March 28, 2024

The last three weeks have been a blur for me as you know my wife and I welcomed our second child Creighton Welles. I killed my biggest buck to date and just returned from incredible duck hunt with one of my good friends.

The birth of your child is one of those moments when you step back and put things into perspective and are thankful for the things that you have and take time to cherish the small things in life. We all want our family’s to be healthy and to be successful in life and our careers. This is not possible for everyone.

We also as hunters want to be successful in the field. Sometimes this isn’t always possible. Don’t ever take the moments a field for granite. Enjoy connecting with nature. You never know if this will be the day you connect with that deer of a lifetime or limit out in the duck blind.

My wife has been very helpful during the hunting season allowing me to continue to hunt with our new addition at home. I made the decision to only hunt morning or evenings after my son was born. So November 3 I got out of bed and headed to the deer stand hoping to connect on a buck here in Ohio. It had been a slow week and really had not seen much movement over the past 3 weeks. At 8:42am I had not seen any deer all morning so I decided to blind grunt and see if anything would react to the grunt call. Out of nowhere this deer jumped a blown down tree and was standing 15 yards to my left. I slowly drew my Hoyt back and let my Muddy arrow equipped with a G5 Montec CS do its work. The deer went less than 50 yards.

I am very fortunate that the DNR here in Ohio has some great controlled hunt opportunities. My buddy and I were selected to go to Magee Marsh in Northwest Ohio for a duck hunt on November 12. These control hunts limit the amount of shells you can use to 25 per guy which means you have to be more selective with your shots and also helps eliminate sky busting. We had great weather 20-30 mile winds temps in the 40’s and driving rain. This was a duck hunters dream. We took 10 birds before we ran out of shells.

Always remember to give back to nature and to your family. Enjoy those special moments and always tell your loved ones how much they mean to you and that you love them.

Happy Hunting and Be Safe!

Chris Travers

Proud Father and Average Hunter

SaltLife.com