January 2010

The 7-point buck presented a perfect 40-yard broadside shot. Ben Fontenot had been waiting for this moment for a long time. A whitetail deer, his whitetail deer, the first he would shoot, was within his sights.

Fontenot expertly lined up his scope, and he held the crosshairs right behind the buck’s shoulder. All he had to do now was send a round from his .270 downrange and then go collect his deer, but something went wrong.

“My battery started going dead,” he said. “We had to get out of the blind and go back to get another one. I was nervous as all get out by the time we got back to my blind — didn’t know if I was going to get to kill that deer.”

But the buck did come back out. Only this time, it wasn’t in a good position. Try as he might, Fontenot couldn’t get his rifle lined up with the deer. It was too far to the side. In the commotion of repositioning his blind and his rifle, the deer left again.[…]

Ducks don’t talk to each other nearly as much as hunters think, especially during the late season. Just as a roomful of people will migrate away from a loud, obnoxious guy who tries to dominate the conversation, ducks will exhibit the same behavior.

The more you call, the less likely that you’ll attract ducks, especially during January.

Rod Haydel of Haydel Game Calls started going to the duck blind with his dad at the age of 5. Over the last 41 years, he’s hunted webfoots all over the nation, primarily in the marshes around Lake Charles in southern Louisiana.[…]

Dear Capt. Paul:

I recently purchased a Garmin 540S online, and it came with a base map. I went fishing down in Hopedale out in the Biloxi Marsh area, and this map was useless.[…]