I stopped by Agway yesterday to replenish my deer feed supply and finally got everything unloaded this afternoon. Upon entering my shed I see my ground acorn product (the name escapes me as it is a brand-new product that someone from QDMA gave me to try) all over the floor, and my minerals were also broken into. It seems a herd of mice found my stash and they have been feeding quite well since the last time I was there. I’m envisioning giant mice walking around now that they stuffed themselves on all of my high-protein grub! Man can those tiny little creatures make a huge mess.

Just a couple of thoughts I thought I’d share. First, I saw several groundhogs out and about on my way to and from Harrisburg, PA today. That’s a pretty sure sign that Spring is near. There is almost no snow remaining in the central part of the state, and a large group of golfers were out on one of the courses that I pass along the PA Turnpike.

Second, I saw a decent-sized flock of turkey while on an evening bike ride. I heard a lot of people worrying about how they would make it through the tough winter, but this group seemed to be doing just fine. There were about a dozen birds in the group, which was made up of a few older hens and young hens from last spring. I wouldn’t be totally shocked to hear a gobbler sounding off at daybreak over the next week or so, especially if we get a few morning or evening thunder storms as predicted. How can you not love this time of year?

Thanks for your patience as I haven’t posted anything new to the site over the last few days. Frankly, I needed to unwind and take some time off after what was a long and tiring season. I will be posting my 2009 Year in Review article very soon, so be sure to check back.

Photo of the Christmas tree in front of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and thank you for reading Rub Lines. I hope you get all of the great hunting gear you asked Santa for this year! Please be safe.

I’ve been meaning to post the link to a recent story that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that I was quoted in just prior to the firearms season. On occasion, I’ll get a phone call from a reporter asking for quotes on various outdoor topics, and this time it was Outdoor Editor John Hayes who gave me the call. It’s not much this time, but I thought you might want to check it out.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09333/1016863-358.stm?cmpid=relatedarticle

Recently someone made a comment to me to the effect of very few people actually read Rub Lines, and to be honest, I was quite irritated about it. Why? Well, I put a lot of time and effort into keeping the site current, and I do it because I enjoy it, and I get nice e-mails regularly from people who read the site, and appreciate it. Still, the disappointing remark prompted me to upgrade my tracking software to give me a better indication of just how many people are reading regularly, where are they from, how much are they reading, etc. Here’s what I found out.

During the last week of November, 745 different people visited the site. Those people accessed the site 938 times and viewed about 2.5 pages per visit. Here’s something even more interesting. Visitors came from 25 different countries, which include:

• United States
• Canada
• Romania
• Great Britain
• Japan
• Germany
• South Korea
• Norway
• Russian Federation
• Mexico
• Italy
• New Zealand
• Ukraine
• Afghanistan
• Australia
• France
• India
• Thailand
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Philippines
• China
• Latvia
• Switzerland
• Denmark

This is just one week of activity! Of course, the overwhelming majority of the visits were from the United States. What I found interesting though is that the site is being accessed by many in the armed forces serving across the world. One Pennsylvania soldier serving in Afghanistan visits the site when he can, and that really brings a smile to my face. I figure if I can give him and others a brief window of time away from the reality of their difficult mission, taking time to keep the site updated is the least I can do.

To all of my readers, thank you for continuing to follow along, and for telling your friends. To those serving our country across the world who read the site, thank you for your service, and I hope you get to read often. My brother spent a year in Iraq serving in the army, and I know what you and your families are going through.

If you get an opportunity, take a second to sign my guestbook, which I just set up today. Although I can see where the readers come from, I don’t know your names, or exactly where you’re from. I hope you’ll take a second to say hello.

Data collection is an important element of Quality Deer Management. Here I am extracting a jawbone and getting the live weight from an adult doe shot by co-owner Jeff Hopkins. By collecting this data over a number of years, I will be better able to understand the health of our local deer herd.

The first person I ran into that was practicing some form of deer management was Art Grguric, who was in control of a property in southern Indiana County, PA. He explained how he and some others were letting the younger bucks go so that they would have a chance at bigger bucks in the following years. He also required people hunting the property to take an adult doe before they were allowed to hunt a buck. Anyone shooting a button back was “banished” as he would say. This was well before Pennsylvania implemented antler restrictions, so Art was ahead of his time. Sure there were ticked off neighbors and people who thought he was crazy, but he knew that positive change wouldn’t come easy, and he pressed on. I got the opportunity to hunt the property that year and I remember two moments that changed my hunting career forever. The first was when I passed on a buck that was bigger than any buck I had ever shot with a bow. Although he was nice, he didn’t have a spread beyond the ears, and was illegal for the property. The second was when I saw my first Pope and Young class buck. Everything was different about him, and it clicked in my head that this is how bucks are supposed to look and act, unlike the yearlings that I was accustomed to seeing.

To make a much longer story shorter, I ended up taking a slightly over 130-inch deer that season on the last day after passing on dozens of bucks. A few years later, I had the opportunity to join a partnership to by the property, and we’ve been practicing some form of management ever since. I have a lot of trophies on my wall that wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for QDM on our property. It’s not perfect, and I know that I’m a bit more fanatical about it than the others, but it’s still much better than the alternative, and I hope that our program can continue to progress in a positive way over the years.

I am an active member of the Quality Deer Management Association, and have gone through their Deer Steward certification process to get Level II certification. To get this, I had to travel to Illinois and Erie, PA on two different occasions, but it was well worth the time and money. I went into the program knowing a lot about QDM, but I left knowing three-times more than I did beforehand. I got to interact with some of the top whitetail and property management people in the world, and you can’t get that type of experience just anywhere. In the grand scheme of things, the Quality Deer Management Association is a young organization, but they’re on the road to great things, and I’m glad I’m along for the ride.

I really believe QDM is catching on across the country, and I’m excited to see where it takes us over the next several years. I look at how far it has come over the last 10 years, and it gets me excited about where we’ll be 10 years from now. I understand that it’s not for everyone at this point in time (some of our neighbors could care less), but I think that will change in time. When it does, I’ll be thankful for that too.

Cory's face says it all. It's the home stretch of the hunt, and the bad weather has begun to take its toll.

There are two days left, and it looks like the weather is going to be a lot more cooperative. The forecast is for light scattered showers, but steady improvement throughout the day today and tomorrow. The guys are starting to show some wear and tear. I’m doing my best to keep morale high by first, getting a hot pot of coffee going, and second, keeping everyone upbeat about their chances.

We hit a bit of bad luck last night when Brian’s truck started to have some issues and Ben’s truck ended up with a flat tire somehow. Ben’s tire is fixed and ready to go, but we’ll have to deal with Brian’s today. We are making a trip to Auto Zone to have the problem diagnosed, then to the Ford dealership to hopefully have it fixed quickly so Brian can get out in the woods sooner than later. I’m actually planning to get back out as well to fill my doe tag, and maybe get some good footage on the video camera.

My body is now used to being up shortly after 04:00. I hope that goes away!

They guys have been sitting around the table thinking over their hunting spots for the last couple of days.

Another day of rain. Ben went out for about an hour or so this morning, but everyone else thought it would be better to sit it out until the afternoon, hoping for better weather. As I’m typing this, they guys are picking their locations and starting to get their gear ready. It looks like the rain is going to quit by early afternoon, so maybe they’ll get a decent hunt in.

We went to lunch in Iowa at Pizza Plus, which is just across the Mississippi River. We officially voted it the worst pizza west of the Mississippi. Wow…not good. Let’s just say there was a line at the bathroom as soon as we got back to the lodge. It was good to get out for a bit though, so mission accomplished. I plan to spend the afternoon helping Tyler cape my deer, and take the meat to the local donation center. I’m anxious to rough score the buck. The score doesn’t matter much, but it seems like that’s what everyone asks you when you tell them about your deer nowadays. Hopefully one of the guys connect and we’re tracking one this evening. I think we need something to build morale. From my perspective, they guys are over thinking things a bit, but that’s probably because thinking is about all you can do when you can’t get into the woods.

Lounging around the lodge thanks to a stady drizzle.

I wish there was more to write about this afternoon. One thing I’ve learned over the years of taking hunting trips, especially to Illinois, is that you can count on at least part of one day being rained out. Due to a pretty significant storm system, we were only able to hunt until about noon today. I didn’t see much. A three-point walked by me around 07:00, but that was the end of the action. Once the rain started, I packed up and headed back to camp.

We’re using our spare time wisely. We took a drive into Iowa to a farm supply store that carries sporting goods. When I say we took a drive to Iowa, it’s less than 10 minutes away from where we’re hunting. So is Missouri. We bought a few things, then headed back to the lodge to rest for the evening. We’ll all appreciate this later in the week I’m sure. I spent four full days in the woods at home, then followed that up with another all-day sit yesterday, so my body needs a break.

After dinner we’ll probably watch more hunting videos and maybe play some cards. It’s supposed to be very windy tomorrow, so that will present a challenge. The forecast seems to improve as the week goes on, so hopefully we have some good hunting conditions. It’s amazing how fast a six-day hunt can go!

We had to make a gas stop in Goodfield, Illinois. There have been some unfortunate turns of events since my last post. First, Ben’s truck is getting a whopping 8.6 miles per gallon due to hauling a trailer. Not good when you’re making a 700+ mile trip one way! Second, Cory lost a pair of $130 sunglasses out the window of the truck flying down I-74. Apparently he thought it would be fun to harass some truckers as they went by, and when he opened the window, they jumped to freedom. That freedom was short-lived however as the next vehicle crushed them into powder. From dust they were made, and to dust they have returned. Ceremony to follow this evening at the lodge.

The sun is setting and we’ve seen a few deer along the way. Brian is so excited that he almost asked me to slam on the brakes on the interstate to check out a “nice buck” he saw feeding in the field. Unfortunately for him, when we stopped for gas, the other guys said, “Did you see those four doe in the field back there?” I think we may need to spend a little extra time with Brian when it comes to deciding if a buck is 135 inches or better!

The nice thing about owning the blog is that I can write whatever I want about everyone else! Won’t be long before we’re at camp. We’re tiring from the long drive so it will be nice to settle in.