Grow the Hunt

Rainy Day Gobblers

-By Rich Miller

It seems like every year when the opener of turkey season rolls around Mother Nature decides to give us all of the rain that we can stand. This past Saturday morning was our youth turkey hunt day and it was no exception. I was taking my seven-year-old nephew Porter on his first turkey hunt. I had told him several weeks ago that if he practiced shooting his shotgun everyday and got to where he was hitting the target every time, I would take him on the youth hunt this year.

We had the perfect place to take him to get his first turkey too. This place has always been automatic for us on opening day and this year was looking no different. Between seeing birds while we had been there working on the property and getting plenty of pictures of them on our game cameras, we had determined that there were at least nine different gobblers not counting the jakes on the property. So we were really confident about getting Porter on a big longbeard.

Well as hunting goes whenever you think you have something that looks to be foolproof there is always something that can go wrong. The last couple of years the thing has been Mother Nature. Whether it is the youth hunt or opening day it always seems to be raining. Well this past Saturday was no exception for Porters hunt. Porter had held up his end of the bargain so there was no way we could back out of taking him whether it was raining or not. Porter was bright eyed and bushy tailed when I met him at 6:30 Saturday morning. The rain had stopped overnight and we were supposed to have a two or three hour window before the heavy storms got here. We got the blind in place, the turkey decoys up, and settled in the blind well before daylight. It seemed like it took forever before the skies started to lighten up due to all of the cloud cover we had. We had set our blind up in a food plot in between a creek bottom and a pasture where the turkeys usually roost. Being in this position is usually a perfect place to find a lonely gobbler looking for a hen. As it got more daylight we did have a couple of birds gobbling toward the pasture but they didn’t gobble very much at all. Porter was very anxious and wondering when the turkeys were going to show up. After we heard the turkeys gobble we also heard some hens calling. After that it was dead we never heard another peep. We called and waited and waited all to no avail. By this time the rain had started back and it was getting harder and steadier by the minute. We stuck it out until about 9:30 and never saw or heard another bird. No matter how bad Porter wanted to get a bird or how bad we wanted him to get a bird, it just didn’t work out for him. I guess the birds were smarter than we were. While we were out in the wet and nasty weather they stayed in.

My Spring Break

-By Brandon Wikman

Blazes of simmering sunshine cast upon my face as the soothing echo of clapping waves applaud my presence. The grainy beach sand toasts my backside, while the sun burns my front. The sounds of people laughing, seagulls calling, and shouts from hippy-merchants selling necklace beads reassure me that Spring Break is finally here. A time to relax and enjoy the essence of what some call, ‘living the life.’

I woke up to the drumbeat ring tone of Bob Marley on my cell phone. Reality seems to always find ways to shatter my heart and wildest dreams. It was a call from my roomies. They couldn’t help but rub in how much I am missing out on. They endlessly explained the summer-like weather, paradise beaches, and entertaining nightlife of Panama City Beach, Florida; a place where hundreds of thousand crazy college kids splurge into a vacation of dreams.

I may not be experiencing intense volleyball matches or seafood buffets, but I’ve been keeping occupied with all that the Midwest during March has to offer. Last week I spent the entire weekend with my great hunting partner, Butch Fox, who owns Bluff Bucks Outfitters. We decided to take a mini road trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a trade show. The annual Minnesota Deer Classic opened during the coming weekend.

Butch and I weren’t exhibiting and had no booth space to attend. We enjoyed walking around the show taking a look at the products and services being represented. There were a few neat hunting and outdoor companies that caught our attention. From the versatile tree stand that can safely hang in the most twisted timber to a new hunting blind that just looked deadly. After two long days spent breezing through products, it was time to head back home.

We arrived back to Butch’s Sunday night. I still had another 2 ½ hour trek to my home in central Wisconsin. I anticipated seeing my family and the friends that didn’t migrate south for the week.

The last couple days I’ve been laying countless footprints in the muddy forest and fields. The shed-antler search has been awfully slow. I have yet to find any behind the house this year. My cousin struck gold when he found an antler that measured into the mid 80-inch range. It was by far one of the best shed antlers I’ve ever witnessed in this part of the state. The most depressing thing for me was to realize he’d never even stepped foot into an agriculture field or woodlot to find the solid chunk of bone. He spotted the antler while driving back home. It lay untouched in the middle of backcountry ditch. He was simply at the right place during the right time. Sometimes pure luck is involved in hunting; this was definitely one of those occasions.

The next two days I’ll be preparing for my next trade show as my weeklong break dwindles and the college population of the state regains its density. Next week I will be making a special visit to the Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The National Archers in the School Program (NASP) will be hosting their national youth archery competition. The event draws hundreds of kids from across the nation for a Friday and Saturday of competitive archery shooting. It will be an absolute blast.

Even though Florida was dancing, rattling, and rolling in the back of my mind the last few days, I still managed to have fun with what the Midwest has to offer during this time of the year.

Listen Up

Have you ever had a gobbler coming in to your setup, but then never show himself? After a while you believe that the bird just isn’t coming, so you stand up only to see the gobbler you were working fly off. According to Steve Hickoff’s recent blog post on Strut Zone, it happens more times than you would think. Check out Hickoff’s blog for some tips to help you avoid this frustrating scenario.

Turkeys on the Run

-By Rich Miller

Well it wasn’t opening day but it was going to be the first hunt of the year. Every year a good buddy of mine Robert Colcolough and I head down to Barnwell, SC for the season opener of turkey season. The southern half of the state opens 15 days earlier than it does here, so we always try and get a head start on the season. This year the season opened on a Sunday and we were unable to make it on the opener. The way our schedules were working out we were only going to be able to hunt on Friday. Since we were going to be so short on time we decided to fly down on Thursday afternoon. Robert and his brother-in-law own a Cessna 172 airplane, which saves us about two and a half-hours drive time each way. The weather worked out for us and we arrived in Barnwell around 5:00 Thursday afternoon.

Once we arrived at the house and got our gear unpacked it was time to find out where some turkeys were roosting. We were running a little ahead of schedule so we went by one of the food plots to change memory cards in one of Robert’s cameras. When we got out of the golf cart I hit the owl hooter and we heard a bird gobble in a clear cut about a hundred yards off. After blowing the owl hooter a few more times there ended up being two birds gobbling in the clear cut. Once we left those birds we headed to a hill where we always hear birds. By the time we headed back to the house we had found two more birds roosted on the hill. To say that we were feeling good about the next morning’s hunt after having roosted four different birds was an understatement.

The next morning we decided to start out at the hill first thing. We figured we would have the best shot at this bird and if it didn’t work out, we would be able to hear all of the other birds just in case we needed to go after them. While we were walking up the hill trying to decide where to set up, this bird was gobbling his head off. There was a food plot within a hundred yards of him so I crawled out there and set up my turkey decoys. This turkey seemed like he was gobbling about every thirty seconds. I didn’t start calling to him right away. I waited until I heard some of the hens with him start calling. Once these hens got cranked up I started calling back to them and it wasn’t long until the gobbler was going out of his mind, and then another one started gobbling behind us. I started hearing turkeys flying down from the roost so I gave a few fly-down cackles and two hens landed in the food plot in front of us. These hens fed around the decoys a few minutes and then walked out of the food plot. A few minutes after they left a long beard ran across the food plot about forty yards away from us following those hens. He acted like he was spooked and wouldn’t slow down for anything. As I was trying to figure out what was going on I caught more movement coming through the food plot and it was two more hens. Coming up the rear behind the hens was a white-headed gobbler in full strut. Behind him was another gobbler but he wasn’t strutting, he was headed across the food plot toward where the first gobbler went. About the time the strutter got in front of my gun barrel the other gobbler came back in the food plot within range also. I asked Robert if he had a shot, he said he did and I said on three. One, two, three, and if you would have been a spectator you would have only heard one shot but there were two bird laying in the food plot.

After the high fives and pictures it was 7:45 am and time for breakfast. After breakfast and getting the turkeys taken care of we got packed up and headed back to the airport. We had turned what was usually a weekend trip into an overnighter and it turned out to be very successful. By the way all of the new toys I couldn’t wait to try in the turkey woods last week worked as good as I hoped they would.

Spring Break Southern Style

-By Brandon Wikman

Spring break has an intense reputation when it comes to the minds and antics of college students. It’s a time for kicking-back, busting-out, and enjoying an entire week of freedom from school.

As key hotspots like Florida, Texas and Cancun crank the heat; the remaining winter-ice still progressively melts back into the earth in most parts of the country. It’s always a pleasurable feeling for a Midwestern-junkie to be basking in the mid-March sun. I have been lucky enough to spend a few of my spring breaks in the central parts of Florida. My trips were spent a little differently than most crazy college students.

Instead of playing on the sandy beach, I hid in the dark jungle-like forest of the Florida everglades. My toes never sunk into the pebbled sand, but rather drowned in the marshy-bogs, winding creeks, and standing mosquito-infested water. The only tail I chased was the elusive Osceola turkey. Florida’s turkey season is the country’s grand turkey opening. There is no better place to call in gobblers in March than Florida. The Osceola is the only species of bird that originates from Florida. They have always had a dirty reputation of outsmarting even the most profound hunters. I believe it’s the combination of the Osceola’s sly characteristics and the bizarre wetland features of property that send hunter’s home empty-handed.

The last few trips I made to Florida were amazing. I was blessed to kill a Florida long beard during each adventure. It took many trial-and-error mistakes until the golden sun of the panhandle shined upon me. The peculiar feeling of sinking into the palmetto bushes was almost foreign to me. I was far too used to hunting the old hardwoods forest and agriculture fields of the Midwest. It’s nice to challenge your ability to adapt to different styles, techniques, and strategies.

The only downer of hunting Osceola is property and price. The hunts may sell for thousands of dollars because it is only Florida that produces these birds exclusively. If you want to bag your grand slam, you must first round the base of Florida. An alternative hunting experience that is just as exciting and much more cost-efficient is hog hunting.

Florida has the second largest hog population in the United States. Properties are littered with tracks, uproots, and destruction left from these pesky critters. Typically, they are hunted with either a gun or bow. During dawn and dusk, the barren open grounds of cow pastures are taken over by hundreds of hungry-hogs. Medium-sized hogs are the taste of choice for most outdoors people, but some thrill-seekers are willing to risk an empty dinner plate over a sharp-tusked beast.

College students, past graduates or anyone for that matter that’s looking for a true spring break adventure must visit the “Sunshine State” at least once in their life.

Vote for your favorite type of turkey call!

Part of the fun in turkey hunting is being able to trick an old gobbler into coming to your calls. There are a wide variety of turkey calls on the market. Some hunters prefer a mouth call where others swear by a box or slate call. If you could only have one turkey call in your vest this season what would it be? Vote now!

Online Surveys & Market Research

New Turkey Hunting Arsenal

-By Rich Miller

South Carolina is divided into two separate zones as far as hunting goes. The lower part of the state has a completely different set of rules than where I live in the upper part of the state. One of the rules is that the lower part of the state’s turkey season opens fifteen days earlier than the Northern Zone. Opening day for the Low Country was Sunday the 15th. I had a store promotion to work and I was not able to make it for the opener this year; it proved to be a good thing with the way the weather turned out.

I am glad I didn’t drive three and a half hours to have my hunt rained out. This time of year I am at some kind of promotion just about every weekend and the Low Country season opener always sneaks up on me. I am trying to get everything ready to head down this coming weekend to hunt for a few days. I have several new products in my arsenal this year that I can’t wait to try out. Knight and Hale has a new box call for this year called the Hammerhead. It is a waterproof-box call that doesn’t require any chalk much like the Wet Willie. The difference is that the Hammerhead has some new sound baffles in the center of the box that help it produce some really great turkey sounds. All of these characteristics are going to make it deadly in the turkey woods. We also have a new Fire-N-Ice turkey diaphragm call that really sounds great. Chris Parrish has outdone himself again and made a two and a half reed diaphragm that is easy blowing as well as consistent. This is a very versatile call that is capable of producing every call in the wild turkey’s vocabulary.

The main thing that I can’t wait to use is the new Peep’n Tom and Pretty Penny turkey decoy setup. This decoy was derived out of Carry-Lite’s Pretty Boy decoy. Peep’n Tom has some of same characteristics of the Pretty Boy, but they have made it more user friendly keeping the hunter in mind. Believe it or not, the paint job on the Peep’n Tom is more realistic than ever. The Peep’n Tom is also a little smaller and more flexible for easy transporting in the woods. This decoy set has no memory either, so when you leave these decoys folded up in your turkey vest for an extended amount of time and get ready to use them, they will go back to their original shape and be ready to hunt with. The main change in this decoy setup is that the hen and gobbler both come with two heads. The Peep’n Tom has a jake head and a mature gobbler head that can be used separately or at the same time in what we call the Medusa set up. When used in this way the decoy will look like two different gobblers strutting at the same time. The hen comes with two heads also, one is for a feeding setup and the other is for a submissive position to be used with Peep’n Tom.

Hopefully with the help of these new products this coming weekend will be a success.

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Convention

-By Rich Miller

When I flew out last week there was snow on the ground and it was 20-some-odd degrees outside. When I got back home on Tuesday the sun was out and it was a scorching 86 degrees. I had been in Fort Worth, Texas for the past six days for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundations National Convention. This is always and amazing show. The RMEF always goes all out to treat its volunteers and members to a fun-filled four days at Elk Camp, as they call it.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon to get our booth setup and make sure that all our products had arrived on time. I was there to sell elk and turkey calls for Knight & Hale Game Calls. The show started on Thursday and all of the members and exhibiters hit the show floor wide open.

I am not sure how many exhibiters were there, but the convention center we were in was packed from wall to wall with outfitters from all across the world. It didn’t matter what kind of hunts you are interested in, you could find it at this convention. There were also factory reps, knife makers, clothing companies, artist, and jewelry makers.

After the doors closed on Thursday the opening ceremony was held at the world famous Billy Bob’s. There was a Texas style barbeque dinner and Randy Travis was the entertainment for the evening.

Friday night was volunteer appreciation night and, as always, it was the most enjoyable night of all. The food is always excellent and the entertainment was Sawyer Brown and let me tell you, entertain he did. That sucker has more energy on stage than a school bus full of kids at Disney World. They always keep this night’s entertainment a secret; we never know who it is until they are introduced to come on stage.

Saturday night is always exciting but it is also sad because it is the end of Elk Camp. Just like the other nights we are treated to an awesome meal and great entertainment. The entertainer for Saturday night was Travis Tritt and it seemed like he played forever.

All of this was a great time, but there is a purpose to Elk Camp besides eating like kings and listening to great entertainment. It is held to raise money for the sole purpose of wildlife conservation. This is the 25th anniversary of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and in the last twenty five years they have established elk herds in states like Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. They have protected millions of acres land that will be there for my children and grandchildren so that they too will hear the majestic sound of a bugling bull elk. If you ever get a chance to attend one of these Elk Camps and see the passion and willingness of the volunteers to do what it takes to preserve elk country, you too will want to become a member.

Moultrie's Spring Fever Sale

Moultrie has spring fever and still needs help cleaning the warehouse to make room for 2009 inventory. Give us a hand and help us clear out these products with prices reduced up to 60%. Hurry, supplies are limited!

Find great deals in Moultrie's Spring Fever Sale!

Western Grey Wolf Trail Camera Picture

We thought we would share this cool picture with the rest of our "Grow the Hunt" readers. This Western Grey Wolf was captured on a Moultrie I-40 game camera in Algonquin Park, Ontario. Thanks for sharing such a cool picture with us Robin.