What's a Snood?

There were many questions that Mrs. Kopera's class had and I tried to answer them all. A snood though? This was last spring when I visited Mrs. Kopera's class at Allendale School in Melvindale.

I was there to do a turkey hunting demo. The students were really interested in turkeys and why would that be. Mrs. Kopera was selected as a teacher of the year from the National Wild Turkey Federation for her work in using the turkey as a focus of 3rd grade education. You may have seen the article about her accomplishment in the News Herald last year as I did. This led me to volunteer to do a demo on turkey hunting and as luck would have it use my experience last season with "A Hot Blond" to explain some turkey genetics.



I showed the students how I use a pop up blind when I get to a spot or locate a gobbler by using calls.

A blind is essential for hunting turkeys since they can spot movent like no other game animal. This was proven to me while hunting with my cousin Jojo who usually talks while we're hunting and uses his hands to do so. I've read where a human can see the second hand moving on a clock fairly easy while a turkey can see the minute hand moving just as easily. Another aid in tricking these birds are decoys.

Calling to the toms can bring them close but the right decoy can bring them into shotgun range which for me is about 35 yards. Sometimes it's hard to judge the range in the wild so the closer the better. This year the range was right, the gun shot straght and I got a tom. I almost didn't shoot him because at first it looked like he had a small beard.

As you can see this is a very light colored beard, blond as I would call it. One of the reasons for this could be a genetic disorder due to overcrowding, which was being covered in class. I also showed a picture of a smoke phase turkey which has a lot of white colorings. Because they don't blend in well to their suroundings they usually are the first ones to be caught by a predator. If there is overcrowding then their genes can be passed on because of safety in numbers.

It was a great time with all the students getting hands on time with the beards and my calls, right Kyle. With help from Ray's Prime Meats in Taylor all that wanted a taste of wild turkey sausage got it.

I left a turkey tail fan, a beard and wings for Mrs. Kopera to use as a teaching aid.

 However, I couldn't leave a snood. They're not very eye appealing.

Get Outdoors Downriver.



Hunt MI

The Michigan DNR is offering to help any deer hunters in Michigan find a spot to hunt and answer questions about deer hunting. For the info go to  www.michigan.gov/mihunt , here you'll find topo maps of any area in the state. Another great place to look for info is at :http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTIxMTA3LjExODUxMzAxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDEyMTEwNy4xMTg1MTMwMSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3MjQyMDU5JmVtYWlsaWQ9cHRha21AbHljb3MuY29tJnVzZXJpZD1wdGFrbUBseWNvcy5jb20mZmw9JmV4dHJhPU11bHRpdmFyaWF0ZUlkPSYmJg==&&&106&&&http://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/MIDNR/2012/11/07/file_attachments/173817/Deer%2BHunting%2BStatus%2B%2BProspects%2B2012.pdf. This covers everything from hunting regulations to the deer forcasts in your area.

Deer hunters and others interested in deer hunting in Michigan are invited to join the Department of Natural Resources at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, for “DNR Live: Deer” -- a one-hour online forum designed to answer questions from the public about the state’s deer population, hunting seasons and regulations.


The video event will stream live on the DNR’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/midnr. A Facebook account is not required to access the page and watch the livestream event.

The online forum’s panel of DNR experts will include the Wildlife Division’s deer and elk program leader Brent Rudolph and wildlife veterinarian Steve Schmitt, along with Law Enforcement Division Assistant Chief Dean Molnar.

The public is invited to post questions in advance on the DNR’s Facebook page, send via Twitter to @MichiganDNR using the hashtag #DNRlive, or email to dnr-facebook@michigan.gov, no later than 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12.

If your research comes thru you could bag a buck of a lifetime.

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Nightmare Gone but Donated.

As reported in the Indystar. A 47-year-old Brownsburg man was charged Monday with a felony and three misdemeanors in a poaching case involving a local whitetail buck so large and elusive that local hunters had nicknamed the deer "Nightmare."

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case, just after 5 a.m. Oct. 2, Tom Miller was asleep in his Fishback Road residence near Eagle Creek Park when he was jolted awake by the sound of a rifle shot.

Miller got up, hopped into his vehicle and followed a pickup to a nearby parking lot. The driver, later identified as Don Ward, told Miller he was looking for deer on his property but didn't shoot one.

Miller called Hendricks County Sheriff's Deputy Jesse Fulwider, who had permission to hunt on Miller's land and had been pursuing the giant buck there for years. Fulwider had given the 10-point buck, which weighed close to 300 pounds, the nickname Nightmare.

Fulwider found the buck's carcass on Miller's property and called Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Jeff Wells, who lives nearby.

Wells said in the affidavit he knew Ward well because he had "received previous complaints about being involved in unlawful taking of deer."

Wells confronted Ward at his home. At first, Ward denied shooting the buck, but Wells said in his affidavit that Ward later confessed after saying, "If I admit I killed it, can I keep the rack?"

Ward told The Indianapolis Star earlier this month he was so taken by the size of the deer that he couldn't stop himself from shooting it.

Wells said the meat from Nightmare was donated to a Hendricks County man who had signed up for a program to receive venison from fresh roadkills or poaching cases. The antlers are being held as evidence.

Ward is charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a Class D felony, unlawful taking of a wild animal, a Class B misdemeanor, and hunting without the consent of a landowner and hunting from a public highway, both Class C misdemeanors.

If convicted on the felony count alone, Ward could be ordered to pay up to a $10,000 fine and could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

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