…reflecting… In today’s society, instant gratification is virtually nonnegotiable. We want it, and we want it now, whether “it” entails grabbing a burger from McDonald’s or speeding down the highway on your way home from work. Simply put, we don’t like to wait around for stuff anymore. If we don’t have to, we won’t. That attitude has trickled down to nearly every aspect of our lives, including deer hunting. Growing up, the U.P. looked to me like a paradigm of the great outdoors. It was brimming with wildlife, a special, almost mythical quality surrounding all … Read More
Speak The Language – Grunt Calls Can Work!
By: Jim Kushner. Years ago I was looking through an archery magazine and saw a photo of a very happy hunter posing with a huge buck he had taken. The caption stated that he had called it in during early bow season. I don’t recall the date but I do remember thinking that I had not heard of a grunt call working during anything but the rut & pre-rut. Sometime later a nice buck walked by my stand in early October. It was clear he was not coming close enough for a shot. I figured … Read More
It Is Why We Hunt
By: Jim Kushner. In my opinion it’s really about the enjoyment of hunting and what really makes it fun for you, not what someone else thinks is fun. In my younger days just seeing a deer while hunting was heart pounding excitement for me. I wanted a buck so bad I could taste it, but my opportunities were few and when they did come I usually messed up ! There were a lot of reasons for that but the lack of success only increased my enthusiasm and drove me to try harder. As the years … Read More
The Future Of ‘Paying It Forward’
By: Tom Lounsbury. Twelve year old Zack Burnette of Cass City sure appreciates the Mentor Hunting License for Michigan which allows kids 9 and under to go hunting with an adult. This allowed him to start sharing quality time at age six with his dad, Don Burnette hunting cottontails with a petite “Cricket” .22 rifle (a great firearm for little kids), and rabbit hunting remains to be a favorite winter pastime. Father and son would continue to share adventures in the outdoors together. Thanks to crossbows being legal for archery deer hunting, Zack was able … Read More
A Wild Experience With My Father
By: Jim Kushner I first went deer hunting with my Dad when I was around 12, it was just a day trip & other than some deer that had been chased across a field we were driving past I don’t remember seeing anything. Over the years Dad & I hunted together a lot. I was with him and a younger brother on the opening day that I shot my first buck. He wasn’t close enough to help with the first field dressing job or dragging it to the truck but he congratulated me and helped … Read More
The illustrious Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
By: Jim Kushner This little semi-auto carbine is easy to carry and fast to get on target. especially if you hunt thick cover or from an enclosed blind where room to move is limited. It is only a little longer overall than a yard stick and weighs about 6 lbs. It has an 18 1/2 inch barrel and holds 4 rounds in a tube magazine that loads from the bottom similar to a pump action shotgun. A friend of mine used one of these successfully from his pop up blinds until his daughter started deer … Read More
Nice Buck First Day Out
Whether this is your first time hunting a certain species or a veteran in the wild, ELO has an experience awaiting you.
Closure to the one that got away
By: Tom Lounsbury Most hunters these jet age days have a bucket-list of far away adventures they would like to do, and of course I have mine. On my list there is red stag and wild boar hunting in Argentina, hunting various antelope in Africa and hunting desert mule deer in old Mexico. I had a wonderful opportunity for the Africa hunt last spring, but I had to pass because Africa’s hunting season is during our spring and summer and I had a good portion of our farm going into new conservation programs that required … Read More
Melancholy or ‘Tag Soup’ ?
By: Jim Kushner As I sat in my deer stand toward the end of the season I thought a lot about what I might be able to write about that was entertaining or at least interesting. An idea came to me after I had taken a doe one evening… My Dad offered his blind because he was not hunting anymore and had regularly been seeing deer there. As opposed to my regularly not seeing deer here. So I loaded up my open sighted 30-30 and drove over to sit for the evening. Dad’s elevated box … Read More
A Superior Experience In Michigan’s U.P.
By: Adrian Zarantonello The Smith family has been traveling to Michigan’s upper peninsula for the whitetail deer gun season for well over six decades. When I married into the family I became part of that tradition…a tradition I embraced and hold near to my heart. This year, 2016, ‘our opening day’ began with the first weekend of the season. Saturday and Sunday were marred by a snowstorm that had 20-30 mph winds and gusts of 45 mph. This storm dropped 2-4″ of snow on the eastern UP as well as drive temperatures down into the … Read More