Bob Clark

What Deer Management is all About -- The Blausers of Butler County Part 4 by Bob Clark

HUNTING TOOLS

Practice shooting with bow and arrows is not just shooting.  Dick recommends that you make sure your broadheads are very sharp and your field points are the same weight.  His goal is always to make a clean one-shot kill.  Depending on which side you shoot from, left or right, remove the pocket so your string won't catch on your pocket, cause a miss or alert these wise old bucks.  Always practice wearing the same clothing you hunt with because this act alone could make the difference between success and failure.  Matching your flecking or veins to fixed bladed broadheads is very important also.

If you practice at longer reasonable distances, closer shots will be easier.  Hearing is extremely important and listen both to hunters you meet and in the woods because you might learn something that you did not find in your scouting reports.  Practice shooting sitting down, kneeling, standing and from an elevated platform.  Hunting with a rifle is about the same as archery, with the exception that you, of course, shoot at longer distances.  Sighting in your rifle is a must, and not using mismatched ammunition, which generally shoot differently is important to keep in mind.  Dick places safety as the most important part of rifle shooting and knowing the trajectory of your bullet as well as what is beyond your shot is always number one in his mind before he ever squeezes off his shot.

With slug guns, which he sometimes uses, he hunts with an Ithaca 12 gauge 3 inch magnum with sabot slugs.  His deer and bear rifle is a pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 caliber 270 and he shoots 130 grain ammunition.  His rifle is topped with a Leopold scope.  A bad weather experience in Ungavo Bay, Quebec where he experienced extreme weather conditions proved the importance of having a quality scope.  Two hunters had Leopold scopes and they were the only two that did not fog up.  I too learned this lesson about scopes long ago.  In flintlock season Dick uses a Thompson Center 50 caliber Hawken with a round ball barrel.  However, the first two deer he ever shot with flintlock was an original Kentucky rifle made circa 1840.  Dick's Dad is a major collector of Kentucky type rifles.  Many folks say he is lucky when it comes to hunting, but it seems like the harder he works at the sport of hunting, the luckier he gets.  One of his very close friends and hunting companions, Wally Carr, notes, "Luck is when the path of opportunity meets the path of being prepared".  Trophy bucks are elusive and hard to find, let alone harvest, and few chances at a true trophy require one to always be prepared using any weapon and under any conditions in the field.

HIS FATHER LEAD HIM DOWN THE HUNTER'S TRAIL

Dick Blauser comes from a family of good, if not great hunters and fishermen.  His father had thirteen brothers and sisters.  They lived on a small farm in western Pennsylvania and it is said that they never experienced the effects of the Great Depression when they were growing up.  Because of hunting and fishing, their way of life never changed.  When they went hunting, it was important to the family's food source.  (Sounds like my family in Western Pennsylvania), ammunition was expensive and every shot counted.  They relied on the weather conditions when it came to hunting and fishing.    Bill McCullough, a cousin, for example, would drop everything when trout streams began to rise.

Dick spent most of his summer months with aunts and uncles because they lived in the country.  When the families were not hunting and fishing, they picked berries and rode through the woods in an old 4X4 jeep.  They were always checking traps and oil wells.  The one thing his uncles taught him was that you never, ever, tell anyone outside the family where you had good hunting and fishing.  Killing big bucks was not important, but having success was.

As a boy growing up, Dick learned about all phases of each animal or wild turkey he hunted.  He learned all the various sounds of each animal or bird, kee kee runs, cackles, clucks, rattling horns, hunting from tree stands, cover-scents, frosty mornings, licking branches, the importance of wind directions, moon phases, and much more.  These lessons continue to contribute to his yearly successes afield.

Like many of us, he never dreamed there was so much money to be paid for knowledge of things he kept secret.  Over the years, I had had too many turkey hunters follow me into the woods as my reputation as a successful hunter increase.  Well, Pennsylvania's Master Deer Hunter has the same problems and he too has to take great care when parking his vehicle and in keeping it out of sight.  If we did not, we guarantee you that you will have lots of companions and your safety and hunt will be in jeopardy.  Dick Blauser is a very good shot (makes me proud as an old U.S. Marine), but being a good sportsman is just as important.

To Dick, hunting is an art and the more your refine each aspect of this privilege, the better hunter and person you will be.

2002 DEER SEASON PAY DIVIDENDS TO BLAUSER'S

While the Pennsylvania Game Commission was predicting a lower number of antlered bucks to be taken in the 2002 season.  The Blauser family and friends enjoyed a very good season in their 4 point (Pennsylvania Game Commission designated area) or better season.

Dick's son Craig took a 17 ¾ spread 9 point and his father, the leader of the clan who is more than 70 years old continued to show his hunting skills and shooting skills by making a clean long shot on a smart old buck carrying 9 points and 17" spread.  Paul's daughter took a fine 5-point, and other family and friends took an 8-point with a 19 ½" spread along with a number of 8-point bucks with antler spreads of 16 inches were taken within one (1) mile of the farm.

Bear season produced two (2) nice black bears, and when I left the farm on Tuesday of bear season, many wild turkeys had been seen on the property by most hunters in camp.  The Blauser deer management program has been in place for almost five (5) years and various wildlife species; both game and non-game benefit and increase each year from their efforts.

Who said it can't be done in Pennsylvania.  Once again, serious hunters that care can make a difference.  If you have private land, are you making a serious effort to enhance and improve habitat? It can be done, and you can do it. The Blausers prove that it can be done.