Being an outdoor writer has taken me to many places and adventures, but the best part of it all is the people I meet who readily share their special outdoor-related niche. While many of the folks I meet often entail planned adventures, I am never surprised when things happen in a very fortuitous manner, and I meet someone totally out of the blue. And nope, folks, I’m none too shy at all about striking up a conversation with total strangers! Such was the case while I was recently picking up packaged venison at Outback Meats … Read More
Tuscola County’s monster “Seney Buck”
The late Mack Seney of Reese had his share of memories, with a couple of them relating to being very lucky. The first relates to a day in 1944 as an infantryman with 35th Infantry Division in France during World War II. The German forces were being pushed back so fast that American soldiers had to hitch rides on any sort of vehicle they could, including on top of tanks, to maintain the front line. Mack was in the back of a truck when it screeched to a stop and everyone was bailing out and … Read More
The new Jay’s and Webber Wildlife Education Center is a great place for the entire family to visit.
July 24, 2024, marked the grand opening of the new Jay’s and Webber Wildlife Education Center located close to Jay’s Sporting Goods in Clare. Stepping through the doorway to the museum is a bit of a breathtaking moment, I can assure you. The first thing to greet you are the full-sized mounts of two zebra stallions fighting, and from there on as you look around and move to each exhibit, you’ll encounter wildlife from all over the world being presented in their distinct habitat. The artwork adorning the walls to enhance each exhibit is nothing … Read More
The “Vampire Buck” – A rare & very unique trophy
By: Tom Lounsbury. Ken Martin of Cass City truly enjoys hunting local Thumb whitetails, something he has been doing since he was a kid. Having taken his share of deer over the years, he isn’t a trophy hunter, but like many deer hunters, he always has his eye out for the “big one”. Little did he know when he went to his hunting blind on the second morning of the 2020 Michigan Firearms deer Season, he would soon encounter a dandy buck, and actually a real trophy too, in more ways than one. Daylight was … Read More
The Rompola Buck
By: Dan Schmidt. The Rompola Buck. If you’ve been around the deer world as long as I’ve been, a few names need no introduction. That one is perhaps the most infamous. Was it real or just an elaborate fake? And, if it were real, how could it just seemingly disappear almost as fast as it appeared? Let’s back this up. This story starts back in November 1998. The world was a lot simpler then. Relatively few people had computers (no, not tablets) with Internet access. Fewer had cell phones. Most of us were still … Read More
Through The Eyes Of A Taxidermist
By: Jim Kushner Mounting a good whitetail buck is a whole lot more than just skinning and “stuffing” it. There are certain steps that need to be followed and like a lot of specialty careers or in my case hobbies, there are some little tricks and procedures that help to make your trophy look great and last a lifetime. The actual supply list for mounting a deer is fairly small but the amount of labor involved is what you ultimately pay your taxidermist for. The most important thing a good taxidermist needs is knowledge of … Read More