Red Bluff Lodge

March Madness

For us, March is not about basketball - rather, it is all about turkeys. Beginning March 1st all of the male members of our household and staff get rather antsy, start dragging out progidous amounts of camoflauge clothing, and blowing increasingly irritating calls on wingbones, box calls, diaphragms...

When the 15th actually rolls around, it is truly a relief to be able to push them out of the door (and to lock it behind them....for a few hours, anyway).

Thank heavens that we struck gold on that first day. All of the pent-up anticipation was relieved, and life became much more bearable:

Dustin "Gotta Go' Horn scored early on the morning of the 15th - good thing, because he never seems to have the time to stay longer than about 18 hours or so. Must be nice to be so in demand....

 See the relief on Jim's face? Those long days full of turkey calling and gear arrangement are worth it!

2009 Season Wrapup

Greeting from the new decade! Last year was nothing if not interesting....we're so lucky to have such wonderful and loyal clients. The economy certainly made us all refocus; we've always been dedicated to providing an escape for our hunters from their daily stresses and fast paced lives. This year that became more important than ever.

While our hunting volume was down by a good 20%, we couldn't be more thankful for the 80% that kept us going - it was pure kismet that sent us alligator season this year to plug some gaps and keep the engine running.  Our outlook remains positive as we all take a deep breath and look forward to a strong 2010!

Our deer harvest statistics:

• Total: 268 deer
• Bucks: 173
• Adult Bucks: 57
• Bucks over 15" antler spread - 21
• Antlerless deer: 95

We also harvested 69 hogs, 14 turkeys and 17 alligators.

We're working on our new brochure and on picking out pictures to enlarge for our show booth. Here are a couple favorites so far:

Mark Allison (NC) got this (almost) albino wild hog in the middle of December. While we regularly shoot hogs with white spots, and sometime a couple of white hooves, this is the first to be almost completely white. He was just a thickly haired as a black hog, but the hair was super pale. Let's call him Marilyn (not Mark, the hog)!

Here's a happy family from New York! Aaron Lagassee got this great buck on his last morning hunt, and I'm not sure who's happier - Aaron or his dad. Hmmm, the brother doesn't look QUITE as tickled...just kidding, they all were SO fun to have in camp and had a great hunt.

For my last shot, I just had to put Stumpy back in. This picture was the one to best show his size. What an adventure for all of us to start taking customers alligator hunting this year! And Jim truly earned the nickname "Captain Hook" on a certain September night....

Here's wishing all of you a great year! Come see us in Harrisburg, PA the first two weekends in February, or in Suffern, NY the first weekend in March! 

Turkey Season 2008

Sadly, today is the last day of turkey season, but it sure has been a great one! All of our pictures are posted in the 2008 turkey harvest photo album to the right of this page. Check it out to see all of the great birds our hunters took this year.

John K. (PA) with the last bird taken of the year - here gets no respect from our kids (that is Ashley's hand in 'bunny ears' over his head). We had a blast with John, who got to be here with us for a whole week.

Talkin' Turkey

Finally, we've been hooked up to a high(er) speed internet connection, so we're ready to tackle new posts and to load new pics! Our turkey season this year was excellent! The weather was springlike--which is to say unpredictable and variable, with occasional days of perfection. The gobblers were out in full force, so right to the pictures:

On the first day of the season, Jack Morgan got his first turkey; a nice 17.75 pounder with a 9 3/4 inch beard that scored 59.125 on the NWTF scale. It was an exciting morning of hunting with Adam Sleap as his guide.

That same morning, Rick McElveen scored with this nice gobbler that weighed almost 20 pounds, had a 10 3/4 inch beard and scored 61.25 on the NWTF scale. He was guided by the one and only Danny Hackney.

Just a couple of days later, on March 18th, on of our young hunters got his first turkey. He was on a turkey/hog combo hunt with his family to celebrate his 9th birthday. His first visit to us was when he was 2, so we've really had the opportunity to watch him grow up from year to year and always have the best time when his family visits:

Justin's turkey, taken while hunting with his father and Mike Cantrell as his guide will surely be a special memory to all.

On March 22nd, two of our hunters bagged gobblers:

"Doc" Shafer here with his 17 pound, 12 oz. gobbler, and

Roger Love who hunted with Adam Sleap and bagged this 18# 5 oz. bird.

Overall, we harvested 18 birds this turkey season. For all of the pictures, as well as the details on each hunt, please check out our Turkey 2007 Photo Gallery on the right.

Yeah, we still hunt....

Amidst all of the construction hubbub, we've still found the time to hunt. With turkey season in full swing, and with hogs always on the 'menu', our hunters have had quite a bit of action during March. Here are some of the shots we've gotten:

Russ Zumbrom got his first hog on March 2nd - it weighed 180 pounds. Nice job!

Mike Kuring, who has just awesome luck, got this 160 pounder the same night, and another 135 pounder the next night!

Rounding out the harvest that night, Brent Peters (one of our builders) got this, his first hog, which weighed 100 pounds.

Then, Bolivia lumber rolled into town:

Fred Garner got this great 180# hog on the evening of March 16th. He went on to get two more hogs during his two day trip. Reed Garner got this 160# hog the same night:

Check out his hunting attire; true 'Carolina Camo'!

Wild Turkeys

Our turkey season runs from March 15th through May 1st each spring. You may harvest 1 gobbler per morning hunt, during which you are accompanied by an accomplished guide. Your evenings will be spent hog hunting on our acreage that runs along the Savannah River. Our daily rate for the turkey/hog combo hunts is $500. Our average harvested bird scores 54.69 on the NWTF scale, weighs in at 17 pounds and has a 10" beard and 1" spurs