love of the hunt
Camaraderie, tradition dear to many huntersBy CHRISTOPHER BOBBY Tribune Chronicle
Article Photos
Fact Box
Deer Hunter's Checklist
- Hunt safely.
- Get the landowner's permission to hunt.
- Buy your annual hunting license and deer permit early.
- Make sure your gun is plugged and not capable of holding more than three shells.
- Make sure you meet hunter orange requirements.
- Know how to attach your temporary tag. Carry a piece of string, watch and pencil or pen.
- Know the rules of communication devices.
- Know your all-purpose vehicle laws.
- Know the season dates, hours and deer zones.
- Follow proper check station procedures.
Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources
FOWLER - Before the frost is even on the pumpkin, Jennifer Miller knows it's time to haul out the old plastic Rubbermaid storage box and start getting her husband Ed ready for his yearly ritual.
The box contains Ed Miller's hunting clothes - the same outfits he's worn for years.
There's camouflage outerwear for the lengthy bow season and fluorescent orange for the popular gun season that kicks off Monday.
''Buck Fever'' will be afflicting some 400,000 deer hunters like Ed Miller this year. Hunters are expected to take to the woods long before sunrise and stick around until sunset - unless they're successful before that in bagging what is oft described simply as ''their'' buck. Officials expect 115,000 to 125,000 hunters will harvest ''their'' deer this year during the nine-day season.
Jennifer Miller can't help but sigh as she describes the preparations leading up to the annual ritual.
''It's not something I've ever really been interested in myself,'' she said last week. ''But for Ed, he'll eat, sleep and talk about hunting. And then he'll hunt some more.''
She uses a special detergent to make sure the deer scent from last season is washed clean from the fabric.
''It's best to hang it outside to dry,'' she said. ''That's sure to get any scent out.''
Miller, 33, of Sodum-Hutchings Road, has bagged 30 deer in his lifetime - four with his gun and 26 with his bow.
In fact, the Thompson-Mechanical sheet metal worker scored two in one day last month at his father's camp outside of Punxsutawney, Pa. It's the second time he's gotten two in one day.
''My thing is finding the deer in a more natural state, hunting by myself with a bow. Hunting with a gun is fun though. It's more of a camaraderie thing with the guys,'' said the father of three. He's hunted goose, rabbit and even turkey, although he admittedly hasn't looked for turkey recently.
His passion is evident by two or three sets of antlers mounted higher up on the walls of his home with an arrow balanced on the trophies.
It all started when he was 15 years old and out for the first time.
''I kept seeing this buck. It was the last day in the stand. I went out about 2 p.m. and about 4:30, there was that buck again. I got it. It ran off about 100 yards and I called for my dad,'' Miller said.
Now he keeps his bow by the back door, and it's not unusual for him - when he has spare time - to grab it and walk for about 15 minutes through the rear of his property to a treestand that's always waiting for him.
''You'll never hunt a smarter animal than deer,'' says Miller, who has quietly stood so close to a buck he could have spit on it. Most of his kills come from within 15 to 20 yards.
''Eddy just has a knack for finding them,'' said his dad, Bob Miller, who lives nearby on Ridge Road.
''He went out that morning and got a doe and brought it back. Then he went out that afternoon and got himself a buck,'' the elder Miller said, recalling the double play his son pulled off last month.
''Whenever they hear me yell, 'Get out the frying pan!' they know I got one,'' said Ed, who started with the bow as a teenager after his father bagged one Nov. 17, 1967, when bow hunting wasn't nearly as popular as it is today.
Ed has passed some of his skills on to his kids as well.
Katy, 11, and Andy, 8, were out last weekend during the official youth hunt. And five-year-old Claire might not be far behind.
Katy, who has a 44-inch Northern pike to her credit during a recent visit to Canada, spotted two deer out in the field with her dad Saturday and Sunday. Andy didn't catch a glimpse of one.
The Miller kids aren't squeamish either when it comes to sampling the food brought in by their dad. Just ask Katy about her favorite snack - the deer heart with onion stuffed in the ventricles and boiled down just enough to make it tender.
Miller even makes a distinction between the Ohio deer he gets that have fed on corn or soybeans and the Pennsylvania variety that feeds on acorns or anything they can find in the hills. ''There's a big difference. And you can taste it,'' said Miller, who uses a butcher-processor from Greenville, Pa., to prepare what he brings home.
''Ed definitely uses every bit of the deer,'' said Michael Currington, a police detective in Warren, hunter and the township police chief, who lives a couple doors down from the Millers.
Miller has used Currington's range to practice and site his gun, and Currington occasionally takes part in the camaraderie Miller talks about when later during the weeklong gun season, buddies get together and one of them drives the deer and ''pushes'' them back toward the hunters.
But it's Ed's mom, Lois, who has passed on the recipes that the whole family enjoys.
''I grew up on Ridge Road and had seven brothers. Most of them hunted,'' she said. ''Ed's like his dad, when it gets toward the last week in October, they get buck fever.''
But for Lois, that's not a bad thing.
''I always look forward to that time of year. They go off,'' she said. ''And I get to do whatever I want.''
|
Billdog
|
|
|---|---|
|
12-02-08 9:50 AM
|
Most hunters do hunt for sport, but only kill what they will and can eat. In this area there are those that are willing to go to the grocery store and buy meat raised to be killed. That is like raising a dog to eat it. Maybe if those same people did more than judge they could learn something about Self-sufficiency. The ability to be self-sufficient doesn t make someone a h*i*l*l*b*i*l*l*y. It makes the person judging Ignorant(ie. uneducated.)
|
|
jstfacts
|
|
|
12-01-08 10:01 AM
|
Since many hunters consider hunting a sport, I think this article would be better suited to the sports section of the Tribune
|
|
Handala
|
|
|
11-30-08 11:39 PM
|
The barbarians are the "double dippers" and the uneducated don't know potato's come from a box!Hmm?
|
|
asEYEcIT
|
|
|
11-30-08 8:12 PM
|
PaGuyNow the fun part of the hunt is sticking your fork in the results. Any TRUE sportsman doesn't hunt for the FUN OF KILLING.
|
|
PaGuyNow
|
|
|
11-30-08 12:29 PM
|
We're the only species that kills for fun. How barbaric and uneducated we are...bunch o' hillbillies, lol.
|
