I have a funny feeling that if I just hunted all by myself, never bothered to share stories or ideas, didn’t spend time with other hunters in camp, did not write these deeranddeerhunting.com NugeBlogs or celebrate the joys with tens of millions of people on Spirit of the Wild TV, facebook and beyond, that I confident I would still have the deerhunting time of my life.
By Ted Nugent
The hunting endeavor is indeed a very personal exercise in individual stealth and choice making, and what we do in the deerwoods is about as private and subjective a thing as there is.
That being said, I am absolutely certain that those gratifying sensations we live and crave as hunters are magnified to immeasurably exciting levels the more we share, communicate and strive to include as many people as we possibly can.
Especially in this crazed culture war where there are so many lunatic fringe hunter haters out there, we all have a duty to counter their lies and halt their crusade to ban the perfection of hands-on conservation by communicating the good in defiance of their bad and ugly lies. Encouraging new hunters to join us drives the anti’s crazy, and who doesn’t enjoy that?
In fact, I personally get a much greater thrill from shutting down an animal rights freak than I do bagging a big old buck. I consider it a bonus when good overrides evil. And it’s big fun too.
Coming from a guy who got to share many a deercamp with his majesty Fred Bear, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the fun and efficiency factors of my deerhunting prowess are directly connected to the wisdom I have gleaned from the many masters around campfires and from overall communication with them.
It took me many, many years to go from longbows and recurves to compound bows. It took me many more years to go from bare bow to sights and a mechanical release. I learned about scents, calls, rattling and decoys from others. I learned critical ballistic information from master riflemen and legendary pioneer handgun hunters like Elmer Keith, Larry Kelly, JD Jones and others.
I still learn something new and interesting every day that helps me be a better hunter. Watching and paying attention to some really killer hunters on various TV shows can teach us a lot.
Magazines like Deer & Deer Hunting are wall to wall wisdom and education that we all can learn from.
Through my own writings in my books, articles, blogs, on our TV show, via various media interviews, the constant orgy in the social media frenzy, constant texting and phone calls with family and friends, I am able to share this important information to help others. Based on those communications, many people’s hunting successes and enjoyment is exponentially enhanced in many and critical ways.
Not all hunters are good communicators, and more interesting than that are those hunters who make it a point to not share information to help fellow hunters.
Not all hunters seek to improve their own or other’s hunting experience, but those of us that do care should turn up the heat and do all we can to assist our fellow hunters in every way we can.
Sharing deercamps and campfires with hundreds of hunters each year through our Sunrize Safaris guiding and outfitting service, we witness every imaginable level of hunter out there from brand new rookies to dyed in the wool old Natty Bumpos like me. And I do mean old!
It’s sad to say how many hunters come to camp with faulty equipment and lack of basic hunting understanding. Too many bowhunters have their bows set at ridiculously heavy draw weights, too long draw lengths, loose sights, rattling rests and badly tuned bows and arrows.
Some hunters come with loose scopes, the wrong scopes, the wrong calibers, the wrong ammo and a dangerous lack of firearms training or adequate trigger time.
As we wind down this wonderful deerseason 2015/16, let us all dedicate ourselves to increase our communication, both in the direction of offering advice that we believe will help others and our asking questions seeking advice in order to upgrade our knowledge to become better hunters.
Watch your buddies shoot. Examine their gear. Make friendly recommendations and ask questions. Encourage them to read the plethora of technical guidance out there from respected masters of the craft. Try new ideas and techniques. Change it up. Seek and assist upgrade.
Life is a never ending series of information upgrades, and quality of life increases with more knowledge. Certainly the same holds true for our incredible hunting lifestyle and I for one am still turning up the heat so my 2016/17 deerseason will be even better than this years. And that’s going to take something approaching a miracle. And I’m game! Big game!
Ted Nugent is an award-winning musician and writer, with numerous best-seller books including “Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto,” “God, Guns and Rock ‘n Roll,” and “Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish” with his wife, Shemane, among other books. Be sure to check out his website for more news on his latest music, thoughts and upcoming shows, and also at World News Daily, Newsmax and Daily Caller for more insights.
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Maximize Your Deer Season Planning With the 2016 Whitetails Wall Calendar!
From Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, the 2016 Whitetails Wall Calendar features the work of deer researchers Wayne Laroche and Charlie Alsheimer, who reveal the 2016 whitetail rut prediction, based on years of lunar cycle research. Utilize this deer moon phase calendar to find out which days the deer will be seeking and chasing so you can time the rut for the best time to hunt.
“The DDH wall calendar is one of our most popular annual ShopDeerHunting items,” said Dan Schmidt, DDH Content Director and Editor-in-Chief. “The 2016 calendar, just like the ones before it, features some amazing whitetail deer photography that captures deer in all the seasons. It also provides deer activity charts so you can plan your hunt.”
With the 2016 DDH Whitetails Wall Calendar you’ll learn:
- When the seeking, chasing and tending phases of the rut will occur for North & South
- The predicted dates of Major & Minor deer activity in 2016
- Daily 2016 Moon-phase data