So after an extended hiatus, I’m back. That isn’t to say that I was not actively writing in the interim, but sadly, none of what I hacked out on the keyboard made it onto this forum. Why, you may ask? It just wasn’t good enough in my opinion and some of the writing was downright awful. There was one promising piece of political vitriol aimed at pretty much everyone in the wake of late-December’s school shooting south of the border, but that didn’t pass the “overnight test”.
Anyhow, here we are in 2013 and I’m of renewed vigour. 2012 is ancient history now, and all the trials and tribulations (as well as the joys) have been filed away for nostalgic review only. Moving forward, it is time to focus on what matters. Since all the hunting seasons (barring a couple I don’t really participate in) are closed, the next point of business for me is turkey hunting, which is less than four months away. That may not seem so close, but it is, and there is oh so much to do. I’m in the market for some new turkey decoys, I’m always down for buying a new call or two, and now that I’m living in an area where I have significantly more access to local hunting (of both the public and private variety) I’m keen to spend the next few months scouting and getting familiar with the territory.
So what am I thinking? Well first and foremost, I’ve gone a long time without doing a “Gearhead” post, primarily because I’m fully outfitted from a gear perspective (or I was until I realized I wasn’t…) so once I do some shopping I’ll be putting another one of those out there. I’ll probably be doing a little light coyote hunting as well, so barring another round of abject failure, I just may have some tales from the woods on that front too.
In terms of the ancient history that made up 2012, our crew had a solid deer season with my Dad connecting on a nice 8-point during the first week of the season (with that deer being the first one to be shot on the family farm it was even more memorable) while my two cousins and my brother all shot deer in the second week. One of the other fellas in camp for the second week shot a real bruiser as well, while a fifth deer fell to another gun in our group. So suffice it to say, there’s a whole pile of venison coming my way, which I frankly can’t be more happy about…my stores were depleted you see. Some of my friends and acquaintances were still out chasing deer until the bitter end on December 31st, while others were swamping around after late-season ducks and geese right up until Boxing Day. I salute all your respective efforts, but it was way too dang cold for me by December 10th.
I was able to spend an afternoon at the range last month, which was pleasant, although it troubled me only slightly to see other people shoot my guns in a much more proficient manner than I, but what can you do? A fringe benefit of going to the range is having to buy more ammunition, which requires additional online ballistics research. It’s been safe to say that I’ve been doing a lot of time over at Hornady’s home page reading about ft-lbs and retained energy. All my ballistics studies have almost convinced me to buy another rifle…almost.
But none of that detracts from what is coming in one-hundred-and-thirteen days. I only made one New Year’s resolution this year, and that was to not break my leg again (or the other one, or any other major bones, for that matter) so that I can make up for all the turkey hunting I missed last year when I went down with injury. Last year seemed to have a freakishly high number of perfect turkey hunting mornings, and I was unfortunate enough to witness them all from a supine position as I was essentially in traction for the whole of April and most of May. The two days that I limped out and sat for two and three hours respectively were not ‘perfect mornings’ with one being unbelievably mosquito-infested and the other being interrupted by a farmer tilling the one field I had permission to hunt. But hope springs eternal this year, and it is the plan to hunt as many full days as it takes to tag out on a gobbler. My wife is already sick of me practicing my slate calling, and it is only going to get worse for her from there. That reminds me…I need a new facemask as well. Oh the joys of the turkey hunter’s pre-season.
So that’s what is coming for 2013, more pining for turkey hunting, more lusting after equipment, and more general nonsense from me. For those of you who are subscribed to this blog or following on Twitter (@getoutandgohunt) I thank you for playing along for another year. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring some entertainment for 2013.