Bo and I were able to get out of the house for a couple hours this morning and run out to one of our new properties from this past season to shed hunt and pull a stand.  We usually don't start shed hunting until February but with the potential of trespassers on this property and the fact Bo will probably be having a little boy in the next week or two, we decided we'd better get out there and see what we can find.  Not ten minutes out of the truck, Bo found this matched set laying right next to each other.  It will be fun to watch this young buck mature and see how the matching inside kickers develop over the years.

Then finally I spotted my first sheds of the season.  I had to take a couple looks at these in the binoculars before I realized what they were.  I couldn't believe that both Bo's and my first finds of the year were matched sets.


















The last shed of the day Bo and I both saw it at the same time but he was able to yell "shed" just before me so he got it.  I think we both stared at it for 5-10 seconds before we realized what we were looking at.


















And finally a picture of our opening day's finds.  Unfortunately we didn't find anything huge, but bone is bone.  All and all it was one of our better shed hunting days.


















The amount of buck sign on this property is really good.  Here are a couple pics I took of a trail with a fresh, huge buck track and some rubs.

On Friday afternoon, Bo and I were both lucky enough to be able to get off of work a couple of hours early to hit the woods one last time for this years archery season.  Before we even started walking into our stand at 2:30 there were all ready five does out in the cut bean field feeding.  While walking in, we had a close encounter with two does as a shed buck ended up chasing them within ten feet of Bo and I as we stood there.  Those three deer ended up kicking up another 10-15 deer, including one decent buck, that were all within 100 yards of where we stood.  All of those deer went to the south, which meant in two hours they would all be feeding back past us to the beans.  We couldn't have asked for a better situation.

But, just as has happened multiple times this season, what we thought would be a perfect season turned into a not so good of a night.  Bo and I were just about ready to split apart and walk to our stands when we saw three different groups of five or six deer come running past us from the south.  We both looked at each other confused when we noticed two trespassers walking from the direction of the deer.  These guys were "out lookin' for deer horns" (FYI deer don't have horns, they have antlers but thats another story).  But what they ended up doing was completely ruin our final night in the stand.  I ended up having a small doe come within 60 - 70 yards but no closer.

I ended the night with two unfilled tags in my pocket and I know Bo had a couple as well.  If those trespassers hadn't busted all of those deer, we were almost guaranteed to fill at least one or two tags that evening.  Unfortunately, things just didn't go our way.....

Here are a couple of pics from the evening.  The first is just after our close encounter with the does and shed buck as Bo got an arrow nocked and the second is of my frosty view from the stand.  Now I get a few weeks off before Cabela (my lab) and I start shed hunting.

Tonight was the last time that I will be able to sit in a treestand with the stick and string for the 2009-2010 archery season. I had high hopes with the high pressure system moving in, cold temps, and little wind. Unfortunately, no deer decided to feed on the cut corn that I was sitting on. Once I got down, I realized why I was seeing more sign in the timber than the fields. There was easily 12-18 inches of snow in the fields and only 6-8 inches in the timber. It appears the deer are simply feeding on the browse in the timber rather than trying to paw around in the fields. Hopefully a good thaw is coming and most of this snow will disappear in time for shed hunting season. Here are a few pics from tonight's hunt.

It was a little cold...

A few other pics of the snow.

The latest card pull from the new Bushnell Trophy Cam revealed a decent younger buck. Hopefully this buck will stick around for a few more years and drop his sheds in easy to spot areas!

These new Bushnell cams are an invaluable scouting tool and we can't say enough good things about them. 8 AA batteries will easily last four to six months with the camera on high resolution video mode. We won't have to worry about bringing multiple 6V batteries or packs of D batteries out with us to the woods anymore. And the quality of the pictures and videos are great.

As most of you know, Bo and I took the 2009 pretty seriously when it came to recording our adventures in the field via trail cameras, photography, and film.  We felt that we needed a new format where we can not only journal our accomplishments, failures, and field experiences, but also allow family and friends to follow our journey as the season progresses.  It has become quite evident that bowhunting is not only a passion to us, but it has become our lifestyle.  So please keep in touch, add comments, and follow us here to see what is new during our Midwestern Bowhunter adventures.

Here is a quick recap of the 2009 season.  It was painful and stressful, but extremely rewarding.  It was a season of many firsts and will be a great stepping stone for our future hunting careers.

My first Kansas harvest off of our 80 acre lease.