A number of big-pointers were reported during the recent season.
Early reports are that hunters bagged a number of big whitetail deer during the state shotgun season.
Strange things are happening, including the downing of a 16-point buck that appears not only to be the largest bow rack scoring in Massachusetts history but also up there with high scoring racks on the national level. The Bay State continues to be one of the biggest rack states in the nation.
While the Rutland rack is being scored this column is trying to run track down reports of a 20-point animal shot in Western Massachusetts.
But what was a surprise. Here were the responses sought from All Outdoors readers as to where the saying, “Strange things are happening” came from. The surprise is just how many women in the 70s and 80s who are apparently reading this scribe. But more later.
Not only are tall tyned racks showing up at checking stations, there are some heavy bodied bucks being checked in despite heavy loss of weight due to bucks chasing does during the rut.
Dan Daigle of Rutland, well known for his string of huge racked bucks taken in this state has done it again with his 16-point 201-pound animal taken in his city.
Outdoor writer Mark Blazis said his buck isn’t the first high scoring animal he has downed in his own home town as well as in Holden and Princeton.
It isn’t by luck that he has scored high on a regular basis as he touches all the bases from being scent free, doing year round scouting, and using trail cameras.
He hunts areas with high deer nutrition that houses animals that have proved to have high genetics. The surprise is, until the day he downed the animal it was the first time he saw this particular animal.
Sam Forget of East Longmeadow downed an eight-point buck with extra high tynes that had to have a live weight of more than 250 pounds in Becket on ground covered by a light snow.
While on big deer, a 12-pointer, with a live weight of more than 250 pounds was bow bagged by Tony Mazzaferro. The 49-year-old, who has put 36 deer in the family freezer over the years, worked harder than usual to get the animal back to his vehicle, as it died in the middle of a river and he had to strip down and take a chilling dip to retrieve it.
Andy Nally of Chicopee said he heard of a 20-point buck shot in the Lee-Lenox area. I’d like to hear from anyone with info on the animal.
The 54-year-old Andy said he is in his prime and hunts all seasons with his bow, a Mathews.
He said nothing can be more fun in life than getting outdoors with his sons and teaching them the things his father taught him about the outdoors.
That is the way I feel when pheasant hunting with my sons and grandsons behind Chumley. I hope to hunt with the great grandsons some day in the future.
I can remember trucking through the deep snow on Legate Hill in Charlemont, holding onto my dad’s belt, around seven years old as he still hunted all the way to Zoar, Heath and other hill towns.
HO-HO HEE-HEE OR ... I should ask more earth survival questions in this column as I quest to learn the origin of the words “Strange things are happening.”
Here is a cross section of the answers received here.
Jim Doyle of Agawam wrote “I read with great interest your Dec. 2 column in which you mentioned an old radio show which began with the words ‘Strange things are happening.’ I also remember the show but it was a TV show from the early 1950s called the “Red Buttons Show.”
“Buttons started off each show with a little inane ditty which included the words ‘strange things are happening.’ For a time this show and song were a national craze.
“I was about 10 at the time and that little tune has stayed with me through the years.”
Ron Letendre of Hampden wrote, “Being an old codger who watched TV when there was only one channel, I recall (surprisingly) that the saying was from the Red Buttons Show.”
Elda Cataldo wrote, “Just read the Sunday paper and lo and behold I read words I haven’t heard in 50 years. The origin of those words came from the old TV Red Buttons Show. It was a song that he wrote and sang every week. The song was very popular. Now I’m going to be humming the song all day long – “ho-ho, strange things are happening. “
Ed Maxwell wrote, “It is the Red Buttons theme song from his early fifties TV show – Ho-ho (Ho- ho), He-he (He-he) Ha-ha (Ha-ha) Strange things are happening.” Ed went on to say “I once had a teacher who flunked me in history. She asked “Who shot Lincoln?” And I answered “Don’t blame me. Ho-ho, He-he.”
Mary Songhin of Hartford wrote “Frank, you are a strange thing. Tee hee. Don’t ever change.”
A strange thing is that while Elda hummed the Red Buttons tune I sang the old Pinkie Lee song, “Ho-Ho, He-He, my name is Pinkie Lee.”
Readers – thanks for all the comments.
MUZZLE LOADING HISTORY: I have all the new fangled additives to my new black powder guns and ammo that can shoot the eye out of a newt at 150 yards but of today I plan to kick off the opening of the muzzle loading season on whitetail deer Monday with my Civil War rifle carried by some northern soldier.
It gives me the feeling of going back in time, not a bad thing, (like the straight bow such as the ones carried by the native Americans) that I carried in bow season many moons and smoke signals ago.
PISTOL COURSE: The public is invited to participate in the NRA Basic Pistol and hands on course of the Holyoke Revolver Club indoor range, 413 West Cherry St., Holyoke, Dec. l5 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with lunch included. Pre-registration must be by Dec. 14.
Added info can be had from www.holyokerevolverclub.com or 413-534-9734. To register a $100 check made out to the club can be mailed to the Cherry Street address.