Saturday Blog Rodeo 9/26/09

© 2009 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Today is
National Hunting and Fishing Day!

So stop reading this, grab a fishing rod or shotgun and get outside!
(Then come back and read this...)

Well, here is another Saturday and it is time for another Rodeo!

I've picked out posts that I especially enjoyed this week from the hundreds of blogs I follow. Remember if you bump into a post you especially like, drop me a note and I'll include it in the Rodeo. You can even feel free to copy this whole post and run it on your own blog; always nice to give a little link love to our fellow bloggers!

Blog Rodeo: 9/26/09

Sometimes it is Hard to See the Forest... is another great post by Doug over at Harris' Hawk Blog. Giving a lot of thought to the issues of hunting, conservation, and animal rights, Doug sifts through the chaff and separates the misinformation from the facts.

The Reluctant Paladin has an artistic streak a mile long, go check out some of his projects, and get a look at his hand carved stockwork in Paladin's Assorted Crap #5. It's awesome!

My Favorite Marlin brings us a great, short essay: Bush Living by Sharron Chatterton. Eloquent, direct, and full of insight, it is a must read this Saturday morning.

Brigid writes so well on her blog, Home on the Range, that quite frankly I'm embarrassed to call my blog written. Anyway, Brigid has a post that knocks the socks off of almost everything else she has written. I Am a Shooter should be in those high school literature anthologies. The prose is flawless, the content unique, the meaning unmistakable. I mean, she even knows who Clausewitz is! How HOT is that! (Oh, and check out the recipe list on the right hand side while you're at it.)

Resident OBS falconer Doug has a another great post on conservation and animal rights extremism on his blog Harris' Hawk Blog. Doug has been putting some great posts together on the subject, one of which I highlighted last week. This week he follows up with Giving Conservation a Bad Name, another post that neatly dissects the issue.

As usual we have our resident security expert Bore Patch dishing out the important stuff. Security Smorgasbord, Vol 1, No. 2 covers an "interesting mix of security news, from the concrete (could very well effect you) to the esoteric." You would be well advised to visit him, and often!

My man Caleb got his first bow deer! I couldn't believe it when his post popped up on my reader, and I couldn't be more tickled! Stop by his blog and lets congratulate him! My First Bow Deer Caleb is working real hard, not only on his hunting, but his writing skills also. Let's give him some support and encouragement!

Rick follows up on After the Shot with After the Shot Part 2, and After the Shot Part 3. All three are well written and worth the time to read.

I can't say it any better than Josh in You Can't Sell Conservation at Ethics and the Environment: "We often appreciate the older guns, the leather and oilskin products whose wear and scars don't come at the factory, but from years of reliable use. We admire maintaining and becoming familiar with our equipment. We strive for self-sufficiency."

Making Wine and Riding the Dragon; isn't that a great title? Mr Hank gives us his perspective on the process, both physical and metaphysical, that goes into wine making. Honest writing about honest food from the Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook.

The Reluctant Paladin reminds us in Fork in the Road, that vigilance must be eternal. Right in his own back yard so-to-speak, a thug wanna-be jihadist, attempted to blow up a building.

Well that about wraps it up for this Saturday. Beats me what's in store for everyone next week, but I'm sure I can come up with at least one contentious post!

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

National Hunting and Fishing Day is Tomorrow!

$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

What are you Doing Tomorrow,
On National Hunting and Fishing Day?

Well my friends, tomorrow is National Hunting and Fishing Day! Don't let it go by without doing something outdoor related.

In case you don't know what to do, or you just weren't able to plan anything even though I've been reminding you for the last couple of weeks, never fear! The folks at NHFD have kindly put together a huge list of events for every state of the Union.

The National Hunting and Fishing Day Events list is available here.

For instance here in Florida, one of the activities is The University of Florida's Wildlife Expo that is being held by the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service with the help of some fine sponsors including Buckmasters, The National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, the National Rifle Association, the Florida Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation Commission and Alabama Game and Fish.

This year’s event will have information and activities for the entire family. We are striving to have an outdoor experience through a variety of topics on wildlife, food sources, ATV and shooting safety, and current hunting regulations for Alabama and Florida. Demonstrations will also be ongoing that include some native wildlife and birds, archery, equipment use and scoring antlers correctly. The kids will have a lure casting competition in the afternoon and there will be raffles, prizes and lots of food, entertainment and fun. Come out and meet the professional biologists and other speakers that will be present at the Expo, learn a lot more about the outdoors, and just have a good time.

So go and get out there and introduce, or reintroduce someone to the delightful activities of the great outdoors. Get off the couch, those football games will still be there when you get back!

For more information, visit www.nhfday.org.

Related posts on The National Hunting and Fishing Day:

National Hunting and Fishing Day
Three Big Reasons
Hunting Facts and Figures
Hunter's Contributions Exceed 5 Billion Dollars
Hunter and Angler Fact

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Making Wine and Riding the Dragon

.

Blog Posts of Note

Just a quick "Check it out."

Hank, super duper wild food chef of Honest Food / Hunter, Angler,Gardener, Cook has posted a really neat monograph on wine making that is super neat.

Making Wine and Riding the Dragon

Now as you all know, I think the world of Holly. So I was a little surprised when Hank asked her to crush the grapes old-school style.

I have always assumed Holly walked on water, so how was this going to work out?

Well as it turns out, I believe that Holly suspended the laws of physics for the crushing; problem solved, wine making continues, and all things are as they should be.

Close one...

Best regards,
Albert

Quality Deer Management in Florida

© 2009 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5. trochronicles.blogspot.com

QDM in Florida
Bigger Bucks, Better Herds

The history of trophy whitetails is pretty short in the Sunshine State. I believe that there are only two in the Boone and Crockett book, the 1941 Clark Durrance buck from Wakulla County, which scored 201 3/8 points in the all-time record book. The second is the Henry Brinson buck from 1959 out of Jackson County, and that deer scored 186 1/8. Now as it turns out, both of these are non-typical racks and as of right now, there are no typical racks in the B&C books that I am aware of.

The Pope and Young books are a little more populated than the B&C books, but still slim none -the-less. 13 bucks have made it into the archery only books from Florida. The Largest Florida buck in the books is Robert Ballard's, taken in Columbia County in 1980. It scored 153 4/8 points.

Image Credit: Kathleen

There have been several more deer that haven't been recorded but are either well known like the Green Swamp buck, or just haven't been registered by their owners. Even taking that into consideration, they do not amount to more than a few dozen, and most of those in the low range of 120 to 130 points.

If you are hunting public land exclusively, historically there are only three counties that you can consider: Alachua County is number one, followed by Brevard and Putnam counties. But if you look at the most recent “Big Bucks,” bucks that score over 120 on the Florida Buck Registry you will find that Hamilton County has 10 bucks in the last three years, Jackson County with nine, Jefferson County has seven, and Alachua County rounds it out with six in the same three years.

Photo Credit: Joe Povenz
All of these counties are in the northern tier, and where the soils are better, the bucks have a better chance of growing bigger. The rest of Florida, with its poor soils and high rainfall produces abundant, but poor-quality vegetation. Better soil means better forage, which means better nutrition, and better growth potential for those deer. The majority of quality bucks come from QDM (Quality Deer Management) managed properties where both soil and plants are managed for maximum nutrition, and the deer are managed to promote healthy populations. In central and southern Florida, the only way to produce a better herd and bigger bucks is by taking a direct role in managing for those results.

Other parts of Florida can ameliorate the lack of nutritional forage by instituting a carefully thought out plan that increases the nutrition available to the deer. A site analysis and inventory should be done in order to understand what the property has available to it, and what it lacks in.

Photo Credit: Blair Nixon

Remember that the quality of forage can vary widely, even within close proximity. Florida soils are also notoriously variable, and in many places there is only a thin veneer of organic matter and vegetation over sand. Proper husbandry of the soil, with the application of appropriate minerals, and the sowing of plants that helps the soil and at the same time provide quality forage, should be an important component of the quality deer management plan. Supplemental feeding of the appropriate feed, and the establishment of food plots that supply year round nutritional forage, can be instrumental in producing exceptional bucks for the area.

Credit: Koubian
But deer don't get big if they die young. Remember that in most of the country, 80 percent of all bucks taken are yearlings less than 1 ½ years old. With uncontrolled taking of these bucks it is unlikely that any potentially exceptional deer will survive.

As a result of this, many properties have instituted strict deer management guidelines that are followed to allow the younger deer to grow. Most bucks will not maximize their potential until they reach 4 to 5 years of age, and their ultimate size won't peak until 6 ½ years!. The age of the buck is the determining factor of the size of the buck's rack. By purposely avoiding shooting any young deer most property managers can see an increase in the number of older, larger bucks on their properties.

PhotoCredit: Jeffrodsj
In addition, it is imperative that the adult sex ratio be kept in line with the management goals. Initially a 2 to 1 doe to buck ratio should be pursued, with the goal of 1 to 1 as the future target. This will require careful observations, trail cameras, observation cards from fellow hunters, and even the use of a wildlife biologist.

Antlerless deer culling is one of the three most important steps that need to be taken. With a deer herd kept in check by best management practices, with a healthy sex ratio, the number of bucks actually increases. This of course requires a change in hunting practices, you will have to take more does, so make sure everyone is on board.

Again, your quality deer management program can be no better than the data collected. Every management program should have a “Check-in Station” where every deer taken must be brought in for the collection of information. It could be as formal as a clubhouse located right on the property, to one of the members garages where everyone stops by and the data is collected accurately and completely. Data from deer killed should include date the deer was taken, deer identification number if available, sex, age (jawbone), weight, lactation and antler measurements. Not commonly known, the dressed weight of fawns and yearlings, is the best indication of overall herd condition rather than the live weight.

Note: Materials needed to stock and equip a check station are available through the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA; 1-800-209-3337) or Forestry Suppliers, Inc. (1-800-647-5368)

A PDF for the Check-In Station for data collection will be available soon for downloading here at TROC.

PhotoCredit: FDLReporter

Fond du Lac County Buck

Instituting a Quality Deer Management programs for not only high quality deer, but a healthy and productive herd, are well within the reach of Florida land owners, lease managers, and hunting aficionados. The keys are limiting the number of young bucks killed to the very minimum, sound nutrition, and a balanced adult sex ratio. Time is a necessary component, with discipline and patience its counterpart. You need time to see the results of your efforts, along with patience to see it through. Discipline, both in data gathering and trigger control are requisite to getting the results you want.

Though he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert is actually a biologist. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN.com.


Albert A Rasch
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

The Weekly Rut Report with Larry Weishuhn 9/24

WEEKLY RUT REPORT
9/24 through 10/1

by Larry Weishuhn, "Mr. Whitetail"

Hey Albert!

I spent most of this past week in Saskatchewan, Canada experiencing record high temperatures looking for whitetails. Tough…. seems to be the best term to describe the endeavor. I was after one particular deer in an area where there was a very low deer density. To see how I coped with temperatures higher than those I left in southern Texas, underbrush so thick I could only see about 10 to 12 feet in most instances with the exceptions of some prairie areas, you’ll have to watch the 2010 Winchester World of Whitetail with Larry Weishuhn shows (produced by Orion Multimedia) which appear on Versus.

In my travels this past week I did have the opportunity to visit with whitetail hunters from throughout North America. Optimism is high as we start the fall and with good reason. Range conditions relative to whitetails have been exremely good throughout much of North America during the “antler growing season”. The result will be big antlers.

I’ve heard of a 230 plus non-typical taken in southern Saskatachewan with a bow. And while I was in Canada, upon my return I received an email from Oak Creek Whitetails in Missouri that one of their hunters took a new world record estate typical, taken with a handgun. The deer reportedly scored 250 SCI! I’ll be hunting on this same property for a Winchester of Whitetail World show later this fall. And you might have seen the hunt we did there last year on the current crop of shows on Versus, if so you’ll understand why I’m going back.

No doubt it’s going to be a great antler year in most parts of North America. Throughout most of North America bucks by now have pretty well shed their velvet and the early pre-rut has started.

Charlie Walter from northern Kentucky sent me photo of great whitetail he took with his bow and with it mentioned the bachelor herds in his area are starting to split up and that he is starting to see some scrapes and a lot of rubs. Obviously the early pre-rut is starting in that part of the country. I got a report this morning (September 24) from George Winslow with Bullseye Outfitting that bucks are doing much the same on properties he hunts in both central Illinois and also over in Ohio.

Over in central Kansas Stan Christiansen said he’s starting to see more and more bucks coming into the soybean fields and that the bucks while still coming into the fields sometimes in small bachelor herds seem to be demanding more and more space. He also said he’s seeing active scrapes and rubs. He has also seen some minor sparring matches.

Bang Collins who outfits and hunts the lowlands of South Carolina where the hunting season has been going on for a while says it seems to him “things” are a little ahead of their normal schedule. Bucks are free of velvet, bachelor herds have broken up or are breaking up. “We’re seeing a lot of rubs and scrapes. In the past we’ve even seen a few bucks chasing does by the last days of September and early October, but it’s only the bucks that are interested and not the does.”

Back in central Missouri, Marc Shoenfield reports he’s seeing a lot of does in the urban areas but not many bucks at this point. He expects this to change as the pre-rut gets underway. Down in Texas and northern Mexico the area has finally gotten some rain, but it came to late for antler development and to help with fawn survival rates. But in visiting with Trey Moore with the Los Cazadores Deer Contest he reports “Ranchers in the area have seen some extremely big bucks, even though as a whole antler development may be down a bit, particularly in younger bucks. Our Managed Land Permit season is about to start. Once it does we’ll have a much better idea. Bucks here have shed their velvet, and I’ve talked to several property owners who tell me their seeing bachelor herds and a few newly opened scrapes and a fair amount of rubs, as the bucks start strengthening their neck muscles.”

I had an interesting email from Bill Clark in southern Florida. He provided me with information just released by Florida wildlife biologists in regards to whitetail breeding dates. In Florida’s Zone A in the southern part of the state the breeding dates for whitetails run from July 21 thru September 15. In Zone B in central Florida the whitetail breeding dates are November 5 thru February 6. In Zone C also in central Florida the breeding dates run form September 11 thru November 23. While in Zone D, the Panhandle area the breeding dates run from January 1 thru February 22nd. Those extended dates might well make Florida the state that has the longest whitetail rut!

I have to admit the “Versus Weekly Whitetail Rut Report” has been a learning experience for me, as well as I hope it has been for you.

My personal website is finally up and running. (www.LarryWeishuhnTV.com)

If you get a chance I hope you’ll stop by for a visit.

I’m headed to the range in a few minutes to make certain my T/C Encore .460 S&W Magnum (I’ll be using it as a .454 Casull, shooting Winchester’s new 260 grain Dual Bond ammo) and my .30-06 pistols in preparation for my first Texas whitetail hunt of the year on the 4C Ranch near Pearsall. If you’ve not checked the zero on your firearms lately, may I suggest you do so now.

Thanks again,
Larry