Big Bucks

 Let me start this conversation by admitting my limitations.   I am not a deer expert nor do I pretend to be. I hold no degrees in forestry , agriculture, or wildlife management.   My view points are my own.   I have briefly in the past been the Pro-staff of a couple of operations but am not getting paid and or sponsored by anybody at the present.   Ok, my wife sponsors my hunting.  She is willing to sell me out to any organization willing to give money or merchandise,  HAHAHAHA.

I have worked in the outdoors a large portion of my life and ended up being the risk control/ insurance man for loggers and construction accounts.  I have run a gun business successfully and unsuccessfully at times for the past ten years.  I work hard for what I have but have had the pleasure of  having a career that has allowed me to hunt.  I have hunted  and fished in numerous states  which include VA, NC, AL, GA, KY, PA, and even in FL  When I went into land ownership years ago, that cut out most of my out of state hunting which has kept me from going to the Midwest. Rather than any degrees, I am speaking from experience and what I have learned from my friends and customer's over the years.  I also read way too many magazines and watch way too many hunting programs and youtube videos on deer management and planting for wildlife.  I do follow and consider myself friends with some people that know allot about killing big deer,  as well as  attracting and growing big deer---------------but it doesnt pay my bills to live next to somebody that is rich (thats an old saying.)

LET THEM GET OLD. GIVE THEM FOOD AND PROTECT THEM.

OLD BOYS  I am sure guys in the Midwest can debunk this ,but down south age does wonders.  Let a buck get to 4.5 ,5.5 or even 6 years old.  Its amazing to see how they bust out.  I have seen properties with limited food sources and way to many does produce monsters  I said nothing about raising Pope & Young or Boone & Crocket bucks, but an old buck is cool buck.  Even if some folks consider him a cull.    Just a side point,  some of my favorite hunts and coolest deer mounts were for culls or what somebody told me was one!

Food Plots.   I love to plant.  Some experts say not to plant in the off season to keep the does away and some do say to plant.  I do because I love growing stuff for the wildlife about as much as I do hunting them.  This love can be seen in my gardening.  I take pride in fall food plots and go to great efforts and expense to have them turn out right.  I like planting stuff around the house in the summer because I just love to see the deer, turkey, and birds.  I probably would have stopped hunting over the years if I wasnt allowed to plant oats, wheat, cereal rye,  and Blessed clover for my deer.  BAIT  Hell Yes,  I personally have no problems with it and know some do.  To each his own.  People can preach this and preach that.   Again I hold no degrees.   If they will let you run corn and bait deer, YES.  It works.   I just said I love planting for deer.  If legal, I will probably have bait stations situated somewhere on my hunting properties around those plantings.    Most of my largest bucks were not killed over a corn pile!  Corn however helps hold does and increases the deer sightings.  I went straight to corn.   Yes I run some apples and they work.  I have tried other bait including the blocks but usually end back up the yellow gold.  I have limited knowledge of toasted soybeans and peanuts----I am always willing to learn.  I run corn out of 55 gallon gravity feeders.   I do occasionally run it on the ground and on the cob.  Sometimes I throw it out around my feeders.  Putting out 50 pounds of corn to hunt in 3 days ain't what I am talking about.  Yes BAMA friends with spinner feeders---- I see the benefit of timers.   I struggle with finding economical corn to run through them all the time.  I think I have made my point.  You all are trying to teach me so this may change over time!!

Protection   Everybody knows that you need to give them cover.  It goes further than that.   Most of the guys I see who are real successful stay out of it!   This is my biggest flaw.  I am blessed with hunting land that I own, but I never seem to have enough to hunt-----because I love to hunt so much.  Also you have neighbors who sit on your boarders trying to kill them going on and off your protection and salad bars.  I dont want to own all the land, but just that which borders mine.   Wish I had more to get them older.

Lets put all this together.      Some of the most successful people have seen have a block either large or small that has hunting pressure  less than those areas around it.  They either feed, plant plots, or have agricultural resources.   You Make them feel protected in the property.  Keep your visits to the bait infrequent and dont run a camera anywhere if its going to cause you to visit too often.   Lastly --To me a doe during the rut is BAIT!   I dont shoot does anywhere close to the time I am buck hunting.    Feed them, don't hunt it until things and times are perfect, and hunt smart.  

Have a buddy in Alabama talking to one of his friends.  They both love to hunt.  Alabama bowhunting starts in October and gun goes into February.  His friend loved to hunt like me.  That friend likes to just be in the woods.   Bowhunted, muzzle loader hunted, and rifle hunted as much as he could.  That friend asked them how he killed big bucks?  My friend said "  Feed them,  Hunt a stand no more than 3 times,  don't have hunting buddies, and you will kill a big deer"   That friend was shocked.  It wont make friends but it will help you see more deer and eventually probably a big one.

The Dream I had about the Red Jeep

Preface--I told this story when I had the honor of speaking at my brother's funeral in 2016.  Marvin Kyle Arnold  is my brother  and passed away around this time of the year.  The 25th I do believe. Kyle is what everybody called him.

When I was in college , I had money cause I was going to school, working, and living at home.  I wanted a jeep.  My brother and I found a red Jeep that was all jacked up.  Daddy disagreed with it.   He was right.  I spent money to fix and modify the old CJ5 and then would carry it out and tear it up.  I havent had good experiences with Jeeps over the years and would see one riding down the road and yell "Sell it!"  My dad and brother would get a kick from it.  Kyle and I spent countless hours working on the old Jeep either customizing or repairing it . Finally Sold that jacked up Jeep years ago to Tommy(  hope it wasnt the end of him).   Now your up to speed.

I had a dream  and I told the crowd it wasn't one of those weird dreams so don't be scared, haha.   I was 20ish again.   I was riding in the old jeep from Forest Home to Awin Alabama.  I thought I was cool! haha  I was making the turn off HWY. 10  headed toward Beatrice.   I lost control of the Jeep and hit a old barn in the corner of the intersection (that  building may have just been a dream as it was a dream.)   Shortly there after my uncles Walter Arnold and Joe Arnold pulled up together.   Uncle Walter shook his head and Uncle Joe mumbled and growled at me once they realized I was OK.   We all began looking at the damage to the JEEP and the barn.  My dad James Arnold and brother Kyle pulled up in the old white Ford F250.   Daddy let out a couple of "NOT SO NICE" words.  Kyle looked over in the back floorboard of the Jeep and there was a 6 pack of Beer.  Kyle said "Ah HELL Boy" and grabbed the 6 pack and threw it in the woods as we knew the State Trooper would show up soon.    I remember them all looking at me in disagreement as probably had happened previously.      THEN I WOKE UP!!!  

Not told the day of the funeral----I was upset enough I  told my Mama, Geneva Arnold about the dream.  For a minute, I was back there with them smelling the thick South Alabama air and can even remember the shorts n t-shirt I had on.  It was raining that summer afternoon and I can feel the pavement under my feet as I barefoot.  

Why do I tell this story at my brother's funeral?     I continued the story that day..    I woke up and I was sad.  I wanted to be with them for just another minute. They were all gone.   I ended the story at the funeral by telling family and friends that hopefully these men were looking down on us, and if we lived right, hopefully we could be them one day in a better place.   Mama is gone now as well.   Maybe I can see them one day under better circumstances.

Kyle passed on the 1/25/16 which is why this is heavy on my mind.  Thanks for making it this far into the read.

Is it a Boat or a Truck?

 As the traveling Risk control man for an insurance company,  I once covered  a large portion of the southeastern U.S    It may sound crazy, but I was spending about 50 to 60% of my time in Georgia.  I lived on the road, made some good friends, and met some real good people along the way.  I also met allot of people who may have been a little suspicious as to why I was there.  :)   I often was asked---"they can't find somebody to do this job down here."    I would  probably make things worse  for myself when I would chuckle and say  "Apparently NOT!!" haha  But I digress.

I was somewhere north of Woodstock Georgia and got directions to a logger.  I called the guy the night/day before.   He was suspicious of me with a North Carolina number calling.  After I convinced him that I was not a revenuer,  He gave me directions and said------- "Its a little rough on the way back in.  I am a ways back in the woods but you can follow the tracks."

I was driving a Dodge RAM 4x4.   I loved that truck!  I can remember talking on the phone and getting directions to another one of my accounts as I pulled up on the job.   I pulled up on the guys set-out area ( where they stage multiple trailers so the road trucks don't have to do way back into the woods).   Felt I needed to do that for you Educated / Non-Forestry related folks, haha.  I was talking on the phone and watching a guy hook up to an unloaded log  trailer.   The driver then took off with the set-out truck along the logging road and went around a curve.

One thing the Safety man does is when I have somebody on the phone------ Get Directions!   Especially when you are 6 to 8 hours from the house.  I sat there and finished my conversation, updated the guys operation on the phone, and was ready to go see him after I finished this job.

 I had lost sight of the truck ahead of me but it was apparent where he went.   My wife called as I was going toward the curve and I answered the Hands-free phone.   We were talking as I rounded the corner.  I let out a huge SCREAM!  The sharp turn was followed by a creek.   The truck went into the creek and water went over the hood of my truck and rushed onto the windshield.   I had never let off the gas, the bottom of the creek was hard, and I came out the other side.  On the other side, I got out of the truck and let out some choice verbiage.   I could not believe it.    After I collected myself and realized my truck was ok, I started laughing.   I about drown that truck!!

I did the visit with the account.   He and I even became friendly down the line.  But I could have been in trouble had I had one of those little trucks.   Thanks for reading this funny moment in my past.  These experiences have made me who I am, even if its a little  OFF.  😅

Met some really good folks in GA, AL, FL, MS and SC over the years.  I am glad I don't live on the road anymore but do miss the people.

Picture credits go to Pinterest.

Christmas Times a coming....

 I have always loved the anticipation of Christmas.   Sure its nice to open gifts and see your family all together happy.   But I have always loved getting ready for the day.

A really good memory that has always stuck in my head was on the 23rd of December.   I was probably 7 or 8 at the time.  My dad James H. Arnold and my first cousin Gordon Arnold were working.  Gordon was the son of Jack Arnold  and despite the age difference, we were first cousins.   Gordon and Daddy both worked at the time for Ray Nuss of Nuss Timber in Pine Hill Alabama.  Daddy and Gordon looked after the company crew and host of contract loggers.  Daddy's primary job was timber buyer and Gordon would have been in today's term the Fleet Manager in addition to host of other duties at that time.

I was tagging along that day with Gordon and Daddy.   How my cousins Jackie and Sherry were not along still puzzles me.  I can remember us riding by Catherine Academy.  This was pre-seatbelt laws and the school was closed for Christmas but in its prime.   I had a toy Hotwheels car and was playing in the floor board of Gordons truck.  I can remember all the sand on the floor board and playing around the CB.  Daddy and Gordon were running by I believe Troy Smith's logging operation to check and see how much longer he had on that track.   We were going to Flat Woods I believe and then had to run over to Moore's Valley and check on the cows.  (Daddy and Gordon were partnered together in a pretty sizeable cattle operation in addition to their day jobs.)

On the radio, I had insisted they find Christmas songs.  I can see Gordon having a chew of tobacco and smoking a cigarette.  Then taking some of Daddy's Skoal as well.  I was amazed at the man and thought how cool he was. How the nicotine didn't blow his head off---we will never know, haha. Gordon found some music on the radio and then the song came on "Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer."   I started laughing at the song and Gordon said "Get on from here Man!" and let out a big laugh.   Daddy just shook his head at us.  

We had finished logging and went on to the farm.   Daddy cranked up the old Ford 5000 and we got a round bail of hay for the cows.  We rolled it down the hill. It was cold for Alabama and I was ready to get Christmas started.  Cold weather for Alabama and we were wishing or fresh fruit, nuts, and yes candy in our stockings.

There were no big punch lines to this but it was good memory of mine. Its the little memories that mean allot.  I thought I was big to be working with them.  Daddy always had me around the office and shop allot growing up.  But the days leading up  to Christmas as child were so exciting.   Now I live those Christmas dreams through my boy James Jordan Arnold (Jamie) and my wife Michele.  As I write these stories for my family and my friend, I realize Gordon, Daddy,  Mr. Nuss, and Mr. Troy are all gone.  They still live on in my heart.

Merry Christmas and may the song make you chuckle as well.

Injury in the Logging Woods

 The setting was Forest Home Alabama.  My dad, James Henry Arnold, had purchased his brother's logging operation (Joe Arnold Logging) and we were operating as JH Arnold Logging.   My brother Marvin Kyle Arnold (Kyle) and myself were both working at the time with Daddy.  As most everyone knows, we were a long time Rocky Creek logger which became Union Camp.  We may have been producing for Hines Steele and Steele out of Beatrice AL. at that time as my memory fails me a little.  We were however doing a select cut for a family friend right close to the our then business and second home.  That family friend was Mr. Author Till.   I was in my early 20s  working in the family business and going to college.

That summer day, We had some huge pines that would fall on the road if cut by our feller buncher or by one of our saw hands.  Daddy had Kyle added another cable onto the existing cable of the John Deere Grapple skidder.   Knump , one our saw hands, and I went to the pine near the road.  They had me shimmy up the pine and place the cable high in the tree.   Kyle was driving the skidder and they let out all the cable and took out all the slack.

The first thing that went wrong was I standing next to Knump as he set into the tree.  I had my hand resting on the tree and limb fell out and hit in the shoulder.   I said a few choice words then we continued on.  Knump was good with a saw and we hand motioned them to pull with the skidder.   We did not take into account there was small pine tree between Knump and Kyle.  For some reason Jim or as we called him Nook was standing at the back of skidder.  Nook realized late the tree would hit the small pine which would hit him.  He turned to run. The large pine fell and caught the little pine.   I can remember the little pine bending as it went down.   It switched Nook three times.  BAM.  BAM. BAM.  The small tree bent lick a switch as sailed down to the ground.

We all rushed to Nook.  It was bad.  He was bloody and broke up.  He was also unconscious.   I can remember Kyle rushing the Chevy crew cab done the logging trail to get close to him..   Kyle and Daddy rushed him to the Hospital.

What a day that was.  As you all know, I am a Risk Control / safety man for the insurance company.  Many things went wrong that day but that is not what this story is about.  However, Nook did make it through the event and was eventually able to return to the woods.   

All the memories you have are not good ones.  Some of the best memories are however from Tragedies.  I can still remember Kyle frantically driving that service truck.   I can smell the pine now like it happened yesterday.   Most of those men are long gone now.   I am probably the only one still around, but their memories still log in my heart.

Stay Safe out there.

Thanksgiving Long Past

As I just pulled the turkey from the oven it reminds me of  a Thanksgiving years ago.

My Dad , James Henry Arnold had his first surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.  He had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was to be operated on in the upcoming months.  My wife and I had traveled to Alabama a little early for Thanksgiving and were spending time with him.

It was a hot day in Pine Hill as can be expected.  My sister Lesha had come up on Wednesday evening to see us ahead of the rest of the gang.  I had got out and grilled some ribeye's on the grill and we were all at the kitchen table.

Lesha looked across me at the table and said "what is wrong with you? "  I had  huge whelps coming up on my face.   The word chicken pox came up.   Chele and I rushed down to the then emergency room in Thomasville.   To make a long story short------I had chicken pox and I was 37.  My cousins, Sherry and Jackie got them down the road but I never had them.

It was the hardest thing I ever did.  I had to leave my dad on what I knew would be the last Thanksgiving I would ever spend with him.  Chele drove home and I admit that I cried most of the way.   Missed the last Thanksgiving with the old man and honestly the last time he was sort of himself.

This blog is about Outdoor Nonsense however......................... I had a good boss Keith at the time that let me create safety talks for several weeks and work from home.  I made the most of it of course.  It was hunting season.   

Late one evening during the harrowing event of adult chicken pox,  I was sitting behind my house and was wearing PJs.   Sorry, I rarely hunt only in PJS.  A group of does came into the feeder.  I picked out a big one and BOOM!  I was not very much myself do to pain meds and self medication (I had hives and even had them on my feet).  I heard the doe crash and go down.  It was dark and I said ----tomorrow.

The next day, my dog Jake and I went to track down the deer.    I put him on the trail and we went in the direction I heard her go down.    No deer.   You could see blood where she laid down.   Old dog kept making funny circles.   I got mad at him and went searching and looked for miles.  Nothing!   Came back to the last place and the dog walked over 20 yards and there she was covered in leaves.  Something had covered her up and not started eating on it.   Somebody tried to say a CAT and others said a Bear.   

It was strange but I found my deer.

Happy Thanksgiving to All.   If you made it this far, thanks for sharing in a sad and funny moment of my life.

A good trigger is a good start.

   
      The wind picked up as I sat in my climber.  I had been bow hunting this stand several times but had picked up the smoke pole as seasons had changed.   I had seen a monster a few weeks earlier in a  bachelor group and that was all I needed to start logging hours in that tree.   I noticed something coming out to my left through the thick woods.   I slowly reached over to pick up my muzzle loader.  That does open up the question---- Is your weapon ready for season?
     You can pick up about any hunting publication and see a host of information about how to accurize your hunting rifle.   Manufacturers as well as gunsmiths like myself can do a host of customizations to your gun to make it shot small groups. One common element you will find in most accurate rifles  are they have a good trigger.
      A good trigger does not necessary mean it needs to be very light in poundage.   A nice trigger with very little creep can give a crisp trigger even at moderate poundage.   Many of your nicer rifles do have a a well adjusted trigger with lighter poundage.   For safety purposes, please don't go too light with a factory trigger.   I have a couple of target guns with trigger less than 2 pounds.  Those are custom triggers however.   I have  done enough trigger jobs with Remington's as well as Winchesters to know that you have to worry about what I call "Slam Shuts".  The trigger is adjusted so light that when you slam the bolt, then the gun goes off.
     A competent gunsmith can help adjust your trigger properly.  He or she may also be able to set you up with some aftermarket options out there as they are many.  Just beware of gloves and light a trigger.  I have a gun with a 1.5 pound trigger and it goes off easy!
     Back to the story.   The buck came out to my left and started working his way up the rub line.   I sat there wet and waiting on the old boy.   He stepped out took a look across the field.  That was all I needed.   I pulled the trigger of muzzle loader and BOOM.   The hit was dramatic as well as the blood trail.   He didn't go far and I was able to retrieve him with the 4wheeler.
     If your looking for help making that rifle accurate, building a custom rifle, or thinking of refinishing your gun,   then please check us out at www.crookedpinegunworks.com  We specialize in building accurate hunting rifles as well as refinishing your gun.  We will be hot bluing as well in 2016