"Lucky" Luke Strikes Again...

The word “Luck” is thrown around all of the time… It seems as though it has often been synonymous with me.  Sure, my name, “Luke”, sounds and looks a lot like “luck.” One of my boyhood baseball idols, Pete Rose, even went as far as signing an autograph to me as to “Lucky Luke.”  (In reality, he had just had a long day and had a lapse in the spelling of my name, but we’ll stick with it as it goes well with the story.) The word “luck” is originally derived from “Łuck”, which just so happens to be Polish and is pronounced as “lootsk”. So, there is that very distinguishable commonality.  The definition of “luck” in the form of a noun is as follows:

1. the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities:

With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.

2. good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance:

He had no luck finding work.

3. a combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person:

She's had nothing but bad luck all year.

4. some object on which good fortune is supposed to depend:

This rabbit's foot is my luck.

            Some folks have often said that I am the luckiest man in the world. (-Usually this is said in a state of haste and not always in the friendliest of means with a bit of attitude along with it.) However, I couldn’t agree more and believe this is indeed a true fact.  I did state this in my very own wedding speech a little over eight years ago as I stole a quote from the Iron Horse, Lou Gerig. (I did quote him to ensure that he was credited though.) 

            To say that luck has been on my side throughout my lifetime would be a gross understatement.  I have much to be thankful for.  A loving, healthy family that includes the best wife I could ever imagine, three little rays of sunshine, JD, Nolan, and Kat, two wonderful brothers, loving parents that have been the constant oak trees to lean on throughout my life, a mother-in-law that is so kind and caring, and a great host of other family members and friends that have served as great inspiration throughout life.  I have also been lucky to share many moments with some extremely valued family members who have passed away, but shared memorable times with me while here. –These are the people and things I am indeed lucky for.

            As far as the other facets of life, I have had great fortune, that some may call luck, on my side as well.  Here, I attribute a few things to the fortune.  First and foremost, the persistence. Persistence, persistence, persistence. (And then more persistence.)  Some call it an addictive personality, however I call it persistence. There is probably a fine line between the two, but I certainly don’t need to see that.

Next, positive thinking.  My opinion is that positive thinking puts everything else in place and truly legitimizes the odds of a perceived “chance” falling in one’s favor.  Just think about it for a minute… When was the last time you accomplished anything going into it thinking that you did not have a chance to succeed? 

Finally, there is some type of horseshoe or rabbit’s foot involved, but this is the “chance” aspect.  The chance aspect, or luck as some may call it, is maximized by persistence and positive thinking.  Still, there are no guarantees, and someone needs to make the right cards fall into place.  Faith?  Luck? A mixture of both?  I don’t claim to have this answer. What I do know is that some call me “Lucky Luke.”  For the record, I don’t have any problem with the name and hope it sticks for a long time! 

Good huntin'. -luke     

Half Racked/Full Track

My younger brother, Nicholas, recently arrowed a buck from one of our stands, the “donut up-top stand”, which was named this because it overlooks a little piece of woods that has an alfalfa tote road that circles it, on a Saturday evening.  I was not on stand that night, but met him back at my house following the hunt.  Upon his return I could tell right away that he had shot one, but I could also tell nearly immediately that he didn’t feel great about the hit or the findings.  He explained the shot angle to me and went into great detail how the scenario played out that evening as he hit the buck from approximately 22 yards and he took off with a good portion of the arrow still not penetrating and soon thereafter breaking off within sight, thanks in part to the visionary aid of the luminock as it was nearing dusk.  He further noted that upon inspection 15 minutes following the shot he did find slight traces of blood and the broken arrow, but that was it.  We decided to wait a minimum of three hours as we suspected a liver/single lung shot, and ultimately gave it close to four hours before resuming the track with headlamps and flashlights.

Upon returning to the scene Nick and I went through the positioning of the deer and sightline as to where the deer ran and began to track again.  –The blood (or lack thereof) hadn’t got better and we struggled to inch our way forward for quite some time, but did find a small trace here and there before we couldn’t find a drop.  We searched high and low meandering up and down plausible escape routes from the last blood.  Finally, I stumbled across some very good blood about 75 yards from where the last drop was spotted.  Here, it appeared as though the deer had paused and walked for about twenty yards.  The blood looked dark and crimson red, which made us believe it was indeed a liver hit.  Now, the blood looked very good though and I didn’t think it’d be too long before we would come across the deer.   Unfortunately, this was not even close to the case as the decent blood only lasted about twenty yards and then went to nothing, absolutely nothing.  We once again worked off of the direction that the deer had been heading, but it became apparent that the deer had changed direction here and was no longer on the same path.   -We thought that the deer had paused here after the initial rush off from the scene and perhaps when Nick had left his stand to back out that it had been bumped and took off on a hard run again.  Either way, the bloodtrail was now gone and the night was long so we decided at 1:30 am to call it a night and resume the track in the broad daylight the morning would bring.

Upon the return to the woods the next morning Nick and I had additional tracking help by the means of his girlfriend, Randi, my son, John Daniel and my dog, Otto.  –The woods were far from sterile now and we knew it was turning from a blood trail recovery to a body search.   We formulated a plan going into the search and I had a couple of good starting points where I’d take JD and Otto and see if we could find anything.  After not finding anything at the first two spots we were really beginning to scratch our heads.  We headed into the last real decent spot I thought looked like a possibility.  This spot was thick, younger pines that just about made us feel claustrophobic because of its density.  Soon thereafter, by some grace of God, we looked down and found a drop of blood along the floor of this pine hell.  JD and Otto both got excited and we soon found another and another! At this point we held off on moving further into the track as I called Nick to get him on the scene.  –I felt good about this, even though it was still pretty poor blood. 

Once Nick and Randi arrived we resumed the track and it was a pretty steady dime-sized drop followed by another, followed by the deer only thirty to forty yards from where we had discovered the blood!  It appeared by the RM that had set in that the buck had expired in the early evening.  The shot had entered behind the diaphragm and put a slice through the opposite side’s liver without exiting.  All in all, a lot of smiles.  The deer was perfectly intact as no coyotes had found this booty and the temperature had dipped just below freezing that night and the meat was perfect yet.  It is always such a pleasure finding a deer like this that may have otherwise not been found.  We determined that the deer had made it approximately 600 yards from where it was hit to where it had eventually died, which is about right for a liver shot like this.   Good work, everyone!

Opening Day Jynx?

Opening day 2014 brought with it perfect temperatures as the morning brought the thermometer down to 40 degrees and the high for the afternoon was 55 with very little wind. –Perfect for shooting a buck that I had patterned. –Over the course of my bow hunting career, now twenty-seven years, I have never, to my recollection, drawn my bow on a deer opening day. This was about to change!

As I climbed up my stand and got settled in for an afternoon hunt in mid-September this opening day of the 2014 bow season I thought to myself, “what a perfect day to shoot a deer.” -The sun was out and the temperatures were cool, which would make for good deer movement. Additionally, in the event that a deer would be shot, it could hang over night without the worry of any meat spoiling. Typically, this is not the scenario I’ve grown to expect on opening weekend as it seems like it is usually raining or sultry hot and muggy with mosquitoes swarming and buzzing you like a flock of famished buzzards.

After a couple of hours on the stand I was very settled in and quite comfortable. –I had really missed sitting up in the stand reflecting on life and simply relaxing over the past few months. –For me, this is my total Zen. No deer for the first couple of hours, but that would soon change as a medium sized doe soon showed up as she came in from my backside. The only sound that she made was her hoof hitting a log, which put me on alert and let me know she was creeping near my stand. Soon thereafter, another deer showed up walking along the same trail, a young eight point. Things were looking better and better. Both deer nearly walked under my stand with no scent detection, which is always a good sign. After watching the two deer for a couple minutes both deer went on alert as another deer approached coming across a food plot that I had recently put in. –I immediately readied my bow as I saw a nice rack on this deer. The buck had his ears back and trotted within 15 yards of my stand as he chased the smaller eight point. After a few minutes, which seemed like an hour, he was standing at 29 yards and presented a slight quartering away shot for me. I drew back on him and settled the 30 yard pin right on his heart. Upon release I hit exactly where I was aiming and the buck took off with my arrow still in him, about 90% through, but with the fletching just sticking out. My eyes told me that I had buried the pin perfectly and made the exact shot that I wanted, but sometimes the mind can play tricks on you, and I was not about to get too over confident. All in all, I felt very good about the shot though.

I then waited about 15 minutes before lowering my bow from my stand. I summoned the troops, consisting of a couple of my good hunting friends, Nick and Steve, along with Steve’s older son, and my older son, JD. (Probably a lot of overkill in terms of a tracking team, but we all like to get in on a good track and I wasn’t about to leave anyone out.) We waited until dark and took to the trail with our headlamps on. Immediately we found good blood that soon turned to great blood. JD, my six year old, was leading the charge to find the buck as the blood trail was perfect for him as it glistened with the light of our headlamps even as the buck ran through the pine timber. Within 100 yards JD called out that he had found him. –What a way to start the year! Upon investigation it was discovered that I indeed had shot exactly where I was aiming as I “center punched” the buck through the heart. Obviously, it is great shooting a deer, but what made it all that much better was that my son and good friends could join in on a perfect opener, which could not have been scripted any better. We were able to hang the deer and the butchering commenced the following day. Fresh venison awaits.

Turkey Errors

I am always amazed to read through turkey hunting stats following each and every turkey season. It seems as though the success rates across the board are astronomically low. When talking with a group of hunters who are in a close circle to me it seems as though the success rates are drastically different than some of those others. Are some that much better hunters? I don’t know that some hunters are that much better, but simply have learned over time to stay away from those common mistakes that can lead to holding a tag and no bird where we have all been at many times… Here’s a list of some of those errors that I have made myself over the years and continue to work to improve.

1. Not Scouting Enough. Many turkey hunters have this perception that they can enter into the woods at o’dark-thirty, start locating birds off of the roost, set-up, and successfully kill a bird minutes later. Sure, this may work once in a blue moon and on television here and there, but truth be told, scouting birds and learning their basic travel routines, and ultimately determining your set-up spot(s) in advance will yield you much greater results time and time again. Additionally, you will not find yourself scratching your head near as often when you accidentally bump that gobbler out of his roosting tree and set yourself up for failure within minutes into a hunt. Any scouting in advance is a huge advantage, which will pay dividends. Turkeys, like other game animals, do things very much routinely. –Figure out their routine and half of the battle is already won.

2. Calling Too Much. Don’t get into a calling match with a tom, especially off of a roost. Sure, you may be getting response gobbles, but it is simply because that bird wants the hen he perceives (you calling) to come to him as this is what happens in nature. By adding additional gobbles to the area you will also alert other hens that may perceive the hen you are trying to be as competition and may either begin yelping more themselves, will drag the tom off the opposite direction, or will simply head his way, thus giving the tom little to no need to seek another hen at this point. I am a firm believer in making your location known off of the roost, but don’t be afraid to “play hard to get” with the tom after he has pinned down your location. He will work your way with some very subtle calling mixed in with scratching of the leaves. This last spring I encountered more situations than ever before where a tom would be “committed” only to hold up just out of range gobbling and strutting.

3. Let the Birds Work. We live in a society where patience seems to be rarer than ever before. Everyone wants immediate results. Watching toms follow hens around the woods for a long time you will notice that many, if not most times, the toms are actually 100 yards or more behind the hens as the hens pick through the woods foraging for food. Meanwhile, the toms will be behind strutting and keeping a watchful eye on their hens waiting for a time when the hen is ready to be bred. Many of these toms are not gobbling as they have no need to as they have already located their hens and don’t want to give away their location to other toms. The bottom line here is that if you have a tom that you have fired up and he goes silent do not get too quick to move locations as many times this bird may still be lingering near watching your set with a close eye. There really are not a set number of minutes or hours that I will wait one of these guys out, but usually try to add some additional time on when I think I should move on.

4. The Roost is a Friend and Enemy. Setting up on a bird off of the roost is great. It is possibly one of the very best times to kill a tom. However, you must be cautious. -Don’t try to get too close to the roost as these birds may easily be bumped and their routine will get thrown off for quite some time. I make a general rule of no closer than 125 yards. You will inevitably make a little noise coming into your location and setting up in the dark and this should provide enough of a buffer under most circumstances, however if you are hunting along a field edge, with a full moon, or when it is dead calm you may want to even extend this yardage out further to adjust for those conditions.

5. Set Your Decoys Close. Far too many hunters set their decoys in a position 25 0r 30 yards from them. This is way too far for a number of reasons. First of all, you want to have your decoy(s) in such a position whereas if the tom comes in and works them close you will have a chip shot with either your gun or bow to make a clean kill. 30 yards can be a bit of a poke with even a shotgun if the target is not standing completely still. Additionally, some birds will simply not commit 100% and may strut 10 yards from the decoy expecting the decoy to either come fight with him or if it is a hen decoy to come follow him. If your decoy is set up at 30 yards this means a minimum of a 40 yard shot and you may have additional barriers to shoot through. I have found that in most instances I like the decoy to be somewhere between 8 and 12 yards from me. This is by no means foolproof, but it seems to work well.

6. Don’t move. The turkey has great vision; however I have found that they have a difficult time picking motionless hunters out. Even the slightest twitch of one’s finger can set a turkey into a tither and rushing out of your decoys 100 times quicker than it ever came in. Turkey blinds on the market today have certainly helped eliminate and hide many of these hunter’s movements and are wonderful in taking youth out turkey hunting, for those long day sits, or when the weather may be poor. There are a couple of keys here that will assist with hiding movement in the blind. First, close any windows that you will not need open as it will help to darken the inside of the blind. Next, make sure to move yourself to the back of the blind from the direction you intend to set your decoys up and will have birds hopefully working in. As stated in number 3 above, many turkeys will work their way into a spread totally stealth. Therefore, it is essential that you reduce movements at all times. If I had a dollar for every bird I have spooked over the years by turning my head or itching my nose… Well, you get the point! Don’t move.

By simply reducing some of the errors made while turkey hunting I am certain that your encounters will drastically increase and with that you will be left holding more birds and less tags in the future. -Gobble-Gobble!

Teaching Our Youth

Teaching my sons and daughter about the wonderful outdoors has been a wonderful experience for all of us. Over the years we have spent numerous hours learning about wildlife through books, walks through the woods with one another during all seasons of the year, learning different calls each animal makes and how we can replicate them, working on blinds together, putting up stands, shooting BB guns, shooting bow, learning about the importance of the food chain, and even sharing a hunt or two together along the way. But, what does this all mean and what purpose does it ultimately serve?

Bringing a youth into the outdoors and giving them the opportunity to hunt serves many purposes, both immediate and into the future for our children. To easily sum up everything that our youth gain from such experiences simply cannot be done, but here’s a number of recognizable points that I have seen that the whole outdoor experience brings with it:
• It teaches them to respect the delicate balance of nature and understand how we, as humans, can not only coexist with nature, but can help it thrive.
• It teaches them man very basic skills and behavioral traits that are often overlooked in today’s society for whatever reason. Some of these include respect, patience, work ethic, dedication, humility, self-discipline, and that there simply is no substitute for hard work.
• An understanding that everything in life is not simply at the snap of a finger and that many times more than naught the best things take time to develop.
• Stewardship.
• Gives them an opportunity to “wind down” from the fast-paced world many of us so frequently get caught up in and spend more valued time with people who share the same passion.
• It teaches them to respect and the safety with firearms and bows, and likewise provides them with the opportunity to learn how to use them as a lifelong skill.
• It provides an understanding and ability to survive off the land.

The bottom line is that it is vital that we continue to educate our youth as this is our future. Take time to teach as it is possibly the most rewarding time you will spend in the outdoors yourself.

–Good Huntin’!

The Pete Buck

The rifle season of 2013 was particularly cold. Following an opening weekend with an arctic blast blowing through that had winds gusting over 30 mph and temperatures hovering right around zero there was only one buck put on the ground in our deer camp and very few deer sighting overall. Monday afternoon I found myself heading out with Pete Pavloski, one of my deceased father-in-law’s very best friends and a good friend of mine. For those who have not met Pete, he is one of the most jovial men I know, is always upbeat, and I truly look forward to hunting with him at least an afternoon or two each rifle season. –If we see deer, great… If we don’t, no big deal… He doesn’t care too much and we always have a good time.

This particular afternoon we were specifically hunting for a certain six point buck that was not only old, but was very respectable by all standards. This buck had been on the official “shoot” list now for three years and he always managed to elude us one way or another. –I cannot recall anyone ever actually having a legitimate shot at this door during rifle season as he would always miraculously disappear mere days before the season and would show back up on camera at an obscure hour sometime after season was complete and the threat of becoming sausage had passed.

We arrived at my father-in-law’s old stand, forever named “John’s Stand”, at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Pete was all set to use John’s old rifle, a sharpshooting Jarrett .300 hand crafted by Kenny Jarrett. This was John’s favorite rifle through the years as it busted more than a few nice whitetail bucks at long distances and was also used in New Mexico on a couple occasions to knock down some fine elk. Pete had shot this gun in prior years with one miss and a kill to his credit. Of course he always talked about the perfect shot he had with it and would usually forget to add the perfect miss he had with it! As I unpacked the vehicle for the afternoon I noticed that the .300 Jarrett was absent. Apparently, Pete had forgot to load the gun into the truck when we left the cabin. With no hesitation I grabbed the “Black Beauty” from the back seat of my truck. Black Beauty was the name my wife had given her Baby Jarrett, another Jarrett that was a bit smaller as it was a .280 Ackley Improved. –This gun is capable of shooting ticks off deer at long ranges! I elected not to even tell Pete that he would be shooting a different gun if it came down to it as I didn’t want him thrown off his game.

We began seeing quite a few deer moving in all directions less than an hour after we arrived in the stand, which was a very welcome sight from the experience that we had over the first two days of the season. I glassed a small hill behind us and I saw movement. Upon further viewing I quickly knew that this deer was the infamous six point even though I had never actually seen him in person, but had seen 100s of shot of him over the years from trailcams. Was it all going to come together this evening? I told Pete to grab the gun and get ready. The buck was going to present himself with a perfect shot at exactly 285 yards. Pete grabbed to the .280 Ackley Improved and asked me where to hold the scope. –I told him to put it exactly where he wanted the bullet to hit as I had the scope zeroed in at 250 yards. Mere seconds later Pete gently squeezed off a round and the buck mule kicked and was gone into the pines. I was not 100% certain of the shot due to the range and the fact that I didn’t have a good rest myself to steady the binoculars while Pete shot. –Nonetheless, I told him it sounded like a hit as I could hear a bullet slap. Pete was worried that he had missed though.

I took the rifle for a walk to where Pete had shot as Pete has a bad hip himself. I told him I would be back after I found the buck. As I approached the spot where the buck was standing when Pete had shot I saw “peel-out” tracks from the buck, but no blood or hair. I then glanced up in the woods and less than thirty yards away the six point was piled up. –A beautiful 100”+ plus seven or eight year old six point buck! Pete was absolutely exctatic as he not only shot a great buck, but had put a perfect heart shot on him. I am sure that the story now is something like, “The buck was 450 yards away and on a dead run when I put him down with a perfect heart shot.” I can certainly go along with that story, Pete! I am sure John was up in heaven laughing his butt off at you while watching you fret about the possible miss you had in your mind.