I started hunting a 160 acre tract of land in the Pogo community when I was 14. It was owned by a friends (Darrell Stricklands) grandparents. It was a fairly rugged tract of mostly beautiful hardwood timber,with some nice,old growth pine mixed in. There was a really pretty,big,long hardwood hollow with a nice,gravel bottomed stream that flowed year round. Big ridge tops and rock outcroppings with near vertical south facing slopes. Pristine.. Me,Darrell,Thomas Scott,Doug Liles,Sean Liles,Andy Robinson,Paul Massey,Stan Cox,and several,several more spent time there... Not much killing,but just starting to learn about deer hunting. Boys being boys... A few of us pooled our money and built a small camp.. Then we added on to it a couple years later. We had a wood heater,bunk beds,and a roof... Very rudimentary,but we loved it... As a goof,I nicknamed it Pogo Safari Club... The name stuck. I still have people mention it to me over 30 years later. I didnt kill my first deer there,but I experienced many firsts there. Took my first&only bobcat there. Lots of bobcats there. Couldve taken several more,but elected not to. Took my first coyote there. Saw a covey of quail with probably 40 birds,march under my tree stand one afternoon... Noisy!! Watched a raccoon catching crawfish in the branch one morning. First and only time I ever found where two bucks had fought..tearing up a 50 sq ft of food plot and finding 5 or 6 broken antler tips. One morning I was in my stand before light when I heard something approaching... It was too dark to see,but I could hear it walk all the way up to the tree I was in. I could make out a faint shadow of something circling around and around the base of the tree. I had no idea what it could be... I quietly and slowly dug my flashlight out of my pocket and flipped it on... Two gray foxes,and one of them was standing,front legs on the tree,looking up like it had treed a squirrel... Haha! I turned the light off and they quietly faded away as the sun came up. Id see these foxes dozens of times over the next few years. Id see them. Theyd see me. Neither of us ever bothered the other. Bobcats cover their poop,just like domestic cats... Saw that once too... Paul Massey shot at,and missed,an albino buck there once... I saw a pie-bald deer there,(only one Ive ever seen) the following day,but didnt get a shot at it... First time I ever rattled in,and killed a buck was there... I trained my only squirrel dog,Joe there... He reared up on many a mountain oak and white oak on those hillsides and ridges... Saw the best deer Ive ever laid eyes on over there one frosty morning,..but never had a shot on him... As years went by,the timber was harvested,and everybody grew up,got busy with jobs,school,or family,and or moved away... Everybody except me. The cabin eventually fell into disrepair,and was overtaken by sumac bushes and pine saplings... The Stricklands allowed me to keep hunting it,pretty much by myself for several more years,and I probably took 40 deer off the place. After we bought this place in 2004,I gave the Pogo Safari Club up... The 60 acres weve got here,combined with adjoining neighbors that are gracious enough to let me hunt their land,gives me lots more acreage,all within walking distance of my front door... Now I know every ridge,hollow,swag,hump,stump hole,branch,dead tree,funky tree,rock bluff,lichen covered slope,and deer trail on this new stomping ground... I love it here,and I feel like I belong right here,but Ill always remember leaving school,with our rifles and shotguns already in our vehicles,headed to Pogo. The laughter of 15 year old boys around a wood heater,telling jokes we shouldnt have been telling,..cutting the tails off shirts and bills off caps when we missed a deer,and eating bologna sandwiches and drinking Coca-Colas.... I guess that time&place was my version of Stand By Me...
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:25:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015