Editor’s Note: Craig Morgan has been hunting for 35 years, has been on the Mossy Oak Pro Staff for the last 4 years, hosts “Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors” on the Outdoor Channel and is one of the nation’s top country-music song writers and recording artists. This week we’ll take a closer look at this man who wears the Mossy Oak brand.
I'm often asked, “Craig, what is your favorite kind of hunting? Tell us about one of your best hunts.” I really love hunting turkeys, but I also love to hunt deer, and I really enjoy going out of the country hunting. My most memorable hunts and the ones I look forward to the most are the hunts I go on with my family, my children and America’s wounded warriors. We try and do quite a bit with the military folks. During the summer, my kids go on the road with me some. But during the school year, they have sports and other activities at home - just like young folks everywhere do.
One of the TV shows airing right now that was a lot of fun took place when I took my 17-year-old son, Jerry, with me to Argentina to hunt water buffalo. Jerry hunted feral hogs, and we both hunted doves. This hunt was an amazing hunt for us. The only difficult part of the hunt was we spent more time traveling to Argentina than we did actually hunting. When we got to Argentina, we only had 1-1/2-days to hunt. We arrived one day and hunted the next. The next day we hunted half the day. Then, we flew back to the States.
The number- one question that I get from my fans who hunt is, “What’s the biggest whitetail you’ve ever taken?” One of the bucks I took was on the cover of “Hunters Specialties Primetime #10” video and scored 202 inches. I took that buck with a bow while I was hunting in Illinois. Right now, I'm hunting with a Hoyt Spider. Although I hunt with a bow and with a gun, I really enjoy bowhunting more. I like to get really close to the animals I'm hunting. I feel getting close to a whitetail, being able to draw your bow, aiming and shooting, especially if you're hunting mature deer, is difficult.
This is what makes bowhunting so challenging for me. When you have a cameraman in the tree with you, I believe taking a deer with a bow is twice as hard. You have twice as much scent and twice as much movement, and the deer easily can see two people instead of one. For me, if I have the cameraman in the tree with me, make a good shot on a mature buck and take him, that’s one of the most-rewarding feelings that I've ever known. When I'm hunting, it’s all about the hunt. It’s not about the television show. I love being in the outdoors.
To me, the outdoors has a very calming effect. When I'm in the outdoors, I have a tremendous sense of gratitude. I can see everything that God made and how simple life can be. That’s a major part of what I like about hunting. At the same time, I'm calm and reflective, while watching God’s creation. But once I see a huge bull elk, a mature whitetail with a big rack or a wild turkey with a full fan, a long beard and a loud gobble, all that calm and serenity goes out the window. The adrenaline hits me, and I get jacked-up and excited. Even after hunting for 35 years, I still get the same adrenaline shot that I did when I was a boy sitting by my mother in middle Tennessee and took my first doe deer with a 12 gauge shotgun.
To learn more about Craig Morgan and his concerts and to see the photos and videos of him in concert, his touring schedule, and him hunting, go to his webpage at www.craigmorgan.com or http://outdoorchannel.com/craig-morgans-all-access-outdoors. Also, you can check out his Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/CraigMorganAllAccessOutdoors or https://www.facebook.com/craigmorganmusic or go to Twitter at https://twitter.com/cmorganmusic.
Craig Morgan Hunts in the Mornings and Works at Night like Many Americans Do
