November 2014

This Month's Features

The Allure of Antlers

By Mike Cox

While most hunters today primarily view white-tailed deer as a source of lean meat and trophy racks, the antlers grown and shed every year from the foreheads of bucks are more than just symmetrical (or sometimes not) calcium formations intended by nature as a means of self-defense and as a symbol of genetic quality. Since before recorded history, antlers — either taken from harvested deer or picked up after they have been shed — have comforted and benefited man as spiritual icons and cultural artifacts ranging from tools to art.

(read more)

Scent to Help

Trained dogs lead hunters to wounded deer.

By Henry Chappell

Hunt deer long enough, and it’ll eventually happen.

Maybe you simply shot the buck poorly. Maybe he jumped as you squeezed the trigger. In any case, the deer bolted, and you didn’t see him fall.

After a half-hour wait, you follow up. Sure enough, you find blood spots, but the trail disappears after a few yards. A careful search turns up nothing.

You mentally replay the shot and try to convince yourself that you just nicked him. But you know the truth. If you don’t find him, coyotes will.

You could call in your buddies to help with the search, but that’ll take time, and the trail is growing fainter by the second. You’d best mark the blood spots and bring in a tracking dog.

(read more)

Burning Ring of Fire

Prescribed burning turns watermelon patch into award-winning property.

By Mike Cox

Simon Winston starts his pickup, and the country-and-western channel on his satellite radio kicks on with the late, deep-voiced Johnny Cash singing his classic Ring of Fire.

“And it burns, burns, burns
“The ring of fire, the ring of fire…”

(read more)

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