Grow the Hunt

Tagged Out and Burnt Out

-By Brandon Wikman

The anticipation and excitement of chasing a Wisconsin long-beard began to transform into pure dosages of frustration. As each day of my season ensued, the more aggravated I became. Last week I found out very quickly that hunting a central Wisconsin gobbler with a jumble of filming equipment was rather tiresome.

I was only able to hunt three of the five days for turkey because of my school schedule. Cramming in a quick three-day hunt was the best I could do.

Friday morning my nerves were pulsing with overwhelming enthusiasm. The first setup was over an alfalfa field. Many birds were using the area throughout the day. With my decoy placed a few yards in front of me, all I could do was wait for the show. I hunkered into the shrubbery and vanished with the help of my camouflage. As the refreshing sign of morning dawned upon me, the subtle glow of light pierced the horizon.

An eruption of gobbles crackled from the field’s edge high above the forest floor. Several male turkeys began claiming ground and shrieking boisterous messages across the land. It took only minutes until they pitched from their roosts and into the field. An alfalfa field is a perfect place for them to showoff, sift for bugs, and spot other turkeys.

A gobbler from across the field cranked his neck to listen to my calling. He looked as if he were interested. His colorful red and blue speckled head sank into his feathers. The bird started strutting my way. One-Hundred-fifty yards separated me any my quarry. I nestled the stock of my shotgun into my shoulder and pre-visualized the attack. Before I could even visualize pulling the trigger, the gobbler came to an abrupt halt. The bird threw his head up in the air, looked at the decoys, and darted across the open field. I sat in utter amazement, as I watched his beard swing back-and-forth. It was obvious he was decoy shy.

I hunted the rest of the day and it turned into a lot of walking, calling, and doubt. The birds had quit gobbling by 8am and the extreme hot weather didn’t help. My turkey forecast was not looking very good. All I could hope for is a new day.

Saturday, my alarm clock didn’t wake me up at 4am. Pouring rain and hurricane winds sent me back into sleep mode. I waited the entire day to step foot into the woods, but the weather never calmed.

Sunday morning was my last chance to strike a wad-full of ammo into a Wisconsin long-beard. I was more than willing to sit over the alfalfa field once again hoping to cross-paths with the decoy shy bird. The only difference was that this time I was not going to have a decoy. There wasn’t any reason or doubt that a bird would stroll into range this time. The morning routine of gobbling followed as I readied myself for a lovesick tom.

A barrage of brown specks began filtering through the corner of the field. My binoculars proved honest when I caught the glimpse of a dangling beard. The only problem was that he was escorting a handful of needy hens. I cranked up my calling hoping to entice the female’s curiosity. Instead, they took the gobbler back into the woods. My mind raced, temper escalated, and body numbed as I sat in a stupor. My gun was pointed directly in the air with my body half up ready to move, until I saw a flash of brown.

A silent gobbler had snuck behind our setup and was only a mere twenty yards away! In one fluid motion, I picked up my gun, swung the barrel and fired a kill shot. I was absolutely stunned.

The more I turkey hunt, the more I realize the unpredictability of them. This season was not like past seasons I’ve experienced. Birds didn’t want to cooperate and the weather didn’t help. Sometimes the sheer fact of being out in the woods with a shotgun in hand has enough potential to fill your tag in someway, shape or form. As the old saying goes, “You can’t kill one on the couch”.

When Do Bucks Shed Their Antlers?

We ran across Scott Bestul’s April 24th Blog posting at Whitetail 365. They had received a few letters from their blog readers asking when bucks shed their antlers. It seems like the answer to this question varies depending on what part of the country you are located in. According to Bestul a few variables play into how long a buck hangs onto his antlers. “Easy winters and plentiful food result in unstressed bucks that tend to hold antlers longer. But even when the winter is tough, some bucks are just late shedders.” We have seen pictures of bucks still sporting head gear into early April here in the south.

Leave us a comment and let us know when the deer in your area typically shed their antlers. Do you have late shedders in your area? Are any of you getting pictures of bucks already starting to sprout next season’s antlers? If so, make sure to add them to the Moultrie Feeders Photo Gallery.

Hunting Late Season Long Beards

-By Rich Miller

Turkey season is rapidly coming to an end for us here in South Carolina and everyone is wondering what happened to all of the turkeys. Over the past couple of weeks I have had several people calling asking what is wrong with the turkeys this year. I don’t know if anything is wrong with them or not, these old eastern birds have always acted crazy and been hard to figure out. One morning they seem to gobble every breath and the next morning you wouldn’t think there was a turkey in that part of the country.

Another thing is that these birds have been harassed and chased during every daylight hour since the end of March. These turkeys have not had any relief around here; if there is a piece of property that has birds on it, they are being hunted. On the properties that I hunt I try not to put too much pressure on the turkeys. The unfortunate thing is the turkeys don’t just stay on my property and you cannot control how much the people hunt the adjoining property.

This morning about eight o’clock I was next to a river looking off the side of a big bluff. Across the river there was a big gobbler strutting with about five hens on the bank. I gave him about four short yelps to see if I could get him to gobble and they all headed toward the woods like I shot at them. Do you think these birds were call shy? Everyone has been saying that it is over, all the hens are on the nest and the gobblers aren’t interested anymore. Seeing this bird with all those hens told me that all of the hens are not sitting on a nest right now. It also told me that to get close to these birds, a hunter better keep his calls in his pocket.

You can’t hunt the same way at the end of the season as you do at the beginning of it. I do very little calling in the late season; mostly I do some soft purrs and clucks. If I do any yelping, one or two is all I give them and I try to keep them as soft as possible. If I am hunting in hard woods I will scratch in the leaves to add a little realism and it will give the gobbler a little more confidence to come into my setup.

We can change our turkey calling techniques or where we are hunting or the hours we hunt. Some hunters change up their decoys and will not use gobbler or jake decoys. Others will only use hens and some use none at all. These are all good changes and will probably go a long way in helping hunters bag a bird late in the season, but the main ingredient for success this time of year is patience. Without patience the only way we could get an adult gobbler to the truck this time of year would be a lot of luck!

Awaiting the Dawn

-By Brandon Wikman

Morning sunshine colored the prickly tips of the tall white pines as the morning awakes the forest. I sit, clothed in complete camouflage. My entire body matches the ground floor, scraggly bushes and textured bark of the hardwood oak. I become hidden in the wonders of nature, anticipating a surprise attack upon a mature gobbler.

Motionless, eyes scan, ears listen, and my mind is at ease. I now await the unforgettable bark from the vocals of a savvy bird. The gobble is a sound that serenades my mind, steals my patience, and stirs my soul. The tom’s gobble electrifies the monotonous early morning sounds of the woods. As soon as I hear the wake from his morning roost, I creep into stalk mode awaiting his next move.

My latest adventure takes place in the rolling green meadows and hills of Wisconsin. A bluff region comprised of ancient glacier rubble collected from the northern stretches of Canada. It is a land preserved with sheer beauty and grace. The success of setting your sight upon a wise old tom depends on understanding the tricky terrain. Birds are far too familiar with the jogs of timber, stretches of meadow, and sweeping valleys. I couldn’t help but wait to share a morning with a forest full of fluffy feathers.

Speckles of shattered sunlight trickled upon the breathtaking scene that lay before me. Ancient farmhouses stood lonely, sunk into the endless hills. It was only a matter of time until the turkeys would wake. I dug into my turkey-vest full of thingamajigs and slipped-out a mouth call. The mouth call is the most realistic sounding turkey call on the market. The construction of the sweet-talking manipulating device is built with latex, aluminum, and tape. I slipped the call into my mouth and began to spread chattering yelps across the fertile land.

A gobble broke the silence. I rapidly tested his willpower with bittersweet talk and seducing his lovesick mind. My goal was to suck him away from his flock of hens he flaunted throughout the day and into gun range. With enough convincing and proper turkey etiquette, my hope would come true.

I eased back into the tree allowing my feet to prop comfortably against my footrest. I was both steady and at ease. The sound of busting limbs, noisy wing-beats, and swooshing feathers directed me that my opponent has landed. I called softly with a soothing mix of clucks to acknowledge his acrobatic swoop. He replied. The mature gobbler was definitely convinced he was in lust.

My 12-guage pointed toward the forest’s horizon where my quarry pompously stood strutting his magnificence. As he waddled towards me with his head cocked, feathers spread, and tail sailing high, I readied myself. My heart beat like the wings of a hummingbird. It was an enthusiasm high. My muzzle bounced from uneasy nerves like a dangling leaf in the wind.

My safety pin clicked, eyes squinted, and finger reached for the trigger. My cameraman documented each passing moment with his video camera. He and his equipment were concealed in a hunting blind.

As soon as the turkey stretched his neck looking for his blind date, my instincts jumped the gun, literally. I blasted an intense face-wash full of bb’s into the vitals of the gobbler.

Hunting turkey showcases a wealth of new meanings to be a bird hunter. It’s the significant feelings of coaxing a bird into range and persuading Mother Nature to reverse psychology. Turkey hunting teaches lessons that aren’t found in a book or magazine, but rather in the depths of one’s imagination set forth from all the dreaming beforehand. I urge everyone to test their hunting skills in pursuit of the wild turkey.

DayneShuda.com reviews Grow the Hunt

Dayne Shuda is in the process of highlighting several examples of remarkable hunting blog posts at his website DayneShuda.com. Moultrie was honored to be asked to share a few of our top posts with him to review.

Check out what he had to say about each of the "Grow the Hunt" blog posts he reviewed, Food Plots Hollywood Style and Power of Planting.

Here are the installments so far:

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 1

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 2

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 3

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 4

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 5

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 6

10 Examples of Remarkable Hunting Blog Posts: Part 7

Moultrie is just one of several great hunting blogs on the web. Be sure to check out some of the other great hunting blog posts that Shuda has reviewed.

Wily Coyotes

-By Rich Miller

Throughout the year, as I am working shows and talking to people about hunting, I’m hearing more and more people talk about predator hunting. Predator hunting includes fox, bobcats, and coyotes as far as most of us are concerned. It seems every year more people are starting to pick up the hobby of hunting these sly animals. The most popular of these animals is the wily coyote.

Depending on where you go in the country the way people hunt coyote will vary. I have hunted them driving a truck through huge prairies and stopping to shoot them when spotted. This is a pretty sporty way to hunt these dogs. When you’d spot the coyote he’d take off running and after he ran about a hundred yards, stop and turn around to look back at us. This would allow us to get settled and have enough time to make a shot.

A couple of years ago I was in Kansas on a whitetail hunt and had filled my tag early, which is when I got invited on a coyote hunt using dogs. I have two words of advice if you ever get invited on one of these hunts: “proceed cautiously”. This was the wildest hunt I had ever been on, and when I say “wild” I mean these guys were crazy.

They had flat bed pickups with dog boxes built on to them. In those boxes were about six greyhounds. After we spotted a coyote they got as close to them as they could, then slid the truck sideways and released the dogs. Now, the chasing them down part was what was so wild. We were driving through cut soybean fields running 80 mph trying to get as close to the coyote as possible before releasing the dogs. Once these dogs hit the ground they were on the coyote in less than a hundred yards. I am glad I got to hunt like this one time, but now that I have a wife and child at home I doubt I will be going on any more.

I have had a lot of success over the years taking coyotes while out hunting other animals. On the properties that I hunt we have a rule about coyotes if you see them you need to shoot them. I normally see a lot of them during deer season but those dogs have a knack of picking me out in the tree when I am trying to get drawn on them, but I still manage to get an arrow in a couple of them. I haven’t had the opportunity yet this turkey season, but it seemed like every day last year I was having trouble with coyotes messing up a bird I was calling. I have even had them attack my decoys from time to time.

Of all the techniques used, calling them into a hunter in a hidden position seems to be the most popular. Hunters are putting rifles together for the sole purpose of hunting coyotes. Call companies are doing as much business with predator calls as deer, turkey and other game calls. The good thing about coyote hunting is that you can hunt them year round. It really doesn’t matter what technique you want to use to hunt them as long as you do. You might want to think twice about getting into a pickup truck with a load of greyhounds on the back though!

Madison Deer and Turkey Expo

-By Brandon Wikman

Thousands of hardcore beard bustin’, bone collectin’ outdoor fanatics flocked to Madison, Wisconsin last weekend. The Madison Deer and Turkey Expo is the granddaddy of outdoors expos in the Midwest. The show generated interest, great business, and lasting memories for all who participated.

The show lasted for an adventurous and non-stop 3 days. Crowds of eager people walked wide-eyed through the endless lanes of exhibitors. At times during the show, I wish I were one of the visitors, because I absolutely love checking out new products, meeting people, and learning more about the industry through the eyes of a consumer. Instead, I had the pleasure of representing my booth and shaking hands with all the wonderful people who stopped to say hi.

During the show, many exciting events are taking place. Some of the most notable and respected outdoor personalities were enthusiastic to share tips and techniques at seminars. Seminars were topically scattered from food plots, to dog training, and even shed hunting. It presented an appealing mix of hobbies for all outdoor goers and doers!

Several hundreds of fortunate hunters brought their big mounts to the show for professional judges to score. They even had a big-buck contest, which was truly a sight to see. It was just another reason I feel blessed to live in the big buck haven of Wisconsin. The show also had a new product section displayed, where vendors had the opportunity of presenting their most prized product for 2009.

Throughout the entire show, I had a chance to listen to some unforgettable hunting stories, which make some of mine look bleak. It’s always fascinating to see how some people get so animated and involved in telling their stories. Their true passion and love for the outdoors is shown through their emotions. It is a simple reminder of why we all venture into the woods and a field to relish the moments of nature’s blessing.

Sunday I took a moment to stroll through the winding booths, which speckled the Alliant Energy Center. Some of my best friends and partners in the industry attended, making it that much more amazing.

It didn’t take too long to find the deer-crazy dudes from White Knuckle Productions. Todd Pringnitz and the rest of the crew always seem to animate the crowds of people lined-up to grab their hunting DVD’s. This year they introduced a brand new DVD called, “Full Circle” which was absolutely incredible. These boys know how to throw down great footage on a yearly-basis.

The show came to a close at 4pm Sunday. It was another great year of meeting people from across the Midwest and passing on the traditions of what hunting is all about, which is making eternal memories with friends.

Creating a Turkey Fan Mount

We recently ran across this article on the National Wild Turkey Federation’s web site. With the state of the economy, it seems like everyone is looking for a way to save a few bucks. If you are lucky enough to harvest a nice gobbler this season, follow these directions and try your hand at creating a fan mount from the turkey’s tail feathers. It is a great way to save a few bucks and show off the results of a successful hunt for years to come.

Productive Turkey Hunting

-By Rich Miller

Well you guessed it; rain was in the equation again this past week. Not only did it rain again but there was some really bad weather. Strong thunderstorms, high winds, hail, and dreaded tornadoes ripped through the South on Friday afternoon. Though we had some trees down and lost power for a little while I feel like we were fortunate compared to a lot of other areas of the Southeast. Even though Friday night’s weather was so bad, Saturday turned out to be one of the prettiest days that we have had this year. As nice as it was I don’t think I could have found a turkey if I had been on a turkey farm. I guess the tornadoes and thunderstorms blew the turkeys into another county.

Even though I didn’t get on a turkey Saturday it did end up being a productive day. Just because you are in the woods turkey hunting doesn’t mean you can’t do a little scouting for deer season. I have found some of my best places to deer hunt while wandering around in the woods during the spring, chasing lonely gobblers. When scouting this time of year deer signs seem to stand out a lot more than when the leaves are fresh on the ground. You can see deer trails on the side of ridges and where they are entering food plots or other fields. You can also find rub lines that you normally wouldn’t have found during hunting season. If a little luck is on your side you might even pick up a shed antler or two.

After finding a lot of possible stand sites for the upcoming deer season I keep a log with which piece of property they are on and what is the best way to access these locations. I don’t know about you guys, but with deer season at least five months away for most of us if I don’t make notes of these locations I will never be able to remember them by the time deer season rolls around. Of course most years I don’t have enough time to hunt all of the places that I find, but when things start getting slow during deer season and I am not seeing many deer, these notes usually give me some new places to hunt. Another good thing about the log is that I will know exactly where the sites are and I won’t have to be in the woods disturbing the area before I am ready to hunt. These slow days turkey hunting can make for some successful days in the deer woods.

Visiting the North American Shed Hunter's Club Hunting and Sport Expo

-By Brandon Wikman

The North American Shed Hunter’s Club Hunting and Sport Expo featured an array of incredible spectacles that every hardcore hunter could only dream about. I had the opportunity to be there first-hand and experience the frenzy.

Mark and Tom Miller, who are shed hunting maniacs from Wisconsin, began the NASHC. It has evolved into an annual event that boasts big antlers. They travel the country promoting the sport of shed antler hunting, which has ignited. Thousands of hunters and outdoor fanatics bring their most prized shed antlers to be scored and displayed. It is an experience that you have to see to believe. This year they held the show in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, where they featured dock dogs, seminars, exhibitors, and so much more; all in one mega-building!

A special area of the show displayed the largest bucks killed in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The bone-sprucing giants pulled drooling crowds from across the entire Midwest. It was one of the most moving feelings I’ve ever felt.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bob Decker, who killed the infamous “Field & Stream Buck” November 1st 2008. The buck blasted into the new Wisconsin non-typical record book tallying 233 2/8 inches of pure hard horn. It is now Wisconsin’s greatest non-typical class buck ever killed.

Decker has been traveling just as much as I have on the weekends. During tradeshows, Decker has lines of people waiting to hear the unforgettable story of how the hunt unwravled. Many listen with an attentive ear, bulged eyes, and a smile from ear-to-ear. Decker happens to be one of the most humble, modest, and appreciative people I’ve ever met. He hasn’t let the size and glory of his kill outshine his home-style personality.

When people were finished staring at the best collection of Midwest whitetail, they continued walking through the exhibitor area. One of the most talked about booths at the show was Dick’s Whitetail Taxidermy, owned by Dick Gunther. He showcased a magnificent booth full of top-notch quality works of art. His craft is putting the essence of life back into game. Gunther is one of my dearest friends and hunting partners. He is the only taxidermist in the entire state of Wisconsin that I fully trust to mount my deer and turkey mounts. He is from Camp Douglas, which is less than 20 minutes from my home. It makes easy critter transportation turn-around from woods to his shop.

The other talk of the show was a new line of apparel called Rut Junky. Dan Schaeffer is the owner of Rut Junky apparel and is a fellow Wisconsin native. Schaeffer’s line of apparel is trendy, hip, and cool. It takes on an entire new meaning of outdoor addiction. His screen-printed designs are flashy, distressed, and totally one of a kind. It’s nice to see an outdoor wear that caters to a different generation. I picked-up a few for myself and buddies.

Booth’s speckled the showroom floor from corner to corner. My little cousin’s favorite happened to be the shed antler search. It is like an Easter egg hunt, times 10! Throughout the entire day, kid’s rummaged through corn stalks, sifted through hay, and dug into heaping piles of straw in search for bone. My cousin had the time of his life and it is a memory that I will never forget. There’s no better way to get our youth involved into the sport than providing them opportunities to experience what nature has to offer.

I was pleased to see both Mark and Tom Miller throw down another successful yearly event that inspires the love and adoration for shed hunting fanatics. Please take a moment to check out their website at www.ShedAntlers.org.