Veteran journalist Tim Eisele’s Wisconsin Outdoor News piece on the 75th anniversary of the publication of A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, brought back a bunch of memories, and a deep sense of some of the losses I’ve endured this year. This will be a rather circuitous story, but bear with me …
Tom Bahti: A year of losses and forever memories Read More »
The last time we got together here, I wrote about “truisms” that relate to our outdoor pursuits. Not those day-to-day truisms, like, “If you get lost, come straight back to camp,” or, “When you’re on time, you’re already 5 minutes late,” but perhaps more useful information for those of us who roam around in the woods and fields.
Outdoor truisms … such as they are, Part II Read More »
For several decades, I’ve been writing a brief column of “truisms” for Intelligent Tinkering, the publication of the Wisconsin Chapter of The Wildlife Society. It’s just a silly list of wit and wisdom that I’ve borrowed, stolen or plagiarized with impunity from other sources.
Such pearls of wisdom as, “Leaders should not get too far in front of their troops or they will get shot in the ass,” or, “Elect clowns and expect a circus,” make it into print. You get the idea … .
I got to thinking the other day that there are a handful of these truisms that relate to the outdoor pursuits that we all enjoy. Let’s take a look a few.
Tom Bahti: A list of some outdoor truisms Read More »
Since the late 1970s I’ve been extremely fortunate to have deer hunting access to the Hill farm in northeast Waupaca County. The farm was owned by Allie and Lulabelle Hill. Lulabelle was a childhood friend of my grandmother’s in Shawano back in the first decade of the 1900s.
Tom Bahti: Examining high deer numbers on a farm in Wisconsin’s Waupaca County Read More »
During my decades working as a wildlife biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, there were few things that kept me up at night. However, the week before the nine-day gun opener, I would spend an inordinate amount of time watching the weather predictions for opening weekend while keeping my fingers crossed.
Not withstanding the deer population, few things impact the gun deer harvest like the weather on the opening weekend. There’s a number of other factors that certainly enter into the final kill, but the weather on Saturday and Sunday plays a huge role.
Tom Bahti: Much goes into deer kill numbers in Wisconsin from year to year Read More »
Back in the fall of 2022, I described how my daughter Deanne’s deer hunting stand had finally given up the ghost.
Tom Bahti: New deer stand taking shape to replace original from 1994 Read More »
I’ve often wondered where my fascination with muzzleloaders began, and why I’ve never moved on from the more traditional style of rifle, with an outside hammer that falls in an arc.
I stumbled on this photograph of me and my brother, Tim, when I was the ripe old age of 5, standing next to my grandfather’s sedan (a Dodge?) in 1954, with a buck stuffed into the trunk. He’d obviously just returned from his Houghton County deer camp east of Twin Lakes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and we were proud as peacocks to pose by the deer.
A lifelong love of muzzleloaders Read More »
Oh, I have a couple with some value; an older Morseth and a Ruana custom semi-skinner that’s no longer made, but they’re all legitimate “working” knives that have seen time in my deer pack, archery web-gear, and upland gunning bags. Two of them stand out; however, with a lot of unknown history.
If only these knives could tell stories … Read More »
It’s not that I’m afraid of deer.
I really enjoy deer. I like watching them, scouting for them, and hunting them with bow and gun. I like getting excited when I see them. I just don’t like getting excited seeing them as they flash across the highway amongst traffic that’s wheeling along at 60 mph or more.
To say deer are common in Wisconsin would be a gross understatement. In many areas of the state they are vastly overabundant, and have been so for some time. In the northeast corner of Wisconsin, where I’ve lived and worked for 50 years, this change has been inexorable.
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