I can still see that first Rocky Mountain High mystical flight of my arrow as it sailed high, up, up and away through the golden quackies and landed smack dab in the pumpstation of a beautiful mule deer doe.
On another memorable hunt, we were putting on what appeared to resemble a deer drive over a steep mountaintop, when a buck of a lifetime came pogo-sticking through a draw in front of me. Like a man on a mission, my old recurve smoothly swung up and ahead of the leaping trophy buck and my arrow sailed right through the ribs as if stabbed by the hand of God.
Talking about spontaneous instinctive shooting, I could barely believe my eyes as the running deer piled up below me.
He was a stunning 28-inch wide 5×5 that still adorns my Michigan bunkhouse wall.
On that same wall right next to that 1st ever antlered deer kill of mine is his twin brother that I bowkilled not far from the 1st one some 20 years later.
I remember every stimulating detail of all those hunts, including the sweat-soaked camo garb I was wearing in that searing heat.
Though I crave cold weather hunting as my favorite condition of all, I sure as hell will not stay home just because the thermometer is topping out. There will be many more hot, sweaty days afield in my relentless pursuit of the beast, and I would have it no other way.
I just walked in the house here at our Texas SpiritWild Ranch home after another long, hot, sweaty afternoon of deerhunting, trying desperately to outwit and ambush a fallow, sika or axis deer.
We got skunked again for the umpteenth night in a row, but I can guarantee you right here right now that I will be back out there in the morning and again tomorrow afternoon, every morning, and every afternoon for the next six months.
I Am A Deerhunter
I am a deerhunter. It is what I am and what I do. And I thank God everyday. I feel genuinely sorry for anybody and everybody who is not a deerhunter, for the unlimited joys and stimuli that every hunt provides is off the charts wonderful and deeply gratifying in very special ways, and I just don’t believe these sensations are available in any other activity that I am aware of.
Predator-up my friends. The hunter’s moon is rising and the Great Spirit calls our name.
My Michigan BloodBrothers performed their ultimate WE THE PEOPLE duties today as we educated, convinced and pushed hard to pass the Citizen’s Initiative Law to keep wolf management in the hands of scientifically educated professionals so we can keep the wolf numbers under control.
Thanks to dedicated, responsible participants in this sacred experiment in self-government, the mighty wolf will now be in the asset column instead of the liability column.
When we the people unite for a good cause, we surely do overcome.
Happy almost fall everybody. Keep the spirit wild, and good hunting to everyone.
See you on Facebook and at tednugent.com for the never ending saga of taking back America, one neighborhood, one city, one community, one state at a time. Godspeed the Spirit BloodBrothers.
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