Gorilla Stands Recalls EXO-Tech Safety Harness

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Gorilla Inc have announced a recall of the fall restraint system “EXO-Tech Safety Harness”.

The webbing of the waist belt on the safety harness is not routed through the lineman’s loop located on the front of the harness near waist level. Since the loops are not properly anchored to the harness webbing but are attached only through stitching not intended to restrain a user during a fall, they that can pull away from the harness when force is applied, leaving the user unrestrained.

Anyone that has this system should stop using it and contact Gorilla Inc about a refund.

: For additional information, contact Gorilla Inc. at (877) 685-7817 between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s Web site at www.gorillatreestands.com. Consumers can also write to the firm at Gorilla, Inc., P.O. 378, Flushing, MI., 48433 or 3475 Eastman Drive, Flushing, MI. 48433.

Accidental Fall From Tree Makes Opening Day In Allegany County Bitter Sweet

He laid in a crumpled mess at the base of the tree just moments before he had been 30 feet up it on the opening morning of the muzzleloader season. He had some luck and he still had his cell phone if he could only get his son who was hunting nearby he could get help. Cell service reception is tricky in these parts so getting a signal was his only hope.

CJ woke to the sound of his boys that were anxious to go deer hunting. The alarmed failed to go off but the boys weren’t going to let their Dad sleep through the opening day of deer season. They rushed around and got loaded up and headed for the hunting lease. A couple of close calls on the road with deer crossing were a pretty good sign because they knew the deer were moving.

As a hunter safety instructor and a Dad hunting safety is something CJ constantly stressed with his boys. The tradition of hunting had been passed down through the generations in their family. CJ growing up in New York and the proud hunting heritage passed down through the men he met as a boy in the Adirondack hunting camps. This had come a full circle as CJ’s sons are now learning about hunting the heritage, traditions and the important lessons of safety.

The sound of the 54 Caliber CVA Bobcat cracked across the mountain as the bullet found its mark dropping the buck in his tracks. CJ heard the shot and he was certain it was his son Bud. Cj was hopeful as he dug out the radio to call Bud and see if he was successful. The radio crackled back with Bud’s response “Dead on impact” CJ was excited this was Bud’s first muzzleloader deer as he prepared to climb out of the stand to go help him.

It had been a while since the fall…maybe an hour… but the cell phone had work and now help was on the way. A son now raced to get help to save his father’s life. Because of all the rain Ida had dumped back country travel was difficult at best. He met the first EMT on the road and he climbed on the back of the 4 wheeler with his jump kit as they raced back up the mountain to the accident scene. The sounds of sirens now filled the air as rescuers began to gear up for what they hoped was a life saving mission.
The sound of the fast moving 4 wheeler and sirens attracted CJ and his boys they intercepted the 4 wheeler going up the mountain and that is when they discovered that Chris’s dad had fallen out of the tree and was seriously injured. Chris continued up the mountain as CJ went down to load additional rescuers and equipment on his jeep to get them to the scene.

Chris was home on leave from the Marines due to ship out soon for Afghanistan. The plans to enjoy a day of hunting with his Dad had taken an ugly turn. Now an all out effort by hunters and rescuers to get Rick Lyons out of the woods and to the hospital was all anyone would focus on because Rick’s life depended on them working together to get him off the mountain.
CJ knew kind of the general area where the stand was but not the exact location so there was some anxious moments as they arrived in the area. “We’ve got to get there he is having difficulty breathing” one of the rescuer’s stated CJ stopped and got out and yelled and they got a response so they could pin point the location.

Much of what happened after that is a bit of a blur but a pickup truck was able to get in there and Rick was loaded on it and taken out. Almost three hours after it began the rescue helicopter took off to airlift Rick to Johnson City Tennessee.

Rick remains hospitalized with multiple broken bones including vertebra’s in his neck and back, ribs, shoulder, and a broken leg. Please keep Rick in your prayers that he’ll make a full recovery from this horrible accident.
CJ called me last night and told me this story. He said it was pretty hard day hunting because they were excited about Bud getting his first deer with a muzzleloader and the joy was short lived when the accident happened. The use of a safety belt / fall restraint system could have reduced the level of injuries and possible prevented the accident entirely. So guys wear your safety belts.

Hunters Should Be Cautious As Remnants of Ida Grip the State

Late season hurricane Ida hit the gulf coast earlier this week but the remnants of this storm our now stalled over North Carolina and the Mid Atlantic states. Parts of North Carolina are expected to get up to 7 inches of rain before this system clears out. In addition to heavy rains the state is experiencing high winds with gusts in excess of 45 mph. This is a deadly combination as trees are toppling over after ground saturation erodes the integrity of the root system and the high winds just push the trees over.

Chilly, windy, rainy

“It’s going to be chilly, windy and rainy today,” said WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner. “It’s the gusts that are really kicking up out there.”
Wednesday was the third-wettest day recorded at Raleigh-Durham International Airport since 1944, according to WRAL meteorologist Nate Johnson.
The storm that started the week as Hurricane Ida weakened Tuesday after making landfall in southern Alabama. It was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved east over the Florida panhandle.
Moisture from that system joined forces with a cold front and a separate low pressure system off the coast of North and South Carolina to produce a nor’easter that will continue to dump rain on the eastern half of the state into Friday.
“The rain will probably be lighter and spotter on Friday, but still there,” said WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel.

WRAL

With signs of the rut beginning to kick in as well as it being the week of muzzleloader season across the center part of the state many people including myself has taken this week off to hunt. Hunters hunting from treestands should be aware that the tree they are hunting out of may not be stable and could potentially topple over. Other hazards include flash flooding as rain continues to fall.

People need to be safe and carefully consider whether or not hunting in their particular area can be done safely. I did not hunt yesterday nor did I venture out yet this morning. I do have plans to hunt this afternoon but if conditions are not safe I will forgo the hunt to be safe.
People should be cautious and carefully check things out before driving across any flooded areas and before climbing into a tree.
Be Safe

Muzzleload Eve I Can Hardly Wait

Opening of the central muzzleloader season here in North Carolina is just hours away and I can’t wait. Like a kid on Christmas Eve I anticipate what the season will bring. This has been a busy week getting things wrapped up at work because I have all of next week off as well as getting things ready to go to deer camp. The weather looks like it will cooperate as the forecasters are predicting the first killing frost of the season for Saturday morning. Nothing like a sunrise on a crisp autumn morning as the steamy moisture rises off the frosty leaves to greet the warm sunshine. I don’t even need to see a deer and I know I’ll enjoy it but I’m hopeful the deer will show up around my stand. I hope I enjoy success like I did on the opening of the Eastern Muzzleloader.
I have the week off from work and I plan to be hunting fool next week. But don’t worry I got some obligations that will drag me in from outdoors so I suspect I’ll get some posts up and keep you updated on how the hunting is going.

Dog Hunting Declining Across the South East?

I’ll admit that I’ve never hunted deer with dogs but I’m hopefully going to get out on a dog hunt this season and see what it is all about. In the local newspaper this week Fred Bonner talks about the decline of this sport. This is the second article I’ve seen this season about this topic and it is sad to see a local cultural hunting tradition go by the wayside and the poor economy seems to be hasting its demise.

For the deer hunters who chose to have their hounds chase the deer the conditions couldn’t have been more ideal. It was damp enough that the deer’s scent hung close to the ground and it was cool enough to make it comfortable for both the hunters and the dogs.

That’s why I was surprised to find relatively few deer hunters out there with their dogs on the opening day of the season. Ordinarily we’d see truck after truck loaded with dog boxes, two-way radio antennas, tracking antennas and elevated stands lining the roads in the more rural areas Down east. I started to wonder just what was wrong here.

He goes on a bit later in the article to point out some of the pressures on this sport.

The national economy is playing a large part in having a change in the way deer hunters carry out their sport. This seems to be particularly true in the case of the deer hunters who choose to hunt with the aid of dogs.

Dog owners who formerly owned several trained deer hounds found the price of keeping these dogs was getting really expensive. Between the price of dog food and the medications that keep the dog healthy the hunters simply found themselves in a financial pinch. When it comes down to a choice between feeding and keeping healthy their families versus several large hunting dogs, the families won out.

Garner News

Dog hunting is a long standing tradition in this part of the country and it would be a shame if that tradition was to be lost. Even hunters like myself who don’t use hounds to hunt deer should tread lightly as dog hunters get squeezed out because we could be next. I realize that there are issues around the use of hounds. Most often conflict arises when the dogs get off the land they are suppose to be on and run on land they are not suppose to be. Unfortunately the hunters causing the conflicts are often the ones that draw the most attention and thus cause negative prejudices against this hunting tradition.
Read the whole article Fred Bonner wrote and see if you can learn a little bit about this tradition. I hope to get out an experience a hound hunt this season and I’ll report back here on my experience.

Monster Buck Taken In Minnesota at Camp Ripley

Scott O’Konek has arrowed what is likely the new Minnesota State Record when he killed a 32 point buck while hunting at Camp Ripley.

The proof of O’Konek’s proficiency with a bow and arrow hangs on his walls, but his latest shot will more than likely land him in the record book.

“I was like, that thing is something else, ya know! I’ve never seen one that big,” O’Konek recalled.

On the first day of the special lottery archery hunt at Camp Ripley, he arrowed a 32-point, non-typical whitetail buck. One perfect arrow from 44 yards away.

The initial “green score” of the animal’s antlers, registered a score of 228.

If the buck’s scoring holds two months from now when the antlers are fully dried, O’Konek’s whitetail buck will be the largest non-typical rack ever taken by archery in Minnesota. It would score nearly two points higher than the current record holder.

WCCO

You’ve got to go check out the photo gallery on this buck that Field & Stream has set up. I’d probably fall out of the tree if I saw this bad boy walking towards me. Congratulations to Scott on taking a really nice buck.

Bad Economy Hits Deer Hunters?

Downeast where the deer season is in full swing reports of empty campgrounds and not many hunters on the Game Lands may be a result of the bad economy. These areas are prime dog hunting areas where the thick cover is difficult to hunt without the aid of a deer hound.
Outdoor writer Mike Marsh reported on this in the Star News this week getting the following quote from Vic French biologist with North Carolina Wildlife Commission.

“People can’t afford to go hunting,” he said. “A lot of the hunters who used to keep dogs don’t do it any longer. People who used to drive here to hunt are staying closer to home or doing other things that are less expensive.”

Mike further reports that the Game Land’s Campground was virtually empty when in the past it would be full.

With unemployment running in double digits and many folks getting laid off I think people have scaled back on hunting expenses. I think many will still hunt but they are apt to hunt closer to home. I have not had anyone tell me they are not hunting this year so I’m not sure why such a drastic drop seems to be happening down east especially on Game Lands where rising lease costs would not factor in for hunters there.

It will be interesting to see what the harvest numbers look like at the end of the season because many folks I believe will need to kill some deer to make ends meet. I think a deer that may of gotten a pass in previous years may find itself on the dinner table feeding hungry folks.

Deer Will You Pick Up Some Milk On Your Way Home?

Small deer was found wandering in the local grocery store;

Garner, N.C. — A deer found itself in the frozen food aisle of a Garner grocery store Tuesday.

The manager of the Lowes Foods, at 1845 Aversboro Road, said the animal exited the store safely. She did not know how the deer got in the store.

WRAL

This is the same store I shop in so who knows maybe next week they’ll have a photo of Moose in the Ice Cream aisle.

The Meat Hunt

A few weeks ago my buddy Brian (NC St8) called me wanting to know if I was up for a Game Lands Hunt? Sure I said that should be fun. Part of me questioned my sanity about agreeing to this hunt. My only hope was that NC St8 could find a few others to join us so we could spread the fun around.

NC St8 is a fun guy to hunt with but probably one of the luckiest / unluckiest hunter I’ve ever come across. He’ll get his critter (lucky part) but along the way he’ll have a calamity of errors (unlucky part) that you wouldn’t believe could befall one individual. With that as the backdrop I knew this was going to be an adventure and if we lived there would be some stories to tell.

This has become somewhat of a tradition with a few of us from the website ( NC Hunt & Fish) that we get together one day during the week of Muzzle Loader season and hike into a secret spot on the Game Lands and have a meat hunt.

Being public land that gets hammered pretty hard this is the best time to connect with something because you can take both antlered and antlerless deer. Next week when the regular firearm season rolls in it is antlered deer only till around Christmas time when does become legal to hunt again. This is a stock your freezer adventure and pretty much “if it’s brown it’s down “type of hunt.

We hike in a pretty good distance with the nearest stand more than a mile from the parking area. This year there was four of us ; NC St8, Quiet But Deadly (QBD), Jay Bird, and myself. With 3 carts to haul our stands and blinds we begin the hike in. The temperatures are cool and it’s misting a bit a much better situation then opening day when I hunted in hot & humid conditions.

I set up my blind in a grove of oak trees mostly reds but a few whites to make it interesting and settle in for the hunt. I spend the afternoon watching squirrels and birds enjoying the oak grove. I have a pretty uneventful but enjoyable afternoon in nature.

The first shot of the afternoon belongs to Jay Bird but he has less than perfect ignition and the deer bounds away unharmed. The misty dampness obviously got to his powder preventing him from connecting on the doe.

QBD has an afternoon much like mine where the squirrels entertained him he does see a deer but can’t get a shot. It’s looking like we are going to get skunk but with just a few minutes left in the hunt NC St8 gets a shot.

Moments later I get a call from him telling me that he shot a buck but he couldn’t find any blood but he heard the deer crash. By now it is the end of legal light so I tell him once we get our stuff together we’ll be down. I pack up my stuff and head to the meeting spot. Jay Bird and QBD are coming down another trail to the meeting spot. We decide to hide our equipment and bring just what we will need to track a deer and start heading towards NC St8.

We find NC St8 in the woods looking for where he left his stand and stuff when he went to track his deer. The good news is that he lucked out and found his deer despite not being able to find “much blood”. While we found it somewhat funny that he laid his equipment down and now the dark woods looked pretty much all alike we helped him search for his stuff. It took about 10 minutes or so and he stumbled upon it. Great now to get back out to the trail and go get his deer.

His deer was only about 200 yards from where he shot it and it was really close to the trail. Once we got in there we started back tracking from the deer to learn from the blood trail. There was a pretty good blood trail but without good lights it was difficult to see. QBD talked about how Coleman Lanterns are really one of the best items to use when blood trailing but folks rarely uses them these days. We ribbed NC St8 about not finding “much blood” especially in a couple of places where it looked like it someone poured it out.

Gutting the deer with 3 experts offering advice, holding legs, and shinning lights while none of us offering to gut it for him seemed to make NC St8 a bit nervous. Let’s just say we laughed pretty well while NC ST8 did the gutting job as a light rain fell. Some how he completed the job with all his fingers still attached.

We had a 45 minute hike to our trucks so we got rolling. It was about 9pm when we finally got back to the trucks. I swear someone added a few hills to the trail while we were in there hunting. Once at the trucks I offer to let NC St8 use my game hoist that hooks into my trailer hitch to cut the deer up. He rejects my offer wanting to get home and use his hoist there to finish cutting his deer up.

NC St8 had one more lucky / unlucky event in regards to this hunt after we all split up and went home. I guess his hoist snapped at the house and he barely escaped injury and a trip to an emergency room. I bet he wished he used my hoist.

We had a great hunt; lots of laughs, some great sights, and spending times with friends. We all got out of the woods with all our limbs so I guess it was a very successful hunt. Besides once again NC St8 is the only one to tag a deer…. he is one lucky dude.

Success On Opening Morning

Eastern Muzzle Loader season opened on a warm humid day on Saturday. it was already in the 70’s by the time the first rays of daylight hit the woods I was hunting in Johnston County. I was sitting in a blind with my new Thompson Center Omega with anticipation of what the season would bring.
As the woods woke up around me birds and squirrels were about all I was seeing. I could hear that volley of shots as duck hunters in a nearby swamp greeted the day. The acorns were falling like rain and occasionally making me jump as they hit the roof of the blind. About an hour into the hunt I was beginning to think the warm humid weather was going to keep the deer from moving around much. Not long after that I saw movement in the thick brush off to the right of the blind and then I heard them coming up the hill from the swamp.

The first deer I could make out was a small one most likely one of this past springs fawn. A second deer appeared and I could see it was a good size doe. I picked up the muzzleloader and watched them feeding on the acorns as they worked their way towards me. The brush was thick and while they were about 40 or 50 yards from me I needed them to step into one of my shooting lanes if I was going to get a shot. The smaller deer had stepped through and stood in some of my shooting lanes a number of times before the doe stepped in to one of the lanes. As I eased the hammer back the smaller deer stepped between the doe and my blind blocking my opportunity.

What seemed like an eternity but in reality was just a few minutes the doe gave me the shot opportunity I was looking for. As the smoke cleared I could only see the smaller deer running through the brush back the way they came. I got out of the blind and went to the spot where the doe was standing and I found some blood. I went back to the blind and reloaded my gun and waited for 30 minutes so I wouldn’t push her.
I got on the blood trail and it went straight down the hill towards the swamp. I had to fight my way through some thick brush but I was rewarded with a nice doe about 100 yards downhill from the blind. The trail crossed an old trail from a hunt a number of years ago but I knew it was close to a clear path. I got the deer out and with the heat I knew I wanted to get it quartered and on ice quickly.
Registering my deer was a bit complicated because my Blackberry phone does not have letters on the numbers like a typical phone. So when NCWRC prints their number as 1-800 I Got One without the numbers it makes it difficult to call it in. Luckily a call to my wife and she help decipher the number 1-800 446-8663. So there’s a good tip for you if you got a blackberry save a copy of the numbers and the letters they correspond with so you can use the phone in check system. It’s not enough to just have the phone number because you got to also type the county in as well. I was able to guess but it took a couple of tries.

Once registered I quickly got it cut up and on ice. I’ll age it in the cooler and finish processing it this week. A great start to the deer season.

Black Powder Season Opens Tomorrow

Nothing like Muzzleloader Eve as we all sit around and hope that at daybreak tomorrow we see a deer or two under the tree for us. The Eastern part of North Carolina has an earlier opening to firearms seasons so if you are like me and have hunting lands in both parts of you get to Muzzleloader eves each year.
I have a new muzzleloader this year deciding to buck the trend and get a Thompson Center. I know you can hardly watch a show and see another maker of muzzleloaders besides Thompson Center. I picked up an Omega from Cabela’s a few weeks ago for a pretty good deal.
I took the Omega out yesterday and sighted it in so hopefully I’m ready to roll in the morning. I’ll be hunting in some thick woods in Johnston County and I’ve opted for a ground blind over a treestand. There is a pretty good double tree canopy with a lot of hollys and dogwoods under the mature hardwoods. To hunt from a treestand I’d have to be pretty high to see around much of the clutter. My shot opportunities will be 50 yards at the max.
The weather is not the greatest with the temperatures predicted to be in the 80’s it is only going to get down to the lower 70’s over night. The promise of some light showers may help because it seems the deer move around a little bit more it seems when it’s like this.
I hope everyone going out has a safe and enjoyable hunt and who knows maybe in the morning there will be something under the tree for ya.

Dash Cam of Police Car & Deer

Not sure where this video came from but it does show how quick a collision with wildlife can happen. In my younger days I ran rescue and had a couple of close calls with deer at night when driving the ambulance. I did see the results of an ambulance after it collided with a large black bear in Northern Maine. The bear escaped but there was costly front end damage to the ambulance and it was disabled at the scene. It was some what unnerving for the crew that had a patient in the back on a medical transport and realizing that they would be on their own for a while till Maine State Police and a replacement ambulance was able to reach them.

This time of year the number of animal collisions rise especially involving deer so be careful out there.

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