I wanted to briefly touch base on this nasty disease that has possibly popped up in Michigan. I heard about this from Arthur at “Simply Outdoors” and I sincerely hope that the doe they think has this dreadful disease shows negative when the tests come back. From what I have read it is not visible to hunters but, the one thing you can do is while field dressing you can take a close look at the lungs which could have yellow to tan pea sized nodules in the chest cavity or on the lungs.

Clinical Signs and Pathology in Wild and Captive Deer and Elk
Click here to see pictures of tuberculosis lesions in wild deer from Michigan
Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic disease, and small lesions in wild white-tailed deer often are not readily recognized. Abscesses may not be visible to hunters when field dressing wild deer. Indeed, most infected white-tailed deer appear healthy. Affected animals may have yellow to tan, pea-sized nodules in the chest cavity or lungs. Lymph nodes of the head and neck can be swollen and necrotic.
Captive cervids with tuberculosis often appear healthy because infection is localized in one or a few lymph nodes, usually in the head or thorax. Tuberculosis is a chronic, progressive disease that can cause gradual debilitation and is manifest as emaciation, depression, and intolerance to exercise. Because infection often involves the lungs, coughing, nasal discharges, and difficulty breathing can occur in severe cases. In some instances, superficial lymph nodes in the neck will develop large abscesses that may rupture and drain through the skin.
At necropsy, tuberculosis lesions are variable in appearance and size. Subclinically infected animals may have one or a few small necrotic nodules that usually are associated with the lymph nodes of the head and neck or the lungs. More severely infected cervids can have multiple pea-sized nodules or large cheesy or pus-filled masses in the same areas. The classical tubercle, which is firm, white or pale yellow, and gritty when cut, does occur in cervids, but many M. bovis lesions in these animals are filled with pus. In cervids, tuberculous lesions are most often seen in the lymph nodes of the head and neck or in lung tissue; however, lesions can occur throughout the chest cavity, under the skin of the chest, and in the abdominal cavity as well.
(Source of the above text on this page: Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases in the Southeastern United States, 2nd Ed., W.R. Davidson, V.F.Nettles, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, 1997)

Not only does visiting these two fabulous places give you something to do for an afternoon but, you can also learn a thing or two about the wildlife that lives in and around us in the Great American Outdoors. Plus you can get a lot of great toys to plat and hunt with when you head for the deer woods.

By TOM MEADE - Journal Sports Writer

Southern New England outdoors enthusiasts have two new destinations for shopping, entertainment and education. Both are an hour or less from Rhode Island.

This is Bass Pro Shops in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

This is Cabela’s in East Hartford, Connecticut. (I took this picture myself)

Cabela’s, in East Hartford, Conn., and Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Foxboro, opened in November. Both offer thousands of products for fishing, hunting, camping and other outdoor pursuits as well as free entertainment, dining, classes, and conference facilities for conservation groups.

Cabela’s — about an hour’s drive from Westerly — is the larger of the two destinations, with 185,000 square feet of interior display space. Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World — about 25 minutes from Providence — has 144,000 square feet of space indoors.

For fishermen and hunters, the stores are different from each other. “If you’re interested in hunting or apparel, Cabela’s is for you,” said fishing guide Jim White of Coventry, quoting a friend who has visited both destinations. “If you’re interested in fishing, Bass Pro Shops has more tackle than you can imagine.”

Entering Cabela’s, visitors find a bush plane suspended above a lavish display of North American animal mounts. Some of them are in full stride with only one hoof on the ground. In other parts of the building are mounts of European and African animals, including an African elephant.

The Connecticut River Valley Wildlife Museum, inside Cabela’s, holds more stuffed animals native to the area, with a narrated tour provided by an animated robot that looks and sounds like an old woodsman. One aquarium contains warm-water fish, and another houses cold-water trout and char.

Part of the Patriots Place complex that includes Gillette Stadium, Outdoor World has more modest taxidermy displays of North American animals, but the store has Bass Pro Shops’ traditional pickup truck greeting visitors, and in the distance is a full-size sportfisherman riding the waves as an angler astern fights a tuna.

Outdoor World’s boating department is so large that it recently hosted a boat show.

Cabela’s also sells boats and marine accessories, but its boating department appears to be smaller than Outdoor World’s.

Cabela’s fishing department appears to be smaller than Outdoor World’s. The Foxboro store’s fishing department hold a wider variety of tackle than an outdoor sports show. It including saltwater tackle made locally for local fishing conditions. On one edge of Outdoor World’s fishing department is a 34,000-gallon freshwater aquarium, containing the native fish of Massachusetts.

The fly-fishing departments in both stores are small but complete. They sell their own brands of rods as well as Sage, Orvis and other international brands.

Both stores have gun departments. Restrictive gun laws in Massachusetts, however, make it difficult, if not impossible, for an out-of-state resident to buy guns or ammunition there. (Recently, a Rhode Island law enforcement officer was unable to buy a box of 28-guage shotgun shells at Outdoor World.) Cabela’s has a “Gun Library,” with a large display of British shooting apparel outside. Inside the library is an assortment of new pistols and long guns, including a Colt .45 with ivory grips for $4,000, shotguns in the $25,000 class, and rifles valued around $45,000. Cabela’s appears to offer more apparel for big-game and upland hunters, with a virtual forest of camouflage outfits. Both stores also have large general sportswear and gift departments.

For kids of all ages, both stores have coin-operated shooting galleries with laser guns.

Both stores also have kitchens offering sandwiches and game dishes. The Candlewood Grill (named for a famous Connecticut Lake) at Cabela’s is a traditional small restaurant. At Outdoor World in Foxboro, visitors at Uncle Buck’s take their meals to the store’s furniture department to dine in luxury. The dining area is next to the optical department, overlooking a marsh, so visitors can try the store’s binoculars and spotting scopes.

Outdoor World opened its Blue Fin Lounge last Monday. It has an antique bar with outdoor-theme dÉcor and three plasma-screen TVs. For warmer weather, the lounge will have an outdoor patio.

Both stores offer free conference facilities for community conservation groups, classes and special events. Schedules and directions for Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Foxboro are available online by clicking on “Store Locations Events” at www.basspro.com

Schedules and directions for Cabela’s in East Hartford are available by clicking on “Retail Stores” at www.cabelas.com

This is a very impressive deer for the first one I would say. Congratulations to this young New Yorker Joe Middaugh.

Joe Middaugh’s first buck wasn’t quite as impressive as Erway’s, but then again Joe is only 17.

The Elmira teen got a big 8-pointer during his first season of deer hunting this fall, said his grandfather William Middaugh of Elmira.

Joe was hunting with his grandfather, uncles Paul and Dick Bernas and landowner Bobby Parker on Parker’s property in the town of Erin.

Joe shot his buck with a 16-gauge Ithaca shotgun that his grandfather had used years earlier to tag a black bear.

Joe’s buck was the latest accomplishment for a budding outdoorsman, William Middaugh said.

“Joe got the shakes pretty good when the deer was down. He realized it was truly a nice buck,” he said. “He picked his own stand sight out and built a blind. He is a good hunter and a great fisherman, and truly a great addition to our ranks of hunters here in New York.”

Every where you go communities are becoming aware that they really need to do something about the ever growing population of whitetail deer in and around their towns. I do not think that sharpshooters are the way to go but, as a hunter I feel that they should expand the hunting seasons. That way the I feel everyone will benefit, hunters and town residents both.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

As Deer Populations Grow and Invade Suburbia, Communities Fight Back

Deer are in the headlights these days, maimed along the nation’s roadways and nibbling away at suburban gardens. Now they’re closing in on one of America’s poshest addresses — New Jersey’s Short Hills Mall, home to high-end stories like Cartier and Coach — and local officials are striking back.

On Jan. 29, Essex County will send sharpshooters into South Mountain Reservation, a 2,000-acre swath of woodland that sits smack in the middle of tony towns like Maplewood, Milburn and the Oranges for a month-long deer kill.

New Jersey is no stranger to marauding wildlife. In 2004, the state shot more than 328 black bears in one season after widespread reports of the animals invading backyards.. It was the first such hunt in more than three decades, and environmentalists say development is to blame.

Suburbanites from Massachusetts to Minnesota have taken similar action as deer populations find feeding grounds in new subdivisions, causing traffic accidents and carrying ticks that can transmit Lyme disease.

Meghan Berry, a 27-year-old New Jersey graduate student, collided with “an absolutely gigantic” deer while driving one night. After killing the deer, she was traumatized by the fur it left behind on the demolished car.

Days later, a deer plunged into the swimming pool at her New Egypt, N.J., home, damaging the pool cover and nearly drowning.

“I consider myself an environmentalist, and I love animals and am very much against hunting,” she said. “But when you consider the quality of life of deer living in the suburbs and getting hit on the highways, it’s unsettling to see the two worlds colliding. We are killing them because they are in our way. But I can see that population control is necessary.”

Deer Problems Nationwide

Other cities are struggling with similar problems. Last year, Kansas City, Mo., had bow hunts for the first time in two public parks. Alamosa, Colo., allows hunting by bows and shotguns on a city-owned golf course until Feb. 28.

In New Jersey, trained marksmen will work two full days a week during daylight hours, and the reservation will be closed to the public. Sharpshooters who finish eight shifts will be rewarded with 40 pounds of venison. The rest of the meat will go to the needy, said county officials.

By SUSAN JAMES - ABC News

Here are pictures of the Loading/Display stand I am making for my Blackpowder Revolver which I had mention in a previous post called “Scrap Wood is always good for something”

It has been real cold and snowing here so I decided to go down to the basement where I have my workshop and sand the pieces I had cut out the other day and get a coat of Polyurethane on it.

The two main pieces resting on finish nails to dry in between coats.

The two main pieces just placed together and not yet fastened.

The hinge laying next to the second picture is the only thing I had to buy to make this $14.99 Loading/Display stand. Not to bad I think.

This is certainly interesting and would make a good discussion for sure. I read this article on “Buckmasters” website, as a shotgun slug hunter I would like to get some discussion going on this topic to see what you all think, what do you say.

What does a recent study really mean to a slug gun deer hunter?

An estimated 3 million United States deer hunters use shotguns. To my mind, there have always been three reasons for choosing a slug gun rather than a rifle for deer hunting. The first is that many states and localities dictate that only slug guns may be used. I hunt certain areas with a slug gun because hunting regulations demand that I must. The second is economy. If the only place you plan to hunt offers only short-range deer shooting opportunities, a shotgun loaded with slugs is often all you need. There is no point in buying a deer rifle unless you prefer one.

The last is a human population center safety issue. Slug gun projectiles do not carry as far as high powered rifles. This reason is related to the first because it is the rationale behind state and local mandates for slug gun-only hunting in the first place.

Now, it seems, we have new research challenging that notion. Recent newspaper and magazine articles referenced to the research as a repudiation of a myth. The myth, as claimed in these articles, is that deer hunting shotguns are safer than rifles because shotgun slugs do not travel as far as rifle bullets.

According to Mountaintop Technologies of Johnstown, Penn., who conducted a study with the assistance of ballistic experts at the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, say that shotgun slugs are much more prone to ricochets than rifle bullets. Because of that phenomenon, shotgun slugs can travel farther than rifle bullets in common hunting scenarios.

According to a summation of the study, when shots are fired holding guns level at 3 feet off the ground, a shotgun slug will travel 0.99 of a mile; 16 percent farther than a .30-06 rifle bullet under the same circumstances. The study asserts that the reason is that slugs tend to hold together better and lose less energy during ricochets than rifle bullets. This leads to the conclusion that slugs actually travel farther than rifle bullets.

I’m no engineer, and I don’t have the complete data or technological background to challenge the results of this study. Therefore, I will assume from what I have read and until I read a contradictory study that this research is valid.

But, as a hunter with several decades experience hunting with slug guns I have to ask what this study really means to me and what it should mean to state regulatory agencies. I also know, from many other scientific research projects that I have been engaged in, that sometimes the conclusions drawn from exceptional circumstances in one particular study do not necessarily lead to the broad conclusions that might be drawn from it.

Can a shotgun slug or even a series of shotgun slugs fired under a specific set of conditions in a controlled environment travel farther than a rifle bullet? Yes, I have no reason to doubt that. Does this specific set of conditions create a scenario that should dispel the belief that slugs do not carry as far as rifle bullets? No, because it is not representative of all hunting scenarios or even common sense physics.

The study claims that slugs can travel farther than rifle bullets. We cannot draw the conclusion from that study that they will or that they do. Projectile velocity differences alone present a clear picture of the capabilities of a slug gun versus a .30-06 rifle. Most slugs travel at less than half the velocity of a .30-06 projectile. Without getting into a lot of technical ballistic data I know that if I zero a 150-grain .30-06 projectile at a 25-yard target that it will return to that zero at 200 yards. If I zero a 1-ounce shotgun slug at 25 yards, it will drop into the dirt long before it reaches 200 yards.

Or, from a more common sense approach, if this study reflected a state of representative conditions that accurately dispelled the notion that rifle bullets travel farther than shotgun slugs, I’d be hunting open plains mule deer with my Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun rather than my Mossberg .30-06 rifle. Of course, that is not the situation.

All of this scientific gobble-de-gook doesn’t dispel any basic responsible shooting practices;
- Become proficient with your firearm and know its capabilities.
- Always carefully aim your firearm at a specific target.
- Always be aware of what is beyond your target and how the projectile could affect it.

The main conclusion that I draw from this study is that whenever I am hunting with a slug gun I need to be mindful of potential ricochet circumstances when I take aim and use that knowledge to decide on whether or not I will attempt a shot. Until then, I will continue to choose a slug gun for hunting in heavily populated areas or anywhere that a slug gun is less likely to do damage to property or livestock.

The whole notion that slug guns are now less safe for hunting high populated areas is little more than a tempest in a teapot. Common sense is still the best determination of responsible gun usage and hunter safety.

By: Randy D. Smith - Buckmasters

I have been wanting to make one of these for quite some time because I could use one and actually did not have one. I own a 1860 Colt Army Revolver but never bought a loading stand for it which comes in handy.

Revolver Loading/Display Stand

Good looking and convenient way to display and load your cap-and-ball revolver. Pistol grip rests securely in wooden base while felt-lined wooden upright support engages back strap securely. Positions cylinder to rotate and face upward for easy storage. Fits all 1851, 1860 and 1858 revolvers.

Traditions Performance Firearms sell this Loading and Display stand for $14.99 but I built one this afternoon out of scrap #3 pine I had in my basement and all it cost me was nothing. I have it all cut out so all I have to do now is sand it which I have sand paper already and then stain and polyurethane it which I already have. The only thing I need to buy is a small hinge. I might have one laying around but if not I can get one fairly cheap. Gotta save money some how, right.

It was a nice little project for awhile and kept me occupied for a bit and my time was not wasted. I will show you the finished product when it is done.

Last night or should I say early this morning because it was approximately 12:45 a.m. on my way home from work was a good time to spot deer. It was very cold and the sky was mostly clear with a nice moon. I spotted four deer who apparently had just crossed the road and they were starting to browse their way up the front lawn of this house. They were good size deer and appeared to be very healthy. I thought that was nice to see and had hopes of seeing more. The night before not far from my house I saw one all by itself in the middle of a field, I assume it was a buck because it was by itself but, could not tell for sure.

I noticed a couple of days ago that the deer were coming across our neighbors yard and browsing on our pine bush at the corner of our property right next to where my wife Heidi parks her car. We always try to make a point of peeking outside occasionally to see if they are out there but, we always miss them. I guess that is why I call them ‘The Ghosts of the Deer Woods”.

Anyway after spotting those four deer this morning I continued heading home. As I drove down my road to the house I could see one deer at the bush so I slowly stopped and put the headlights on it. It was beautiful, small with a puffed out coat. A yearling for sure. I watched it for maybe a minute or less until it got scared and ran back across the road into the neighbors yard.

I parked my truck and went into the house and woke Heidi and told her she just missed a deer that was at our bush. I went to bed and I don’t think I was totally asleep yet when Heidi said the deer was back and it had brought three others with it which again made a total of four deer browsing on our bush at 1:30 in the morning. That was so cool that Heidi and I could look out our bedroom window at four deer eating our bush that was only 10 yards from the house.

This picture is leading to the bush from the road and it looks like a herd has gone through,

This picture is the actual bush that they have been chowing on, you can see Heidi’s car behind it. They are slowly destroying the bush, that is ok I don’t like it anyway.

This picture is of two hoof prints going in either direction. My knife I placed for estimating size. The knife in a closed position such as you see it is 4 1/2″ long.

This recipe absolutely sounds yummy. My mouth started watering just reading it. I found this and many other recipes at a friends site, Andy at “CTHunting n Shooting”.
Deer Stir Fry

~ 2 lbs deer meat, cubed or diced
~ Italian dressing
~ 1 tbsp ooil
~ 1 large green bell pepper, sliced
~ 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
~ 1 large onion, sliced
~ Worcestershire sauce
~ 2 cups cooked rice

In a container with a lid, place the meat and cover with the dressing. Refrigerate overnight.

Place the oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the meat and cook until almost cooked through.

Add the peppers and onion. Season to taste with the Worcestershire sauce.

Reduce heat to low and cook until the veggies are tender. Stir occasionally.

Serve over the cooked rice.

This short story which I found on the “Buckmasters” website was very nice and I wanted to share it. It just goes to show that dreams do come true sometimes. To make it through war and have not much to hold onto except family, friends and your dreams and then come home and fulfill those dreams is something to remember always

Coal Bucket Dream Buck– Growing up in the Allegheny Mountains of Maryland, hunting was a way of life and survival. My passion was hunting white-tailed deer. As a young man, I was drafted into the army. Deer season was just about to come in, and though I had an eye on a couple of nice bucks, I knew I had to do my part and protect my country. I packed my stuff as my mom and dad assured me that there would be plenty of days to hunt when I got home.

While in the war, I thought of hunting deer to ease my mind of the pressures of war. I’ll never forget the dream I had one night that I was deer hunting. I was walking down a hollow and noticed an old coal bucket lying halfway up the hill. Then all of a sudden, shots rang out on top of the hill. I looked up and saw a nice buck running down the hill. I took aim and fired, and the buck fell a few feet from the old coal bucket. When I awoke from my dream, I told some of my buddies in the war who also liked hunting, and we laughed about it.

A few months went by, and I was back at home. Deer season was just around the corner, and I was so excited. I got ready the first morning and headed out to hunt. I started down a hollow, and, to my surprise, I saw an old coal bucket lying on the side of the hill. Next thing, to my amazement, shots rang from the top of the hill. Just then, a nice buck came running just like in my dream. I fired my gun and the buck fell right beside the coal bucket. My dream had become real.

I sat and thanked God for the buck and for protecting me while I was in the army. I will never forget this as long as I live.

Carl Harmon
Newark, Ohio