Goin' South next year.

[petemi]

We got stormed out of the last three days of ML season, and rifle season was no picnic.  I'm tired of trying to hunt in minus 20 or less wind chill with blowing snow.  If you nail a deer you can't get your 4x4 pickup through the drifts to get at it.  I can't keep these old arthritic bones warm enough.  I've made up my mind, that next year, I'm hunting somewhere in a shirt and a vest.  Maybe sit on Richard's lap in Jawga.  Although, his season, this year wasn't too much warmer.  I'm gonna pack da Handis in .38-55, .Maxi, .445 and da tirty tirty and make it toward Spanish Moss and Palmetos.  I'll even bring da snake boots and bug spray.

Pete

[freetrapper]

I hear ya Peteum,once winter set in my hunting done. After a heart attack in 08 can,t take the cold and much snow. Too much strain on the heart.With this storm sunday and now monday we have adrift 5 ft high in front of the horse barn.Never understood the snowbirds, but as I am getting older my feathers seem to be growing.  Have a good day!! Freetrapper

[gunther66]

Pete,Do you have chiggers up there? G66

[bigvarmnt]

Pete, I hear them Jawja deer are so small all you'll need is a 22 lr. and a trailer to haul 15 or 20 back to feed you through the year

[gcrank1]

Aw Pete......youve been living the easy life up there for too long, youve gone soft!
If you go anyplace else you will be sitting out there, sweating down your back and thinkin',"what was I thinkin".

[Ranger J]

That makes the 3% and the 1 inch of snow we have here in MO for the ML season seem like a nice spring day.

RJ

[AtlLaw]

Aw cummon!    Our SO. Jawja deer are small, but not that small!  Why I musta got 15 pounds a meat outa the one I shot this year!  

Heck Pete, this season was so bad I was gonna head north next year!    I'll probably only get out once more this year, after new years maybe...    Hopefully it will warn up some!  

[petemi]

Pete,Do you have chiggers up there? G66

No, thank God.  I've been there done that got the shirt, got the hat.  I picked blackberries on the base at Cecil Field outside Jacksonville, FL years ago and had them everywhere.  I did it again at Blue Cypress Lake, FL bass fishing and camping one time also. They've gotta be the worst bug pest.  They're right up there with Poison Ivy and rattlesnakes.

Pete

Aw cummon!     Our SO. Jawja deer are small, but not that small!  Why I musta got 15 pounds a meat outa the one I shot this year!   

Heck Pete, this season was so bad I was gonna head north next year!     I'll probably only get out once more this year, after new years maybe...    Hopefully it will warn up some!   

Patty mentioned this morning that they were worried about the Florida Citrus.  I was there in the 80s when the groves froze from Ft. Pierce north.  The trees grew back from the wild orange roots, but the fruit, of course was useless......a slice did go well in a bourbon   Those groves turned into golf courses and condos.

I've got a picture of me somewhere in the house, banding a Red-Tailed Hawk South of Ft. Pierce in 23 degrees wearing a parka and boots.  It was great for the chiggers and mosquitoes.

Pete

[AtlLaw]

Florida Citrus.  I was there in the 80s when the groves froze from Ft. Pierce north.

I remember that!     Just about the whole Florida citrus crop gone.   

[quickdtoo]

Sorry to hear that Pete, I gotta appreciate our generally mild, but wet weather here for hunting, out of the 10 days or so I hunted this year, only about half were wet and we only hunted in snow the last day of the late season......what the heck is a chigger!!! 

Tim

[spikehorn]

Took my 2nd doe on the coldest windiest day we've had here. warmed my hands up in her. atlaw I think the a front quarter weighed at least 15lbs

[petemi]

......what the heck is a chigger!!! 

It's a mite that burrows into you, sheds the exoskeleton and departs with you trying to dig it out.  If ya ever encounter them, you'll love mosquito bites.  Chiggers also seek out the warm, moist parts of the body.....if ya get the picture.  I'm not an entomologist, but for the brief time I was in Washington State, the slugs drove me nuts.  Put something on the ground this afternoon and it was covered with them in the morning.  Is that a Whidby Island thing, or all over the state?

Pete

[quickdtoo]

I know what chiggers are Pete, that's why I didn't put a question mark after my statement.  I've never seen or heard of a chigger here, no doubt they probably are, but I've never been bit by one in my 63yrs living here, but I did spend a couple years in Jawja compliments of the US Army, never got bit, but was aware of them from friends.

Tim

[gstewart44]

Aw cummon!    Our SO. Jawja deer are small, but not that small!  Why I musta got 15 pounds a meat outa the one I shot this year!  

Heck Pete, this season was so bad I was gonna head north next year!    I'll probably only get out once more this year, after new years maybe...    Hopefully it will warn up some!  

Sorry to hear bout yer season Richard  ...... we've had a banner year just south of ya  ......   Ifn Pete makes it down to see ya then head on down to my South Jawja flatlands and swamp.....  Our deers ain't all that big, but they sho is plenty of em.....   the piggies now, they be 2-3 times the size of the deers  ..... need to definitely bring your 45-120 artillery piece.....

[petemi]

Tim, as far north as you and I are, I'm sure we don't have them.  They don't bite, but burrow in.  Ask Richard, he's probably got a few in him now.  The scratchy crotchy routine.  If ya could take 90% of the people out of Florida, I'd love it there.  I've fished and hunted her savannahs, woods, lakes, swam and dove in her ocean.  I've faced down nesting gators with a fly rod and eaten my share of both gator and rattlesnake.  I've been face to face with bull sharks, Black tips, Makos and great whites in her waters.....I love Florida.....just call me when the people are evacuated.

Pete

[gstewart44]

Tim, as far north as you and I are, I'm sure we don't have them.  They don't bite, but burrow in.  Ask Richard, he's probably got a few in him now.  The scratchy crotchy routine.  If ya could take 90% of the people out of Florida, I'd love it there.  I've fished and hunted her savannahs, woods, lakes, swam and dove in her ocean.  I've faced down nesting gators with a fly rod and eaten my share of both gator and rattlesnake.  I've been face to face with bull sharks, Black tips, Makos and great whites in her waters.....I love Florida.....just call me when the people are evacuated.

Pete

I hear ya Pete, I've lived in Central Florida for over 50 years now and grew up when there were more cows, oranges and critters than people.    As soon as my youngest graji-ates high school, me and the missus is headin Nawth.   Maybe up to Jawja or Tenn-i-C.   Sho used to be fun poppin rattlers and wabbits in the orange groves or,  catchin a string of bass or catfish after school and getting them ready for the pan for dinner.   Nope not any more.  Dad used to build fishin boats and I loved goin fishin in the deep water..... now theres too many rules and peoples here to hunt and fish for fun.   

[quickdtoo]

Pete,

Chiggers are biters, not burrowers, that's a myth, you're probably thinking of scabies.  

Tim

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2100.html

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/avoid-outdoor-pests/chiggers

[gcrank1]

We dont have chiggers in S-Cent WI, Pete, but we are in that dang CWD zone. If I saw or shot a diseased animal I never knew it, and it hasnt affected me a bit...a bit...a bit...
We dont have the deer we used to, or the hunting population or pressure that we used to, regardless of what the WI DNR says; Ive seen it with my own eyes. And the deer have learned to go nocturnal in these many years of hunting seasons. The bow hunters have got the longest season(s) and biggest lobby; plus our anti-gun gov didnt really want to 'encourage' the shooting sports. That will shortly change with Walker soon to take office. Worst for you here would be the cost of an 'out of state license', but you would be 'south'.

[wreckhog]

Guys by me build blinds. There is one in my town, maybe 1000' from the Post Office. There is a staircase going up, and it is the size of a large bedroom inside. Heated, windows, and yes, there is satellite TV. The guy owns the only restaurant in town, his sons are state troopers, and I understand that they are very successful hunting from it as the restaurant is full of mounts.

[bikerbeans]

Yeah Pete, what about a heated blind?  Just about every hunter I know of in Michigan has one and these are L.P. hunters.  One fellow I know build an elevated blind for his dad a few years back that was really large.  My friend went out the night before gun opener and installed a mail box in front of it. His dad wasn't all that amused.

Once you get the heated blind, then all you need is one of them tracked snow machines, they use at the ski resorts, to get in and out.

BB

[AtlLaw]

Well my huntin buddy just sent me pictures of a buck killed by a car at the farm last night.     It was crossing the road from the section I hunt to the section Tommy hunts.  Knocked on whole antler off and broke the points off the other.  To bad.   

He layed his cap on the deer so y'all could have a point of reference, size wise, for a nice 8 pt.!   

[STUMPJMPR]

I hunt in South MS and I have a heater in my blind.  To use anything below 40 is cold, but the humidity makes it a little worse too.

[spikehorn]

I was gunna say something like, it looks like your friend wears an awfully big hat, but I won't. This is a 260 pound 10 point

[kingj]

It's going to be 19 degrees here tonight,60 miles west of Jax. Fl. The wind right now is 20-26 from the wnw.I don't think that qualifies for shorts and bugspray!

[jackruff]

Long season in Mississippi with more deer than probably any state but Texas and fewer people.  Lots of hunting opportunities.  And the temperature (south Mississippi) should be in the seventies on Thursday.  But tonight it's forecasted to be 18.  And I've seen my thermometer read O F once back in the eighties.  So it can be cold, but usually is pretty nice.  Our average high for this time of year is around 60.

[Slenk]

......what the heck is a chigger!!! 

It's a mite that burrows into you, sheds the exoskeleton and departs with you trying to dig it out.  If ya ever encounter them, you'll love mosquito bites.  Chiggers also seek out the warm, moist parts of the body.....if ya get the picture.  I'm not an entomologist, but for the brief time I was in Washington State, the slugs drove me nuts.  Put something on the ground this afternoon and it was covered with them in the morning.  Is that a Whidby Island thing, or all over the state?

Pete

Just on the wet side of the state. Pete.
On the dry side we feed um beer or salt. Get rid of them real quick.
Slenk

[petemi]

You could feed me the beer and the salt....I like both.

Pete

[ihookem]

I hear ya Petemi. I was in Price county Wis. last monday hunting muzzy. It was brutal, 14* and wind. Sitting in the stand was rough and I'm only 47. I saw 2 deer walking and that was it, (except for a wolf track and 8 turkeys) I'm not sitting in a tree next gun season, I'm making a ground blind.

[gendoc]

hey pete, you come on down heah to this country... here in tha lowest most parta bama we gots lotsa them bite'n critters.  cottonmouths, yeller flies, skeeders, ticks and... purdy wimmin's, dam near naked... run'n round in
30 degree cold.   we got little deers, but lots of'um. and hawg's out tha yeng-yang !!!
  and plentya homemade shinny
rains a lil... cold alil, but we always have'n fun

[ihookem]

Hey Atlaw, I was down in Jawja once,  ONCE! Just kidding it was a blast. HOTTER than I knew what hot could be in mid August. Me thinking since it was cooling down real nice up here in Wisconsin I just brought jeans, work boots and flannel shirts. They got a kick out of me. I did notice my wife' s uncle had some very nice big bucks. I saw little ones on the road though. This was in Crawfordville, Georgia. He owned a place named Heavy's BBQ. Anyway, they're calling for -4 tonight by me in southern Wisconsin farm country, -11 in Phillips where my cabin is.  Oh well Petemi is swearing in his boots by now.