Now this is a a very nice buck that I am sure we all would not mind harvesting. I saw this on the North American Whitetail website so look for the link at the end so you can go and read the complete story.

By: Rick Kratzke

Around 5:10 p.m. a doe slipped up on me and started walking by at about 20 yards. She was acting very antsy, so I turned around and started looking in the direction from which she had come. All at once I spotted a huge set of antlers coming through the brush. One quick glimpse was all it took. I immediately knew it was the Brow Tine Buck!

It all started on July 9, 2006, on a piece of private property in southern Illinois. I was watching a pair of 2 1/2-year-old bucks feeding in a bean field on a warm, muggy evening. All of a sudden, out stepped an absolutely huge 10-point buck about 150 yards to my left. The buck, which started feeding on some beans, had a rack so massive that the minute I saw him all I could think of was giving him the nickname of “bones.” Later I would change that nickname to “the Brow Tine Buck.”

I had been videotaping the two smaller bucks, and I immediately turned the camera on the buck with the head full of bone to get some footage of his huge typical 10-point rack. Even though the light was poor because it was late in the evening, I kept the camera rolling. Through the viewfinder, I could see that this buck’s right brow tine was long and split much like a shed I had picked up 1 1/2 years earlier.

The three bucks eventually became nervous and left the field. The video turned out to be a little blurry, but you could tell the big 10-pointer was a giant buck. I honestly never expected to see the Brow Tine Buck again. And I didn’t until the following year in October.

On March 7, 2007, I was out shed hunting when I stumbled upon a huge left-side 5-point shed scoring over 90 inches. I looked hard for an hour or two for the matching side with no luck. I went out to the same area about two weeks later. Unbelievably, I found the opposite side, containing the very distinguishing split brow tine, within 250 yards of where I had found the first antler. It scored over 90 inches including the abnormal point behind the right brow tine. I knew I now had last year’s matched set of sheds from the Brow Tine Buck, and I knew he was a world-class whitetail. I also had a single shed from him found two years earlier in March ‘05.

Read the complete story:

This is one fine looking specimen of a wild turkey. I’m still fairly new at judging and scoring turkeys but an eight bearded turkey from what I have read is kinda rare and actually something to look at too.

By: Rick Kratzke

photo’s and intro are from the NWTF Newsletter

When NWTF member Joe Fuller took a friend hunting near Pine Tops, N.C., he had no idea that he would break a record that had stood for 19 years by taking an eight-bearded bird that scored 195.5 through the NWTF’s scoring system.

Use the NWTF’s Wild Turkey Records calculator and registration page to see how your trophy tom measures up. By using the Wild Turkey Records search function, you can compare toms by size, beard length, spur length, state, subspecies or by the hunter’s name. Since the NWTF started keeping records in 1982, more than 12,000 birds have been registered. To get your name on the list just click the logo link below.

I knew there was another reason why I like country music when I read that Aaron Tippon was an avid outdoorsman.

By: Rick Kratzke

To call Aaron Tippin an avid outdoorsman is a bit of an understatement. The singer takes every opportunity he can to hunt just about any game — with one exception. “One day I blasted a squirrel and we ate it, and I realized I wasn’t the biggest squirrel fan, so I don’t squirrel hunt,” says Tippin, whose new album, He Believed, is a tribute to his father. “If I don’t eat it, I don’t shoot it. That’s what my dad taught me.”

“I go deer hunting and pheasant hunting, I love that,” he continues. “And I quail hunt a little bit, although here in Tennessee we don’t have as many wild birds as we used to. Wild turkey is my favorite. I love it. When I’m going to have cholesterol, that’s what I save it up for — a big ol’ plate of wild turkey. Read the rest of this entry »

Now this is a nice story to read. It gives you an idea of why we do what we do. It also gives a good description of Turkey Hunting. I know for me my turkey hunting experiences are really just beginning as I just recently finished my first season but, that first time I heard a turkey gobble will be forever etched in my mind.

By: Rick Kratzke

DRESSING FOR THE OCCASION — Because turkeys have very acute senses, it is important to be still and dress in camouflage. ‘A turkey can pinpoint you. If I make a call and there is a turkey around, he knows right where I’m at,’ Hoffman said

ST. MARYS - Walking down a forest road in Highland Township at 5 a.m., turkey hunter John “Hog” Hoffman hoots like an owl, stands poised with his hand cupped over his ear for 20 seconds and continues walking.
He is on the hunt for a gobbler.
Deer, geese, doves - Hoffman hunts just about everything, but he has been hunting turkeys for about 20 years. A modest hunter, Hoffman said while he has bagged a few turkey in his day, his skill is attributed to the time he puts into it.
“It is one of the most exciting things. I think you could kill a turkey if you put the time into it that I do,” Hoffman said. “Turkey hunters are freaks. I get up at 3:30 every morning and march around in the woods. I never miss a day. I always have a saying that the morning you miss was the morning you would have got one.”
Turkey seasons in the area range from the end of April to Memorial Day. With an abundance of state game lands, Hoffman said this area is the place he prefers to hunt.
“They’re one of the prettiest, ugly things I’ve ever seen,” Hoffman said. “Why do people want to do it? Turkey is about a $1.99 a pound for a turkey breast at the grocery store. At $4 a gallon of gas, it isn’t for the eatin’, I’ll tell you that.”
Hoffman said his favorite part of hunting is time spent with friends, and the look on people’s faces when they finally get the much anticipated bird. When the bird is caught, one of the first things a hunter does is cut the beard off.
“The beard is a growth of feathers that come out of the middle of the turkey’s chest. It is a display thing. The bigger the beard, the more excited a hunter gets,” Hoffman said. “They also have spurs on their legs, and supposedly, the length of the spurs has to do with how old the bird is. Spurs can get up to about two inches. I think the record is about two-something. If someone shoots something like that around there, you’re going to hear it.”
As a turkey hunter, Hoffman is very cognizant of time. If someone doesn’t meet him by 4:30 a.m. to roll out to the hunting spot, he won’t wait.
“The turkeys are asleep right now. Some turkeys only gobble right away in the morning. Gobbling is a sign to let a hen know you’re around,” Hoffman said. “The turkey is vulnerable now because they only breed once a year, so if a hen wants him, he’s going to go look and see what she wants.”
Sitting still and camouflaged is a large part of turkey hunting. Once a turkey is found, hunters hope a hen call will elicit a response from the turkey.
“This is what we call ‘working them.’ A turkey can pinpoint you. If I make a call and there is a turkey around, he knows right where I’m at,” Hoffman said. “The crazy thing is there are people who will go out and go to their camp every day and hunt the same bird. You get to know them, know what he does. Then, you can hunt ‘em like that, or you go to different spots and find different birds. Turkeys like it where turkeys are.”
Hog is a mobile hunter. Often he goes out the night before, hooting and hoping for a return gobble. This way he knows where to go the next day.
“If you hear one on the roost, you have an ace in the hole,” Hoffman said.
He also said the nature of a turkey hunter is often enveloped in superstition. For Hoffman, changing up his clothes, call, or wearing a different one of his three hats might change his luck.
“It’s like a softball player in playoffs, if he’s winning he’s not changing his socks or shirt, he’s coming to the game the same way,” Hoffman said. “That’s the way turkey hunters are, if they’re doing good they don’t change their call, their shirts, they just want everything to happen the same way it did yesterday. It might sound stupid, but it makes you feel like something might change.”
Words of encouragement from Hoffman to prospective hunters are to go out in the spring and just try to listen to one.
“If you can get up in the morning, get out there and just try to hear one,” Hoffman said. “When you hear one, you’re going to say “holy cow” and if you don’t, then go home and go back to bed. If it doesn’t hook ya right away, the chances are you won’t get hooked.”
He also warns the public, with a smile, that all turkey hunters are liars.
“We lie about where we’re going because we don’t want someone else to find our spot,” Hoffman said laughing. “And more often than not, people are lying about what they heard and what they didn’t hear, what they used and what they didn’t.”
After a morning of hunting on a week day, Hoffman hops in his car to head back home and get ready for work. On his way through Johnsonburg, he grabs a big cup of coffee, a scratch off lottery ticket and grins from ear-to-ear.
“Look at all we’ve done this morning. Just think, most people aren’t out of bed yet,” Hoffman said. “I’ll admit I’m really glad turkey hunting is over because you need about three days to catch up on your sleep. But after those three days, you’re ready for it to start back up again because you miss it already.”

I think this is one of the most amazing things I ever heard. This officer should be commended for what he did.

By: Rick Kratzke

Nose-to-mouth resuscitation in South Toledo

By LAREN WEBER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A lot is required of a police officer - protecting residents in the community, investigating crimes, and arresting those who break the law.

To that list, two Toledo police officers felt called to add delivering a fawn by C-section and giving it nose-to-mouth resuscitation.

Early yesterday, the officers responded to Hill Avenue and Melody Lane in the south end on a report of an injured deer in the street blocking traffic. Sgt. Todd Miller and Officer Joe Taylor arrived at the scene about 3:10 a.m. and found a severely injured doe lying in the middle of the street. The sergeant said it appeared the doe had been hit by a car. One of its back legs was broken and it had head injuries. The doe wasn’t able to stand and could barely hold up its head, Sergeant Miller said. The sergeant, an avid hunter, said it was unlikely the deer would survive, so he instructed Officer Taylor to shoot it. Upon doing so, there was a movement inside the doe’s womb. “You could see the baby kicking inside it,” Sergeant Miller said. Looking at the doe, Sergeant Miller said it appeared as though it was close to full term, increasing the fawn’s chance of survival. “The least we could do was try,” he said. “It seemed like the right thing to do.” Using his hunting skills, the sergeant cut open the doe’s abdomen and removed the male fawn, which had trouble breathing after the delivery. Officer Taylor, also a hunter, put his mouth over the fawn’s nasal and mouth passages and began breathing into them. Shortly after, the fawn began breathing on its own, Sergeant Miller said. “The deer eventually started to sit up and clean off its fur,” he said. Toledo police Capt. Ron Navarro said the officers “went above and beyond the call of duty.”. Appropriately, Officer Taylor named the fawn Lucky. He then took it to Nature’s Nursery in Waterville, where it initially was given little more than a 50 percent chance of survival. Despite the officers’ efforts, however, the fawn didn’t make it. Laura Zitzelberger, operations director at the wildlife rehabilitation center, said it died just before 8 a.m. yesterday. She put the animal in a room heated to more than 90 degrees and wrapped it in a heated blanket, but the fawn’s body temperature did not rise to normal levels. Ms. Zitzelberger said the fawn was well developed and about the size of a normal newborn. “There was no outward reason that I could see why we couldn’t get its body temperature back up,” she said. Still, Ms. Zitzelberger commended the officers for their efforts. “I think it’s great they went the extra mile to try to do this,” she said. “I would have loved - just because of all [the] efforts - to have been able to save this fawn.”

When I here stories like this it really makes me mad that there are people out there with no moral character at all who can do such a thing like this. I know this story is a bit old but, evidently they are still looking for it and I don’t blame them in the least.

Brian Andrews, left, and his dad, Randy Andrews, of Independence, Iowa, with the 26-point mounted whitetail before it was stolen from the Andrews home in 2004.

What began as a story about a young Iowa hunter taking a world-class whitetail deer with outdated archery equipment has evolved into one with a price tag and a plea for help.

In 2003, 16-year-old Brian Andrews of Independence, Iowa, wanted to go bow hunting but didn’t own a bow. He borrowed some outdated archery gear from his sister’s boyfriend and started practicing. After several unsuccessful hunts the next fall, Andrews shot a whitetail buck in Buchanan County, Iowa, that scored 253 1/8 net Boone and Crockett Club points that made it the non-typical state record and the world’s No 2 bow-taken whitetail that year. Andrews’ buck sported 26 points.

Sometime between 8-10 p.m. on June 18, 2004, Andrews’ mounted whitetail buck was stolen from his family’s home.

Bass Pro Shops announced Friday it is offering a $5,000 gift card to anyone with information leading to the return of Andrews’ buck and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who stole it.

The Andrews family and the Buchanan County Wildlife Association Inc. also are offering a $5,000 cash reward for the same results.

The Bass Pro Shops reward came after a request from Illinois outdoor writer Les Davenport, who has been investigating the theft of Andrews’ buck along with several other thefts of Iowa trophy whitetails

“It is our hope by doing this, someone will come forward with information that will finally get Brian’s buck back where it belongs,” Bass Pro Shops communications manager Larry Whiteley said in a statement issued Friday. “Maybe with Les bringing attention to all of the other stolen Iowa bucks, too, it will help get some of these other magnificent animals back to their rightful owners.”

At least 12 other Iowa trophy whitetail mounts have been reported stolen since 2003.

Anyone with information about Andrews’ buck is asked to contact the Buchanan County Sheriffs Department in Independence, Iowa, at 319-334-2567.

By BOB HOOD

blhood@star-telegram.com>

I first read this when it was shown on “The Shed Antler” blog and I have to say that is one fine collection of antlers. I have been collecting them for quite a few years but have not had as much luck as the guy. It truly is a lot of fun and exciting to boot.

Steve Zappala takes his shed hunting seriously.

John Berry / The Post-Standard Steve Zappala has found more than 300 deer antlers since he began collecting them in the 1970s. He is holding the skull and antlers of what was an 11-point buck. He found the skeletal remains in Camillus in 2002.

Beginning in early March and continuing through mid-April each year, Zappala scours woods and farmland throughout Central New York looking for shed deer antlers on the ground.

“It’s like an Easter egg hunt for adults,” he said. “It’s a great scouting tool for the next fall’s hunting season. Now’s the time to get them while they’re fresh, before the squirrels and the mice chew them up.”

Zappala, a painting contractor from Liverpool, is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing. He said he’s been shed hunting for more than 30 years. He said he’s found more than 300 and given many away.

“There’s that down time in March between the end of small-game season in February and the beginning of trout fishing season April 1,” he said. “Why not make good use of it and go out and find some stuff?”

Bucks shed their antlers annually during a period stretching from late December through March, depending on the deer, said David Riehlman, a senior wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The antlers fall off the deer’s head in two somewhat symmetrical pieces and don’t always land in the same place. Occasionally, a deer will be spotted during the winter sporting only half of its antler rack, he said.

The shedding of the antlers, along with their rapid replacement, are triggered by hormones, which are triggered by day length, Riehlman said. During the deer’s early years, the antlers usually grow bigger each year until the deer ages beyond its prime.

“It’s amazing how fast they grow back,” he said. “Antlers are among the fastest growing tissues in the animal kingdom.”

Initially, the antlers are composed of soft tissue filled with veins. By August of each year, they begin to calcify, becoming hard bone for the fall. They’re shed after the rut, and the process starts all over again, usually in April.

hat’s where shed hunters like Zappala come in. They’re competing with small animals, which chew on them for the calcium and phosphorus.

“At this time of year, the woods are wide open, all the leaves are on the ground and you can see a mile,” he said. “The best day is a dreary, overcast day. Your eyes won’t get maxed out by the sun and the antlers tend to shine when wet.”

Zappala, who is self-taught, said it’s easy once you understand a few basic principles.

“The first trick is to find out where the deer are feeding,” he said. “Typically, it’s a corn field, a corn lot, soybean field, winter wheat.”

Next, look for the nearest thicket/cover area near the food source where the deer bed.

“They’re going to bed down as close to the food as possible,” Zappala said. “They don’t want to walk two miles to get a corn cob. It’s all about conserving energy.”

Other tips include using binoculars to scan the landscape, and on sunny days getting the sun at your back, rather than in your face. Concentrate on the southern and western slopes of any hill, where the deer get the most sunlight during the day. Look for large concentrations of deer droppings.

“And look for a lone or singular pine tree,” he said. “The bucks like to bed underneath them to keep the snow off their backs. They’ll bed there continually, day after day.”

He said he often brings his two dogs, Ry and Carmen, a pair of chocolate-colored Rhodesian Ridgebacks that love to go in the woods but aren’t too interested in deer antlers. They occasionally lead Zappala to dead deer carcasses, he said, or areas where there’s lots of droppings, which they often gobble up.

“My friends call the droppings smart pills. By God, if they’re eating smart pills, they’d be working for NASA,” he joked.

Zappala said he found his biggest sheds to date only two weeks ago at an Onondaga County location he’d rather not reveal.

“It’s an 11-pointer that’s going to score more than 161 (inches gross, using the Boone and Crockett scoring technique) next year,” he said.

His advice for the beginner?

“Don’t give up,” he said. “It’ll be like that eureka moment. Oh my God, I’ve done this. And after that, you’ll develop an eye for the terrain, the habitat, the tines.”

“Once you get involved, you’re done. You’re going to turn right into a fruitcake. I know guys who really get into it.”

By David Figura

Staff writer - The Post-Standard

I never get tired of reading about a big buck making the record books. I hope to add one to it someday and I feel so confident that I know I will.

Bobby Cleveland/The Clarion-Ledger

Rick Dillard (right) tallies the Boone & Crockett score for the buck taken by Allen Hunley of Utica. It scored 173 2/8 typical inches.

Add Allen Hunley’s Hinds County buck to the official list of Boone & Crockett qualifiers from the 2007-08 season.

Scored Tuesday in Raymond, the 11-point scores 173 2/8 inches typical.

Rick Dillard, a founder and scorer for Magnolia Records, credited exceptional beam and tine length for the high score.

“When you get down to it, there’s a lot to be said for pure length of beams and points,” he said. “I know everybody likes to talk about how wide a rack is, but that’s just one measurement. This buck has incredible lengths.

“You look at these G4s (fourth point out on each side), one scores over 7 inches and the other 8. That’s the difference between a good buck and a Boone & Crockett.”

Hunley’s buck, taken Dec. 13 with a borrowed muzzle-loader near Utica, had exceptional length throughout its modestly wide - 17 inches - rack.

The main beams were 27 5/8 and 28 4/8 and their tips actually crossed high above the buck’s head. It had short brow tines but made it up for it with two 11-plus G2s and 13-plus G3s. The only deductible point was a 1 1/8-inch sticker point between the right G4 and the tip.

“It doesn’t have great circumferences, but it has consistent ones,” Dillard added. “That again goes to show you how important that length is, and this one has incredible length.”

Allen Hunley said his buck still raises a stir, “but it’s calmed down a little bit. A lot of people wanted to see it a while back.

“But I still can’t believe it. Every time I look at it, I say, ‘Look what you killed.’”

Bobby Cleveland - The Clarion Ledger

I was never to good at essays but this young man sure was with the inspiration from his dad.

Dad inspires young hunter’s winning essay

Dylan Hansen of rural Elba won an essay contest through the National Wild Turkey Federation and will take part in a guided hunt next week in Kansas.

Dylan Hansen needed inspiration. The St. Charles High School junior was faced with writing an essay for a National Wild Turkey Federation youth outreach program, and the only thing he was told was the essay’s subject: “Hunting Is About….”

The junior in Craig Will’s Natural Resources and Wildlife Management class thought what hunting means to him. Maybe he could write about the history of hunting or something like that, but he just wasn’t sure.

He waited. Eventually, it was the last minute.

Then Dylan thought about all the time he’s spent in the woods hunting turkeys and deer with his dad, Larry Hansen. The obvious hit him — his dad was his inspiration. “Cuz he’s like the one who has gotten me into it, that’s how we spend most of our time,” he said.

Imagine that — a father inspiring a son to write.

From that point on, the words poured out of him. It’s a lot easier to write when you know what you’re writing about, when you know the subject intimately.

Wills made a few corrections and suggestion, and Dylan fixed up his copy and sent it off to the federation’s JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship) contest.

His essay won the contest, and you can read it on this page.

Next Thursday, he and his dad will leave their home on the edge of the Whitewater Valley near Elba and drive to El Dorado, Kan., to be guests at the 2008 Kansas Governor’s One-Shot Turkey Hunt, an event that promotes Kansas’ outdoors offerings. It’s like Minnesota’s Governor’s Deer Opener, that promotes the state’s deer hunting and other tourism. During the two days of guided hunting, Dylan can shoot up to two Rio Grande turkeys.

Being the inspiration for an essay kind of amused his dad, who works for the Olmsted County Highway Department. He has an “aw-shucks attitude” and a quiet grin. He just loves to hunt just about anything, and has since he was growing up in Elba. His father didn’t hunt much, but friends and his brothers got him started..

Dylan’s first memory of hunting with his dad was “sitting with him on stand and deer hunting when I was 10.” He wasn’t inspired to do anything but want to leave — it was cold and boring.

But a deer came in sight, then another. “It was fun,” he said.

It’s amazing how seeing wildlife warms a 10-year-old. He became interested in hunting, and now has two deer heads mounted in his bedroom.

But deer aren’t his top game — it’s turkeys. They’re more of a challenge, he said.

“You have to call them, it takes more skill,” he said. “You have to be a lot quieter.”

He has a glass/slate call and is sounding pretty good. He’s not ready for contests, and he won’t compete with his guides in Kansas, but his yelp and whine are good enough to fool many toms. His next challenge will learning not to gag on a mouth call.

The final proof that Dylan is really into hunting is mornings, his dad said.

When they began, he’d have to roust his son, who wasn’t super interested.

Today, he gets out of bed and goes out on his own.

Inspiration does work.

by: John Weiss - Post Bulletin’s Outdoor writer

Now this is a perfect example of getting involved with your kids/family. Great story I feel and it reminds me of the day I took my mom out with me for awhile.

Photo courtesy of Tom Tatum: New London’s Jamie Branham, left, wields the flintlock she used to bag her first buck with the help of her son Justin.

A mother of three, New London’s Jamie Branham is anything but a stay-at-home housewife. Branham, 48, spends most days teaching science at Kennett Middle School, but autumn afternoons and weekends you’ll most likely find her stalking the wilds of Chester County in quest of deer and other game. On most of those forays, her 18-year-old son Justin is there to guide her. Although Branham is a newcomer to the sport, the rest of her family (with the exception of 17-year-old daughter Katy) has long been steeped in the hunting tradition.

Branham’s husband Dave began hunting in his youth, but gave up the sport until sons Justin and Matt, 21, reached their respective 12th birthdays and expressed their desire to hunt. With the men in her family all so immersed in hunting, Jamie, who was already an avid angler, decided to learn why they were so fascinated by the sport. When she purchased her very first hunting license last year, she was about to find out.

After a few earlier miscues during Pennsylvania’s 2006-2007 archery season, Branham finally got a chance at a fat doe. This time a perfectly placed shot dropped the deer within 30 yards. Her primitive weapon of choice was the crossbow she inherited from her husband. “I get all the hand-me-downs,” she notes. The day she arrowed her first deer, her son Matt, who was hunting nearby, downed another nice doe within minutes of his mother’s success. Younger son Justin was then summoned to provide a lesson in field dressing the animals.

A major benefit Branham found in taking up the sport of hunting was the opportunity to get closer to her sons, especially Justin. “Ever since he was little he always wanted to fish,” she says. “Later he developed a passion for guns and hunting, so I signed him up for hunter safety class. Encouraging his love of the outdoors was a way to motivate him to do well in school.”

A 2006 graduate of Avon Grove High School, Justin was then inspired to enroll in guide school. Last summer he sojourned to Cripple Creek, Colorado, where he attended the Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School (COAGS) for three weeks of training in subjects that included orienteering, basic horsemanship, first aid and CPR, and outdoor cooking. In early fall he returned to the COAGS campus, this time in Gonzales, Texas, and completed more advanced training. When he returned he was well equipped to provide his mother with expert advice as she began her quest for her first buck.

Justin mentored Jamie, working extensively on her marksmanship both with crossbow and assorted firearms. Under her son’s tutelage, Branham hunted the entire 2007-2008 season, and although she scored on another doe with her shotgun and had a few close encounters with bucks, she balked at taking any questionable shots. “Passing up those bucks was very frustrating,” admits Branham, “but I never want to take a chance at a bad shot.”

After each such excursion, Justin would counsel his mother and offer pointers on what she might do differently next time. “She’s the kind of person who prefers hands-on learning,” he explains. “I can tell her about the importance of reading the wind, getting on stand early, and using pinch points and funnels, but until she actually gets out there and finds out first hand what I’m talking about, she really doesn’t appreciate how critical my advice is.”

Thanks to Justin’s coaching, by the time black powder season arrived after Christmas, Branham had been well schooled in the intricacies of hunting with the finicky flintlock. “By that time everyone else in the family had filled their buck tags,” says Branham. “Dave got a 7-point and Justin and Matt both got 8-pointers. My daughter Katy doesn’t hunt, so the pressure was really on me.”

Well aware of her determination to finally tag a buck, Justin loaned his mother the .50 caliber Thompson Center flintlock that his Grandfather gave him when Justin was just six. “By then it had become an obsession,” admits Branham. “I didn’t sleep the night before the season opened and when I went out the next morning I was fighting a cold and high fever.” Nonetheless, Branham was not to be denied, knowing the first day of black powder season would be her last best chance to finally nail that elusive buck. Limited to a primitive weapon, Branham, like a modern day Danielle Boone, faced an even tougher challenge.

But Justin had done his homework. He had prepared a 16-foot ladder stand in a location where he had sighted a number of bucks while scouting the previous three weeks. Branham climbed into the stand just before daybreak. She wouldn’t have to wait long.

“After just 40 minutes I heard something coming up the trail to my left and pulled the hammer back as a spike buck walked into view,” Branham recounts. “I was shivering so badly from my fever I was afraid it would spot me, but fortunately, it didn’t. About two minutes after the spike walked by, an 8-point buck with palmated antlers appeared.”

As the 8-point sauntered into range, Branham raised the gun, placed the open sights squarely behind the buck’s shoulder and, once the deer put its head down, she pulled the set trigger. When the buck raised his head again and offered a wide open broadside shot, she fired the flintlock and the buck disappeared in the ensuing cloud of smoke.

Remembering Justin’s instructions, she made no attempt to follow up the shot. Instead she reached for her cell phone and attempted to call her son with the news. But in all her excitement, she mistakenly kept ringing the phone of her confused daughter who may have begun to question her mother’s sanity. After several attempts, Jamie finally punched the right buttons. “I think I got a buck!” she exclaimed. Justin, who was hunting antlerless deer on an adjacent property, assured her he would come right over.

Branham dutifully remained on stand until her son arrived some 20 minutes after her shot. Justin’s tracking training kicked in and the two recovered the buck within 50 yards. The patched round ball had found its mark. “She was so excited,” recalls Justin, “hopping up and down and screaming and yelling, ‘I got a buck! I got a buck!’ She kept shaking me like I was a rag doll.”

Without a doubt, that was Branham’s most memorable hunting moment to date, and the fact that she was able to share it with her son made it that more special. The venison from that deer ended up on the Branham dinner table. Other parts of the buck are now at the taxidermist. “I’m having a European mount made and the hide tanned,” smiles Jamie.

But Branham’s hunting horizons are not limited to deer. “Justin also took me goose, turkey, and dove hunting this year and that was a lot of fun,” she says. “I didn’t shoot a turkey or a goose, but I did get a lot of doves.”

In the meantime, the hunting exploits of this unique mother-son team have brought them much closer together. “Now we have a mutual bond between us that we didn’t have before,” explains Justin. “It’s opened up more avenues of conversation between us – mostly about hunting, of course.”

“What’s different for me,” adds his mother, “is that I’ve learned to take advice from my son after a lifetime of giving him advice. And now that the shoe is on the other foot I’ve grown to greatly value what he says since it’s pretty much been right on every time.”

Justin looks to the future with an eye on eventually putting his professional guide training to good use. He can see himself going down south in a few years and guiding year round for turkey, quail, deer, hogs, or whatever is in season.

His mother has set her own sights more on the immediate future. “I just can’t wait until next year,” she grins, “so I can shoot a bigger buck.”

Tom Tatum: outdoors columnist for the Daily Local News