Hunting vs Loving Animals: Living With A "Split Personality"

I grew up in a family that loves animals. My mother was always known for her tendency to take in stray dogs and cats and give them loving homes. I followed close in those footsteps and quickly became a mini-me of my mother. Everyone knew we were hardcore animal lovers. We rescued dogs, took in cats, fed the local neighborhood rabbits. We never imagined or wished harm upon living creature. Except maybe spiders. Yeah...we squish spiders.

As I grew older, I took it a step further. I was rehabilitating baby birds, nursing chipmunks back to health after our cat got a hold of them, and housing baby rabbits safe overnight to ensure a safe predator-free release in the daylight. Once in high school, I took a Veterinary Science class to learn about animal functions, health, restraint...everything anyone could possibly learn about helping animals in the veterinary field. I was always the first person my friends contacted when they had a question about their pets. My first job was at a pet store, my second job was at a dog grooming facility, my third was held in an equine veterinary facility, and to this day, I still am lucky enough to work with animals on a daily basis.

No one in my immediate family ever hunted. I had always had an underlying interest in hunting, only because I wanted to get closer to nature. Closer to wildlife. But I never had anyone around to show me how to do it, how to go about getting started, what the laws are, or anything pertaining to the hobby. In 2010, I met my boyfriend who was a big time hunter, and the first thing on our agenda together was hunting! I finally had a mentor to teach me about the ways of the wild. Today, I bowhunt and shotgun hunt during the Virginia firearms seasons, and I've also taken up the art of taxidermy. Awesome!


I also own horses and have often ridden with a family friend since about the age of 11. I hadn't seen her in a while, so I called her up recently to get together for a weekend ride and she said something to me that weighed heavy on my heart.

"We certainly need to catch up! I hear you're hunting now, and doing taxidermy and all that stuff! What happened to you? You used to love animals when you were younger; you were the protector of all things living, now you're out killin' and stuffin' em! I guess it's true, people really can change!"

It nearly brought tears to my eyes. I felt my heart skip a few beats and sink deep into my stomach. Just because I hunt, does that mean I can't love animals at the same time? How do you explain to someone that you love to hunt, yet you still love the animals? Am I now known as a person who hates all things that live and breathe based solely on the fact that I enjoy being in nature, being close to the wildlife, seeing eye-to-eye with these creatures, and occasionally taking a few a year to put meat on my table? Does being part of the largest conservation group in the nation make me a stone-cold murderer?

The answer to all of the above is absolutely not. I like to think I'm the best of both worlds. I'm living proof that a girl can have a deep burning passion for animals, yet can still be an active and successful huntress. There's a delicate balance, and I'm fortunate enough to have found that even ground. I hunt ethically, I wish a painless death upon my prey, but at the same time, I'd sure sink all my time and money into a sick animal to make sure it gets better again. I spend a lot of my time making sure my pets are warm, comfortable, and fed before I climb into my own bed at night. And I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of others out there that are just like me.

So think twice before you tell a hunter or huntress that they are the worst people on earth; that they hate all animals and wish immense harm upon them. You never know if that same person is the assistant that helps your veterinarian treat your dog, the same person that volunteers their time at your local shelter, or that same person that pulled an orphaned fawn out of the road and traveled a hundred miles to the nearest wildlife rehabilitator to give that animal a fair chance at survival.

Love this blog? Be sure to visit the Virginia Hunting Forum, Virginia's leading hunting and fishing community on the net! Join in on great discussions there and share your favorite hunting experiences!

Chasing Virginia Bruisers - The Blue Collar Way

I've been hunting since I was seven years old. I've also been hunting the same property in King William county in Eastern Virginia since I was big enough to hold a .410...a 300-odd acre farm nestled against the Pamunkey River, owned by a small family that shares a love of hunting and togetherness. The farm is used to grow soybeans and corn and also has large, rolling green pastures for raising beef cattle. On the outskirts of the property, there are hardwoods, pines, deep valleys, trails, small overgrown grass plots and a beaver pond. A true hunter's paradise. The group of us that hunts there is a close-knit crowd of close friends that just enjoy getting together on the weekends and hunting. Hard-working blue collar folks that still see hunting as a hobby and a pastime, rather than a competitive sport.

2010 Buck

2013 Buck

Only a handful large deer have been killed on the farm in the 20 years that I've been around. One of those were killed nearly 15 years ago, another was killed 5 years ago (pictured left), and I was lucky enough to get one 2 years ago (pictured right). Since then, a lot of the bucks have been small or decent-sized, but nothing worth entering into the record books.

The food plots on the farm are overgrown and haven't been planted in years. Instead, the native grasses have taken over and look more like miniature fields than lush food sources. Although we neglect the food plots, it just goes to show that deer will thrive on their own with nature's resources, and as long as the bucks are smart throughout the open seasons and are able to grow into the following year, the potential for a bruiser rack is always there.

Now, we don't know where these bucks come from. Some years they just show up on our cams and we have no way of figuring out if these large 3-year-old 8-pointers were 2-year-old 4-pointers the year before. A lot of our deer don't have distinct markings, torn ears, or other physical anomalies. We start getting cam pics of them around August, and we simply map their locations via these photos up until we get the chance to lay sights on them. We simply take our hunting seasons year-by-year.

2014 photo of Ol' Brutus

The deer I harvested this year was a ghost last year. We only got a few sparse photos of him haunting a large hill in thick hardwoods on the western side of the farm. Another member of our group hunted him last year and says he saw him from a treestand one time during archery season, but after that day, he was never seen again. Until this year.

Pictured right is the first photo I got of Ol' Brutus. He was easy to pattern, as it seemed that he traveled this particular road about every three days. He didn't seem to care what time of day it was, as I was getting both daytime and night time pictures of him as seen in the photos to the right. At this point in time, the rut hadn't quite started yet, so the only thing I can imagine was on his mind was food.

When I started getting regular photos of him I decided to clear a tree and hang a climber treestand on that logging road. I did this the Saturday before bow season was to open in Virginia...literally 7 days before it would be legal to draw a bow on this bruiser. Even after I hung the stand, and well into opening week of bow season, I was still getting travelling photos of the buck in the same area. For whatever reason, this deer was being rather careless in his movements, so I had a feeling his days were numbered.

The morning it all came true...

On the morning of Saturday, October 24th, I was just a bit late waking up and getting to the stand. I arrived at the farm around 6 am, with sunrise that morning being 7:24am. That gave me about an hour to get to my stand, climb the tree, and get settled before the woods woke up. I walked around a corner and stepped onto the road, and there in the middle, staring at me, was a small doe. She stayed there, watched me as I climbed halfway up the tree, and then she just wandered off silently into the darkness. I continued my climb, got settled in the tree, and waited.

Just after 7 am, a little 4-pointer came trotting down the path, grunting, and went on down the trail into the depth of the hardwoods.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a deer come running down the hill, so I grabbed my bow off the hanger. Here comes a doe right behind me, and hot on her tail was a buck, grunting loudly. He got right into the 30 yard range and gave me an opportunity, so I took it.

I missed. My arrow hit a small limb and was deflected right underneath his belly and into the ground. The little buck, unbothered, walked off without a care in the world. I nocked another arrow, and waited. The morning was still young.

About a half-hour later, I caught movement to my left. A deer was coming down the logging road right towards me. I quickly grabbed my bow, noticed that this deer had a nice rack, and drew on him. At quick glance, it looked to be a shooter buck, one definitely worthy of the three buck tags in my pocket. As soon as he stepped from behind a tree at 20 yards quartering to me, he looked up at me. I felt he knew at that instance that he had screwed up.

I let the arrow fly, perfect shot into his vitals. He turned to his left, ran about 50 yards, and stopped. He staggered a bit, looked left and right, then continued down into a stance of saplings with a loud crash.

When I walked up to him, I noticed that it was him. It was Ol' Brutus in the flesh. This buck that haunted my mind for months was finally on the ground at my feet. I finally got my dream buck, the biggest buck killed on the property, the biggest buck I've ever laid my hands on, using only a compound bow, a climbing tree stand, and trail cameras. No baiting, no feeding, no food plots; only the agricultural crops and hardwoods that the farm grows. I'm just an average joe that works hard on the weekdays and spends his weekends in the woods with nature. And it finally paid off with a potential record-book Pope and Young buck, from Virginia, no less!

The 2015 Virginia Rut

The 2015 Virginia Rut 

Todd Hostetter Photography

Anyone that was brought up hunting knows what the rut is. But there are also those who may be new to hunting, or interested in getting into the sport. Those new outdoors men and women may ask, "What's the rut?"

This is the part of the year that finally makes hiding bucks come out in the open. Some of the nation's largest whitetails are harvested this time of year, and even a portion of those are deer that have been nocturnal for weeks, or even months, before start to come out during daylight hours looking for love. The breeding season, or "rut" as we call it, is brought on naturally by the amount of sunlight that hits a deer's eyes, and registers to their brain. Once that perfect amount of daylight is reached, it all breaks loose.

Signs of the rut – Rubs and Scrapes

Photo Credt: Source Unknown

Rubs

One of the first signs you begin to notice are "rubs". When the testosterone levels start to heighten in the male whitetail, they get a sudden urge to let every other deer in the vicinity know it. They will aggressively rub their antlers along the stalks of saplings and, sometimes, mature trees. There are scent glands located in between the antlers of buck deer, and those glands are responsible for leaving scent on the rubbed trees. Rubs may sometimes be seen on neighboring trees for several yards. These are known as "rub lines" and tell you that the buck making the rubs travels that path often. This is usually a good area to hunt if you're seeking to harvest a mature whitetail.

Photo Credt: Source Unknown

Scrapes

Usually in close proximity of rubs, you will start to find large dirt patches conspicuously located next to hanging branches. Many times, when these "scrapes" are found in the middle of the woods, they are highly noticeable because the leaves are completely cleared out. Scrapes are also extremely popular along field edges; many of them in very close proximity to each other. There are sets of scent glands in between the front toes of a buck deer, and each time they make a scrape with their front feet, they are leaving a message there for the next deer that may happen upon it. Also, if you look into a scrape, you may find several piles of droppings. Those droppings are also part of the deer's message. Above a scrape, majority of the time will be a low-hanging branch. When a buck is making a scrape, he will lick the hanging branches, leaving scent there as well. All buck activity goes full swing before the doe even comes into play.

Pre Rut Activity - Catching a glimpse

Photo Credit: Captainbeer

Trail Cameras


We all know 85% of scrape activity occurs at night time. Once the bucks start establishing rub lines and scrapes, it’s a great idea to setup your trail camera facing either one to catch whatever bucks are cruising the area. This could possibly aid in successfully harvesting that buck of a lifetime!

Photo Credit: Brandon Scott

The Moultrie A7i trail camera is an excellent choice for capturing pictures of that monster buck while he works his rub or scrape! The invisible flash, excellent trigger speed and 16,000 images on one set of batteries can’t be beat for the price!

7MP Resolution Camera

Less than 1.5 second trigger speed

40 feet of detection range

50 feet of nighttime flash range

16,000 images per 8 AA batteries. (Use lithium batteries for extended battery life in harsh weather conditions.)

iNVISIBLE 940nm IR LED Infrared flash technology

640x480 video

Click here to view the 2015 Moultrie Lineup!

So What's Happening Now?

Every year, www.VAHuntingForum.com has an “Official Rut Report” thread where members share their rut observations. This helps everybody stay in the loop of what is going on in the deer woods. Below are some of the reports coming in for the 2015 season. For more, click the Official Rut Report link above.

Scrapes showing up here in western Fauquier. Not in the traditional year after year scrape locations. Might be just frustration scrape but it's starting.  - Oletimer 10/10/2015

Bedford county.. had a spike chasing a doe in the evening..and a 7 point chasing a doe on Sunday morning... haven't seen scrapes..but rut is in..down in bedford va – awparker63 10/18/2015

Remember!!! Bucks tend to lose some of their "common buck sense" during the rut season, which is why so many make "mistakes" that benefit the hunter! - GOOD LUCK!

Love this blog? Be sure to visit the Virginia Hunting Forum, Virginia's Leading Hunting and Fishing community on the net! Join in on great discussions there and share your very own rut reports from your area!

Virginia's Hunting Opportunities

Virginia is a gorgeous state all around. On one side we have gorgeous beaches and a beautiful bay. On the other side, we have rolling mountains. At the southern end, acres and acres of swampland encompass the state border. And in between all of these, we have agricultural fields, dense forests, swift rivers, rocky terrain, marshes, and woodlands. There's really no better state out there than our very own Commonwealth!

Our great state hosts a plethora of game animals for the avid hunter. We have an open season on something all year 'round and just last year, Governor Terry McAuliffe legalized Sunday hunting within the Commonwealth. Compared to other states, Virginia is rather lenient on bag limits, so the average hunter can get his fill of hunting and bring enough food to the table within the year. If you're interested in hunting in Virginia, or you're already a resident looking to broaden your hunting horizons, here's an overview of what Virginia Hunting has to offer!

Big Game The nation's most-hunted game animal is the whitetailed deer. The hunting of this animal alone has generated billions of dollars for both the hunting industry and the conservation of natural resources across the country. Virginia has proven year after year to produce large bucks all across the state, proving a worthy hunting opportunity here. The numbers are maintained by the healthy population of hunters and seems to keep steady, even with the growing interest and increasing involvement of hunting today. Hunters are permitted to run deer dogs in the eastern half of the state as well, boding an attractive hunt to prospective houndsmen!

Virginia elk. Photo courtesy SWVA RMEF.

Virginia has just recently re-introduced the elk into the western part of the state. These elk were brought in from a healthy, thriving Kentucky herd. Elk were once native in Virginia, but haven't been seen in our mountains since the last one was killed by a hunter in the 1970s. There is currently no open season in the counties where the elk are being reintroduced, but it is estimated that within the next couple of decades, the population will be huntable, sustainable, and healthy. 

Virginia has an ever-increasing population of the second-favorite game animal, the Eastern Wild Turkey. These large, beautiful, and smart birds can be found in every corner of the state. They boast a difficult hunt for most with their keen eyesight and natural wariness. Turkey can be hunted both in the fall and spring, however the spring season is limited to bearded turkeys only.

The Black Bear population in our state is on the rise. Bears have been spotted in just about every county across the commonwealth. These magnificent animals can be hunted by either still hunting or during a bear hound season. Almost 2,500 bears were harvested in VA during the 2014-2015 hunting season. If you plan to hunt black bears in Virginia during the 2015-2016 season and beyond, however, you must purchase a separate bear tag that was put into action by VA legislature.

Furbearers and Small Game Virginia provides perfect habitat for some of the country's most sought-after furbearers. Some may be hunted by trapping and snaring, others by traditional gun-hunting. Either way, if the pelt and sweet meat are of any interest to you, the woods of Virginia is your ticket to an exciting season!

Red foxes and gray foxes prove to be a formidable and exciting target for hunters. These cunning canines are very shy and extremely smart. They are a favorite chase target for large groups of equestrians on horseback with hounds, but are also a prime game animal for extreme nighttime hunts armed with a predator call and high-powered light. While red foxes are swift on the ground, gray foxes are able to evade danger by climbing trees with great ease and agility. 



For the dinner table, Eastern Cottontails are a historical favorite, dating back many centuries as a household staple. Their pelts are soft and warm and their meat is great in stews, pot pies, or even fried. They are certainly a favorite among houndsmen, as they are a quick, agile moving target that requires great skill and marksmanship to harvest.

Our state hosts both the Eastern Gray Squirrel as well as the Fox Squirrel. These animals are very common and are seen anywhere in large areas of woods. Eastern grays are the most dominant squirrels in the state, but the fox squirrel can be found in the western parts of the Old Dominion

in the Blue Ridge area. Like the rabbit, these small rodents are also a centuries-old favorite in the kitchen, providing delicious additions to stews, pies, and the fryer. 

Copyright Dennis Davenport.

Other tree-dwelling favorites include the opossum and the raccoon. Raccoons are a favorite amongst nighttime houndsmen, and are able to be hunted every day if the week except for Sunday. As a matter of fact, they are the only animal in Virginia that cannot be hunted on Sunday. The opossum tends to be more of a target for the opportunistic hunter, meaning they aren't exactly a targeted animal, but if they are seen while hunting for another species, that is when they are most likely to be harvested. The opossum's most significant trait is their soft pelt.

The bobcat is a favorite trophy of hunters all across the state. They have a beautiful spotted pelt and are a secretive animal that is a treat to see. They are most commonly hunted at night and will sometimes come in to calls that are intended to draw foxes or coyotes. However, the bobcat can be seen during the day, most often while hunting other species such as deer. The most effective way to harvest bobcats, though, is to set foothold traps in areas where bobcats are known to roam or have been seen.

Last but not least, the Northern River Otter calls Virginia streams and rivers home. They have a gorgeous, shiny pelt that can sometimes fetch top-dollar at the fur market. The most common method of harvest is trapping. They are a

beautiful addition to the Virginia landscape.

Upland Birds & Waterfowl As mentioned before, Virginia has a beautiful coastline, an abundance of rivers, and a plethora of woodlands, fields, meadows, and mountains. All of this makes for prime hunting ground for both water-bound birds and upland forest-bound birds. Our upland game includes dove, snipe, rail, crow, grouse, pheasants (mostly on game preserves and farms) and quail. These birds can be a fun hunt for kids, new hunters, and those with working dogs.

The list of waterfowl in Virginia is quite extensive but includes species such as

mallards, Canada geese, teals, scoters, mergansers, coots, snow geese, Tundra swans, brants, pintails, ring-necks, wood ducks and gallinules. Ducks can prove to be a challenge to hunt but can provide hours of fun with mouth calls. Waterfowl seasons can overlap a lot of other seasons, so the decision must be made which species is more important for you to chase! Remember, state and federal migratory waterfowl stamps are required to hunt these species, but they are certainly worth the expense and time spent in a blind with your closest buddies or even your best retriever!


Nuisance Species Our state has an established list of nuisance species. They are defined as species that are invasive, or not native, to Virginia or promote extensive damage to our natural ecosystems in the wild. Therefore, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries allows unlimited bag limits and year-round open season on these specific animals. Included on this list is the coyote, the newest favorite of hunters across the state. It is believed that a large portion of Virginia's coyote population is indeed infiltrated with wolf DNA and are lesser known as "coywolves." These large canines are a target of nighttime hunters looking for a thrill with electronic calls, mouth calls, and high-powered lights. They can often be persuaded into song by such calls, and a large horde of coyotes exploding into yelps, barks, and howls is certainly a sound to behold.

Also included on the nuisance list is the groundhog. Traditionally, this small rodent-like mammal is a great target for kids and those who enjoy long-distance hunting over fields. The meat can be used in stews and they also provide as a successful bait for hunting coyotes. The groundhog can cause significant damage to field crops such as corn and soybeans. Their large holes for their dens can also prove detrimental to expensive farm equipment. Thus, farmers are usually very easily persuaded to allow groundhog hunting in their fields.




The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is trying to prevent the spread of feral hogs in Virginia. There is reportedly a small group of hogs near Culpeper and also a group near the North Carolina-Virginia border. These animals breed quickly, grow quickly, and destroy quickly. They are diggers, and can completely turn over a freshly-planted corn field overnight, costing farmers thousands of dollars in damages. Therefore, the Department has classified the hog as a nuisance, and they are of top priority to eradicate if seen.


There you have it! A long list of favorite target animals in our great state. There are many more animals that are legal game in Virginia, but the list is very extensive and I feel that this covers all of the "big stuff!" All in all, Virginia is a great place to hunt with a very large variety of game species and I personally feel that the game laws are fair, safe, and are in place to help not only the hunters for generations to come, but to also promote the conservation of our native species and to ensure that they are around for those next-generation hunters. So what are you waiting for? Get your gear, get those kids, and get out there and HUNT!

Love this blog? Be sure to visit the Virginia Hunting Forum, Virginia's leading hunting and fishing community on the net! Join in on great discussions there and share your favorite animals to pursue!

2015 Virginia Youth Deer Weekend Contest

Photo copyright Tyweav3 on youtube.

THE VIRGINIA HUNTING FORUM in partnership with River Rest Taxidermy is strong in the ideals of getting our youth out into the field. This year, the up-and-coming taxidermy service is offering a free shoulder mount of your youth's deer taken on youth weekend here in Virginia! Get your kid and your sights lined up...here's how to enter the contest!

1. Visit the Virginia Hunting Forum at www.VAHuntingForum.com and, if you aren't a member yet, create an account and get involved in the great hunting discussions in our little corner of the internet! There are no minimum post restrictions - all you have to do is be a member of our forum!

Photo altered to show example. Copyright its respective owners.

2. If your youth harvests a deer, have your youth hold up a piece of paper with YOUR USERNAME on it and the date of the day they harvested it. Take a picture of your youth with their deer and this piece of paper with the info (see example to the right)!

3. Log on to the forum and post your photo in the contest thread. Then, have your youth go on under YOUR USERNAME and write up a short story about their hunt and their experience with you that led up to the harvest of their trophy!

The contest thread will open on the VA Hunting Forum on the morning of Saturday, September 26th, and will be closed by Monday evening, September 28th. So make sure to get your photos and stories posted by Monday night! Youths 15 and under, as defined by VA youth regulations, may enter their deer. Bucks of any size, and does are eligible, too! Virginia deer only -- no out-of-state deer permitted! This contest is about the opportunity to get your youth's deer mounted to preserve the memories of the "good ol' days" for years to come!

Starting Tuesday, September 29th, the Virginia Hunting Forum community will have the opportunity to read all stories from the youths and a poll will be hosted to choose their favorite story. The winner will be contacted to have their youth's deer mounted for free by River Rest Taxidermy!

Good luck to all the youths and their guides on Youth Weekend 2015!

Deer Scents Now Illegal in Virginia?

                                                                                         Photo copyright James B. Boyd

The Virginia hunting community has been in an uproar over the past few days due to a new law that allegedly passed concerning use of deer scents in Virginia. A lot of people have blamed liberalism, money-hungry lawmakers, and the fact that the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries "just doesn't care about what we want!" The law passed regardless of a majority vote by citizens during the public input period that the scents remain legal to use. Why do they even ask what we think if they're just going to go against us anyway? I'll tell you why. And I'll tell you why in just three letters: CWD.

CWD also affects elk. Photo copyright Gary Gulash.

Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, is an incurable, dangerously contagious, and 100% fatal disease
in cervids. Cervids includes mule deer, whitetailed deer, moose and elk. The disease is spread through bodily secretions like saliva, urine, feces and gland oils. It is caused by prions, which today are not fully understood by scientists and so far, are resistant to all forms of medicines. The CWD disease remains live in the environment for years after being shed from the animal, thus remaining infective to any other cervid that comes in contact with it.

There have been seven confirmed cases of CWD in Virginia, the first being a doe killed by a hunter in 2009. Since then, over 7,600 samples have been taken from hunter-killed deer, roadkill deer, and captive deer that die.

Captive deer farm

Seven cases? Virginia is actually doing pretty well when we put it into perspective. What do I mean by "perspective?" States like Colorado and Wyoming have become so overwhelmed with the disease that they have practically given up trying to eradicate it from the wild population because it's virtually impossible. Why would we want to have the same problem in our great state? We just re-introduced elk into our state, why would we want to put that population at risk, too?

Removing lymph nodes from a deer for CWD testing

Deer infected with CWD will show no visible signs of sickness in the early stages, and it is only detectable in deceased animals. Samples are taken from the brain and lymph nodes and tested for the presence of the disease. So how can all of these captive deer farms that mass produce deer urine and scents be so sure that there is no CWD? According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, a great deal of these companies have not been compliant with their CWD testing. Basically, it's scaring the crap out of our natural resource managers.

Buck suffering from CWD.

Just last year, Virginia took a huge hit to our deer population via Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD). It got us a little worried. We talked about it. A lot of us even started brainstorming ways to try to help the populations in the coming years to possibly try to help the herds recover and grow. EHD isn't even contagious...it's transmitted by a fly and is completely out of human control. Now that the DGIF is taking intiative to prevent the outbreak of a contagious disease that is completely preventable by human hands, we're all upset and in an uproar. Take a step back and think about it, folks!

We aren't alone. Other states like Alaska and Vermont have signed a similar law into action in their states, and both were for the sole purpose of preventing CWD.

So what's in the fine print?

The proposed change was for a law in the Administrative Code of Virginia, law 4VAC15-90-293: Chronic Wasting Disease Deer Carcass Movement Restrictions. The proposed amendment states, "No person shall, for the purposes of taking or intending to take, attracting, or scouting, any wild animal in Virginia, possess or use any substance or material that contains or purports to contain any excretion collected from a cervid, including feces, urine, blood, gland oil, or other bodily fluid."

This means ANY NATURAL SUBSTANCE THAT WAS OBTAINED FROM ANY LIVE CERVID. You CAN still use artificial cover scents, artificial scents, synthetic urines, or fox and coon urine. The law only prohibits use of cervid excretions. This includes but is not limited to gland oils, tarsal glands, doe urine, and buck urine. It also includes the rub-on sticks like VS-1 that uses the natural vaginal secretions of live does. It's a little fuzzy, but this may also include urine collected from a deer that you killed yourself.

Will stores continue to sell these items? Absolutely. They want to make money off of you, even if you're going to use the products illegally. They are not liable for what you do with the product once you leave the store (just like buying deer corn and minerals in November), so they couldn't care less. It all comes down to you, the hunter, to understand WHY this law was passed, WHY the deer could potentially experience an incurable outbreak due to using these scents, and be wise to the environment and the laws. Yes, the new law sucks and puts a hindrance on our hunting traditions, but we can't always think about what we want when it comes to hunting; sometimes we need to think about what's best for the wildlife and what is the best way for us to make sure that good hunting is available for future generations!

Love this blog? Be sure to visit the Virginia Hunting Forum, Virginia's leading hunting and fishing community on the net! Join in on great discussions there and share your favorite scents and attractants for deer hunting!

The hidden trophy within the Wild Gobbler!

A successful turkey hunt is far and few between for many hunters, so we like to collect and keep as many parts of the bird as we can to cherish the memories of the hunt. Many hunters don't know that after the beards, spurs, fans, and meat, there is another trophy hidden deep within a wild gobbler. Turkey Jewels!

A friend of mine posted about this last year, and since I got my very first gobbler yesterday, I decided to go on my own treasure hunt. As a turkey grows and eats, he picks up small stones and swallows them. These stones settle into the turkey's gizzard, where they aid in digestion by grinding up all other digestible food that the turkey eats from day to day. Because they are constantly grinding, the stones are worn down smooth and some of them can be quite pretty. Some birds may have fine stones, others bulky stones, some dark stones, some light and patterned stones. If you're lucky, you can even find precious metals! It can be a little dirty, but quite frankly, if you can field dress a turkey without hurling, you can do this! 

Here's how to find your Turkey Jewels!

1. After field dressing your bird, locate the gizzard
and cut it free from the rest of the innards.



 2. Split the gizzard open with a sharp knife.

3. Spill all of the contents into a bucket.

Rinse the gizzard with a hose to get everything out!

4. Cover the contents with a good amount of water and rigorously SWISH IT ALL AROUND! The Jewels will settle to the bottom of the bucket while the seeds and other vegetation float.

5. Pour the water off. 

6. Repeat a few times until the water stays clear and you can see your Jewels!

7. Empty your Jewels onto a clean surface.

At this point, you can pick out your favorites to save, or just save all of them!

I've started this tradition for myself with my first gobbler, and I'll save the Jewels from all my future gobblers. I'm going to bottle all my gobblers' Jewels from each year into separate containers (I'm using a re-purposed Cracker Barrel syrup bottle!). You can then add water or mineral oil into the bottle to create a great conversation piece. This is a great tradition to start with kids, or even for the seasoned hunter. Good luck turkey hunters!

 

Love this blog? Be sure to visit the Virginia Hunting Forum, Virginia's leading hunting and fishing community on the net! Join in on great discussions there and share your Spring Gobbler success!