With deer seasons open around the country, I figured it was time to give an update on the MBBA Executive Staff. If you need a refresher on what the MBBA is, see the post titled “The MBBA – You’re Already a Member.”

Last names have been left out to protect the ones who missed from more scrutiny than they’ve already endured. Of course, if you know the offenders, please feel free to contact them with a congratulatory laugh.

Standings as of now are:

El Presidente: Shannon. Shannon missed a doe with her compound while on an Illinois hunt a couple weeks ago. (+3)

Vice President: Lang. Lang missed a nice buck with trad equipment at the Dog Pound last week. (+1)

Treasurer: Open

Secretary: Open

General Membership: Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it – I’m still in the general membership, not having drawn on a deer so far this year. Seems I’ve been spending my time bird watching. I think I need to get an iPhone and download that bird identification app I’ve seen on the TV commercial.

If you know someone who can fill the Treasurer or Secretary positions, let me know and I’ll update the list.

… I Learned in Kindergarten.

While hunting with C.J. Davis of Chevalier Advertising on the recent Spots and Spikes Hunt 09, we set up in a blind over a food plot one afternoon and it got me to thinking: there are definitely etiquette rules that apply when hunting from a blind with a partner. So, I borrowed a title from a popular poster and consulted a few friends to come up with the list below.

1. No farting. Yep, I said it, and it couldn’t be more true. If there’s little wind, a blind can act like a giant pressure cooker, especially if it’s hot. Remember, one man’s flatulence is another man’s misery.

2. Never eat or offer food that gives you – or your hunting buddy – gas. (I found this out the hard way) See Rule 1.

3. Loud noises – talking, for instance – is absolutely not allowed for obvious reasons. See Rule 1.

4. Eating potato chips or other loud food is forbidden, especially if it gives you or your hunting partner gas. See Rule 1.

5. Primary shooter gets first choice of seating position in the blind, unless, of course, he has gas, in which case he has to sit next to the biggest window. See Rule 1.

6. Taking off your shoes/socks – or any other layer of clothing that will expose skin for that matter – is strictly prohibited unless hunting with a member of the opposite sex. Even then it must be consensual. Plus, who wants to smell your stinky feet? See Rule 1.

7. You may not question the blind location, especially if you weren’t the one who put it up. See Rule 1.

8. When all else fails refer to Rule 1.

As you can tell, Rule 1 is the primary focus here and should always remain at the forefront of your mind. Everything else revolves around Rule 1 and it should not be taken for granted. If I’ve missed a rule, please feel free to let me know. Just remember, please keep it clean.

As any hardcore bowhunter will tell you, a good set of binoculars is key whether you’re in the stand or spotting and stalking through the open plains. Unlike rifle hunters, however, stick-and-string shooters don’t have the luxury of judging a buck while aiming.

Since we choose a more primitive method of hunting – I know, primitive and binoculars in the same post, what can I say? – we must size up our trophy well before the shot.

Figure it this way: a buck walks out 100 yards away and you’ve got to decide if you need to stand up, reach for your bow and put your release on the string all the while hoping for him to maybe come your way. Whereas with a good set of optics, you can size up your target and go back to playing Brick Breaker on your phone when you realize that 150 you thought – hoped? – walked out was actually a 95. (Trust me, it’s happened.)

And while there are quite a few good optics companies out there, my choice is Nikon. After field-testing many a pair of binos and even a few spotting scopes, my personal preference is the Nikon Monarch Xs I carry on every outing.

By nature, I’m hard on my optics. C.J. Davis, Nikon PR guy, knows this all too well. He was kind enough to loan me a pair of 8X Monarch Xs to use this year and I’ve already lost one of the little lens covers. (Hopefully, I can find a replacement somewhere.) I also carry the binoculars rain or shine and they’ve definitely taken a beating. But whatever I tend to look at, which, this year, seems to be a lot of birds, always comes through crystal clear.

I’m also not educated enough in optics to tell you if my 8.5s will allow more or less light than the 10s, but luckily C.J. is:

“One big factor in determining light transmission is the size of the exit pupil. The larger the exit pupil, the more light it allows through to your eye. To determine how much light is transmitted, you simply divide the objective diameter by the power. So, for an 8 X 42 bino, you’d divide 42 by 8, which gives you 5.25. On a 10 X 42, it’s 4.2. Therefore an 8X bino will allow more light transmission than a 10X, with all else being equal. Now coatings and glass quality among other things influence light transmission, too, so going by exit pupil is only effective when comparing similar binos. Also, keeping your optics clean and scratch-free will keep it ‘brighter’ longer as well.”

Regardless of the math, I do know this: I can see perfectly fine looking through my binos after shooting light. Not that I’d shoot after dark or advocate doing so….I just like to see what’s out there before I climb down the tree.

I also tend to have a hard time keeping my binoculars steady when I’m in the stand for some reason. Maybe it’s because most of the trees I choose to climb are small enough that a stiff breeze takes my breath away. Call me an adrenaline junky, or just crazy. Either way, it always seems I choose the worst possible tree to climb. Anyway, the Monarch Xs I carry seem to compensate for my lack of tree-choosing ability and the image on the other end is always steady and doesn’t shake nearly as bad as I do. Go figure.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new line of Nikon optics, I’d highly suggest you visit their Web site and take a look. You can find all the specs you would ever want to know there.

Last week, I spent three days bowhunting with Nikon PR guy C.J. Davis here in South Carolina. We hunted several of his honeyholes during a hunt I dubbed the MBBA Spots and Spikes Hunt 09, all without success. But while I didn’t manage to connect on a four-legged critter, I did manage to produce some Coffey Break fodder. This one’s long, but you’ll enjoy it.

On the first afternoon of the hunt, I was placed in a lock-on stand at a spot I affectionately named the Dog Pound some time back. And while it was a sturdy stand in construction and had plenty of support to hold my weight, it’s what happened in the stand that made the evening miserable.

First, on the way to the stand, C.J. looked me dead in the eye and asked: “How are you with heights?” Once I got to the tree and gazed into the stratosphere where this stand was hung — now fully understanding why C.J.’s tone was so serious — my gaze fell onto the tree steps that seemed to be constructed in somewhat of a weird way. It seems as though whoever put the step sticks together placed one section upside down so the person climbing had to adjust his step routine midway up the tree. It went something like this: right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, left foot, left foot, step onto platform with your left foot, of course. That’s a little exaggerated, obviously, but you get the point.

The stand itself is another matter. In all my days hunting, I’ve never seen one similar…or possibly older. The platform was a “V” shape, with the skinny end of the “V” attached to the tree. That’s normal, obviously, for any lock-on stand. What’s not normal is the fact that at its widest point, my feet were touching each other when placed side-by-side and wasn’t much longer than my 9.5s. No worries, right? All I had to do was make sure of my footing if I stood up.

As I triple-checked my safety harness and cinched it up a bit for the third time, I went through my normal routine of placing my bowholder in the tree. I had borrowed one from C.J. as I was trying to lighten my load some and the one I had was too heavy and cumbersome to carry in my safety vest. The one he loaned me was ideal: short, small and fit perfectly into one of the easily accessible zip pockets on my vest. (You know the type I’m talking about: it’s basically a hook you’d use to hang a coiled extension cord in your garage.) Anyway, the bowholder went into the tree without incident and I hauled my bow up, nocked an arrow and attached my release to the D-loop.

At this point, I tried to sit down. Now, the seat on this particular 1960s era stand was a canvas material that folded up against the tree when the shooter stood. The two bars holding the canvas seat ran perpendicular to your legs, so you were sitting with your butt in a sling. As it turns out, the old cliché couldn’t have been more literal for me.

It was at this point I noticed the bowholder was in the wrong place. Although it held my bow securely to the tree, it made the bow sit almost flush with the bark and I had inadvertently placed the holder too close to the seat, so if I wanted to sit down, I would have the bow resting on my shoulder the entire night. Now I was in a pickle. I could take my arrow off the string, remove my release, tie the pull rope back to the bow’s top limb, lower the bow and readjust the holder, rinse and repeat. Or, I could simply remove the bow, place it on the canvas seat and try to readjust the holder without lowering the bow. Guess which one I chose? Yep. And I bet you can see where this is going, can’t you? Thought so.

While trying to pin my bow against the tree with my left knee, using my left hand as support around the tree, trying not to fall off the platform and test out the weight restriction of my safety harness AND trying to reposition the holder – one handed mind you – the small holder fell from my grasp and hit the leaves at the base of the tree.

Tired yet? I was. Since I had already made enough noise to scare everything within earshot I did the next logical thing and put my bow on my lap and licked my wounds, thankful it wasn’t the bow that took a long fall. About an hour later, as my legs were numb below my the base of my cheeks and my feet started to tingle, I realized I should’ve just taken the long way and lowered my bow to try and readjust the holder.

The best part of the situation? I didn’t see a deer. Another hunter did today from that exact stand though, and the buck he missed was a bruiser.

The final tally for the inaugural MBBA Spots and Spikes Hunt 09 was a total of four deer seen – all in one afternoon – no arrows slung and more than 12 hours on stand. If you do the math…well, let’s just say it’s pretty pathetic, even by South Carolina standards. The weird part is, we hunted great spots. There was plenty of sign around and you could clearly see there had been recent deer activity.

On the last day of the hunt, C.J.’s buddy Patrick gave us the keys to his personal hunting spot and allowed us to choose our stands. He showed us the map and gave us the skinny on where the deer were probably moving to and from. The weather broke, finally, and sure enough the deer moved an hour before dark.

I saw three deer that afternoon – two does and a buttonhead – but couldn’t get a clear shot. They came to about 48 yards before a doe somehow spotted me. Although I hadn’t moved, the stand I sat was situated in a pine tree that was, no lie, about the size of my thigh. Given that fact, I probably stuck out, literally, like a camouflaged sore thumb. Needless to say, the doe didn’t come into range, but she also didn’t blow at me, so I figured I might have another chance. Darkness rolled in, however, without another deer seen and the hunt ended without event.

All in all, we had a great time, even though the deer weren’t cooperating. A big thanks to C.J. and Nikon for the invite and another big thanks to Patrick for allowing us to stink up his personal honeyhole.

Keep checking back throughout the week, as I’ll be posting as much as possible. Posts will include the Bowholder Boogaloo, Blind Etiquette and a product review on the new Nikon Monarch X binos I had the opportunity to check out.

Unfortunately, the weather break we were hoping for hasn’t come through for the remainder of the MBBA Spots and Spikes Hunt 09. Drizzling rain and all around wet conditions continued throughout the second day of the hunt and carried into the final hunts.

Last night, C.J. and I sat a blind on a property I’ve dubbed simply “Oz.” The name originated last year as I’ve known about the deer haven for some time, but had yet to be invited to hunt it. To me, the property was like the imaginary land Dorothy was transported to in the Wizard of Oz. Unlike Dorothy, however, I was trying to get into Oz, not out. And, when it finally happened, I figured we’d at least see a deer, but my hopes were dashed as the evening came to a close. So far, the closest either of us has been to a deer was when C.J. was blown at on this morning’s hunt.

We’ve got another shot at it tonight and hopefully, one of us will let an arrow fly. Check back next week to read how the hunt ended and to read a post about etiquette when hunting a blind. (Yes, there is such a thing.)

As mentioned in my previous post, yesterday was the first day of what I’ve dubbed the “MBBA Spots and Spikes Hunt 09.” I gave it this name for no other reason than I like the alliteration and seeing as how I’m a life member of the MBBA, thought it would be good PR. Hunting with good friend and Nikon PR guy C.J. Davis, we’re in search of the elusive South Carolina whitetail. So far, we’ve got goose eggs.

Other than the temperature, the weather has been anything but cooperative. It rained, literally, the entire day yesterday and although not raining today, the wind seems to be making us the butt end of a cruel joke. This morning, for instance, we were supposed to have a strictly 5 mph northeast wind, but as we pulled into a spot I aptly named the Dog Pound, we watched as the wind indicator in the tree show a northeast, southeast, northwest then southwest wind. At one point – I kid you not – the wind blew in all four directions simultaneously. I seriously could not make this stuff up. Needless to say, neither of us saw anything.

There’s definitely more to the hunts, such as the Bowholder Boogaloo I played yesterday afternoon in the stand, but, there’s plenty of time for that story – and many more I’m sure – when the hunt’s over. Until then, I’ll keep updating on our successes, or more likely, our failures.

I’m in a rut. Not “the” rut, rather “a” rut. And it’s not good. My rut consists of not seeing any deer. I had the chance to hunt quite a bit over the weekend and needless to say, it was a challenge to bring myself to hunt in the hot, muggy weather.

It gets kinda frustrating as a hunter to bring yourself to sit a stand or blind knowing the chances of seeing a deer are slim. Even more frustrating is when you know the odds are in your favor with weather, stand placement, etc., and you still see nada. I guess that’s why we hunt though. For me, it’s not as much the thrill of the kill as it is the thrill of the unknown. Of course you can up your odds with food plots, lots of scouting, putting your stand on known travel routes, etc., but in reality, you never know what’s going to come walking by. One thing’s for sure: deer gotta make a living just like the rest of us and the only thing you’ll see sitting on the couch watching Food Network is how to make a red wine reduction and rosemary polenta.

On a related note, I’m going to up my odds the rest of the week by hunting with my good friend C.J. Davis of Chevalier Advertising. I’ll be trying out the new Nikon Monarch X binoculars and the ThermaScent dispenser by ThermaCELL. What “rut” we have here in South Carolina should be closing in and hopefully one of us can connect on a nice buck this week. Check back later in the week as I’ll be updating daily and hopefully will have some trophy shots to show off.

This is a long one, so bear with me; You’ll get a kick out of it.

While hanging a stand at my buddy’s property the first weekend in September, I was maneuvering the truck around the cut lanes so I could head out when I hit something. I figured it was a small rock under the tire or something of the sort and didn’t think about it again. On my way home that night, however, I heard a noise coming from the undercarriage of the truck, stopped, crawled under the truck and found nothing. Then I forgot about it.

Since my wife, Leanne, typically drives the truck to take our son, Drew, to school, I hadn’t been in the vehicle for a week or so. The first time I drove it after that weekend, I heard the noise again. So again, I stopped the truck, got out, crawled under, looked and saw nothing. (This makes twice. Keep count because I promise it gets better.)

This same scenario happened every time I drove the truck: drive, stop, check under the truck, nothing, back in and down the road. Not knowing a heck of a lot about vehicles, I figured I hit a rock, knocked something lose in the muffler and it was vibrating when I drove. But, the noise wasn’t constant. The truck wasn’t shifting hard so I didn’t think it was the transmission, either. I was flabbergasted to say the least, but yet didn’t do anything about it…until last weekend, a full month after the original incident.

Leanne wasn’t too happy about the noise and since I wanted her to be happy, I figured it was a wise move to take it in Saturday. There’s a nice guy named Lenny at the local Aamco who did some work for me in the past, so I took the truck up there Saturday to have it checked out.

Lenny drove the truck for about 5 minutes, brought it in, put it on the rack and then came and got me in the lobby about 10 minutes later. Now, Lenny is an older guy, probably mid-50s, serious looking, in great shape and doesn’t look like the kind of guy you’d want to mess with. In my experience, he doesn’t smile too much, so when he got out of the truck suppressing a smirk, I wasn’t sure what to think.

“Figured out what was wrong,” he said as he crawled out of the driver’s seat, still suppressing that smirk. He walked to the back of the truck and pulled out…a stick. But not just any stick. This stick was so long that it wouldn’t fit in the bed of the truck sideways. It was at least 4 feet long and a good half-inch in diameter. I had crawled under that truck no fewer than six times, so tell me how in the world I missed a 4-foot-long limb rubbing against my drive shaft?

With stick in hand, Lenny grinned from ear to ear. Now, to his credit, he didn’t say a word to me about it. No ribbing, no jokes, nothing. As I slid into the driver’s seat, I saw Lenny walking around the corner, using the limb as a walking stick, strutting. I could tell from the back of his head he was still smiling.

I pulled out of the parking lot, leaving my pride and ego behind and drove home…without any noise.

Although the old logo kinda fit the idea of the Muddy Broadhead Bowhunters Association, we decided to get a professional to design one for us. Our thoughts were MBBA members deserved only the best.

MBBA member Ryan Kirby – illustrator extraordinaire, design whiz and all around good guy – was nice enough to put something together for the good of the order. Although, it did take some prodding from the board of directors to get it done for the right price.

So here it is: the new, official, MBBA logo. Keep an eye out for it as you surf the net when you’re supposed to be working. If you want to learn more about the MBBA, check out my post from Sept. 15 and you’ll learn all about it. You can even see the old logo on that post. And yes, even though I designed the old logo, I’ll be the first to admit the new one is better.