Work, Party and Hunting Scheduled.

The weather today is rainy and cool with a temperature of 69 degrees right now and so far this has put a hamper on my work schedule for the day. Was planning on working on my brush cutter and wanted to clear a few trails for easy access to my hunting areas today and I need to get my chainsaw out and running so I can get my winter wood supply in my woodshed refilled also but if this rain keeps up I wont be getting anything done today as planned. Tomorrow I have plans on hunting some ginseng roots as well as other wild herbs which I'll sell later this year for some extra spending cash.Tomorrow afternoon here at my house will be a birthday party for my granddaughter which will probably be just family members showing up for that. Cake, ice cream and screaming girls what else could you want at a birthday party? Should prove to be an interesting day tomorrow if all works out for that. Deer season here in Tennessee opens Saturday September 22, 2012 and thankfully I'll be off work that weekend and excited about going out to start another fun year of hunting. Don't know yet if any of the grandkids will be going with me this year or not but I have got a couple of guys from work wanting to hunt with me so at least I'll have a partner with me while I'm hunting this year in case of an accident( hopefully nothing will as I'm usually always careful and safety minded but you never know). Been looking at a new rifle but haven't decided whether or not its what I want. May wait another year to get one mainly pending the total price I guess. $ 265.00 RIFLE, $ 40.00-$ 70.00 SCOPE, $ 25.00 SHELLS, $15.00 SLING and $ 10.00 SWIVELS -- Total price $ 385.00 plus tax. For now thats about all that comes to mind and I'm sure I've left something out but that can wait for another posting at a later time.

Freezer Filling Time Again.

With deer season starting up here in Tennessee in just a month from now hunters everywhere are running around preparing for another great year of filling their freezers. Deer are plentiful this year which means hunters shouldn't have any problem filling their tags not to mention other wild game such as dove, squirrel, turkey, hogs, ducks and geese. Though I've had a tradgic year starting out this year my plans are still to fill my freezers with wild game. With the season just a month away it,s time to make final preparations for opening day. I have a couple of stands to put up and a blind to move then Ill be pretty well ready and set to begin my season with my bow. Later during bow season I'll be checking my provisions for muzzleloader season and of couarse making sure its sighted in properly. I've heard shots around the community of other hunters sighting in their guns so I know I'm not the only hunter getting excited about the upcoming seasons. Many of you out there are probably doing the same thing or have already prepared everything ahead of schedule. Right now I just like to wish everyone a safe, enjoyable and bountiful hunting year this year. Good hunting and GOD BLESS you all.

Tradgic year 2012

I have finally brought myself back to where my fun and joy was lost since what looks like over a year ago. I have returned to my blogs to try to get a grip on my life again and to update everyone of my fellow bloggers as to what ever happen to David Voyles aka Deerslayer. First off I'd like to apologize to each and everyone of the followers and the readers of my post for not at least making an attempt to post something on my sites just to let everyone know I'm still alive and at least halfway kicking.Its been a long and very hard struggle for me this past year or so with all my family illnesses and tragedies. In no certain order-- my wifes bi-polar health took a turn for the worst and she has been in and out of the hospitals with that then my dad had surgery on his prostate and was down for a week or so , one of my brothers had a blood disorder which threatened his life and the topping on the cake for me was the passing of my mom in april this year. All in all the domino effect mounted a massive stress factor on me and was causing my health to falter. Through support from my daughters and their family members I was able to hold on to abit of reality and pass GOD's test for the time being. Though my mom passed away in April I still havent let go of her and broke down nor have I been back to the cemetry since her funeral. Only through the grace of GOD and my closest friends and family was I able to handle caring for my mom just before she passed away and during her funeral. I'm now left with caring for my wife and my dad and the 7 members of my family living in our home. At this time I have so many things going on at home and at my work that I cant seem to have enough time to do much of anything for myself but I am going to try to get back to posting on my blogs again starting with this update. I see blogger has done alot of changes to our sites now too so this may take some going through before I get the hang of things again but I guess it to will pass with time. I'm hoping to be able to get out and do some hunting and fishing this fall but only time will tell that story as the remainder of the year unfolds.

An Awesome Year of Hunting.

This year was an awesome year for me as far as hunting wild turkey and whitetail deer. I was able to take three wild turkeys and three nice whitetail bucks by the end of the hunting seasons. My freezer is full now and all that is left to do is enjoy the memories of my adventures as I share my bounty with other friends and family throughout the coming year. Turkey season turned out to be an awesome and unfogetting adventure for me this year. I was able to rekindle a childhood friendship with a great buddy of mine that has allowed me access to his farm which he says has never been and will never ever be hunted by anyone else but me. My grandsons were able to go along with me on my hunts this year which made my hunts even more enjoyable and they are now starting into a life long tradition of hunting adventures of their own. The past week or so I have been busy getting things started for my grandsons to take the Hunters Safety Certification course which is now available from compact disk(cd) in our state. I called Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and acquired two (2) cd's from them for my grandsons training which can be used by anyone else wanting to take the course. All that remains now is to get my grandsons here with the time to sit down and go through the instructional cd and take the test then print a completion form and follow up with a final field day of firearm training test. My whitetail hunting this year was just as enjoyable with my grandsons along for those hunts as well. I also made a new friend from a landowner joining the property I have been hunting when opening day of rifle season my buck jumped the fence onto posted property and I obtained permission to recover my buck after a lengthy conversation with the landowner and even received his help in the recovery. After the buck was processed I carried a large part of that bucks meat to my new landowner friend just to help seal the deal of future hunting rights on his property. All-in-all I've had an awesome year in 2010 and I've already started the year 2011 off planning my spring turkey hunting trips with my grandsons which start here in Tennessee in march for young adults and april for everyone else. I now look forward to my hunting trips with my grandsons every year as they become the best hunters they can be through my knowledge and understanding of this our great outdoors. Teach any kid to hunt and preserve our heritage for years to come. Next time you go hunting take a kid along, you'll be glad you did.

Second Chance at Turkey

Saturday April 24th, 2010, I had another opportunity to go turkey hunting and was accompanied by another of my grandson's ( Codey Botkin ). We got up at 4:00 a.m., had our morning coffee and loaded up the truck with our gear then headed down the road in the nights darkness to our honey hole. We arrived just as the dawn was breaking across the sky with a severe tornado watch for our area. Although the weather was to be bad we both agreed that a little rain never hurt anybody and that we would give it a try anyway. As we began grabbing our gear we noticed several birds in two adjoining fields. We grabbed out our blind material and headed out across the field to a small group of trees at the edge of the property line and set up underneath the trees where we were able to see the toms strutting in the field to our right with a few hens. I told Codey the birds in the left field would come around the point of the trees just out of range but should come in to our calls without any problems. Just then a weary single young tom came from out of nowhere and just out of gun range then quickly returned to the flock in the left field. We sat there calling to both groups of birds but then noticed the owner standing by his shop watching us and the birds. Figuring the birds had seen the owner and wasn't about to come in any closer, we decided to go over and talk with the owner awhile and figure out our next game plan for the birds. While talking to the owner, a young tom popped out of the brush across the creek bank ambled around the edge of the field then off into the trees and brush as I headed across the creek with a plan to cut him off on the other side of the trees before he got out into the plowed field. There again this plan didn't work either. For some reason the toms just weren't gobbling much at all. I returned back to the shop and noticed the turkeys in the right field were heading for the gap joining the to fields which was where the hens were waiting in the left field. Codey and I decided we would try to sneak along the creek bank to the edge of the property line and wait and call softly to the toms coming into the left field. By the time we had got set up in a sage patch with briar bushes the toms had already joined the hens and began heading down field in our direction. I told Codey not to move any at all as the turkeys could already see us if we moved. The hens feed down field with the toms strutting all the way to within gun range. I told Codey I would take the second tom and he would take which ever tom was closest to him. When I shot the toms scattered with one of them running straight toward Codey which was when he shot and we had two toms on the ground. We retrieved our toms and headed to the shop just as the owner came out to meet us pulling up by the side of his house. He ask if we were giving up for the day and we told him we had already taken our birds and was ready to travel to the check-in station. Codey's bird went home with him and my bird went to the landowner with a great big thank you and a few words of our returning to his farm. Pictures of our birds are above but the landowner's name is still to remain a secret unless you know the man from his photo.

32 Year Quest is Finally Over.

32 Years ago in 1978, I began hunting wild turkey with a great friend of mine ( Ricky Duke ) from Lascassas,Tennessee. Now back then the wild turkey population was just taking hold in Tennessee and there weren't many places you could hunt wild turkey except on Wildlife Management areas. Ricky and I would travel around the state hunting wild turkey for five years before I gave up hunting them thinking I would never be able to take one of the hardest wild game animals I've ever hunted. This year I was looking at the possibility that this could be my last year to hunt or fish, so I told my wife I was going to try hunting turkey again this year if things worked out so I could. Fortunately the closer turkey season got the more excited I became and the more I looked at scheduling my home chores so I could go hunting. Opening weekend however was on April the 3rd and I had to work all weekend long but on April the 6th I was able to go hunting. I spent the night before gathering all my turkey hunting equipment and cleaning my gun so everything was ready come morning to load in the truck for the 1 1/2 hour trip to Rutherford county. 2:45 A.M. the alarm went off and I got up, started the coffee, began getting dressed, gabbed up my gear and checked it one last time as I packed it in my bag, had my coffee then headed out the door and down the road. I arrived at the farm I was going to be hunting on at 5:25 A.M. and had decided since I hadn't seen the owner for thirty years that I would wait till he was up and talk to him just a bit before going hunting. 6:30 A.M. I spoke with the owner and he told me where the birds were at during the day and what his property lines were. 6:45 A.M. I headed out past the shop and seen a group of 6 toms and 14 hens parading in the field next to me. I eased my way to the roadway bank placed my decoy and began calling with my box call and mouth diaphams but the turkeys didn't move. They gobbled every time I called to them but just wouldn't come my way. I eased down the road bank and behind a small grove of trees and bushes in the middle of the field then moved in to the bushes and over to the side the turkey were on. Again I tried calling to them and still no response except gobbling back at me. The hens had the toms pretty well occupied. All of a sudden the toms gathered up their heirm and headed down field away from me. I tried to follow staying out of site till they stopped some 200 yards down field next to the fence. As I approached the fence a rabbit jumped up making a noise in the brush and 4 toms came running over to the fence looking and clucking. As I froze in my tracks and watched with my gun ready, 3 of the toms put their heads in and opening in the brush at just 10 feet from me tring to see what was in the brush. I could have easily killed all 3 toms at that moment but the limit is one bearded turkey per day so I waited for only one turkey. The toms finally figured there was nothing to worry about and rejoined the feeding hens down field and began going out across the open field where I knew I wouldn't get a shot. I left those turkey returned to check a couple more fields then decided to take my decoy back down to the first group and try luring them to the edge of the field with my decoy. As things happened the turkeys were no where to be seen and I figured they had crossed to the next field. I walked down through some trees and brush to the next field and up to the fence row looking for the group but nothing. Then just as I'd thought I was going home without a bird, I spotted 2 toms in the corner to my left. I watched to see where they were going and the toms turned and headed back up the fence row toward me but as they reached a brush pile some 30 yards from me they headed out across the field. As I watched the toms crossing the field I figured it wouldn't hurt to try calling to them to get them back my way so I gave a call on my box call and got a quick response of gobbles from both toms. The toms headed back to the fence row but was still out of clear gun range, so I gave a couple more clucks on my box call and both toms headed in my direction. The toms stopped in an offset of the fence just 20 feet from me but wouldn't come any closer. They just looked into the bushes were I was at then finally one tom stepped through the barbed wire fence and I noticed it was the smaller of the two toms. Letting him pass and waiting on the second tom to come through the fence, as he did, I was waiting on him with my old 12 gauge and let lose a shot that took the bird down and sent the second bird flying off some 60 yards away but still in site. My 32 year quest for a trophy wild turkey had finally come to an end with my bird on the ground. My trophy weighed 25 pounds, had a 10 1/8 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. Now I have the fever of wanting to try to limit out this year before the season closes on May 16th but if I don't I'm still very happy with my first trophy wild turkey. The owner of the farm did not want me to disclose to anyone where I was hunting and told me I was the only one ever allowed to hunt his farm and that was the way he wanted to keep it. My next trip to this farm I'll be hunting a bird for the owner in appreciation for letting me hunt on his farm.

A Spark of New Life.

The year 2010 hopefully will hold more in store for me this year than last year did. This year I'm planning a trip to my old hometown in search of more and new hunting property. I've been on facebook and have chatted with a few of my old classmates that I grew up with. Well it turns out that one of them inherited his grandfathers farm and it just happened to be one that I used to hunt years ago. Anyway the owner told me as we were chatting online that he had over 100 wild turkeys in his backyard ever morning and that there was probably at least 1000 on his farm. Believe it or not he told me to come on down and make myself at home and hunt all that I wanted too. Getting an invite like that just blew my mind but it also got my blood flowing and before I knew it I had my turkey calls out checking their condition. Now I haven't turkey hunted in over 30 years so you can just imagine the condition of my mouth calls. I ended up buying new ones and have been practicing with them for the past three weeks. Now I have to get my hunting licenses and go check out the farm, renew old relationships, find a blind site and see for myself all the turkey he's told me about. Turkey season opens in the latter part of March and runs through April so I've really got my work cut out for myself if I'm going to be ready for opening day. I also have a relative that has expressed a desire to go hunting with me this year so I've sent word to him to get prepared for a hunting season that won't be forgotten. If all works out this year as planned I'll be like a 20 year old again hunting everything I can between fishing trips with the grandchildren. As a dear friend of mine ( Othmar Vohringer ) once stated " Being in the outdoors is the best healing powers for a body " so maybe this is what I needed to rejuvenate my old tired body and get me going in the right direction again. Could this be the year that great things happen to me?, only time will tell but stay tuned for further updates this year to find out.

Planning Ahead for 2010 Hunting Season.

The end of deer season has passed us by now and I've started compiling a list of landowners to visit in Rutherford County, Tennessee where I used to hunt growing up. Using this list I hope to be able to secure at least a couple of farms this year to hunt on with a couple of my hunting buddies and my grandkids. Though it may take an entire weekend or more time to do this I believe it will increase my chances of once again taking whitetail deer. Many of the landowners that I know have either gotten older or passed away and the farms either sold or passed on to family members but none the less I've got to try something. I talked to an old friend who is more like a family member and he told me that he hadn't hunted the area in over 20 years now. He told me that most of it was either leased out now or that the landowners weren't letting anybody hunt any more. There is one farm that I ask him about and he told me that the owner was letting anybody that wanted to hunt hunt it. This farm was one of my first farms to hunt when I started hunting whitetails some 40+ years ago and was where I took my first whitetail. The good thing is that I know the farm well and the deer trails and bedding areas but the bad news is that there may be too much hunting pressure on the farmland and I may have to hunt the thick brushy woods that's hard to get to even during daylight hours. In any event I'll be checking for land to hunt come spring and will also be checking some management areas around home for the short time trips to hunt. Fishing season is also coming on me now to so I'll be posting on my other blogs a bit more too about that so check those sites if I'm not posting here. I've been on Facebook alot now making new friends all over the world and adding just about everyone that sends me a request and have found several of our Outdoor Blogger Summit bloggers there as well so look us up and have a good year this year everyone.

Closing the Seasons.

With deer hunting season coming to a close this year it's time to re-cap my adventures in the wild. In late summer I plowed and planted a small food plot then with the help of my grandkids and dad built a 2 man blind and watched the food plot grow. Fortunately approximately 2 weeks before bow season started the deer disappeared from my hunting area. I hunted from my blind, from my stands and even hunted by large trees throughout my hunting area but nothing, not a single deer was to be found. Muzzleloader season and special antlerless season came and went and still no deer. I scoured the woods on my hunting area for any signs of deer using the area but with no prevail. Rifle season then opened but by then I had already became so disguished with my hunting experience this year that I'd just about given up hunting for the year. All I could think about was the deer I'd seen last year and throughout the spring and summer months of this year and just knew they had to be somewhere in the area. Then 2 weeks before the end of rifle season came I finally got a break and found deer even though they were only does at least hope had come back that they would bring with them the bucks. January 2nd, 2010 I was able to go hunting with one of my grandkids ( Bobby Rubio )and we were in the woods watching a big bottom with 3 ridges coming into it. At 7:30 a.m. Bobby spotted 3 dogs in the bottom heading up one of the ridges. 5 minutes later the dogs struck a trail and began chasing deer through the woods. We both waited and watched the woods carefully for deer and had hopes of seeing a buck but everything was does, 5 to be exact. After about 30 minutes of the dogs chasing deer through the woods and barking loudly I decided we wouldn't see any more deer that morning so we headed home. January 3rd, 2010 I was to go hunting again with another of my grandkids ( Cody Botkins ) but when I got up and checked the weather report on the internet I found out the temperature was 9 degrees and a weather advisory issued for the area and decided we neither one of us needed to be out in that kind of weather so we opted to stay home in the warm house and Cody returned to bed to sleep in under the covers. Come spring I'll be out looking for new property to hunt and planting food plots all over again. Hopefully next years deer hunting will be a better year for me and my grandkids then this year was as it can't get any worst. Hope everyone had a better year then mine was.

Whitetail Hunting Season

Well what can I say, this hunting season has been nothing short of a complete disappointment to me this year as I haven't seen any bucks at all and only 4 does during rifle season . The poachers have taken all my deer where I hunt and what the poachers haven't gotten the dogs around here have been running off. My food plots that I planted weren't even touched by the deer cause of this. Next spring I'm planning a trip to Rutherford county, Tennessee to find property there to hunt and if that doesn't pan out then I may have to resort to hunting on management areas which I'm totally against due to the hunting pressures of so many people scouting during the hunting season when they can't find any deer. One day before I die I'd like to go hunt on a outfitter ranch but the cost is so high that probably won't ever happen for me either though it would be great if it did. May come down to leasing a farm to hunt on and if so I have a feew other guys that want to join me and hunt together which will help with the cost of the lease but then you have to worry about livestock getting shot and fences getting cut and insurance to cover those sort of things. There is no easy way to hunt anymore like it used to be but I guess thats the price we pay for our heritage to continue.