Posts by Daryl Gay
Good With The Bad
February. Yep; it’s that time of year again. And, alas, my deer season has been taken from me once more. So what am I supposed to do now to replace piling out an hour and a half before first light, driving 30 miles to climb a tree, then watch fairly reasonable targets stroll past while…
Read MoreCoyote Trapping Ain’t Playtime
“An old trapper gave a buddy of mine six traps and told him to go play with them,” Josh Hall recalls with a grin. “That’s what we did, and that’s really how I got started in trapping. But it didn’t take long to find out that it wasn’t playtime, and that there was a whole…
Read MoreWheezer’s Last Stand
Some of my finest tale-telling ideas come from the deer woods. Mostly while hanging on the side of a tree in a 30-year-old climber. Not that all these strictly factual and totally straight-up narratives involve deer, however. For instance, there’s one critter that I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with. Squirrels hate me; because I…
Read MoreHealing The Hermit
Considering that he had the mental mettle of a ballerina—with temperament to match—I’d seen the old hermit in the throes of neurosis before. But this? “So, Jake, I’m telling you that I just bumped a covey of about two dozen down by Otha Sapp’s corn field, and you’re telling me that you have absolutely no…
Read MoreHunter Falls 25 Feet As Deer Stand Collapses
It all started when the Taylor County buck showed up on camera. Zach Getskow got one look and knew his season was about to be spent chasing one deer. But hunting is hunting; things don’t always work out as planned. “I got a deer that did this to me,” Zach said from his bed at…
Read MoreBears In A Hurricane
Hey, lissen up, ‘cause I got a idear: Let’s DRIVE three hours in the MIDDLE of the night to go BEAR hunting in the Okefenokee SWAMP during a HURRICANE! Piece of cake; I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Oh, I see; you’re just like my other woud-be-friends who are but acquaintances. Of little faith.…
Read MoreCornball Construction On The Dove Field
What in the Siamese cathair is that? Hmmm. Looks like an overgrown duck blind growed onto the back of a pickup truck. Which, by the way, has no business occupying its present location. And it ain’t duck season. And even iffen it was, we wouldn’t be chasing them in the middle of a cut cornfield…
Read MoreGot Any SUV Parts?
In case y’all ain’t noticed, hunting seasons is HERE! (‘Scuse me; I get a little carried away after bouncing off walls throughout August awaiting the dipping and darting birds of September. And October? I’ll have to swaller my heart medication if thoughts of horns make their way into my noggin.) When you’ve spent a summer…
Read MoreDownwind Of Jake
Lazing in a dove field on a sultry September afternoon, it’s fairly amazing what one can learn… about deer hunting. For instance, I well recall the exact moment when the upwind/downwind conundrum resolved itself within my brainbox. Eureka! See, at the time we didn’t have no deer; I’d never even seen a whitetail in the…
Read MoreTree Rats On The Roof
“You know anything about sighting in a rifle?” Wait. Is this a trick? I’ve known this guy for 40 years. And put my complete faith and trust in him. For about 10 minutes of that span… “Uh, I’ve done it once or twice, why?” Be cautious, be cautious, be cautious; you don’t know what he’s…
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