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2015 Hits and Misses

2015 Hits and Misses

I thought I’d share an overview of my 2015 hunting season. I have to tell you that this was my most exciting season to date.  It was filled with highs and lows; to quote Charles Dickins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”.

Technically, my 2015 season started with Pennsylvania’s Spring Gobbler. My nephew Brayden kicked things off by taking a bird on the morning of the state’s youth turkey season. Cory and I took a young hunter the following Saturday and Cory called in a nice tom and the young man made a fantastic shot. The hunt, “A Date With Lucky”, can be seen in our video section. I didn’t have the luck that the boys had. I chased birds all over the farm and my lease but I just couldn’t get things to work out. I had an opportunity or two, but for various reasons I just couldn’t get them on camera. The joys of trying to hunt and self film!

My archery season proved to be one part of my season that “was the worst of times”. I opened my archery season in Pennsylvania with good friend and fellow Ridge Runner, Ben Wright. It looked like it was going to be a quick hunt as I had several bucks working their way towards my tree stand, but it wasn’t meant to be. The support cables on the stand snapped, and the stand broke. Fortunately, I managed to get out of the tree safely. That tree stand incident seemed to set the tone for my entire archery season. I had a few close encounters in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but something always seemed to go wrong. The hunt that stands out most to me was the hunt I had with my brother-in-law and Ridge Runner Jamie Hicks. To make a long story short, I had a nice mature 120” buck make an appearance early that morning. I watched him slowly close the distance between us. It took him over an hour to cover 100 yards. Just when I thought my luck had changed, he lay down! I talked myself into a shot that I probably should not have attempted. Fortunately, I missed him clean.

I was able to do some traveling this past season. Ben, his girlfriend Amie, their 5 dogs, and myself hunted South Dakota and Montana. We bird hunted public land across South Dakota. My misses far outnumbered my hits but I had a blast (pun intended)! The country is absolutely beautiful. We were blessed with some incredible experiences. We have already made plans to be in South Dakota for this year’s opening day of pheasant!

Montana was a place where my hits outnumbered my misses. Ben and I hunted with Jared Albus of Milk River Outfitters. We met some amazing people and were treated like family by Jared and his staff. Ben took a big 8 pointer his first night that scored in the 140’s. I took my best buck to date the second night. My Boswell custom in .300 Win Mag performed flawlessly. (Thanks Steve)  I knew there were bigger bucks running around but I liked him and it seemed like a perfect way to end an amazing day. Ben sat with me for that evening hunt. We were like two little kids. I’m surprised we even saw a deer. We were so excited that we completely forgot to turn the camera on! We spent the next two days in Montana bird hunting. Jared and his guys are amazing. If you’re looking for a great whitetail or mule deer hunt, Milk River Outfitters is the place!

Pennsylvania’s flintlock season provided me with several opportunities; unfortunately, I had plenty of misses and zero hits. My flintlock failed to fire for many of those opportunities, but that’s flintlock hunting.

Turkey season is underway here in WV and opens soon in PA. So far it seems as if my “archery curse” is still following me; lots of close calls. Stay tuned!

Kevin “Roo” Mennett

“Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me”      Genesis  27:3