October is National Audiology Awareness Month and National Protect Your Hearing Month

My good buddy John O'Connor wrote this article and if you hunt or enjoy the shooting sports please protect your hearing at all times.

                                    Stoner 


Protecting Yourself from Hearing Loss While Shooting and Hunting
Hunting and shooting are essential American pastimes in this day and age. People love to take out their guns and blow off a little bit of steam. Some do it regularly as their favorite sport. Hunting can be a fun activity when it is done the right way. There are some serious safety concerns that you have to keep in mind, though. Hearing loss is one of the major problems that hunters and shooters face in the wake of their activities. You must understand the risks of hearing loss and take the proper precautions to protect against long-term ear damage. My father did not realize the potential harm hunting could have on his hearing.  He usually did not pay much attention to his hearing and now he is severely affected by hearing loss.  In his late 70’s now he wears hearing aids to help him hear better.  This is a prime example of not protecting your hearing while hunting.  Take the right precautionary measures now to ensure healthy hearing for the future.
The Danger of Firearms

An article from Ball State University, suggests that many hunters do not wear ear protection at all times. In fact, younger hunters regularly fail to take care of their ears when they go out shooting. Firearms can be dangerous when you do not take the risks seriously. Firing certain guns can lead to chronic ear pain or long-term hearing loss. Though this problem is not felt by all people who shoot guns, the effect is substantial enough that it needs a broader audience. Given how easy it is to protect one's ears, it makes sense to take this precaution.
Enclosed Shooting Ranges

People who go to shooting ranges must be more conscious about their hearing protection. If you do your shooting indoors, you are in greater danger of running into major hearing issues. A smart hunter will do everything in his power to avoid these types of situations. If you need to practice or just want to do some shooting, you are better off at an outdoor range, but if you choose to take your practicing indoors make sure you are fully protected. 
Using Earplugs

Many people think that they are protected when they use foam earplugs. These can be molded to your ears and are designed to protect on the most basic level. More importantly for some, these earplugs are very cheap. If you lose a couple of them, there is a good chance that you have an entire box waiting at home. These should be considered the baseline for ear safety. In many cases, they do not do enough to protect your hearing, but are better than nothing. 
Earmuffs and Noise Canceling Earmuffs

If you want to take things more seriously, you should consider earmuffs and noise cancelling earmuffs. These products have been known to provide adequate protection for people who are shooting in outdoor areas. Those individuals who do the bulk of their shooting indoors or with especially loud firearms should strongly consider the more expensive noise cancelling earmuffs. Protect your hearing today in order to ensure healthy hearing in the future. 

Wyoming Antelope

Just got back from my Wyoming Pronghorn Antelope hunt and had a great time with some really awesome hunting friends. Caught some really nice rainbow trout, killed a nice pronghorn Antelope and had allot of fun helping my buddies stalk and kill their antelope. looking forward to a return trip to Wyoming in the future.

                        

Big Bass

I did a little fishing at a friends pond this Sunday and caught this nice 5lb bass and six other bass all over 3lbs. A great day of fishing and tons of fun.
  

No. 2 Doe Down

Got my second doe of the season today and she will be some great eats. Filling my freezer fast and now I can use my Bonus Buck tag. I'm back on the big mature buck hunt.


Stoner

Doe Down

Killed this nice sized doe just before dark and after pictures , gutting and a 1/2 mile drag I finally got her in the truck. That long drag definitely made for a late night but well worth it. A very nice fat doe and some really good eats here. 1 more slickhead to go and I'm back in the buck hunt.

Velvet Piebald Buck Down!!

I  just had an awesome day in the deer stand yesterday. I was extremely fortunate to kill a great 4 point still in velvet Piebald Buck and for me this is an amazing trophy. I have shot allot of big mature bucks but this buck means as much to me as any of those bucks. He is unique, beautiful and has amazing white coloring. WOW!! 30 plus years of deer hunting and I have never even seen a piebald deer and for me to kill a buck like this just AMAZING!!

Last Camera Pull

I checked my trail cam pics one last time and I have some really big mature bucks on my properties. Opening day of the 2012 Maryland Deer Season is tomorrow and I will be hunting with my good buddy Rich.  I am  hoping to repeat last years opening day success and film Rich putting the Smackdown!! on a big mature buck.

Fishing with Friends

Did some fishing with my good buddy Rich and his dad Gary last weekend and we had a ton of fun. The stripers were not biting but we did manage to catch some good cats on some cut bait.

Atlantic Salmon

I just got back from my fishing trip in New Brunswick Canada and what a great trip it was. I was fishing with my dad on the mighty Miramichi river and its many tributaries. We were fishing for Atlantic Salmon and the first three days we fished as part of the 2012 Salmon Classic put on by the Miramichi Salmon Association and the last two days we fished the Museum pool owned by the Miramichi Salmon Museum. Well during the Salmon Classic we fished 5 different pools and my father caught and released alive a beautiful Atlantic Salmon grilse and I got the entire catch on video (it was awesome and this salmon jumped 10 times before being netted and released). As usual I had no luck during the Salmon Classic but every pool we fished had salmon and my father and me fished hard (no doubt fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon is tough and exhausting) . Well on Thursday we fished the Museum pool and after many long years, thousands of fly casts and allot of frustration, I FINALLY!! caught an Atlantic Salmon on a UNDERTAKER salmon fly ( a great fly and cool name) and even though it was just a 5lb grilse for me it is a huge accomplishment for me to catch such an incredible fish on a fly rod. You truly haven’t experienced fishing until you fish for Atlantic Salmon and words can’t even explain how these fish fight, how powerful they run when hooked and how beautiful of a fish they are. NO Doubt!! Atlantic Salmon  are the king of game fish and for me this has been the crowning achievement in my angling career.  No longer can I hope to catch one of these amazing fish, now I have a memory to last a lifetime and hopefully just the beginning of many more Atlantic Salmon catches.

 

Hunters Safety Class

I spent the weekend teaching a Hunters Safety Class in Maryland.  I have been a Hunters Safety instructor for 5 years now and truly enjoy teaching adults and allot of kids about gun/hunting safety. I enjoy my days in the woods and on the waters and I am so thankful to be able to enjoy the thrill of chasing game and fish in this great country.

Shenandoah River Smallmouth Bass

Went smallmouth bass fishing with my buddy Mike on the mighty Shenandoah River this weekend and we had a great time. We caught 15 smallies and this was my largest one at 16 ½ inches and three pounds. Man do those river bass fight hard.

Getting Excited

Getting excited for the 2012 deer season and already getting some impressive bucks on trail cam. I am a scouting freak and my deer season never truly ends and dedicated preparation means Big Bucks Down!!!

Insane Turkey Hunt

I had the great pleasure to hunt with Doug Wigfield and to say the very least it was an incredible experience and a very memorable hunt. We meet up just outside Salisbury MD and after getting my gun and gear in his vehicle off we go to one of his great turkey spots. On the drive to our hunting area of course we are talking about turkeys and memorable hunts we both have been on. You can't help but to like a fellow hunting addict like Doug and just talking to him and picking up some knowledge on turkey hunting, sika deer, whitetails and yes even bears for me was well worth any money I spent to have Doug take me on a guided hunt. Doug just knows wildlife and hunting enough said. We arrive at our hunting destination a good hour before sunrise, gear up and head out into the property to listen for any toms on the roost. WOW!! is all I can say about the property and it is extremely well managed for not only turkeys but deer also. I felt good about our chances on getting a shot at a tom and farther into the property we heard some distant gobbles and we both decided to move back into the property to get close to these birds before fly down. Off we go Doug leading the way and me following as quiet as I can be and soon we are set in the woods near a pretty good sized food plot and we have three toms gobbling within close range of us. One is really close to us and just to the left of our set and the other two are a bit farther back near a connecting road to another smaller food plot. Well we sit there until the sunrises and Doug is calling softly with some purrs, clucks and yelps but we get absolutely no response from the closer tom and some soft gobbles from the farther off toms. Doug recommends we change our spot to move closer to one of the farther off toms as he is gobbling good and steady. So we are on the move again and after taking it slow to glass some smaller food plots/connecting roads we find ourselves walking along a small connecting road between two food plots and we have that gobbler in front of sounding off with some loud gobbles. We close the distance to within 75 yards and then I get in front of Doug and move up slowly to with 20 yards of the field and get set up for Doug to do some soft calling at this tom. Let me tell you Doug can call to turkeys and within a couple of minutes the tom gobbles hard and is walking from my right to left, clears some thick brush in front of me and then heads away from us into the open field directly in front of me but just a bit to far to my left and my vision/shot is obscured by a couple of small tree's and thick brush. We wait a couple of minutes and Doug gives him a couple of soft purrs and now that tom moves just enough out to the right of those trees that I can see him clearly in the field but to be honest I am unsure of the distance from me to him and if my gun can reach out far enough to take this tom. I have my gun up and ready to shoot for a good 5 minutes but this tom isn't moving and even with Doug softly calling he just won't close the distance to us and give me a closer shot. He wasn't on alert and no way he saw us but he doesn't like something and I can see he is turning to walk away from us. I hate to admit this and it happens to everyone (if you turkey hunt and love it then you know how I feel) but I didn't listen to my own gut feeling and decide to shoot at this tom and yep a clear miss, not even really a miss I don't believe I even put a pellet in a tail feather on this bird and what I thought was a 40 yard shot was way off and was more like a 60 to 70 yard shot and way out of range for my gun and pattern. Well it happens and no one is more hard on myself then me when it comes to a miss and I turn to Doug, apologize for the miss (just educated one of Doug's tom so I am kicking myself in A$$ for doing that) and really feel bad as Doug got me that chance and I should have passed on that shot. Well let me tell you Doug is a professional and not a bad word or rebuke for my fool hardy display of marksmanship, nope he shrugs it off and we come up with another game plan and off we go after some more toms. We decide to work our way slowly back towards the front of the property and while we are walking slowly and listening for any gobbles the weather starts to turn on us and very quickly. It's starts to thunder of in the distance and a slight rain starts to fall but soon enough we have a gobbler sounding off to the lighting and off we go towards that tom. We slowly work our way towards the tom and now that weather front is moving in quickly, the rain is picking up but what really has us worried is that the lightning is getting loud and closer to us bye the minute. We close the distance to within 200 yards of this tom (he is gobbling loud now and is hot) and he is directly in line from where Doug parked his vehicle that morning. Only problem now is that it is pouring buckets of rain down on us and now the lightning is well within a mile of us and closing on us fast. Well to be 100% honest me and Doug look at each other and say this is crazy let's head back towards the truck and wait out this storm. We start moving quickly through the woods and when we get close to where we heard
that tom last gobble, he sounds off again and we are literally 35 yards from this tom, who is strutting down a road right in front of us. I look at Doug and he motions for me to snug up to a tree and get ready. I get down next to a tree, got a perfect shooting lane in front of me to the road and Doug pulls out a call I have never seen or used before ( a turkey trumpet call, his other calls are soaking wet and useless) and he starts giving some soft clucks to this tom and he sounds off close with a thunder gobble. Oh thunder gobble because by this time we get hit with a lighting strike I would say within a 150 yards of us, it shook the ground, puckered my you know what and I look back at Doug and he just shrugs his shoulders and continues calling to this hot tom. Well that pretty much told me I was there for the party so Doug is calling, lighting is striking, raining is pounding us and all the time I'm doing my best to watch for this tom to come out to give me a shot. Only problem now is the temperature has dropped, humidity is off the hook and my glasses are fogged (can't see a damn thing) and to add insult to injury so is my red dot scope on my gun. Well I'm sure Doug is still amused at my many attempts to clear both my glasses and scope but I do manage to quickly get them cleared enough with my shooting hand glove to barely see enough for a shot. Good thing because after some more sweet calling form Doug with that turkey trumpet call, that tom was insane with love and couldn't stand it anymore. Out he struts right in front of me at 35 yards in the open road , I take my time for the shot (no way I'm missing twice after all that hard work from Doug and the insanity of us being out in that weather) I see enough of my red dot at the base of his neck and squeeze the trigger and BAM!! down goes that tom. Me and Doug just stand up, look at each other and say together can you just believe that happened and let's get that tom and get the hell out of here back to the truck. I run out grab my Tom and we high tail it back to Doug's truck. We get back to the truck, put the gun, our gear and my tom in the back of his truck and jump in to let the storm pass through. Well 15 minutes later we have clearer skies, no thunder and we get out of Doug's' truck to check out my tom, take some pictures and celebrate one amazing turkey kill. What a great tom he is, 20 pounds, 10 1/2 inch beard and both spurs 1 1/4 inch. Just a great mature tom and just an insane hunt with not a guide anymore but a good friend. After some pictures and congratulations again between us off we are to get some breakfast and make a few phone calls to friends. For me this was just an insane and awesome hunt with Doug and certainly for me a great time spent in the woods. Doug can't thank you enough buddy and I gained some turkey knowledge from you, got one hell of a nice tom, and started out with a guide but parted ways with a friend. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bass Fishing

I did a little bass fishing on Loch Raven reservoir prior to my trip to Ohio and had a great day on the water. I caught 8 bass and 4 pickerel. This was my largest bass of the day and he weighed 4 1/2 pounds.

2012 Ohio Youth Turkey Hunt

I just got back to work and spent this past weekend in Ohio guiding for a great bunch of kids during the two day Ohio Youth Turkey hunt. Talk about a tough two days of turkey hunting, high winds up to 40 mph, driving rains, and very cold temperatures in the low 30's made for terrible turkey hunting conditions, especially the high winds just shut the birds down. We had 5 kids and their parents in camp for the youth hunt and just a great bunch of new friends to hang out with and enjoy a fun hunt with. Saturday morning first day of the youth hunt found me, my buddy Rich and his 15 year old daughter Vicki in a blind overlooking a 1 acre food plot that the property owner had several trail cam pictures of some nice toms. We got in just before first light, I set up a Avian X hen decoy and in a driving rain we got in the turkey blind for the days hunt. I told Rich and Vicki that if the rain would die down I felt we had a great chance to get a shot at a nice tom turkey. Two hours into the morning hunt and finally the rains started to slow down enough that I felt any nearby toms would respond to my calling. I got out the old trusty box call let out some very loud yelps and immediately got a response from three gobblers and they were very close (within 200 yards) of our blind. I quieted down for about 10 minutes and then did some soft yelping with my slate call and again three thunder gobbles well within 50 yards of the blind. I told my buddy Rich to get his video camera up (he records his daughters hunts) and got Vicki ready to make a shot as I knew these toms were hot for some love and coming in fast. 5 minutes after the last gobbles I look to my left and here come three long beards walking into the food plot and staring down my sweet Peggy Sue (my decoys nickname) hen decoy. Well the first tom is definitely the boss tom of the group so I tell Vicki (who is shaking out of her boots) to get on him and get ready to shoot. I give a few soft purrs on the slate call and that is all it took for the boss tom to move away from his buddies and get closer to Peggy Sue. I am talking to Vicki the entire time telling her to relax, just put the front bead at the base of his neck and when she is ready to take him squeeze that trigger slow. She tells me I got him so I tell her to take the shot and BOOM!!! she rips a perfect shot at 30 yards and absolutely puts the SMACK DOWN!!! on the boss tom. I tell Vicki to put her gun on safe and then we go nuts in the blind celebrating and jump out out running to get her bird. What a great tom he is, 19 pounds, 12 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. Just an incredible hunt, with a amazing young lady that loves to hunt and the entire hunt is captured on film. This truly is one of my most memorable hunts and what a pleasure it was for me to help Vicki harvest her first tom turkey but definitely not her last.

Big Birds Down!!!

Just a Freaking AWESOME!! start to the 2012 Maryland Spring Turkey season as me and my good buddy Mike got it done on two big mature tom turkeys. We got set up at 5:30 am where I knew the birds have been roosting and by 6:15 am we have 5 toms going crazy gobbling just prior to them flying down. By 6:40 am we have 5 toms on the ground within 150 yards of us and I am working a box call and three of those toms are hot and loving it. For the next hour it was turkey mania as we had birds all around us. First tom that came into out set was a mature long beard but Mike couldn't get a good shot so no boom but no mater because within 15 minutes we have a jake at 30 yards in front of us and again Mike passes on him and I am glad he did. We wait about 10 minutes and I start hammering the box call with some loud yelps and cutting and immediately we have a tom sound off in front of us and behind us and close. The tom behind us comes to within 20 yards of Mike but he is directly behind Mike and stays there for a good 10 minutes at full strut and spitting and drumming the entire time. I could have killed this tom dead but I had promised Mike the first shot at a tom so I watched him walk away with two hens. I get back on the box call and get the other tom to sound off within 75 yards of us and he is coming in on a dime so I shut up and pick up my slate call for some soft calling. Within I would say two minutes I see the tom coming in from my right walking in the exact direction where Mike is sitting and as soon as he gets in front of Mike I do a soft purr and he stops stone cold and Mike puts the sonic boom on him at 40 yards and SMACKDOWN!!! bird on the ground. We high 5 and jump up like crazy kids, go get his tom and what a beautiful mature tom he was. 22 pounds, 10 1/2 beard and 1 inch spurs. We tag him up, walk back to the truck, get a few quick pictures and now it's Mike's turn to call and I am up on the gun. I decide we should walk the trail that divides the property and do some aggressive calling with the box call to see if we can locate a bird. We start moving through the property, stopping and calling twice but no gobbles. We get to the back end of the property, close to a small field where I have seen some nice tom's before strutting and I give a series of loud yelps with the box call and BAM! we got two toms gobbling their heads off within 200 yards of us. One bird is up a slight hill near the field (the closer bird) and the other is down hill from us near a stream that is the property line. I shut up with the box call, get set up facing the closer bird uphill from us and Mike starts calling with his mouth call and now we hear another thundering gobble with 50 yards of us and he is hot and coming in fast. I get ready behind the gun and within 5 minutes from hearing him first gobble I have him in front me at 35 yards, full strut and gobbling his head off but he is behind a fallen tree and i have no shot. Mike sounds off with some soft yelps and purrs and that was all it took to get him strutting out from behind that tree and I put the red dot at the base of his neck and Boom!!! big bird Smackdown!!! number two is in the books baby. Me and Mike are just going crazy celebrating and we have just hammered two mature toms with 30 minutes of each other. We run up to my bird and he is the same bird I let walk away without shooting earlier and what a tom he is. No doubt he is the boss tom on the property, weight is 23 pounds, 3/4 inch spurs and THREE BEARDS, yep three beards and I am shaking as this is my best tom turkey ever. He has a 11 1/2 inch thick paint brush main beard, an 8 inch beard and a 6 inch beard. We tag him up, head back to the truck for pictures and we are done hunting and tagged out by 9:00 am. What an amazing turkey hunt and for me killing my best tom ever with a great friend is truly a memory I will never forget. Much thanks go out to the property owner who generously let's me hunt his land, my good buddy Mike for his awesome calling today and Ultimate Camo for making hands down the best turkey camo clothing. Here is a picture of two happy hunters.

Stoner

Pictures from the Past

I went through some of my online photo albums and looking at my old pictures really brought back some great memories of a lifetime spent in the outdoors hunting and fishing. I truly have been blessed with a good life, wonderful family, a proud military career and some truly great friends who I have shared many awesome hunting/fishing adventures with. When I look back through the years of pictures (from my teens to my 40's) I truly have so many incredible memories like these to last a lifetime.