I used to think that I was a pretty good sign reader and stand picker, but after opening morning here on public land, all bets are off. The big guys that make it through opening day aren’t where they were where someone could get an easy shot at them. A lot of the bigger bucks that I’ve tagged weren’t because I picked a great stand site, it was because some other hunter bumped them into me. On public land we have atv riders, berry pickers, leaf lookers, nature walkers, bird hunters and several months of archery season. Anything with antlers gets pretty paranoid post rut the third week of November.


My other auto is a .45

The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory