Whitetales Fall 2018

WHITETALES Building our hunting and conservation legacy through habitat, education and advocacy.

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA DEER HUNTERS ASSOCIATION

HIT MORE OFTEN!

BY WAYNE VAN ZWOLL

CONQUERING BUCK FEVER

BY WES DAVID

FORKHORN FUN FACTS MY FIRST DEER CAMP

BY RON CARLSON

FALL 2018

About this

Issue

Just Look at This Organization� In his classic story, “Just Look at This Country,” legendary outdoor writer Gordon MacQuarrie wrote, “Look at this country. Just look at it!” He then goes on to say, “The words leaped up in me like that on the opening day of deer season. I stood on the top of a high hill with a rifle in my hand and looked across miles of grand, rugged hunting country.”

Those of us who have hunted deer know the feeling. We remember our first hunt like our first day of kindergarten. We tell and retell deer stories, those that were passed on to us by mentors and those we have created. We also hold dearly to our hunting hearts Dr. Seuss’s quote: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

In his “From the President’s Stand” column, MDHA president Doug Applegren urges us to “share our passion.” He then recounts last deer season, reflecting on his hunts as both a mentee and mentor.

All of us who love to deer hunt in our favorite woods and fields fondly acknowledge those mentors who not only told us about hunting, but took us. We remember the excitement and enthusiasm, how they stressed safety and told us not to let our enthusiasm outweigh our judgement and how the true test of the hunt was not in the take, but the feelings, the delight in simple things like sunrises/sunsets, the mystery of migrating geese and the magic of a single snowflake or chickadee landing on our gun barrels.

Our fall issue is dedicated to the hunt and the harvest. As expected, we deal with shooting prowess, even addressing the dreaded “buck fever,” the ins and outs of ballistics, firearms and the basics of a steady aim. We also focus on the bounty of our hunt, bringing you savory recipes and the gratitude relating to our harvest.

Moreover, this issue delves into our passion for all aspects of the hunt, from scouting to preparing, to equipment to fun facts for our young and new hunters. Many times, the essence of the hunt exists in the people with whom we share or have shared that hunt. Deer hunting is more than the pulling of a trigger or releasing of an arrow, it is a deeply traditional quest we hunters share with our hunter/gatherer ancestors, both long ago and recent.

As you read this issue and consider how we have been blessed by the thrill and reverence of the hunt, center on some of the key words and phrases that highlight not only our articles, but our organizational vision: first deer camp, a deer camp chronical, traditions, today, tomorrow, blessings, volunteers, reflecting, priorities and choices, to name but a few. Most of all, we key in on what Ed Schmidt calls in his award-winning column “Minnesota Buck Sense”: “A labor of love and dedication.”

As our title says, “Just look at this organization!” Well, just look at it! And, when you do, MDHA members, not only be proud, share that pride, share your passion. Like Gordon MacQuarrie wrote in the same story, “What do those who ask why people go hunting know of the tryst a hunter keeps with the wind and the trees and the sky. Hunting? The means are greater than the end and every deer hunter knows it.”

Be safe, be ethical, belong to the MDHA and recruit new members by convincing those “not yet members” to help us help deer and deer hunting.

Whitetails forever.

Co-Editors and Founders, Rod Dimich and Ed Schmidt Whitetales is the official magazine of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated to improving Minnesota’s whitetail deer population. The MDHA is exempt under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Whitetales effectively communicates MDHA’s chief purpose “building our hunting and conservation legacy through habitat, education and advocacy.” Articles and photographs portray the beauty, value and importance of whitetail deer while relating to the thrill of hunting the species. If you have a service or a product that appeals to deer hunters and enthusiasts, Whitetales is the best advertising medium available.

The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association is pleased to present a variety of views in Whitetales magazine. The intent is to inform readers and encourage healthy discussion of important wildlife and conservation issues. The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the view of Whitetales or MDHA. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers or their identification as members of MDHA does not constitute an endorsement.

The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association welcomes contributions from readers. All materials: manuscripts, artwork and photography must be electronically sent. Send all material to bri@mndeerhunters.com. Material should be a maximum of 150 words, articles a maximum of 500 – 800 words. If a reprint from a newspaper is submitted, permission must be obtained and an electronic copy must be sent. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials.

2 Whitetales | FALL 2018

WHITETALES MNDEERHUNTERS.COM

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS PRESIDENT Doug Appelgren > dougappelgren@mndeerhunters.com VICE PRESIDENT Gary Thompson > garythompson@mndeerhunters.com SECRETARY Robin Vogen > robinvogen@mndeerhunters.com TREASURER Denece Dreger > denecedreger@mndeerhunters.com AT-LARGE DIRECTOR Dennis Quarberg > dennisquarberg@mndeerhunters.com REGIONAL DIRECTORS REGION ONE Stu Weston >

REGION EIGHT Dustin Shourds >

REGION TWO Gabrielle Gropp >

REGION NINE OPEN REGION TEN Mark Lueck >

stuweston@mndeerhunters.com

gabe@mndeerhunters.com

REGION THREE Justin Mayne >

justinmayne@mndeerhunters.com

REGION FOUR John Edinger > cedinger@q.com

REGION FIVE Peter Lodermeier > lodrmr@gmail.com

REGION SIX Stephen Ranallo >

dustinshourds@mndeerhunters.com

marklueck@mndeerhunters.com

REGION ELEVEN Brent Thompson >

brentthompson@mndeerhunters.com

REGION TWELVE Jim Vogen > robvog21@aol.com

REGION THIRTEEN OPEN

steveranallo@mndeerhunters.com

REGION SEVEN Mark Nohre >

marknohre@mndeerhunters.com

MDHA STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Craig Engwall > craig.engwall@mndeerhunters.com EVENT & PUBLICATION COORDINATOR Bri Stacklie > bri@mndeerhunters.com *Independent Contractor

MERCHANDISE / ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Josh Salisbury > josh@mndeerhunters.com SOUTHERN CHAPTER COORDINATOR Mercedes Akinseye > mercedes@mndeerhunters.com COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING AND NORTHERN CHAPTER COORDINATOR Cari Alleman > cari@mndeerhunters.com FINANCE COORDINATOR Renee Thompson > renee@mndeerhunters.com MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR Kim Washburn > kim@mndeerhunters.com GRANT COORDINATOR Jenny Foley > jenny@mndeerhunters.com EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Leah Braford > leah@mndeerhunters.com PUBLISHER > Minnesota Deer Hunters Association 460 Peterson Road | Grand Rapids, MN 55744 800.450.DEER (MN) / p: 218.327.1103 / f: 218.327.1349 CO-EDITORS > Ed Schmidt and Rod Dimich LAYOUT, DESIGN & PRINTING > Brainerd Dispatch, A Forum Communications company www.brainerddispatch.com | Brainerd, MN ADVERTISING > Josh Salisbury josh@mndeerhunters.com / 218.327.1103 x 17

Whitetales Building our hunting and conservation legacy through habitat, education and advocacy.

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE MINNESOTA DEER HUNTERS ASSOCIATION

Contents

FALL 2018

HIT MORE OFTEN!

BY WAYNE VAN ZWOLL

CONQUERING BUCK FEVER

BY WES DAVID

FORKHORN FUN FACTS MY FIRST DEER CAMP

BY RON CARLSON

FALL 2018

ABOUT THE COVER Sometimes it takes getting a little wet to collect a great buck.

PHOTO BY GRANT GRELL

Departments

11

IN EVERY ISSUE

From the President’s Stand .... 4 The Outlook................................ 5 Minnesota Buck Sense ............ 6

FEATURES

Capitol Comments .................... 8 Around the State ..................... 20 Forkhorn Fun Facts................. 26 MDHA Marketplace ................ 28 Deer Hunting Memories ........ 42 What’s Cookin’? ....................... 52

Gizmos, Gadgets, Garments & Gear..................... 53 Hidden Object Contest .......... 54 Daylight in the Swamp ........... 56 IN THIS ISSUE

MDHA’s Hides for Habitat Program Makes Impact in Communities Across the State of Minnesota ............................ 18 Sam Hosler

Redemption Tastes Like Venison Roast: A Lesson in Gratitude. .................................. 38 Roy Heilman

10 14 30 34 44

Tips & Treasures ...................... 48 Rod Dimich, Ed Schmidt

Member Story: The Blessing of the Orange .. 50

Hit More Often!

By Wayne van Zwoll

Conquering Buck Fever

By Wes David

My First Deer Camp

By Ron Carlson

A Deer Camp Chronical

By Matt Soberg

Traditional Lever-Action Rifles and Cartridges, Today!

By Roy Welch

MDHA affiliates:

George Johnson

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 3

From the President’s Doug Appelgren / MDHA PRESIDENT

SHARE YOUR PASSION Reflections on last year’s hunt as a mentee and mentor

Scouting the ridge the day before, we had discovered many tracks indicating a travel corridor between two coulees. I set up accordingly, looking down the coulee that had the most visibility, but after an hour and a half, lost confidence, crossed the ridge and set up with some juniper and sage behind me. Within an hour, a nice 8-10 point muley showed up and I felt something I hadn’t for a while, buck fever, and not being familiar with this type of terrain and little time to range him, fired over him. The good news was I was still capable of experiencing that kind of excitement, the bad news—I missed. Later in the week, I ranged correctly and dropped a nice forkhorn at 305 yards.

This hunt all started when my neighbor Joel, whose son wouldn’t be able to hunt elk that year, invited me to head out West during the 2nd week of Minnesota’s firearms deer season.

When we applied for licenses, we bought combos, which also allowed a mule deer hunt in October. Because Western hunts often require long distance shooting, Joel taught me about the terrain and a lot about long range shooting. We shot all summer at a 300yard target, getting zeroed in and practicing on the ground from a tripod. I walked two miles almost daily for three months, but as a flatlander it didn’t prepare me for 8400-foot elevation and knee-high snow. Joel said it takes a couple of days to get used to the elevation, but the guide said, “More like a week, about the time your knees give out.” It was the most challenging hunt I have ever experienced but it resulted in a cow walking by me at 40 yards (no cow tag) and on the last day finding a nice 6 x6 at about 500 yds.

The wind wasn’t in our favor, so we decided to try to close to within about 300-350 yards and see if I could get a shot. Cows in the timber (which we didn’t see) spooked and that was all the bull needed to run over the ridge and out of sight. I’m not sure if I got buck fever

4 Whitetales | FALL 2018

again since closing the gap of about 200 yards uphill had me huffing and puffing. It was still a great experience, however, and it whetted my appetite for a return trip this fall. Moreover, thanks to Joel’s mentoring, I was able to cross off two bucket list goals of hunting mule deer and elk in Montana!

But, what was an even more satisfying experience was mentoring three brothers who had completed two previous DNR Adult Learn to Hunts and sharing our property with them during the 2017 Governor’s Deer Opener weekend. We found a weekend to scout the property, chose their stands and sighted in the rifles (all good shots). Two were able to join the banquet for the GDO and then we headed north. I was fortunate to have outdoor writer Sam Cook in camp as he documented the hunt for a great story in the Duluth News Tribune.

On the first day, one of the brothers passed on a spike buck because he wasn’t confident about the shot. Later, we discussed the pros and cons of not only taking some shots because it may be the only deer you see, but also the ethics of avoiding inaccurate shots. I shared with him how an old timer once mentored me about the awful feeling hunters get when wounding a deer and are not able to recover it. I told the brother that if you hunt long enough, no matter how careful you are, it will probably happen at one time or another. There is no worse hunting feeling in the world (my own personal experience). I also told him if it happens and you feel that way, it tells me the person is an ethical hunter who cares about the game. The important thing is to learn from it and concentrate more intently on clean shots.

Then I added that I believed it actually makes us better hunters because we focus more on accuracy while avoiding the consequences of poorly placed shots.

The shot I heard near the last hour on the last day resulted in another brother shooting

his first deer, a nice forkhorn. All the brothers and I shared that excitement during another hunting lesson—properly field-dressing a deer.

We became friends and they want to come visit in the summer with their families. I only had a couple of days by myself before we headed back to Montana, but no bucks showed up—but hey, I did have venison in the freezer.

I often ask you all to “keep the positive in your passion.” While writing this column and choosing the title, I realized that perhaps all passions are not similar. I can readily define mine and sometimes family and friends call it “extreme.” Nevertheless, I have always felt if we take from the resource, we should give back.

When I was first introduced to the MDHA (early 1980s at the Northwest Sports Show) I immediately knew joining was AN OBVIOUS CHOICE! Then and now, however, I do understand not everyone feels the same about deer and deer hunting as I do.

As volunteers, we all have different levels of commitment, dedication and other obligations.

I just can’t imagine life without hunting and last year grounded this passion even more with the incredible positive experiences of being mentored and mentoring. My friends, we must continue to recruit and mentor new hunters.

Without this kind of “preservation,” we won’t have conservation!

We all have those opportunities to reflect on what’s important in life and other priorities while sitting in our deer stands. As we age, the day will come when we are simply no longer capable. Okay, just like when considering mortality, a certain amount of denial is perhaps the norm, but reality tells us and shows us that day will arrive. Before that time comes, though, we should ask ourselves what we have given back and what our legacy will be.

INVITE A �NOT YET HUNTER� TO CAMP THIS FALL AND HAVE A GREAT HUNT�

Craig Engwall / MDHA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

I SIMPLY RAN OUT OF SPACE! Ordinarily, I wouldn’t write on the same topic in back to back issues of Whitetales, but the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has now issued its final Deer Management Plan. As you might well know, there has been some criticism from deer hunters about the Plan. That shouldn’t be a surprise as deer hunters have strong opinions and they aren’t always the same. I focused on several issues in the 2018 Summer issue, but, I would like to touch on a few more.

MDHA understands that the Plan was drafted for a broad audience of stakeholders that is larger than simply deer hunters.

However, the heart of the plan should be about deer hunting. With 500,000 deer hunters providing license revenue to DNR that funds many (too many) other aspects of DNR’s mission, it’s critical that deer hunters’ voices be heard. MDHA is not yet fully convinced that will occur. Still, there are aspects of the Plan that provide opportunities for deer hunters to have a forum to express their views and challenge DNR decisions of.

Generally speaking, there is a lot of terminology and language in the lengthy document that sometimes makes it difficult to find the key points from a deer hunter’s perspective. The answer to the question, “What does this change for me as a deer hunter?” is not readily apparent. There are a number of proposed changes that will improve hunter participation in DNR’s processes. There are also other areas of the Plan that cause MDHA some concerns. MDHA’s comments on the Plan focused on these specific areas and hopefully will provide meaningful information for DNR to consider as it implements the Plan. I’m going to hit on a couple areas that I didn’t reference in the last “Outlook” as I ran out of space!

The Plan improves DNR processes in ways that should alleviate many existing deer hunter frustrations. First, the Plan eliminates the 50% cap on growth in the Goal Setting Process. Second, the Plan recommends that deer hunters (and others) have the opportunity to provide annual input on DNR’s decisionmaking with respect to antlerless permits in

specific DPAs, classification of the DPAs, etc.

This is a significant improvement. Hunters want meaningful input that can influence DNR decision-making. The Plan also calls for a Statewide Deer Input Committee. MDHA strongly supports this recommendation and we also ask DNR to consider the establishment of Regional Deer Input Committees. There seemed to be significant support among hunter members for both Statewide and Regional Committees.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – Deer Health MDHA believes that one of the most important aspects of the Plan is Recommendation 4: “Minimize risk of chronic wasting disease spread to wild deer from captive cervids.” The specificity of the full text of the committee’s recommendation is critically important: “Collaborate with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health to minimize risk of interaction between captive cervidae and wild deer through measures including, but not limited to”: • Pursuit of legislation to require mandatory double fencing of cervid farms to better ensure containment of farmed cervidae and exclusion of wild deer and to eliminate through-the-fence contact between farmed cervids and wild deer.

• Pursuit of legislation to require mandatory marking of farmed cervids at birth; and other appropriate measures.

Deer Plan Consistency with Minnesota Moose Plan MDHA has long believed deer and moose can co-exist in Northeast Minnesota. We are currently awaiting funding for Phase III of the Moose Habitat Collaborative, led by MDHA, to continue important moose habitat work. During the DMPAC meeting process, MDHA was quite clear we believed deer in the Northeast could be managed consistent with the 2011 Moose Research and Management Plan (Moose Plan). The Moose Plan stated: Results of several research projects indicate moose in Minnesota likely face a host of health issues and reducing deer numbers in the absence of a more comprehensive

moose management strategy may not lead to significant and sustained recovery of moose numbers. Until we have more definitive research results, it may be prudent to maintain pre-fawn density within the moose range below 10 deer/sq. mile.

Pre-fawn densities in most of most range lie between 3 and 7 deer/sq. mile (see “Monitoring Population Trends of White-tailed Deer in Minnesota – 2016, DNR”). MDHA believes DNR could manage to grow the deer herd in a number of DPAs in Moose range, yet stay below 10 deer/sq. mile. Unfortunately, it appears DNR is managing to lower deer densities in the Northeast by designating most areas as Hunter’s Choice, despite their already low deer densities.

MDHA’s fears about DNR deer management in moose range are exacerbated by language contained in the Plan that in our mind, conflicts with the planning committee’s recommendation to manage deer consistent with the Moose Plan. On page 26 and 27of the Plan, DNR states: “From a moose management perspective, the most feasible and potentially effective management strategy to reduce this negative impact on the moose population is to maintain deer densities on their shared range as low as practical; this is why deer population goals in the primary moose range must be consistent with direction in the Moose Plan.”

This sentence is very alarming and contradictory of the language of the Moose Plan that says deer densities are recommended to be managed below 10 deer/sq. mile (unless the argument is that zero is below 10).

MDHA cannot and will not support any efforts of DNR to drive down deer numbers in the moose range. We urge DNR to manage deer in balance with moose and where possible, increasing deer numbers in certain DPAs so long as they stay within the Moose Plan’s recommendation of 10 deer/sq. mile or less.

In closing, the Plan is far from perfect.

Never-the-less, it is an important step in providing deer hunters more input in how our deer are managed in Minnesota.

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 5

MINNESOTA

BY ED SCHMIDT

MY MDHA WALK DOWN

MEMORY LANE A Labor of Love and Dedication

The famous former New York Yankee Yogi Berra, once said, “It’s not over ‘til it’s over.” Or “It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings.” These old baseball clichés mean more to me each day as I battle the “C” word again. For the past 38 years since MDHA’s inception, I have been actively attempting to write stories, edit the magazine and represent MDHA in a positive way. For example, I once had an opportunity to represent MDHA and the Whitetales magazine at the national Outdoor Writers of America Association (OWAA) conference held in Bismarck, North Dakota. I was given the chance to address the gathering about MDHA, its educational programs and how the magazine tied the membership together through positive communications – no, not “fake” news. I told the writers from across the continent that Whitetales was the best “outhouse” reading in Minnesota.

Looking back, our first newsletter was written and edited by Rod Dimich and Jim Lang who were two of the ten founders of Minnesota’s most respected conservation organization representing the hunter and the whitetail deer. Rod had/has a knack for literally focusing on the romantic and colloquial side of writing. As a former English teacher, he has expressed in his quarterly column, “Daylight in the Swamp,” stories about his younger day antics, his love of family, the lure of the field and forest and how MDHA has been a major part of his life.

Jim Lang, on the other hand, was more stoic, exacting, thorough and questioning, while pursuing issues pertinent to the

6 Whitetales | FALL 2018

conservation and management of the deer population. It was he who would take his middle school kids and do field studies in northern Itasca County to find and count deer “poop” (normally called pellets).

Working cooperatively with wildlife managers and DNR researchers, they were able to develop a means of establishing deer densities and creating deer management units. Jim, too, was a very active conservation activist with the Izaak Walton League.

National Guard Commander, Dave Shaw, and his “Camp Koochit” (located on the border of Itasca and Koochiching counties) hunting camp saw the need for establishing a strong voice for the whitetail deer due to the extremely harsh winters. It was Dave, along with his good friend Wayne Jacobson, Sr. and ten others who in 1969 initiated the Save Minnesota Deer concept. Their mission was to create a conservation organization dedicated to deer, as Ducks Unlimited was to duck conservation. This concept came to fruition eleven years later with the beginning of a new deer association— MDHA. Originally, Dave Shaw, Wes Libby, Jim Lang, Paul Shaw, Rod Dimich, Ralph Nelson, Ed Schmidt, Nick Larsen, George Minerich and Don Wendt spent months drafting the mission, objectives, goals and, moreover, the by-laws for the newest Minnesota conservation organization. In addition, noteworthy MN DNR personnel like Bob Chessness, Milt Stenlund, Jay Janaceck and Bill Berg, among others, offered their expertise. The name selection was

hashed over and over, with the group finally reaching a slight consensus on the Whitetail Deer Association. Dave Shaw felt strongly, however, that we emphasize we all were hunters and not belittle that label or hide we hunted deer, but be proud of it. Consequently, the name evolved to the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA).

After months of recruiting, MDHA had nearly one hundred members. In the fall of 1980 I was fortunate to organize the first membership meeting at Camp Mishawaka near Grand Rapids. Nick Larsen successfully hosted the all-day confab. The business at hand was to elect officers, approve the bylaws, establish a dues structure and have workshops on butchering and meat cutting.

Rich LaPlant, a professional meat cutter at a local food store donated his services to demonstrate filleting a deer from skinning to packaging in less that 45 minutes. DNR Conservation Officers provided MDHA with a fresh road kill for the demonstration. The first annual membership meeting ended with a very enthusiastic group ready to recruit members and explain the MDHA’s mission throughout the state. Member #13 – Ron Schara wrote an article in the Minneapolis Tribune featuring the newly formed conservation organization and what it would mean to hunters and conservationists.

This article triggered a vast interest among sportsman, resulting in a growth from one hundred to over a thousand in the first year.

MDHA had and still has four major objectives: 1) Hunting 2) Habitat 3)

Education and 4) Legislation. For the hunter, it meant a strong voice advocating collaboration with hunters, state agencies and other conservation organizations.

With the input and guidance from each chapter, MDHA focused on hunting issues such as predation, emergency winter deer feeding, deer stand height, blaze orange clothing, muzzleloader season, scopes on muzzleloaders, deer baiting and more issues emerging as corporate board resolutions.

Given that in 1980 northern Minnesota forests were essentially “biological deserts,” not providing nutritional needs for deer, habitat surfaced as a primary objective.

MDHA and its predecessor SMD pressured the state legislature and wildlife agencies to focus on shearing, thinning and clear-cutting mature acreage, leaving edges, browse, snag trees for birds and seed bearing trees. Aspen regeneration and white cedar propagation provided year around food for the whitetail.

These and other projects were funded by a cooperative effort with RIM (Reinvest in Minnesota) and MDHA's Hides for Habitat Program. Chapters participating in the collection of hides were allowed to retain seventy-five percent of the profits gained by the sale. Annually, MDHA sponsored a statewide habitat banquet raising thousands of dollars dedicated exclusively to habitat improvement, maintenance and land purchases. MDHA and its chapters worked cooperatively with DNR and Federal agencies in identifying lands to be managed for winter cover, habitat improvement, shearing or food plot development. To date, over $43,000,000 has been generated for deer habitat.

From the onset of the first meeting of MDHA in 1980, education was deemed a vital objective. In 1984 the Forkhorn Camp concept was initiated at the Deep Portage Conservation Reserve under the tutelage of Director Mike Naylon. From its first trial camp of 21 kids, the program has grown in scope to seven camps across the state annually educating over 850 youth. Forkhorn I, II & III give our future hunters the basics of deer management, hunting skills, safety certification, bow hunter certification and advanced hunter certification. The University of Minnesota, under the guidance of MDHA’s first Executive Director John Kvasnicka, was granted money to create and develop curricular materials for Minnesota high schools. Deemed the Large Mammal Curriculum Box, it focused on deer, bear, wolf and moose. The University of Minnesota developed the long overdue materials. The kit included pre- and post-

tests, hands on artifacts, videos, booklets and a full teacher guide.

During the years of MDHA growth, Whitetail Deer Expos were held around the state with the main focus of education.

Here workshops included antler scoring, archery clinics, tree stand construction and safety, intro to handgun hunting, optics, survival skills, orienteering, blood tracking and a whole caboodle of deer hunting topics. Mark Johnson, then MDHA Executive Director, orchestrated a three-day symposium focusing on big game animals of Minnesota. Speakers from a vast background of knowledge of the critters, their behavior, physiology and issues facing each species were emphasized. MDHA chapters held field days for kids, allowing hands on experiences with firearms, bows, deer stands, map and compass, safety, cooking and processing a deer. As mentioned in previous articles, education is the key to the success and continuation of our hunting heritage.

Our first legislative “lobbyist” or consultant was Ted Shields who became the voice for MDHA and the deer hunter in Minnesota’s House and Senate. Roger Hauk and Roy Linder took turns volunteering their time in St. Paul. Later, MDHA contracted with Capitol Hill Associates for its input and keeping an eye on pertinent issues.

Currently, Cory Bennett provides MDHA with quarterly updates in his column “Capitol Comments.” MDHA allows member input on local, regional and state issues through the democratic process of hearings, resolutions, corporate board discussions and votes. Minnesota is a large state with a wide variety of hunter issues pertaining to land access, trespass, road openings and closures, farmland vs. forest lands, public vs. private lands, deer herd management, predator management—the list goes on. MDHA’s voice is listened to and respected when it comes to hunting and conservation issues.

After thirty-eight years of working with and for MDHA, it is time to let my position of co-editor take a rest. The attached photo album represents a trip down MDHA’s memory lane. I wish to thank the original founders for allowing me the opportunity fill a role in the development of the association and to all the chapter members and staff who stepped up to the plate and hit a grand slam making MDHA a strong voice for deer and the deer hunter. Keep up the good work, continue to volunteer and make room for our new hunters. Whitetails forever.

Mentored hunting opportunities for youth and adults.

Chapter members sort and salt hides for pick up by fur buyers.

Hunters Against Hunger program working cooperatively with MDHA, DNR and meat cutters.

Corporate Board of Directors discuss deer related resolutions at annual meeting in 1991.

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 7

CAPITOL COMMENTS

As it seems every legislative session, the final weekend of the 2018 legislative session was a flurry of activity with last minute negotiations and passage of bills.

Over the two-year biennium, legislators introduced a record 8,658 bills in the twoyear session that ended late Sunday, May 20, and even though most went nowhere, a trio of major bills containing hundreds of policy provisions, budget appropriations and bonding projects did pass.

Over the last weekend, the Senate and House passed a massive omnibus supplemental spending package. Then in a second attempt within a week, passed a tax conformity bill that included special education funding requested by Gov. Mark Dayton. With minutes remaining before the constitutional deadline, the House also passed a $1.4 billion capital investment bill and sent it to the governor.

However, in the days leading up to the end of the 2018 legislative session on May 20, Gov. Mark Dayton repeatedly pledged to veto major pieces of legislation that included provisions he would not accept.

The governor followed through on those promises, vetoing the Omnibus Agriculture Policy Bill, Omnibus Supplemental Budget Bill and the Omnibus Tax Bill. However, he did sign a bonding package totaling $1.43 billion projects.

Gov. Mark Dayton has vowed that he will not call a special session to work things out with the Republican controlled legislature.

The 2019 Legislative Session is scheduled to convene on January 8, 2019.

MDHA legislative items of interest: Omnibus Supplemental Budget Bill (vetoed

by Gov. Dayton) The bill proposed to appropriate about $76 million this year, on a variety of area from agriculture and the environment to higher and K-12 education, public safety, health and

8 Whitetales | FALL 2018

human services, and transportation. Gov. Dayton vetoed the flowing: Environment and Natural Resources Article The article would have made a number of policy changes and would have appropriated $1.3 million to address chronic wasting disease.

MDHA provisions of interest included: • Would have increased the amount of money from each resident and nonresident adult deer hunting license sold that is deposited in the deer management account from $2 to $16.

Under current law, $2 from all deer licenses is deposited in the account and the account is statutorily appropriated to the commissioner for deer habitat improvement or deer management programs.

• Would have appropriated $1.3 million for CWD surveillance, inspection and enforcement.

• Would have created a Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) task force to examine methods to improve the coordination and effectiveness of CWD prevention and response.

• Would have created a Board of Animal Health (BAH) task force to examine BAH effectiveness, whether the structure and membership of the board is optimally designed and related issues.

Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Fund (signed by Gov. Dayton) The bill would appropriate $113.9 million in Fiscal Year 2019 to protect, enhance and restore about 102,000 acres of wildlife habitat across the state. The money would fund 47 programs, as recommended by the council.

The proposal includes the Minnesota Moose Habitat Collaborative – Phase III for $1,938,000. The Collaborative will be improving nearly 10,000 acres of foraging habitat for moose in northeast Minnesota.

BY CORY BENNETT, MDHA LEGISLATIVE CONSULTANT

The project builds on the Collaborative’s previous efforts to enhance forest habitat by increasing stand complexity and production while maintaining thermal components of the landscape with variable enhancement methods.

Board of Animal Health�s Oversight of Deer and Elk Farms The Board of Animal Health is responsible for protecting the health of Minnesota’s domestic animals, including farmed deer and elk. The Legislative Auditors study found that the board has failed to enforce some laws related to deer and elk farms and suggested several recommendations for improvement.

Key Recommendations: • The Legislature should consider expanding the number of board members and adding at least one member of the general public.

• BAH should clarify expectations of whether and how often producers must verify their herd inventory on an animal by animal basis.

• BAH should (1) systematically analyze CWD-testing compliance and (2) appropriately penalize those producers who fail to submit CWD testing samples.

• BAH should develop an approval program for deer and elk producers who wish to collect their own CWD test samples.

• BAH should (1) ensure producers follow Minnesota deer and elk laws, (2) strengthen consequences for producers and (3) monitor field staff performance.

• BAH and DNR should draft a memorandum of understanding outlining each agency’s responsibilities with respect to data sharing.

• The Legislature should convene an advisory task force to evaluate the state’s regulations related to deer feeding and live-animal imports.

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Shooting a deer begins before you don blaze orange.

A hunt and all your effort can hinge on one shot.

Your hunt hinges on your shot. Sending a bullet true has little to do with rifle, load or optics!

Anyone so inept as to miss a deer at 14 feet has no business telling hunters how to hit.

That’s me.

On the other hand, such humiliation breeds candor. It wasn’t the rifle or scope or load. It was me. We miss because the bullet is pointed in the wrong direction when we send it. There’s no other way to miss. We can’t help but hit when the bullet heads toward the target.

You may share my enthusiasm for finely built rifles. But for deer hunting you don’t need the best – or expensive optics or the

10 Whitetales | FALL 2018

latest ammunition. A couple of years ago I hunted with an iron-sighted Savage rifle dating to the Great War. Last fall I carried a modern bolt-action; still, it was 50 years old and wore a scope of the same vintage.

Both rifles took mature whitetail bucks. You don’t need accuracy that takes horseflies off target paper at 100 yards. Any hardware that shoots 2 ½-inch groups will strike the vitals in a deer’s chest out to 400. That’s a very long shot, clearly one you’d not take with iron sights or from any unsupported shooting position. Most whitetails are killed inside 100 yards, even in open country. The last three prairie bucks that fell to my bullets came at an average range of 70 steps.

Don’t blame hardware! This Leupoldscoped Tikka has all the reach, power and accuracy you need!

A crucial contribution of any rifle is yours to add: a precise “zero.” When zeroing, you adjust the sight so your line of vision

intersects the bullet’s parabolic path at a distance you determine. For iron-sighted deer rifles, I zero at 100 yards, for scoped rifles with flat-shooting loads, 200. Zero range is the far intersection of two. The first comes near the rifle, as your straight sightline angles under the bullet track, a descending arc that brings the bullet back through the sightline just where you want it.

At mid-range the bullet will hit two to three inches above sightline, a negligible bump.

Tradition holds that practical point-blank range, at which you can aim “dead on,” extends beyond zero range to where bullet drop reaches three inches.

After you’ve zeroed your rifle, you must trust it, putting the bead or crosswire where you want to hit. Trust is more than using a center hold at point-blank range. It means you jettison excuses having to do with rifle, sight and ammunition.

Beyond a level of accuracy you can get from lever rifles built a century ago, equipment doesn’t help you hit. Practice yields competence. How would you like to board a 747 behind a pilot who, as he settled into the cockpit, told passengers the flight would be safer and faster if he had a good airplane? Shelving the urge to hang failure on rifle, sight or ammo, you can better invest time learning to steady a rifle and deliver a shot.

Position. Breath control. Trigger squeeze.

Follow-through. Every center hit begins with this quartet. Prone, sitting, kneeling and offhand (standing) are standard positions, in that order progressively less steady as you bring your center of gravity farther from Mother Earth and reduce ground contact. Prone, sitting and kneeling, I use Brownell’s Latigo Sling to pull the rifle into my clavicle and shift its weight from my forward hand to bigger muscles in my left shoulder.

Even this shooting sling (its loop is adjustable independent of sling length) is of little help offhand, as the left elbow is unsupported so cannot maintain sling tension.

Every position works best if your body is aligned so that the rifle naturally points where you wish. If you force it on target, you’ll induce muscle tremor. As the shot breaks and your body involuntarily relaxes, the muzzle will instantly come off target.

Move your base of support, not your upper body, to ensure the rifle relaxes onto the target. Odds are your bullet will go where your sight spends the most time. Tips: prone, bend your left leg slightly to roll your body onto your hip and minimize pulse bounce from your stomach. Sitting and kneeling,

Even on the prairie, shot distances are more modest than often assumed. Think before you hold over! ensure your left elbow bears against the flat of your knee and doesn’t rest on top of it. Kneeling and offhand, keep your torso straight, head erect.

When time allows, I take three deep breaths to stock up on oxygen and pump it to my eyes for better vision as I cheek the rifle. Exhaling the last breath, I don’t purge my lungs. Residual air gives me time to fire without hiking my pulse, as would holding a lungful.

In practice, fire from hunting positions. Cycle the action as you would for a follow-up shot at a deer.

Keep both eyes open for better aim as you crush the trigger, adding pressure when the sight is where you want it, holding when it wanders off. Out of oxygen? Start over. Don’t yank the trigger. Practice helps you boost your cadence without losing control.

With a rifle, as with a golf club, a smooth follow-through ensures you won’t scuttle the shot at the last instant, so the bullet will go where you’ve worked so hard to send it.

A gremlin that sends many shots astray is “The Flinch,” an involuntary tensing of muscles that moves the rifle just when you need it to be still. Flinching is a reaction to

anticipated noise and recoil. Recoil pokes you hardest when your body can’t flex or shift easily – prone or leaning forward over a bench. Shooting uphill from prone adds the threat of a bloody brow, as it puts the scope closer to your noggin. You absorb recoil most easily offhand. Your body can rock, damping the jolt.

Regarding recoil tolerance, I’m a wimp, painfully aware that save for a slice of rubber, all that lies between my clavicle and a pillbottle load of H4350 are brass, steel and hardwood. People make hammers out of that stuff. Pounding it into my body with charges of gunpowder makes little more sense than sitting on stumps over dynamite.

So, to improve my shooting fundamentals, I dry-fire from hunting positions at a tack on my living room wall (dry-firing doesn’t hurt most centerfires). Live practice with a .22 rifle helps a great deal too.

Holding a rifle still without a rest is hard.

But unless you get off the sandbags and bipod before deer season, you can’t expect to hit when whitetail cover denies you their support.

Many deer are missed high by hunters overestimating distance or bullet drop. Of the whitetails I’ve taken in 10 states, only a couple required aim above the vitals. More fell to high (spine) strikes. I missed my firstever buck twice by holding over its back. If you judge a deer is so far that you must aim high, it’s probably closer than you think or too far for an ethical shot.

My wretched tendency to aim where I don’t want to hit dates to my youth, when BBs cost a nickel a pack and I attempted impossibly long shots with an air gun. The lazy arc of a BB is more like that of an arrow

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 11

than a bullet. The little copper ball dodged at the mere suggestion of a breeze. To aim at a mark was to miss it!

Centerfire rifle bullets aren’t so vulnerable.

Sure, like gravity, wind and shot angle affect point of impact. In Minnesota woods, though, and even for most shooting across cropland and prairie, you’re more apt to over-compensate than to add too little correction. Even a 170-grain flat-nose .30-30 bullet drifts less than two inches in a 10-mph crosswind at 100 yards.

Wind speed and direction both matter at distance. A “full-value” wind from 3 or 9 o’clock moves the bullet most. Quartering winds have lesser effect. You can ignore headwinds and tailwinds. A bullet moving 3,000 fps bucks tremendous drag even in still conditions. Good grief, it generates its own 2,000-mph headwind! Drift also depends on bullet speed and ballistic coefficient. Long, pointed bullets driven fast battle the breeze best. Boat-tail bullets trim drift (and drop) only at very long range. A 30-mph wind that shoves a flat-base 7mm bullet 17 inches at 350 yards moves a boat-tail 15 ½.

As a bullet’s arc becomes steeper downrange, so drift increases with distance.

A .270 bullet drifts 60 percent farther off course at 500 yards than at 400. Rule of thumb for a 10-mph crosswind: assume an inch of drift at 100 yards; double that at 200.

Triple the 200 drift at 300; double 300 drift at 400. Example: Drift for .30-06 bullet (180 grains) in 10-mph right-angle wind actual drift (inches): Rule of thumb drift (inches): 100 yards 0.71; 200 yards 2.92; 300 yards 7.06; 400 yards 12.912.

Most questions about angles have to do with uphill and downhill shooting. Net effect on point of impact is essentially the same. As a shot deviates from the horizontal, the influence of gravity diminishes. That’s because gravity acts perpendicular to the earth; it’s always pulling things toward the earth’s center. Imagine a bullet fired straight up, then one fired straight down through a hole to China. Gravity would act on both parallel to their flight paths. Coriolis effect aside, both bullets would fly straight until gravity and drag stopped them. You could argue the bullet fired into the sky fights gravity, while the bullet to China gets an initial boost from gravity. It truth, the effect of gravity on the nose and heel of bullets shot parallel with gravity’s pull is negligible compared to the drag exerted on them.

Whatever the shot angle, gravity’s consequential effect hinges on the horizontal component of the distance. Fired at a

12 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Most whitetails are shot close-up. This Illinois hunter took an exceptional buck with a muzzle-loader.

45-degree angle at a deer 280 yards off, a bullet travels 280 yards, the hypotenuse of a right triangle whose horizontal component, given this steep angle, is just 200. Zeroed at 200 yards, you’ll aim dead on. Shading high, as for a 280-yard shot, you’d send your bullet high.

Moving deer present a different challenge.

A bullet lacks the butterfly-net scoop of a shot pattern, with a rifle, you’re spot-on, or you miss. Alas, forced precision can make you stiff and tardy. The Swedes know many hunters overestimate their odds of killing game on the run, so riflemen in Sweden must pass a range test on a moving moose target before they go afield. An instructive, often humiliating exercise!

My first whitetail folded while dashing through poplars to a quick shot from my .303 SMLE. Still, I’m loath to fire at running deer, because I apply the “90-percent rule” that serves for stationary bucks: A shot makes sense only when I’m 90 percent sure my bullet will hit vitals. Making that decision instantly is part of shooting well at running game.

There’s no disgrace in passing up a deer.

One hunter friend, Francis, taught me a lot about shooting in the woods saying it’s like boxing: “Get your feet right first. The rest is easy.” Easing through cover, he took care to keep his weight over his feet and never get “twisted up.” With each step, he checked bullet alleys; he paused only where his feet could pivot easily for an offhand shot. “You see best standing still. Watch an alert deer. Its head is still as a stone. Also, deer often break cover when you stop, as you’ve suddenly become unpredictable.”

Francis favored a 6.5x55 carbine, a nimble, light-recoiling rifle. His advice was to, “Prepare for a shot at every turn. Planting

your feet, cheeking the rifle, aiming and taking up trigger slack must come naturally.

No wasted motion, whether the deer is still or moving. Until you crush that last ounce, you can always abort.”

Brush? In timber, you’ll have chosen a shot alley before the comb kisses your cheek.

Ignore light screens of brush. As soon as the sight finds or sweeps in front of the target, the rifle should fire itself.

Fluid, economical movement helps you hit moving deer whether you swing through or sustain a lead. Dawdle, or pause your swing to refine the sight picture, and you’ll miss or lose your chance to fire.

How much you lead with a sustained swing depends on the deer’s apparent speed (actual speed mitigated by angle) and bullet flight time (distance X average velocity).

Anyone who’s taken a Drivers’ Education course should recall that a car traveling 60 mph moves 88 fps. So, at 20 mph a whitetail buck covers about 30 feet in one second. You spot him 200 yards off. A .308 bullet at 2,700 fps decelerates to about 2,300 fps at 200, averaging 2,450. During its 200-yard flight, the deer has moved about 7 1/2 feet.

Up close or swinging through, don’t compute. Shoot fast to the leading edge of a quartering deer.

A running shot properly executed is a delightful thing, not soon forgotten. One I recall happened long ago, when a whitetail buck exploded from cover a few feet away.

I fired as if at a partridge, decking the deer instantly. The episode lasted less than three seconds.

Come to think of it, few deer spend longer in your sight. It’s the prep that takes time!

g n i r e u q n Co

Buck Fever

BY WES DAVID

Whether you will admit it or not, buck fever has happened to all hunters at one point or another during their hunting careers. It may have happened when the buck of your dreams came walking into range or maybe on your dream hunt for one of the big game animals on your bucket list. You may have experienced it on your first hunt or witnessed it when hunting with someone on their hunt. I’ve seen new and seasoned hunters experience buck fever when hunting does and even turkey hunting. Heck, I get a little buck fever every time I put my sights on an animal’s vitals. It’s the excitement of the hunt.

However, regardless of the size of the deer

14 Whitetales | FALL 2018

or the big game animal you were hunting, at some point, we have all experienced buck fever in one form or another.

Buck fever comes in many forms and affects each individual differently: dry mouth, shakes, loss of focus, instant sweats and even hyperventilating or all of the above.

Hunters dream of deer and big game animals with huge head gear, but once that buck or bull of their dreams walks into range it’s impossible not to get anxious and excited.

Feelings such as boredom, hot or cold, and even discomfort are all forgotten as the adrenalin instantly races through your veins.

Your body heats up and time stands still.

But your mind is racing with emotions. In the best-case scenario, the animal moves through your area just fast enough that you don’t have time to think, you just react. You find the animal’s vitals in your crosshairs and squeeze the trigger or release your arrow and send it on its deadly mission.

However, in most cases, the animal is seen from a distance and the hunter has to get into position or wait for the animal to move into a shooting lane. Now as you watch the animal your mind is filled with a thousand thoughts. What if he moves one way or the other? Is he going to wind me? Is my rest solid enough? Can I make that shot? As

time stands still and the longer it takes, the more the hunters start to doubt themselves or their gear, which is the most common form of buck fever. Many times hunters even forget to breathe, making the most accurate of shooters miss simple chip shots. However, recognizing and controlling buck fever can be worked on during the off-season so it can be a hundred percent controlled during the hunting season.

Practice shooting

Target practicing is something we all enjoy doing regardless if we are shooting our hunting rifles or flinging arrows with our bows. Unfortunately, not all target practice is created equal. Once your rifle is sighted in or your bow is perfectly in tune, all practicing should be done shooting from real field shooting positions. It’s one thing to sight in a rifle sitting at a bench or release arrows from an ideal standing position. Moreover, I’ve never killed an animal sitting at a bench or arrowed an animal from the perfect standing position. Once I have my firearm sighted in or I’m confident with how my bow is shooting, I start shooting from positions I may find myself in during a hunt. With my rifle, I will practice shooting from a variety of

rests including using my backpack for a rest.

I’ve killed more animals with my rifle resting on my backpack than any other rest.

With both my rifle and bow, I always practice shooting from sitting and kneeling positions as well as twisting my body in awkward positions.

I practice all these positions at a variety of shooting distances including close-range shots. If I plan on hunting from a ground blind or treestand, I will practice shooting from them during the off-season. These are the situations I will be in during the hunt so I practice them during the off-season. And it’s the number one reason I was successful on a spot-and-stalk archery whitetail hunt a few years ago when I took a nice 5x5 whitetail buck from my knees at 19-yards. When faced with buck fever, worrying about your shooting and body position is the one thing we can control the most by practicing during the off-season.

Although practice usually makes perfect, something that is so often overlooked is doing so with the clothing you will be wearing during your hunt. I’ve done it myself. I practiced all summer long wearing my t-shirt, then when my hunt arrived in October, I was dressed much differently,

which throws off a hunter’s muscle memory.

This caused me to miss a nice archery turkey a few years ago in Wyoming. Hunters will quickly adjust, but in the heat of battle when the buck of your dreams is walking in front of you, an unfamiliar feeling of your rifle being shouldered or the anchor point of you drawing your bow can trigger insecurity and the dreaded buck fever emotions.

Trust your rifle or bow

Practicing shooting your rifle or bow will also build your confidence with your rifle or bow. Too often we get caught up in brand names, ballistics, speed and ammo/ arrow performance. There is nothing like the feeling of getting a new hunting rifle or bow, but often too much emphasis is put on one

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 15

or all of the things mentioned above. As long as the rifle or bow is of legal caliber for the hunt, the most important thing about them is the users have confidence in using them and that comes with practice.

Focus on the vitals

In my opinion, antlers are the number one cause for hunters to experience buck fever. Every hunter I know loves the taste of wild game, that’s the true reason why we hunt. However, every hunter I know dreams of a big set of antlers hanging on his or her wall so once you decide to take the buck or bull, force yourself not to look at his antlers again from that point on. Because you have made the decision to take the animal, trust your decision and from that point on stay focused on the animal’s vitals and your shot placement. There will be more than enough time to count points and budget for a taxidermist after you make a humane shot and the animal is on the ground. When I’m shooting my bow, I like to use my 3-D target that emphasizes the animal’s vital organs. While shooting my rifle, I like to use targets with images of big game animals that emphasize the vital organs. This allows hunters to train their brains and stay focused on the vitals much better than a simple bullseye target. Then, during the hunt, when a live animal steps out your mind will be trained to focus on the vitals and not the antlers.

Breathe

When you talk with most hunters and ask if they breathe when they are at full draw or when they are placing their sites on an animal’s vitals and getting ready to squeeze the trigger, most of them will tell you they don’t know. If you watch people when they practice shooting most of them hold their breath, sometimes for long periods of time and they don’t even realize it. However, if you talk to any long-range competitive shooter or anyone with military experience, they will tell you to breathe and how important it is to breathe to help calm your nerves and make accurate shots. Trigger-jerk is often a leading cause of accuracy issues and some shooting experts believe it’s often caused by the shooter running out of air and hurrying his or her shot. When you practice shooting, practice breathing.

Visualization

It sounds funny, but hunters should be visualizing their hunts well in advance of

16 Whitetales | FALL 2018

their hunt. Amateur athletes are taught the importance of visualizing their performances regardless of their sport at a young age and every professional athlete has some sort of visualization exercise they perform on a daily basis. Even professional anglers visualize catching fish under tournament conditions well before the tournament ever begins. It’s been said the mind's eye cannot tell the difference between an experience that is really happening and an experience that is being visualized in the mind's eye. So, why don’t hunters visualize their hunt well in advance? Visualizing your hunt once or twice a day well in advance and playing out different scenarios of that hunt before they happen will help a hunter react naturally during the hunt. However, it’s important to never see something go sideways or to

see yourself fail when you visualize. When visualizing, only see yourself and your hunt in positive situations. Remember, the mind believes what it sees. If visualization is good enough for professional athletes to help them stay calm and react naturally in game situations, why wouldn’t visualization work for hunters?

Regardless of the animals hunted, I’m willing to bet buck fever or some form of buck fever has caused more tags to go unfilled than any other manmade or mancaused scenario. Working these five simple routines into our off-season rituals for sure will greatly reduce buck fever when that buck or bull of your dreams walks into range this hunting season.

MDHA’s Hides for Habitat Program Makes an Impact in Communities Across the State of Minnesota If you’ve ever wondered if it really makes a difference whether you donate your deer hide to MDHA’s Hides for Habitat program in your community, the answer is YES! Every hide dropped in the collection box turns into dollars donated back to the community by your local MDHA chapter in support of our mission of building our hunting and conservation legacy through habitat, education and advocacy.

Community involvement is key to the success of the program, with many local businesses allowing Hides collection boxes on their property as well as those businesses that allow the chapters to salt and store the hides until pickup. In turn, MDHA chapters give back to their hunting community by distributing food plot seed to their members each year, and promoting local habitat projects like tree planting and native browse regeneration, which directly benefit deer and deer hunters.

The chapter’s support of these programs is magnified by the support they receive from the public in the form of hides donations and banquet and other fundraiser attendance, and local businesses who support the Chapter’s efforts in many ways. MDHA’s Hides for Habitat program is as successful as it is due in a large part to the large scale community participation, and for that we THANK YOU!

EOT Chapter Hides for Habitat Totals YEAR

2016- 2017 2015 -2016 2014 - 2015 2013 -2014 2012 -2013 2011 -2012 2010 - 2011 2009 - 2010 2009 - 2010

Since 1985, Minnesota Deer Hunters Association volunteers have collected deer hides to raise money as part of our Hides for Habitat program. To date, 865,000 hides have been collected raising $5.23 million. MDHA chapters collect hides and process them to be sold to fur buying companies for up to $8/ hide. Each MDHA chapter retains 85% of the funds from their hide collection. The remaining 15% goes to the State Habitat Committee. Along with those funds, the State Habitat Committee also receives funds from the Annual Habitat Banquet fundraiser held in Grand Rapids, Minn. each year on the third Saturday of February. State Habitat Committee dollars are used as a direct 1:1

18 Whitetales | FALL 2018

HIDES 866 696 638 666 618 633 590 394 220

HIDES $

$6,062.00 $7,308.00 $6,699.00 $5,760.90 $4,944.00 $4,684.20 $4,366.00 $3,152.00 $770.00

TAILS 800 550 380 330 300 533 300

TAILS $ $200 $138 $95 $83 $75 $133 $75

Received two different hides prices this year

match for habitat and educational projects throughout Minnesota.

The money collected for hides can be leveraged as much as ten times through habitat grants and other programs. In order to do their part, hunters need only to fold up the hides and place them in the collection box and walk away, knowing they helped ensure the future of deer hunting. A complete list of drop box locations can be found at mndeerhunters.com or by calling the MDHA State Office. Chapters are always looking for volunteers to help with their local hides program. If you are interested, please contact your local chapter officers.

AROUND THE State Minnesota Deer Hunters Association

REGIONAL BOUNDARY AND CHAPTER LOCATION MAP

Region 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6

Chapter Min-Dak Border Roseau River North Red River Thief River Falls Riceland Whitetails Bemidji Area Itasca County Hibbing/Chisholm Woodland Trails End Carlton County Sturgeon River Arrowhead Wilderness Lake Superior Chapter Lake Vermilion Chapter Smokey Hills Fergus Falls Clay Wilkin Park Rapids East Ottertail Wadena Brainerd Cuyuna Range Whitetails Morrison County Lakes and Pines Bluewater Wahoo Valley Isanti County Wild River Rum River North Suburban

Chapter Code MDB RRC NRR TRF RCL BMJ ITS HCC WLC TEC CCC STR AHC WLDN LSC LVC SMH FFL CWC PKR EOC WDN BRD CRW MCC LPC BLW WAH ICC WLD RMR NSC

Region 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13

Chapter Alexandria Chippewa Valley Sauk River Phantom Buck Pomme De Terre Crow River Two Rivers Tri-County River Bottom Bucks Central Minnesota Sherburne County Swampbucks Wright County/ West Metro Whitetails East Central Minnesota Minnesota River Valley Blue Earth River Valley Sunrisers Bend of the River Sioux Trails Deer Hunters Des Moines Valley Jim Jordan McGregor Area Quad Rivers Snake River Southern Gateway Southeast Minnesota Bluff Country South Central Minnesota South Metro Capitol Sportsmen’s St. Croix Valley

Chapter Code ALX CVC SRP PDT CRC TRC TCR CMC SCS WCWMW ECM MRV BEC SNR BOR STD DMV JJC MCG QRC SRC SGC SEM BLF SCC SMC CSC SCV

What? No chapter in your area?

MDHA is always interested in forming new chapters.

If you live in an area without a chapter and would like more information on forming one, please call 800.450.DEER.

20 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Did you know... buck whitetail’s weight varies between 130 to 290 pounds?

NORTH RED RIVER CHAPTER

TWO RIVERS CHAPTER DONATES $5,000 TO THE MONTEVIDEO GUN RANGE

The North Red River Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA) chapter recently partnered with the Minnesota Trapping Association (MTA) conducting Trapper Education Certification training for 18 individuals ranging from 11 to 65 years of age. A special thank you goes out to Dana Klos, TRF MDHA member and MTA Certified Instructor and trapper, who taught the class with assistance from Dennis Kinkead, NRR MDHA, MTA member and trapper. Both trainers provided valuable insight sharing the tips and tricks from their combined 80 plus years of trapping experiences. "Trapping is a tradition in northern Minnesota just like deer hunting.

Our organization's missions are focused on continuing those valued traditions and providing outdoor experiences to all interested," stated Kinkead. The training included classroom instruction and field training. Field day provided a firsthand look at water sets for catching furbearers such as beavers and muskrats and dryland techniques targeting critters such as raccoons, mink, fox and coyotes.

Benevolently, but sadly, the Two Rivers Chapter donated $5,000 to the local Montevideo Gun Range in honor of a local chapter member's infant niece, Lauren Meyer, who tragically passed away. In the photo from left to right are Dustin Shourds, Two Rivers Treasurer and Region 8 Director, Jan Payne; President-Mills Creek Gun Range. Both kids are members of the Montevideo Thunderhawks Trap Team - Trew Evenson and Corbin Sulflow.

PARTNERS WITH THE MINNESOTA TRAPPING ASSOCIATION

NORTHERN COMMUNITY RADIO KAXE 91.7 GRAND RAPIDS 89.9 BRAINERD 103.9 ELY KBXE 90.5 BAGLEY/BEMIDJI

A mix of NPR news, regional arts, culture & public affairs programs, and a great variety of music

Authentic Local Radio comments@kaxe.org (800)662-5799 | kaxe.org

Did you know... whitetail deer have short legs allowing for speed and agility?

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 21

AROUND THE State

BRAINERD CHAPTER

EAST OTTER TAIL CHAPTER

The East Otter Tail Chapter Donated $2000 to the Perham and New York Mills High School Trap Leagues.

The MDHA Brainerd Chapter representatives donated to the Central Lakes College Nature Program for their help with the Hides for Habitat program again this year. This is a great local partnership benefiting both organizations and the students.

THIEF RIVER FALLS HABITAT SEED DAY

At the their 29th Annual Banquet, the Jim Jordan Chapter announced that with its 70 sponsorships for this summer it will have incredibly sponsored 1,034 youth to MDHA Forkhorn camps in the past 16 years. Adam Carlier was recognized as the 1,000 Forkhorn Camper. The chapter also asked attendees to mark their calendar for the 2018 Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener on November 1st as the chapter will be hosting the event this year.

The Habitat Seed Day was managed by the TRF Chapter Habitat Seed Committee Chair Roger Hoffman who oversees the seed purchase and distribution to members. All the seed is purchased with funds from the chapter’s Hides for Habitat fund. With the help of 20 volunteer members, The Thief River Falls Chapter added 50 new members that day and distributed over 750 bags of seed.

JIM JORDAN CHAPTER TOPS 1,000 FORKHORNS

www.TROPHY BUCK

foodplots.com

Specializing in building and maintaining FOOD PLOTS and

TRAIL SYSTEMS on your property.

Jim Sobolik - Deer River, MN

Office: (218) 246-9895 Cellular: (218) 244-3365 22 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Did you know... deer hooves allow them to maneuver in all terrain except ice?

Hanging Stand 175 Yards

COLLABORATE

HUNT SAFE. HUNT SMART. HUNT GEO-PAK.

John 450 Yards

Using GEO-PAK Hunt’s Group Feature with live GPS tracking, you can track the rest of your group during your hunting adventures, and share your location with family y at home. Hunt Safe.

Sa Hunt Smart. Hunt GEO-PAK. Join the adventure dventure today: hu hunt.geo-pak.com

AROUND THE State

ICE CASTLE EDUCATION RAFFLE

ENDOWMENTS & DONATIONS: 5/9/18 - 7/13/18

ENDOWMENT FUND CONTRIBUTOR’S NAME Bluff Country Chapter Peter Lodermeier Mark Nohre Carlton County Chapter East Ottertail Chapter Smokey Hills Chapter Denece Dreger Steve Ranallo

HONOREE’S NAME Steve Heintz Mark Strege Marvin Masterman Mark Strege John King

MEMORIAL FUND CONTRIBUTOR’S NAME Mark & Peggy Miner

HONOREE’S NAME Leo Burley

GENERAL FUND CONTRIBUTOR’S NAME Jeff Eliason Brooke Larson Brady Niessen Franklin Meyer Truist If we inadvertently left you off the list or any corrections to the above list are needed, please contact us and we will make the appropriate corrections.

Thank you.

The Education Raffle is sold statewide by MDHA and its chapters, and raffles off many great prizes every year. Proceeds from this raffle are put back into the hands of chapters to spend on outdoor education in their communities. This year over 3,000 tickets were sold for a gross of $60,480. The grand prize this year was an Ice Castle fish house won by Candee Duncan.

8-Lane Rifle Range Open to the Public Come join us at our new rifle range.

Sight in your rifle for big game season.

Our state-of-the-art rifle range has 8 lanes: 2 lanes up to 50 yards 4 lanes up to 100 yards 2 lanes up to 200 yards We’re always open to the public, and expanded fall rifle sight-in hours start in October. Just 8 miles from downtown St. Paul. For more information, visit our website at http://sspgunclub.com/ or call us at 651-455-7249 24 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Calendar of EVENTS

SEPTEMBER

DATE CHAPTER

EVENT

7 Brainerd 8 Thief River Falls 8 Central MN 8 Southern Gateway 14 Tri-County 14 East Central 15 Wilderness 15 Sturgeon River 17 Sioux Trails 19 Carlton County 21 Morrison 22 South Central 27 Itasca 27 Bemidji 29 Park Rapids OCTOBER

Annual Banquet Outdoor Adventure Day Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Booya Fest Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet

3 Hibbing/Chisholm 6 Wilderness 8 Roseau River 13 Blue Earth 13 North Suburban 13 Wahoo Valley 13 Quad Rivers 19 Riceland 20 Lakes & Pines 20 Bend of the River 20 Riceland 27 Min-Dak Border 27 North Red River 27 Wadena NOVEMBER

Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Ten Gun Raffle Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet Annual Banquet

DATE CHAPTER

DATE CHAPTER

EVENT

EVENT

1 STATE DECEMBER

Governors Deer Opener

8

Christmas Party

DATE CHAPTER

STATE

EVENT

Did you know... evidence shows that whitetail deer have been around for millions of years?

S�M�E� V� W�N�E� C�A�

Whitetail winter coat

Whitetail summer coat

The whitetail’s summer coat is much different than the coat it replaces. The summer coat has no under fur and only thin, short guard hairs. Whitetails keep their summer coat for about four-five months before they shed again into their winter coats which you will notice happening in late summer and early fall. While the summer coat provides protection from the sun and helps keep the deer cool, the function of the winter coat is to insulate against the cold. The guard hairs are a little more than twice as long as and thicker than the sleek summer guard hairs. They are also hollow and this trapped air provides excellent insulation. Surprisingly, there are only about half as many guard hairs on the winter coat as the summer coat – about 2,500 to the square inch, but they are twice as thick. Although the coarse, hollow guard hairs of the winter coat provide good insulation, it is the finer, wooly underfur that provides the greatest insulative value. These shorter, finer, twisting hairs trap layers of warm air close to the skin. Although finer, these under hairs are much more numerous than the guard hairs. There also may be five times as many.

Source: Tinks.com

H�W T� A�J�S� G�N S�G�T� If the sights are not aligned correctly, then the sights should be adjusted to bring the line of sight to meet the point of impact. It generally takes a number of shots to establish a group, then the sights are adjusted to move the line of sight closer to the group.

The general rule is the rear sight is moved in the SAME direction you wish to move the point of impact. For example, if the point of impact is LEFT and BELOW the target, and you wish to move the point of impact to the center, then move the rear sight RIGHT and UP. The front sight moves the opposite direction, so it would move LEFT and DOWN. Detailed instructions for adjusting the sights: To move the line of sight DOWN (the shot hit BELOW the point of aim) the REAR sight is RAISED or the FRONT sight is LOWERED. To move the line of sight UP (the shot hit ABOVE the point of aim) the REAR sight is LOWERED or the FRONT sight is RAISED. To move the line of sight LEFT (the shot hit LEFT of the point of aim) the REAR sight is moved RIGHT, or the FRONT sight is moved LEFT. To move the line of sight RIGHT (the shot hit RIGHT of the point of aim) the REAR sight is moved LEFT, or the FRONT sight is moved RIGHT. Many

26 Whitetales | FALL 2018

target sights have click adjustments, where a detent in the adjustment screws allows the sight to move the line of sight a certain angular distance with each click. This distance is usually specified in minutes of arc, which translate to approximately 1 inch at 100 yards. On a firearm with 1 minute clicks, then, it would take 1 click to move 1 inch at 100 yards, 2 clicks to move 1 inch at 50 yards, 4 clicks to move 1 inch at 25 yards.

Source: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/How_to_adjust_an_iron_sight

Did you know... whitetail deer females will be found in herds while the buck stays more isolated?

F�R�H�R�S I� T�E F�E�D T�E P�N� M�R�E� The American (or pine) marten is a predator (meat eater) species that belongs to the weasel family. Before the late 1800s, the marten was common in northern Minnesota. By 1920 pine martens had almost disappeared from Minnesota, but by the 1990s the population was fully recovered and is a management success story in Minnesota.

The pine marten is 24”-30” long, which includes the tail and weighs about two pounds. The marten calls central to northern Minnesota its home range.

During cold weather, martens have a difficult time keeping warm, so they tunnel deep under the snow into tangles of tree roots for warmth. Martens often visit bird feeders during winter to hunt the birds that visit the feeders.

Source: MN DNR

Forkhorn Cameron Berg (age 17) with two does taken on the last day of the season (zone 225).

Jovi Fahey and Lola Mitchell practicing with their bows.

W�R� S�A�C�

T�E 6�5 C�E�D�O�R

a

Did you know... a whitetail can jump as high as 10 feet and run as fast as 30 miles per hour?

SEE ANSWERS ON PAGE 54.

The 6.5 Creedmoor was initially available in two loads: the 140-gr. A-Max and the 120-gr. A-Max. It drove these bullets at moderate velocities. From a 24inch barrel, shooters could expect 2,710 fps from the 140s and 2,910 fps from the 120s. Because of the high ballistic coefficient of these bullets, their trajectories left the .308 in the dust. The 6.5 with the 140-grain bullets has the same trajectory as .300 Win. Mag. but with 40 percent of the recoil.

This caliber is fast becoming one of the most popular cartridges on the market today. With fast speeds, little drop, and a punch that will even take down bigger game, all with very little recoil.

Source: Outdoor Life

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 27

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VISIT WWW.MNDEERHUNTERS.COM OR CALL 800.450.DEER 28 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Did you know... under optimal conditions, deer populations can double in size annually?

YOU GOT IT. IT’LL HAUL IT.

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MY FIRST

DEER CAMP THE BUDRIS

DEER CAMP 1969 - 1989

BY RON CARLSON This story is about the first Minnesota deer camp I was blessed to be associated with and how my passion for the wonderful time of year we call deer season began. Over the past 47 years, like many others, I have been fortunate to compile many deer camp stories and memories. This is the story of my first camp, The Budris Deer Camp in Koochiching County, Minn. (1969-1989).

The camp was named after, Joe Budris, a logger in the International Falls area from the 1940s into the �80s. His logging camp

30 Whitetales | FALL 2018

was off the Big Fork River just south of the Canadian border. Joe and my dad first met in early 1950s when my father was sent north for winter assignment as a young timber scaler with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources assigned to the Bondich Logging camp. In 1955, dad was transferred from Park Rapids, Minn. to the little border town of Loman as their new District Forester.

His experiences with timber sales, scaling and the logging camps from his winter assignments made him a perfect candidate

for the position. Loman just happened to be where Joe Budris and his wife Tuppy lived. They quickly became best of friends.

Joe was a living legend to me and that never changed for the 20 years I had the opportunity to deer hunt with him. He was a “real woodsman” and to this young boy he seemed like Daniel Boone. A mountain of a man at about 6’4, I’d take 3-4 steps for each of his when following him in the woods. He was full of stories of the old logging camp days, deer hunting tales and miscellaneous folklore

of the north woods. He was also a good man.

The picture to the right is Joe bringing back to camp a buck I shot when I was 16.

I always knew deer camp was a special place from a very young age when we lived in Hibbing, Minn. Each November, dad would disappear for a few days and return with a deer. He would butcher it out in the old garage behind the house, with us kids watching and listening to the stories about the hunt. I still carry a scar on my left thumb where I sliced it at age seven while helping him. As I recall, it was while working on a detached leg that dad said “needed skinning.”

I guess he didn’t want me around the good meat back then.

By the time I was finally old enough to go to deer camp, Dad had been promoted out of the woods and transferred to the DNR central office in St. Paul. Fortunately for me, he continued to deer hunt at Joe’s camp.

In November 1969, when I was 12, I finally got to go hunting with dad and my older brother Steve at the Budris Camp. I still recall the anticipation. For our family, the process of going to camp would begin about a week prior to going. Dad would get off the phone with Joe and then provide my older brother Steve and I the details of the plan. Over the course of the next week, dad would get out his red wool coat, heavy socks, boots, shells, knife, hat and, of course, his rifle. How I remember my excitement when he would get his gun out of the closet. It had a dark green oil cloth cover tied shut with a string and always had a wool, oil-soaked rope in the barrel.

His gun was a lever-action Marlin 30-30 and the sound when the lever action was worked was incredible! I was hooked on deer hunting before I ever went and I still really had no clue what I was in for. A few days before we would leave for deer camp, we would pick up our deer licenses and other supplies. Then a stop at the grocery store was

required. Dad always had specific items he took to camp. It seemed like we always took boxes full of coffee, pop, milk, juice, eggs, potatoes, onions, bacon, bread, candy and canned goods. Mom also always had a couple meals prepared in her big blue roasting pan, sealed shut with masking tape and rubber bands. Needless to say, mom made sure there were always plenty of homemade bars and cookies to pack along. Deer camp was always good food and lots of candy. That has never changed! Whoever decided deer camp should be right after Halloween was a genius!

The trip from St. Paul was a long, but wonderful ride to camp. We always stopped in Aitkin (about half way) to see our grandparents. My Grandpa Carlson was a big deer hunter in the Rossburg, Minn. area. He would always give us kids a hard time about buck fever, forgetting to load the gun and too much jumping around in the deer stand.

By then he was pretty old (in my eyes) so he really didn’t hunt anymore, but he had plenty of deer horns to back up his many great

stories. As I look back now, I wish I would have had the opportunity to hunt deer with him at least once.

When we left Aitkin heading north up 169, it was all deer and camp talk, like stories of past years and tall expectations of what was ahead for that year. However, the talking always ended up with stern instructions from dad. See, he was darn serious about two things deer hunting: gun safety first and foremost! (Dad was a former gun safety instructor) and knowing how to read your compass. Pine Island State Forest in Koochiching County was not the place to get lost regardless of your age so he provided us boys with a healthy respect for the woods and always being prepared for the unexpected.

It seems as we got to Grand Rapids, we always had to make another stop again for something we decided we couldn’t live without. As we got older (14-15), once north of Deer River on MN #6, dad would let Steve and I take turns driving. Back then

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 31

there was an area around Talmoon, north of Deer River, where the road featured many small hills. If we got going fast enough it was like riding on a roller coaster. But, dad always slowed us down to the speed limit. I remember him asking, “Do you boys want to get to deer camp or spend the next couple days getting us out of the ditch?!” Also about that time he would begin tell stories of his winters in the logging camps while working for the Minnesota Forest Service. Some of them were almost unbelievable due to the very poor conditions under which the loggers worked.

The Budris Camp was located about five miles off the black top and about one mile west of the Big Fork River. It was literally just off the Canadian border located near an old abandoned town called Linford. Access into the camp was almost always an issue.

We never owned a pick-up back then so we would meet Joe out on the black-top to catch a ride in. The other hunters in the party all had 4-wheel drive pick-ups, but we never did. Dad said he just couldn’t justify the cost for one week of the year. I knew then I would get an education, study, work hard enough and save enough money to get one someday.

Funny how little things can motivate someone.

A couple of years we actually needed to use Joe’s logging skidder to get back into the camp due to the poor condition of the forest road they called the “ditch grade.” I remember Joe cutting down a big old tamarack and hooking it up to his choker cable and dragging it back to camp with his skidder to smooth out the road before it would “tighten down for the winter” (his terminology). Typically, however, we would access the camp using Joe’s 4x4 pickup, an old army jeep and a Cushman Trackster.

In our 20 years of hunting there I only remember twice that we drove into camp as frozen road conditions allowed it.

The 15-minute ride into camp was as much of an adventure as the camp itself. For me, the actual deer camp experience began when we would meet Joe, shake that big monster hand of his and head into camp.

Usually, they already had a deer or two hanging by the time we got there. Joe would fill us in as to where they got them, who shot, etc. I would get so excited. See, Dad never hunted the opener back then. We always went the second weekend as he thought it was better hunting because the swamps and trails were mostly frozen and we typically had tracking snow.

On the drive into the Budris Camp

32 Whitetales | FALL 2018

we would witness the incredible size and diversity of northern Minnesota forests.

There were miles of black spruce, tamarack, alder and willow swamps, clear cuts, standing piles of pulp logs, thick white cedar stands and a seemingly endless area of stagnant bog with tall aspen islands. This was the big woods. Koochiching County was and still is big and wild country. At that time, I never thought I would ever be lucky enough to work there.

I vividly recall the first time I saw the Budris Camp. The shacks were actually made for and used by loggers they called “piece cutters.” These old timers lived in these shacks out in the woods and got paid based on the number of sticks of pulp they cut each day. The last of the real lumber jacks, they were tough as rocks and weathered like a dead tree. The ones I met were alcoholics and social outcasts with very colorful language and poor hygiene. A couple of them would sometimes hunt with us and their stories were pretty incredible. They were the last of a dying breed.

The picture above is from about 1976 showing the cook shack in front, two of the four bunk houses along with the Cushman Trackster, an incredible all-terrain vehicle.

It had a T-handle that controlled hydraulic steering so you could spin it on a dime. It was noisy, emitted a lot of 2-cycle smoke and not very good when you’re sneaking up on deer, but great for pulling them out. As a boy, driving that into and around deer camp is one of my best memories!

Each shack had a barrel stove, a couple small windows, a table with three chairs, two-three steel bunks with worn out mattresses. The lighting was propane gas lights mounted on the walls. These cabins were in rough shape, but to me, they were a thing of beauty. The wall patches (as can be seen in the picture above right), were where bears had clawed and pushed their paws through the sides. That alone was pretty scary to a 12-year old boy and the embellished stories the men would tell didn’t help the situation.

This picture is me at 13 years old (1970). Note the knife right above my head ready for a bear attack! Also, “no shirt.”

Regulating a barrel stove was a learning experience and some nights it reached over 100 degrees inside our shack. You would wake up in a dripping sweat and prop open the door and windows to cool it down. An hour later you would wake up freezing.

Perhaps that’s why the kids slept in one shack and the adults in the other as they knew how to regulate the wood stove. I bet there was a lot of laughing by the adults knowing us kids

were having to figure out those issues.

I loved being around the logging equipment, the different kinds of highpowered rifles and the big north woods.

But there was something else magical about being at the deer camp. It was the social part of it, not the actual hunting that I learned was so special. I recall many times after a long day of hunting, walking around the corner on the old skid road, seeing and smelling the wood smoke coming out of the rusted stove pipe and the dim gas light emitted through the window, knowing I would be warm and dry again shortly. After the wet clothes were off and hanging over the barrel stove rack and the guns properly tended to, we would head next door to the cook shack.

Night life at the camp life was about to begin. Joe’s wife, Tuppy, an avid hunter herself, was always preparing an incredible supper. But first it was time for a warmerupper. Our camp was always a family friendly environment with prayers said at the evening meal and the liquor was never abused. However, it did get the stories started of who saw what, who got one, where, how many shots, etc. The nightly card game was always the big event of the day. Although I didn’t realize it until after about three or four years, the stories were mostly the same year after year. Some serious, some funny, but all were great to listen to time and time again.

As I look back, those times were my most special moments of my childhood. Nothing rated as high as deer camp. It was during those times that I began dreaming about working up North, being in the woods, owning land and having my own deer camp someday. This photo (above) from 1973 shows Tuppy (Joe’s wife), her brother Ross Scholta, and my dad throwing socks up over the drying rack.

The last few years of the Budris Camp we would have a dinner guest for one of the nights. The local Conservation Officer (CO) would always make a visit to our camp because my dad was then the DNR Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations. He was in charge of all the DNR departments, including enforcement. Guess the local CO always wanted to make a good impression on him and make sure everything was on the up and up at our camp.

One of my favorite stories of the Budris deer camp happened one night while playing cards in the cook shack. Between a hand of cards, I walked over to our bunk shack to stoke the fire. I left the draft open to allow the fire to catch and then went back to play another hand. When I returned to the bunk shack a few minutes later to shut down the draft, the wall behind of the barrel stove was on fire. After a little yelling and excitement, we had the fire out, however, things sure got smoked up. We determined the plug in the

end of the barrel stove got jarred out and hot ashes had fallen on the floor when I shoved a log in. After returning to the card game I recall saying, “We were lucky, that could have been a disaster.” Joe replied “little do you know Ronnie, but I have 40 pounds of dynamite under your bunk for blowing beaver dams.” There was perfect silence at the table. Funny now, but it wasn’t then. From then on, every time I got to the Budris camp the first thing I did was look under my bunk!

Our hunting area was state, county and Boise Cascade land. With 14 stands scattered over our hunting area, each had a number.

Nothing fancy, nothing heated. A few 2 x 4s or aspen sticks nailed together leaning against a tree. We had drawn a large map on the wall in the cook shack that the trails were labeled and it showed all the stands.

That map was a great tool to know where everyone else was going to be for safety reasons.

As a youngster, I never left the trails (dad’s rules). But, by the time I was in high school I got to know the stands and trails like the back of my hand and became very comfortable in the big woods. I was cutting cross-country, making mini-drives and exploring areas I was sure no-man had ever walked before. Those times were a wonderful gift provided to me by my dad and others.

It was an incredible learning experience in many aspects.

I deer hunted out of the Budris camp for 20 years. Our last year hunting at the Budris Camp was 1989. Joe had passed away and his logging equipment had been auctioned off and access to camp became a major problem. They say “all great things come to an end.” My experiences at the Budris camp and deer hunting with my dad started a lifelong dream that wouldn’t come true until I was 55 years old.

It was also those times deer hunting and being in the big woods that pointed me into my initial career. After earning my degree in Forestry in 1980 from the University of Minnesota, I was hired by the DNR as a forester. Like my father before me, I dragged my wife Laurie to the northland as I worked mostly out of the Big Falls and Effie districts. However, a better career opportunity came along and we were soon gone from the northland. I began working as a private company forester in southwestern Wisconsin. It was still in the woods, but it was all hardwoods without a spruce or stagnant tamarack swamp to be found.

Within a year, I was promoted into the production element of the wood business and out of the woods for good. That’s when my internal compass began a 360-degree journey that took many years until it was due north again and my boyhood dream would be fulfilled.

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 33

A Deer Camp Chronical

BY MATT SOBERGÂ

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I care less about bringing home a deer each year. I focus on camp traditions, bonding relationships and memorable stories that stand the test of time.

34 Whitetales | FALL 2018

The midnight sound of pattering mouse feet across the rafter board above my head didn’t bother me as I slept on the top bunk of our deer camp chicken coop. Yes, you heard it right. We built a rustic cabin out of a chicken coop, and it was a mystical palace in our minds, a big improvement over the brutally cold army tent used for many years before. And, the mouse became our unofficial mascot lunching on left-out cheeseburger buns and potato chips. If the mouse was happy, it meant time for deer camp and therefore we were happy too.

In 1999, I was 19 years old, a camp veteran at that time having enjoyed the coop with my dad since the spry age of 12. The corner wood stove warmed our socks and souls and gave our clothes that classic smoky smell. The wall’s wood-framed pictures celebrated deer camp stories of days gone by honoring our forefathers for the traditions they bestowed upon us. The stories told within these walls were sacred, not to be repeated elsewhere.

At least, “Don’t tell mom,” was a rule us kids learned very quickly.

It wasn’t the mouse that woke me from a notso-deep sleep, but my uncle Brad’s bellowing from inside his sleeping bag, “Cheeseburger! . . . cheeseburger! . . . cheeseburger!” See . . . it was Friday night before opening day, anticipation was rampant and we had all finally just gone to bed.

The Canadian whiskey was surely talking and Brad knew our friend Clyde would give in through some extra ribbing. Others joined in the late-night cheeseburger chant until it was a constant rumbling throughout the cabin.

And Clyde did give in, “All right you savages . . . I’ll make burgers . . . who’s in?” He arose from his cot and lumbered out the coop’s front door to start the grill. On the porch in the 20-degree Minnesota cold wearing nothing but a NASCAR T-shirt, tighty-whities and bare feet, Clyde made us all cheeseburgers after midnight—because, that is what friends do for friends, especially at deer camp.

And, it was the best cheeseburger of my life.

My deer camp confession this year is these simple memories are what I cherish most about my hunting experiences. As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I care less about bringing home a deer each year. I focus on camp traditions, bonding relationships and memorable stories that stand the test of time.

Truth be told, I brought home the biggest buck of my life the same weekend I ate that midnight cheeseburger, but it is this story and those people I remember most.

That opening day, I was on stand having no luck through the morning. My dad and I had trekked a couple miles from the nearest road and we decided to sit all day. Just before I dozed off, basking in the sun for a midday nap, I saw a 4-wheeler in the distance coming down a trail. It was peculiar to see this activity in that area and at that time. After the

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 35

"I often reminisce about that weekend and I think less about the antlers now hanging on my office wall, but more about how I lost a good friend, the good times we had and the relationships with special people my hunting experiences have brought to my life." vehicle parked, I could see Donny from our deer camp furiously waiving to me. I knew I had to go.

When I got there, he said my good friend David had gotten sick the night before and was in the hospital. He didn’t know details, but the concern on his face told me it was serious. Again, I knew I had to go.

He gave me a two-mile ride back to camp where I learned the grave diagnosis. I was in shock, having just spent time with David a week earlier, telling deer hunting stories, getting excited for camp, laughing and joking as we always did. I jumped in my car and headed to the hospital in Fargo, where I saw David for the last time. He died that day from a sudden illness. He too was 19.

The next day, I didn’t know if I should hunt or not. My mind fiercely struggled and I finally decided to go. I didn’t know whether it was right or if it was wrong. I like to think it was divine intervention . . . that day I brought

36 Whitetales | FALL 2018

home the biggest whitetail buck of my life.

I often reminisce about that weekend and I think less about the antlers now hanging on my office wall, but more about how I lost a good friend, the good times we had and the relationships with special people my hunting experiences have brought to my life.

My uncle Brad who started the cheeseburger chant passed away from a long battle with cancer at age 48 and we lost our friend Clyde from a sudden illness at 62, all way too young. But, I think about all the good times we had with these gentlemen and all the lessons I learned. These outdoor traditions brought us all together. I dare anyone to challenge the validity of these moments and

these special people we hold dear in our hearts.

I hope deer camp confessions like this are as important to you as they are to me – cherish the people, stories and memories because life is so short. I was lucky to have these folks in my life as mentors and friends and the lessons learned are so valuable I feel an inherent need to pass them along to my young son too. Please make sure to bring your son, daughter or grandchild with you to enjoy the outdoors so these moments and people live forever. Thank you.

Matt Soberg resides in Brainerd, Minnesota, is a lifelong deer hunter and is currently the editor of the RGS magazine and director of communications for the Ruffed Grouse Society.

Redemption Tastes Like Venison Roast:

A Lesson in Gratitude

BY ROY HEILMAN For two and half days my butt was planted on an old office chair in a deer stand in Blue Earth County. The previous three seasons that amount of time was enough to be able to notch my deer tag and ensure a good supply of meat for my family’s next trip around the sun. But not this year. Unpicked corn - the nearest patch of which was only twenty yards away - seemed to keep the local deer happy and out of sight, and only one fawn came anywhere near my normally well-placed plastic house. Sure, I was more than eager to “unplug” from sunup to sundown, and

38 Whitetales | FALL 2018

the usual observing of nature’s business was enough to keep me happy in the moment, but the lack of deer sightings was still disappointing. Hanging heavier over me was the dread I felt over the possibility of not having the freezer full.

After returning home, I continued to develop plans that had been in the brainstorming stage for a few weeks as a tentative “Plan B.” With the help of several paper maps and the Minnesota DNR’s bounteous online resources, I looked over the state forests that are within a couple

hours drive of my house, with plenty of room to roam and hopefully plenty of deer. I aimed for areas labeled “Managed” or “Intensive,” reasoning that the deer density must be higher, which should buoy my chances for deer sightings.

Three days after calling it quits in the deer stand, my alarm rousted me at 4 a.m.

After putting on my clothes and shuttling gear out to my truck, I was off toward the Blufflands region of Southeast Minnesota, somewhere I’d never hunted deer before. The temperature that morning was well below

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 39

average, and the winds were well above average. This required I stay on the move for most of the day in order to stay warm. In my enthusiasm for an entirely new experience, I felt up for the challenge. I saw two deer in the span of about fifteen minutes while traveling through a thick tree plantation that morning, but didn’t manage to get a shot at either. The second was a buck, and quite likely a shooter, but I couldn’t assess him in time to get a shot.

The first? All I saw of that one was legs.

I searched high and low that day, quite literally, to keep myself warm and cover as much ground as possible. My GPS recorded me as having traveled 10.3 miles on that tract and the total number of deer spotted never rose above 2. That surprised me, considering how many miles I put on, how much deer sign I noted and how great the habitat seemed.

Still, I left there feeling satisfied and happy to have seen so much rich habitat.

Five days later I’d hatched a plan to go on a similar mission in the east central part of the state. This was the last day during the firearms season I thought I could get away, and thus my last chance for some of that free-range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, lean red meat. The stakes felt high. Again, my alarm gave the signal to shuffle off to parts unknown on half a night’s sleep.

Without much of a plan, I started away from the truck that morning in a thick fog, moving up the east border of a Wildlife Management Area and looking for the first likely place to post myself. I came to what looked like a crossroads of deer trails and decided to wait the fog out and see if anything came along. After only about ten minutes, a respectable buck appeared through the willows, coming up the same trail I just had. Since he was only about thirty yards away and his trajectory would have had him crossing into a perfect shooting lane, I positioned my gun to intercept him there. As he passed behind some more tree trunks, however, he angled slightly, so that when he came into view again he was barely onto the neighboring property and walking just behind the “No Trespassing” signs. I was thoroughly astonished at this turn of luck. No way. Did that really just happen? I tracked him through the scope as he ambled off, hoping he would come back my way just enough, but he disappeared into the fog and never came back.

Again, I covered miles of ground in

40 Whitetales | FALL 2018

the WMA and state forest, making note of several good-looking spots back in the woods, including one opening that looked like it would invite deer out to graze near day’s end. After a full day’s roaming, I returned there for the sunset hour. Sure enough, at about 4:25, a doe stepped out to graze with a fawn. I brought my binoculars up right away to assess the doe and see if she was a candidate for harvest. The fawn looked surprisingly plump, but the doe seemed skinny and perhaps not much bigger than the fawn. I decided to pass - it was early and it seemed likely more deer would show. After a short time, another doe came skipping out

of the woods, looking backwards nervously.

She seemed tense and ready to bolt. She did stay, but had a similar body composition to the first, so she too was spared. Soon another fawn came running from the other side of the clearing and joined the group. I was more than happy to watch them all over the course of about forty minutes, observing their behavior and learning. As the minutes ticked by, hope remained that a more full-bodied deer would come out too, but none ever did.

On the half-mile hike back to the truck and all the way home, there was no regret about not taking either of those does. I put in a decent amount of time over the season, had my chances, made my choices, and felt good about it all. That was Tuesday. Almost right away Wednesday morning I began to think about all the meat we didn’t have for the next year and how much I would miss the grilled loin, the stew meat and the roasts - especially prepared as sauerbraten. As the day wore on, that unexpected regret grew like a cancer.

That’s a managed hunting area, I told myself, the herd managers would probably like to see hunters take more deer. Maybe I shouldn’t have passed up those does. By Thursday morning the feeling wasn’t wearing off - it was getting worse. About 1:20 that afternoon, I asked my wife via text message if there was

any reason I shouldn’t make a quick trip back to that clearing and she didn’t think so. I was gone in less than ten minutes.

I was reasonably sure those deer would come back, since it seemed like it had been their normal routine. At 4:25 there was nothing but the breeze and a budding sense of dread. Finally, at 4:50, a doe came out with a fawn and immediately started to graze; it looked like the first doe/fawn pair from two nights prior. This time there was no inner debate, no hesitation. As I walked up to her after the shot, her size took me by surpriseshe was definitely not small. In fact, I have rarely killed a doe that was bigger. How had I misjudged her that much? Maybe that fawn was bigger than I thought.

As I kneeled down to tag her, I was suddenly overcome by the amount of gratitude I felt and on so many levels. I was grateful to have been able to hunt in new places, to have taken the first deer with a new rifle, to live in a place with such abundance to offer, even grateful to have been wearing the suspenders we all wear in remembrance of my departed deer-hunting grandfather.

Above all else, I was grateful to feel I had the chance to redeem myself and would return home with the meat I treasure.

That swell of gratitude had been unexpected, but this harvest came exactly a week before Thanksgiving, so I was probably already in that frame of mind. You see, my aforementioned grandfather died on Thanksgiving Day of 2006. That could have been enough to make me dread that holiday thereafter; after all, holidays have been ruined by less. Instead, Thanksgivings became even more welcome and meaningful.

I’d had 28 years with him and when he died at age 90, I couldn’t help but know the loss could never outweigh how rich my life was because of those years. I could have been stuck in grief, but that one revelation spun me around and made me a better person. I could see more clearly all I had to be grateful for and I try to continue in that spirit of gratitude today. Gratitude can be hard to learn, but I know now it is also enlightening and uplifting.

Before I dragged that deer across the field, I stopped to pray. I gave thanks that day for the harvest and what it meant for my family.

Food is a gift and I don’t want to take such a gift for granted. And while I’m always grateful just to hunt, my gratitude in this case will also last a good many meals.

I was born for the unexplored. Where the land is a testing ground of perseverance and patience. Where every step is a testament of determination. This is the Alphaburly™ Pro.

LaCrosseFootwear.com

Please send a digital photo in .jpg format to bri@mndeerhunters.com. If digital format is not possible, photos may be sent to: MDHA c/o Deer Hunting Memories, 460 Peterson Rd., Grand Rapids, MN 55744 Please include a description of who, when, where, etc. Each issue of Whitetales will celebrate our hunting heritage with your photos.

Photos will not be returned.

40 year hunting buddies. The late John Anderson (L) from Excelsior and Jim “01 One Shot” Moon from Buffalo with a memorable 1990s hunt in Aitkin County.

Jake Huberty of the South Metro Chapter with his first nice buck taken north of McGregor in 1987.

Ray Hedlund with a nice buck he shot near Blackduck, MN in 1992. He passed away in Oct. 2017, was a life member of MDHA and is greatly missed at deer camp.

42 Whitetales | FALL 2018

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 43

TRADITIONAL LEVER-ACTION RIFLES AND CARTRIDGES, TODAY!

BY ROY WELCH

Today’s deer hunters have the choice of rifles chambered for cartridges that provide high velocities and extended range capabilities best suited for long-range shots in open country.

However, in forested terrain these rifles and cartridges offer limited, if any, advantage over traditional lever-action rifles chambered for cartridges dating to the late 1800s and early 1900s, a period of transition to smokeless powder. These cartridges include the .25-35 Winchester (.25-35 WCF), .3030 Winchester (.30 WCF), .32 Winchester Special, .30-40 Krag (.30 Army), .300 Savage, .35 Remington, and .45-70 Government (below). They are still in use today both in rifles of current manufacture and older models in the hands of hunters. We will take

A selection of traditional lever-action rifle cartridges in different calibers.

44 Whitetales | FALL 2018

a brief look at lever-action rifles and examine how modern versions of these cartridges compare with those of the early 1900s.

RIFLES: THEN AND NOW

The famous Winchester1886 lever-action rifle, developed by John Browning, was offered in a host of black-powder cartridges, including the .45-70 Government, but was sufficiently strong to handle the higher pressure smokeless-powder cartridges introduced in the 1890s, as was the Marlin Model 1895 lever-action rifle (right). These rifles in modern form are available in today's market, as are .45-70 lever-action rifles manufactured by Henry and Rossi.

The Model 1894 Winchester (Model 94), initially offered in .32-40 and .38-55 black-powder cartridges, was chambered for the .30-30 and .25-35 Winchester in 1895, the first high-velocity, smokeless-powder hunting cartridges marketed by Winchester.

In 1902, Winchester offered the Model 94 in .32 Winchester Special, a .32-caliber cartridge based on a neck-expanded .30-30 Winchester case.

Compact, light-weight, and fast-handling, the Winchester Model 94 quickly became popular. Gun writers of the recent past, Jack

Lever-action rifles of the 1890s (left to right): Winchester Model 1886, Marlin Model 1895, and Winchester Model 1895.

O'Connor and Townsend Whelen, noted that a Model 94 .30-30 carbine was the firearm of choice of deer hunters, ranchers, cowboys, Native Americans, and Eskimos. The Model 94 remains in production, including a 2018 re-introduction of the .32 Winchester Special. More than seven million Winchester Model 94s have been sold to date.

Concurrent with the rise of the Winchester Model 94, Marlin offered its Model 1893 lever-action rifle chambered for the .25-35, .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, and the .38-

55 Winchester cartridges. The Marlin 1893 rifle, with improvements, was renamed the Model 36 in 1936, and the Model 336 in 1948. It is now offered in .30-30 Winchester and .35 Remington — the latter cartridge dating back to 1906. The Marlin 336 is a fine deer rifle that features a strong action with side ejection of fired cartridges. A scope can be easily mounted. In contrast, mounting a scope on a Winchester Model 94 only became a practical possibility in the 1980s when Winchester replaced top ejection with an angle-eject capability.

Backing up, in 1895 Winchester, recognizing the demand for a lever-action rifle of improved strength suitable for new smokeless-powder cartridges of greater power than the .30-30, brought out the Model 1895 Winchester, also designed by John Browning. Chambered for the .30 Army (.30-40 Krag), .405 Winchester, and later, the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, the Winchester Model 1895 has a box magazine that allows the use of pointed bullets. A Winchester Model 1895 in .405 Winchester was a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt. Old pictures of deer camps in the Eastern United States depict hunters with Winchester Model 1895s. The Model 1895 was re-introduced by Browning and Winchester in the 1980s, with limited production runs.

Popular lever-action deer rifles (top to bottom): Winchester 94 (.32 Winchester Special); Savage Model 99 (.300 Savage); and Marlin 336 (.30-30 Winchester).

Savage entered the lever-action market with the Model 1899, initially chambered for the .303 Savage. The Model 1899 featured a stronger action than the Winchester Model 94 and Marlin 1893, and incorporated a rotary magazine that allowed the use of cartridges with pointed bullets. These features permitted Savage, in 1915, to introduce the .250-3000 cartridge (.250 Savage) developed by Charles Newton, driving an 87-grain pointed bullet at a muzzle velocity of 3,000 fps — truly, a cartridge ahead of its time. With the

introduction of the .300 Savage cartridge in 1920, Savage shortened the Model 1899 designator to Model 99. Savage chambered the Models 1899 and 99 for a variety of cartridges, including the .22 Savage HiPower, .250-3000 Savage, .25-35 Winchester, .30-30 Winchester, .38-55 Winchester, and .300 Savage. In recent years, Savage offered the Model 99 in .243 Winchester and .308 Winchester. Although production of the Model 99 was discontinued in 1997, it remains popular among deer hunters, as does the 300 Savage cartridge.

CARTRIDGES: THEN AND NOW

Modern powders and bullets have increased velocities and kinetic energies, flattened trajectories and extended the range for accurate killing shots. Page 46, upper right photo shows of the cartridges discussed in the following paragraphs. Detailed cartridge data for the early 1900s was largely obtained from Townsend Whelen’s book, The American Rifle, published in 1918. .23-35 Winchester (.25-35 WCF) In the early 1900s, cartridges for the .25-35 Winchester were loaded with 117-grain flatnose bullets at a muzzle velocity of 1,978 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,017 ft.-lbs. Zeroed for 100 yards, bullets could be expected to strike 12 inches low at 200 yards. In comparison, today’s Winchester’s 117-grain and Hornady's 110-grain LEVERevolution factory loads have muzzle velocities of 2,230 and 2,425 fps, respectively, delivering muzzle energies of 1,292 and 1,436 ft.-lbs. (second photo on page 46). Zeroed for 100 yards, bullet impacts 9 and 7 inches low at 200 yards are realized for the 117- and 110-grain bullets. Using the current recommendation of 1,000 ft.-lbs. as the minimum threshold bullet striking energy required for deer, the maximum range for the early 1900 factory loads would have been approximately 25 yards, whereas 80 and 170 yards are the distances at which the kinetic energy of the modern 117- and 110-grain factory rounds falls below 1,000 ft.-lbs. Although this comparison exaggerates the difference in lethality for past and present .25-35 loads, it is clear that modern loads make the .25-35 a legitimate deer cartridge for shots out to 100 to 125 yards. As a point of interest, the light recoil and excellent accuracy of .25-35 loads have been a favorite of cowboy lever-action silhouette competitors, providing sufficient knock-down power to topple the heavy metallic silhouettes at distances out to 220 yards.

.30-30 Winchester (.30 WCF) and .32 Winchester Special The .30-30 Winchester and .32 Winchester Special are both based on the .30-30 case and, other than caliber, use similar bullets and have nearly identical ballistics. In the early 1900s, 170-grain bullets were employed in both rounds. The .30-30 had a muzzle velocity of 2,008 fps and a muzzle energy 1,522 ft.-lbs., whereas the .32 Winchester Special muzzle velocity was 2,112 fps and the muzzle energy 1,684 ft.-lbs. Zeroed for 100 yards, the bullet was approximately 12 inches low at 200 yards.

The distance at which the bullets dropped 5 inches below the line of sight — out of the deer's chest vital zone — was about 150 yards.

Kinetic energy dropped below 1,000 ft.-lbs. at approximately 140 yards.

Modern factory loads for the .30-30 offer several choices of bullet weight, ranging from 125 to 170 grains. A 170-grain bullet sighted for 100 yards and launched at 2,200 fps provides a muzzle energy of approximately 1,900 ft.-lbs. and a trajectory that is 9 inches low at 200 yards. Factory loads are limited for the .32 Winchester Special. A 170-grain factory round has a muzzle velocity of 2,250 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,910 ft.-lbs.

Hornady's LEVERevolution cartridges with 160-grain and 165-grain FTX bullets for the .30-30 and .32 Special, respectively, are perhaps the most potent load for deer hunters.

The FTX bullet has a flexible polymer tip and a high ballistic coefficient. With a muzzle velocity of 2,400 fps and a muzzle energy just over 2,000 ft.-lbs. for both cartridges, the FTX bullet will impact approximately 6.5 inches low at 200 yards when the rifle is zeroed for 100 yards. If the hunter chooses to zero the rifle 3 inches high at 100 yards, in effect a 200-yard zero, the trajectory advantage of the FTX bullets is substantially increased with the bullet falling five inches below the line of sight at approximately 250 yards. Kinetic energy is of equal importance, remaining greater than 1,000 ft.-lbs. out to 300 yards. A .30-30 or .32 Winchester Special/Hornady FTX bullet combination is potent deer medicine for shots out to plus 250 yards. .30-40 Krag (.30 Army) The .30-40 Krag was adopted by the U.S. military in the early 1890s as a smokelesspowder round for the Krag-Jorgenson bolt-action repeating rifle that replaced the Springfield .45-70 Government single shot.

It was chambered in the Winchester Model 1895 lever-action and 1885 single-shot rifles and in the Remington falling-block and rolling-block single-shot rifles.

The standard factory load was a 220-grain

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 45

round-nose jacketed or soft-point bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,005 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,972 ft.-lbs. A 200-yard zero required the rifle to be sighted 5 inches high at 100 yards. An early commercial load with a pointed 180-grain bullet at a velocity of 2,300 fps had a muzzle energy of 2,150 ft.-lbs. The 180-grain load sighted 3.5 inches high at 100 yards provided a 200-yard zero.

Major Townsend Whelen in 1918 wrote, “I regard the .30-40 cartridge as the most useful and all around successful cartridge made for the American sportsman.�

Modern factory loads have 180-grain jacketed, soft-point bullets with a muzzle velocity 2,430 fps and a muzzle energy of 2,360 ft.-lbs. Bullets sighted to impact three inches high at 100 yards provide a 200-yard zero, with only 11 inches of drop below the line of sight at 300 yards. The .30-40 remains a big-game cartridge suitable for deer, elk, moose and black bear. .300 Savage Introduced in 1920 as a cartridge for the Savage Model 99 lever-action rifle, the .300 Savage provided a major step up from the .30-30 and .32 Winchester Special. On par with the .30-40 Krag and second only to the .30-06 Springfield in terms of ballistics and performance, the .300 Savage cartridge rapidly gained popularity.

The relatively short .300 Savage case (2.600 inches) was loaded with 150, 180, and 200-grain bullets with muzzle velocities of approximately 2,600, 2,300, and 2,100 fps, respectively, generating muzzle energies of 2,200 to 2,300 ft.-lbs. Deer hunters liked the flat trajectory and impact energies provided by the 150- and 180-grain bullets.

The velocities of most current 150- and 180-grain factory loads do not differ significantly from those noted above.

However, Hornady offers a 150-grain SST bullet Superperformance load that provides a muzzle velocity of 2,740 fps and a muzzle energy of 2,500 ft.-lbs. Sighted to strike 2 inches high at 100 yards, the 150-grain SST bullet is "on" at 200 yards and is 9 inches low at 300 yards, permitting a center-chest hold on deer for shots out to approximately 250 yards. The Savage Model 99/.300 Savage cartridge combination remains popular with deer hunters. .35 Remington The .35 Remington is a rimless cartridge that appeared on the scene about 10 years after the .25-35 and .30-30 Winchester cartridges.

Whelen notes that a 200-grain soft-point, round-nose bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,020 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,672 ft.-lbs.

46 Whitetales | FALL 2018

was a favorite of deer hunters in the early 1900s.

Zeroed for 100 yards, bullet drop was five inches below the line of sight at 150 yards.

Factory ammunition with modern 200-grain jacketed, soft-point bullets have a modest velocity of 2,020 to 2,080 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,800 to 1,900 ft.-lbs., not much different from the loads of the early 1900s. However, there are two exceptions.

Remington markets .35 Remington ammunition loaded with 150-grain Core-Lokt soft-point bullets with a velocity of 2,300 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,762 ft.-lbs., and Hornady offers a LEVERevolution 200-grain FTX load with a velocity of 2,225 fps and a muzzle energy of 2,198 ft.-lbs. Sighted to strike 4 inches high at 100 yards, a 200-yard zero allows the hunter to use a center-chest hold out to approximately 240 yards, at which distance 1,200 ft.-lbs. of energy remains. Today, as in the past, the .35 Remington cartridge is suitable for deer, bear, and moose at moderate distances. .45-70 Government Initial loads for the .45-70 featured a 500-grain bullet backed by 70 grains of black powder for the Springfield rifle, and a 405-grain bullet and 55 grains of black powder for the Springfield carbine.

The 500-grain bullet in a rifle with a 32inch barrel had a muzzle velocity of 1,316 fps and a muzzle energy of 1,921 ft.-lbs.

Corresponding values for the carbine's 405-grain bullet were 1,150 fps and 1,189 ft.-lbs., respectively. To obtain a 200-yard zero, the rifle or carbine had to be sighted so as to produce bullet strikes approximately 14 inches high at 100 yards.

Smokeless powder loads with 300-grain bullets in the early 1900s had a velocity slightly above 1,800 fps, producing a muzzle energy of 2,375 ft.-lbs. A 200-yard zero required setting the sights so bullets impacted 7.5 inches high at 100 yards. This "high velocity" load was considered powerful enough for all game except moose and large bears, but restricted in use to Winchester 1886 and Marlin 1895 lever-action rifles in first-class condition.

Cartridges for the .45-70 are currently produced by all the major ammunition manufacturers, with bullet weights ranging from 250 to 530 grains. For deer and black bear hunters with modern rifles chambered for the .45-70, the Federal 300-grain Power Shok bullets at a muzzle velocity of 1,850 fps and the Hornady LEVERevolution load with the 325-grain FTX bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,050 fps will be hard to beat. The LEVERevolution load with a muzzle energy of 3,032 ft.-lbs., retains 1,516 ft.-lbs. at 200

Cartridges (left to right):.25-35, 110-grain FTX; .30-30, 170 grain; .30-30, 160-grain FTX; .32 Winchester Special, 170 grain; .32 Winchester Special, 165-grain FTX; .30-40 Krag, 180 grain; .300 Savage, 150 grain; .35 Remington, 200-grain FTX; .45-70 Government, 405 grain; .45-70 Government, 325-grain FTX.

Hornady LEVERevolution FTX line up (left to right): .25-35, 110 grain; .30-30 Winchester, 160 grain; .32 Winchester Special, 165 grain; .35 Remington, 200 grain; and .45-70 Government, 325 grain. yards, sufficient for elk and moose. Bullets sighted to impact 5.5 inches high at 100 yards provide a 200-yard zero. Although the .45-70 is considered a close-range cartridge and best used inside 100-yards when rifles are equipped with iron sights, a low-power scope with a ballistic reticle allows shots out to 200 to 250 yards to be made with confidence on deer-sized game.

In conclusion, compared with early loads for traditional lever-action deer rifle cartridges, modern cartridges provide an additional 150 to 400 fps muzzle velocity and 200 to 700 ft.-lbs. greater muzzle energy. The boost in velocity and energy, in combination with modern bullets, flattens trajectory and extends the range for shots at deer-sized game by 50 to 150 yards. A lever-action rifle chambered for one of the traditional cartridges is well-suited for use in forested lands. In closing, I gratefully acknowledge the loan of rifles and cartridges from Shooters Den in Watkinsville, Georgia.

MDHA TIPS

BY ROD DIMICH AND ED SCHMIDT

TIP

#1

TIP

#2 “When to phone �em and when to hold �em”

TIP

#3

“Punctures, cuts and bites, oh my!”

Punctures, cuts, bites, breaks and bruises are the leading injuries during a deer hunt. Being prepared for any unforeseen affliction is a very wise move. Plan your first aid kit with the thought of what may happen when you are hunting. Some inclusions should/could be: liquid bandages, Zip-Lock baggies for ice/snow packs, a variety of band aids, disinfectant cream and wipes, tweezers, ace bandages, gauze roll bandages, popsicle sticks for splints and even lip protection from sun and wind. It is important to know where items are located and how and when to use them. “Pack right and pack light” is a great rule to keep in mind when organizing your daypack. Then, keep in mind—the very best first aid is “safety first.”

Knowing when to phone �em and when to hold �em sounds like a Kenny Rogers song, but fair chase is a regulatory and ethical effect when electronic devices such as walkie-talkies and cell phones are in use when pursuing wild game. Always keep in mind each device is designed only for communication, not the assisting and taking game while in the field. Always remember (and teach our young and newbie hunters) the ethics of fair chase while hunting whitetails is paramount to preserving our treasured hunting heritage. Share a pic, a selfie, but refrain from the “insider” type of communication that turns fair chase foul. Even though chances are no enforcement will be around, always let the “good angel” of your conscience be your guide.

“Cruisin’, not bruisin’ in deer country”

When cruising to your deer stand, don’t be like the old 1950s’ saying says, “Cruisin’ for a bruisin’.” Know your safety zones so you don’t get up close and personal with minor or, Heaven forbid, catastrophic mishaps. Always plan for and keep in your mind’s eye where other hunters/civilians or deer stands are or may be, where field or fenced-in farm critters are and especially the whereabouts of buildings, roads (no matter how rural), where vehicles that are either moving or parked might be and where other various and sundry people or things may be placed in harm’s way by your hunting projectile. Even though the mandatory use of blaze-colored clothing has made it much safer for hunters, there is no such mandate for nonhunting people and vehicles. Even though “out of sight, out of mind” might sound “gitchy,” it is downright dangerous for hunting. Look up the “don’ts” for shooting and strictly abide by them.

Use a compass to set safety bearings from your deer stand. No game is worth risking a human life.

48 Whitetales | FALL 2018

& TREASURES

Save Minnesota Deer and Wayne Jacobson, Sr.

Early this summer the conservation world lost another whitetail deer pioneer. Wayne Jacobson Sr. of Grand Rapids, Minn. passed away having just celebrated his 100th birthday after years of service to our country, his community and the outdoor world. He, along with many notable dedicated men and women of the 20th-21st Century, was a “modern” pioneer in many ways. One of Wayne’s most significant achievements was for the elderly as he was among the first to develop the “assisted living” concept by building facilities for senior citizens. Moreover, his passion for the whitetail deer, deer hunting and the outdoors fueled in him the need to be a philanthropist for conservation organizations.

Regarding deer and deer hunting, during the devastating winter of 1968-1969, along with MDHA founders Dave Shaw, Jim Lang, Paul Shaw, Wayne and eleven other concerned Itasca County deer enthusiasts, recognized the need to assist the northern Minnesota deer herd and began an organization titled, “Save Minnesota Deer,” which was the precursor to the 1980-founded Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. In SMD, two objectives were identified and initiated: 1) the emergency winter care of deer by browse-cutting and trail-making and 2) to provide more deer on a long-range basis by improvement of their winter food supply. Each of these objectives focused on the increased harvest of aspen as a major food for deer. To achieve these objectives, Save Minnesota Deer lobbied the

Minnesota State Legislature for an increase in license fees.

Eleven years passed, however, and the deer herd’s dire condition still persisted. In 1971, in fact, the state’s whitetail deer population was so low the season was cancelled. In 1980, out of the ashes of the once plentiful deer herd, a deer and deer hunting Phoenix arose—

the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA). To assist with fundraising, in 1984 Wayne Jacobson Sr. donated a “The Founder’s Gun” to be auctioned off at the Itasca County banquets. This tradition continued for many years.

Save Minnesota Deer and Wayne Jacobson, Sr. are, indeed, MDHA treasures.

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 49

MEMBER

Story

BY GEORGE JOHNSON

THE BLESSING OF THE The Blessing of the Orange cross handed out at the service.

ORANGE

It was the last day of deer camp. After The beauty of the fall woods. The thrill we had drained the pump and prepared the of the hunt. The carrying on of traditions. cabin for winter, my two brothers-in-law The wonder of one of nature’s most Tim and Tony and I sat around the campfire exquisite creatures. The love of family. The and reminisced about past deer camps—just appreciation for all that God has blessed us three “macho deer hunters” enjoying time with in our lives. These undeniable benefits with each other after the season. As we got of hunting blended together and helped up to leave, Tony shouted something I had to shape a worship service held at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Pine City, Minnesota, the Thursday before the deer season opener. The brainchild of Jay Samuelson and Pastor Fred Hanson, the service was an opportunity for hunters and their families and friends to get together and focus on the real meaning of the hunt.

The service began with a humorous video of “Sleepy Dan” waking up on the first morning of deer camp. Eventually, he was able to pull himself together and get down to the joy of hunting with his kids. Prayers, hymns and a sermon followed, with the emphasis on appreciating Larry Hanson with Kirby Budrow and his first buck. the blessings God has bestowed never heard him say before, “I love you, upon us, as well as the responsibilities each Tim.” They were the last words we said to hunter has as caretaker of God’s creation. each other as we left that deer camp—the Strengthening relationships with God, first time we had ever said these words to family and friends was a focus of the each other, “I love you.” evening, along with reminders to set a Two weeks later, Tim was instantly killed good example as we teach new hunters the in a car accident. Those very last words we principles of honor and respect for others, said to each other were powerful tools for the animals and the dignity of the hunt. both Tony and me in accepting Tim’s death.

Memories of the love shared between fellow We realized life is precious and uncertain, hunters and family flowed freely and brought that the bonds we formed hunting are tears to the eyes of many of the orange-clad invaluable and never ending and that it is attendees. Jay talked about finding God in best to say, “I love you” and share God’s love the deer stand and how his relationship with others when we have the chance. The grows stronger every year. One hunter shared lesson learned is we need to do it before it is the following story about the importance of too late. sharing feelings before it is too late.

50 Whitetales | FALL 2018

In her article in the spring 2018 issue of Whitetales (“My Experience Being a 101 – New Hunter in the Learn to Hunt Program”) Sarah Fischer reminisced about going through the “Learn to Hunt Program” as a new hunter. She talked about the hunters sharing jobs and helping each other out putting up and taking down stands, cutting trails, tracking deer and dragging them out of the woods. She used these words to summarize, “I now associate hunting with words such as kindness unselfishness, patience, friendship, exciting, challenging, peaceful, respectful, liberating, self trust, honor, openness, teamwork, camaraderie and harvestings.” Her words sound a lot like Paul in Galatians, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol.”

The service concluded with each participant receiving a blaze orange cross to be worn around the neck, a reminder of all of the blessings of the hunt. “The Blessing of the Orange” was a real and poignant reminder of the beauty, traditions, love, thankfulness and the multitude of blessings hunters experience each fall.

Grampa Vern, his son, grandsons, friend, and faithful dog enjoying deer camp on a warm November last day of the season.

What�s Cookin�� Stuffed Venison Backstrap

COURTESY OF CAMP CHEF

This backstrap recipe will hit the spot after a long day of hunting.

Cook it at your basecamp or on the back patio; either way, it will taste incredible.

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • •

Instructions:

1. Trim all silver skin from the backstrap and butterfly lengthwise. Do not cut into medallions. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Chop bacon into ½ inch pieces and brown in a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add mushrooms and garlic. Once the mushrooms are cooked, remove from heat.

3. In a medium-size bowl, mix bacon, mushrooms, cream cheese and breadcrumbs. Evenly add stuffing mixture to the butterfly-cut backstrap. Close butterfly cut and tie off with butcher's twine. Brush with olive oil.

4. Grill over medium/high heat until the meat reaches medium rare.

For the best taste and texture, be sure not to overcook.

5. Slice and enjoy!

Backstrap (elk or deer) Salt Pepper Olive oil Bacon - 1 lb Mushrooms - 2 cups Garlic - 1 clove Cream cheese - 8 oz Bread crumbs - 1 cup

Bacon Wrapped Mini Venison Meatloafs Ingredients: • • • • • • •

Instructions:

1 medium sized onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon butter 1 1/2 pounds ground venison 1 large egg 1 cup bread crumbs 1 cup milk

BY LEGENDARY WHITETAILS • • • • • •

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon thyme 6 bacon slices 1/2 cup ketchup 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1. Preheat oven or grill to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.

2. Melt butter in saute pan over medium heat. Cook onions until fragrant and slightly brown while stirring occasionally, about 3-5 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and add garlic, cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. In large bowl, combine ground venison, egg, bread crumbs, milk, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and cooked onions and garlic. Use hands to mix well, but try not to overwork the meat. Divide into six equal sized portions and shape into disks.

4. Wrap bacon slices around edge of disks. Diameter of meatloaf should be so that the bacon ends just meet or slightly overlap.

5. In a separate bowl, combine ketchup with mustard and brown sugar. Divide equally and spread over the tops of the mini meatloaves.

6. Bake in preheated oven or grill until bacon is just golden, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

52 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Gizmos, GADGETS, Garments & GEAR

Change Your Perspective It’s a crisp November morning. You pour yourself a mug of steaming coffee and head into the woods, surrounded by the cool, quiet light of pre-dawn. You deftly navigate to your perfect spot, scouted during the off season and settle into your new perspective for the day, a Minnesota Outdoor Products deer stand. It’s going to be a great season.

Locally owned and operated by a husband and wife team right here in Minnesota, Minnesota Outdoor Products (MNOP) is the newest player making waves in the highquality outdoor products family. Endorsed by the MN Deer Hunters Association, MNOP features three superior deer stand models including Site Line 360, Vantage Point and The Hunter. The Archer, a stand specifically designed for the bow hunter, will be making its debut in 2019.

MNOP is rooted in family values as proven through their mission and products.

Site Line 360 and Vantage Point both include a large landing area, side entry and secure handrail for a safer and more easily accessible hunting experience for hunters of all ages and experience levels. Both stands come with the option of one way vision camouflage windows, grey or clear windows. The Site Line 360 allows the hunter a complete 360 panoramic view of the surroundings. The Hunter model features a bottom entry with a magnetic door catch to keep the hatch open until you decide to close it.

Whether you’re a seasoned hunter or anticipating your first hunt, MNOP deer stands are easy to transport and set up, alleviating the stress of heavier models.

The materials used to make Site Line 360, Vantage Point and The Hunter ensure a durable, reliable deer stand that you can count on.

As a family business, MNOP is proud to contribute to the culture of hunting by providing a safe and functional deer stand to get you back into the woods and pass on the traditions of hunting to future generations, not to mention, increasing your chances of getting a deer. After all, you can’t shoot what you can’t see!

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MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 53

HUNT

WHITETALES

it down!

Word Search Answers

BY ROD DIMICH AND ED SCHMIDT

Look for an icon shaped like the one above in this issue of Whitetales and, when you find it, send us the page number, along with your name and address. If you are correct, your name will be entered in a prize drawing from MDHA. Email bri@mndeerhunters.com.

Submission deadline: October 1, 2018

Winner of the Summer “Hunt It Down”

Derrick Brasel of the Capitol Sportsmen’s Chapter found the hidden boat on page 44 of the summer issue and was the lucky winner of an MDHA Camo Mesh Back Truckers Cap. Congrats Derrick!

PLEASE REVIEW Your Membership Information Today.

The magazine label indicates your membership status. Please check it to see if your address is correct and when your membership expires.

To renew your membership or make corrections, call the MDHA State Office at 800.450.DEER. Address changes are a major concern and we need your help to correct them. On occasion, the office gets calls because a household is getting duplicate magazines or shouldn’t be getting a magazine at all. What may be the reason for this?

POTENTIAL REASONS:

• Renewal forms or banquet tickets are illegible and get entered incorrectly.

• J.J. Jones is Jerry Jones, same person with multiple memberships.

• A life member passes away and the state office is not notified.

SOLUTIONS:

• Call the office to inquire at 800.450.DEER. • Check with your chapter officers or regional director.

• Check your magazine’s mailing label to see if it is accurate.

Questions, concerns, thoughts? Address letters to: Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Attention: Letter to the Editor • 460 Peterson Rd. • Grand Rapids, MN 55744 or email: bri@mndeerhunters.com

54 Whitetales | FALL 2018

Daylight IN THE Swamp and a bright moon to provide a night light.

Neither happened. Instead, it was deeply dark, heavily quiet. It was so quiet, in fact, he could hear his heart pounding. He wanted to turn on his flashlight for security, but knew he should not. Finally, in the distance, he heard a clattering grouse leave its roost, followed by the mournful hoot of a hidden owl. Then an ivory light dusted the dark. It was the hour of magic, when the sun with its bright wand would consider the tallest tree and lowest mole equally important and the Earth wakes up with a wink and deer hunters, especially those on their first stand, smile.

As the young boy at the window looked out, he considered all these things and more and smiled. But when the phone rang and the man left to answer it, the boy stayed at the window and smiled again—he knew the man would be back.

As you might have guessed, that young boy at the window was me and many years later, the young boy once again harkened.

The event was to pay homage to my great youth to adult friend, “Commander Bob,” as he was honored upon retiring as the Minnesota Disabled American Veterans’ (DAV) State Commander at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

To background, the DAV is an incredible organization. Organized in the aftermath of WWI when disabled U.S. veterans found themselves seriously disadvantaged with little governmental support, its motto was/ is, “Fulfilling our promises to the men and women who served.” My buddy, Commander Bob? He was a great kid to grow up with (although I had to do most of his chores like shoveling snow, etc., actually, those that know us, knew I stayed up late and the Commander got up early and in reality he did most of our chores).

During the Commander’s testimonial, some speakers walked ably to the podium, some did not. They spoke of God and country and family and friends and the bond armed services people share from sacrificing for the cause. As they spoke, I listened like a man, but then, surrealistically, the young boy in me once again got up and walked to the window. When he got there, he saw another young boy riding on a flatbed truck carrying

his family’s old house to its new location (this happened often in mining towns as the ore below superceded the structures above).

It was then I (the young boy at the window) first met my life-long friend to be. When I shouted to the new kid, “This isn’t Kansas, Toto,” (a reference to Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz), I knew my new friend would one day become a soldier as he responded with a one-fingered salute.

As the young boy at the window looked out, the boy from the house joined me and together we both looked out. There, we saw ourselves playing whiffle ball, bobber-fishing for crappies at “Herm’s Dock” and feeding nickels into the Midway Café’s pinball machines until Edna the owner broomed us out while hollering at us to get jobs.

We also saw the old-timers who sat on the park benches in our little town back in the lazy days of our youth after WWII and the Korean War when America was painting over with hopeful hues the despairing black of the Great Depression and the blood red of the wars. As we did, we remembered asking one, “Old Bart,” how he could sit there all day and not be bored? We agreed Bart’s answer made no sense, but now together at the window and once again young after being older, we understood what Bart had meant when he said, “Happy is the man who can once again breathe his native air in his own native land.” We now understand Bart had told us what coming home from a far off country was like. Back then we had no clue.

When I turned once again to say something to the boy from the house, he was gone. Sadly, I turned back to the window and looked out. There, I saw myself, now out of high school, fishing wondrous walleye waters while the young boy from the house slogged rice paddies in a far off foreign land. When I saw myself swinging on a rocketing grouse, I sensed unseen snipers attempting to end the hopes and dreams of American sons. When I saw myself emptying my Browning Auto 5 at a rocketing flock of bluebills, I felt the boy from the house fight the urge to fire at frightening night sounds. When I saw myself waiting for daylight in a predawn deer stand, anxiously clutching my rifle and waiting for antlers in the brush, my heart ached as I knew my buddy was also clutching a rifle,

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 56

but was calling it a weapon.

As I looked out the window, windswept leaves turned to letters and because they were from the boy from the house and most had been unanswered, I hung my head in shame. I could not get out of my mind how the boy from the house had confided in a letter, how much trouble he was having being the person he was now and how it was like his “pet peeve’’ in high school of wearing hand-me-down shoes. Because I did not know how to answer that, I simply did not write back that often. Even praying deeply that the boy from the house would return safely could not assuage my guilt.

Suddenly, I felt a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the boy from the house and heard him say, “You’re up to speak. You okay? You been sippin’ my grandpa’s wine again? Don’t mess up my parade.”

I looked back to the window, but the young boy was gone. He had gone back into my heart and soul. I got up and hugged the boy from the house and when I did he too went back into my heart and soul.

“Snap out of it, get up there,” the Commander barked, “and don’t talk all that English major stuff, be real and take them to the �Streets of Coleraine,’” he added with cackle. “Put another piece back into the puzzle,” he said as we hugged, “Tell them �I’m okay being the person I am now, that I’m comfortable wearing someone else’s shoes.”

When I got to the podium, I once again saw the two boys from the window standing in the back next to the Commander. Tears rolled as we honored each other with proper military salutes. “Thank you for your service,” I began. “All gave some,” I said, wiping the tears from my cheeks, “but like our Greenway High School classmate Richie and thousands and thousands of others, some gave all…”

To those of you who served, thank you for your service. For families and friends who suffered the ultimiate sacrifice, remember, memories are forever. Your service and sacrifices sing our National Anthem.

Whitetails forever, my friends.

MNDEERHUNTERS.COM 55

Daylight IN THE Swamp

BY ROD DIMICH

SOME GAVE ALL

A man walked to the window, but when he got there, a young boy looked out.

As the young boy looked out, backdropped by a splendid sapphire sky, leaves flamed in the noon sunlight. Even though more than a touch of heavy cold was in the air, he wanted to be out there. He wanted to be out in the yesteryear afternoon dust of his ninth-grade football practice. He wanted the excitement of a called play coming to fruition, to feel the solid football in his hands, the wind whistling through his helmet and the explosion of muscle and pads. He needed the freedom of the football field and the sight of the daily mallard flock which signaled the end of practice as it cupped into the early evening shadows of the marsh at the north end of the field.

After practice, he would shower as quickly as he could and then run home on weary legs. In a matter of minutes, with a hastily made and marginally wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich tucked into his brown canvas hunting coat with his low base shells, he and his sweet sixteen single shot would be hoofing it to the old cutover on the edge of town to search for “ol’ pat,” the partridge.

Once there, he would sneak the clover-filled logging roads, listen for the tell-tale cluck and ready for the heart-stopping burst of wings.

As the young boy at the window looked out, the flaming hardwoods now turned a gun-metal chestnut and low-scudding clouds pushed flock after flock of snowy-backed bluebills over crashing whitecaps and into half a hundred bobbing homemade cedar blocks. The poom of pump shotguns and the whoosh of wings and wind awed him and the moment was frozen into his memory like the hard ice that rimmed the big lake.

Somewhere in the distance there was a horizon, but the young boy could not see it.

Not that it mattered. The driftwood blind and frozen sand and bluebills in the snow were all he wanted, all he needed. His tingling wind-lashed cheeks and numb toes and clunky hands did not matter. His world was

56 Whitetales | FALL 2018

the blind where the ancient mysteries of the northern flight were cutting over a wonderfilled kid. His little life was being rounded by the spectacle.

As the young boy at the window looked out, the gray ducking skies brightened into his little hometown’s only clothing store, “The Hub,” and its main street window’s deer season display. Every year since he could remember, he was thrilled when his mother brought him there to see, placed on pure white angel hair, the red and the red and black hats and gloves and pants and coats and every other deer hunting thing imaginable. Only this year was different—he would not be a tag-along hunter—he would be on his very own stand.

The young boy would lay out his gear in his bedroom for weeks before deer season, checking and re-checking his list, sharpening and re-sharpening his grandpa’s inherited Mora knife. His also inherited grandpa’s Winchester Model 64 .30-30 was held with care and reverence. Imaginary deer were sighted in every nook and cranny and a quick bead was steadied on each.

As the young boy at the window looked

out, his dad and he were loading scrap lumber into the pickup box, along with big spikes and nails and carpentry tools. The fixings for his dream stand were there. The next stop was a little burg in the woods he liked to call “Standville,” a place where he would be mayor. Because it was to be located on a narrow sliver of land which crested its way into the “Big Swamp” ever so slightly, the young boy had dubbed his place in deer country as the “Peninsula Stand.”

When the stand was completed, the young boy considered it a thing of beauty, using a phrase his dad often aired. Oh, he had cut and pounded and built before (sons of carpenters do that), but, he had never felt the unbridled enthusiasm which surged through him as he looked at that perfect platform darkly silhouetted against a setting sun.

As the young boy at the window looked out, his world suddenly became dark and quiet and somewhat scary. He was alone in his new stand. His father’s flashlight had disappeared into the balsams, heading for the next island in the swamp. The boy had expected a mother lode of stars over him CONTINUED ON PAGE 55

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