What a pleasure it was this past weekend to have Brandon and Brett archery hunting with us. Brandon has hunted with us every year that we’ve been in business and we’re truly blessed with his loyalty and friendship. He had a shooter buck at twenty yards, but when he drew back, he had six more eyes looking at him that alerted Mr. Buck that trouble was near. They all took off and later the does came back by minus their guy. New customer, Brett, and his wife, Daniele, joined us at the lodge for the first time. The tree stand that Brett was in the first day had a fisher cat visit. The second day, a flock of jakes and hens showed up along with a bunch of does. Unfortunately, turkey season had closed, those birds were lucky this time. We look forward to Brandon’s hunt this coming weekend and hooking up with Brett and his wife for some ice fishing and spring turkey hunting! #BuckHornLodge #FifieldOutfitters

Bear down! Congratulations goes out to Greg for harvesting his first bear ever! We’ll call this bruin, Patches, as you can observe from the photos, the white patch on his chest. He did this while hunting with Fifield Outfitters on the Buck-Horn Lodge’s property in East Branch, NY. We’re thrilled to help him get it done! We love having Greg at camp. Onward we roll in pursuit of more harvests this season with those hunting with us. Awesome job, brother! 🙂 

What a talented writer our returning client Jon is! Below, his descriptive narrative paints a vivid picture of his exciting hunt here this past weekend. We were lucky to get an action packed trail cam shot of Jon, during this exciting archery hunt. He’s in one of our tree stands, with a BIG bruiser in the foreground, 20 yards away from him! In Jon’s words, here’s what you’re looking at.

“The bear actually stopped in front of the trail camera. This black blob is his back and in the background, you can see part of me getting into position.”

Jon continues to describe his Catskills’ black bear encounter during his Fifield Outfitters’ semi-guided bow hunt below.

“Today was my second time hunting alone & 3rd time ever. I was not expecting, nor was I prepared for a close encounter with a black bear. This gargantuan, lumbering mass silently sauntered over to a tree that was, unbeknownst to me at the time, 20yrds away. I have never before encountered bear in the wild. As large as he was (approx 300lbs), he was almost entirely silent. As he took pause, I began to hastily act and in doing so, I made a rookie mistake: I misjudged my distance by 10yrds.

I carefully and quietly reached for my quiver for a second arrow while he was distracted by the sound the other arrow made on impact. I also think the prior arrow gave him a scent because in a flash, he rapidly surged away from the arrow’s resting place TO me. He was 3-4 yards to my side, and below the elevated stand. I could hear his deep guttural breathing, I could see mangled tufts of thick, ink black fur on his back and all I could do was pause.

Except for the trail cam pic, all the other beautiful photos, including one of the Buck-Horn Lodge’s cabins, are courtesy of Jonathan.

It was great having Don hunting with us opening weekend of bow. He’s an avid gun hunter and is making a move to do some bow hunting. His target species was bear and on the first day just before night fall, he could hear one on the other side of the thicket from our stand. On day number two, things got real interesting, when he saw not one, not two, but three different lone bears! The one bear came up behind our trail camera and was sniffing it, but it never presented a shot opportunity.  The last bear came right in at ten yards away, and when Don drew back, the bear heard his string hit his vest and did a one-eighty and bolted down the hill. When I picked Don up from the stand his last night, he was like a kid in a candy store after seeing all three bears. He kept saying how beautiful they were and was amazed at seeing them in the wild on his first ever bear and bow hunt. All in all, it was a successful hunt, as the bears got within range for his bow.  However, as every bow hunter out there has had similar things happen to them, sometimes it just doesn’t all come together. Don is pumped up from this hunting adventure and says he’ll be back soon. We’re looking forward to his return! 🏹  🐻

We had son-in-law Jonathan, and father-in-law Joe, join us for a guided turkey hunt this past weekend. Saturday, Mother Nature once again was up to her evil tricks with the heavy down pours. Despite the nasty weather, we got on a big ol’ Tom. We had him bee lining towards us until a pair of hens decided he was theirs. On Sunday, the weather was nice and another Tom was very responsive to us. However, once again, before he could get into shooting range, another pair of hens deflected him from us. It’s tough to beat the real deal when the hens are very persistent and feel threatened that there’s another female in the area trying to take their man. 😉 Joe is one of the best box callers we’ve heard in a long time. He bagged a slammer of a thunder chicken last week in PA. Jonathan is a full time firefighter in PA. We’d like to thank him for his dedication and service. We look forward to having these guys back this fall to try and stick a whitetail. 😃 #HuntingFamily #TimeWellSpent 

Fifield Outfitters welcomed brothers Orion and Hunter for a coyote hunt. These guys were a pleasure to guide for and they persevered despite the cold temperatures that the evening brought. We sat up in a couple of spots and tried calling, but unfortunately nothing came in. After we left, a trail camera at one of the locations filmed a bobcat visiting, but no coyotes. We’re looking forward to having them back to join us on a fishing trip this upcoming season.

While heading to one of our predator hunting grounds, my wife and I came across this majestic bird of prey. A barred owl (Strix varia,) was perched high in a tree above us. It too, was on a New Year’s Day hunt as in the snow all around us, contained fresh rodents’ tracks. Happy hunting our friend!  Wishing you all a happy, healthy, & prosperous New Year. Thanks for all the love and support!

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of having Joseph and Shawn for semi-guided rifle hunts. We’ve truly been blessed to work with some of the best sportsmen there is in the country! These two men from their demur to their skills, represented this demographic of talent fully. The bucks with three on one side didn’t cross paths with them. Joseph saw a 3 point, a spike horn, and a bunch of doe. They both saw flocks of turkey. Joseph was pumped up with all the turkey activity and will be back in the spring to go after a gobbler. Shawn will be back next year to lay the smack down on a big ‘ol buck.

Young Jim dropped the hammer on a nice 8pt. at the Buck-Horn Lodge this morning. Congratulations, buddy! 👍

The final chapter has come to an end with the one we call, “Moose.” When the rumors swirled of Moose being harvested, people came by to pay their respects to this legend. What a final chapter it was, as Tom Jr., Jimmy Jr., Jake, and I tracked him in the deep snow and then waded through the East Branch, of the Delaware River where we caught up to him on the island. As I squeezed the trigger, I knew it was meant to be, that Moose would be coming home. All of this would not be possible, as he crossed two land owners and we can’t thank them enough for granting us permission ahead of time to access their properties in pursuit of Moose. A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to Kelly, Warren, and Emily for representing the meaning of small town America, where neighbors help each other out. The second photograph from the top is of our Siberian Huskies, Chili and Dakota, showing their approval of their dad’s harvest. The first trail camera photo on the left is Moose in 2016 and the second on the right is him in 2015.