It’s absolutely no secret that I’ve been neglectful of this blog lately.

Some evidence:

• I never posted a few of the deer that Justin shot.
• I didn’t post anything about Jeff, Barry, Erin, and Josh heading down to the ATA show in Columbus a little over a week ago.
• And I’ve never posted anything about the fact that SimplyOutdoors TV will be airing on the Pursuit Channel starting in January 2013.

I have all kinds of excuses for my neglectfulness – helping the wife tend to a colicky baby, and working on some up and coming website revamping – just to name a few.  But the fact of the matter is that I’ve been a complete slacker when it comes to this blog.  I can’t really deny it.

SimplyOutdoors has a lot of very cool things in the works right now, and though I’ve been a little preoccupied with raising two little girls, and all the responsibilities that go with it, hopefully – very soon – I will be able to put more time back into this blog again, and make it what it used to be – a place to write, to vent, to share ideas, and, most importantly right now, a place to share all of the cool things that are coming down the pipe for the SimplyOutdoors crew.

And…since I’m turning over a new leaf….I might as well share the fact that this weekend, on Saturday, a bunch of us will be at the Huntin’  Time Expo in Grand Rapids.

So, even though, lately, you can’t read many of my ideas and thoughts, you can at least stop by the Proc’s Hunting Buddy booth and say hello.

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Last night I cleaned my muzzleloader.  And though I usually love the feeling that comes with cleaning any firearm, last night’s cleaning kind of depressed me a little, because it was a sure sign that another deer season had passed and that I had once again went through an entire season without putting any venison in the freezer.

As I was cleaning and reflecting back on the last couple of seasons, I was trying to figure out exactly where I’ve went wrong when it comes to my deer hunting exploits.  I can kill turkeys, catch fish, kill rabbits, and kill geese, but the four-legged swamp donkeys always managed to sneak past me.

Why?

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In my previous post, I eluded to the fact that my miss last Sunday morning was only the beginning of a very memorable morning.  Here is the “rest of the story”.

After my miss, it was still only a little after 8am, so Jeff and I decided that we might as well stick it out for a little while and see if any other deer decided they wanted to eat out of his food plot.

And that is when the weirdness started.

As we sat in the blind, reviewing the film footage of my miss, off to my right I heard what sounded like a large clump of snow falling from a tree branch.  As I turned to check out the sound, though, I was astounded to see a deer lying on the ground.  At first, I figured that maybe this deer was the dumbest deer on earth, and that it had actually just bedded not 20yds from our blind.  After another look, however, I knew something wasn’t right, because the deer couldn’t hold its head up and it was making sounds like something was definitely wrong.

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Though I had only been able to hunt a handful of times, the fact remained that I hadn’t laid eyes on a deer since around October 8th.  It was making it pretty difficult to head into the woods, because I honestly wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see a deer again; I was starting to wonder if I had a deer whistle permanently embedded within my body that was preventing them from coming within a half mile of me.

And that made it pretty easy to sleep in on Saturday.

But, since Jeff texted me emphatically on Saturday afternoon, I figured I’d brave the cold weather and make him happy by hunting behind his house on Sunday morning.

We sat in the cold, and the nasty, southerly wind, which was blowing right in our face, settled into the blind and waited.  I honestly didn’t have any expectations, and considering we bumped one deer as we headed to the blind, I really wasn’t anticipating anything worthwhile.  It wasn’t half an hour into the hunt, though, when Jeff noticed a single deer making its way from our right to left.

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While I don’t have much to celebrate when it comes to deer hunting, after tonight I can bask in at least one thing:  that I told Jeff about Hornady SST’s, and that, because of my wisdom, Jeff was able to put down this big doe without fear of his bullet coming apart.

Congrats to Jeff.  Welcome to the dark side, and say goodbye to Powerbelts.

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