Illinois 2010 Muzzleload Report #3

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Illinois Muzzleload Hunt

Dec. 2nd thru 5th , 2010

Saturday December 4th
Temp: Max Temperature 31 °F, Min Temperature 25 °F
Wind: 7 mph (NNE) gust to 23
Snow: 2.60”
Overcast to partly cloudy
Pressure: 30.10

I let a big one get by me today without a shot! That don't happen very often and this one sure hurt my heart. Here's how it went down;

It was overcast and unusually calm when I parked the truck in the ditch at the big corn field. The weather was not to good otherwise, freezing rain until mid morning and then light snow the rest of the day, off and on.

My plan was to wait for enough light to glass the corn field and still hunt my way to the kill zone stand. However, there were no deer feeding on the corn this morning. I made my way to the top end of the field to the overlook where I could see down into the west end of the CRP, no deer.

I looped back into the field so as not to be skylined and quietly picked my way to the N.E. corner. I glassed the CRP for any sign of a deer. In the dim light and mist I spotted a horizontal line in the grass thru the tangle of trees that grew along the edge of the field. Naturally, the deer just had to be behind the thickest section of trees along the whole stretch. With the aid of my Monarch glasses I could see a second deer facing the first and them a third stepped into view. Just as the third deer came into view I heard the unmistakable sounds of antlers clicking together…..they were all bucks and the third deer I could see looked to be the half rack, we call him, as his left side is missing just below the brow. He was timid about getting into the fray and I suspected the other two bucks were larger than him but I still could not make out what kind of bone they were sporting.

Finally, the buck that was closest to me broke off and started walking off down the CRP to the N.E. like he was leaving. My rifle was leaning against an 8” oak tree that I was bracing off to steady my glasses. Thinking the deer was about 150 yds out, when he came into a break in the trees I bleated at him with an immediate follow up even louder. That was a mistake. With no wind he immediately pin pointed the direction of the sound and looked my way.

When he lifted his head and his rack swung around I realized he was a shooter with big heavy beams that stretched out 2” beyond his ears on each side. I had been deceived by his profile and somewhat short tines. I immediately went into action….dropped the glasses, grabbed the rifle, flipped the covers off (don’t ask me why I had not already done that) cocked the hammer and came to rest on the side of the tree, all in one fluid motion.

The first thing I saw in the scope was the Nikon reticle resting right on the bucks shoulder. Just then my mind said, settle down and tighten up, you rush this and your gona miss! Well, that was just the second the buck needed to make up his mind to get the hell outa dodge and I never got to drop the hammer. It was hard not to be disappointed in the missed opportunity at such an animal but I just had to have another second and a half. Had I rushed it and missed or crippled the buck I really would have been upset with myself. Often times for me the difference in hero and zero is pushing the envelope as far as I can...stretching daylight as much as I dare, shooting as quick as humanly possible, trying off the wall plans that most would not consider when it seems all possibilities are lost. One of my strongest hunting traits has always been my conversion rate on the opportunities I receive. If you have hunted very long you know how hard it is to get an opportunity at a big buck. When it happens you need to be able to capitalize on it. This opportunity was just one that couldn't be converted.

After it was all over I ranged the spot at 112yds. The fog, dim light and down hill fooled me just a little but it was still no shot to be rushed. The other two bucks had cleared the field when the big deer spooked. They must have run off behind the screen of trees as I never saw them leave and did not really get to identify the second deer. Oh well! Maybe we’ll meet again one day.

After all the excitement was over I decided not to climb there and instead I’d do some still hunting and hit all the known bedding spots. I jumped 2 does bedded at the sanctuary stand and another at the loggers corner up above. There was another deer feeding in the hornets nest field. I moved off the side of the ridge and down into the draw and jumped another 5 does in front of Steve’s stand.

That pretty much wrapped it up for the mornings hunt.

Here's Rick's big 7pt passing by "Steve's stand"....look at that neck!

The dbl. g2 buck....he's a shooter all day long!

Rick hunted the barn stand this morning and saw 1 small buck and 5 does.

The PM Hunt: 32 deg.

I hunted the kill zone stand again. Once again I saw another shooter about 800yds to the north on the neighbor's hill side. He had 5 other deer with him including one small buck. Sure wish I could get over there! In years past I have seen deer cross the creek back and fourth from over there but the neighbor's crop was flooded this year and deer have not been coming off the hill to feed in the hill. It is unbelievable how different the circumstances can be on 400 acres from year to year. It seems that every year is a new and different set of circumstances to unravel.

One nice 8pt showed up in the east end of the CRP along with another small buck. A doe showed up a little after that. The tight 8 appeared again and entered the field from the creek. I was watching him in the glasses when a yearling came walking right thru my view at about 75 yds.

I ended up climbing down just before dark to put a sneak on a deer I had not identified when a buck came into the corn field from the golden oaks but he did not look like a shooter.

Just as the last light slipped away I spotted a deer that was a possible shooter but I could just not be sure so I passed on a shot at him.

Rick hunted the well stand this afternoon. He eventually spotted the big 7pt he has been seeing, moving along a trail on the opposite hillside. He stopped for a brief moment but Rick could not see his head until he started moving again. The distance was about 120 yds and when the deer came to a small opening Rick took a shot. He looked for sign of a hit but in the dim light he did not find anything, even though there was snow on the ground.

Big heavy beamed buck!

The next morning, after our hunt we hiked in to have a look in the daylight. We moved up the hill to the trail the deer was on and Rick said, he should have been about right here. I looked down and said your right! Your standing in a pile of hair! There was about a 2 foot long streak of hair on the ground but no blood. The hair was mostly white and I believe it was chest hair from behind the shoulders. We moved down the trail and finally found one spot of blood after 50-75 yds. After that there was no more sign to be seen. We walked out all the trails high and low and pretty much scoured the whole area. No deer. Hopefully, it was a superficial hit. The buck has an unusually up turned beam tip that will probably be seen in his rack next year if he and we, are lucky.

 

Here's some more trail camera pic's from this trip:

 

He's hard to make out but the deer in the back ground on the right is a monster! 

  The buck above was kind of neat. I saw him several times. I saw him come out on the big corn field pushing a doe one day. About that time a low end shooter I was watching was coming up the side of the field towards me and this cull buck with his doe. The 8pt walked up and stole the doe with out a fight. He and the doe went off into the woods and the cull buck left out the other direction.
 
Larry S.

Illinois 2010 muzzleload report #2

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Illinois Muzzleload Hunt

Dec. 2nd thru 5th , 2010
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Friday December 3rd

Temp: Max Temperature 30 °F, Min Temperature 19 °F
Wind: 5 mph (East) gust to 17
Snow: 0
Overcast to partly cloudy
Pressure: 30.17

AM. Hunt:
This morning I decided to divided my efforts between two stands. I would start the hunt at the kill zone stand hoping to catch a buck moving back thru the CPR to lay up on the timbered hill side or draws to the east. After that I would move to the sanctuary stand in the woods where I’d have a better chance of seeing later morning movement.

I ended up seeing six deer from the kill zone stand including the narrow 8 but no shooters. After about an hour I made my move to the “sanctuary”. I jumped three small type deer just inside the woods between the stand along the 8 acre field. I sat the stand for about an hour and a half without seeing a deer so I climbed down and decided to have a look in the 5 acre pine tree patch. I slipped into the mature stand but was not able to see the deer before they saw me and I ended up seeing 7 white flags waving good bye.

While I was slipping around the field edges I found the bleached bones of one of our big buck that had laid down and died right on the edge of the field just 20yds from my nibbin buck stand. Judging by his bases he carried horns with some serious mass. I would guess his age at 4 1/2, judging from his teeth. We don't kill many bucks over 3 1/2 years old so it was a great disappointment to find one dead like this. Apparently, he died sometime after hunting season had ended as he had already cast his horns.

Rick hunted the “well stand” and saw (3) does and one small buck but again, no shooters.

PM Hunt:

I dropped Rick off to hunt the “grassy lane stand” and drove around the west side of the farm on the hard top and spotted a doe standing in the end of Rick’s CRP at 2:30. Then saw another couple deer in a field on the neighbor.

Believing the deer would want to feed out onto the cornfield I wanted a vantage stand where I could see as much ground as possible. That was the “kill zone stand”.

On the way into the stand I jumped three deer in the bottom that drains into the CRP my stand is on. A shooter 8pt buck and a small buck fed off the hill on the neighbor to the north. Next I had four deer come off the hill from the east into the CRP. The tight 8 crossed the corn field from the gap headed to the N.W. to the culvert, followed by a yearling that I expect was a nubbin buck.
Little by little, does started to filter into the corn field from the golden oaks/gap area until there were 7 or 8 lippin' up corn some 400 yds down the field.

A doe slipped into the field in the N.E. corner and fed down towards the other deer. Finally, a respectable 8 that looked like might make a shooter entered the field from somewhere between the pines and the gap. It was close to dark so I decided I would climb down and try to get a closer look. As I made my way thru the timber at the back of the corn field it gave me an overlook into the west end of the CRP. Just about that time I saw three deer come charging into the grass and it was pretty exciting there for a moment until I realized it was just the tight 8 chasing a doe and yearling.

The big 8 was south of the grassy slew in the corn field so I used that as cover for the stalk. I could see a yearling feeding just south of the slew but did not know there was a second deer there. I slipped thru the high grass just as a buck walked into the field from the golden oaks. He proceeded across the field headed my way but the second deer that I had not seen caught me moving and blew the whistle and the game was over. By the time I had made my way down there and all this happened the big 8 had made it into the next corn field. I slipped that way and when I came out of the ditch, to my surprise he was standing only about 150yds from me. It was so dark at this point I still could not decide whether to shoot him or not. I decided to hunch over and duck walk straight at him to close the distance and hopefully get a better look. He let me get to about 100yds before he decided it was time so vacate the area. I could not make my mind up to pull the trigger and that’s a good clue to whether you should.
I think I saw 26 deer in all that evening. That was a pretty exciting hunt.

That's one big buck rub in the photo above, one of the biggest I have seen. He did not break thru the bark
but he had to be a stud to even think about tackling this tree!

Rick saw 13 does from the grassy lane stand but almost everyone of them smelled him and no bucks ever made an appearance.

That was it for day 2! Hopefully tomorrow will put a big deer in my cross hairs.

Here's some more trail camers photo's from the trip:

Larry S.
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Rocky "Bear Claw" Boot Review Update!

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Well, we're back! The 2010 season on our lease in Illinois is over its time to make an update to my original post on my Rocky Bear Claw boots. Here's the link to the original post, "Rocky Bear Claw Boot Review"

It was a tough season. We dealt with just about every weather senario you could get, wind, no wind, heat as high as 70 deg which is hot in central illinois in November, Cold as low as 9-10 degrees, snow, ice, rain and miserable mud! We had 6" of snow on the ground and it started raining. Over night it melted all the snow and the temp shot up to 60 deg with 2 1/2" of rain! We could not even get off the pavement with our 4X4. That night the temp went back down to 20 and froze! Unbelievable!

We made three journeys to Illinois for a total of 21 days hunted. My new Rocky's preformed perfect right up until the last hunt. That was a tough set of conditions for any boot but a truely good boot would have pass on all counts. Unfortunately, the report is not good for the new Rocky's. They failed the most important test.....the waterproof test!

The exterior of the boots held up with no issues other than some torn leather where the stitching was a little close to the edge of the leather along the eyelets. Climbing up and down the hardwood trees was a little rough on the inside of the boot. The cordura shell did fine but the bark ripped the leather along the stitching. Other than this, there were no other issues. The soles performed perfectly also.

As I mentioned above, the failure came in the form of two wet feet. Not soaked but a damp sock at the ball of both feet. By the end of the third hunt both boots had developed minor leaks in the same location. This is the location of almost every leaky boot I have ever owned. 

I have not contacted Rocky yet to see what they are willing to do if anything to remedy the situation but hopefully they will stand behind it. If not, given this is the 4th Rocky boot in a row to leak it will be my last.

Good Luck,

Larry S.

illinois 2010 muzzleload report #1

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Illinois Muzzleload Hunt
Dec. 2nd thru 5th , 2010

Wednesday morning Capt. Rick and I met at the Daytona Beach airport to catch the first flight out headed for Illinois, 6:40am. We always fly Delta but it is quite a journey these days as now it’s a three leg flight and no less than four airports! Delta has eliminated the flight from Atlanta to Peoria and we now have to go thru Detroit or Minneapolis. Most all of our gear was left up their from the Bow hunt so we just needed o get our guns there and that went pretty smooth. The check in persons did not even ask to look inside the case.



We finally made it to Peoria about 4:00pm. And we grabbed our shooters and headed for the truck. The Peoria airport has free parking and we leave the truck there between hunts so its right there when we get back. it’s a 45 minute ride to the farm to pick up our gear trailer and then its to the house to spend the rest of the evening unpacking everything and getting ready for the mornings hunt. After 10 years we’ve pretty much got it down to a science and it only takes a couple of hours.

Thursday December 2nd
Temp: Max Temperature 31 °F, Min Temperature 22 °F
Wind: 3 mph (West) gust to 14
Snow: 0
Overcast to partly cloudy
Pressure: 30.20

Thursday December 2nd was the opener of the 2nd firearms season and after a light breakfast we loaded up and headed for the farm. The temp. was 27 deg. But the wind was light and out of the west at 3-5 so it was not to bad.

I decided I’d spend the first morning at the “Sanctuary” stand. It was a little slow getting started but I managed to see a total of (12) from the stand but only one of those had horns and he was small. The real excitement did not happen until I climbed down. I thought I’d slip out to the corn field and glass the field before I headed to meet Rick at the truck. I crossed the bottom, scaled the barb wire fence and came up to the corner of the little 8 acre corn field. Before I tried to cross the field I thought I had better give everything the once over. At the south end of this field is a tree line with a fence. Beyond this is a steep grass hill that rises up about 75-100’ with a small knob on top that is planted in corn also. As soon as my glasses settled on the hill top the first thing I saw was a big shooter buck looking down into the field I was in! My brain screamed S H O O T ! I dropped down on the ground for the shot but immediately realized he was a good 250yds and there were too many limbs from the tree tops at the fence to even attempt it.

About this time I see the buck wheel around and lope off about 30yds. Wondering what that was all about, I glassed back to the right to see an even larger buck that had just charged him! A big white horned 8pt with 14” G2’s that leaned way in at the top and were just a few inched from touching at the tips. From that reaction I immediately knew there was a hot doe involved with this and they had her hemmed up on this little knob.

The little wheels started spinning and before I knew it I had dumped all my gear and was across the fence and headed up the bottom as fast as possible without making to much racket. This bottom ties in with the toe of the hill where the deer were and as I got closer I slowed down a bit trying to be as stealthy as possible. Just then a coyote goes streaking across the bottom from the back of the 8 acre field and the gun was half way to my shoulder before I realized what it was. The coyote comes back into the story in a little.

The grass was still frozen on the open hill and had a few large oak leaves in it but I did the best I could. As I neared the edge of the corn field on the knob I went into a crouch until I was far enough up slope that I could see over the crest in the field. With hammer cocked I rose up but there were no deer on the field? I quickly scanned everything, nothing. I took a couple slow steps up and immediately, head a deer blow. I went into auto mode and the rifle was shouldered and I was swinging on the running buck. It was the big white horned 8. He had been standing behind some rose bushes along the west fence. It was about 125yds. and he was haulin’ the mail! The buck came into view in the scope and as I got to the front of the deer I touched her off! Unfortunately, a split second before and with my brain already committed to firing, the buck made a 90 and jumped the fence. It felt like I had missed him by a deer’s length when I felt the report of the shot. “damn it! I just missed that deer!” was my first thought. Little did I then know that this would pretty much be the hallmark of the rest of the hunt. I never saw the other buck but the doe came into view as I lowered the rifle and she shot straight ahead down the planted fence line.
The though came to me to try to salvage the situation somehow. The doe was obviously hot to go and there may have been a slight chance after things settled down that one of those bucks may have circled around to try to cut her track but I let it go and headed back to grab my gear and get back to the truck.

It just so happens that to get back to the truck I was headed the same way the coyote had gone and as I passed thru the gate into the nubbin buck corn field I saw him break from the high grass down the edge from me about a hundred yards. I dropped to one knee, swung on him and fired. I looked like I just caught him in the right front shoulder but he was able to make it off the corn field.

Rick hunted the “Well” stand and saw (13) does and no bucks.


PM. Hunt:

This afternoon I made for the stand at the “Green Tree”. Actually, it’s a stand located on the fence in the bottom, behind the green tree that the farmer cut down a few years ago but we still refer to is as the green tree for lack of a better name. Actually, I should say I started for the Kill Zone stand but ended up at the Green Tree.


As I drove in thru the west corn field that fronts the gravel I saw (3) doe type deer running off the big corn field. I parked the truck in the ditch separating the big field from the west field, grabbed my gear and headed for the “Kill Zone” Stand.

When I got to the back end of the corn field I slipped up to the edge of the timber and glassed down to the CRP below. No deer. Just as I turned around something caught my eye some 300yds down the field along the east edge, right about the gap area. It was a deer and as it came into view of my glasses I could see it was pretty nice buck that warranted further scrutiny. I could see his mouth was hanging open and I glassed ahead to see (3) more bucks all ganged around one doe at the golden oaks. All the other bucks were just year and a half old things with not much for horns. I glassed back to the big deer and could see he was an 8 that looked to be in the 120-130 class and not quite what I was looking to shoot.

This did however, change my destination and I decided to go to the green tree which would put me close to the action if they looped back or another buck came along on the deal later.

I ended up seeing a total of (11) deer including the half rack in the CRP at dark and a small buck in the bottom from the stand. The rest of the deer were all does and yearlings.

Rick hunted the “Barn stand” at the top of the pines. He only saw (5) does and no bucks.

That was pretty much it for the first day. I was glad to see there is still a little rutting activity going on.

Here are just a few of the trail camera photo's I collected during the hunt:

I collected hundreds of trail camera photo's between the three trips. I'll post them as time permits.

Good Luck,

Larry S.

(All photo's by Larry Stephens)

Of Gobblers, River Cooters and Alligators!

A recent cool spring morning found me laying for a long bearded Gobbler in a river swamp on the banks of the St. Johns River.

I had found the Toms strut sign two days earlier on a sand spoil pile and I knew he'd be roosting in the swamp within ear shot of his strut zone.

Unfortunately, the morning dawned partly overcast and just a bit breezy, not good conditions for gobbling and this morning would be true to form. Actually, the gobbler only gobbled one time that I ever heard and it was from the ground. He never gobbled on the limb despite my owling along with several excited cutts and cackles at fly down.

Once I heard him gobble I knew it was only a matter of time before he would be strutting in front of me on the little sand hill. I stopped calling at him and changed to the soft purrs and clucks of a contented feeding hen. I had my video camera rolling when he stepped out of the cabbage palm hammock. He immediately saw my hen decoy and broke into a half strut. He cautiously made his way towards the decoy as a wary old gobbler will do.

Against my better judgement, I could not  resist a few soft purs and clucks to try to pull one more gobble out of him for the camera. About 15 yds or so from the decoy the old gobbler realized something was not right with the motionless hen and turned around to come to my calling. Things were pretty touch and go there for a minute as he approached to within 10 yds, head stretched high looking for the source of the calling. Anytime you let a bird get that close you run a real risk of him escaping.  Absolutely no movement goes unseen. A tight choked turkey guns patter at such close range is very small and a turkeys head is always moving. Its a very difficult target to hit, especially if he spooks to flee. A body shot is about all you can hope for if your in a tight spot. IF the woods are open you might be able to let him get out to 20 where you have a better pattern before shooting but he'll be hauling the mail!

I got lucky with the shot and just caught him with part of the load and put him down. He was beautiful tom and make for another great hunt, all on video

Well, I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Turtles like to crawl up from the river to lay their eggs on the sandy spoil pile and as usual there were numerous nests that had been dug into and eaten by various varmits. Probably, mostly by Coons.

I was doing some tracking in the sand to see if I could tell if all the strut sign was from one gobbler or if maybe there was another bird in the area. As I neared the weeds down towards the water I noticed a large turtle shell. It caught my attention and I slipped over to investigate. The shell was upside down and i immediately saw a golf ball size spot in the center of the shell that had been broken and crushed in. This however was not the cause of his demise. It was from a previous gator attack and had healed up. When I picked the shell up I immediately noticed two broken off alligator teeth in the top of the shell. Incredible!

Studying the shell it was obvious the turtle had survived many encounters with large alligators. There were lines of dots where rows of teeth had pocked the hard shell. Along the radius ed areas of the shell there were gouged lined where the gator's teeth slid down the shell.

The broken off gator teeth were absolutely amazing. I decided to keep the shell, clean it up and spray it with some clear polyurethane. It really shinned up great and is an interesting conversation piece.

The River Cooter is a basking turtle are often sold as pets. Anytime you are on the river in the middle part of the day you are liable to see them perched on logs sunning. The females are larger than the males and can live to more than 40 years of age.

They mate during May and June and seek out an open sandy location 50-100' from the water to bury their clutch of 10-25 eggs. With a lot of luck, 90-100 days later they will hatch.  While the species is highly herbivorous, river cooters will eat anything, plant or animal, dead or alive.

Judging by all the scars from the alligators this turtle must have been around for quite some time and survived countless attacks. I think I'll call him Lucky!

Keep your eyes open, you never know what interesting things you'll stumble across in the woods!

Best of hunts,
Larry S.

Favorite Vension Recipes #1 - Bacon Wraped Backstrap Medallions

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Venison Backstrap, Bacon Wraped Medallions

This has got to be one of my personal favorite, best recipes for a piece of deer backstrap.

Actually, I need to give credit to Capt. Rick for this one! He introduced me to this last year while we were on a hunt in Illinois. Rick's a pretty dang good cook and he hit this one out of the park.

Typically, I like to cook enough of this for a couple meals and makes it worth going thru the trouble of grilling. I'll use one whole backstrap and you will need one package of meaty bacon to wrap it with.

Here's the list of what you'll need:

1. One full length of Venison Backstrap
2. Your favorite marinade (Worcestershire sauce, Italian dressing, etc.)
3. Seasonings (pepper and seasoned salt)
4.  Oak Hardwood to grill over

I prefer all my venison is left on ice for 4-5 days and drained daily to pull out a lot of the blood. If your serving to guests that have never eaten deer before it's a good way to go. As a matter or fact if you over do it you will have to add something to the meat just to get some kind of taste from it.

The next step is to remove the outside tendon. This is critical for all venison that is going to be grilled or fried as it is impossible to chew. On a backstrap length you can fillet it off just like filleting the skin off a fish. Just lay the strap, tendon side down and at the butt end, take a good fillet knife and make a cut across to separate the meat from the tendon enough to get your fingers on to press it against the cutting board. While pressing down with the blade flat to the cutting board, push forward while rocking the blade side to side. You'll be left with all the tendon in one hand and a perfectly clean, length of strap on the board.

You will need to cut the strap into 3/4" to 1" thick steaks. The backstrap section is perfect for this due to its small round cross section and lack of tendon, etc.

You can really use any manaride you desire but Cpt. Rick's recipe calls for a 12 hour bath in Worcestershire sauce. You'll get a lot of the marinade taste if you let it soak that long so be sure you like Worcestershire if you go that route. I have also experimented with Italian dressing with good results but It's pretty darn good just with the flavor of the bacon and hard wood coals.

After your done marinading, drain the steaks and wrap one length of bacon around each one. You can use wood tooth picks to hold it on or put several steaks on one wood or metal skewer like a kabob.

If you really want a good steak, you can't beat cooking over real wood. The flavor is fantastic. I prefer a good Black Jack Oak. Burn it down until it is not flaming and heavily smoking before putting on your meat or it may taste a little to smokey.

Grill to taste but as with all wild game meat, don't over do it or you'll dry it out even with the bacon grease. It's probably best with a hint of pink in the middle.

Tips to remember:

You do need to keep a good eye on the grill, the dripping bacon grease will flame up and burn the steaks if your not careful.

If you use kabob skewers, give a little space between each steak so the bacon will get done all around.

Most important......Don't forget to invite me!

Good Huntin'
Larry S.

Taxidermist Review "Hunters Taxidermy, St. Augustine, Fl.

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If I remember the quote correctly...."The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the excitement of a cheap price!" I did not get a cheap price but I did end up with the bitterness!

This is something I have been wanting to post for a long time in hopes that it might save someone else the misfortune and loss that I and my Niece experienced with an animal I recently took to a Taxidermist here in N.E. Florida.

The name of the Taxidermy company was Hunters Taxidermy in St. Augustine, Florida, and is owned by Pat and Elizabeth Hunter. I originally found them when I needed some trophies scored for the SCI record book and got their name off the SCI web site. They were members of the Florida State Taxidermy Association and appeared to be reputable. After meeting them, if I had a reservation it was their working out of their home and actually doing the work in their kitchen....a little unusual. I later found out that they were actually board members for the Florida State Taxidermy Association. They had numerous displays of trophies and ribbons won in competition.

I had taken my niece Kristina hog hunting. It was the first time she had ever shot a gun or hunted and she took a really nice Boar that I talked her into getting mounted. You can read the story here....Two Boars for Kristina.

In brief, On July 07,2007 I engaged Hunters Taxidermy to mount Kristina's trophy Boar. I described exactly what I wanted in great detail. The agreed upon Time frame was 6-8 months an the price was $525.

The following is what Hunter's Promised and what I actually got!

Promised:                                                                   Received:
shoulder mount with our cape                                     cape from another animal, different color!
6-8month delivery                                                       1yr and 8months delivery
cost-$525                                                                     same
offset shoulder, right head turn manikin                      no offset, slight right turn
blended paint on gums                                                 hard line from pink to black

In other words; our trophy was lost! I paid for a mount that is not our hog and not even the same color, with a docked ear, Our hog was a boar with full ears. They actually lied and swore that the mount was in fact our hog when the pictures are clear proof that our hog was brown. See their explanation for the color change in the email......you'll love this one!

Their business practices are the worst I have ever experienced. They lied, misrepresented, took more than twice as long as promised and insulted me to boot! Unbelievable! Their last email was down right nasty! After I picked up the mount and got home and looked at the kill photo I immediately called them and they would not answer the phone and never returned the call.

There was really not to much I could do once I had paid for the mount. It had taken so long I was not exactly sure what the hog looked like until I got home and looked at the photo's. I contacted the Better Business Bureau, Fl. Dept. of Consumer Services, Fl. St. Taxidermy Assoc.  and  the credit card company. It was all a waste of time. The credit card company claimed they could only get the balance back and not the deposit as it had been to long and I  would have to return the mount! How about that! I would have been out a trophy that could not be replaced, have no mount and out my deposit. I decided to just keep the mount and maybe sell it on ebay. If i returned it, Hunters keeps my deposit and sells the mount for full price!

On top of this, they used the mount in a competition, which is the real reason for the delay in the end. I did not find out it was complete until just a few days after the competition! They did not ask for my consent to transport it somewhere and use it. They knew they had exceeded their delivery date by more than twice and had the nerve to further delay by taking it to the competition!

I spoke to both Trina Pritchard, President of the Florida State Taxidermy Association and Garry Miller the VP. Ms. Pritchard had me forward all my correspondence and said she would look into it and see what she could do  and that was the end of that. I never got any further response from the Association to  which this Taxidermist is a board member. That was a little disappointing given the obvious misrepresentation and deceitful business practices by one of their members. Apparently, the Associations condones this kind of behavior among its members.


I have posted some pictures so you can see what Kristina's hog looked like and what Hunter's tried to pass off as our hog. Don't laugh this is a true story! They are at the bottom of the post!


If you are board with nothing to do I have included most of the actual email communications with Elizabeth Hunter, describing what we wanted, our agreement, her responses, etc.


Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 7:35 PM Subject: HOG HEAD
Elizabeth:

hog head; give me a offset shoulder, slight right hand head turn. also, we need to find a manikin other then the one's in your photo gallery. i would call them just a head mount and i want a shoulder mt. they have way to little shoulder showing. i want most of the shoulders left showing. i buy my manikins from dan chase. his wh352 looks good as far as the amount of shoulder. let me know if you have a question. i should probably see the manikin you want to use. eyes; the black hog in your gallery has very red looking eyes. i would rather have a more natural looking dark pupil and slightly lighter surround. if possible please email a pic of the eye you plan to use. one small point. a couple of the mounts in the gallery have a nose with an arched bridge or its necked down and makes his nose look a little droopy. i would like to see a straighter line on top with a nose a little more square to the top line. my niece thought she wanted a closed mouth but i dont' see many in my catalogs. i would prefer an open like you did on your competition mouth on the wall. his cutters looked very realistic.

Larry

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 9:16 PM Subject: RE: HOG HEAD 

Larry-
To some extent I do agree that a closed mouth would be more appropriate for a young lady, but I will wait to hear from you on her decision. I normally use McKenzie’s for all of my forms. I do realize how special this hog is for your niece and it will be treated with the utmost respect. I normally use all competition quality products on all of my mounts, but if you want the lesser exp. eyes, that is your choice. Anyhow, let me know what she decides and we will go from there.
Liz

Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 4:34 PM Subject: RE: HOG HEAD

Larry-
That is fine, we will go with open mouth with the hog and I will blend the mouth.. For comp it needs to be more defined, it took me 12 hours to paint that mouth. I much rather blend it!!!
Liz



From: larrysdd

To: ELIZABETH HUNTER
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 3:59 PM Subject: hog head

Elizabeth,Pat,
Glad to hear everything is finally ready, i didn't know you were planning to enter the head in a competition. i would rather had picked it up had i known it was ready. when i didn't return a call in a couple of weeks you should have called. i'm a busy person and we've been waiting so long i don't even think about the mount anymore.

Please email me a couple of pictures of the completed mount so i can email them to kristina along with an itemized bill with the remaining balance for ea. item. i'll call to arrange to pick everything up one night this week.
Larry Stephens



From: taxidermist

To: 'larrysdd'
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:55 PM Subject: RE: hog head

Larry-
Attached you will find an invoice for all of your items, including the total due, deposit, 10% discount and final amount due. Please let us know when you will be coming out to pick everything up. Sorry, but we do not have photos uploaded on the computer as of yet. I am sorry that this took so long, but you were aware of the neck surgery I was going in for shortly after you dropped everything off. Also we told you that when we send items off to the tannery that it is out of our hands and that alone could take anywhere from 6-8 months. Unfortunately, I had some severe health and heart problems and things ended up taking longer than expected. Our policy also states that if mounts are not picked up within 30 days of completion and notice they do become our property to do with what we please. Since you were notified several months ago and did not come to pick them up this would apply to your mounts. It is not our responsibility to keep calling and harassing our customers to pick their items up. However, if you will pick your mounts up within the next 5 days we will make an exception. We have also given you a 10% discount for everything you brought in and are unable to discount this anymore. As far as using the hog mount in competition, it costs us money to enter pieces and insure them for transport and theft during competition. We entered it to give you/ Kristina a better mount with ribbons behind it. Please let us know when you will be out to pick everything up.

Pat and Liz




From: larrysdd
To: taxidermist
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 1:10 PM Subject: Re: hog head

PAT, LIZ.
I immediately called to speak to you after reading your email but got your machine so i left a message.

let me correct you on a couple of things.

first, i have called and left numerous messages and emails over the year and eight months i have been waiting, inquiring when i can pick up everything. all i got was excuses. i never received any up date on the status unless i inquired. somewhere around august of 08, i again phoned to inquire when things would be completed and pat stated everything was almost done and would be ready the following week. that deadline came and went also. when pat returned my call in november he never stated that anything was completed! in that message or any other. he only left a message to return his call. so please don't tell me i was notified and never showed. i have been begging for my mounts. it is your obligation to notify me when my mounts are ready. i am sorry about your health but that is out of my control and you should have kept me abreast of the situation and asked if an extended deadline was acceptable. the last i heard back on dec. 10, 07, liz indicated by email that she was over her neck surgery and the mounts would be done "no later than the beginning of march, 07". you breached the time frame in our verbal contract by approximately a year without even so much as asking. then to insult me and state "its not your responsibility to keep calling and harassing" as if you tried many times to contact me. this disturbs me beyond description. true, i returned pats november call and got your machine and left a message stating i would call again when i got back in town and i neglected to get to that for a time. it has been so long, the matter hardly comes to mind. you obviously knew how anxious we were to get the mounts back. why didn't you call and just say they are complete. the circumstances lead me to believe you didn't make a follow up call in order to delay so you could enter the head in the taxidermy competition you stated you just returned from.

i never authorized you to take the head anywhere! what if something happened to it? how would i explain that to my niece. that head is irreplaceable. the insurance you claim you had for it would be useless.

second, i received nothing in writing or verbally as to any of your business policies. all i recall receiving was a small receipt for the deposit. after the extreme delay, i am further insulted by the threat you made that my mounts are your property at this point. again, i received no indication that the mounts were complete, not by phone, email or in writing. therefore, no exception to your policy on my behalf is required as i was not informed items were ready or made aware of this so called policy.

i will however make arrangements to be at your residence this afternoon to conclude our business.
larry stephens



From: larrysdd

To: ELIZABETH HUNTER
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 3:04 PM Subject: HOG MOUNT

PAT, LIZ,
I wanted to show you the pictures of Kristina's hog so you might explain how the color is so different and the left ear is docked on the mount you prepared.


in the hanging picture, (75) taken from the back, you can clearly see both ears are full and symmetrical, unlike the mount you represented as ours. see pic.'s 13 & 14 of the ears of your mount, they clearly do not match. also i included a harvest picture on the ground (059) that clearly shows the left ear is full and un cut. no question about it. also, in the hanging picture you can see this is a boar that is un-cut on the back end. also, the cape you used has a split in the docked ear (08). the harvest pictures clearly show our hog had no split ear.


the cape you used is from a hog that has been barred and his ear marked. i know you guys are big hog hunters and know just what i'm talking about. when i arrived to pick up the mount and mentioned it to pat he admitted the left ear appeared to be cut and he hadn't noticed it before. the color difference, he explained, was due to cleaning him up with a pressure washer. if you have any, so called cleaned up pictures of the cape i would very much like to see them.


now we get to the color. the pictures clearly show our hog was a light to medium brown hog, not black! you can see in the pictures everything is shinny. we killed this hog in the rain, in a grass pasture and he was very clean. when i hung him i thoroughly washed him with a spray nozzle and there was no dirt on him to obscure his color. if you notice the underside of our hog (70) in the picture there is no black hair on the jowls and under mouth area, compare that to your mount, pic. (14)


additionally, i have attached emails of the requested mounting details. in the july 12, 07 email, liz stated she could provide an offset shoulder form. in the 7/16/07 email, i specifically requested liz to do an offset shoulder, right and blend the mouth color at the lips. i received a standard, square shoulder, right with a hard line transition of the lips. liz specifically stated in her return email that blending was easier than the competition mount for her and that was what she would do, as instructed.


also, in my july 16, 2007 email, i stated i wanted the mouth to be painted exactly like the mouth on the spotted hog on your web site (picture attached) his mouth is much more white and with a blended gum line. i got a pink mouth with no blended gum line! (photo attached for comparison). again, a drastic difference from what i requested. the pink gum line does not have a realistic appearance and is why i requested to match the mouth of the spotted hog photo. neither of the two hog photo's from your web site, the spotted hog and the competition mount with the vegetation, have bright pink mouths. compare this to the picture of the mount i received!!!

when i arrived to pick up the mount i specifically, asked pat "are you sure this is my cape?" his response was "oh yea!" as it has been a year and eight months his reassurance gave just enough doubt to cause me to question my memory and i went ahead and accepted the mount until i could investigate further. as stated, upon looking at the harvest photo's, it is quite clear that the mount you presented is not Kristina's trophy. please compare picture 18 of your mount with the harvest picture 73 and explain the color difference for me!


this was a young women's first ever!!!!!! hunting trip, first ever, harvest, never even shoot at an animal before, never shot a gun before that weekend, made a perfect shot! now her trophy of a life time is lost forever. this is irreplaceable as you know. i do not even know how to break the news to her.


this revelation coupled with the insulting email i received from you wednesday leaves me completely disappointed in the services you provided and the trust i instilled in you regarding Kristina's trophy. in your july 13,07 email you wrote " i do realize how special this hog is for your niece and it will be treated with the utmost respect". the end result speaks to the contrary i am afraid and no special care or effort was taken to provide the service you promised. you did not even bother to look back at your notes and correspondence! i am not saying the mount you provided is poor, its just not what i specifically asked for and you agreed to provide and most importantly, is not our animal. i may as well have bought one off ebay for half price. we paid a lot of money for this mount, never questioned your fee. christina is a young girl with a very limited income. i offered to pay for half just so she could possible afford it.

please review the emails and pictures and provide me with an explanation of what happened to christina's trophy and what suggestions you have to rectify this situation, as none are obvious to me.


pictures 2, 3, 8,11,13,14,18 are of your mount, all others are of the actual harvested animal.
larry stephens




From: larrysdd
To: TRINA PRITCHARD, FLORIDA STATE TAXIDERMY ASSOCIATION, PRESIDENT
Cc: GARRY MILLER , VP
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 4:25 PM Subject: Fw: hog head

trina & garry,
there are a number of these emails but i'll keep it as few as possible.


as i related, the trophy is lost at this point and i see no remedy for this situation. i have no interest in speak to hunter's taxidermy at this point. i was treated so poorly i don't see that i could have a civil conversation with them. however, i do feel you should be aware of the situation as this person is on your board and representing the association. i do not know of any other reports of similar problems from hunter's but i find it hard to believe that this is an isolated occurrence. if it was just a time issue or just the wrong manikin issue or the wrong mouth painting,.... maybe, but coupled with the outright misrepresentation that this was our animal!! i find it hard to believe that this is not typical.


if you have any questions please do contact me.


thanks, larry stephens


The first 3 pictures are of Kristina's hog (The Brown hog on the left!)                       

The following pictures are of the finished mount Hunter's Taxidermy reprensented as our hog!

(Note the color difference!)

Well, that was pretty much the whole sad story. As it has been a few years now my anger has wained a little but as I re-read the emails I can feel it returning.

Take my advise and do your homework before you select a taxidermist for your next trophy.

Good Luck,

Larry S.


P.S.
Here is a link to another negative report on Hunters taxidermy that I ran across. http://jmar-trophy-hunting.blogspot.com/2011/08/hunters-taxidermy-st-augustine-florida.html . Have a look at this Guy's
experience with Hunters, it is eerily similiar to my experience, right down to the delay due to illness.
Larry