Red Bluff Lodge

A Feast of Firsts!

This year has seen quite a few 'firsts' for our hunters.. From a youngster getting their first shot at a deer, to an experienced hunter finally able to harvest a buck. Here are some highlights:

He may look glum here, but it was an exciting night when Austin Peeler (FL), here with his father Jerry, got a shot at this doe on October 6th. We're lucky to host quite a few father/son duos through the year.

Brian Marbutt (FL) harvested this 9 1/2" 6-point on the morning of October 10th. This was his first trip to Red Bluff Lodge. As you can see, Jim has already gotten his hands on him!

Randy Tucker (FL) got this beauty on the morning of October 19th. It was a 13" 6-point. What a great first deer!

Here's Roy Boone congratulating Alan Urmson (FL) on his first deer. He took it on the evening of October 20th.

72 shots in 10 days!!!

It's our usual whirlwind of a re-opener here at the lodge. Doe season is in, and the rut has not yet broken up the bucks and put them in bad moods, so our shot opportunities are in high gear. Last night, for instance, we had 9 hunters out, and 9 animals were harvested. (7 deer and 2 hogs). Here are a sample:

Mr. Kostukovich (PA) poses here with his first ever buck! A longtime hunter in PA, Mr. K always has harvested doe on his lease up in PA, but was happy to get a South Carolina buck.

Rick Miller (PA) got a nice 8-point the same night, right before jetting back to his 'real life' - SIGHHH.

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....

Lodge Building Update

We're getting awfully close to finishing the new lodge building. Here are some pics:

We had really come to love the 'Tyvek look', but feel like this siding may be a bit longer lasting!

Now a few inside shots:

Just inside the front door is the back of the fireplace, with a mudroom to either side.

This shot is from the right side mudroom, showing a bit of how the fireplace continues up to the greatroom ceiling.

Here is the front of the fireplace, from the top of the stair landing. The ceiling height inside is about 23 feet. The platforms on either side are for full body mounts. The doors to either side are bunkrooms - each sleeps 2-3 and has a private bath.

Roger and Dan of RW Love Construction (Etters, PA) did all of the stonework (as well as framing the building in February). They've done an AWESOME job. We can't believe how the fireplace really ties all of the other elements in the room together. We can't wait to use it when we host all of our customers!

Our last major project is to finish the stairs, which lead up to our family's new residence. Hopefully, they'll go in this week. They're faced in old heart pine siding that we reclaimed from a house that we tore down a few years ago.

Last week we had all of the flooring installed. Tile was done last month, so now all of the floor has a covering. Ashley and Latham even got into the mix:

Fat chicken with a mallet? Scary...

Here's a shot of a bunkroom. Hard to tell anything, since I don't have a wide angle lens to give you a sense of the layout. Guess you'll all have to come for a hunt to see it for yourself!

Other fun stuff: the audio system was hooked up yesterday, so Jim's been rocking out all day. The countertops and appliances should be done any minute. All we have left (after stairs) is hooking up the water supply and about 20 years of touchup caulk and paint (bring a brush!)

Lodge Looking Lovely....

We're moving right along on the new lodge facility. The tile is all laid (props go out to David Stevens Tile-Atlanta), trimwork is being done (picture Jim in a toolbelt holding a nailgun...gulp!), and light fixtures are being installed.

Here are some pics:

Here's Ashley, our roofing inspector, making sure the metal is installed according to specs.

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'!