It was mid August and My husband and I decided to go on a hog hunt together. I had hunted hogs before, but this trip was going to be a new experience for me because we were going to use dogs. I had never used Dogs to hunt so I was very excited. A few customers from the taxidermy shop had told James and I many times that they knew of the perfect spot to get some huge wild boar and that they would let us use their dogs. My eagerness dropped by a few points when they told me we were not allowed to shoot the hogs because they were worried we might shoot one of their expensive hunting dogs by mistake.

I asked them what seemed to me a reasonable question Well, how will we kill them? They all laughed and said “you will have to stab them.” My heart dropped in my chest. Stab a WILD hog????? are these men crazy? I thought to myself. I looked around at the 4 men standing in my shop (one which was my husband) and I quickly answered my own question. Yes they all were crazy.

My husband arranged for the hunt to take place that upcoming weekend. I was excited but very nervous. I know I can shoot….. But I had never stabbed an animal before especially one as dangerous as a wild boar. Over the next few days all the stories the hunters had told me in our meat processing plant kept replaying in my mind. They had always boasted how dangerous they were and how they got knocked down or charged by them. I always just laughed at the stories but never paid them any mind. I never thought I would be putting myself in a position that one could get close enough to hurt me without the security of my trusty AR 223 in my hands.

The morning of the hunt arrived and as usual I didn’t get a good nights sleep. My husband could tell I was a little uneasy so he told me,” honey, you know I wont ever put you in a position that I cant save you. Just relax and have a good time. This hunt is for you. ” So I took a deep breath and decided at that moment I was going to stop worrying and start having a blast. We left the house at 5:30 am and headed to the Waffle House (a tradition we started back when we were dating). After a good breakfast and 3 pots of morning Joe we headed to the guides house. Once we all got there he loaded up the dogs.

Now let me take a second to say these dogs were not what I was expecting. I was thinking they would be huge muscle dogs like a bull mastiff or something. The dogs consisted of three small pittbull dogs none weighing more than 45 lbs and a loud yelping schnauzer mix. I leaned over and whispered to my husband,” Are these the kind of dogs most people use on these kind of hunts?” That real sick feeling washed over me again when his reply was,” UMM honey I am really not sure.”

We all loaded up and headed off for the “secret” spot. When we all arrived I was super anxious. The guide let his four pitiful dogs out and off they went through the woods just a barking. My heart went to raceing when the guide hollered,”Grab your killing knife they got one!” I grabbed my knife and my husband and I went running through the woods in pursuit of barking dogs. The whole way there I was getting so scared. All the what if’s were running through my mind. It seemed like I had been running for miles when my husband slowed and finally stopped in front of me. I jumped up front to see my trophy……..

It was a tiny piglet. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was no bigger than a house cat. I had gotten so worked up over this baby pig. We decided to load up and try another “hot spot” I had calmed down a lot bye  this time, and was looking forward to the dogs tracking down the next one.

We arrived at the new location and the dogs were set loose. They just wandered off this time and I was quiet for a little bit. Then all of a sudden you heard the dogs barking and carrying on. Once again the guide instructed me to “grab my killing knife” and we took off through the woods after them. When we got to the dogs I bout had a panic attack. I saw three dogs holding down the biggest darn pig I had ever seen in my life. One dog had it by the nose, one by the ear and one by the back leg. I will never forget the sound of the pigs tusks clamping down and the god awful screaming it made.The guide, my husband, and the two tag along men started all screaming at me to stab it. I was frozen in place I asked my husband if I could tape my knife to the end of a stick he laughed and said hell no.

They all were screaming, the dogs were barking and growling, the wild boar was screaming, and most of all my heart was pounding. I finally took a deep breath and ran up to the only thing I have ever known to be scared of and went to stabbing. I stabbed the pig three or four times but all It did was make the pig mad even more. My husband went to yelling, “HERE!! STAB IT HERE! STAB IT HERE BEFORE IT KILLS ONE OF THE DOGS!!!!”

I took a deep breath and gave the hardest stab I could. I thought for a second I must have been screaming while I was stabbing, but then I realized it was not me screaming…. but my husband!

He screamed “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” I screamed back,” I am stabbing the pig”  He hollered back,

“I THINK YOU STABBED ME!”

I looked down and to my horror.. I had indeed stabbed my husband through the middle of his hand with my “killing knife”. It had pinned his hand to the wild boar. I snatched the knife back out before I had time to think if that was the right thing to do. There was so much blood. I couldn’t tell If it was coming from him or the pig. He took off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand. I had seriously wounded both my husband and the pig. The guide told me to stab the wild boar one more time, but to be sure to miss my husband. I did just that and finally everything got real quiet.

I thought my husband was going to be really mad but to my surprise he was excited at my kill and told me I had done a great job. My trophy pig weighed in at 389 pounds. My husbands stitches counted in at 43. Now that’s a hunting trip My husband and I will never forget.

Take time now to check all your gear such as bows, arrows, guns, and even scopes for your rifle. Now is also a good time to practice shooting weather it may be a gun or bow. Shooting at a target now will get you set for when that first game pokes it’s head out. Check all food sources now and scout to see what deer maybe eating. There will be a chance that some of this food source will still be available for opening day in the southern regions such as Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Go into the woods now and start by trimming some shooting lanes for your bow setup. We all hate the times that when a deer steps into shooting range and then we don’t have the shot due to a tree limb blocking the shot. These shots for a trophy buck only come once in a lifetime for most average hunter’s. I have had great success in the past at harvesting a doe for some early season deer meat.

Most of the hunters in Alabama will be on the road to their hunting grounds around Labor Day weekend. They use this time to plant fall food plots, or at least start preparing the ground works of bush-hogging and plowing of the dirt. I think that a lot of hunters mess up here by planting to early. I good idea would be to wait until just a few weekends later maybe in September some time. This will allow your deer to finish off any summer time forge they may be able to find.

Once you have taken the time plan what you are going to plant, make sure that you can allow 10 to 15 days for a spraying process such as round-up on and around the food plots. This will allow you plenty of time to plant things such as chicory and clover and you will not have other late summer grasses competing for fertilizer or lime that you lay out. Keeping unwanted grasses out will allow you with a more beautiful food plot for your deer.

If you have planted corn and still have it standing then leave it this way. Standing beans and corn will allow deer and turkey cover in the fall and also will help you see more in the winter as they come in to search for these foods. Based on your corn field size try mowing strips into it 10 to 25 yards wide and plow and spread winter foods where you have mowed. Most people like to mow the entire field down and when they do this deer and turkey loose this food in the extreme cold days of winter.

I hope these few steps will help you on opening day like they have done for me and my friends in the past. Stay on the right road and you can’t go wrong for being on the wrong road to success. Planting to early can cost you mainly because the deer and turkey eat them up to fast. I have heard people say my food plots look like crap. What these food plots look like are as if someone has took a lawn mower to it. So start getting ready now for opening day.

Now I know most of you are thinking “umm that’s the taxidermist job”. and you are very right. However a lot of it starts with you. There are several things you can do to help ensure that your mount looks its best. Today I want to cover Birds.

Birds are the hardest animal to taxidermy in my opinion. They take great skill and patience to mount. The mounting is a LOT easier if the hunter has taken the proper pre steps before bringing it to us.The first thing to remember is the number one rule with any animal you want to have mounted ” FREEZE ” it as soon as possible. The longer you let that animal set out in the sun the smaller time window I have to work on it.

Bacteria begins to build up on the skin pretty much as soon as the blood stops flowing and bacteria is what makes a body rot.  If you cant freeze them due to the fact your not done hunting yet at least have a cooler full of ice just for the birds to put them in. If its a turkey please put it in a bag first we don’t want to get it wet.

The next thing you want to remember is if the bird is not a water fowl don’t let it soak in a cooler full of melted ice, bag it first to keep it dry. Turkeys floating in a cooler full of bloody water is not a good thing. Its very hard to get those feathers clean and fluffed back out.

Now once you are ready to freeze the bird the best thing to do is wrap a few paper towels around the body and head to soak up any blood that may seep out while freezing or thawing out. Once you have it wrapped slide a nylon stocking over the birds head first and down towards the tail, going with the feathers.

If the bird is a pheasant you will want to take an empty paper towel roll and slide it over the tail feathers to ensure they do not get broken.. once the bird has been wrapped and the stocking put on. Place it in a zip lock bag or garbage bag and freeze it.

Always remember  the more bags the better.

I also want you to know that sometimes the birds have dozens of holes in the skin from pellets or dogs getting a better grip on the bird. These holes are a big problem with birds. Its always a good idea to have a few birds for your taxidermist to choose from. This will insure the best looking mount..

The great thing to remember is I am a Taxidermist not a magician. If you shoot it in the head, pump it full of bullet holes, or let  the retrieving dog turn it into a sifter its gonna be a huge job to make it look good. So a quick over view.

Freeze or put on ice A.S.A.P

Keep non water fowl out of melted ice water

Wrap bird in a few paper towels

Slip into nylon stocking

Place into a few bags

Freeze

Have a few extra birds for your taxidermist to choose from.

If you do these things and your Taxidermist knows what he or she is doing, you will have a BEAUTIFUL bird mount.

Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon a customer came in the shop to check out our work and ask a few questions.; My husband was chatting with him as I was diligently working (I mean fighting) with skinning out a water logged turkey. It was hot and I was pretty nasty at this point so I let him handle the customer. The man was inquiring about his options on a turkey mount and he mentioned that he would love to have a whole body mount done but his wife was ” TOTALLY” grossed out about animals, hunting, and yes…taxidermy work. He even went on to tell us that she was out in the car because she refused to come inside.

My husband decided he would take a bash at using his good southern charm to coax her into coming inside to help ease her mind about the taxidermy business. He just wanted to help the poor guy out. I truly thought my husband was wasting his time when low and behold.. here she came, walking in like at any moment one of the animals might jump off the wall and eat her. My husband talked to her for a bit and slowly you could see she was beginning to relax.

Mean while I am still fighting.. I mean working on the darn turkey. As I am finishing it up the lady gets curious and ask me what I was working on. I tell her I’m skinning out a turkey. She walks over and stands right next to me like I might save her if the bird were to try to hurt her. I take one of my tools to pop the eye out of the socket, and to my surprise she leans over to get a better look. It was hard to believe but that lady was no more than a foot or so away from the head of the bird. You could tell she was interested, but scared to death all at the same time.

When I went to pull the eyeball out of the bird to my horror…. ” eyeball juice squirted out and landed across her face and in her hair, ” and on her white North Face  pullover. I just gasped, and wanted to see what her reaction was going to be. I thought she would laugh I would get her a clean towel and that would be it. I mean that’s how I would have handled it.

Well her eyes got as big as half dollars.. her head turned white as a paper towel and she let out this God scream. She went on screaming over and over as though someone was being hacked into little pieces in front of her. I ran around the table to help and comfort her..(trying my darned hardest not to bust out laughing).

When I reached her she shoved me away and screamed…..

” LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE  TO ME! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? I THINK I AM GOING TO DIE!”

I calmly told the woman I meant her no harm and that eyeball juice could not kill her. I even added in a little joke that eyeball juice was good for your hair. WOW was that a huge mistake. She flew into a rage that it was in her hair. Screaming over and over to get it out that it was burning. My husband and her husband are just standing there with their mouths open watching me trying to get this woman under control.

She would not let me help or touch her. She really thought I did it on purpose. Well as each second passes she is getting more and more upset. Finally she begins to hyperventilate. I beg her to sit down and let me get her a glass of water but she acts like I am going to put eyeball juice in the glass.

People this woman has went completely bonkers. She tells her husband that she is getting light headed and that she thinks she is having a panic attack. Her husband calls 911 and an ambulance picks her up from my shop about 15 minutes later. Her husband apologizes as he is getting into his BMW and speeds off after the ambulance. My husband and I are dumbfounded. We couldn’t comprehend what just happened.

I mean one minute we are working, the next a lady is sprayed with eyeball juice- has a panic attack, and leaves our shop in an ambulance.

“Dude that one heck of a day.”

Well about 2 days later I sent the lady a card in the mail hoping she was alright and telling her how sorry I was. About 3 days after that I got a letter from the Better Business Bruea stating that our business had personally attacked this lady with eyeball juice causing her to have a panic attack and that if we did not pay her medical bills she would take us to court stating that we had caused her humiliation and pain and suffering.

The (BBB) closed the complaint. She never took us to court. And I hate to say I think I have lost all of this guys future business. I laugh every time I think about this story and I hope It made you laugh too.

Note to taxidermist… when a customer is hovering over you be careful of what you do.

Some people bring their fish in a block of ice, or wrapped in foil and already frozen.  All of these tips are nothing more than “fish tails”.  Wrapping a fish in a towel or newspaper is the very worst thing you can do. Also leaving your trophy out in the sun can be very bad for it.

Wrapping a towel or a newspaper will suck all the moisture and slime out of the scales of a fish such as bass, bream, and crappie. So when I mount the fish all the scales tend to stand up like a porcupine. We would like for the fish to be nice and slimy when we defrost it. This will allow us to make your trophy better looking and it will also be easier on us to deal with.

If you follow this very simple  step your fish will be fine stored  in the freezer for more than a year compared to a month with these other methods. Are you ready……… is the suspense killing you……. All you need to do is……..

Wrap it in several garbage bags, tie them up and pop it in the freezer. ”  Yes that’s it! ”  Your Taxidermist will be so thrilled not having to fight to save your once in a life time catch!

I hope this has been helpful and If you have any more questions you need answered about hunting and taxidermy my husband and I would love to hear from you.

Jennifer Cureton

Buckhead Taxidermy and meat processing.

978 54th street, Columbus, Georgia 31904

(706) 323-9500

buckhead_taxidermy@yahoo.com 0r check me out on face book!

When writing for an Outdoor paper, magazine, and a web site there is so much that can be written on. It is almost like trying to come up with new words for a special book. I would almost say that on a count of 100 words to 100 words that the Aurthur Tom Kelly dose not have as much trouble of coming up with words to go into his own books.

Tom Kelly is by far one of the greatest outdoor writers of this time. I say this to you as the reader that this is my own opinion and i do not wish to change it by any means necessary. When he writes it’s like words just fall into place and you seem to read them one after another and they just make since. Some would disagree and say that he is not the best writer of this time but we are all entitled to our own opinion.

What comes to mind when you hear the word Outdoors? It can mean many things in this day and age. It is like the adds that you read on the back of some everyday outdoor magazine that is there for one reason. That reason is to promote the company that has paid for that add. The adds that I enjoy reading the most are like the one’s that just come from the heart. Let’s take a look at Mossy Oak adds and just sit and read one and think of what you may read while you read it. Here is one for example.

” Law of Nature ”
” It’s a law of nature: the more dirt gets under your fingernails, the higher your spirit gets lifted.”

There are plenty more of where this add comes from and you can find it at Mossy Oak. I have to say that even when Realtree placed add’s they never even matched up to Mossy Oak. These two companies are competing for who has the best camo. But Mossy Oak go’s further than that.

Mossy Oak also works best with Biologic, a seed blend for every type of wildlife out there that mother nature has to put forward to us. Whitetail Institute has planted over 1 million acres but I would say that Biologic is rite there with them if not equal.

Outdoor companies compete each and every year for something new to be placed on the shelf. There is still thousands of things out there to be discovered and it only take a little time in the outdoors to do it. When it comes to camo I will more than likely choose Realtree over Mossy Oak but i have had my chances to plant Whitetail Institute products and here in the south the Biologic brand is just a little better.

As Toxey Haas once said: ” It all started with a fist full of dirt.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages six campgrounds at Alabama River Lakes. All campers are entitled to the full use of campground facilities such as grills and tables. There are also laundry rooms and don’t forget the shower houses with restrooms. Prairie Creek is a peaceful quit place to relax for the weekend stay in the great outdoors.

The six Army Corps campgrounds are “fee campgrounds” with resident park attendants who are all happy to help you with information on each park or campground and make your stay at these locations more enjoyable. The swamps that are located across the creek area of Prairie Creek holds all kinds of wildlife such as deer and turkey.

On warm or cool spring mornings you can lay awake in your tents or campers and listen to faint gobbling of some of the hardest turkey’s to kill in Alabama. These birds can be hunted in spring season by heading over to the Lowndes (WMA) which is rite across the creek of the campground. There is 11,000 acres open to the public to hunt for things such as turkey, deer, and even ducks.

There is so much to do when you take a trip here that you may never complete everything you want in just one trip. All six of these fee campgrounds also offer boat ramps, fish cleaning stations, playgrounds, basketball courts, and nature trails. Prairie Creek is located at 582 Prairie Creek Rd. Lowndesboro, AL 36752 and can be contacted by phone at (334)418-4919.

During the summer months I would suggest making reservations in advance due to the campground filling up with guest fast each and every weekend. There are 62 sites at Prairie Creek and 7 of them are tent sites only. There is water hook-up along with electric also. You may camp in a tent or an RV if you choose to do so. Non-water front sites are $16 a night, water front sites are $18 a night, and tent only sites are $12.

This campground is one of my favorites to camp at anytime of the year. There can be so much said about this particular one that I could go on and on all day if I chose to do so. The campground is roughly 35 miles west of Montgomery,AL and 20 miles east of Selma,AL. All you have to do to make reservations is call 877-444-6777 or go online to Recreation.Gov. I hope you enjoy your stay at one of Alabama’s most beautiful campgrounds.

Have a plan ready when all of hunting seasons have come to an end. In the South people seem to be tired a lot more in February than they were back in September of the previous year. There was the planting that took place for the fall and winter. Making sure that you had a special food plot to hunt over. Cold months rolled around and we hunted for deer, fall turkey, and even got our tails wet trying to shoot ducks. Which of course th duck thing is nothing that I have ever done but wouldn’t mind giving it a try one of these days. So after my deer season ends in January I get very tired of dragging and cleaning deer. So at this point it’s resting first while sitting on the sofa tuning in one of my favorite box calls getting ready for spring time turkey.

In Alabama I look forward to the spring for a mature gobbler. Then I also look forward to all the spring time planting that will need to be done. I would like to say that I’m a farmer but just not cows and horses but for my turkey and deer. So now I will carry you through a few steps to get yourself into farming shape for you too can be a farmer for wildlife of your choice.

Step 1. Look for land if you don’t already have any for the next season. Not only do I turkey hunt and plant in the spring but always on the lookout for new land to hunt for the next deer season.

Step 2. Plowing for the spring and getting ready is a must in my book. This is the time i will take to turn over old soil and create new. My existing food plots will require fertilizer, and lime if needed. A prescribed burn will also help before the plowing process in order to kill and wipe away dead grasses so the plowing will become more easy. Plus a burning stage will bring forth turkeys to feed on any roasted dead bugs that may be in the area.

Step 3. Building new stands for the new season and placing them out well ahead of time will also help you in more ways than one. I also will build and place in new feeding stations for deer. This will keep the deer around longer in order for you to hopefully find sheds or see new born fawns in the earl summer months. Feeding grains to deer and turkey is against the law in some states but in Alabama you can feed as long as you don’t hunt over it. By me feeding things like corn or deer pellets this will allow me to find and see what bucks have survived the last season.

Step 4. By step 4 it’s spring time and most of the plowing and planting has already been done. This is the scouting process and watching it grow process. With those of you that don’t have tons of land I suggest that you get yourself a game camera and place it out over a feeding station. Also at this point if you have not already put out minerals this would be a great time to do it for the bucks have already lost their antlers. I can also get in some last minute turkey hunting at this time as well.

So the next time all of your seasons come to an end get back out there and start over. The farming for wildlife  trends never end. It is like a cattle ranch and just keep growing. Great rewards will come with time and effort if you the hunter or outdoorsman just keep at it. Good luck this upcoming year with your own wildlife farm no matter how big or small it may be.

Alabama is a state that allows two deer a day to be taken during its entire hunting season. It’s rut can sometimes only last one week or even three or four weeks based on the weather. Alabama is a liberal state that has its game laws set up for the true sportsman. It can be a honey hole one year and then a total collapse the next. The weather here can be in the 90′s early and in the low 20′s late.

You have to know when to be in the wood’s and when that time comes you have to be there or else. Season starts mid October with bow and ends the last day of January. The rut usually here around the last two weeks of the season but has been known to come in around the first week of January and last until the first or second week of February. You may or may not see a lot of rubbing or making of scrapes until it’s too late. But when you do, get set up as soon as possible and stay there all day even.

Being ready for the rut in Alabama in advance can produce you with an excellent trophy to take home to place on your wall. I have taken some very respectable deer ranging from the 120′s to the mid 150′s during Alabama’s rut season. The one thing you have to be able to do is to set as long as possible. Stay warm, dry, and as scent free as possible. These can be your key elements to harvesting a trophy buck here in the southeast.

Over the years Alabama has become one of America’s most deer hunted places. With hunters coming in from Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and even Arkansas. The hunting here can be a strain on a hunter’s body at times based on the weather. You never know what kind of weather you will have here so be ready for anything.

Land here can be hard to find unless you know someone or can lease it from a timber company. There is also some very good public hunting here in such places as the Wildlife management Areas (WMA). Areas such as Lowndes wma, Barbour wma, and also the Black Warrior River around the Birmingham area in the north central part of the state. There has been some Boone & Crockett bucks taken off of these areas in the past.

The Black Belt region of Alabama is mainly a favorite for hunter’s that are allowed to hunt in these places. These are places such a Demoplis wma and the range of this area is mainly from parts of the Black warrior being in north to, Monroe county in the south Dallas and Sumter counties in the west. Not a lot of the Black Belt region in the eastern side. There is little of it in Crenshaw and Pike counties. The Black Belt region has produced most likely some of the states biggest deer mainly due to the farming that use to be done in these parts. There is very little big time farming left here like it use to be. You will still see some but you will also see a lot of pine plantations also now. So when you want to have your next challenge at whitetail deer hunting then plan a trip to Alabama and hope and pray for the best.

You can also visit Outdoor Alabama for more info  on the laws and regulations here. Alabama has it all for everyone to see. From its parks and lakes to its famous Alabama Quail Trail. Hope to see you soon in the great state of Alabama.

As  I  sit here on my back porch, looking out at the pond, beautiful sky, and just nature itself, i can’t help but wonder do other people see the earth the way I see it?  Do they appreciate it the way I do?

When I look out at the world, I see nothing other than an amazing creation. Creation so perfect so unique in its’ on way. If we see it why do we abuse it? Why do harm our earth with trash and/or pollution?  Nature is such an amazing thing. If you think about it, it holds so many memories, precious memories.

As I look out across the water it brings back many memories. I love nature. I find it very interesting and special.  I wonder how God could create such a masterpiece, but who am I to say he is amazing, unique, and awesome himself.

I challenge you all to look around you, around your neighborhood,  small town, or big city and see what God has blessed you with through nature. Appreciate it. It is truly amazing.