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 NEW!  November 3 – Here's another picture, this one a pretty good 7-point. He visited this rub two nights in a row. His neck is getting swollen and his shoulders are as big as his hind quarters. Probably a 3½ year old.

 NEW!  November 2 – I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the woods with a buddy. He's one of the best hunters I know, and we were looking over the area behind my house. The mast crop looks terrible. No acorns, no beech, no apples, and only a tiny number of grapes. No hickory nuts either. There is a corn field nearby, and only a little deer sign in it. My buddy saw all of this as an indication that most local deer have moved on to look for a place with more groceries. We had a very hard frost here in early June, and it took everything.

I've had a few trail cam pictures of small bucks, but nothing very impressive. The biggest ones are shown below. What's a shooter buck in this area is small for anyone serious about collecting bone.

However, the rut is starting, and the deer should be crazy in a few days. 

October 20 – On October 12 I finally got a photo of a shooter buck. I set the camera up to see if I could get a photo of him crossing the creek. In this picture he is on the near side of  the creek. He has a scrape across the creek that he hits frequently. This buck is probably 3½ and has about 110-115" of antler. He's a pretty good buck for this area, but I'm still betting there is a bigger one around.

September 24 – Last week on Sept. 17 I freshened my licking branches with Smokey's Preorbital Gland Lure, and about 12  hours later I got this picture of a 2½ year old 8-point buck. He's not yet mature as evidenced by the lack of muscle development in his shoulders, and the small upsweep in the abdominal area, but he has potential. 

He's a nice 8-point, and although certainly not the biggest one in the woods, he might be a shooter. I'm sure there are bigger ones out there, and maybe I'll get a photo of one. I also got a picture of a 6-point with a camera stationed just below this one, about 100 yards away. No pictures from the camera above it, so I moved it farther up the hill.

The picture below is from the same camera. You can't see the rub because the buck is standing in the way. 

September 17 – Today's visit to my trail cameras didn't produce much. One camera wasn't in a very good place. It got nothing, so I moved it. The other two showed me a few deer. One was aimed at a rub from last year, and several times during the week it was visited by does. I suspect that once the rut begins to heat up, this rub will be reworked by some bucks.

The other camera had some doe groups visit, but no bucks. I'm doctoring licking branches in front of the cameras with Smokey's Pre-Orbital lure, which should start to draw bucks. Maybe soon -- the cameras have been out for only a week.

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May 31 – Pennsylvania's spring gobbler season is over now, and I succeeded at filling one of my two tags. After hunting this old boy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I got very close on Friday, May 8. He sounded off at 5:25 AM. In a half hour he bellowed more than 50 times. I resisted giving him more than three tree yelps so soft I could hardly hear them, from a homemade scratch box sent to my by a friend of my father-in-law in South Carolina. It proved deadly. He flew down within range, and gave me a 30 yard shot. 

He weighed 20½ pounds, had a 9½" beard and 1" spurs. With that bulge in his cheek, he looked like he had mumps on the right side (shown), or maybe he had a pinch between his cheek and gum. (I didn't check.)

 NEW!  November 7 – Want to see the difference between a fox and a coyote? He are two trail camera photos taken early in the morning and late in the evening on the same day, with a coyote and a red fox in almost the same position relative to the camera. 

July 19 – Here's a photo of my brother Andy's wife congratulating the winner of the Andy Sorensen Award at the Slam'n Salm'n Derby (June 21) in Anchorage Alaska. Also, Andy's boys Eric and Jake and the winner hoisting the trophy, which is on display in Anchorage. 

June 27 – I don't find many shed antlers, but I used one of the tips found in an excellent article posted on the Deer & Deer Hunting Site. The article is entitled  Shed Hunting: Expert Tips on Where to Look. It was written by the guy who wrote the book on shed antler hunting, Joe Shead. 

May 21 – I went fishing in Lake Erie with some guys from Ohio Valley Outdoors magazine, and my friend Jim Brys went along. John Tucholski of J. T. Sport Fishing Charters (http://www.lake-erie-walleye-fishing.com/) knew where the fish were and we hauled in over 130 pounds of walleye.  Jim caught a 29½" Ohio state citation fish. Our box o' fish more than tripled what other charters out of Port Clinton, Ohio took that day. I'm shown holding my biggest (26"), but I also caught a "Fish-Ohio" citation-size sheepshead (freshwater drum).

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June 1 – I've been playing with a spotting scope from Alpen Optics for an article in Ohio Valley Outdoors, lining up a camera for an exercise in "digiscoping." It worked very well on this rabbit in my yard. I also got pictures of two bald eagle hatchlings in a nest near my home, a couple of turkeys about 300 yards away in the fog, and a few more critters. 

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 June 19 – I checked my trail cameras (Moultrie D40)  this afternoon (6/19). I was going to pull them, but as soon as I saw last night's photos I decided to leave them for a few more days. A bear walked by one camera, and I got three images:

Note the second photo. What's the blurry black thing in the lower left corner? It doesn't appear in either of the other photos. Could it be another bear? I think so.

These three shots were taken at 8:10, 8:12 and 8:14 last evening. Naturally, I left the camera there, and will try to get out and check it tomorrow afternoon. If he makes another evening appearance I'll set up in a blind I already have there conveniently (left over from the last day of spring gobbler season.)