Leaving the river with only memories to hang on the wall.

This morning I was in the 180 blind before shooting time and stayed till noon. I only saw a few small deer.

Only a true conservationist can appreciate the resource enough to only harvest mature game that are past their prime reproductive stage... That's what guys like me say when we get skunked.

I loaded everything up and went back to Lincoln this afternoon, then took our youngest to check his deer in. I was planning to go watch the cyclocross races in Lincoln this weekend, but now I'm considering going back to the river to try again before the season ends on Sunday. We'll see.

Even though I didn't get a big buck to hang on the wall, or even a fat old doe for the freezer, it's been a great deer season. I love that place, I started hunting deer there when I was 14 with my dad and grandpa, and look forward to deer season all year. It's nice to get out of the city and back to where my oldest deer hunting memories were made. This year I harvested record breaking memories. No taxidermist can make a trophy that would compare.

2010 rifle deer season day 2.

At sun up I was in a tree stand by the river. At 8am our youngest got a nice antlerless deer. By 10am I was back in the 180 blind and our youngest had his shotgun ready for the turkeys.

We saw just one deer and no turkeys from 10-3. He hitched a ride back to Lincoln to get ready for school tomorrow while I stayed to continue to try to fill my permit.

After he left, the turkeys came by, and even walked directly under the blind. 5 smaller whitetails put on a show around sunset that was fun to watch. But left me eager to see something meatier. I headed back to the camper for supper and a little TV before turning in. I'm hopeful about tomorrow morning and am excited to get back out there.

What a wildlife.

The wildlife is thick down at the river this weekend. Today we saw several bunches of turkeys, quite a few deer, raccoons, otters, eagles, squirrels and waterfowl. Our youngest tagged a nice whitetail doe a little after nine this morning. We'll try our luck again tomorrow starting first thing in the morning.

The trees go in at the river.

We rechecked our rifles this morning to be sure they were still sighted in. Then helped my dad with a nice buck he got today with his bow. This afternoon we took time to plant 3 apple, 1 peach, and 2 oak trees. The fruit trees should start producing in 3 years and whatever mom doesn't pick for lunches and pies will fall and be eaten by deer. These trees will be a nice addition to their habitat. Right now we're getting settled in for the night and rested for opening morning tomorrow.

2010 Loup Valley Ducks Unlimited Banquet.

Last night was the DU banquet and before we got there we stopped off at the river to check out my parent's new deer stand. We're looking forward to going back in a few weeks for rifle deer season.

The Nebraska Big Buck Classic.

This weekend was the Big Buck Classic at the Quest Center in Omaha. My parents, our youngest and I went, and had a great time seeing the trophies, meeting outdoor celebs, and checking out the vendor booths.

It's da second week of deer camp...

Our youngest and I made our way back up to the river friday afternoon. At 4:40 I had this big bodied 3X4 in my sites. We were out again Saturday morning and evening to try to fill his doe tag, but will have to try again later during black powder or the late rifle seasons. He wasn't dissapointed a bit about the idea of spending more time at the river.

Opening weekend of rifle deer season.

Our 12 yr old and I went down to the Loup River and stayed in my parents camper. Saturday morning found us sitting in the trailer blind. We saw some smaller bucks and fawns before this bruser came out of the trees just after 8:20 am.

He saw the buck and wispered "Dad! There's a buck, should I get it?" I leaned up to look out and saw him and said "YES!"

We spent the better part of the day checking it in and taking it to the taxidermist. Sunday morning we took time out to eat and visit with the guys from ec&m outdoors at the Dannebrog Fire Dept Hunters Breakfast before going out to hunt again.

He went home for school Monday and I stayed, trying a tree stand but still came away empty handed. We'll try again this weekend.

Steamboat Trace trail between Nebraska City and Brownville closed for 3 day deer hunt.

Find out more on omaha.com.

Hunting

When I was 8 years old we moved from west of the Ordnance Plant to ¼ section of pasture with some great mature shelterbelts on Hwy. 11 between Cairo & Centura. I would hunt with relatives every chance I got, but I also hunted alone on our new place.

Just like it was yesterday, I can still hear Todd tell me that if I sat real still at the base of a bush near the driveway I’d be able to get a sparrow. So, I sat there as they moved our furniture in the new house. Sure enough, a flock landed in the branches in minutes and my old trusty Daisy smartly dropped one to the ground as a puff of feathers floated off in the breeze. At that moment, I was convinced we were moving into the Garden of Eden!

We had a lot of hogs and the spilled ground corn and 20 hog sheds provided perfect food and shelter for sparrows. I was really greedy when I was a kid, and when my dad said he’d give me a dime a sparrow, that was all I needed to hear. He claimed they spread disease to the hogs. But I supposed it had more to do with getting me to spend time outside of the house with my BB gun. He had a charge account at the hardware store, so I could charge BBs and later 22ca. cartridges whenever I wanted. He never said a word about me charging to his account till I started throwing in candy with my ammo purchases. Then he only told me, I’d have to pay for the candy myself from now on. He never hesitated to pay-up for the sparrows I got, except a few times when my pay would be over $2 on a good day. I’m sure he knows now that it was cheap tuition for lessons that I’ll never forget.

Besides sparrows, we had cottontail rabbits so thick you wouldn’t believe it! I shot a zillion of them, but never put a dent in the population. I got to where I could clean a rabbit in no time flat. And mom never complained about having to cook all those rabbits.

My first ‘real’ gun dad insisted I buy myself, I was 11 when he sold me a H&H break-action single shot DU greenwing 20 ga. with some gold inlay in the lettering. And not long after that my parents gave me a new pump 22ca.

I took Hunter Education in the basement of the Cairo bank when I was 12 with all my friends and some great instructors that I would later teach with. I clearly remember my first duck off the Platte, my first pheasant and dove hunting with my dad around Dannevirke. My first Deer I got with a new Remington 243 ca. pump Duke gave me for my 14th birthday. I got it on Lucile’s river ground that my parents bought 11 years later. I can still point out the tree I was leaning against when it came by. I enjoyed all of the hunting Central Nebraska offered. But as I got older my interest faded and I pretty much quit for nearly 15 years.

As our kids got older (see the Shooting blog to see how it started with BB guns for them) I got back into it and now we go whenever we can. Our youngest never turns down the chance to hunt and our oldest has had a lot of success in the field. Our daughter and the wife haven’t hunted but they like to shoot targets. Our oldest went rifle deer hunting with me last year on the loup and even though he didn’t get a chance to shoot, he was eager to get out again this last season. This year proved to be better, he got a buck on the 2nd day. Our 11 yr old got to go for the first time this last season since Nebraska lowered the age to 10 from 12 to try to get more kids hunting and bring the deer population back under control. He had a youth permit with two tags and filled them both on the first weekend. It took me 4 days to get one. Ha!

They both have bagged a Turkey during shotgun season and since the 11 yr old has more time to hunt he’s harvested squirrels, pheasants, and chuckers. They’ve both spent some beautiful mornings in duck blinds but are still waiting for their first waterfowl.

Our 11 yr old has gone before, but this month was the first time I joined him and my dad at Bunker Hill east of Hastings. Our 12 yr old went shopping with my mom while the three of us hunted. Bunker Hill releases birds, but if you haven’t hunted a place like this I’m here to tell you it’s far more challenging than you might think. I visualized it as standing over a box of birds and shooting as they fly out. Ha! Not hardly, they release the birds and later give you a vague description of where at in their the vast fields. I can testify that they release more than are harvested thanks in part to my poor marksmanship. Places like Bunker Hill have far longer seasons, can harvest both sexes and have no bag limit. They are also an excellent place to work your upland dog. Hunters still need to be licensed and follow all the other hunting laws. Bunker Hill has turned a defunct military ammunition plant into excellent habitat for both their birds and other wildlife that share the property. As well as populate surrounding fields with upland game. And bring in hunters dollars to the local economy.