Week Five

Kimmie and her hog.

Here we are at week five but I didn’t get to add to the list this week the new job kept me busy during the week and it was juvenile weekend here in Tennessee. I did get out to sight in a few muzzle loaders to get ready for opening day on the 5th and spent time getting ready for Rudy @Huntography to get here Wednesday night. We will be filming on Thursday and Friday for the #Deertour and maybe I will get a chance to take one on camera. I did get to look over a new farm that is over 600 acres where a big 10 was seen a couple of days ago, I got invited to hunt it opening morning of muzzle loader. Not only is the big 10 there but it is supposed to be covered in does. The bad part it is covered in trespassers, too. But the game warden is supposed to be out there checking opening weekend so they better be fast.

As I am writing this Sunday night @writinghuntress is recovering her 6 pt she took on camera during her first day on the #Deertour, still waiting on pics. @BigBuckPw took a couple of more does this week, one on his part of the #Deertour. @A_Reel_Lady took a big 8 this week with her muzzle loader. @Ryan5Bass took another doe. @BigBrother10 took a doe. @skullboundtv oldest son Walker took a bull elk on public land with a 501 yard shot. One of the guys hunting with @Cajun_Seasoning took a nice 8 in Louisiana. I tried to find out who’s wife killed her first deer this week a BIG 8 but couldn’t before time to post but congrats to her anyway. @Cajun_Seasoning passed on a cow horn spike but got a coyote to go with his bobcat from last week. @msargentphoto son doubled down this week on deer. @turkeythompson took two big pigs. @kimmieDG got a nice pig and had it on the grill in less than an hour. @ForemostOutdoor got his first bow kill this weekend. @centexhunter went north and got a mule deer. These are some good folks to follow on Twitter if you are there.

Chris with his first bow kill


I can’t wait for Wednesday and my first chance to meet Rudy in person, not as thrilled about being on camera. Probably one of the few people out there that hunts as hard as I do that doesn’t want his own TV show but to be part of a documentary that shows real hunters doing it the way most folks do I wouldn’t pass up for anything. Even negotiated it into my job before I was hired, work 2 ½ weeks and take a 4 day weekend to hunt J. I hope we can get some good footage even if I don’t get a shot two days goes by fast.

Saturday starts our muzzle loader season and I plan on doing as much damage as possible. I have 4 doe tags in Unit A and 42 in Unit L before gun season opens when I will still have something like 126 doe tags left for Unit L but only 1 buck tag left for the year so I will be doing some passing on bucks. Does on the other hand should beware because I have several families that need food and they are it. My goal is to get 8 before the end of the season so wish me luck.

Good luck everyone, be safe and be sure to wear your harness.

Week Three

Week three sees me back in this spot. Found a big rub nearby and another hunter a few hundred yards away in a nice looking spot. Hope he gets some there.


Week three has seen most of us settling into the hunt. Well, it is week three for me, for others it is week one and for some places it is muzzle loader already. Several friends have scored this week, I will try to get them listed but they have been busy so if I miss you, Sorry, I’m old and forgetful.

@BigBuckPW Rob Freyer continues to lay them down, this week it was a double on does during an afternoon hunt. @t_marsh83 dropped a nice 8 pt, his first deer in four years. @sfritz took an 8 pt. @mkotzum thumped one Sunday morning early just as I started to write this a nice spike at 2 yards. @SkinnyDman got a nice doe the same afternoon Rob Freyer got his double. @deer_commander got a bit sidetracked and shot a 200 lb hog or it might have been his Dad but either way I wish I had done it. I’m ready to go pig hunting. @HuntingStories did a spot and stalk on a doe while I was writing, guess he wanted in this week. @GlennClute took a nice 8 pt on public land near me Saturday afternoon but I just found out so he is a late addition. Congrats to everyone and if I didn’t list you sorry but you will make the wrap up I promise.

There were a couple of near misses by folks. @MonicaJo4 gave one a shave while trying for her first bow kill. She will take a ribbing for that for awhile :0). I don’t think there were any turkeys or coyotes taken this week but one gray squirrel was with a 20 yard shot. Sometimes you just can’t take any more abuse from treerats. I swear I remember a moose or few taken and I know some folks are elk hunting, too. Remember folks the @ symbol with their name will let you find and follow them on Twitter.

Saturday October 15th sees the start of the @Huntography Deer Tour. It is kicking off in Wisconsin so if you use Twitter just check the hashtag #deertour for updates. Good luck to all the hunters on the tour this year. It is also the start of our fall turkey season so I have 14 days to see if I can get one with a shotgun or in my case a muzzle loading shotgun.

I have been sneaking out for a morning and evening hunt on the new farm and I’m seeing tons of turkeys plus deer. I went out Wednesday afternoon to hunt the tree where I got the cull buck Friday, I wanted to see if a doe or the 6 pt would come out. I got set up only to have a bunch of new cows released into the field behind me. I don’t mind them but these wouldn’t shut up so I could hear. Then about an hour into my set some guys start driving the treeline about 100 yards away checking for trespassers.

These are the same guys that messed up my hunt the night before when they decided to set a shooting house in a field just about the time I had been seeing a couple of bucks. They received a good cussing both times and both times I stayed in the stand after they left. The difference on Wednesday was the deer did come out. As I sat there tweeting with some friends saying I was getting down, I had had enough, everything got quiet again. I told myself might as well stay a little longer just to see what happened. I had already seen about 30 turkeys and thought maybe the deer was ease back in.

After maybe 30 minutes I saw what I thought was a cowhorn spike come out, right behind him was the little 4 point I see there all the time. They made the left turn toward me like they always do when sun hit the rack on the first one I knew it was the 6 I had jumped the first day. Now it was on, I have never taken a 6 and he had a nice rack. I got ready, waiting for them to feed down the soy bean row. The 6 came down, stopped at 35 yards broadside, looked like a backyard target. I drew, set my pin and touched the release. Just about 5 yards from him the arrow hit some Johnson grass and went who knows where. SOB!!

He ran about 30 yards, stopped to look back at what ever it was. His buddy was standing there looking at him like he was nuts for running. As soon as he stopped I knew what was coming. I have taken more than a few because curiosity got to them, this one had all the signs. I nocked another arrow then watched as he circled, stuck his nose in the air trying to find a scent always focused on where he was standing and never looking my way. He went behind a big cedar where I couldn’t see him but I knew he wasn’t leaving yet. He would either turn in front of the tree which would put him at 13 yards in front of me or slip into the woods at 16 yards. I watched as he slid into the woods and stopped perfectly broadside. When he did I drew, tucked the pin in tight to the shoulder and shot. I heard the hit, he took off tail down only to run about 40 yards just into a field then crashed.

I was thrilled. I had wanted this buck since I first saw him. He had a regular path he walked every afternoon and that combined with curiosity got him. I had watched him fall but habits run deep. I got down to look for my arrow and blood. I couldn’t find my arrow but did find a trail so I tracked it around to the field edge looking for the arrow until I saw him laying in the weeds a few yards away. When I walked up to him I saw my arrow had passed through but still had about 3 inches inside. This one continues my year of WTH shots. He was PERFECTLY broadside when I shot but the arrow exited at the next to last rib on the other side. When I skinned him the entry is in the shoulder but then hit the middle of the ribs on the near side. I can’t imagine how that arrow did what it did. Nothing about the path makes sense but it did the job and that’s what counts I guess.

The funny part was when I went to get my truck the guys I had cussed were parked in a field just across the fence. I yelled to them and we talked then I said I was going to load up my deer, telling them to come check him out. They drove around, introduced themselves and one of the first things said was “Boy, I bet you were cussing us.” I laughed and said yes I did. Then to make up for it they loaded my deer for me. Really good guys and now I know who is hunting next to me. Locals that know everyone around there.

I know a lot of the people that hunt areas where anything less than 150 inch deer isn’t worth a mention but here this deer is was better than many 8-10 pts I see. High racked matched on both sides, big, healthy, beautiful. He might not go 100 inches and I could care less. He was also number 45 for me. I realized as I looked at my journal I have taken every one of my best bucks with a bow, kinda proud of that. As I checked him in I ran into another guy, Mike Cunnigham, who was checking in a nice 7 pt he had just taken. Pretty deer and congrats to Mike.

Good luck everyone and be safe. Keep posting so I can add my friends to the weekly list.

Taste A Legend Review

With folks out putting critters in the freezer and all of the talk about hitting the grill I got lucky to be asked to try some marinades made for game. Melissa at Taste A Legend got in touch with me an asked if I would like to review what she makes which I was glad to do.

When it arrived I found several different bottles of marinade each formulated for a different type of meat along with a package of wild rice and a dry rub/seasoning mix. The first thing you notice is the packaging looks good, better than a lot of what you find at the store. I checked the ingredients list along with the cooking instructions to see how they suggested I use each type. The only problem I ran into, this was just before I took a deer so I didn’t have any venison for the first test. I did have some squirrels so decided to start with that using the marinade for chicken, pork, beef and lamb.

I marinated the meat for several hours only to realize I couldn’t grill that night. Great, since it says to grill. I baked it instead which is not the way I would do it again. My fault not theirs’. When I tasted it for the first time I will say it is not subtle, this is made for game which tends to be stronger than squirrel. The seasoning is so different from what we have here it took a couple of bites to be able to really taste what was going on. To me it has a strong influence of the Southwest, spices with lime and lemon, not spicy just bold. This blend has two of my favorites, basil and rosemary, which I grow to use on game. Despite my cooking it in the oven rather than on the grill it had a good taste. The smoke and texture from grilling would have made a huge difference which I found out later.

I managed to get a deer so next up was some Tennessee surf and turf. I had a channel catfish fillet ready to go along with a cut from the deer. The fillet was from a larger cat which tends to have a strong flavor which I am not a fan of. I normally spice these heavily to kill the fishy taste this time I put it into the fish marinade for 4 hours. For the venison I used the dry spices which I put on about 45 minutes before going on the grill.

I have to say it sure smelled good while cooking. The fish came off with a nice crust, the venison like a good steak. I didn’t add anything, no salt, oil, anything to change the taste. The fish marinade reminded me of one of my favorite things I use to cook fish, a friend from Japan introduced me to a Japanese BBQ sauce which is soy sauce based. Taste A Legend has a nice mild flavor but managed to tame the strong taste of the channel cat. Now this is saying a lot for a southern boy. While I love food from all over the world we have two ways to cook here, fried and on special occasions deep fried. Grilled fish has to be good for me to enjoy it and this was. I will use a higher heat next time to get a bit more crunch but the taste was good just as it was.

For the venison using the dry mix I grilled it to medium rare. I used a cut that wasn’t the best to see how the spices held up, I really liked this. Not salty or too strong and with smoke from the grill it sure made that venison taste good. I am a fan of using dry rubs, over the years I have used many commercial and custom blends, this one worked right out of the bottle. Again to me it tends to the Southwest tastes which I don’t get much here and was a nice change from what we use. Nothing hot or too spicy for the folks that can’t take the heat but a good well rounded flavor when grilled. I want to try it again with some vegetables on the grill to see how that works.

The first three flavors I tried from Taste A Legend were good and I can’t wait to try them again since now I know what to expect and how to use them. The first that I put on squirrel had a bold intense flavor and next time I will use it on meat that can take the strength. I can see on something like lamb or goat it would be the thing to use, I bet chicken grilled with it then used for tacos would be great. The dry rub was just plain good, I think I will stick to using it for when I have something to grill, it just seems to get better with the smoke added. The fish marinade is going to go fast here. I need to grill more fish but don’t like most of it no matter what is on it but this makes it into something I enjoyed. I have a lot of strong catfish that will be visiting the grill in the near future thanks to this sauce plus keep me from frying it.

I still have more marinades and their rice blend to try, I will get some cooking done so I can let you know how they do. Taste A Legend is a company that has the hunter and fisherman in mind with their flavors. They understand that wild game can take and at times needs flavors that can stand up to the strength of the meat. If you want some new bold tastes for your cooking I think you will enjoy what Taste A Legend has done.