Happy continuing rut madness to you all, and happy backstraps across America! Is this month of November the greatest month of the year or what! Say HALLELUJAH and hunt with all you got as often as you can during this magic, mystical, maddening time of year. God knows I am! Remember when you are thinking of sleeping in, that there will never ever be another November 2014. This is it! Go for it!
By Ted Nugent
I’d like to take this very special privilege, honor and opportunity as a deeranddeerhunting.com BlogBoy, right here, right now, right smack dab in the middle of another red hot deerseason, to thank and salute and congratulate all my fellow deerhunters wherever you may be for all your exciting, gungho, dedicated hunting time, whether you’ve killed a beast or not.
Nobody knows better than little ol’ worn out me what it takes to keep at it chasing deer all the time under all those trying conditions, and no matter what level deerhunting nut you are, I congratulate you all. Sometimes its easy going, but not often. Deerhunters are the ultimate stick-to-it civilian soldiers. Godspeed all.
I’d also like to sincerely thank you all for 64 glowing weeks of sharing what we all cherish and love about this inspiring deerhunting lifestyle here in my NugeBlogs. This is our 2nd deerseason together at deeranddeerhunting.com, as well as many wonderful years that include our communication at Deer & Deer Hunting magazine. I am proud to be part of the Dan Schmidt team. Ain’t it grand!
Based on extensive and much appreciated communications over many years with so many of you, face to face in my travels and on hunts, on my website and Facebook page, and through other various communications, I know for certain that the vast majority of us share the same basic commonsense and logic that drives our love for this age old, very traditional deerhunting lifestyle.
But this salute and thank-you is also for those who don’t necessarily agree with us.
I take no personal offense whatsoever for those who disagree with us. So be it. To all of you, no matter, I wish for nothing less than the greatest hunting of your lives forever, and wish you nothing but the happiest and fullest of lives. Godspeed to all. I use the term BloodBrothers as the ultimate term of endearment and connection for all of us who share the love of the hunt. And I mean it.
During the most intense deerhunting time of year for most of America’s hunters, our thoughts and hearts are consumed with the mighty deer of our pursuits, and it is for this reason that I wanted to touch upon the obvious fact that we all come in every imaginable demographic, size, shape, walk of life and individual preferences and choices in hunting styles.
On my Facebook page with more than 4 million participants, the jury is not still out as to how many hunting choices are out there and enjoyed.
And no matter what yours may be, if it’s legal, I respect it, support you and stand with you.
As our hunting years build, more and more of us have implemented some sort of “quality deer management” upgrade in our choice of what age or size of deer we kill. And this is good. For if the hunting experience is enhanced by increased self-discipline that actually fortifies the herd, healthier deer will come about and hunters will be happier. That is surely a big win-win where I come from.
Support Other Choices
It is also critically important to support other hunters’ choices when they vary from our own. If all those year-and-a-half-old spikes, forks and little racked butterball bucks are what so many hunters prefer and kill, go for it. Never underestimate the thrilling “trophy” experience that a little boogerbuck provides for SO many hunters out there. Hell, I’ve got my very first buttonbuck from 1969 mounted on my cabin wall in all its glory! Trophy of a lifetime for sure! Godspeed backstrappers all!
I’ve heard it said that the trophy craze is hurting our sport, but I do not see it that way at all. When contiguous land owners can agree on letting younger bucks walk and venison is procured by reducing doe numbers, some of the healthiest deer herds on earth exist. I give you Buffalo County, Wisconsin, where more book bucks are killed each year than anywhere else in North America.
Also in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, and just as important, plenty of non-trophy hunters are still getting all the venison they need with the kills of their choice while balancing the herd and living their deerhunting dream. Cool! More win-win.
We had four mature trophy bucks on trailcams on our big Michigan swamp grounds last fall, and all four were killed by neighbors during the firearms season. My son and I were tickled pink for those lucky hunters.
Would we have like to have killed them ourselves? Of course we would have, but that’s just not how deerhunting works. It always has been and always will be “right guy, right place, right time.”
Welcome The Newcomers
I see more and more youngsters and women getting into our beloved sport. You gotta love that! Some of these newcomers are being mentored by died in the wool experienced hunters, and some of them kill monster trophy book bucks their 1st time out. Isn’t that amazing? I just hope they don’t get spoiled and lose my favorite part about hunting: the big climax after prolonged, painstaking trial and error.
Our Michigan season has been real good for me, with two really big bucks with my bow. But hardcore deerhunting son Toby remains skunked as I write this 51 days in. I am proud to say he will not quit and is hard at it pretty much every day.
I will be back to our Texas home soon where more tags than there are days to hunt await me, and I hunt every day through February 28!!
Now that’s a deerhunting dream right there!
So carryon my BloodBrothers. If you’re not tagged out, enjoy enjoy enjoy. And for those that are all done, good for you!
Thanksgiving is next week, and that has always been one of the biggest weekends for deerhunting in most states. I will see you right here at deeranddeerhunting.com on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, and I’m sure I will have more deerhunting excitement to share with you all.
Let’s all be sure to support each other, stand up for each other, be considerate of each other’s choices, and continue this phenomenal deerseason 2014-15 with all we got.
Be sure to promote to everybody you come into contact with that deerhunting is the ultimate Thanksgiving celebration, because we are out here in God’s miraculous creation giving thanks for His natural, annual, renewable bounty, and we are the harvesters. Harvest on. Celebrate on. Hunt on.
These are some awesome bucks, mine aren’t this big