My Book

Shoot Deer, my book, as a beginner's guide to hunting whitetails is available for Kindle.  Free Northerner posted a review on his blog.

I'd like to point out that I was unhappy with the editing of it and I've had it edited by someone other than me.  I am in the midst of making some changes, and adding pictures.  I am particularly reworking the chapters on public land, rifles, muzzleloaders, and how to shoot a bow.

I would recommend waiting to buy my book until I re-release it.

In the meantime I suggest that anyone interested in hunting whitetails read two other books on the subject:

Outwitting the Whitetail by Perry G. Reilly

More of a pamphlet than a "book", but it is just about everything that you need to know about hunting whitetail deer.

One Man's Whitetail by Gene Wensel

A better hunter than me is Mr. Wensel.  He hunts exclusively with traditional bows, which makes everything much more difficult.  After being nearly done with writing my book, I re-read this one and discovered three anecdotes that I had attributed to long-lost magazine articles were actually from this book.

He wrote my book two years after I was born!

Visit my deer hunting blog if you have any questions or want more information.

shootdeer.wordpress.com

Happy hunting.

Random picture from my collection

Shoot Deer

Just a reminder that my other blog is now getting, [week]daily posts.  I aim to prioritize my deer hunting blog a bit more this year.  I have several related projects that I expect to bear fruit in 2014.

At some point I'll optimize my blog as Matt has suggested in his book: Confessions of an Online Hustler.

Shoot Deer

The Kindle Version is Done: Shoot Deer

My new book "Shoot Deer: A Beginner's Guide to Hunting Whitetails" is now available for ebooks from amazon.com, for $7.99.

203 pages of information covering all whitetail deer hunting topics from: which guns to buy, bows to buy, how to shoot them, where to hunt, how to improve your property, how to hang treestands, how to score deer, many mistakes to avoid, and more.

Any Amazon reviews are much appreciated.

 If you're a blogger and want to get a free version, let me know at eltim164 at gmail.com; I'll take all the promotion that I can get.  (Matt and Free Northerner can expect whatever they call the promo ones this evening after I'm done with work.)

Another Book Update

I've not been writing as much as I should.  I am around 40,000 words.  I'll likely end up at around 60-70,000.

I keep reconsidering the order of the chapters, and that's affecting how I write them.

As ever, let me know if you think that I've missed anything, and I'll be sure to add it.

New chapter arrangement:

Introduction
1. Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
2. Whitetail Deer
3. Whitetail Deer Antlers
4. 3 Steps to Shooting Big Bucks
5. Where Deer Live, Generally
6. Where Deer Live Specifically
7. Alternatives to Owning Hunting Land
8. Hunting Without Land or Money
9. Buying A Hunting Property
10. Neighbor Relations
11. Improving Your Property
12. Food Plots
13. Where to Put a Food Plot
14. Food Plot Equipment
15. Creating Food Plots
16. Trail Cameras
17. Hunting Methods
18. Stand Hunting
19. Stand Styles
20. Hang On Stands
21. Stand Recommendations
22. Setting Your Stand Up
23. Stand Positioning
24. Hunting Clothing
25. Hunting Clothing Recommendations
26. Guns
27. Rifles
28. Shooting a Long Gun
29. Rifle Recommendations
30. Cartridges
31. Shotguns
32. Muzzleloaders
33. Telescopic Sights 
34. Bows
35. Shooting a Bow
36. Bow Recommendations
37. Bow Accesories
38. Hunting Accessories
39. Where to Spend and Where to Save on Equipment
40. Stealth
41. The Entrance
42. The Hunt
43. The Exit
44. Deer Activity
45. Deer Aging
46. Which deer should you shoot?
47. When should you make your move?
48. Where should you shoot?
49. Blood Trailing
50. Field Dressing
51. Skinning & Butchering
52. Antler Removal
53. Antler Scoring
54. The Tricks to Becoming a Successful Deer Hunter
55. My Hunting Successes (and Failures)
56. Stories
57. Interesting Ideas
Conclusion

A Revolutionary Line of Thought

When I first discovered "Game" I was amazed and pleasantly surprised by it.  I spent the two evenings after I first discovered Roissy reading nearly all of his old posts.

I was constantly amazed at what I read.  It made so much sense.  It explained many experiences that I was confused by before.  The crimson arts make so much sense, it explained so much.

This past weekend I went to an event that was nearly as enlightening, nearly as informative, and nearly as important.

I like to hunt deer.  I've had more success with it than anyone that I know.  But I always knew that there was more to learn.  I knew that there were things that I was doing that could, and should, be done better.

Tony LaPratt's Ultimate Deer Management is exceptionally impressive, and I don't doubt that it works.  It makes too much sense not to work.

Due to his rules of proprietary information, etc. I can't say much more than its about managing your deer hunting property in a better way.  Check out his website for more information on what he does.

Perhaps I'm beginning to understand more of what it means when old guys say that they once thought they knew everything, but no longer think so.

I may be over-emphasizing this but that Ultimate Land Management is really incredible, despite, or maybe becasue of, its simplicity.

I may be over-hyping things that I really like on this blog (read Bourbon for Breakfast already), but this time I really mean it. 

(Just like all those other times.)

My Book

I've posted the rough drafts for two chapters in my forthcoming book about the basics of deer hunting on my hunting blog.

Chapter 9: Improving Your Hunting Property

Chapter 20: Positioning Your Stand

A Chapter from my book: Antlers Not Horns

Can be found at my hunting blog Shoot Deer.

Much editing will occur before it is finished.

My Book: A Chapter

I picked a chapter at random from my forthcoming deer hunting book to give you a feel for it.  I'll post other chapters in the future, but here is a chapter on hunting property neighbor relations.

I should have probably waited until I proofread this again, but I want to get the whole rough draft written before I start on the proofreading and finding a proofreader.

 Hunting Property Neighbor Relations

The very first thing you will want to do with your new property is to put “no trespassing” signs up, and maybe a gate, or fence, along a side, or two.

Buy shiny new, durable, “no trespassing” signs and surround your property with them.  Know that the only thing worse than not having the signs is having worn out signs.  Surrounding your property with new signs shows that you are at your property often and that you would notice trespassers.

Sometimes properties have old roads, or trails leaning into them.  Block off roads that you don’t want to use with logs or fences.  Some deer may travel down those roads, but you should block the road at your property line so that it is not too easy for someone to trespass.

You do not want to travel all over your property or have roads all over.  But you will need, at least, one entrance road.  That road should have a gate that looks solid and maintained.  

Like new signs, a solid gate shows that you are serious about not wanting trespassers to enter your property.  And no gate, or an old worn out one, shows that you probably don’t visit often, and probably wouldn’t notice trespassers.

If you add a gate over the main entrance, make it a really big one so that you can get big tractors in someday.  You may hire loggers or someone to spread lime on your food plots and you won’t want to tear down your gate so that they can get in.  I have two 12 foot gates, making a 24 foot opening, so that loggers, tractors and anything else that I may want has no trouble entering.

You will also want to get to know your neighbors.  Having a good relationship with your neighbors will make owning a hunting property much more enjoyable.

An early conversation with your neighbors should include the following statement from you:

“If you hit a deer and it runs onto my land, just go get it.”

Your neighbor will most likely respond the same way.  Wounded deer running onto neighboring properties has been known to strain relationships.  In many states you are legally allowed to trespass in order to collect a dear that you have shot.  But it is always better for you to talk to your neighbors before that happens.

Your neighbors are probably unlikely to give you trespassing problems if you have friendly relations with them.  

When you have some need to walk on their property instead of yours, then consider if you would mind if you were the landowner and they were the one considering walking on your property.  If you would mind, if you were in their place, then don’t do it.

You may want to take note of when your neighbors are around.  If you are trailing a deer, or need help dragging one out, then having friends nearby is good.  You should be willing to help with their deer too.  Compliment their deer and be pleasant.  It is much better to have friendly neighbor relations, than it is to have unfriendly relations.

You’ll have neighbors who have different hunting goals than you do.  This may be frustrating when you let bucks go and your neighbor shoots all that he can.  There is not much you can do, or should do, to move his opinion to where yours is.  You might explain that you are letting the small bucks go because they won’t get big if you shoot them when they are small.  Bringing the point up repeatedly may annoy your neighbor to the point that he wants to shoot lots of small bucks just out of spite.  Showing this neighbor the deer or pictures of the deer that you shoot will be more effective in convincing someone to let small bucks go.

Don’t get too frustrated with a neighbor who shoots small bucks.  Its his property and he can do what he likes.  And the distance between a property that is filled with big bucks and one that lacks deer may not be far.  

A few years ago a neighbor shot a buck fawn which ran 150 yards off of his property and fell right underneath my treestand.  I reverse trailed the blood trail to find the hunters and found them coming for the deer.  They had only seen a handful of deer, of any size, during the few days prior and I had let several medium sized bucks go, not 200 yards from where they were hunting on that very morning.  Despite the fact that we share a property line, they who shoot lots of does and small bucks see a few small deer, and I have had opportunities at lots of bucks.

It may get annoying when your neighbor shoots a buck, but you just have to accept it and congratulate him.

Some neighbors can be jerks and there isn’t much you can do about it.  By try not to intentionally antagonize them.  When you talk to them try doing so like you do with family members who, perhaps, have a different political persuasion.  Be polite, but try to avoid the things that don’t need to be discussed.

The biggest problem that you are likely to have is your neighbors putting up their treestands right next to your property line.  There is not much you can do about this, unless they trespass.  You may want to place a “no trespassing” sign in front of their stand, if they get too close.  Or you may prefer to put a Quality Deer Management Association sing there instead.  A sign that says “QDMA is practiced here” is much less confrontational than a sign that says “no trespassing.”

Sometimes you’ll need to put your stand near a neighbor’s property.  It’s a good idea to put these stands up so that they clearly face away from the neighbor’s property.  Sometimes you need to be near the line, but try not to look like you are hunting over their land.

If you are reasonable with your neighbors, then they will most likely be reasonable as well.  Having people nearby who can help move deer, or tow your truck out can be valuable to have.  Think of the golden rule and you shouldn’t have many neighbor problems.

Advice on My Book Please

I'm up to 20,000 words in my forthcoming deer hunting book and I have just begun the equipment descriptions and recommendations.

I have a question that I would like my readers' advice on.

My introduction ends, currently, as follows:

Some people criticize hunters for being bloodthirsty, or whatever.  I am not writing this book to explain why I hunt or the morals for doing so.  Thing are born, they live, and they die.  This happens regardless of whether or not we hunt.  If things did not die, then there would be no room for new things.  Killing a deer with a quick shot is much more humane that the many other ways that deer die.  Wolves may start to eat a deer before it is totally dead, and they’ll kill it by biting it.  I’d rather get shot than killed by wolves.  Some animals kill by biting their victim and then waiting until its wound becomes so infected that it dies.  Deer also get hit by cars, and some limp off or die a slow death by having all of their organs crushed.

Someone that criticizes hunting and eats meat is a hypocrite.  Someone who criticizes hunting and wears leather is a hypocrite.  Someone who criticizes hunting and uses bug spray or mouse traps is a hypocrite.  Someone who criticizes hunting and eats dead plants is a hypocrite.

I have no time for those who criticize hunting.  There is almost no other point in human history that they would have survived without hunting and killing or having someone else do their hunting and killing for them.

That’s enough of that.  On to how to shoot as many of the biggest bucks that you can.

I think that this subject needs to be mentioned, at least.  But it is a bit of a downer.  And I don't like the idea of containing sad, annoying, or otherwise unhappy crap in my book.

My question is: should I include the above passage in my introduction, or elsewhere, should I leave it out, or should I improve it or change it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Let me know if you have any deer hunting related questions that you want to have for sure answered in my book.

Also check out my hunting blog Shoot Deer.

Happy hunting,

Tim

My Book, Update

I'm writing a book on deer hunting for new deer hunters.

Time in the Tree is the working title.  This title idea was inspired by the title of the book Time on the Water by Bill Gardner.

At one time I thought that my book might read like his, as a journal of the days.  But I am a terrible journal writer and I did not take very good notes through the last hunting season.  The few thoughts that I did record may be included, but they will not be a large part of the book.

It has been day after day of no writing followed by writing several thousand words in one sitting.  I relate this point because authors are often asked about when and how they write.

As of this post I have around 14,400 words written, in MS Word, through sixteen chapter ideas.  And I have not really gotten to the actual hunting part yet.

Before writing I looked up how many words should be in a book.  The result that I got was 60,000 words.  That is my goal, sort of.  My book may be 40,000 words or 100,000.  I would like it to cover all of the necessary parts with a little bit of background information.

I realize that many books get around 1/3 of their content trimmed before being published.  This is a good idea even if my book will be self published, not published by a professional publisher.  Trim the fat.

Fully, or partially, written chapters so far:

1. Who? What? Why? When? Where? How?  
2. About the whitetail deer
3. Antlers, not horns
4. Where, generally, to hunt for deer
5. Alternatives to hunting your own private land
6. Improving your hunting property, the not so fun part
7. Improving your hunting property, the fun part
8. Food plots
9. How to make your food plots
10. Methods of hunting whitetail deer (should me moved to after "Where, generally...")
11. Stand locating
12. Trail, or game, cameras
13. Types of deer stands
14. The ideal stand
15. Treestand recommendations
16. How to place your treestand  

These are the working titles for the chapters that have been roughly written or outlined so far.

This post was written with the idea that the process of writing a book c might be interesting itself.

If you have any suggestions, or comments, for my first book, then I will be happy to hear them.

My book is about learning to hunt deer.  Perhaps this blog will include learning how to write and self publish a book. 

(The book will be better proofread than the posts here.) 

Happy hunting. 

A Huffington Post Commenter Responds to This Blog

Last September I had a series of comment exchanges with Rumzee, at the Huffington Post.  He has recently discovered my repeating of the comments to this blog and he did not like what he saw.  For the full recording of our exchanges, in chronological order, please look at my "Deer Hunting" page under "Debating An Anti-Hunter."

I believe that his complaint comes from the fact that I did not, at least, link to the preceding post of comments.  In the post that he is complaining about I should have linked to its predecessor, here it is.

Had you by following my blog in real time you would have gotten the whole story.  As it was I was three months into my first blog, and I made a mistake in not linking to the previous post so that it would make sense after the fact.

For the record: I have copied and pasted, without editing, all of the comments during my "Debates in the Comments."  If anyone questions the order, or content, of any of the comments posted here, then tell me which comment you specifically question and include your email.  I will then forward you the email notification I received letting me know that someone replied to one of my comments.  (A few of the email notifications that I received were sent to my 'spam' folder, I did not 'unspam' them, and they have since been deleted.)

Rumzee specifically commented on this post of mine.

His comment:

AnonymousFebruary 2, 2013 at 3:53 PM

You have a lot of brass posting our discussion out of chronological order, assuming answers I would give to questions you never asked, and basically manipulating the discussion to make your points seem more than they actually were during our discussion. All that without my knowledge. You have proven yourself to be dishonest.

I was searching for a different Huffington Post comment I made a long while back and happened to come across your crapola here at this site.

Rumzee

My reply:

TimFebruary 2, 2013 at 6:36 PM

Thanks for stopping by.

The quotes are directly copied and pasted from the Huffington Post in the order that they occurred. I have not edited them in any way. Because our exchanges happened over the course of several days, they were copied here in different posts. The full listing of our comments is noted on my "Deer Hunting" page, under "Debating Anti-Hunter."

http://spootville.blogspot.com/p/deer-hunting-posts.html

If you question the order, or the editing, of any comments, then I will forward you the email notification I received for these comments.

If I have made an error in the order, then I do apologize. Please let me know which ones specifically are out of order and I shall make any corrections and issue an apology.

It is truly astonishing how often those of you on the left resort to name calling and insults.

Your comment could have been along the lines of: "The comment beginning with ... occurred at time x not time y."

How have I proven myself to be dishonest? You have not given any evidence to support this claim of yours.

If you tell me specifically where my error was, then I will look up the comment dates and times.

Once again we have a case of someone on the left using name calling and insults, rather than attempt an polite complaint.

We also, once again, have a statement "proven" to be true without any evidence.  You'll need to take his word for it that I misrepresented him at this blog.  But I am willing to give evidence to prove that I have not, if I am told where the specific problem is.

In future comments I shall include the date and time, as well as the specific article in question.

Rumzee, at least tell me where your specific complaint is.

***

One last note: Most of the spam comments on this blog are written by "anonymous."  I very nearly deleted Rumzee's comment here becasue of the "anonymous" author.

If you wish to comment here as "anonymous," then understand that your comment may get deleted accidentally.  It is not difficult to post under a name.  The name does not need to be your real name, it can be any name.  And you do not need to include your e-mail address either.

It is very easy to do this.  If you have difficulty, then click the following link, and read this post: How to Comment Using a Name (it has pictures and everything).

My thanks to Andrew for a very timely post.

My Book

I've been writing my book on the basics of hunting whitetail deer.  It has been amazing how easily the words are coming out.  The only reason that I did not write the whole rough draft in one sitting is because I type too slowly.

I made an attempt at writing a novel  in high school, but found that I did not like writing at all.  With this (hopefully) upcoming book, it is incredible how easy it has been.

I hope to have it done by next September, in time for next years deer hunting season, but I've never before written a book and I expect that something unexpected will happen and I'll be delayed.

(I promise have it proofread, and spell checked, it several times, unlike the content on this blog.)

Let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to see in it.  I expect to cover a bit more than is necessary, but let me know if you think that something is important and I'll be sure to to not miss that.

I could probably write a similar book about fishing for muskies, and a book on fishing for Midwestern game fish too.  And maybe I will, if this book turns out well.

My New Blog

Its been six months and three days since I started this blog, and I have been happy with the results (thanks for all the links).  But one of my goals was always to write more about deer hunting and muskie fishing.

I've started a new blog http://shootdeer.wordpress.com/ to focus only on deer hunting posts.  I plan on learning about WordPress and spending time focusing some of my efforts on getting more deer hunting related traffic and attempting to teach new hunters about hunting deer.

Shoot Deer will be where I put all of my hunting posts from now on.  I hope to post something every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Many of the first posts will be copied old posts from this blog, but I will be including new posts early and often.

If all goes well, I will add a third blog about muskie fishing.

If you have any questions about hunting deer, then let me know.

Or if you would like to guest post, once or regularly, then let me know.

That's the plan, we'll see how it goes.

eltim164 at gmail.com

Shooting A Deer

I attempted to shoot two bucks with my bow this season.  I missed one and got one.  You may be able to learn from the stories of my two shots at deer with a bow this year.

Let's start with the deer story that includes a happy ending.

I picked a new treestand location this year because I wanted a stand closer to the cover than I had in previous years.  I picked a tree that covered a corner of brush and trees.  If deer move from the main bedding area to my big food plot, then they will pass through this corner of brush and trees.

I probably averaged seeing three 1 1/2 year old bucks each night that I sat there.  So one night I first saw the standard nine does and fawns and the usual two 1 1/2 year old bucks.  Then in the distance I saw another deer and a flash of some long tines over its head.  I saw parts of the deer for a time straight ahead of me through lots of brush and branches.  He was following a doe and I expected him to pass by me.

His tine length meant that I knew that I wanted to shoot him if I got an opportunity.  He took his time walking around about 30 yards in front of me, but there were to many branches to shoot through.

I expected him to walk from in front of me to my right.  While I was waiting for him to clear the brush I considered which sight pin I would use.  (Bow sights often have 3 or 5 pins.  You put the top pin on a target that is 20 yards away, the second on a target that is 30 yards away, etc.)  I thought that if he cleared the brush at one point that he would be twenty yards away.  If he cleared the brush near some taller grass, then I'd use the 30 yard pin...

And then I realized that I was thinking too much.  I've shot several deer, I've shot my bow a lot.  So, I stopped thinking, and when the deer presented me with a shot, I lifted my bow and shot him.

I don't remember raising my bow, I don't remember putting the sight on the deer...I just did it.

Once you have shot your bow enough and become confident that you will be successful when shooting at deer, then you to will no need to over think taking a shot.

I hit him a bit far back, but he was quartering away and the exit hole was right behind the right front leg.  This hole acted as a drain and I had a solid foot wide, solid blood trail for about 30 yards until I found the dead buck.

Now that you know what to do, let's look at what not to do.

Another night I was in the same tree and saw the usual few does, fawns, and small bucks.  Then a deer came from behind me ant to my right.  I got a glimpse of him through a clearing, and I would have had a shot if he had given me a bit more warning before showing up.

He looked big, but I did not know how big.  I heard him rub his head in some branches over a scrape, but I could not see him because a tree was between us.  He looked like a nice one.  But how big?

"HOLY SH*T!" I thought as I saw him through the trees.

I had a great look at his antlers through some tree branches, but no shot.

"I can shoot through those branches," I thought. "No, he's following that doe.  He's about to give me a good shot...But I can shoot through those branches...I shouldn't. How big are his...freaking huge...don't look at the horns wait for the shot...please move, please move, please move...he's a monster...don't look at the horns; wait for a shot."

And after a while he took a few steps out from behind the tree and presented me with a picture perfect 20 yard, standing, broadside, shot.

At this point I'd like to point out the two types of releases.  One type of release has a metal buckle, like your belt, and the other uses Velcro to attach to your wrist.  I prefer the Velcro because there is no metal to click against anything and make a noise.  The problem with my Velcro was the tag end.  I did not need the full length of Velcro to attach the release to my wrist.  And I was wearing a plastic mesh face-mask, to be more camouflaged.

Once I had the shot: I drew my bow, and my release's tag end made a ripping noise as it brushed against my face-mask.

When that happened all that I could think of was that I had made a noise, buck, heard it, and was about to run away.

"Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" Was all that I could think.

I panicked, rushed my shot, and missed by a mile.

Dammit.