Pre Season Prep

It's that time of year once again!  It seems like we just climbed down from the tree for the last time and yet, here we are making plans for another year of hunting.  This year we are going to be hitting the ground running and hopefully have a little more to show for it.  We put in a lot of grunt work last year and learned quite a few lessons along the way.  Here are the plans for this year:

1.  Sandstone Land - We had very limited success last year here.  We shot one buck and 2 does after hunting it all bow season and most of gun season.  We plan on relocating stands, using different attractants and overall land improvements this year.  I know a lot of experts tell us that we should be finishing all of these things this time of year and not starting them, but due to the nature of our jobs, that just isnt possible.  We have high hopes for bow season this year on this property.

2.  Metro Land - We had ZERO success on this property last year.  It was a combination of poor planning and poor execution on our part.  We are going to hunt this land very carefully this season.  I don't see it being a heavy year on this property but we will use it to fill the fridge if we can.  Again, we are going to change some stand locations and even some overall strategies on this land.  

3.  Land Acquisition - We are pushing forward with a new endeavor this year.  After hunting small plots of land our whole lives, we are looking to start the process of purchasing a larger chunk of land.  We have started looking at lands and areas trying to decide what is the best for us and what we want to pursue.  We are realistically looking at 2 years out before we actually make a purchase, but a lot can happen in two years.  

I can't wait to see what we pull together for this season and how it pans out.  I can tell you I am overly excited to get going.  See you all again soon with more detailed info on our plans!

Rainy Days and Sundays

In the words of the Carpenters circa 1971:
"Hangin' around, nothing do to but frown.  Rainy days and Mondays always get me down."

In this case it was Sunday, but the hangin around, rain, and frown part was about right.  Eric and I hit the woods again yesterday in northern MN.  The weather has been warm the last couple of days but was scheduled to cool off with a 30% chance of rain.  I should know by now that 30% to a weather man is basically saying it is going to rain but if it doesn't, I don't want to be blamed.

We got to the property early and pulled some trail cam cards and checked on our stands.  We had minimal pictures, which we expected due to the changing weather and deer patterns happening here.  The pictures we did have were good news.  In the area of our back food plot, we still have deer coming out and into the field even though most of the good clover is gone already.  In front of Eric's permanent stand we had another pic of a buck.  We have seen consistent buck activity on this camera and it is situated in the middle of the property.  The chance that we see those bucks moving in and out of that area are very good as we move forward.  We also took the time to get up a hanging stand in an area we have observed getting some activity that our current stands could not see.  It was a bold move so close to the gun season, but we really want to get some deer in the freezer, so we are doing what we have to do.

The portable hanging stand we have is not your fancy, light weight version.  I may have Eric do a review on the stand as a whole and how it worked being that he was the person who sat in it.  Just from the chore of hanging it in the tree, I can tell you these things take some practice just to hang them.  Climbing in is another story all together.  We were using screw in steps and watching Eric do this reinforced the fact that strap-on steps are worth the money...no matter what they cost.  I'm sure a lighter weight stand would have made this process a lot easier, but you work with what you have, so we made due.  After the stand was hung we cleared some shooting lanes quickly and backed out to let the area calm down.

During lunch the rain started and didn't stop.  It was a light sprinkle, followed by a harder rain, and than light sprinkle again.  We waited for a few hours and the rain slowed and stopped, so we headed out to our stands for the evening sit.  Three quarters of the way to the stands it started to pour again.  Eric saw a pile of does on the way to his stand and a couple sitting underneath it that bailed when they saw him.  The rain stopped just in time for the sun to go down and it to get cold.  We sat out the night with no shots fired and went back home empty handed.

Over all it was a good day.  We hung a stand in clearly a great spot, than found out we need to work on our exit and entrance strategies for the stand.  We also continue to see the need to shoot as many does as we can on this property to try and get the herd managed some.  Gun season is in two weeks, the rut is going to kick off very soon and hopefully some deer will be hitting the ground.    

Finally Final

We are finally, officially, really, actually hunting!  Ok, it was actually just a short visit to the stand to get organized, but I am going to call it hunting after the season I've had so far.

As I chronicled last week, the season has not started all that well for me.  I did get the arrow situation sorted out with some very easy to use broadhead adapters.  So now I have all of the gear I need, the stands are up, the pictures are rolling in, and the weather is getting cooler.  I still have a nasty cold that makes sitting for long times hard.  After a few hours I start coughing uncontrollably, which is not a great bow hunting tactic as far as I have seen.

Yesterday I got out and climbed into our metro stand for the first time.  We have a mineral site near by the set up that we decided to try Primos Red Spot in.  It was on sale, so we decided to give it a shot.  We didn't pay a whole lot of attention to shooting distances when we put up our stand as we typically have hunted it with shotguns in the past.  Amazingly, all of the shots we have from the stand are around 20-30 yards.  That is perfect for us beginners.  Now we just sit and wait for something unlucky to be our first customer!

Where in the World Is....

This was supposed to be the season I started hunting early and pushed hard through the season to down a big old hog of a buck.  Well the season opened 9 days ago here in MN and I have yet to hit the woods with my bow.  What the heck happened?  It has been a combo platter of things, some I could have done differently and some that were beyond my control or knowledge base.  The thing I could have changed on my own was how late I got the stand up on our metro property.  Our northern MN property is a 1.5 hour drive so that isn't happening during the work week but most of our prep time and efforts have been on that property.  The metro stand wasn't even hung until last Friday, and it still isn't completely finished.

I went out last Friday to throw the stand in the tree and see if I could get the brush and shooting lanes cleared.  The stand is a 12 foot ladder stand and not easy to handle by one person.  I got it up in the tree and situated where I wanted it before realizing I couldn't secure it fully myself.  The tree is leaning into the direction the stand is facing, so in order to get the stand level and strapped in I needed someone to hold the ladder steady while I pushed off the tree and settled the seat in.  I was by myself, so this didn't happen.  On top of all that, I had a show at work opening weekend that had me on the clock for 12 hour days all week.  After getting done with the show on Sunday, we got up early Monday morning and took off for a visit to the manufacturers plant in Indiana.  We spent 2 days down there before a whirlwind couple of weeks found me back at home exhausted.

In spite of all that, I was pumped to finally get out in the stand and get my season underway.  I have been practicing with my new Easton ST Axis arrows and field tips, while doing research on which broadheads I wanted to shoot.  I settled on and ordered the Rocket Stealhead from Eagle Archery.  In all honesty, I took the advice of Bill Winke from MidwestWhitetail.com.  On returning from my trip I started prepping the rest of my gear for the first time and realized the Rockets did not fit in to my arrows.   I am really new to bow hunting, so a lot of what I do is based on the recommendation of others.

My arrow choice was a direct recommendation from my local archery shop.  I have yet to buy anything from them in this adventure but I felt it was important to start a relationship with a shop that was only a few blocks from my house.  I walked in and told the guy working my situation, that I was new to bow hunting and needed  my first set of arrows.  He got me set up with the right length and weight of Easton ST Axis carbon arrows fitted with field tips and blazers.  They shot beautifully right off the bat with no sight adjustments needed on my part.  The part they left out at the archery shop is apparently the arrows need a broadhead adapter ring in order for some broadheads to fit on them.  So when I went to install my new Rocket's, I was out of luck.

I finally found the time to get into the shop again yesterday to get this sorted out and as fate would have it, they didn't have any of the adapters in stock.  At this point I am fully frustrated with the whole situation and have not spent a minute in the stand so far this season.  I understand this is just the beginning of the learning curve for me and it could get worse before it gets better.  At the same time, being in the stand would automatically make me feel better about all of this.  The shop should have my adapters in a couple of days and I will hopefully make it out this week still.  With a full slate of fall projects to complete around the house and at our camper, time could be at a premium in the next few weeks.

This is definitely not the dream start to the season that I expected, on the other hand, it can't get a whole lot worse can it?    

Bow Hunting Here I Come

I have been gun hunting since I was 13 years old.  The first 3 years I was not allowed to carry a firearm of my own.  I sat in the woods and watched my Dad or Aunt while they hunted.  The biggest thrill I had was when my Dad had to pee so I got to hold his gun.  I always dreamed about a big buck running out at the perfect moment for me to get a shot off.  Twenty-one years later, I am expanding on that dream.

For years I have been contemplating taking up bow hunting.  This year I finally decided to jump in the water and so far it feels great.  It all started with the mighty bow search.  Eric and I started making trips to the local archery shops in our spare time.  We were looking for ideas and just absorbing the atmosphere.  I started to form an idea of what I wanted, unfortunately those wants did not fit into my budget.  Adjusting fire was very hard for me in this area.  My thought process was fixated on finding a great deal on a new high end bow.  Months went by and my dreams of being ready for this year's season were starting to fade.  In June all of that changed.  I found a great deal on a used Mission by Mathews Eliminator II bow and immediately set off to take a look at it.  

The bow had been fired a minimum number of times, was a couple years old, and came with all of the needed accessories including:  Plano hard case, Whisker Biscuit rest, Cobra Archery 5-pin sight, Kwikee Quiver, Cobra Archery release, 4 Easton and 3 Beman arrows, and a handful of field points.  The price was one I couldn't pass up, so I bought it on the spot.  My journey had just begun, but at the time I felt as if I had arrived as a hunter.

Over the last 2 months I have already learned many lessons and have many more to go.  I bruised my forearm the first time shooting the bow and learned the lesson of proper grip.  I have broken 3 arrows and learned the lesson of anchor points.  I have worked hard on using correct form and getting comfortable with my bow.  Right now I am consistently shooting a nice tight grouping at 15 yards with the arrows that came with my Mission.  I will be purchasing new arrows in the next few weeks in order to get sighted in with the arrows I will be hunting with.  The arrows will finish off my set and I can sight in my 20, 30 and 40 yard pins.  

The bow purchase was probably the most exciting one I have made in a long time.  It was just the beginning of a long list that I needed in order to take up bow hunting.  I will be chronically some of the other purchases I have made to get ready over the next few weeks.  My budget and wife will not be too happy with that, but my deer hunting itch will.  The thought of being able to finally hunt all aspects of the rut, coupled with expanding my season from 2 weeks to 3 months has me smiling thinking about it.  

Update-  I purchased 6 Easton Axis arrows from my local archery shop last week.  They shoot a lot like the original Easton's I have so I didnt need to adjust my sights much.  

Thank you to my lovely bride who made all of this possible. 

-Dennis

 Here are some pics of my set up: