These are the Good Ol’ Days
My brother-in-law, nephew and I decided about a month ago it would be a good idea to head out to South Dakota, in December, to chase some pheasants around in the snow. This is by far my favorite time of the year to hunt ring-necks. The day we scheduled to leave turned out to be the day I received 16 inches of snow in my backyard.
After 2 hours of plowing my driveway, I headed to St. Paul to pick up my brother-in-law. I white knuckled it the first half of the drive and things progressively improved as we went along. Our destination was Redfield, SD. I have an uncle that has owned a farm out there for about 30 years. My uncle is notorious for downplaying the pheasant population in the Mecca of the pheasant world. His standard line goes something like this “I have no idea where all the birds went. Last winter we must have had 500 in our farm yard. This year I don’t think I have seen one in the last month.” Read more
Jacked Up For the Morning Hunt!
Location: Central Kansas
Spring 2009
The blind I set in the dark had a lot of good promise, on the edge of a wheat field against bails and scrub cover, nicely hidden. The night before we’d glassed a flock of 25 birds in the wheat field, six of them were mature Toms, and showed us just how proud they were, strutting all the way to nightfall. We put them to bed on a windbreak of cedars and cottonwoods 300 yards to the North. It was a new area for me, only the second year I’d had the privilege to hunt turkeys in Kansas with my bow. To say the least, I was jacked up for the morning hunt! Read more
The Stank Juice
In my previous post, I mentioned my friend Patrick, who for years has come all the way from Atlanta to hunt the rut in Buffalo County with me. And as mentioned before, it usually doesn’t take much to get him on a plane this time of year. This year however, there was a little bit of a twist. Nine months ago, Patrick took a job with a civilian contractor working out of Iraq, thus, adding a new logistics challenge to the mix. He was now traveling halfway around the world to hunt the rut in Wisconsin. This wasn’t a spontaneous trip to put it mildly. Read more
Hunters, Get Ready for Viscera
When the bucks start chasing the does in November, there’s a good chance I’ll be in a tree. It’s a family affair during the Minnesota rifle season; immediate and extended family join together with hopes to tag a heavy horned gray ghost. The opener was a warm and quiet weekend. With all of the corn standing, the big boys held up in the rows until dusk. I had a 5:15 encounter with a brawny buck that prompted me to hang a new stand and camera over the wetlands. Trail cams haven’t showed the mystery buck and now that I’ve had him in my sights, won’t rest on the chase until the season closes. Read more
Hunting Trip of a Life Time…Never!
One of my pet peeves is the phrase “trip of a lifetime” or for this subject “hunting” trip of a lifetime. This phrase implies to me that some how a trip is a one time thing or the best trip one would ever experience in their lifetime. Well if you’re an avid hunter like me, the very notion of a hunting trip being a one time occurrence or the best I am every going to experience is simply unacceptable. Read more
When High Hopes Aren’t High Enough
I am Dave Crist, and I Am Avid! I have given a lot of thought to what that actually means, and I have come to the conclusion that it has a different meaning for every individual that shares the word. The best way to share MY definition is to tell the story about what has caused me to become avid. Read more