Thursday, November 14, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
There is no doubt whatsoever that I am hopelessly addicted to the mystical flight of the arrow. And as addictions go, this one is a doozy and oh so good for you!
Archery, almost like God, family, country, freedom and rock-n-roll plays a huge role in my American Dream of life, liberty and constant pursuit of happiness.
That being said, right up there with the endless thrills of bowhunting the majestic deer of America comes my fascination and love of marksmanship and its ultimate aim small miss small application of firearms deerhunting.
As I slam this little NugeBlog ditty on the 13th day of November 2019, I am just two days away from what many of us still believe is the defining magical moment in the deerhunting lifestyle-altogether now, say HALLELUJAH like ya mean it, for November 15 is Opening Day of the Michigan gun season, and I am as or more excited to Carpe that diem than I ever have been in 71 seasons!
Thursday, November 7, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Somewhere along the beautiful forested banks of the Tittibawasee River, somewhere in the big deerwoods of Northern Michigan, maybe it was near Grayling, maybe Gaylord, maybe Gladwin in classic Americana deer country, young 10 month old Theodore Anthony Nugent entered the glorious world of deercamp, and my American Dream deerhunting trajectory was written in stone.
Lucky lucky me huh!
Jettison forward at a breakneck pace lightyears into fall 2019, and here I am again, celebrating one of life’s most thrilling experiences, my 71st deercamp!
Those earliest of years were in many ways totally different, but in the most important ways, exactly the same.
Let me explain; before I really got the deerhunting bug, say around the age of 12 or 13, deercamp was an annual short window of opportunity getaway that we all eagerly looked forward to.
Deercamp was a distant destination that entailed much planning and a serious family excursion from our Detroit home far, far away to the Great North.
From the concrete jungle, fast paced Motorcity industrial revolution Arsenal of Democracy cityscape to the soul cleansing primal scream of big timber wilderness was not just a topographical journey, but surely a psychological adventure as well.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Well happy happy Halloween everybody! Surely everybody knows that Halloween day is one of the best deerhunting days in North America! Not only does vast unsolicited testimony and anecdotal evidence support this self-evident truth, but even the record books are replete with probably more beast entries on Halloween than any other day of the year!
Backstrap trick or treat like you mean it!
The exciting end of October is a virtual explosion of increased wildlife activity all around, but most importantly it signals the unleashing of the November critter firestorm of rutting insanity, and God knows we all deerly love the eruption of unleashed critter firestorm rutting insanity, do we not!
In my more than 60 years of gungho deerhunting, I think I have only missed a handful of Halloween days afield, due in my teenage years to the hyper rock-n-roll touring schedule that I had not yet figured out how to properly prioritize my sacred hunting time.
Then there were a few Halloweens where Ma Nature had a tizzy fit and threw massive snotfest rainstorms into our lives and kept us frustratingly under wraps.
October 31, 2018 was a day to remember, that’s for sure! I was nestled in my high-ridge ladderstand in the glory of the Michigan color peak with ace VidCamDude Ethan Whisker, and a good hour before losing camera light I glimpsed shadowy movement in the dense puckerbrush where the cattail and reedgrass marsh melded into the mature timberground way off yonder.
Bino’s instantly identified a hulk of a bulk of a blubberbuck stud strolling with purpose off to our north, and in one fell predator ballet swoop I was able to range a beachball size hole in the understory at 61 yards, come to fulldraw, burp out a half-ass doe bleat and launch my 400grain deathray up, over and arching on a mission of mercy square into the buckzilla chest cavity with a resounding WHACK!
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Scouting my sacred wildgrounds and shooting my Mathews every day are nearly as exciting as hunting my wildgrounds. It is this year-round nonstop scouting that teaches me much about critter activity and the always changing travel patterns to better zero in on my most advantageous ambush location.
And of course, my samurai mystical flight of the arrow addiction is not only thrilling beyond words, but essential in remaining ONE with the path of my arrow for clean kills and backstrap joys!
And so it was on this magic fall day 2019 as I carefully snuck up on my chosen treestand setup for the afternoon bowhunt, that the Great Spirit was riding along on my shoulders to assist in my predator/conservation duties.
I don’t know about you, but my predator radar glows bright orange DefCom1 fulltime the minute I make the decision to hunt, sucking in every minute detail of the energized wild world around me, even as I slowly stalk through the woods, across the creek, into the marsh edge and up the final ridge to my tree.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Happy happy October everybody! Ain’t it grand! Ain’t it special! Ain’t it wonderful! Ain’t it beautiful! Ain’t it ours!
Celebrate October 2019 every day like you mean it! I guarantee I’m going to!
Many hunters around the world kicked off the season back in August and September, but you have to admit, there is something rather special about the effervescent month of October.
Since my earliest youth, October 1st always represented that much anticipated magic opening day of our Michigan bowseason, and it was celebrated with mucho gusto by the Nugent family and the growing army of deerhunting archers inspired by his majesty, Mr. Fred Bear.
So many states have initiated earlier openers and I not only fully support such increased opportunities, but I fight like mad to create such increased attractions for hunter retention and recruitment in every state.
The more opportunities, bang for your buck so to speak, the better for the future of conservation participation across America.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
I may as well have been deep in the bowels of primordial Africa, stalking a jungle ridge hunting for lions or elephants. The goosebumps on my goosebumps were proof of my inner tingling and borderline uncontrollable excitement.
But I wasn’t in Africa, and there were no lions, tigers, elephants or bears anywhere nearby.
I was sitting quietly atop a glacier cut ridgeline above my sacred Michigan swamp, nestled beneath a towering forest of mature oaks, maples, hickory, beach, cherry, tulip poplars and various deciduous and coniferous hardwoods and softwoods, trusty old Remington Model 41 TargetMaster .22 bolt rifle in hand, scouring the leafy canopy for those pesky bushytails of my youth.
Squirrel hunting! Lord I love squirrel hunting!
I hunt squirrels with my Mathews bow, an old Remington single-shot rifle, a Smith & Wesson .22 revolver, a shotgun and my daily carry Glock 10mm.
And I love it all.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
I gaze lovingly at the mounted button buck and the small doe fawn side by side on my cabin wall.
You want to talk about trophies! I remember every soul stirring detail of those two exciting deerkills way back in the 1960s, and though both deer are as small as legal deer can be, they both represent the essence of my thrilling hunting life.
I think the most amazing memory of all is the shock and dismay on the taxidermist’s face when I brought the little boogers in to be mounted.
He literally couldn’t believe I wanted to pay to have such non-trophy deer mounted, but eventually came to understand my genuine excitement and happiness in finally accomplishing my hunting goal of bagging a deer.
As I state constantly on my Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show for the past 31 years and in all my media interviews celebrating the perfect hunting lifestyle, when approached with a proper mindset and with the proper heart of a hunter-conservationist, every hunt should be all about fun, sport, meat and trophy.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Gamey! You’re darn tootin my venison is gamey! That’s exactly why it is celebrated around the world as the most desirable, delicious, nutritious, natural, organic, healthy food on planet earth.
Let us all dedicate ourselves to destroy the bastardization of the once glowingly positive term gamey!
Gamey does not mean nasty, rancid or yucky! Originally when describing wild game meat, the term gamey was universally worldwide considered the ultimate positive compliment anyone could use to describe how special and delicious venison is.
Somewhere along the line as mankind migrated away from the independent hunting lifestyle of self-sufficiency and rugged individualism, some hunters became increasingly nonchalant and disconnected from the spiritual respect for the animals we hunt and became less considerate on how they handled the hard-earned carcass.
That’s when they messed up and foolishly allowed urine, body fluids, bile, guts and all sorts of flavor destroying guck to infect the meat.
Somebody somewhere took a bite of irresponsibly mishandled venison and got a suckerpunch of nastiness that turned them off from the flesh of game.
Knowing that they had a bad taste experience with game meat, they kneejerkingly pronounced they didn’t like the gamey punch of venison.
And it all went downhill from there.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
Recruit Retain Reactivate is known as the 3R battlecry for the future of conservation in America. With the tragic, and what I believe to be the self-inflicted decline in hunter numbers across the country over the years, if those of us who truly cherish this extraordinary American conservation heritage and vital lifestyle fail to step up and get cracking to reverse this scourge like we mean it, believe me when I tell you, all is lost.
I know all about the dramatic change in the geographical population drift from rural to urban. We all know about the intentional dumbing down of America by leftwing dingbats in academia, media, Hollywood and government to deny the necessity of annual hunting season harvests. It is painfully apparent that certain technological advances in the world have attracted more and more sedentary homebodies to avoid the great outdoors.
There are many dynamics at play against us here, but I am convinced that with a genuine, united effort by those of us who care, these unacceptable cultural suicidal trends can be reversed forthwith.
More powerful than those negative forces noted above are two areas that we can attack and fix rather expeditiously if strategized effectively.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
By: Ted Nugent
I hunt, therefor I am. I hunt because I am a hunter. Pure and simple. I am nature as pure as the wind itself. Like Cochise, Sitting Bull, Davy Crocket, Jeremiah Johnson, Fred Bear and Crazy Horse, I am but the humble conservation servant of the almighty Creator. Nature is perfect and hunting is perfect. Celebrate it and promote it every day everywhere to everyone.
Nature should not be a spectator sport, but rather a gungho participatory dedication. Be one with her spirit and pulse.
As The Season approaches, we prepare to plunge spirit-first into that magical time of renewal, a time to return to the life giving pulse of God’s miraculous creation as a genuine dedicated hands on participant, fulfilling the natural tooth, fang and claw call of the wild stewardship responsibility that burns afire in our bellies.
It is time to kill.
