MIDWEST BOWHUNTER

Early Fall

2011-10-13T22:12:00.008-05:00

Goose's Bird Work

I suppose fall started in August for us this year. We began working Goose on pigeons prior to the dove season starting on September 1st. She worked with them around the house, getting used to carrying them, and finding them in the tall grass I let grow up in the backyard.

Dove opener afternoon found Kable, Goose and I at Bonanza Conservation Area. We were hunting in a sunflower field that looked great, but the doves had not made their way down yet. There were only two shots fired for the afternoon. Goose didn't know what to think when I shot, and nothing fell from the sky. She will have to get used to that with me!

Kable is getting pretty handy with a shotgun. He says he's still 'just' a bird hunter, since he has not taken a deer yet.

Here's a closeup of Goose from the hunt. I miss her blue puppy eyes, but those milky yellow eyes are pretty sweet looking too!

Goose and I made one trip out together to teal hunt on the river. We saw a lot of geese, but very few teal. She didn't quite know what to think about sitting on the river with nothing really happening for the two hours we were there, but she did pretty well sitting still.

On the way back out, we made a sneak on the barn, and found a pigeon to take a crack at. Luckily, I hit my mark, and Goose made a GREAT first retrieve. Holding a shotgun and a camera at the same time of trying to control a pup is a task.

Kable's First Goose (honk honk goose that is......)

We decided to leave Goose at home for this hunt, because it was a DEAD STILL morning, and I was assured, after getting out there, that she would not have been able to sit still or quiet.

On our venture out there, Kable commented that there were a LOT of stars out. So, we took a moment to check them all out. He told me to start counting, and let me know when I was done.

Then, we spotted two sattelites (UFO's.....I told him) cutting across the sky. Not only that, but we watched them perfectly cris-cross eachother!

So.....on to the river bank we went.

Kable showed me where he wanted to be, and he promptly TRIED to go to sleep. Well, when the coyotes started howling, the geese started honking RIGHT beside us!

We were ALMOST in the right spot. The 35 birds Tristen heard come in the evening before were about 50 yards downstream of Kable and I. Tristen was 40 yards further upstream than us.

Two of the birds swam through our setup, and then back downstream about 5AM.

As shooting time was approaching, we watched the 35ish geese start creeping closer and closer to us.

It got to be time, and I told Kable to pick out his bird. He got lined up, and told me he was ready.

The PLAN was for him to shoot his bird, and then Tristen and I would play cleanup.

Well, step one went GREAT! Kable got his first goose!

Every step after that though......didn't go as planned. All the birds went downstream, instead of our hope of them splitting, or going upstream.

So......once again........Kable showed US how to get the JOB DONE!

Good times were had by all!

It was pretty awesome. He said he was going to pick out the biggest one, and was getting ready to shoot. I said whenever you are ready......thinking......I don't know how he can tell which one is bigger, but oh well!

When he was holding it up for the pictures, he said, MAN! It must weigh 20 pounds! What does the world record goose weigh?!

I started laughing HARD!

We 'officially' weighed it in at 13 pounds back at the house.

The First VECtor Kills of the Year!

The first TWO VECtor kills of the 2011-2012 season come from the same young man in South Dakota!

Not only that, but he killed his deer with the first bow I ever bought for Holly, a Mathews Mustang! I think this young man has had this hedge grunter for less than two weeks now, but he has REALLY put it to use.

This 8 pointer was just taken this evening, while he was on a hunt by himself on the edge of a corn field. The grunter brought the buck into 10 yards for him!

Goose's Deer Tracking Work

2011-10-13T20:36:00.003-05:00

A Doe Hunt to be Remembered

Here's a FULL account of my hunting adventures from the opening morning of Missouri archery season. I apologize for the LONG read, but its just too cool of a story to not pass on.

MAN OH MAN! What a morning of up's and down's!

First stand location, played what the wind was SUPPOSED to be, per the weather man. It was supposed to be NE. Well, it was NW, and the doe coming in from the SE didn't think to much of me at 7am.

I needed to cook up some pasta for the football team tonight, so I was trying to decide when it get my 'cook on'.

At 9, I decided to just switch to my burr oak acorn stand that I WANTED to hunt originally, with the ACTUAL wind I had being perfect for it.

I slid over there as quietly as possible, and got set up by 9:45.

10:00, here came momma and two little un's. I had two slick head tickets to punch, so I was hoping to work on both of them.

Momma came right in, and I got drawn with no problem. At 22 yards quartering away with her head down, I let my arrow fly.

Something weird happened with the shot, but I never could quite put my finger on it. I heard the arrow crack the deer, but she ran away different than normal. I also saw the arrow flip about 15 feet into the air.

I grabbed another arrow to stick another one, and I drew, but wasn't presented another shot.

I sat back down, and recomposed myself, and sent my brother Nice a text.

Then, I heard twigs breaking to me back and right.

I grabbed my bow off the hanger, and found a doe and two fawns looking for me, but smelling the bottom of my stand instead.

I was confused. There was enough time for them to circle me. I had two doe tags to work with, so I figured I would just try to punch the doe, and worry about one or two blood trails in a few minutes.

She circled the tree, so I moved around quickly to my left and drew. She looked up at me at 8 yards, and I let my arrow fly.

Again......something not right. She wasn't reacting the way I was used to. Then it hit me that I was shooting new heads with a smaller cutting diameter, and something just wasn't going right at all.

I grabbed my one spitfire arrow, and knocked it, and turned around.

The doe and the two fawns were standing at 20 yards, looking at me.

As I drew, I saw blood drizzling down from behind her shoulder, but she just stood there.

So, I shot her again! This time, with my GOOD arrow!

And that shot CRUSHED her. She ran away just like they always do. Running for the hills.

I texted Nice again, and told him I wasn't for sure what was going on, but I was for sure done with the 'new, great' broadheads.

I relaxed, and waited 40 minutes. In that time, I realized the first doe had her brown coat, and the other still had her red coat. I was dealing with two different deer for sure.

I found my last 2 arrows first. They were both lung blood covered. Dead deer by a ways.

My third one, took me a minute to find. (Actually, my first shot). I began to really question what happened. I hadn't missed, because my arrow was not there?!

About 5 yards in the direction the deer had ran, I found my arrow, covered in bloody fat (not fatty blood).

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what that meant. All I had to hit was her bread basket, and the front shoulder, and her neck. Everything else was covered by a tree when I shot.

There was no blood.

So, I began to follow where I thought she had ran, and about 20 yards into the path, blood started showing up in squirts. Just on that left side too, BUT I had a passthrough with my arrow?!

I followed the trail about 150 yards, and found a bed full of blood. That, of course, is the best sign of......Back out, and leave stuff alone for a while.

I circled, trying to find a direction she took from there so I could mark it. No luck.

Something was really odd, and I was not confident I was going to retrieve this deer at this point. No guts, but a lot of blood, but no real sign of really giving up either.

So.....being the utility dog wanna be guy that I am......I called the Agent in that county, and told him the story, and asked if I could use my dog to give it a run.

I did NOT expect to get to try her out on the opening day of season, but WHAT THE HECK!

So, I picked up my gear, and headed home to get Goose.

Still having to get this pasta made.

Goose smelled the blood on my hands and boots, and was VERY interested to get out the door, rather than worry about some stupid pasta.

I weighed my options, and decided it best to make my pasta and take it to the school first, rather than bank on being able to make it back. I was right. The school worked with me to get it put in the cooler, so they could warm it up later (dinner is in 30 minutes up there. )

As we drove back to the farm, I started playing my blood tracking book on rewind in my head, trying to figure out how to approach this whole thing.

I let her sniff my boots more in the truck, and repeated "dead deer" to her over and over.

When we got there, I hooked her new 30 foot leash (number from the book.....easy to keep up with, and let the rest of it drag if you are closer to her) up to her. She didn't know what to think about dragging it at first, but I assured her it would be okay, and we continued through the woods.

We walked out to the 'stickin' tree', and I showed her the easy trail first. (the deer with two holes in her).

I repeated "dead deer" and pointed down to the blood. She was VERY, VERY interested. She ran back and forth down the trail. I wondered how to get her pointed in a direction.

Well, I just sat her like I was sending her on a waterfowl retrieve, and pointed down the line, and said, "dead deer.....fetch it up!" And she took off with her nose to the ground!

The trail was easy to follow, and we found the deer in about 80 yards.

As was expected, she freaked out when she found the deer. She liked following the blood, but had no idea what she was going to find at the end of the trail.

The first hole had plugged up with gut on the back side. The second hole was through the shoulder on the back side, so it anchored her good.

I assured Goose of her work, and gave her a treat for doing so good.

I then tied her up, and got that deer all tagged and bagged.

Then, we headed back to the 'stickin' tree' for round 2. It was going to be a tough learning curve!

Here's Goose with her first ever blood tracking 'find'.

So, we head back, I set her down, and point her on a line, just like we had done.

SHE wanted another treat!

Now.....I've got 150 yards of this done already, but per my book reading, we started over from the beginning.

And, I was keeping in mind, she could be following my boot tracks from this trail too, up to where I had hung my hat in a tree at the bloody bed.

I had not realized how much this deer had ducked and dodged through the brush.

Goose did it right though. Just like I had read. She had her nose down when she was on the trail, and you could see her body language change when she would lose it. (I could see the blood at a decent level to understand her changes.)

Here's what her body language looks like when she's looking to pick the trail back up again when it turns.

When she would mess up, I would let her work it out. If it took her longer than a minute, I would back up, and find a spot of blood for her, and point to it, and say, "dead deer". She would come to that point, and start over again, picking a different direction.

One spot hung her up really good, and I had to un-weave her leash out of all the trees. It was funny looking for sure.

When we reached my hat, she smelled the bed a lot, and really looked puzzled. She acted like that should have been the end.

So, I said, "dead deer. Find it" and gave her my double hand signal that looks like I am shrugging my shoulders and means, "I don't know where the heck it is". It works for her bird training, so why not this, right?!

So, she started making her circles, like she was looking for a bird, and acted like she came up with the trail. I'm telling you, there was NO blood. But, she looked confident with her tail wagging, so I picked up my hat and marked the spot with some tissue, and followed along.

I let her lead, and I just watched the ground. About every 20 yards, I would see a tiny drop of blood, or a smear on a twig. This went on for about 200 yards. I would mark spots with tissue about every other one I would see.

She didn't even look back to check on me like she does shed hunting. She just kept going.

The further blood spots got apart, the more I was doubting her, thinking she just decided to start going for a walk in the woods, but then, I would find another spot.

Then, she got to the edge of the woods, and stopped. PLEASE NO STANDING BEAN FIELD!

I marked the edge, and told her again "dead deer, find it."

She took off at a GOOD clip with her nose to the ground. I was speed walking, and had her by the very end of the 30 foot leash.

I wasn't seeing ANYTHING.

So, about 50 yards into this, I told her to 'whoa' and I pulled back on her, and slowed down to a crawl to look for blood. Nothing. There was nothing there. Deer tracks, sure, but no blood.

Then, I watched her sniff the underside of some beans, and I lifted them up! Blood!

I started looking with my head cocked down, and I could see it every 20 feet or so!

So, I let her take off again! Told her to "find it!"

Going, going, going. I'm thinking man oh man.......this is getting to be a LONG trail. Longer than I have ever had end at a dead deer, that is for sure.

Then, all of the sudden, she throws on the breaks, and there's a bed right on the edge of the beans full of blood. Crazy!

I start looking around, while she is looking for a new trail. 30 yards out in the beans, I see a circle of no beans. Then, I see a blood spot on some beans on the way to the circle!

I waited, COMPLETELY excited, and let her pick up the trail again. She took off through the beans with me in tow.

And there was our prize!

Less than an hour before, she was scared to death barking at the first doe. This time, she starts jumping in the air, barking at it, and the jumping and barking at me, like, "How do you LIKE THAT?!"

I'm telling you........ THAT right there was THE coolest thing I have ever seen on a solo hunt. She got two treats for that one.

LOOK AT THAT SMILE!

So.....the conclusion.......what was the problem with the shot?!

I hit the shoulder! NO penetration into the chest cavity at all! The arrow hit the shoulder, and immediately slid straight upwards, exiting at the backstrap! Remember, I found the arrow near where I had shot her! The deer died from having such a bad cut on its shoulder that it bled out! AND THIS WAS WITH A FIXED BLADE HEAD! There were no tip or blade cuts on the bone that I could find at all either.

AHHHHHH THE END!

More Summer Heat

2011-08-01T01:42:00.003-05:00

Deer Season Planning

Its hard to get outside, and hard to stay inside all the same. We have not fished near as much this year as we have in years past because of the heat, but we have spent more time planning our hunting plans because of it.......both in the field, and on the computer looking at aerials and trail cam photos.

We have our trail cameras spread out through several different farms, hoping to catch a nice buck one place or another. While placing cameras, we have also been discussing stand locations, especially since Tristen will have a climber to use to his advantage this year. He has almost convinced me that I need one too.

We have been blazing trails from one stand to another using string trimmers and mowers. We don't have any big equipment to use to our advantage, but we like having trails to walk from one stand location to another to keep noise and scent to a minimum when season rolls around. There is also some poison ivy spraying going on while we are doing our clearing. The deer quickly catch on to our 'path of least resistance' and use the same trails.

Most of our trail camera pictures are of does, and the fawns are starting to hang out with them more every day. We did pick up this group of bucks hanging out right by one of our stands this last week though. One of the bucks is the wrap around 8 pointer that we have been keeping tabs on. He is very photogenic, and it was nice to see them all this evening, hanging out by the stand for over an hour.

If you happen to have any interest, I will be putting on a Missouri Bowhunter Education Course just north of Smithville Lake near Plattsburg, MO next Saturday, August 6th. For more information, just contact me by email (vectorcalls at yahoo dot com) or phone.

I will also be presenting at the Jerry Litton Center at Smithville Lake on the 27th of August at the Deer Management Workshop. If you would like to attend, please RSVP my friend Paul Lowry so there will be plenty of supplies, reading material and seating on hand for everyone that attends. Paul's contact for this meeting is his email address: paul.lowry@mdc.mo.gov

Tristen and I will continue to work on shining up our archery shooting in August, and we will work on moving some permanent stands around, along with clearing their shooting lanes. We like to have the woods be completely person-free for 2 weeks prior to the September 15th archery opener, so we will be getting a lot of work done between now and then. Holly is also planning on using her crossbow this fall, so we will all need to learn how to use this new peice of equipment.

Other WILD LIFE

I had this bobcat make a quick run through the same camera's range. There are plenty of squirrels and plenty of bobcats on this property, so I'm sure they meet like this quite often.

During my outdoor adventures here and there, I came across a couple interesting subjects this month.

One was this little frog. A buddy of mine who is much more of a herp man than I am, says it is a brown tree frog in a green color phase rather than a plain ol' green tree frog, as they are only found in southeast Missouri.

This next photo was an interesting one for me for sure. It is a pink katydid. I researched it a little on the internet, and I guess the color phase is similar to being albino, and happens in about 1 in every 500 katydids. Those are my blackberries its standing on.

Goose Training

Goose is a little over 8 months old now, and she has been doing great for us. I have not had an opportunity to get her on live birds yet like I thought I would, but its my understanding she was "helping" Tristen chase some chickens here a couple weeks ago. OOPS!

She is continuing to do a great job listening to her commands, and really does an outstanding job of searching an area of taller grass when she has trouble finding her bumper. I continue to be impressed with how well she uses her nose when she needs to.

Any time she gets too excited about a situation, we can always bank on her sit command. She listens to it perfectly, and we can move forward from there.

Here's a photo of her at one of our local watering holes after she was done with water training for the morning.

Kable was with us for this training too, so he got the camera to take some action shots as we were working the water. He quickly figured out that he wanted an photo of her shaking the water off from her swim. This is his successful shot that he is very proud of.

Summer "Work"

2011-07-09T23:23:00.004-05:00

Warming up the Trail Cameras

I don't know about you all, but I am getting WOUND UP about deer hunting. I can't believe how much I am thinking about stand placement strategies and prevailing winds already!

I have had one of our trail cameras out for two weeks now, collecting photos on the main farm our family hunts. We don't run into the biggest bucks out there, but our expectations are not too high either to be honest with you. You also have to keep in mind, our number one reason for having permission on this farm is "crowd control" for the landowner. He wants to know when we see deer, and how many we get. He has had other hunters on the farm, and has removed them for not killing enough deer. Our family likes eating deer, so our relationship with the landowner is a great one.

Here are a few of the bucks we have caught hanging out so far this year.

This is a straight 10 pointer that is our biggest racked deer, and biggest bodied deer on camera so far.

Here is a wrap-around straight 8 pointer that the boys and I really like. He's got long main beams, and is the most frequent buck to this salt lick. I hope the beams continue to wrap around even a little further as this rack finishes out at the end of the summer.

This is a split brow tine 9 pointer that we see hanging out with the wrap-around 8 quite a bit. He is obviously not happy about sharing that salt lick at this moment. This other smaller buck was growing into a wide 6 pointer, but he broke his main beam on the one side around the first of June. Tristen and I saw this buck in person this last week, and the broken main beam is still firmly attached while 'hanging' down.

We will continue to watch this farm, and add some cameras to our other farms to see where we should be spending the most of our stand time during the early archery season. Tristen has saved up enough money to get a really nice climbing treestand, so he will be much more versitile this fall in the areas he gets to hunt.

The End of Flatheading for 2011

My friend Luke invited me to jump in the boat with him in early June to set some more trotlines for flatheads. We ran lines for three nights, and had great luck catching some nice fish with the anchor being a 49 pounder Holly is holding up below.

We were very thankful Luke took us out, especially when both of the boys were with me one of the mornings. It was the first time we had caught three nice fish in a morning when both of the boys were along for the ride. Here's our success photo! Kable was CRANKED BACK holding up that nice fish of his!

Training a 7 month old Goose

Goose's training has been going very well. I'm not going to tell you she it without flaws, but she is doing wonderful for as good of a trainer she has.

Since we have stopped shed hunting, I have switched her training to a more 'traditional' approach of retriever work for waterfowl hunting. I am not a big waterfowl hunter myself, but the boys LOVE it. Goose still chews on her sheds when she is just hanging out, and I will hide them around the yard for her at least once a week.

Just within the last two weeks, she had decided she really enjoys retrieving her bumper out in the water, and begs you to throw it for her just ONE MORE TIME.

She still likes to search heavy grass and wooded draws for antlers (bones) though, while we are making our way to and from the water holes. Here is a picture of her looking up from a tall grass search.

And here is a look at her.......ironically.......looking over a flock of geese.

She is a very well mannered pup for her age, and we are very happy to have her along for our adventures. I can't wait until she is a little older, and knows exactly what I'm trying to tell her, and I know what she is trying to tell me! I weighed her in yesterday at 62 pounds. I don't think she will get much bigger, as her mother is 65 pounds, and her father is 70.

I also have my head buried in yet another dog training book right now. It is called Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer by John Jeanneney. This is a GREAT book about blood trailing and blood tracking deer. It goes into great detail about wound types, and tells you the author's researched experiences not only about using dogs for recovering game, but also what he has learned over this research about what certain blood signs will tell you about a specific type of wound. There is no other book out there that compares to this read. I am only half way though it, and I can tell you, it is a MUST READ for any ethical bowhunter. I tried to find a cheap, used copy of this book on the internet, and I couldn't find one. Now I know why, because anyone who gets their hands on a copy of this book is not going to let it go.

I don't expect Goose to become a professional blood tracker, shed hunter, or waterfowl retriever. I am just expecting her to be a great part of our family, and a great part of our wildlife adventures.

Catching up on Spring

2011-05-08T09:59:00.005-05:00

My goodness! I apologize for it being so long since I have posted up. Our internet connection at our new place in the country is NOT what I would like it to be. With a cell phone plan being the only way to get on with any regularity, it cuts into how many photos we can upload and download and still stay within our plan.

Anyways.......on with the good stuff!!!

Shed Hunting and Goose Training.......

We had a good shed hunting season, finding a total of 21. Goose made some great "finds" on her own. We have been very happy with her progress. Kable was also able to find his first shed. We covered a lot of new ground, and met a lot of great people along the way. Our honey hole from last year did not produce this year. I attribute it to there being almost all beans in the fields this year compared to all corn the year before. The winters were comparable, along with the snowfall here locally.

Here is Kable proudly holding up his first shed find of several:

Goose just laid down with her first find on her own. She didn't do a very good job at bringing me back the sheds she found, because she tended to find some whoppers that she could not carry! She will be all grown up by next year, and should be ready to cover some good territory searching back and forth for her "bone".

Her searching ability has been very impressive to me. She has a lot of pheasant hunting past in her blood, and it shows by the way she works over a piece of ground.

Here is a photo of our best day in the field this year. It turned out to be a great afternoon. We only searched for about 2 hours in a standing bean field.

We searched that field fairly well, but decided to go back five days later to give it another look over. Goose hit a spot a little ways up on the hill where she would not leave. It was near a really nice rub. I told her "mush" which means for her to continue on, but she just sat there, and started to whimper. I told her again, and got the same response. Well! I guess I need to be listening to HER more! Look what she was guarding for us! Our biggest matching set ever! Goose was sitting in between them, knowing she wasn't going to move them, and at the same time, knowing what she had! I found one other small 2 pointer in the field also. We came back to the field several times after that, but never found another antler in it.

Goose's color is going to work out great for us during our waterfowl adventures in the fall and winter. Check out this photo I picked up of her standing infront of this stump! GOOSE! HIDE! HAHAHA!

Speaking of waterfowl training, since we have not been finding any more sheds, we have switched her training here at the house over to a more structured approach so she can hopefully be ready to bring us back a duck and a goose or two late this coming fall. I have collected random bones throughout our shed hunting trips this past winter, and I have thrown them in the woods and in the grass where we take our walks away from the house. When we go on our walks, she is allowed to roam as she would shed hunting, and she is able to find these bones and bring them back to me for the fun of it, rather than it being a structured training of shed hunting. Remember......a bone is a bone. The trainer needs to weed out what is an antler, and what is not, not the dog.

Working up some wood......

I was inspired by a decoy carver this spring to get myself in gear, and make my own turkey decoy. I drew out a form , and cut it from the board. I then copied it two more times. I hollowed out each piece to remove weight from the design, and then began my painting. After being in the field watching real hens, I have realized I want the head on this decoy to be more grey than blue, but she produced quite well for us this spring. Birds came in to range to check her out on more than one occasion. This first version was awefully crude, but turned out just like I wanted it to. My next version will hopefully consist of three demensional feather patterns, as well as a three demensional look overall.

I've also taken the opportunity to make a few deer grunters this spring. I enjoy turning wood more than any other type of wood working, and making calls out of the turned wood just makes it that much more fun. I hope this lineup of grunters produces some good memories for folks this fall.

Turkey season is coming to an end as I type......

We had one heck of a spring here in north Missouri. Numbers were down overall, but the farms we had to hunt were still holding the birds. Early season was tough, because the gobblers were still hanging out with very large groups of hens.

Kable was not able to connect with a bird on his hunts, but Tristen was able to bag two birds, and so was I. Holly also came through with her first bird also!

Tristen's second bird came on a hunt where he was able to do the complete setup and calling on his own. He was very proud of himself for being able to accomplish this at 15 years old!

I did not have any photographers on hand during my hunts either, but I made the best of the situation.

I proposed to my wife in the turkey woods five years ago. I hoped for that morning to be a successful hunt, but it was not. And we struggled until this year to get her a turkey she could call her own. We were overfilled with joy when this gobbler came into range and fell to her 20 gauge. What a morning it was! Luckily, I had the camera handy, and was able to catch the excitement as Holly approached HER bird!

To say it was cold that morning would have been an understatement. We wore a lot of our late season deer hunting gear, and it was still cold up on the hill. The birds didn't care though. They worked just like we wanted them to.

Bringing five turkeys back to the house has given Goose a good opportunity to look them over, and see what a big bird is all about. She enjoys rolling around with them, and likes when I pluck out a feather for her to play with. She doesn't bit the birds though, and doesn't cause any damage to them. I saved wings for her to work with this coming summer before we switch over to live pigeons.

Other hunting adventures........

I was told by my neighbors when I moved in, there were feral hogs in the area. One evening while I was setting up to clean a few crappie we had caught, I looked in the back yard, and found an over 200 pound sow rooting up my grass! I quickly ran in the house and got my 30-06, and we had bacon! It is my understanding that I will see more around as the crops start growing this early summer.

Missouri Disabled Sportsmen hosted a youth and disabled pheasant hunt this spring in north central Missouri. Kable and Tristen both wanted to attend, so we loaded up the car and headed east.

Both boys were successful during their hunts! Kable was able to take his first rooster with a great shot that our friend Robert caught on camera while I was looking on!

What a great time! I know everyone at the event went home with at least one bird, and most folks got several!

Fishing.......a Spring to be Remembered.......

Man oh man! What a spring for the crappie! We have been managing a small pond over this way for the past five years, trying to get the size of the fish in check. You really shouldn't have crappie in a body of water under 100 acres, because you can't keep up with their reproduction rates to keep the fish in a smaller body of water healthy.

We have been removing fish out of this pond every chance we have had, and this spring, we finally got it to the point where every fish that came out was over 9 1/2" and the average fish was 11 to 11 1/2"! THAT is a good average! Two of the fish were 14 1/4". And even with fish that size, we have still caught hundreds out of this small pond.

While fishing below the dam at Smithville Lake one afternoon this spring, I was able to hook this great walleye on a crappie jig! It was a pleasant surprise!

Records are Made to be Broken........

This last Friday was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I have been trotline flathead fishing for several years now, and have found some great success over our trips to the bigger lakes in Missouri such as Mark Twain and Truman. Those bodies of water hold some REALLY big fish. We've caught a lot of flatheads in the 30's and 40's, with a few showing up on the scale in the low 50's. We have boated one 52, two 51's and two 50's recently.

Friday, we caught a fish like no other fish I have ever seen. My buddies Chris and Jason were with me for the adventure. We had spent the week catching our bait and setting our lines with little success. Our biggest fish of the week had been 31 pounds.

I had a spot that had not produced yet, but it was a wonderful location last year. As we were pulling our lines on Friday, we found this monster in that spot, waiting for us on the other end of the line.

When we boated the fish, we knew it was a bruiser, but we didn't know HOW big it was. We had left the scale in the truck. I knew it was going to be my biggest fish. I was just hoping for it to be a 53. As I looked it over more, I thought it was going to tip my 100 pound scale at 57 or 58.

When the held up the fish for pictures though.......it got bigger.......and bigger.......

When we finally got it to the scale, our jaws dropped. The fish weighed in at 70 pounds, 2 ounces. WHAT A MONSTER OF A FISH! My personal record by far, and the same for Jason and Chris!

We're going to have a hard time beating this mark, since our previous mark was 18 pounds less!

Keep in mind, Chris and Jason make the fish look REALLY big like it is, since they are normal sized folks. Me being 6'7", 310 really doesn't do the fish the correct justice!

A Fast Start to the Spring Turkey Season

2011-04-20T19:49:00.000-05:00

Well it is finally that time of year again when the camoflauge comes out of the closet, decoys get dusted off, and the bow sights get checked one last time! Spring turkey season is here! This year we are going to try to successfully hunt three states - Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. One of those states has all ready been checked...

This past weekend, we ran up to southeast Nebraska with good friend Chris Barton to hopefully fill three tags in less than 18 hours. We knew it would be challenging, but also one heck of a good time trying. As we arrived at Chris' Uncle Jack and Aunt Bonnie's home for dinner, we were greeted by great food and hospitality, but also heavy rains and winds gusting up to 50 mph. Fortunately, the weather took a turn for the better and conditions could not have been better for the rest of the weekend.

The first afternoon, Bo and I ended up setting up on a property that we had scoured earlier that day with no success. About five minutes into the setup, we spotted a single bird in a corn field about 600 yards away. That bird quickly turned into five and they were feeding towards us. We did not have much time until dinner would be ready so we made the decision to cut the distance and move on these birds. Once we had repositioned, a few call sequences led to two jakes running, then flying, directly into our setup. Within 30 seconds, Bo and I both successfully filled our Nebraska tags on two Rio jakes! Unfortunately I deleted the hero pictures so here is one from the field.

The following morning, we ran down to a property where we had located a few birds the previous day, but unfortunately had our hunt interrupted by a passing vehicle. With the shut of our truck door, we were greeted by half a dozen birds gobbling from the roost. These birds gobbled their heads off all morning, but were henned up, and just would not come into the calling. After a few hours of calling and one quick move of the setup, Bo called in a bird from over a quarter mile away to a mere 20 yards! Our buddy Chris was in perfect position and made a great shot on his first turkey, which just happened to be a mature, 3+ year old bird. Congrats on a great bird Chris!!!

The following day was Missouri's season opener. We had two good friends, Randy and Jay, that decided to come up from Indiana for some Midwest bird hunting. Again, we fought the wind, but we continuously heard gobbles - both from the roost and on the ground. As the morning progressed, we heard the great sounds of gun shots to our north - straight from Randy and Jay's direction! Not four hours into the Missouri season, both guys had birds on the ground!

Bo and I have come close in Missouri.....close as in 10 yards.....but the big gobbler was on the wrong side of the fence and just would not make the final commitment. But the season has just begun and I'm sure that we will get Bo his first bird in Missouri this year!

And as a small teaser, both Vince and his son Tristen connected on birds during the past couple of weeks. Tristen made an impressive shot on a gobbler during youth season and Vince was setup against the perfect tree this morning! Congrats on the birds guys, but I'll let you tell the stories!

One Final Shed Hunt

2011-04-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

Our plans for this past weekend included a couple last minute, quick, shed hunts, scouting a couple of new properties, and building cedar blinds for the upcoming Kansas turkey season. Unfortunately, the heaven's opened up and we were greeted with sleet/hail first thing in the morning. After getting pelted with sleet for over 30 minutes, it got worse......20 mph winds and rain. But we kept on!

Our primary goal was to shed hunt our main property in Kansas, which is typically covered in 60+ acres of CRP. The farmer decided to burn the CRP late in the week so we rushed down as quickly as we could with anticipation of picking up dozens of sheds.....unfortunately it looks like someone may have beat us to the punch. After fighting all of the rain and mud, we came away with ONE shed.....ONE!! Pretty hard to believe that we would only find one dink in all of that CRP.

After visiting with our neighbors to the north over a few cups of Lee's fine "hobo coffee" and attempting to some what dry our rain soaked clothes, we moved on to scout a few new properties that we recently acquired hunting permission on. Having only scouted these properties with aerials, we really did not have much for expectations, but in Kansas you just never know when you might find a little honey hole or two. The first property looked good and offered up a couple potential stand sites that should produce this fall. But as we were walking a tiny grass waterway in the middle of an 80 acre corn field, we ended up picking up three sheds (one freshie) and then a fourth not 50 yards away. Unfortunately with the rain we only captured pictures of one shed, the only freshie we found, as it lay in a cut corn field. I'm awfully proud of this shed though as it's the first shed I have ever found in a corn field!

As we arrived at the next property, we were greated to 80 acres of cut beans, two small grass waterways, and maybe three trees. Bo and I kind of looked at each other and laughed, but got out of the truck and started walking. Maybe 100 yards from the truck, tucked away in a small waterway, I stepped on a shed. Yep, I actually stepped on a shed!! And what's worse.....I looked behind me and there lay another shed that I walked with a foot of......how the heck does that happen! They were both year old sheds and from different deer. Hard to believe that there were two sheds from different deer out there in the middle of nowhere!

Our last find of the day is one of the best we have ever had. Here we are, walking along the edge of a tiny grass waterway, and Bo is on the field side. He just happens to look down at the field, stops, looks at me, and looks down again. There lay exposed about three inches of a shed. I have no clue how in the heck he saw that in a cut bean field! Freaking eagle eyes!! Unfortunately a disc had taken off a portion of the main beam, but it was still a decent sized shed and a great find.

So with turkey season opening up in Kansas today, our shed season is done. As we mentioned we may find a few here and there while chasing gobblers, but we're done putting miles on our boots.....until next year. I believe as a total we ended up with somewhere near 40 sheds and a few deads. Definitely a successful year!

Blessed Memories

2011-03-27T18:10:00.004-05:00

What you are about to read is written by one of the most humble people I have ever met. Lee Schmidt is one of a kind. I came to know Lee a few years ago when I happened by his truck while hunting in KS. Lee wasn't at his camp at the time, but his farm bordered my lease and I wanted to introduce myself. I left a note on his windshield with my phone number. A few days later, I got a phone call from Lee. We've been friends ever since. Scott and I have really enjoyed getting to know Lee, his son, Chris, and both of their families. They are all good Christian people. I'm sure as you read the following letter, you will realize how deeply Lee's faith in Christ runs. Lee was fortunate enough to harvest not one but two outstanding bucks this year. One of which, is a true "buck of a lifetime". In his own words, Lee is just an old cornstalk country boy. While that may well be true, he is also one of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You'll soon realize just how humble and greatful Lee is for the blessings the Good Lord has bestowed upon him. I'm very proud to know him and can't even describe how happy I am for him and his good fortune. I hope that you all enjoy reading Lee's story as much as I did. A portion of this story can be read in the current issue of Missouri Deer Hunter Magazine. Please enjoy!

As written by Mr. Lee Schmidt.

I started hunting whitetails in 1965, as a junior in high school, at Tipton, MO. My first rifle was an old .303 British Enfield. My first deer, a much-celebrated doe, came several years later. Having very little knowledge and no teacher, I guess I got off to a slow start. However, I loved to hunt and spend time in the woods. I was learning more and more with every hunting season. Experience is a great teacher. By the mid 1970s, I had evolved into a fair deer hunter and was bagging a deer nearly every year. It did not matter much whether the deer was a buck or a doe, large or small, I was all about the thrill of the kill and getting the wonderful meat. I recall my first buck as being a small basket racked eight-pointer, taken in Morgan County.

Then a funny thing happened. I started developing a real respect and admiration for these incredible, awesome creatures that our creator designed. I started studying and reading everything I could find about the whitetail deer and deer hunting. I took up bow hunting for several years with a Ben Pearson recurve bow. I did not have much time to devote to my bow hunting efforts and I never did kill a deer with my bow, but I did get to continue and advance my whitetail education. I continued gun hunting with even greater success.

By the early 1980s I was targeting bucks as much as possible and any buck would do. In 1987 I shot my first real trophy buck, near Trenton, MO, a 13-pointer that officially scored 143 3/8" B&C. His mount still graces my family room wall after all these years. I shot him through the heart with a Model 70 Winchester .243 at 14 yards and from a homemade brush blind that I had built myself. What a thrill!!

My son Chris was coming of hunting age about this time. I found myself mentoring him through his first deer, a doe, and the next year, his first buck - a nice young 8-pointer. I gave up my best stand locations for him and taught him all that I had learned. I was totally enjoying his success. It was now more important to mentor him than to have the success myself. Looking back I can see that I was maturing some, as a hunter and as a father. With a good start Chris took off on his own with an enthusiasm, which turned him into the family whitetail expect and a good hunter. He was soon teaching me all of the latest techniques, like camouflage, portable stands and blinds, scent control, trail cameras, etc.

In 2002 my wife of nearly 42 years, who is a "fair weather" deer hunter and has several deer under her own belt, inherited a half interest in 200 acres located in Western Linn County, KS. This farm has proven to be a real "Honey Hole" with more deer and bigger deer than I have ever seen or imagined in one place. We have been developing this property ever since, with just the whitetails in mind. We are practicing Quality Deer Management with farm crops, CRP, ponds, food plots, mineral lick sites, tower blinds, shooting houses, stands, timber management, travel corridors, sanctuaries, etc. We have been trying to manage our harvests by limiting buck kills and shooting does. Deer and turkey abound, as well as, some great hunting opportunities. We know that when we hunt there we have a chance at a true trophy. We have taken several nice bucks in the 120-160 inch range and have let quite a few walk too. Kansas has been very good to us, but we still hunt Missouri as it doubles our hunting opportunities, is more convenient to our homes, and is much less expensive.

In 2003 I started hunting with a Thompson Center Encore rifle. I like the challenge of the single shot and it allows me to hunt with the same gun (rifle, muzzleloader or shotgun) all the time. My main rifle barrel is in .30TC caliber, the muzzleloader barrel is a 209x50 caliber in-line and the turkey special barrel is in 12"gauge, three-inch magnum. The Encore is compact, light, quick and very accurate. I fell in love with it and even tried an Encore pistol (15", 30-06 barrel) for several seasons. Three deer - two does and a buck - fell to it before I went back to my faithful .30TC rifle barrel, to again extend my shooting range.

Three years ago we moved from our home of 35 years in California, MO to Adrian, MO to be closer to our children and grandchildren (four boys and new little girl born 11/11/2010). All praises to God who is good!

The last few seasons I have again been mentoring a new hunter, my son-in-law Ben. Again, I have had another dry spell here in Missouri. Thank God for our place in Kansas. Ben has been a great Christian addition to our family and a good addition to our Missouri deer hunting. He has a natural ability and the patience to be an excellent stalker. Seven deer have fallen to my old Model 70 Winchester .243 in his capable hands during the last three seasons, including his first buck.

The 2010 Missouri firearms season came way to fast for me. I was not prepared as life had been very busy. I retired in 2007 and I do not know how I ever had time for a career. About a month before the season started, I set a pop-up blind and brushed it in about 400 yards behind our home where a hedgerow meets a little block of timber and near a small creek. There were several nice trails there and I had observed a couple decent bucks there earlier in the fall. This was supposed to be a "just in case" stand. Opening morning dawned wet and cool. I found myself hunting alone and using that particular blind. At about 6:45AM I saw a ghostly figure slipping down one of the trails, about 70 yards away. I knew it was a good buck, but in the low light and with the brushy background, I was having trouble counting points. The buck kept walking and I kept straining to see more. His main beams appeared to be massive. By the time I figured out that he was in fact a very nice and legal buck, he was out to 94 yards. I swung the Encore, centering on his shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. He dropped in his tracks, never knowing what had happened. I reloaded and waited for a few minutes while calming myself. I walked over to him praying "Lord, thank you for another of your bountiful blessings". When I got to the buck, I could not believe my eyes. He was a non-typical 25-point giant. I started to realize that I had just taken the buck of a lifetime. I was having trouble taking it all in and even daring to believe that he could be that big. I dropped to my knees beside him, admiring him, and again started praying to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was a humbling experience, as I knew this particular blessing was not because I am great deer hunter or person for that matter. It was just another of my Father's rich blessings to an undeserving son. The "Freak Nasty" buck, as we have come to call him, weighed 201 pounds field dressed and had 25 points (of which we feel only 20 will actually score). We did unofficially green gross score him at 189 2/8 inches.

My new friend Brian, who is an avid bow hunter on an adjoining property, has provided me with trail camera pictures of this buck on the hoof. Brian also found the matched set of sheds last spring on the adjoining property. How cool is that?!?! They gross score approximately 196 5/8 inches!! No, they are not for sale! Because of these sheds and one trail camera picture, Brian hunted the "Freak Nasty" buck all fall. However, he never once saw him in person and on November 7th, settled for a real nice 10-pointer instead. I call it divine intervention, that the same day (approx. 30 minutes prior to Brian's arrival at his stand location) is when the second trail camera picture of the buck was taken, just a few short yards from his stand. Brian was unaware of this until after he had settled for the 10-pointer, which was his first bow kill buck. Congratulations Brian!! Had it not been for these "circumstances", I may not have had the opportunity to connect with this buck or become friends with Brian. Thank you Lord for both!

December 1st found my son and myself at our "Honey Hole" farm in Kansas. The weather was down right cold. I choose to hunt an enclosed shooting house overlooking an Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot. I saw 18 deer that morning - 12 does and 6 bucks. It was too early in the hunt to shoot a doe and the two shooter bucks that I saw and decided to pass on. At 9:45AM Chris and I spoke by phone and we decided to stay out until at least 10:30AM, in spite of the cold. At about 10:15, a big buck jumped the fence into the food plot and followed the edge toward me. At about 150 yards he turned and angled across the food plot right to me, apparently on a mission. Again, I raised the Encore and settled the crosshairs on his shoulder. He was huge bodied, had a big sagging belly, eight points and was really tall and wide. I had no doubts as I squeezed the trigger. He ran from the food plot, but I felt the 102-yard shot had been on target. I found him a few minutes later only 10 yards into the woods. His rack was sticking up, as well as his belly. It was a perfect shoulder shot. Once again, I praised and thanked my Lord for the experience, His wonderful creations, and His many blessings. What are the chances of taking two nice trophies (the two best deer of my life) and receiving a beautiful healthy new granddaughter (my first) and all in less than three weeks?!?!

This big 8-pointer had actually been a crab claw 9-pointer, and had one side of the crab claw broken off. My son has several good trail camera pictures of him. We dubbed him the "Claw". The pictures show almost to the day when he broke off the claw. He has not been green scored yet, but we feel he should score around 145 inches and possibly a bit more. This buck weighed in at 249 pounds and field dressed at 195 pounds. Chris went on to take a nice 10-pointer that evening and a big doe the next evening.

I have been called "Lucky Lee" a few times in the past. More aptly, it should be "Blessed Lee". While I have the same challenges, trials, and troubles in my life that we all do, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that my life is and has been truly blessed. I have a Lord and Savior who loves me and who gave His life for me so that I could be forgiven for my sins and spend eternity with Him in Heaven. I have my faith, health, freedom, family, church family, a treasury of cherished memories, and over course my beloved past time of pursuing whitetails. What more could an old country boy ask for??

A Good Ending to the 2011 Shed Season

2011-03-23T14:58:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that April is all ready here and turkey seasons open up this week, but as spring arrives, our 2011 shed season departs. We have walked many, many miles over the past two months and have done pretty well. This year we ended up with somewhere around 40 sheds, deads, spikes and beams between us. Typically one of our last shed hunting trips of the year is up to a friend's family farm in the very southwestern corner of Iowa and this year was no exception. During the last couple of outtings, we hadn't had too much luck and were hoping that the Iowa farm would change that.

Not 10 minutes into the search, I looked to the other side of a fence crossing and picked up #1......another dink. But bone is bone and we were on the board!

Literally not five minutes later, I hear Skyler saying he's got a good one. Laying just off of a well beaten trail lay what ended up being our best shed of the day - a lengthy 63 inch 4 point side. Although not having much mass, this side sports a 12"+ G2 and nearly 11" G3. Definitely a good young buck that will be fun to watch grow older.

As I'm walking back up the trail after getting a few ATL's of Skyler's find, I see a little tine sticking out of the grass not 20 yards from the big 4 point side.

And then not 50 yards further, Skyler looks over a fence crossing and spots another year old shed barely exposing itself from the matted down CRP. It times like this when you wonder if walking all of those miles in between sheds is worth it. We were find shed and shed in this small, thin CRP/locust field. This shed ended up being another really good find. Even though it was a year old, it had very little wear and chew marks and measured 53 inches without a G3, which was broken right at the beam. The base on this antler went nearly 5 1/2 inches!

As we finished out the first small draw with six or seven sheds, I walked up to the tip of the second one and there lay two matches to sheds we'd found in the first draw within 10 yards of eachother. It was nice to match up the big 4 point Skyler had found just 30 minutes earlier.

So after our initial 11 sheds in 45 minutes, we walked another three hours and only found one small 5 point side and a broken tine. It is amazing how just a simple change in terrain can affect how the deer move through and winter in specific areas. The first 11 sheds were found in relatively small draws with thin CRP areas on the edges and were somewhat over grown with small locust trees and "buck brush". It was a great day to spend shed hunting and thankfully we ended our season on a good note! Now on to turkeys!!

The Sheds and Deads Continue to Pile Up

2011-03-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

Well, I figure I'd better update the blog, otherwise I'm going to have one heck of a long post once shed season ends! During the past couple of weeks, Bo and I have been traversing the ridges and valleys of multiple states in search sign that our hit listers made it through the season. After wearing down the soles of our boots, dealing with aching muscles, and going through a bottle of Ibuprofen, we founds sheds, both big and small, and unfortunately a few dead heads, some natural, some poached.

Here are a few sheds that we've found along the way..... nothing super huge, but definitely a couple to get the blood pumping in anticipation for September to come along. On our first trip to a new Kansas property that we'd previously only stepped foot one once, this 67 inch massive 4 point awaited us less than 10 minutes out of the truck.

If you look close, you can see another shed laying under the tree. We thought it was a match....but nope, just another shooter buck!

After a little bit of walking, Bo found his match about 300 yards away laying on a south facing slope.

This buck definitely has some great tine length. Based on mass, we'd assume this buck to be a 3.5 year old. We're definitely pumped to start running cameras on this property in a few months!

Here are a few more ATL's of some of the sheds that we've found in the past couple of weeks.

Like I mentioned.....this is going to be a LONG post.... In addition to the freshies, we unfortunately found a few that were still attached to their heads. We did end up finding one of our target bucks from this past season dead in Kansas. We had nicknamed him the Great 8. Turns out that our neighbor who we're good friends with had shot this buck during rifle season but could not find any blood. After quite awhile of searching, they figured it was a clean miss. Fortunately we'll be able to return his trophy back to him this weekend!

In addition to the Great 8, we also lost Hannibal this past fall. We were getting fairly consistent pics of this buck up until early October and then he disappeared - guess we know why. Not sure how he died, but just sucks we lost one member of the A-Team.

And a few more deadheads....

We probably only have another couple random shed hunting trips left in us and then it will be time to chase turkeys. We've had our best shed season by far and definitely have a few bucks to look forward to this coming fall!

A Successful Start to Shed Season

2011-02-20T21:20:00.000-06:00

Last year was a TOUGH year on us when it came to finding sheds. At one point, I had a 35 hour shedless streak that left me sore and frustrated. But we kept going and fortunately that streak was broken by finding Potato Digger's matched set laying within five yards of one another. I think that is the part I love the most about shed hunting - you just never know what you're going to find and when that gagger antler will show up in front of you.

This season started out slowly.....only picking up two sheds after probably four or five miles of walking. A combination of a lot of snow and it still being early in the season made sheds hard to come by. But that all changed late this week. On Thursday night, I needed to take advantage of the 70 degree temps and go for a little walk after work. Less than two hours later I was walking out with four sheds to jump start the season, including a decent three year old five point side. The following day we HAD to get out of the office and look for the matches and search some of the best areas on the property. So with an additional three hours of looking, we added eight more sheds, including a tiny matched set that were found together in a bed, a broken beam, and the match to the five point from the previous day. So in three official shed outings, we are up to 14 sheds and still have the best part of the season ahead of us.

Here are a few of the ATLs that we have taken to this point.

First of the year!

It's a match! This is a three year old ten point that eluded our cameras since July. It's nice to see that he still living on the farm! Each side goes approximately 62 inches, which puts him just under a 140 incher.

In about five hours of walking this past week, we ended up with 10 sheds. But we're still getting pictures of bucks carrying so we'll still be out shed hunting for the next month or so.

Also, we get asked quite a bit about where we typically find sheds and what we look for so here is a list of a couple golden rules that we keep in mind while shed hunting.

Five Golden Rules of Shed Hunting:
1. Check all fence crossings and creek crossings. When I am out looking for sheds, these are my two main priorities. We have scouted the majority of properties enough to know where most of the major crossings are located. Those are the first places we check.

2. Search south facing hill sides and ridge tops. During the cold and snowy winter months, a higher percentage of deer will bed in areas where they can keep warm....hence the tops of ridges and any southerly exposed hill sides. And as the saying goes....."where there's beds, there's sheds!".

3. Keep an eye on the sun. I prefer to walk on overcast, dreary days. It seems those sheds "pop" much better under these conditions. But when you have those beautiful bluebird days, it's hard to stay out of the woods. If you're shed hunting while the sun is overhead, try to keep the sun at your back as much as possible. Walking into the sun makes spotting sheds much more difficult. If you have to walk into the sun, make sure to stop and look behind you often!

4. Remember the 3-inch rule. This takes a little more conscious effort, but I always am looking for pieces of antlers, not the entire shed. Tips of tines, tops of pedicels, and the curvature of a main beam are a couple examples of what I'm looking for while scanning the timber floor.

5. Journal (mentally or physically) found shed locations. If most shed hunters are like myself, then they can remember where they've found every shed for the past five years! But it's amazing how often there are certain areas of a property that simply produce more sheds more often. For example, there is one particular fence crossing that I have found at least one shed at for the past six years!

Obviously there are many, many different tips and techniques that people use and are successful with. One needs to keep in mind there is some skill behind consistently finding sheds, but there is A LOT of luck involved too! And if you're not finding anything, just keep walking, you know they're out there somewhere!

An Introduction to the New Crew

2011-02-11T15:46:00.003-06:00

Well, I said I was going to come back and make a better introduction last month, but that was before we ran into our dream house in the country. Now, I'm moved in and have a new internet connection, so lets get to the blogging!

My name is Vince Crawford, and I just absolutely LIVE hunting and fishing. I really appreciate Bo and Scott having me here to share my outdoor adventures.

In my spare time, I am hunting, fishing, scouting, training my new pup, or turning game calls on my lathe. Since 1999, I have been in the business of teaching Missourians about fish and wildlife for my day job. I am passionate about my teaching, and do my best to get folks, especially kids, excited about the outdoors. I am also a founding member of a not-for-profit group called Missouri Disabled Sportsmen.

My "above and beyond" passions are turkey hunting, archery hunting, pond bass fishing, flathead catfishing, shed hunting and wood working.

The calls I make while wood working are known as VECtor Custom Calls. (My initials are VEC). I make all kinds of different game calls, and really enjoy seeing them being used successfully all across the US. You can read more about them at my website by clicking the link over on the right side of your screen.

I have started the training of my new shed hunting/deer recovery pup this winter, and I will share some of our trial and error times in the woods with you here. My pup's name is Goose, and she is a little over 11 weeks old right now.

My wife Holly, and my two boys, Tristen and Kable, join me in my adventures quite often. Holly is a classroom teacher, so she is able to help me with new thoughts and techniques involved in my fish and wildlife educating.

Tristen is the most ate up with it all, helping me train Goose, scout deer, archery hunt and make game calls. Tristen also spends a lot of his free time weight training for football, or playing football, depending on the time of year. Tristen will be featured in many of my stories here. He does some of his own woodworking by making wood burnt signs. His work is known as Long Branch Wood Works.

Kable is just coming into his prime as far as the learning of hunting and fishing goes. He enjoys being outside, and picked up a metal detector this past Christmas he plans on using extensively once this snow is off. Kable took his first turkey last spring, and also helped me boat a 51 and a 46 pound flathead catfish. He is known as the "VECtor Inspector", as he is in charge of "certifying" deer and turkey as being taken with the help of a VECtor Custom Call.

Training Goose......

I picked up my new friend Goose in Iowa a little over a month ago now. She has been nothing but a BUNCH of fun! She is a silver colored Labrador Retriever from Pinyan Labs.

We started out her training by teaching her how to find her dinner. She gets to eat two of her meals each day out of her normal food bowl. She has to find small stacks of food around the house for her evening meal though. This helps her learn what I mean by "Search it up", "Find that bone" and "Find it". It is also an award system that gives her a good drive to work to succeed.

We have since moved forward to having her find shed antlers in the house, and just three days ago, we moved our training outside. She has done a wonderful job of progressing forward in "Finding that bone". I also integrated shooting .22 blanks while we were "shed hunting" today also, so she will not be gun-shy when it comes to our waterfowl training and hunting this next coming year. The .22 didn't bother her in the least bit. I will continue with it for a few days, and then I will see about adding shotgun shots to the mix.

With the snow on, her outdoor training facility is the gravel road infront of our house. She moves from side to side in the road, looking for anters, and trying to pick up the wind from them. I always try to guide her in a direction to where the wind is in her favor. She is very good at smelling the antlers prior to ever seeing them. Her sight on them will progress as she gets older.

When the snow melts, and she progresses, I will be placing antlers for her to find in more random locations. If she doesn't find them, that is okay too. I pick them up, show them to her, and let her play with them for a minute. She won't find every one in the woods either. I need to share my bounty with her though, so she can see we are a team.

As spring approaches, I will be finding more and more things to share. We usually have a great time bass fishing in March, and that is also when we find most of our sheds. April and May will bring on crappie fishing, gobbling turkeys and mushroom hunting.

Post Season Scouting Is In Full Swing

2011-02-09T20:06:00.000-06:00

Even though the blog has been relatively slow for the past month or so, we have still been busy putting time in the woods getting ready for the 2011 season, which is only 8 months away (but who's counting)! There are many different post season scouting techniques that we do each year to better prepare ourselves for the upcoming season.

This year, our post season scouting has never been more important. We have two new properties that we acquired permission on right before the season opened last September. From the scouting that we were able to accomplish from the tree stand and running cameras, we believe both of these properties have the potential to be absolutely amazing with a little QDM. January through March is the perfect time to give us addtional insight on the quality and quantity of deer that are present on each of the properties.

The first post season technique that we do is to start our winter camera surveys. We started prebaiting camera sites the week after season closed so that we could increase our chances of not getting any shed bucks in the survey. We just pulled the last cards this past weekend and will have another blog post in the coming weeks detailing out the results of the survey. But as a teaser, potentially four new bucks will be added to the hit list for 2011, including "Stag".

In addition to running camera surveys, we also shed hunt, which may be my favorite time of the season. I'm not sure which I enjoy more.....killing a 150 inch buck or find his matched set laying side by side in his bed. There are many different "tricks of the trade" when it comes to shed hunting, but honestly, it's more luck than anything! The one piece of advice I give to anyone that asks is to walk, walk some more, and when you think you've covered the entire property, walk it again in the opposite direction. Unfortunately our stomping grounds are currently covered in 12"+ of white powder. Hopefully the predicted thaw this weekend will come as planned and we will begin picking up sheds off of potential targets for next season. But during our final card pull to our camera surveys, I stumbled across a "freshie" that was laying in a deep trail not 20 yards from the camera......oh, if all sheds were this easy!

But this shed is actually off of a new buck that just showed up during our camera survey. We hope to get a few more pictures of him prior to season, but right now he sure looks like a big, mature DINK!

When we are fortunate enough to have a white winter, which we currently fighting this season, we also pay close attention to trails, intersections, feeding patterns, creek crossings, fence crossings, etc. During the bitter cold months, the deer have herded back up and focus their travel patterns between bedding and feeding areas. And with the help of snow on the ground, the sign is much more concentrated and you can find those primary travel corridors. But don't just keep your eyes on the ground! Keep an eye up towards the canopy and look for those perfect trees located in your concentrated areas. We carry surveying flagging with us while shed hunting to mark trees that we want to take another look at in the summer. Summer scouting is that much easier when you all ready have an idea of where primary travel corridors are located.

Midwest Whitetail Voted Best New Hunting Show

2011-01-21T07:12:00.000-06:00

Sportsmans Channel held their annual Sportsman Choice Awards on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas and Midwest Whitetail was selected as this years Best New Hunting Show!! This is a great award for the show to receive, especially since we were brought onto the channel late in the programming year. Bo and I are definitely very honored to be part of such a great team and are excited to see how our second season will turn out.

Also, our friends are Heartland Bowhunter won Best Hunt Show this year. Mike, Shawn, Skyer, Clayton and all of the guys with HB have worked their butts off this year creating one of the highest quality shows on television. Along with Mammoth (their production company), they produce some of the best footage you can find on an outdoors show. If you haven't had a chance to watch any of HB's episodes, you can check them out online at http://www.heartlandbowhunter.com/.

Taking it down to the wire!

2011-01-02T23:10:00.004-06:00

First, please allow me to introduce my son and I in a more formal fashion a little later this month. My name is Vince Crawford, and my oldest son's name is Tristen. Tristen's younger brother Kable and their mother Holly, will be along for our outdoor adventures quite often also. Tristen and I have been invited by Bo and Scott to be contributors to MIDWEST BOWHUNTER, and couldn't be happier about joining up! Many of our posts here will venture outside of strictly bowhunting, but I promise, we are some stick-and-string nuts when fall comes around!

Our first story of success came quickly after being invited to join in here, so Tristen's straight shooting has allowed us to jump right in with both feet!

This weekend was Missouri's late youth deer season. Friday afternoon, we loaded everyone in the truck and drove to our friend Bob's hunting grounds in Northeast Missouri. This was Tristen's last youth deer season, since he will be turning 16 early next fall. He had not seen many bucks this last fall, so his any-deer tag was still burning a hole in his pocket.

Bob showed Kable and I to our blind early on Saturday afternoon, and he and Tristen headed to another blind on the property. Kable and I didn't have much luck. As you know, deer hunting in the late season can be feast or famine. We did enjoy the antics of several local squirrels though.

We got a call on the radio from Bob about 4PM saying they were seeing quite a few deer. Less than an hour after that call, a loud 30-06 Ka-BOOM sounded off from their direction.

Bob came on the radio, saying Tristen had shot the buck he was after! He said the deer was carrying a front leg as it ran off into the woods. A few minutes later, they reported back, and said they had not been able to find any blood, but were confident in the shot.

After dark, Kable and I joined them at their blind, and Kable headed to the truck to warm up, as the windchills were nearing 0. I had a bright light with me, so Tristen and I continued to look for blood while Bob carried gear back to the truck.

We walked the edge of the green foodplot for blood back and forth with no luck. Tristen said he wanted to just go look in the area where the deer had ran to, since he felt he had made a good shot.

I asked him about the shot, and THAT was when the story started! He said the first time he leveled off on the buck, his gun had gone "CLICK". He quickly realized he had forgotten to load a round in the chamber! As he worked the bolt, the buck just stood at 60 yards looking at the blind. He said Bob told him it was good PRACTICE and a good CHANCE for the buck for him to click on the PRACTICE SHOT. Once the round was fed into the chamber, the bullet quickly exited the gun, and hit its mark.

We walked into the woods, in the area Tristen saw the buck run. Immediately after we entered the woods, I thought I could see the belly of the deer about 60 yards infront of us. I lowered my light, and closed the gap to 30 yards, so Tristen would not see it until we got closer. I lifted my light, and confirmed the white form I had seen to be his deer! I said, "There's your deer buddy!" He took off in a dead sprint screaming the whole way! I could see the main beams sticking up above the deer's body.

As Bob began walking back to us from the truck, we yelled out to him to let him know we had the deer. He gladly brought the deer cart from the truck to help load the nice buck!

What an ending to the fall of 2010! A 2011 New Years Day 9 pointer!

A BIG congrats to Tristen for making such a great shot on a nice buck! Right behind the shoulder, taking out both lungs. I can't wait to get this deer on the wall!

A HUGE thanks to Bob and his wife Linda for their wonderful hospitality, making this past weekend one to remember for a long time! I can't thank them enough! I hope we get to join up with them again SOON!

Vince

Another Legend Has Fallen

2010-12-28T08:42:00.001-06:00

During the summer of 2008, Bo first stepped onto our Kansas property and immediately began running trail cameras, only to get thousands of pictures of numerous quality bucks. One of the first, and most visible, was a heavy nine point with kickers and long tines. After the first dozen or so pictures, his main identifiable trait was his crab claw G4. Based on body size compared to other deer on the property, Bo knew this buck was only a 3 1/2 year old and decided that this buck would get the pass.....hoping that he would continue to call this property home and grow into a true Kansas giant. And so the story of the Crab Claw 9 begins.

My first trip down to the property was in the spring of 2009 to help Bo shed hunt the thick draws and seven-foot tall CRP. I love shed hunting, but when we stepped onto this property, I thought we would never be able to find an antler hiding in the tall grass. Not long into the search, I spotted what looked to be a brow tine laying in a thick clup of grass next to a creek crossing. As I approached the shed, I realized this was the biggest side I'd found and when I raised it up, Bo knew exactly who it was - the Crab Claw 9.

We searched and searched for the match, but fortunately on Bo's next trip down to the farm with another friend, the match was found 150 - 200 yards away.

With CC9's 3 1/2 year old set on display during the summer of 2009, we could only imagine how much additional growth he would put on during that year. Again, we ran half a dozen cameras on this small property, only to find out that once again, CC9 was running with his best summer friend, Potato Digger. These two bucks were ALWAYS together. Every single time we would get a picture of one, the other was right behind. But that would all change come mid-September when PD would push CC9 onto neighboring properties. But every now and then CC9 would show up on camera to prove that he was still alive.

During the fall of 2009, we never had an encounter with CC9 while on stand and we did not find either of his sheds the following spring. We were beginning to think that maybe CC9 had met his match and not made it through the season. But that changed when we began talking with our neighbor Craig. We found out that PD had pushed CC9 over to his farm and CC9 was still a regular on his farm and growing strong. Craig ended up finding both sides to CC9 on his farm that year.

Since we had not seen CC9 on our property in nearly eight months, we were pumped to see him running with Potato Digger again this past summer. Not only was PD still displaying his domanance, but CC9 had put on A LOT in the past year. This buck was now pushing 180 inches and had a six inch drop tine, which he broke just as he came out of velvet. He had indeed grown into a Kansas giant!

Just as in years past, once mid-September came, CC9 moved due to PD's dominance. However, this fall CC9 moved north....way north. This buck actually moved over a mile north of this typical core area. We were not sure if this was due to a hot doe that led him north or just the dominant nature of other bucks in the area. Either way, after mid-October, we had not seen any evidence of CC9 on our property.

As we hunted through the November rut and the December gun season, we still had no evidence that CC9 was still alive. That was until the night of December 9th when Bo's father spotted CC9 standing in the driveway of our property as they were passing by. In an instant, the ghost had returned! After this encoutner, CC9 showed up on camera just like his old self. Since Bo had harvest Potato Digger earlier in the season, CC9 did not have that dominant presence to compete with anymore.

And on the evening of Christmas Eve, CC9 made one of his few and far mistakes. Our neighbor Craig was sitting in the NE corner of his property with bow in hand and at 4:00 PM, CC9 stepped out of the cedars. After a little cat and mouse and nearly winding Craig, CC9 walked right under his stand and presented the perfect quartering away shot at 20 yards. The arrow flew true and the final chapter on a great story was finally written.

It will be odd shed hunting and running cameras in 2011 knowing that we will not have any more encounters with CC9 or Potato Digger. These two bucks were legendary to the property but now hopefully a few new Kansas giants will fill their voids and give us a new challenge for the 2011 season.

We Need Your Vote!!!

2010-12-10T08:08:00.002-06:00

Hey guys and gals,

As many of you know Scott and I started filming our hunts for an outdoor program this year. It is called Midwest Whitetail and all of our episodes can be viewed online at www.midwestwhitetail.com. I encourage all of you to watch the show because it can be really entertaining and informative. The best thing about it is that almost all of the prostaff are hardworking weekend warriors. We all have jobs and none of us are paid to be on the show. We just do it because we love it and, for the most part, we're out hunting private farms and not with outfitters. Serious deer hunters will enjoy it because we often have a lot of history with the deer we are hunting (see my hunt for a buck called "Potato Digger" here http://midwestwhitetail.com/gallery/87/media/2428/gp1010-kansas-legend.html ).

In the past, the show was always online in a "semi-live" format. Generally, hunts would air on the show within a week of the actual hunt occuring. There is nowhere else where you can see that type of turnaround time. It's pretty remarkable what our producers are able to accomplish in a very short period of time.

Recently, Midwest Whitetail began airing on the Sportsmans Channel. The Sportsmans Channel is available through many satellite and cable television providers and is dedicated to only outdoor programming. Each year, the Sportsmans Channel has fan voting and awards are given out. Midwest Whitetail was nominated for best new series. It's important to show sponsors that we're a popular show so that we can continue to be on TV. Regardless, we will continue to be online too. Please take a minute and vote for us as the "Best New Series" by clicking on this link http://www.votesportsman.com/ . It requires that you vote in other categories too, but you can simply vote "No Choice" if you don't have a favorite.

Thanks, y'all!

A November to Never Remember

2010-12-06T08:54:00.003-06:00

I never thought we would say that we are glad November is over and December is here, but we sure are this year. During the past five weeks, we have experienced some of the worst "rut" hunting and movement that we have ever seen. There are many theories out there, but Bo and I have noticed three primary "irregularities" this year.

The first was the extremely early crop harvest and massive acorn crop. The corn harvest started in early to mid September and was for the most part complete by the end of October. The soybean harvest fell right in line with the corn as well. The acorn crop was one of the best in recent memory. However even with the mast crop slowing down and the fresh harvested fields, we still did not see much chasing in the open fields and one would believe that open fields only allow you to see more activity and movement. Most of the fields that we were hunting were not tilled under either and had relatively significant spillage. But with the large expanses of available grain spillage and the remaining mast crop, did this spread the herd out a little more and cause the does to be a little less congregated?

The second variable this year was the rutting moon occured in late November. Two full moons occurred during the prime time this year......one around the 25th of October and another around the 22nd of November. Many people are saying that this years rut was simply a drawn out, extended version. We had does coming into estrus from the first couple days of November through this past week. We noticed very little crusing and very little mid day activity. We did have one good morning where we had a hot doe being pursued by two shooters (which never came into range unfortunately). But it seemed that if you had a hot doe in the area, you'd see mature bucks, but if you did not have a hot doe in the area, you would see very little movement.

The last oddity that we've noticed this year is the large number of fawns still still tagging along with their moms. We are getting dozens of pictures of does with single fawns and twins right by her side. Many of these fawns are still extremely undersized for this time of year. Last year we had a very strong second rut, did that produce more fawns to be born later in the spring, hence causing there to be less does coming into estrus during early to mid November?

Many questions have come up during the last five weeks of hunting, but cold weather is finally here. As we've come to the last month of the 2010 season, we have many unfilled buck tags that need to be attached to some bone. We will be targetting food plots and cut corn and bean fields as the temps continue to drop.

First Pull is BACK!!

2010-12-02T08:34:00.000-06:00

You may remember back to June when we posted up our first velvet trail cam pic of First Pull. He was the very first deer we got on trail camera this year. After that first picture, we got numerous velvet pictures of him up until mid July and then he seemed to turn into a ghost - something that those elusive mature bucks do year after year. Due to standing crops we decided to back off of the property during the latter part of the summer, just to let things settle down, knowing that we'd be hitting the property hard once the harvest began.

As the crops started to come out, we increased our hunting pressure on the property, but just could not find First Pull again. Had he all ready been harvested, had he moved to another area on the property, was he even living on the property were all questions we started to ask our selves. We had been running a couple different cameras on different part of the property and on active scrapes and just could not find this buck. However, with one card pull in early November, First Pull finally showed up.

It was very reassuring knowing that FP is still running the property. But since these latest pictures, FP has actually been spotted in an open field during daylight and multiple large rubs have been found in the area he was seen entering the field.

Last year this buck was seen a couple of times during late season and we hope that he will be letting his guard down some this season as well!

A Buck of a Lifetime

2010-11-21T15:49:00.000-06:00

During the opening weekend of Missouri's rifle season, a good friend of ours was fortunate enough to shoot a buck of a lifetime during the first five minutes of the 2010 season! From what we've heard, this HUGE nontypical will score right around 190 inches gross, with 20 scoreable points. This buck has to have between 40 and 50 inches of mass alone! We haven't had a chance to see it personally yet, but cannot wait to see this Missouri Monarch come back from the taxidermist and we can put our hands around those enormous bases!

Lee is one of the nicest guys you could ever have the pleasure of meeting and becoming friends with. The generosity that he has shown towards Bo and I is simply indescribable and we cannot thank him enough for everything he has done for us! We know that Lee is extremely humbled to have harvested such a magnificent animal and this couldn't have happened to a better person. Congratulations Lee on one amazing buck!!!

Rut Update

2010-11-08T10:53:00.000-06:00

Temperatures are finally starting too look like fall! Highs in the 50s and lows in the 20s have definitely sparked an increase in deer movement. Based upon what we've been seeing from the stand during the past three or four days, it seems that the rut in our area is still a week or so away. All of the does that we have seen have not had a buck trailing, chasing, or scent checking them. The bucks that we have been seeing have not been cruising yet either. This past weekend, we finally got the cool temperatures we've been anticipating, and were able to rattle and grunt in 8 different bucks. The movement seemed pretty equal in the afternoons and mornings, but the majority of the afternoon movement happened right before dark. However, it seems that more of our fellow hunters were seeing much more activity in the mornings than the evenings and little to no daytime activity. The cool temps and new moon made for perfect daytime movement conditions, but it seems the bucks just aren't at that stage of the rut yet. During the following week, we will be dedicating four days to catching up with Crab Claw 9. November 11th - 20th has been historically the best 10 day period for deer movement that we've seen on our properties. This weekend we will definitely be packing lunches and will plan on all day sits.
Also, in the past week we have seen a large increase in buck sign on all of our properties. Scrapes and rubs are popping up everywhere. Community scrapes are getting hit hard. Sign post rubs are getting worked. New shooter bucks are showing up on cameras. We're not sure why our buck sign was so delayed this year, but things are starting to turn around for us. Hopefully during the next two weeks, a few tags will be attached to a couple hit listers!

Good luck to everyone in the woods!

Potato Digger Show is Up!

2010-10-28T09:11:00.002-05:00

The hunt for Potato Digger is now up on Midwest Whitetail. Our producer, Greg Clements did a great job of editing the footage... even though I forgot to send one of the tapes.

Go check it out and let us know what you think!

Click on the logo to view the show!

Potato Digger: The Final Chapter

2010-10-27T08:21:00.006-05:00

2010 marks my 3rd hunting season in KS after moving from GA in 2008. What a ride it has been! Last year, I took a dream buck that grossed in the 170's on our 80 acre lease. This year, I took a deer that is a true legend of our Kansas farm.

In the summer of 2008, I got my first trail camera pictures of a nice 3 year old buck that would soon become known as Potato Digger. My first on the hoof encounter with Digger occured in November of 2008 while hunting with my wife, Sarah. We'd seen a few bucks already that morning when I heard a deer slipping through the CRP behind us. At first glance, I reached for my bow, but quickly elected to pass the 125ish 8 point at a distance of 15 yards. Afterall, it was early November and we were in the Land of Giants. We saw many good deer that weekend, but the big boys never presented me with any shots.

A few short weeks later found me back on stand in late December. It was to be my last KS hunt of the year. We were experiencing some sub-zero temperatures that day and the deer movement was fantastic! At the 11th hour, who would show up again? It was the wide young 8 point, and he was once again at a mere 15 yards. I'll admit, it was quite tempting as his antlers were larger than any of my GA bucks, but I didn't move to the Midwest to shoot 3 year olds. I felt that he needed at least one more year.

In late winter of 2009, I invited Scott to start hunting the property with me. We went down in March to shed hunt. We were walking along a creek that runs through the CRP when Scott spotted a shed that I had nearly stepped on. When he picked it up, he said, "Sweet, it has a potato digger point!". Little did we know, but he'd just uttered the words that we would use time and time again for the next two years. The shed that Scott held, belonged to the young 8 point that I'd passed on twice during the 2008 season.

During the summer of 2009, we ran trail cams and on the first card pull discovered that the potato digger buck had made a big jump! We estimated that the 4 year old whitetail had put on an additional 20 inches of bone and had some very impressive main beams. He was a deer that we definitely wanted to pursue. During our first hunt of the year, Potato Digger made his first appearance. We were sitting in a double ladder stand that we'd hung just 30 yards from where we'd found Digger's shed. While waiting on a young doe that was feeding to the East of the stand to give me a shot, I caught movement to the West. I quickly whispered to Scott, "Big buck! It's Potato Digger!"

By the time Scott got the camera on him, I was at full draw and looking through my peep sight at the big whitetail. 35 yards is well within my comfort zone, the only problem was that he was quartering to me. I try to avoid those shots at all costs. We hoped that he would take the same path that some earlier does had chosen, but as luck would have it, he fed directly away from us. We were pretty bummed.

During our next trip down, I was fortunate enough to arrow my largest whitetail to date. Potato Digger was safe from me for the remainder of the 2009 season... but Scott still had a tag. After I tagged out, Scott was on a mission to get Potato Digger. We'd already had daylight encounters with him during the past two seasons, and he was highly visible on our trail cams throughout the season. We often got pictures and videos of him hitting scrapes and rubs during the mid morning and early afternoon hours. He was definitely a killable buck. As luck would have it, when we chose door #1, he was behind door #2. The entire season played out like that. In the game of cat and mouse, we were always one step behind. One thing that we really noticed about him though, was that he was clearly a dominant buck. He ran with some larger antlered deer during much of the summer months, but seemed to really push them aside during the fall. In fact, our sightings and pictures of other mature bucks were severely limited with Potato Digger claiming the farm as his home. His dominancy was very evident.

The 2009 season closed without a second encounter with Potato Digger and Scott got a dose of Kansas Tag Soup... Trust me, I've had it and it tastes pretty terrible!

(For a recap of our first 2010 KS shed hunting trip, visit our March archives.) In March of 2010, we headed down to shed hunt the farm with one particular set in mind... Potato Digger! Not long into the trip, Scott found the matched set! We were pretty elated that he had found exactly what we'd been hoping for and that he had found them before the squirrels did. The beam length was quite impressive at 26+ inches. The matched set was found within 60 yards of his 2008 shed and within 100 yards of all of our encounters with him. We were definitely starting to narrow down his core area.

In the summer of 2010, Digger was once again the first mature buck to show up on trail cam. It appeared that he hadn't changed a whole lot, but his beams had amazingly grown even longer!

He had officially reached the "Stud" level in our book as a 5.5 year old KS brute. We were extremely excited to have the opportunity to chase this legend again. His dominant nature was very obvious to us during the summer months as his aggressive demeanor towards other bucks showed even as early as July. He seemed to really command the corn pile... even when feeding near much higher scoring bucks, such as Crab Claw 9. Potato Digger was officially named the #1 buck on our 2010 hitlist... even though we had larger antlered deer to chase. Our history with him and his aggressive nature made him our top priority this year. We hung stands, built ground blinds, and planted food plots specifically for this deer. It was time to take down our old nemesis.

On Friday, October 22nd, around 6:45 PM, the final chapter of our quest for Potato Digger was written.

I don't want to spoil the footage, so you'll have to watch the Great Plains show on www.midwestwhitetail.com on Thursday, October 28th. I will say that it was an incredible hunt that involved rattling and some intense decoy action. I shot him off the ground and he dressed out over 240 lbs. His beams measured 28"+ and his green gross score was 148 1/8th. Harvesting him was the result of a lot of hard work and was truly a team effort. He belongs to Scott as much as he does to me. We earned this buck! I'd also like to say a special thanks to Craig Galey, our neighbor, for giving me the match to the 2008 shed that Scott found. I now have both matched sets and they will be displayed with the mount in some fashion.

Harvesting a deer like this is a truly humbling experience and it reminds me to give thanks to our loving father. Without you, Lord, none of this would be possible. Thank you for creating whitetails and giving some of us the passion it takes to chase them.

Thanks for reading and please watch the show on Thursday to see the hunt. It is my favorite hunt of all time!

Slow ain't the word...

2010-10-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

To say that we've had a slow season would be an understatement. It's the slowest one I've ever had since moving to the Midwest. We just flat out aren't seeing deer right now. Frustration has officially set in for both Scott and myself. We aren't giving up hope, and we know the deer are out there, we've just had a very hard time finding them. Daytime movement seems to have been minimal on the farms we've been hunting, but whenever they are moving during the daytime, we seem to have chosen the wrong stand. It's happened to us multiple times this season. Last night was a prime example.

We had planned to hunt an isolated and picked bean field with a decoy. When we got there, we checked a camera near the stand and it had several does on it. The does had shown up on both of the previous two evenings, during the daytime, and had fed in the field until dark. There were no bucks on the cameras. So, we decided to not use the decoy and hunt the does instead. Dark thirty came, and nary a deer had entered our field. It was a pretty frustrating evening. Upon leaving, we saw several does in a corn field on the same farm. Once again, it was the wrong place at the wrong time for us.

So what are the factors that are contributing to our lack of success?

-Unseasonably warm weather - this has to be one of the biggest factors for us not seeing much daytime movement. The deer have their winter coats on now and with so many days in the past few weeks reaching the mid-80's, deer are likely waiting for the cooler evening hours to move and feed.

-Abundant food sources - There is food everywhere! There is so much browse, acorns, and harvested crops right now that the deer are really spread out. It's hard to pattern them when there are so many places they could be feeding. They don't have to travel far for food if they don't want to and they also don't have the need to stick to one particular food source.

-Lack of weather - We'd really like to see a good storm system or two push through once in a while to shake things up a little bit. We did get a little rain about two weeks ago, but that's about it. It would be nice to see a nasty low pressure system move in to really get the deer moving. Sometimes, you just can't beat a good frontal passage. Anything would beat this beautiful weather we've been having!

What are we going to do differently?

- Not much - we know that we're hunting smart, hunting the wind, and hunting good spots. We've just been a little snakebit (as have many of our friends). Also, we haven't hit it really hard yet either. We've been out in the woods a bit, but we haven't put in any really long sits and haven't done much calling. We're going to continue to hunt smart and be persistent and try our best to remain patient. We know we're in good areas and that we have many good bucks to go after. We just have to ride out this slump and hope things turn around real soon. We've been hearing reports of bucks fighting, moving in daylight, and even doing a little chasing. November is just around the corner! With these factors in mind, we'll soon be breaking out the decoy, grunt calls, and rattling antlers. Hopefully, we can make our own luck really soon.

Good luck to all of you that get out this weekend! Hunt smart and hunt safe!

Bo

The October Lull

2010-10-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

As Bo and I moved trail cameras, scouted a new property, and moved stands for the umpteenth time yesterday afternoon, we discussed in detail about how frustraiting of a season we have had so far. In Northeastern/Eastern Kansas and Northwestern Missouri, it appears that we are currently fighting the perfect storm when it comes to deer hunting in October. It seems that every year there is a typical "lull" that occurs during the middle of the month, but our "lull" has lasted for nearly 30 days now and shows no signs of slowing down with the 10-day forecast. The warm temperatures and windy conditions have provided us an early crop harvest, but has limited the deer movement. The bountiful acorn crop (the best in years) provides great nutritional benefits to the herd, but has limited the deer movement. The clear, bright night skies has been great for camp fires, but has limited the deer movement during daylight hours.

After nearly 100 hours of stand time, a couple dozen does, two yearling bucks, and very little activity overall, we are officially in a "lull", but hopefully on the tail end of it. We have hunted near known bedding areas, oak ridges covered in acorns, cut corn fields, standing bean fields and the outcomes have all seemed the same - little to no daytime movement. This has been the same pattern we have been seeing with trail camera photos as well. We are continuously moving stands and cameras though to hopefully catch up with one of our hit listers during this time because you cannot kill them if you are sitting on the couch! If they are going to make a mistake, you want to make sure you are there to capitalize on it!

We do have an update on our two main hit list bucks. Potato Digger and Crab Claw "9" have kept with their same routine for the last three years. Every year, these two will run together all summer and we will get literally thousands of pictures of them. But once that velvet comes off, Potato Digger will force Crab Claw out of the area and both will go nocturnal. Last year Crab Claw moved to the western edge of the property adjacent to us, but this year he has moved into the area where Bo shot his 175" 5.5 year old last year. We knew a good buck would take over this territory, but were surprised to see Crab Claw up there since we have no trail camera pictures of him on this portion of the property in three years. It was really nice to see him show up during shooting hours too. Too bad we were hunting about two hours away that evening. Lets hope he makes that mistake this weekend!

However, this dominance is the primary reason why we have placed Potato Digger at the top of the hit list. He is by far the most dominant buck we have ever encountered and is hurting the property by driving out all of the other bucks. He needs to go and needs to go soon! We will be targetting him and Crab Claw specifically this weekend so hopefully one of these 5.5 year olds will make a mistake and step into range for the Maxxiss.

ACORNS!!!

2010-10-08T10:13:00.001-05:00

I can honestly say I cannot remember a mass acorn crop like the one we're currently seeing in western Missouri. The acorns have been steadily dropping since mid-August and it has made a huge impact on our deer movements. It's hard to believe there are enough acorns in the trees to continuously drop for two months! We're sure to have some fat squirrels and deer this winter!

On the properties we are currently hunting, it does not seem to matter the species of oak, they are all loaded this year. It's nice to have that supplemental food for the deer herds, but it sure makes bowhunting them more difficult. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been moving stands and doing some additional scouting to try to find the oak trees that are currently dropping and those that still have acorns yet to drop. Both does that we harvested last weekend were taken over acorns that are located between heavy bedding areas and standing corn.

So during the first three weeks of season, we have transitioned from green bean fields to oak flats and ridges. Within the next week or two, we'll be make another transition from the oak trees to the cut corn fields. The weather in our area has been absolutely perfect for the crop harvest this fall so hopefully the majority of the standing corn will be gone by mid October. If so, the deer activity will significantly pick up and those mature bucks should start to be a little bit more visible.

One has to remember that you need to be mobile during the season and adapt to the changing seasons and surrounding conditions. Don't be afraid to move stands during season. This weekend we will be setting two or three stands on Saturday. If you're not sitting in the right place, grab your stand and MOVE!!

On another note, please take a few minutes to check out the latest Midwest Whitetail Great Plains show. Greg Clements produced a very good segment of Bo's doe harvest that I filmed from this past Sunday. The show also includes a great buck shot by fellow prostaffer Mike Lutt. Check it out at the link below!

Midwest Whitetail Great Plains Show

Doe Patrol

2010-10-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a strong cold front late last week, our 2010 season got a good jump start this past weekend. We had put in A LOT of stand time and just were not seeing any deer movement the past couple of weeks. The deer that we were seeing, were moving late and no mature bucks were seen. Not sure if this was due to the full moon, the current crop harvest situation, the warmer temps, etc., but we (mainly me) were getting pretty frustrated with the lack of movement.

On Saturday evening, Michelle (my wife) and I climbed into a new stand on a farm we had never hunted before. Bo and I had spent maybe an hour or two walking this property a few weeks earlier and found a couple of old tree stands that were still in decent condition. The deer sign was also some of the best we had seen yet this year. The trails were numerous, wide, and VERY heavily used. As Michelle and I were making our way to the stand, three does stood up from directly below the stand and ran off. That right there was the most deer I had seen while hunting all year! As we got the second stand hung and the camera positioned, another doe started making her way towards us, only to disappear in a patch of CRP. But we finally got situated in the stand and not 20 minutes after getting set up, I noticed three does feeding through the timber below us. The stand we were sitting in was on a steep ridge overlooking a bottom area that abuts up to a couple of CRP fields (aka bedding areas!). The three does were joined by another, larger doe that came in from the opposite direction. As they met, they decided to walk directly towards us. I let the three younger does pass my only shooting lane on that trail, but once the last and biggest doe entered the lane, the Maxxis got it's first taste of venion!

I still had a buck tag and another doe tag in my pocket so I hoped that we could double up since the first doe was shot at 5:30. As we sat there, we could hear deer all around us, but had a hard time seeing them due to the heavy vegetation. But at about 6:00, another yearling doe made her way up from the CRP and came to within 5 yards of us. This doe didn't have a care in the world, other than eating all of the acorns around us. She sat there for easily 20 minutes and just wouldn't leave us alone. I really wanted to put a tag on her, but you just can't shoot the babies when your wife is behind the camera!

All in all, we saw 12 deer that night, but with light finally fading, we got down and started on the blood trail, which was poor to say the least. I got pretty discouraged and gave Bo a call to help with the tracking. The track job went slow, but not 80 yards from the shot, we found her piled up, just into the CRP field she came from. What a relief!!! The first deer of our season was finally on the ground!!

The next morning we woke up to 35 degree temps, a clear sky, and light winds - the absolutely perfect bowhunters forecast! As Bo and I climbed into the stand, we immediately had deer on us. The first deer to appear from the darkness as the sun crested the horizon was a small basket rack buck. Shortly after he left, we were visted by a group of turkeys, that unfortunately they never appeared from the dense undergrowth behind us to offer up a shot. But after not more than 45 minutes in the stand, Bo noticed four does coming towards us and feeding on acorns the entire way. I had one big tree in my way and couldn't get much footage of the does coming in, but once that lead doe stepped into the shooting lane, Bo released a perfect arrow. As the other three ran off, Bo pulled out the brand new VECtor Doe Grunter and successfully called all three of does back. However, they just would not present a shot opportunity that worked for both Bo and myself so they got a free pass that morning. We'll do a write up here in a couple of days showing this new call (and the sweet call Bo had Vince make me for my birthday), but it looks and sounds amazing. Vince definitely impressed us with this one! But back to the doe, as I mentioned, Bo's shot was perfect, the Steelhead XL flew true and had actually cut the doe's heart in half. Needless to say, the track job was short and easy to follow. Neither of us had seen a blood trail like this and she died within 25 yards of the shot. That's how we like it to happen!

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. We both were able to get the monkey's off of our back for the year and we were able to partially fill our freezers. We're thinking that both harvests will air this Thursday on Midwest Whitetail (http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/) so please check out the website and take a look!

Journal Entry #2 - Opening Weekend in Kansas

2010-09-28T09:17:00.000-05:00

September 24th was a day that we had been looking forward to with anxiety and high hopes since December 31st. From the time archery season closed last year, we have been working feverishly shed hunting, establishing new food plots, running trail cameras and getting new stands hung. This was the first year that we had been given permission to plant food plots on this particular property and we couldn't wait to get setup on the newly established, green, cereal grain food plot.

However, the minute we pulled into the property, our anticipation quickly turned into frustration. The first thing we saw when we pulled in was the land managers truck and empty four wheeler trailer. Come to find out, the land manager had been spraying the CRP for an invasive weed that the DNR has asked him to control on the property. It was something that needed to be done, but the timing couldn't have been worse. But we were there to hunt, so we hunted and just made the best of the situation.

The first evening was pretty uneventful. One lone doe made her way towards one of the food plots we were overlooking, but slowly disappeared into the 7' tall CRP and never actually entered the plot. That night, as we were walking through the CRP back to the truck, we actually had to shade our eyes from the bright moon. It was a cloudless sky and the moon provided plenty of light for some heavy nighttime feeding. The high pressure system extended into the next morning and movement was much slower than expected. About 30 minutes after a half rack spike left the plot, a mature doe and yearling entered and started feeding on the newly sprouted sunflowers. The doe got within 5 yards of our ground blind and never had an idea that we were there - what an awesome experience. As she turned to feed into the plot, Bo drew on her but she caught the slight movement and jumped further into the food plot. When the arrow was released, she dropped about 8"-12" and the arrow unfortunately missed it's mark as it flew just over her shoulder.

The evening sit brought again no deer into the food plot. A strong cold front moved through at about 6PM and brought with it a temperature drop of nearly 10 degrees. One would think the deer would have been on their feet, but nothing entered the plot we were hunting.

When checking cameras, we noticed that during the full moon phase, all of our buck and the majority of the doe pictures were taken after midnight. We were starting to get some movement right around dusk as well. When we entered the food plot for our final sit of the weekend, the skys were overcast and the winds were blowing out of the north - the perfect morning! However, when we checked the camera pointed on a fresh scrape not 10 yards from our stand, we found out that we had missed the #2 buck on our list by 45 minutes. Crab Claw had been in this very plot at 530 and we were there shortly after 600. At least we know he's close and likes the food plot! We did had five does enter the food plot that morning, but they all fed on the further side of the plot and never got within 50 yards so no shots were taken.

Here is the picture of Crab Claw as he's standing 10 yards away from the camera.

We know that him and Potato Digger are still running their same routes, it just seems that they are slowly becoming more nocturnal. This could simply be from the full moon or the current weather patterns. We have not pressured them in anyway so we know that we haven't pushed them to become nocturnal. Hopefully the next time we're at the property the moon won't be so bright and the deer will be back to the typical patterns. If that's the case, a tag or two should be filled!

2010 Journal Entry #1

2010-09-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

When Bo and I first started up the blog earlier this year, we really intended it to be a journal of our on going hunting experiences. We have certainly put a lot of time in the woods hunting and preparing for the different hunting seasons, that we figured we might as well share it with friends and family and keep a living journal of our experiences that we can look back on year after year to help us learn from what we've seen and done in past years.

It's pretty amazing to think how much has changed for us in the past nine months. We have been selected to be on Midwest Whitetail, we have learned more about cinematography and cameras than we ever though possible, and we are now be approached by companies asking us to use their products. Pretty overwhelming for a couple of guys that simply want to document how they hunt!

So with the official start to the 2010 Missouri archery season, here is the first official journal entry for this year's whitetail season! We hope to add a post every week where we'll discuss what we've seen, what we haven't seen, where we're hunting, etc.

This past week found Bo and I trying to work with the weather and schedules to find some time to get into the tree. We both took off of work on Wednesday to hunt the opener. Wednesday morning came with high anticipations of getting a shot at Mr. T. We setup on a ridge/fence line with a standing corn field on one side and an acorn paradise on the other. It literally sounded like it was raining when we first got into stand. The white acorn crop in this area is a bumper crop to say the least. But unfortunately the sound of raining acorns turned into the sound of actual rain and we were forced out of the stand by 30+ mph gusts and heavy rain. What a great way to start the season! We had planned on hunting the afternoon, but unforunately the untimely death of a close friend quickly moved hunting to the back burner for a while.

On early Sunday morning, my entire house was awoken in the middle of the night by one incredible storm that produced hail, lightning, 80+ mph winds, and heavy rain. Thankfully the storm ended nearly as fast as it came in and the skys had cleared by the time we left for the stand that morning. We had high hopes for a lot of deer movement due to the storm that came through, but unfortunately the deer had decided to feed before first light, as noticed by the large amounts of fresh tracks in the picked corn field. The afternoon sit was pretty much a copy of that morning. Only one lone doe decided to come to the corn field we were sitting on. The movement was definitely hampered by the warm temperatures, east winds, and full moon.

We have started to notice a lot of rubs are popping up and scrapes are forming along field edges. Just yesterday we found a new rub on an old cedar that is over 12" in diameter. I have a feeling this marking belongs to First Pull, but we'll check the camera in a week or so to see. This week we are also going to try to hit one of our new properties. This property is home to a bean field that was planted very late and is still very green. I believe the last time we were out there a week ago, there was no signs of yellowing yet. So if that field is still green, you can bet those deer will be hitting it hard. And then this weekend is finally our Kansas opener. We've been waiting for this day for quite a while. A lot of hard work has gone into new stand positions and new food plots. Hopefully all of our hard work will be rewarded this weekend!

Good Luck

2010-09-14T14:21:00.002-05:00

It's the day before the MO opener and we just wanted to wish you all a safe and successful hunting season. Be sure to where your saftey harness if you hunt from a tree, it only takes a split second to make a big mistake! Good luck to all of you and we'll keep you updated on our successes/failures this season. Hopefully, we'll have plenty of quality footage to share with you on the Great Plains show (http://midwestwhitetail.com) this fall. Until next time, may the wind be always in your face and may your arrows sail true! God Bless and Happy Hunting!

The Velvet is Falling

2010-09-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

Each new deer season starts with spring trail cam pics of bucks with just an inch or two of velvet-covered bone protruding from their skulls and the anticipation on what they will grow over the course of the coming months. As the season progresses and with each card pull, the bucks (some we're very familiar with and some that are new) begin to blossom and give us small previews of their potential headgear they will be sporting for the season. During July, the bucks really start to put on the inches, as many as 1/2 inch to an inch per day. Usually by mid-August, we have a pretty good idea on what their final product will be for the year. But, even though the bucks are done growing, we still anticipate the first hard horn pics of this hit listers to get a true representation of what we will be chasing during the upcoming season. We'll look at every picture we have and start adding up inches to try to guess the bucks final gross score, hoping that we'll be able to tape that buck out with our own hands during the fall.

Well this past weekend, we finally got the first hard horn picture of the year, and it just so happened to be of one of our top hit list bucks of the year. Amazingly, Mr. T provided us his final full velvet picture just over 24 hours prior to his full hard horned picture. Hard to believe that he was able to rub all of that velvet off and clean up those long tines in such a short amount of time.

Mr. T has shown up multiple times on multiple cameras in a relatively very small area. This is a buck we have a very good feeling that we can out smart during the first couple of weeks of season. If the wind is right, we will be targeting this buck opening night.

The Hit List

2010-09-04T18:50:00.008-05:00

Well, obviously we haven't been that regular on posting to the blog lately. We haven't forgotten about it, we've just been awfully busy. Busy with life, filming, and a boat load of preseason work. Hopefully, this post will help to get everyone excited for the season. I know we're sure looking forward to it!

These are some of our hitlist bucks for the coming KS and MO seasons. Hopefully, we'll add a few more as the year goes on, but we're mighty happy with the one that we have started. It's easily the best hitlist we've ever had, and with any luck, we'll be able to harvest some of these deer on the Midwest Whitetail Great Plains show this year.

By the way, be sure to check out this weeks Great Plains show where Scott and I are one of the featured teams. http://midwestwhitetail.com/ Click on the Great Plains tab to watch this weeks show. Below is a direct link to our hit list show on Midwest Whitetail.

http://midwestwhitetail.com/gallery/87/media/2034/midwest-whitetails-latest-show.html

Here are the bucks that we plan on chasing this year:

FIRST PULL

First Pull is a 5.5 year old main frame 7 point that we passed on during the late season last year. He was only in the mid 120's last year. This year, he's really packed on the bone and has a one of a kind rack.

RIGHT HOOK

Right Hook is a buck named for his hooked right brow tine. He's a buck that should gross around the 140" mark and is a nice/clean and symmetrical 8 point. We don't have much history with him, as he is on a new farm, but we have hundreds of trail cam pics of him this summer.

WEIGHT

Weight is a buck we posted about earlier this summer. He's a big, wide, mature 8 point that we filmed on several occassions this summer. He's on another new farm and is part of a bachelor group of mature bucks that we call "The 3 Amigos".

TILT

Tilt is another member of The 3 Amigos that we filmed a couple of times this summer. He's a mature 10 point with plenty of mass. We named him "Tilt" due to the way his rack always seems to be tilted back.

M&M

M&M is the 3rd member of The 3 Amigos, and we believe that he is also the biggest. We've filmed him several times, but each time we've either had low light or he's been about 400 yards away. We also had a little camera trouble when we tried to get trail camera pics of him. As far as we can tell, he's a very tall racked main frame 8 point with a big split G2 that we figure will gross over 150". He's a deer that we'd really like to put on the ground so that we can see what all he's actually got!

THE BIG 8

We filmed this buck on our neighbors farm in KS. Coincidentally, the neighbor actually got a ton of trail camera pictures of this deer last week. He filmed him a few hundred yards from our property line, so we're sure he probably visits our farm too. As far as we can tell, he's a solid 4 year old 8 point that would score in the low 140's. This deer has a really nice frame and we'd love to see what he would look like in another year. He's probably not an official hitlist buck for us, but he does meet our age standards. You never can be sure how you'll feel when a pretty deer like this walks in front of you. He might just make the list after all!

POTATO DIGGER

This buck is legendary to us. I've passed on him during the past 2 seasons, Scott has 2 years worth of sheds from him, and we've got 3 years worth of trail camera photos of him. He's not the highest scoring buck on our hitlist, but he's the one that we're after. Since I tagged out early last season, Scott got to play cat and mouse with him for two months! Velvet pictures never do this buck justice. He's got a tank of a body on him, really good mass, and some of the longest main beams I've ever seen on an 8 point. Last year, his beams measured 26" each. We believe they're an inch or two longer this year. To put it in perspective, my 172" KS 10 point from last year had great beams that measured only 25". This deer is a stud and he's our #1 hitlist buck.

THE CRAB CLAW 9

This is another KS buck that we have a few years worth of history with. He first showed up as a big 3.5 year old crab claw 9 point (hence the name) that would have scored in the high 140's. He was a real regular ont he trail cams that year and my wife and I had an encounter with him in early November. We found his sheds that year too. Last year, he showed up a few times on the trail cameras, but not nearly as much as the year before. He also flipped his G4 from his left side to his right. This year, as a 5.5, he's blossomed into a full blown giant of a 10 point. He's got a great big frame, awesome mass and tine length, super main beams, and a lot of character. He's also sporting a nice little drop tine on his left side. He's a target buck that has been running around with Potato Digger this summer. I'll wager that they won't stay friends very much longer!

MR. T

Mr. T (aka B.A. Baracas) is another buck that is new to us this year. He started showing up at the mineral lick in my backyard in mid August and has shown up a few times during the daylight in the past week. He's just an awesome main frame 8 point with a common base split G2 on his left side. His tine length is unreal and from the one hard horned picture I have of him, it appears that he will have really good mass. I just hung a stand today specifically for this deer and his running mate, Murdock. They're members of a bachelor group that we call "The A-Team".

MURDOCK

Murdock is the newest member of the hitlist. He showed up a few times earlier this summer and man did he finish out good. I really like the looks of this bucks rack. He's got great tine length, beam length, and mass. He's been seen with Mr. T and Hannibal, a buck that needs one more year.

The last 2 bucks on the hitlist are pretty special to me. We've put in a lot of work planting and maintaining food plots and mineral stations for the deer on this property. Last year, the year that Sarah and I bought this place, we saw nothing but small bucks and does. It's great to see a couple of studs show up this year for our efforts. Hopefully, we'll have a couple of opportunities to get after these deer this fall!

Thanks for reading and we wish you all a very safe and successful hunting season.

~Bo Parker

Inaugeral Midwest Whitetail - Great Plains Episode

2010-08-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

Just an FYI - the promo episode for the 2010 Midwest Whitetail - Great Plains show has been created and uploaded to the Midwest Whitetail website. I'm not sure on how to embed the video from the MW player into the blog so please click on the link below:

http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/gallery/87/media/1898/midwest-whitetails-latest-show.html

Greg Clements, the producer for the Main Show and Great Plains show, has an incredible talent and we cannot wait to see how he composes the footage of our hunts this fall. He is definitely a talented guy and a great, new asset to the Midwest Whitetail team. Bo and I are definitely looking forward to working with him this fall.

The schedules have also been released by Bill Winke. Starting September 2nd, a new Great Plains show will be available for viewing. A new Great Plains show will be uploaded every Thursday. The first couple of episodes will be Hit List shows where the teams talk about the bucks they'll be chasing this fall. Bo and I have a couple dandies on the list this year. Season opens up for us in less than three weeks! Hopefully the deer will cooperate and we'll be able to provide everyone a closer look at some of the giants as the season progresses.

The Return of Two Legends

2010-08-15T19:59:00.001-05:00

It's amazing how one's excitement for the upcoming season can change with a simple card pull. Friday evening started with us filming a field full of deer, including a great 140s, mature 8 point. We had never filmed velvet on this particular field before and I was extremely surprised when this buck stepped out not more than 50 yards from me and fed for nearly an hour. But after having that great encounter, we couldn't wait to see what was on the card that had been sitting undisturbed for nearly six weeks. So at 10:30 PM we grabbed the one flashlight we had and headed out to see what had visited our salt lick.

The first buck we had visit the lick was a buck we have a long history with - Potato Digger. Digger is a buck that we have gotten literally a hundred trail camera photos and videos of and have two years worth of sheds. Bo passed Digger as a 3 1/2 year old and also last year as a 4 1/2 year old. Last year he was definitely a shooter, but with low camera light and not the greatest angle, Bo elected to pass and hope for another opportunity. Fortunately for us, Digger showed up this year again as a truly mature 5 1/2 year old stud.

Digger is the #1 buck on our hit list this year. He is dominant as it seems that he forces other bucks out of the area. We feel he is one we have a very good possibility of harvesting as well. Nearly all of the trail cam pics, sheds, and encounters have all occurred within an 80 yard area. An in case you're wondering, both of his beams should go over 28" this year!

The second buck that we got new pictures of is a buck named the Crab Claw "9". The reason 9 is in quotation marks is because he has now become a main frame 10 point. This year marks the third year we've chased this buck. In the fall of 2008, we had numerous trail cam pics of him and found his matched set of sheds, but he turned into a ghost during the 2009 season. When he disappeared in October and we didn't find either of his sheds, we'd feared the worst and assumed he'd been harvested by a neighboring hunter. But we were ecstatic when we saw the 5 1/2 year old giant show up on this card pull. Crab Claw has simply exploded this year. It's amazing what a difference a buck can make between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2. Not only has he added length, mass and kickers, but he's also added a drop tine! This is the first buck I've ever gotten pics of with a drop and we sure hope we get a chance to write a great ending to his story this fall.

After a long wait... allow me to introduce... Weight!

2010-07-30T21:03:00.005-05:00

Scott and I got out last night to hopefully get some more velvet footage. We didn't have long to wait before the first two bucks showed up. They were little guys, but we instantly felt like it would be a good night. Not long after the little fellas exited the field, one of the big boys showed up. He's an absolutely perfectly symmetrical 8 point that is really wide. We call him "Weight" for the wide eight. We're quite certain that his inside spread is over 20" and it may be even a couple of inches better than that.

Best guess is that he's in the low to mid 140's and is definitely mature. These trail camera pictures were taken on a little knob that kind of makes his back look bowed. He's actually quite sway backed and had the appearance (on video) of an old buck. We're positive that he's at least 4 years old and could very possibly be older than that.

He fed within 100 yards of us for almost an hour last night and we got some really good velvet footage of him. Hopefully, it will be available on one of the first Great Plains Show episodes on midwestwhitetail.com.

We haven't captured the footage, so we don't have any stills from last night to show just yet. M&M, an even larger buck, showed up a little before dark too. He never got closer than 300 yards, but it was still nice to see another bruiser on this farm. So far, we've managed to get footage of 4 definite shooters on this farm. Wind permitting, I think I have an idea of where we might be on the evening of 9/15...

We hope you guys are all taking advantage of this "easy" summer hunting. There is really no better time to inventory your herd than right now!!!

Bo, great post on "Weight". Definitely can't wait to see him in about six weeks. Since I still have your Nikon, here are a couple of the pictures we took of him while filming. He's a big dude!

Hot Summer Nights

2010-07-25T20:46:00.005-05:00

Scott and I have managed to get out to film some velvet a few times this summer. What a great past time it is! We've managed to film several nice bucks this summer and we've still got a month and a half left to gather more footage. We've seen some pretty good bachelor groups running together, and one particular threesome has us really excited. "Weight", "Tilt", and "M&M" are regular evening visitors on a farm that is new to us this year. All 3 bucks appear to be at least 4 years old and are very healthy. At this point, we're fairly certain that all of them will go over 140". Scott captured a few still images from some of the footage, but you'll have to wait for the good close ups and footage on our midwestwhitetail.com Great Plains Show prostaff page. Look for it next month!

a fleeting glimpse of "Weight" and "M&M"

"Tilt" posed for us for a little while

"Tilt" got his name due to the way that his rack appears to be tilted back. He's going to carry some great mass!

We've been noticing quite a bit of antler growth in the past few weeks as well. "Right Hook" has come on strong in the past 3 weeks and is ending up where we hoped he would. He may even have a few more inches yet to grow. We're really liking the looks of his main beams. He reminds us a little of a KS hit list buck that we know very well.

"Right Hook" is under debate right now. We know another year would do him a lot of good, but he'd make some nice wall art this year. I just keep remembering what "First Pull" did when I passed him last year. What do you guys think?

Speaking of KS, we haven't even started that hitlist yet. We had camera/squirrel trouble the first go around, and we still have 3 weeks before our next trip to the farm. We've got our fingers and toes crossed that the next card pull down there produces some shooters for us.

Summer Sweat

2010-07-21T10:24:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Bo and I have been busy scouting new properties, running trail cams, filming velvet, hanging stands, building blinds, fighting horrible cases of poison ivy, and everything else it takes to get ready for September 15. We have a few new properties that we have been given permission to bow hunt this year and I think we'd forgotten just how much work it can be getting a new property ready for the season. With all of the new properties, our resources are being maxxed out, especially tree stands. So one thing that we've decided to do more of this year is building "natural" ground blinds. We needed to cut down a few trees and numerous limbs for a couple stand setups so we simply used that debris to build ourselves a roomy, inconspicuous blind. We still have a little bit more work to do on them, but they will be ready when season starts.

We've also been pretty busy keeping up with salt licks and trail cams. This year's summer scouting has been difficult due to cameras being stolen or eating by squirrels, but we have managed to pick up pictures of half a dozen or so hit list bucks for the coming season. We've been really happy with how the bucks have responded to the salt lick recipe we posted earlier and the wet weather in our area has kept them going strong.

But when we've had any free time at all in the evenings, we've been running out to properties close to the house to film some velvet and try get a slight edge on some of those giants before the Opener comes around. We have been lucky enough to film a few different hit listers, but you'll have to wait for the Midwest Whitetail show in August to come out for that footage!

More Mouths To Feed

2010-07-13T17:53:00.000-05:00

Over the years we've gotten numerous trail camera photos of single fawns with their mothers and even the set of twins every now and then. But this year, we were lucky enough to get multiple pictures of a set of tripletts. I'm not sure how rare this is, but on this particular property, this is the first time I can remember seeing tripletts. Hopefully all three are bucks with good genes!

We also got a couple different pictures with a set of twins in the same area. With all of these new mouths to feed, either the farmer is going to need to plant more crops or we're going to have to practice some QDM this fall.......my vote is for the latter....fresh backstraps!!

"First Pull" Continues to Grow

2010-07-11T13:42:00.000-05:00

During the past week we have pulled a few more cards and been very pleasantly surprised to see "First Pull" show up on a new salt like and hitting it multiple times. "FP" is a buck we had nicknamed "Big 7" last year. Bo and another hunter on our property both had encounters with this buck during last years season, but decided let him walk. He had the body of a mature whitetail, but his rack last year just did not seem to match his body. We were really hoping he would hit his potential this year.....and it's amazing what a difference a year can make. Here are a few pictures of FP during the 2009 season.

This year, First Pull has simply exploded. Its tough to get a good idea of a gross score when they're still in velvet, but we're thinking that he should be in the mid 140s as a main frame seven point. He has three or four good kickers that are also helping bring up the total. It is going to be a lot of fun watching FP develop over the season and hopefully we can get him patterned by using trail cams and have a good shot at him come September.

A New Property Means New Bucks

2010-07-04T23:24:00.002-05:00

Bo and I are fortunate enough to have a couple new properties to archery hunt this year. All of which just happen to be within 15 minutes of both of our homes, so we'll be spending quite a bit of time on each of the properties over the course of the season. But as we all know, running trail cams on a brand new piece of land is exciting......you just never know what to expect! Our main goal is to simply get a glimpse of the herds. In the coming months, we will move cameras around to help give us some insight on stand placements, but for now, we're having a great time just getting an idea on the type of deer we can expect to see during season.

Well on one of the properties that is actually only a couple of miles for each of our houses, the first card pull only yielded does. But the second card pull was MUCH different. Between the two cameras, we ended up getting pictures of at least 10 different bucks in four days, most of which were two years old and older. Out of the nearly 200 pictures, we got two potential target bucks for the upcoming season. The first buck has been named "Right Hook" due to the hook on his brow time and the second buck is currently unnamed (but if he keeps growing, he'll get named awfully quick!).

Right Hook definitely likes the camera. We got multiple pics each day and night of this buck. Hopefully he will stick to his daylight movements into September and we can get a really close look at him on stand. He looks to have good length and mass for this early in the season.

The unnamed buck showed up the evening prior to us pulling the card so hopefully he is continuing to visit the lick and we'll have some better pictures of him on the next pull. We only got one picture of him straight on. All of the other pictures he had his head buried into the lick!

Coastal Georgia Trip

2010-07-01T15:12:00.003-05:00

It's been a couple of weeks now since we got back from vacation in Georgia. We spent a week in my old stomping grounds of Coastal Georgia in Glynn and Camden counties. We had a fantastic time, my daughter got baptized, Scott caught his first saltwater fish, and I hit the big 3-0. It was nice to go home and spend some quality time with family and friends and eat some fresh seafood!!! Of course, Scott and I still spent quite a bit of time talking about the upcoming season and all of the preseason work that is yet to be done. We had a blast and were actually able to relax for a change!

Now it's time to get back to work. There are lots of stands to be hung, lanes to be trimmed, food plots to be installed, and dreams to be made!

The "Anniversary" Buck

2010-06-22T13:03:00.004-05:00

I just thought that I'd drop in and post a couple of pics of a potential hit list buck. He's called "Anniversary" because 6/20 is my wedding anniversary and that is when I pulled the card. These pics are in the food plot on the property that we live on. I wasn't even planning on checking the camera because I just put it out last Wednesday, but I had a busted bag of corn that needed to go. So, I shoveled it up and drove it down on the 4 wheeler to dump in front of the cam. I already had 18 pics on the new lick and this buck was in two of them. He's, without a doubt, the best looking deer that we've seen on our place (only lived there a year), but I'm not sure if he'll make the hit list or not. We need a few more pics to determine his age. 9 points by June 19 isn't too bad though!

Sarah, my wife, has laid claim to him. I hope she gets him! She has the thumbs up on any buck, regardless of age since she hasn't taken one yet. If he's of age and Scott or I see him before Sarah does... Well, I just hope that she doesn't kick me to the barn!

The Velvet is Growing Fast

2010-06-19T15:51:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago Bo and I put a freshened up a few salt licks on one of our Missouri properties and hung a few cameras on the licks. Yesterday, Bo had a few hours to run out in the ~100 degree temps and check two of the cams. The first cam was put on a lick that hadn't be freshened up in nearly three years. But every year I usually see signs of pawing at the lick. Unfortunately, we didn't have any deer hit this first lick during the first couple of weeks. But I'm positive it's just a matter of time before the deer find this fresh lick again and we start to get a few more pics on this portion of the farm.

The second lick was another story. This area is always a hot spot during the summer and early season. It always seems like the bucks really swarm to this area for some reason. With the first picture on the camera, we started off the preseason with a new target buck. The first pictures of him weren't the best, but as the weeks progressed, he visited the lick multiple times and we were able to get some decent pictures of him. This buck has been named "First Pull" since he was the very first deer we got on cam this year.

As you can see, this buck all ready is starting a split G2, split brow tine and has a kicker coming off of his base. Based on body size, this buck is definitely mature. When Bo was walking to this cam, he actually spotted this buck and another good buck browsing in the corn field. He wasn't able to get too close to them before they got back into the timber, but here is the photo zoomed in.

Besides "First Pull", we got pics of two more bucks that look to be at least three years old on the same salt lick. We're going to need to get a few more pictures of these bucks before we can say one way or another if they're going to be shooters or not, but it's nice to see some really good deer hitting the salt licks.

The Picture is Worth a Million Words

2010-06-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of years, Bo and I primarily used his handheld Sony HandyCam for all of our filming. It worked great for what we needed and we learned A LOT with that little camera. But since we've been fortunate enough to make the next step up into the filming industry with Midwest Whitetail, we needed to take the next step with our equipment.

Late last week the man in the little brown truck dropped off a package that Bo and I had been eagerly awaiting - a Sony DSR-PD150 digital camcorder. We studied and reviewed so many different camera manufacturers, models, styles, etc. before making this decision.....I was just glad we finally came to an agreement and bought the camera that met our needs the best - the Sony PD150.

We have started messing around with the camcorder a little bit and it is easily going to take us all summer to get all of the settings and adjustments set and fully understood. Just the smallest tweak on these cameras can make so much of a difference in the picture. But hopefully by September 15, we will be experts with the PD150! We are extremely excited to see how this camera is going to better our filming capabilities so make sure to check out our first Midwest Whitetail video for the Great Plains show, which should hopefully be uploaded sometime in August.

Summer Preparation

2010-06-06T18:42:00.000-05:00

During the hot, summer months, many hunters have not yet started thinking about the upcoming whitetail season. Bo and I are not like most hunters though and whitetails are on our minds all year long! While fields are sprouting new crops and whitetails are growing their new antlers during the summer, they consume large amounts of minerals that are necessity for them to remain healthy and grow a full rack during the year. Bo and I are adamant about supplementing our deer herds with additional sources of minerals by placing mineral stations and salt licks throughout the property. Mineral supplements come in a variety of forms and it seems that we use a little of everything during the last couple of years. Today, Bo and I had a couple of hours so we decided to freshen up a few existing salt licks on one of our Missouri properties.

These salt licks were started over four years ago and are still going strong. Even without replenishment since early last fall, the deer were still pawing at and eating the mud within the old lick.

One cheap salt lick recipe that Bo and I have had success with over the years is one box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda and 40-50lbs of salt. Our local grocery store happened to have a sale on salt pellets most people use for their water softeners.....we had a different use today.

Another great benefit of mineral and salt stations is they provide us with a great place to get an early season inventory check on some of the bucks living on the property. The deer absolutely love these licks and will usually stick around for five to ten minutes to get their picture taken and usually provide a couple of different angles for the camera. Hopefully the first card pull here in three to four weeks will allow us to put a couple new bucks on our 2010 hit list.

After freshening up the licks, we had a little bit of time to double check a stand to make sure it was still safe and secure and do a little bit of visual scouting. We did come across three or four different sets of buck tracks that definitely got us excited for the upcoming season!

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

2010-06-01T12:39:00.009-05:00

A little over a week ago, Scott and I spent a little time turkey hunting with our friends Lee and Chris Schmidt. They are our KS neighbors and are quite the father/son hunting tandem. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and the turkey hunting was the slowest it has been all year. The birds just weren't there. Nevertheless, we had a really nice time and it was good to hunt with friends. We spent the majority of the morning touring their property and doing some sporadic calling. What a beautiful place they have!

After our uneventful morning hunt, Scott and I split up from Lee and Chris to get some work done on our lease. Our 80 acre farm consists of a little timber, 55 acres of native grasses enrolled in CRP, and a bit of brush. For the first time ever, we are allowed to put in food plots. We're hoping that the addition of a few plots will make our already good property even better.

We hired a local farmer to come in at the beginning of April to do some discing for us. He tilled up about an acre and a half for us and did a really nice job. The week before we went down to plant, Lee and I sprayed roundup on the new weed growth that had attacked the plots. When we went down this time, I hooked up the Groundhog Max disc to my 4 wheeler and redisced it to loosen the soil up again.

After I retilled the soil, Scott loaded up the seeder and broadcast some Roundup Ready Soybeans into this 3/4 acre plot. I then disced it again in order to cover the beans. With any luck, the deer will leave some of them be during their early stages of growth so that we'll have a nice stand of them to hunt over in the fall. There isn't much out there that is any better than late season standing soybeans! We plan on overseeding some rye into this plot in August to give the deer something to munch on during the drying period that the beans will go through.

After planting the beans, we planted another plot with some whitetail and ladino clover. We're hoping that this plot will last a few years. We have intentions of adding 3 or 4 more plots to the property this fall.

Once the Spring food plotting was done, it was time to put out some minerals and hang the first trail cam of the year. We had a trophy rock in this spot last year and the deer really devoured it. We're hoping that they take a liking to these minerals and will pose for the camera. It will likely be July before we make it back down, so we're hoping for a memory card full of shooter bucks when we make it back down to the property.

Deer season is really a year round sport for Scott and I. It's true that the season only lasts a few months, but the preparation and scouting that we put into it literally lasts 52 weeks a year. We really never take a break, even during turkey season. It was actually quite funny the number of times that Scott and I started talking deer hunting in the turkey blind this season. If it ever got slow, one of us would start talking. "I bet there's a good trail just inside the woodline of that inside corner over there. We should get a set hung in there this summer..." That's just how it goes with us hardcore bowhunters. We eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff and love every stinkin' minute of it. The blood, sweat, and tears are a very small price to pay for the enjoyment and satisfaction that we get out of the hunting. We thank the Good Lord for giving us the opportunity to chase these wonderful critters. There is nothing we love to do more!

Midwest Bowhunter Press Release (First Ever!)

2010-05-25T10:01:00.001-05:00

On May 20th, Bo and I got an email that we had been waiting on for a long time now. Back in April, Bo and I compiled a 10 minute audition DVD from two years worth of film to send into the Midwest Whitetail crew. I had seen a request for pro staffers on their website a few months ago and figured what the heck, might as well give it a shot. Once Bo and I knew that we were going to put together an actual audition DVD, we filmed EVERYTHING. We worked extremely hard to lay down some decent footage while shed hunting, scouting new properties, and turkey hunting. We had good footage from the past couple of years, but wanted to improve our skills as much as we could to help with the audition DVD. Our primary goal of filming isn't necessarily the harvest, it's the story leading up to the shot. We filmed anything and everything that you could possibly imagine. Even if we would only use a few seconds of the shot, many times it made a world of difference in the story line.

But back to the email ..... I guess all of our hard work finally paid off as the email was from Scott Prucha, one of the producers of Midwest Whitetail saying we have been chosen to be regular Pro Staff members for the Midwest Whitetail Great Plains show! Being "regular" Pro Staff members means Bo and I will now appear regularly on the show, which airs a new episode online every couple of weeks.

The following is an excerpt off of Midwest Whitetail's website (http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/) detailing what Midwest Whitetail is all about.

About Midwest Whitetail

Midwest Whitetail is first and foremost a semi-live on-line hunting show. You can only watch Midwest Whitetail on the internet, and unlike television, we produce the show during the season - as close to live as possible. You can watch the shows only a day or two after the hunts occur. This format permits us to talk about timely issues such as changing weather patterns, current deer behavior, strategies to employ in the near future, etc. We try to take advantage of this semi-live format to help you stay one step ahead of the deer you are hunting and to introduce new products.

All the content on the site is free of charge, paid for by the sponsors. So please support them as best you can.

The 2008-2009 hunting season is over, but you can go back and watch the entire season if you like. We also produced three shed antler hunting shows and some additional videos to keep you entertained during the off-season. Join our e-mail reminder list if you want me to send you an e-mail when news shows are available on the site.

This year we will be featuring ten separate shows on MidwestWhitetail.com. We'll have the main show, same as last year, plus separate semi-live shows for Michigan, Wisconsin, Northeastern U.S., Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri/Kansas. It is an ambitious plan and it is working.

There are also video tips, product reviews and articles on the site. Please spend a little time and check these out, as well. We will be adding new articles regularly.
Please enjoy Midwest Whitetail.

The creator of Midwest Whitetail, Bill Winke, is a household name in the hunting industry. Bill has spent many, many years successfully writing about and chasing whitetails. He, and the rest of the Midwest Whitetail team, will be able to provide Bo and I with a plethora of knowledge on hunting and filming whitetails - it's going to be great working with these guys on a daily basis.

Also, we now officially have sponsers that we need to help support the site and keep it going. Midwest Whitetail is sponsered by Hoyt, Realtree, Muddy, Nikon, Fuse, and Trophy Ridge. Bo and I all ready have a lot of equipment from these manufacturers, but there will be a few pieces that each of us will need to pick up to give them our full support (especially since they are supporting us!). These are all top of the line products so we will not have any issues with getting some new accessories to play around with in the field.

Again, Bo and I want to thank everyone that regularly visits our blog and keeps tabs on us during the hunting seasons. We still need to discuss the details of the blog with Bill and Scott, but hopefully we'll be able to keep you updated on here with stories and pictures, but you will also be able to follow our season via actual footage with only a two or three week delay on the Midwest Whitetail site. We are extremely excited for the possibilities this opportunity will offer. Hopefully the whitetails will cooperate like they did this past year and we can have another successful year.

A New Home Away From Home

2010-05-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Bo and I made a purchase that will hopefully relieve us of numerous nights in motels at $50/night and a 25 minute drive from the property to the motel (which equals more sleep!). The adjacent property owner to the north of our Kansas lease decided he wanted to buy a new camper for his property, which meant he needed to sell his current camper. He offered an amazing deal to Bo and I that we simply could not turn down. It may not be in the best condition, but it's warm, has running water, a working water heater, a shower, a fridge, a stove, etc., etc. A little TLC this summer is going to go a long way on this camper.

Being able to camp out and sleep within a mile of the property is going to be great. I'm sure there will be many memorable stories shared around the camp fire in the near future and hopefully a few mega KS bucks will be brought back here as well.

Bad Luck is Better Than No Luck At All!

2010-05-19T13:52:00.001-05:00

As written by Bo Parker.

The past few weeks of turkey hunting have been rather interesting. Scott and I were covered up in birds on Friday during the second weekend of the MO season. We had never hunted the farm before and had only walked it once during a shed hunt. I told Scott that if I was a turkey (I’ve been accused of being one by my parents), I’d roost right where those two creeks come together. He agreed and we set the blind up in a field a short distance away. After setting the blind up, I had to use Mother Nature’s outdoor facilities. While doing so, a gobbler sounded off right where we thought they’d be. It had the makings of a great morning. It wasn’t long until we had about 7 or 8 birds gobbling like crazy. They answered us every time we called and 3 of them flew down into our field. Unfortunately, so did half a dozen hens! We never had anything come within 50 yards, but we were rewarded with quite a show. Our day ended when a fox caught one of the turkeys up in the horse pasture.

On Sunday of the same week, I was able to sneak out with my lovely bride, Sarah. We set up in almost the exact same spot and the birds were there again. They gobbled like crazy. Unfortunately, they were once again roosted with hens. 4 or 5 of the gobblers flew down into a different field, but one came towards us. He flew to a tree on the edge of the field and stayed on the roost strutting and gobbling for an hour and a half after the others flew down. It was a neat show but was pretty frustrating.

Finally, a bearded lady came into the field and he flew down to chase her around. He never did come close enough for a shot. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad that Sarah got to see some action on her first turkey hunt. 3:30 AM was just a little too early for her though; she caught a few Zzz’s in the blind.

The next weekend, my friend Ben and I went out to the same farm on Friday morning. I had set up a blind for us a few days before and it was really close to the roost. We slipped in early and quietly and set up the decoys and got ready in the blind. When the birds woke up, they were even closer than I’d anticipated. We had several within 50 yards of us. A couple of the birds actually flew over us into the field. However, two of them flew down in front of us and approached our set.

They got to within 10 yards but didn’t like the looks of our setup for some reason. They paused again at 25 yards and I released an arrow. Unfortunately, the pause wasn’t long enough. The gobbler I shot took a step when I released and I hit him a bit further back than I wanted. We never did recover the bird even though we tracked him for a while. I was pretty sick about it, but it is a lesson learned. I’ll know how to handle the situation better next time.

The following day found us setup in the blind once again, but we moved further from the roost and out of site of it. We were not disappointed when the birds woke up. There were 5 or 6 gobblers and a few jakes sounding off every time we called. Things were looking pretty good until fly down time when they shut up. We couldn’t figure out why they were being so quiet, until I finally saw the head of a coyote crest the hill to the East. He made a move on our setup and got to within 50 yards before he finally caught our scent. It was the only day all season that I didn’t see a gobbler. The winds blew about 30 mph for most of the day and I believe that the turkeys hunkered down in the timber because of it.

The following day was Mother’s day and also the last day of the Missouri season. I spent it at home with my wife and children. All in all, the Missouri turkey season was a huge success. We were able to capture some great footage, spend some quality time outdoors, and make some memories that will last a lifetime. I have no regrets. I’m sure that several more tags would have been filled had we chased the turkeys with shotguns instead of bows… But we’re bowhunters, and that just ain’t how we roll!

NW Missouri Gobbler Getaway

2010-05-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

For the second year, I met a very good friend of mine (Zach) up at his family's property in NW Missouri for a weekend of chasing birds, helping his Uncle with the demolition of a bridge, and just some rest and relaxation.

The primary goal of the weekend was to remove 30 year old wooden planks from a field access bridge that the land owner had actually broken through with a combine this past fall. Within a couple hours of hard labor, the wooden planks were removed and the bridge is ready for new planking that will be placed early next week. Zach's uncle was definitely appreciative of our hard work and couldn't believe how fast Zach and I were able to get the job done.

The second goal was to put Zach on a Missouri gobbler, unfortunately we had to face extremely windy and cold conditions - not an ideal situation for turkey hunters. The first morning was quiet....not a single gobble from the roost. After a couple of hours in the blind, we decided to try a spot and stalk with the windy conditions. As I slowly crested a small hill, I was surprised to see a white head not more than 10 yards away looking the other direction. Zach and I hunkered down in the CRP and threw out some soft calling. We were setup no more than 20 yards from this bird (just on the other side of the small ridge), but could not get a response. After 10 or 15 minutes, Zach slowly started to belly crawl threw the CRP and after 15 yards he was was greeted to a nested gobbler busting out of the CRP no more than five feet from his face. Everything happened so fast, there was no opportunity for an ethical shot. But to get five feet from a wild turkey is something that does not happen every day!

The rest of the day was a bust trying to spot and stalk and the birds were simply laying down in the underbrush and were unresponsive to calling. However, that night after a delicious campfire meal, we were able to roost seven different birds along a sheltered creek bottom.

The next morning we got setup within 100 yards of the area where the birds had roosted the night before and got setup in a deadfall along a creek.

We heard many gobbles that morning, but none close to our setup. Not sure what happened during the night, but only two of the birds were still there at sunrise and neither decided to fly down into our field. Even though we didn't put a tag on a bird this weekend, we still had a great time enjoying the outdoors. Hopefully we'll be able to continue the tradition for many years to come.

Bo's 2009 Kansas Buck

2010-05-04T12:29:00.010-05:00

I posted this story on some forums that I'm a member of a few months back. I figured that it was time to share it with our blog readers since I finally got my mount back from Master Taxidermist, Dan Galetti. He did an outstanding job with the mount and I am very happy with it. I hope you guys enjoy the story. This deer was a long time coming!

Scott and I took off work early on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 to drive down from Smithville, MO to our 80 acre lease in Eastern Kansas. We arrived at the property around 3:00 and were in our stands by 3:30. I hadn't even settled in yet when I had 2 does come by. This had the makings of a good afternoon. It was a little overcast, cool, and we had a light but steady breeze out of the WSW. It was a perfect wind for the hedge tree stand, and this was the first time that either of us had sat in it. About an hour after the does walked by, I spotted a huge bodied buck stand up from his bed in a cedar thicket about 80 yards away. I immediately started telling myself to stay calm. I knew that I had a real giant in front of me. He had risen from his bed due to a grunting and rattling sequence, but wouldn't come closer than about 65 yards. It was apparent that he was agitated that other bucks had dared to enter his domain, but he refused to leave the cedar thicket. With a heavy heart, I watched him disappear into his little cedar sanctuary, and I assume that he must have bedded back down. I didn't see another deer until after dark when Scott and I were on our way to the motel. I told him about the encounter that I'd had with the giant and that I knew he was over 160" and at least 20" wide.

I had been watching the forecast all week and had told Scott several days before that Saturday morning was going to be the best morning we'd had all year. The temps were finally going to dip into the 30's overnight as it was supposed to dawn cold and clear. The weather man was right! I just love those high pressure system mornings as they always seem to get the deer moving. The wind was once again out of the WSW, so on Saturday morning, after a sleepless night, I was back in the hedge tree stand. I brought a buck decoy with me this time and set it up about 25 yards in front of me. Unfortunately, the CRP grass between my stand and the cedar thicket was too tall for the decoy to be seen from a distance. At about 8:25 in the morning, after a grunting and rattling sequence, I caught movement in the cedar thicket about 90 yards out. The giant from the day before had gotten up from his bed and was raking a branch with his antlers. I grunted at him with my VECtor grunter and he looked my way then started raking the branches even harder, I knew that he was mad. While his head was behind some cedars, I rattled a little more and then grunted a few more times. With his hair bristled up and his ears laid back, he started a stiff legged walk in my direction! I crossed my fingers and hoped that he would present me with a shot opportunity and I tried to stay as calm as possible. A few seconds later, he emerged from the cedars at 60 yards. He stepped out in the open, but couldn't see my decoy. I began to worry that he wouldn't come any closer and I'd have to watch him walk away once again. Luckily, he walked further into the CRP and stopped. I ranged him at 51 yards with my range finder. I grunted once more and he looked my way, but he still couldn't see the decoy. He laid his ears back, turned around and looked like he may head back into the thicket. I knew that this would be my only opportunity. I made the decision to let him go unless he stopped on his own, I didn't want to risk having him jump the string if I had to put him on alert with a bleat. Luckily, he took two steps and did just that. He was bristled up and mad and stopped to mark his territory by urinating on his tarsal glands.

I think I should mention that I ordinarily wouldn't take a 50 yard shot on a deer, although I practice it regularly and am very proficient with it. Circumstances were perfect in this situation though. He had no idea of my presence, was perfectly broadside, and was not at all spooked. I didn't think that he would jump the string when I shot, and he didn't. So, once he stopped, I quickly drew my bow, settled my 50 yard pin behind his shoulder and let her fly. My arrow sailed true and delivered a lethal double lung hit. I had stayed amazingly calm during the whole ordeal... I was a wreck afterwards though.

When Scott arrived at the base of my tree about 45 minutes later, I got down and we began the search for blood. We found it quickly and had a fairly short and easy blood trail to follow. I can't even begin to describe how I felt when I finally laid eyes on him. I was absolutely overcome with emotion. I'd been after a buck like this for my entire life. It was a dream come true!

I've been hunting deer with my dad since I was about 5 years old. I can still remember sitting in his lap in a tripod stand in Glynn County, GA before I was old enough to shoot a gun. My only regret was that Dad was not there to share the moment with me. Scott was a pretty good alternative though.

Deer hunting has been a part of me for my entire life. I absolutely love it. For those of you that don't know, I made what many thought was a crazy decision a couple of years ago. I had lived in Georgia for the first 27 years of my life, but a Midwestern bowhunt in 2007 ruined me. I knew after my first 2 hours on stand that I had to live out here. My buddy, Chris Smelcer, still has the text that I sent him that morning. It says, "This is crazy! I'm moving!" So, without knowing a soul in the Midwest, Willie (my golden retriever) and I packed my things and drove to Kansas. Many family members and friends back home told me that I was nuts and that I'd be back in a few months, but they were wrong. It has literally been the best decision that I've ever made in my entire life. I love it! Just a few months after moving, I met my beautiful wife, Sarah, and we now have a home, a little land, and two wonderful children. To top it off, I've got a couple of nice bucks under my belt too. Now who's crazy?

Here's a few harvest photos of the buck. Scott and I scored him at 172 4/8 inches. His main beams measured 25 inches each, his inside spread was 22 inches, and his brow tines measured 9 inches.

With my custom "Thwack Attack" VECtor grunter (a gift from Scott) Best grunter ever! http://www.vectorcalls.com/

Scott and I with my trophy.

Dan Galetti did an awesome job with the taxidermy. As of this past Monday, my buck is now at home on my wall!

Early Bird Does Not Always Get the Worm

2010-05-03T20:15:00.001-05:00

Very early mornings, long hours in a blind, quiet mornings off of the roost, and henned up gobblers. This pretty much describes what the last week or two have been like for us. It's definitely been a frustraiting run, but hopefully our luck will change with one weekend left in season.

On Friday morning, Bo and I hunted a brand new property that we honestly did not see much turkey sign during our two hour shed hunting outing a month or so ago. But, with the high winds, we felt we had a good chance at knowing where any potential birds would be roosting. Well we guessed right and were greeted to the sounds of five or six different birds sounding off close to our setup prior to sunrise. Upon fly down, two strutters started making their way towards our setup. We thought for sure this was a done deal and going to be a quick morning.

However, another gobbler soon flew into the same small field and the other two quickly chased him off. As they started back towards us again, three hens and a jake dropped into the field. That pretty much ended our day right there. Those two toms pushed the jake and hens around for an hour or so and proceeded to strut in the middle of the field and would not leave the hens to come into our setup. While the birds were just outside of sight, we tried to mix things up some and get our strutting tom decoy out of the set....pretty tough to do with over a dozen eyes looking for any movement. Bo got out to the decoy and then a head pops up and Bo had to freeze. Luckily he had something to hide behind! He was only stuck for a minute or so before the hen went back to feeding and allowed Bo to get back into the blind.

It is really getting frustrating knowing that we were so close and those hens had to mess everything up - again. One bright note, we did see another bearded hen with the group and this one must have had a seven to eight inch beard on her! That's the second bearded hen we've seen in as many weeks.

On Sunday, Bo took his wife Sarah out in her first attempt for a gobbler. While they were chasing birds in one spot, Chad (http://www.apassionorobsession.blogspot.com/) and I hit up a property he has permission on. We had high hopes for this property as it has had very light pressure and we had numerous trail cam pics of some big gobblers. Chad's hunted this property for a couple years now and we thought we had them figured out. But the tough luck decided to follow us. We had a few gobbles from the roost, but it turned to silence once they hit the ground. It sure is pretty hard to hunt these birds when they're henned up and don't talk...

We still have one more week left in the Missouri season and three unfilled tags. Hopefully the birds will cooperate and we'll be able to put a few more drumsticks on the table.

Missouri Archery Turkey Hunt - A Short Video Teaser

2010-04-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

I was able to put together a short version of the footage from Friday morning's Missouri turkey harvest last night. Later in May, we plan on compiling all of our footage from our turkey hunts from this spring and put together a full length video of our turkey hunting experience from this spring.

It seems that with more practice/experience with iMovie (Mac's video editing software), the films are becoming much easier and quicker to produce. Depending on the footage, we may be able to start having two or three minute videos each week showing our hunts - which would be a great add to our blog. Also, some time this week, the little brown truck should be dropping off a new Canon HV40 camcorder that is capable of filming in full 1080 HD. I cannot imagine what our new videos will look like under full HD conditions, but hopefully we will be able to find out this weekend!

We hope you enjoy the video. Please let us know what you like and what you don't.... We are always open to suggestions on how to make our films better for the viewers. It can be tough seeing some of the small things when you have been looking at this footage for 5 - 10 hours... Anyways, Bo and I are really happy with how the video turned out and we hope all of you are as well.

Texas Heart Shot - Missouri Long Beard Style

2010-04-24T19:17:00.003-05:00

MWB put long beard on the ground this weekend!!

Friday morning finally started the Missouri spring turkey season for Bo and I as we pulled out of the driveway at 4:30 AM and headed to a property that neither of us had ever hunted before. However, we felt that by the use of aerials, topo maps and some wishful luck, that we had a pretty good idea of where the birds would congregate. Luckily, the farmer had not yet had a chance to disc up this particular 40 acre bean field, which created a perfect stage for some struttin', drummin', and lady romancin'. The weather certainly did not want to cooperate as it would go from an annoying drizzle to a monsoon where you couldn't see the end of the field. Due to the rain, the birds were pretty quiet on the roost, but we did manage to get a few gobbles out of the roosted toms in the bottom ground.

We were completely surrounded by birds all morning. Shortly after sunrise, seven jakes and a couple hens pitched down into the field. After an hour or so, three of them decided to check out our decoy set. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for the jake), I made an absolutely poor attempt at a 20 yard shot at the more dominant of the jakes and missed him BAD. I'm not even going to try to think of any excuses why I missed so bad, I'm just accepting the fact I missed... I was pretty down about missing the chance at my first bearded bird with a bow, but was hopeful that I would get another chance. After watching birds in our field for four hours, the field finally cleared.

But as we were stretching our legs outside of the blind and trying to get a game plan for the remaining couple hours, a lone long beard entered the field and immediately starting making a b-line to our setup. We quickly got everything situated again and were about to get the show of our lives. This bird got held up at about 100 yards and sat there for over an hour in full strut, gobbling 75 times at Bo's calling with the sweet sounding VECtor calls!

He finally broke strut to cross through a small section of standing beans and fully committed to our setup. Again, he went into full strut and started dancin' for the ladies. He got to within 20 yards, but I couldn't get drawn back without him catching movement. While in full strut at 4 YARDS, he finally turned to face one of the hen decoys, giving me an opportunity to draw and give him an old fashioned texas heart shot. He didn't go far and I finally got my first long beard with a bow.

Bo's footage of this harvest is awesome! We hope to have a short video of the hunt posted sometime this week, as I have a little bit of editing to do for his one hour plus show. He ended up having a cut up 10" beard, 1" hooks, and would probably weight between 20-25 lbs. Definitely a first bow bird I am proud of!

A Little String Music

2010-04-19T20:48:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, Bo and I got a chance to do a little target shooting to make sure our bows are still sighted in and everything is ready to go for the Missouri turkey opener this week. Unfortunately, we cannot get out into the woods until Friday morning, but hopefully the long wait during the week will be worth it. Luckily for Bo, he's all ready gotten the monkey off of his back with a great Kansas thunder chicken he took a couple weeks ago. However for me, I've been itching to get back into the woods since January and I needed to make sure my sights point true.

After a few small adjustments, a broken "D" loop and a fat lip, we are as prepared as we can be for Friday morning. Bo, I'll do you a favor and not post the video of your "D" loop breaking during draw back and you smacking yourself in the mouth......I am sorry to laugh, but man, that had to hurt! All in all, it is hard to beat spending a beautiful day outdoors with good friends, while shooting your bow.

Friday morning cannot come soon enough.....

Inaugural MWB Video - BBD! Kansas Turkey Hunt

2010-04-14T06:30:00.002-05:00

I was finally able to put together our first full video for Bo's recent turkey hunt on our Kansas lease. It's amazing how an hour of footage turns into a five minute film. Editing definitely isn't as easy as some people make it out to be. But, I think the video turned out pretty well for our first shot and I hope everyone enjoys the clip. Thanks for the camera work too Ben. I'm sure as the season progresses, our filming and editting abilities should get much better. Make sure to turn up the volume! Enjoy!

If your computer doesn't like embedded YouTube videos, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L-yBW67IlA

BBD! (Bow Bird Down!) in Kansas!

2010-04-11T15:26:00.008-05:00

My friend and co-worker, Ben Heins, and I had an awesome hunt on Friday (4/9) morning in KS. Ben didn't have anything going on and was willing to get up super early (3 AM) to come down to my KS hunting property to film me attempt to call in and shoot a gobbler with my bow. I am very happy that he did, because I wouldn't have been able to capture the hunt on video without him.

My initial plan for this week was to go down on Friday to help the farmer burn off the CRP and then do a final shed hunt. Lucky for me, he caught the wind just right on Monday and was able to burn it then. So, instead of working, I was able to go on my first turkey hunt of the season. Ben didn't even hesitate when I asked him if he wanted to come down and film. He's a die hard turkey hunter and doesn't miss many opportunities to get out and chase them. We left around 4 AM to make the 2 hour drive down to the property and arrived just after 6:00. As we were getting all of our gear together, we started hearing gobbles along the creek bank of the neighboring property. It was just where I'd hoped the birds would be and I knew right where we should set the blind.

After a quick walk over to the spot, Ben set the blind up, and I got the decoys into position. The set that I used was a feeding hen, and a submissive hen with a jake behind her. I knew that any mature tom that saw this setup would be hard pressed to ignore it. We sat and listened for a while and when it started getting lighter I did a little tree calling. A few birds answered and I started feeling pretty good about the hunt. A few minutes later, I did a fly down cackle and was answered again by a roosted bird that seemed to be about 300 yards or so away. When he gobbled again, it was apparent that he was on the ground.

I continued to call every 5 minutes or so with my trusty VECtor slate call and a Woodhaven diaphram call. The bird answered every time and he was quickly closing the gap. Finally, it sounded like he was within 100 yards and was definitely commited. I decided to shut up and let him finish coming by himself. Then, I heard some hens getting up and I thought that we might be in trouble. I gave a few more yelps and he shook the blind with his gobble! He was right on top of us. When he stepped out, I was happy to see that it was a mature tom. He circled the decoys a few times and then finally gave me an opportunity to draw when he went into strut and turned away from me. I drew, anchored, and tried for a texas heart shot. He turned as I released the arrow and I caught him through the legs. He tried to run/fly off and I jumped out of the blind and gave chase. After about 100 yards, he settled down under a cedar and I was able to get another arrow in him from 20 yards. This time, I took out his vitals and put him away quickly.

I was disappointed in my first shot, but I'm happy to know that I was able to finish him off quickly. It's unfortunate to ever wound or lose an animal. I feel very grateful to have recovered this bird.

Ben and I also found a few sheds, but I'll save that for another post in the near future!

My first archery turkey and my 3rd KS longbeard called in with a VECtor slate.

Close up of my VECtor slate and VECtor dyamondwood striker.

I love my trusty Mathews Switchback!

Ben did a great job filming (poor Scotty had to work!) I'll be posting a video after we get it edited.

He never even looked at the blind. Check back soon for the shed hunt and turkey video!

Stepping Foot on a New Property

2010-04-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

This weekend, Bo and I had the opportunity to step foot onto a brand new property that we were just granted bowhunting and turkey hunting right to for the 2010 seasons. This Missouri property is only a mile from Bo's house and only three miles from mine, which is not only exceptionally convienent to us, but also makes our wives much happier knowing we will be traveling a little less during the hunting seasons.

Walking onto a property for the first time not only brings with it mixed emotions of excitement, anxiety, and anticipation. One always hopes to come across a giant rub on a 12" oak tree or deep, well used deer trails, but you never want to get your hopes us too high. Fortunately Bo and I were extremely pleased on the sign that we did find while only on the property for a few hours. Not 10 minutes onto the property, Bo and I were both talking about how deep and worn the deer trails were and I happened to look up and spot a tine sticking above the leaf litter. This 60"+ 4 point side had been laying there for awhile, but I'm glad we were able to save a little bit of bone from the tree rats this year. Hopefully this buck still calls this area home and we'll get a crack at him this year.

But as I had mentioned before, the deer trails looked more like cattle trails on this property. This property has numerous isolated crop fields and patches of big timber, which should provide a great habitat for growing and keeping whitetails. In addition to the heavy trails and creek crossings, we also found some good rubs and fresh tracks that added to the anticipation of the upcoming season.

We also came across one of the more oddly placed items we have ever found in the woods. Not 15 feet away from an old tree stand was this very old (and well used) basketball hoop. Granted it was located in a partial clearing, but I can only imagine that a young hunter from years past decided he wanted to practice his skills while waiting for that big buck to walk by his stand.

Lopsided 9 Euro Mount

2010-03-31T13:31:00.000-05:00

Due to the rain this weekend, I decided to stay close to home and try to get a few things taken care that I've been procrastinating on for some time now..... like cleaning up the Lopsided 9 that I found dead nearly two months ago (see the archived post from February).

Here's a little hint....if you find a deadhead, let it soak in water for a week or so, but don't wait two months. Lets just say the skull skinned out pretty easy, but I nearly skinned out the inside of my stomach at the same time. And we also had a little bit of bad luck and while the skull was soaking, the water turned jet black and ended up staining the antlers. I've never seen this before, but lessoned learned I guess. But it looks like the antlers ended up getting cleaned up pretty well.

And the finished product. I still have a little bit of cleanup work and need to get him mounted to a plaque, but the tough stuff is done. He ended up scoring right around 115", not too bad for a 2.5 year old. After getting so many trail cam pics of him, we really hoped that he would make it another two years. Unfortunately he gets added to the "man cave" just a little too early.

Gobblers, Poachers, Sheds and Deads

2010-03-29T07:24:00.004-05:00

I was off work on Friday, so I decided to go scout/shed hunt a new property that we had never stepped foot on. On the way to the property, I drove down the gravel road behind my house to see if any turkeys were out. Luckily for me, they were out in force and put on quite a show for me. I was able to get some pretty good video footage of them and I got several birds to gobble while talking to them with a Woodhaven mouth call. It definitely got me pumped up for the upcoming season.

This photo has 10 different gobblers in it and is just across the street from a property that we can hunt. Hopefully the birds will start to spread out in the coming weeks and some will move over onto our side of the road.

After playing with the turkeys for a while, I headed off to the new property. We got permission to hunt it late in the year but never had time to scout it or hang stands. I wish that we had, because the property looked really good. There were some awesome trails and some really good buck sign. I also saw about 5 different deer on the property.

Unfortunately, the shed hunting didn't really pan out. I'm reasonably certain that someone beat me to it. That's the tough part about some of the urban areas that we are able to hunt. You have to deal with a lot of poachers. I found a lot of poacher sign on the property including a tree stand and a mineral lick.

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed to find the poacher sign, but it got even worse. I found a total of five buck skulls with the skull caps removed like the one pictured below. It made me want to vomit. It gives us as hunters a terrible name and people like this don't deserve the right to hunt. I'll be in touch with our local conservation officer very soon and we'll be sure to have this property on his watch list next year. As ethical hunters, we all need to band together to prevent this kind of thing from happening. If you ever happen to witness or suspect that a wildlife violation is in progress, do not hesitate to contact Operation Game Thief. The number in Missouri is 1-800-392-1111.

After several hours of walking and 0 sheds to my credit, I decided to call it a day. 50 yards from the truck, I almost stepped on this little guy. It was an old shed off of a forkhorn, but at least I didn't get skunked!

On Sunday, Scott and I had a chance to run out to one of our favorite farms to scout for turkeys and do a little post season deer scouting/shed hunting. The deer and turkey sign looked great and we were fortunate enough to spot a group of toms in the distance, although we didn't get any pictures. The deer sign looked great and I think we will likely have a stand set close to this rub that has been hit for several years now. There are a few trunks in this cluster of trees that are torn up like this.

We also found a young dead buck... for the second time. I actually found him in December, but opted to leave him be until shed season. I believe that he may have been hit by a car since he was pretty close to the highway. It's unfortunate, but these things happen.

We used to have quite a bit of trouble with poachers on this property as well, but thanks to a good relationship with our local conservation officer and lots of effort to post the property, we have had very few incidents of trespassing/poaching in the last couple of years. It looks like we need to go down that road again on some other properties.

'Tis the Season for Struttin' and Drummin'

2010-03-21T15:04:00.001-05:00

Only four more weeks until the opener for of the 2010 Missouri spring turkey hunting season. Even though many hunters, such as ourselves, are just starting to dust off the bows from the late season, the birds are all ready getting ready for the action. In the last few weeks we have started to see an increase in the number of toms strutting in the open fields, but I'd never been able to catch this on trail cam....until the last pull this morning. It sure does get the blood pumping though in anticipation of the upcoming season...only four more weeks....

In addition to the long beards, we also caught a couple shed bucks that will hopefully stick around until next fall. I really liked the second picture with the cardinal in full flight. It really goes to show you just how quick the trigger speed is on the Bushnell Trophy Cams.

VECtor Custom Turkey Call

2010-03-17T20:51:00.000-05:00

I got home and checked the mail only to find that the mailman had delivered a special gift for me to help us through this years spring turkey season, which will be starting in just four weeks. I ordered a custom, handmade VECtor slate to help me bring those big, struttin' toms in a little closer this spring and hopefully close enough to stick one of them with the bow and arrow. Vince Crawford (owner of VECtor Custom Calls - www.vectorcalls.com) is a local entrepreneur in NW Missouri that creates some of the best handmade wood calls available. His attention to detail and customer service is simply awesome! This is the first turkey call that I've purchased from Vince and I know Bo owns at least one or two VECtor turkey calls, but I've also bought four or five of his custom deer grunters. With the help of his deer grunters, Bo and I were able to harvest three bucks during this past bow season that totalled nearly 450 inches of antler. We hope that his turkey calls will bring us just as much luck during this years turkey season. Thanks again Vince for making some of the best calls on the market!! Hopefully Bo and I will be included in the 2010 VECtor Turkey Harvest Poster!

From Kansas to Iowa

2010-03-15T12:49:00.000-05:00

On Saturday Michelle and I took the dogs up to a new property that we were just granted permission to shed hunt on this year in southwestern Iowa. It's my understanding that this property does not get hunted at all - sometimes I really wish Iowa nonresident tags weren't so expensive and hard to come by. The property does not have much timber on it as it's mainly row crop with two draws that cross the property. However, the land owner has installed filter strips to not only keep erosion down, but also provide a great deer santuary.

Michelle and I were excitied to get out and get some exercise, well at least get the dogs some exercise. Not five minutes out of the truck, I spotted a small tine sticking up from the grass bed. I tried to get our lab to sniff it up, but she only found it when she stepped on it and pulled it out of the grass. I guess I'm going to have to keep up on the shed hunting training with her.

But the deer sign on the property was simply amazing. I can't remember a property that has had so many big rubs and wide trails. This property would truely be a bowhunter's paradise.

Not too long into the search, Michelle found her very first shed. It's not the biggest in the world, but those smalller ones are always much harder to find than the big boys.

After we started out with two quick ones, we ended up finding four more in the following two hours. This was one of my personnel best days shed hunting with us coming home with six. The biggest antler was a six point side with a split brow that measured 63 inches. Unfortunately the main beam had probably around four to five inches broke off.

Here is a shot of the days catch. I really can't believe how much my shed hunting year changed in the matter of two days. I had started out on the first trip with Bo and found a small matched set, then went for 33 hours before finding the one matched set I'd hoped for all year, and then to finish up with six more and Michelle finding her first. Turned out to be a pretty good year!

A Change of Luck

2010-03-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

As Bo mentioned below, we were able to get down to our Kansas lease on Friday for one last shed hunting trip before the prescriped burn that will be happening in the next couple of weeks. Upon stepping foot on the property that morning I started my 32nd hour of shed hunting without a find. I had high hopes for this trip since we've only been skunked once while shed hunting this property in previous years, which just happened to be the last time I was on the property just a month or so ago. Well about an hour or so into the search, I finally had a change of luck. I was walking the edge of a large CRP field when I noticed what appeared to be two tines sticking up along the hedge row that bordered the CRP field. The antler appeared to be of good size, but little did I know what I'd found.

There is a buck on the property that we nicknamed Potato Digger during the '08 season. We had numerous trail camera videos and pictures of this buck and Bo and I actually had this buck at 35 yards during our first sit on the property back in September but was unable to get a quality shot at this buck. Well after I took a couple of more steps closer, I realized I'd just found one side of Potato Digger. I yelled over to Bo and as he was coming up I turned around and there was the match laying just 10 yards away. If there was one buck on the property whose sheds I wanted to find more than any other, it was Potato Digger and I was looking at both of them. It is a great relief to know this buck is still alive and living on the property. Both sheds measured right around 64" and with an estimated 19" spread (might be conservative), this buck would have scored 147" this past year as a typical 8 point. Talk about a great way to break a 33 hour streak of not finding a shed. Unfortunately we didn't find anymore sheds, but we did find one dead shed buck. But we're hopeful that many more antlers will appear after the burn this spring.

Here are a few trail camera pictures we've gotten of Potato Digger as a 4.5 year old during the 2009 season and a few pics of his sheds. I also have his right side from the '08 season so we are really writing a great history with this buck. Hopefully we'll be able to display his sheds with his shoulder mount after the '10 season.

Here is a picture of Potato Digger's right side from 2008.

ATL (as they lay) photos of the sheds as I found them. You can see the match in the background of the first picture. The interesting thing is that all three of his sheds were found within 80 yards of each other.

And a final picture with me holding them. The main beams on both sheds measured 26" to get an idea of just how long this buck is. He doesn't have much for tine length, but definitely makes up for it in mass and beam length.

Shed hunting success in Kansas!

2010-03-13T09:26:00.009-06:00

Scott and I, along with our buddy Jeff, had a chance to hit our Kansas lease for a little shed hunting yesterday. Our property is very difficult to shed hunt as it is enrolled in a CRP program and consists of mostly warm season native grasses. Sheds really blend in with all of that grass. However, we always seem to bring something back with us whenever we go down. There truly is some magic in those Kansas hills!

We had a great time and were impressed by the amount of deer sign. Sometimes, you just can't take inventory of your buck sign during the season. We are very scent conscious/low impact hunters. During the season, we try not to disrupt the deer patterns and really limit our scouting efforts during the season. We saw numerous rubs and scrapes along with some really good deer trails.

Scott is ready to get started.

Good optics are a must for shed hunting. They can save your legs a lot of extra miles. The Bushnell binos that Scott uses are crystal clear and are a great tool for scouting and hunting.

Shortly into the hunt, Scott found an armadillo that must have died from the cold. I've haven't seen one of these since I left Georgia 2 years ago. I hope this cold winter did the little buggers in!

Good friend and hunting buddy Jeff Gray is searching hard for his first Kansas shed.

After many hours and miles of searching, Scott finally broke his unsuccessful shed hunting streak. We were all really excited for him to find the matched set of a legend on our farm. I'll let Scott elaborate a little more on this bruiser 8 point we call Potato Digger. 26" main beams on an 8 point is pretty darned impressive... and he is only 4.5 years old!

I haven't been able to do too much shedding this year with a newborn at home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the woods yesterday with two good friends. Man, do I love living and hunting in the Midwest!

Scott found the only two sheds of the day, but like I said before, this property is extremely difficult to shed hunt. We'll be back down there in a couple of weeks to help out with a prescribed burn of the CRP. I can't wait to see what we'll find then!

I cannot overemphasize the importance of shed hunting. There is no better way to find out what bucks made it through the season, and even more importantly, where they were spending some of their time late in the season. Shed hunting has taught us an awful lot about our farm in the past couple of seasons. For example, we have now found 9 sheds off of 8 different bucks and a dead head within an 80 yard radius of one spot in particular on our farm. Do you think we have a stand in that spot? You bet we do (just ask Grumpy, who got his best buck ever from that stand), and next season, we'll likely have two stands and a food plot in that spot to make it huntable on multiple wind directions. Chances are, we would have overlooked this spot altogether if we hadn't put in the many hours and miles that it takes to thoroughly shed hunt a property. Plus, it's a lot of fun and we love displaying the sheds that we find, in our homes.

Young 6 point shed

2010-03-02T09:25:00.004-06:00

Grumpy (my Dad), Scott, and I hit a couple of our hunting properties on February 20th to do a little shedding/post season scouting. The deer are really hitting the grain fields hard! We're hoping to leave a few acres of standing soybeans in our foodplots next year for some dynamite post season hunting. Grumpy was lucky enough to find his first Missouri shed after a few hours of walking. It is the right side off of a young (2.5 year old) 6 x 4 ten point. We're really happy to see that he made it through the season ok because he has the potential to be a stud by the time he reaches 4.5-5.5. Here's a few pictures of the shed and the buck. Nice first find, Grumpy!

Still No Sheds....

2010-02-26T19:33:00.006-06:00

This years shed hunting for us has been SSSSLLLOOOOOWWWW..... But unlike most years, we've been continuously running trail cams to get a better idea of deer patterns. So even though we haven't found any sheds, we at least get to check trail cams every couple of weeks to see what's been running around the properties. And with a combination of numerous trail cams on a single property and all of this snow we've been getting, it's allowed us to really get a much better idea of deer movement patterns, even on properties that we've hunted for a few years now. Hopefully this late season scouting will benefit with much more productive tree stand locations in the fall.....but even though we haven't had much luck with sheds, it's still fun pulling cards..... Here is a video taken off of our newest Bushnell. The quality of the videos on these newer cameras is amazing. But the best thing is that this camera has been running for nearly four months (during the winter) on the same 8AA batteries. It's so nice not having to carry four D batteries with you every time you check the camera.

Another Set of Bushnell Pics

2010-02-19T16:36:00.006-06:00

These Bushnell Trophy Cams are great!!! ....maybe that's why people are stealing them from our properties..... But Bo and I hung a couple cameras on a new property we really didn't get a chance to hunt during the last couple of weeks of season and I really wish we would have taken advantage of the property during the season. I had the cameras out for 10 days....one on video and a trail and the other on 100 lbs of corn and snap shot mode. The camera on the corn filled up a 1GB card in three days.....that's nearly 1000 pictures in three days!! I would say only 10% of the pictures did not include an animal, which is a great percentage. The camera on video mode also filled a 1GB card but in 8 days and had nearly 90 videos and the same deer success rate. This property is only 80 acres but the deer sure seem to travel through it! I was hoping to get a few pictures of turkeys on the cameras but I'm guessing they were just down in the fields instead of the ridges where the deer were. Next season is going to be a lot of fun out there! Here are a few of the pictures off of my newest Bushnell.

20 Hours and Still Counting...

2010-02-15T17:10:00.003-06:00

I am really starting to rethink this shed hunting thing... I have been able to get out and walk for 20 hours since Friday and haven't found anything, except trespassers, thieves and my first armadillo. Friday, I walked a property that usually doesn't start producing sheds until March for seven hours and came home empty handed. I was able to pull a couple of stands though so the day wasn't a total loss. But I still figured I would at least find a couple early drops, but to no avail.

On Saturday, Michelle and I took the dogs down to our Kansas lease for a little exercise and shed hunting. This property usually always produces a shed or two on each trip, but not this time. Michelle and I walked four hours and only found a dead armadillo. After not finding any bone, even more problems... Bo and I have had one of our Bushnell trail cameras untouched on that property for three months. But when I went to pull the SD card with possibly hundreds of videos.....there was no SD card to pull. Our only guess is that someone decided to trespass on the property looking for sheds and didn't like getting their picture taken. At least they were nice enough to leave the camera though...

On Sunday, we got out for a couple of hours to shed hunt another Missouri property only to find out that a Bushnell trail camera that was just hung on Friday had been stolen. Some low life crossed three different property lines to get the camera as we were able to follow footprints across the entire property to where they jumped the fence to get back to their house. It's really amazing how people just don't respect other people's properties or possessions.

And today, I walked another property for a couple hours and saw the most deer sign I have ever seen on a single property. We didn't find any sheds, but the sign is very promising for the upcoming season. I ended up seeing approximately 200 different deer beds, one herd of 25 deer, another herd of five, and another of 35 deer. Each of the herds were on completely different corners of the property. But we did see a couple different bucks in those groups that were still carrying both sides. So we're going to wait and let the snow melt and then get back out there and see what we can find.

So after 20 hours of walking, a stolen SD card, a stolen trail cam and no sheds, I think I may be hanging up my boots for a couple weeks to wait for the majority of the bucks to drop their antlers and also allow my legs some time to recover. What a frustrating weekend......I sure hope my next post to MB is in a much more positive manner than this one.