Red Bluff Lodge

Hogzilla's cousin? - And 3 X 2 = 7 (sometimes)

It's definitely deer season, but the hogs must not have read the memo:

Merle Brown (TN) got this GREAT big piggie this morning - it weighed a solid 300 pounds and, remarkably, had all 4 of its tusks intact. They measured a full 2 1/2 inches long. Its two front hooves were white, and it had a white spot on its nose, but no blaze. What a great hunt! It was feeding in the corn early when he went out to his stand, and came right back once he got up and settled. After the shot, it ran a small distance so Merle had to wait for the dog to be sure it was down. No worries, though, he made a great shot. Here's another view:

What a way to start the day. In other news, Mike Kuring (GA) scored with this hog over the weekend. He has great luck with us!

HIs lovely daughter, Nicole, took this picture. She then informed him that next time, she wants to be the 'triggerman'. Now for 3 X 2 = 7:

Sometimes here at Red Bluff our math is a little bit off. We can't help it. A few weeks before deer season opened, we hosted Team Pokrivka (NC) for a hog only hunt. Three hunters, times a 2 day hunt, equaled 7 hogs! See, we can't help it when our sums don't work out---but I don't think they minded. A couple of pics:

Richard (RP) Pokrivka poses here with a nice one; below is Wayne Cruthis with an evening hog:

More soon....

It's Miller Time!

Last night was a fun one for all of us here at Red Bluff. Rick Miller (PA) and his son Hayden both scored nice velvet bucks; the first kill for Hayden, and Rick's first velvet deer.

Here's a great 'ceremony' shot of Jim, Rick and Hayden:

Now for some individual shots:

Father & Son in one stand + 2 shots = 1 great memory!

The picture says it all; oh and the apocalypse is upon us...

This note, posted on our walk-in cooler, attests to the exhaustion level of our skinning crew, led by the most able Ralph Fuller.

Here's sure proof that the apocalypse approaches:

This great 9-pointer was taken by JOHN HAMILTON; that's right, after years and years of (semi) patient waiting, Johnny Ham scores. Just a bit of excitement around the skinning shed when this one came in. It weighed 160 pounds and had a spread of 16 1/2 inches. As we say down here, Yee-haw!

We've also had some great first deer here at Red Bluff:

We love father/son hunting teams here at Red Bluff. Here is a beaming Jack Morgan with his son Michael, who shot this great 8-point along with this 40 pound hog in the same sitting. I'm not sure who was more excited...

Casey Allison here proudly shows us the fruit of his night of hunting. First, he shot this 4-point, then this neat 9-point. Check out the kicker on the left antler--The deer had an injured front leg on the opposite side and the rack had more trash than you can even tell from this picture. It was very thick and palmated also. What an exciting night!

Here are a few more pictures from our whirlwind week:

Check out the great tusks on this boar! Tracey Mummert (PA) was excited to harvest this in the swamp.

Here's a cool-looking hog, with a great red coloration, taken by Jarrid Lowe of Greenville, SC. Boy, what a trip those Greenville guys are (psst - Reamer says HI! - $)

I usually don't put pictures in without doing the photo styling myself (tongue tucked in, etc.), but I felt like Bac'n Bits really needed a shout out...

More later...

There's a Velvet Elvis joke in here somewhere....

Turns out that the anniversary of Elvis' untimely demise falls each year right next to the opening day of deer season. I've tried all day, but can't come up with a witty one liner that ties in our velvet season. Any ideas out there?

Speaking of velvet, here's a great one taken last night by Henry Fischer of Florida:

This great 11-point had a 17 1/2 inch spread! And get this, it wasn't the biggest of the 35 or so deer that he saw last night. The largest of the bucks never stepped out for a decent shot. One more view:

Our hunters also harvested an additional 4 deer and 4 hogs. Here's one of the hogs:

More tomorrow....