Grow the Hunt

Video Camera & MN Bear Hunt

- By Brandon Wikman

 Today marks the very first week of my 2010 fall hunting season. This Friday I leave for northwestern MN to hunt black bear with my bow and arrow. You can rest assured I was absolutely ecstatic; that was until I got a call from my field producer today at 9am.

My field producer, Dick Gunther, spoke words of crushing disaster. The words mumbled out of his hesitant voice sounded like pouring pebbles upon my face. “Camera problem,” he sighed.

As luck does and always will have it, he enlightened me with technical video camera problems. When using video cameras and any mechanical or digital devices, it only takes slight moisture, a little humidity, or a fragile bump to cause havoc. The funny situation is that the HD video camera is only one-month old.

I’m mentally and physically prepared for the hunting trip, yet I find myself in a pickle. Instead of early packing and preparation, now it’s time to get our hands on another video camera. These situations happen more than many people realize. In fact, any time you bring a digital device in the outside elements, whether filming hunts or recreation, things will and do happen. As my friend works on the camera situation, I am arranging the details of the hunt.

There have been a lot of people asking me what type of arrows, broadheads and draw weight my bow is set at for this bear hunt. Everyone in entitled to his or her own theory and opinion, but mine is simple. I use the same exact gear I use for a whitetail hunt. I have a lot of friends who beef-up their broadheads and draw weight to really clobber a bear. Quite frankly, if it works for them, great, but I’ve found that the density of bear skin isn’t radically different than that of a whitetail deer. You can easily strike a pass through on any animal at a mere 35-pounds if you hit them in such a spot where the arrow doesn’t collide with bone.

Over the next few days I will be continuing to shoot my bow and seriously fine-tune it to the point where I can literally pick a spot of hair and nail it. As we all know, confidence is the real key to success. The mental awareness of hunting lies in the primal imagination of “I can.”

With next week’s blog, I’ll hopefully have an incredible story and experience to write about. First things first, resolving the video camera issues!

Bear season opens up in most places within the next week. To all of you bear hunters, good luck and God bless!

Game Spy Photo Gallery Featured Hunter - David N. Smith

Our next photo to be highlighted comes from David N. Smith in Carmel, Maine. This night shot of an impressive whitetail buck was taken on August 22, 2010, with his Moultrie Game Spy Camera. Photos like this get people fired up for a game management program on their property, and documenting the growth with their game camera. We applaud your restraint and your wait for this monster to grow, David!

David says, "I have used your cameras for the past 5 yrs. This buck won the weekly contest in Oct. 2008 for Moultrie. He has made it through another hunting season and Maine winter. This is the same apple tree from the 2008 photo taken. Thanks for great cameras at a great price, Moultrie!"

Keep sending in your photos and checking this blog, because you may be our next  featured hunter! Please include your name, location, which Moultrie camera you're using and a short story with your photo if you want it shared on our Grow the Hunt blog.

We're getting a lot of great submissions, so keep them coming!

Moultrie Easy Fill Tripod Feeder vs. A Hungry Bear

We love to highlight our customers here on the Grow the Hunt blog, and today we're proud to pass along a great story from Tommy Stroud. His experience with his Moultrie Easy Fill Tripod Feeder caught our attention and we thought we'd share this with everyone here. Enjoy!

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Dear Moultrie-  

I just want to thank you for your product. I have used other brands in the past but that is no longer the case. I purchased the Easy Fill Feeder last year and put it up over a month ago. Last week I decided to go check my camera and I will let the attached pictures speak for themselves. Congrats guys, you should be proud of how tough your feeders are. I know I am.  

-Tommy Stroud

 

 
 

Bagging a Whitetail on Opening Day in SC, Thanks to Moultrie

- By Rich Miller

Deer season opened in the low country of South Carolina this past Sunday and a good friend of mine scored on a super South Carolina buck. To make it even better he used one of the new Moultrie Game Spy cameras to get it done! A lot of people don’t want to fight the mosquitoes and gnats this time of year, but for the deer he is seeing I would probably sit through pretty much anything!

This story started about a month ago when Mark went to the store one Wednesday morning and bought three of the D-55IR game cameras. He put the cameras up with some corn in front of them that afternoon to see what might be in the area. Like all of us, he was anxious to find out what kind of pictures he was getting and he made it to Monday afternoon before he checked them. Between the three cameras, he had over 600 pictures. Although a few of them were hogs, most of the pictures were of some great bucks. He immediately called and e-mailied me the pictures and I couldn’t believe it either. They looked more like Midwest bucks instead of South Carolina deer. The good thing was over the next couple of weeks he kept getting more and more pictures of the bucks and they got more consistent. 

They were a lot of different bucks, but they were two of them that stuck out more than the others and caught Mark’s attention. One of them was a typical ten point with kicker points on his G2’s making him a twelve point while the other one was just a monster typical eight point. He was getting pictures of these two bucks every morning, noon and evening. The only problem he was going to have was getting to the stand without them being there. A couple of days before the season opened he separated all of his pictures to get an idea of what he was going to do opening day. After going through all of them and coming up with a plan, he headed into the woods on opening morning at 4:30 a.m. in hopes of beating the deer there. He made it to his stand and once he got there the deer were there, also. It was still an hour and a half before daylight. The deer were gone before he had enough light to shoot his bow and the rest of the morning was uneventful. He checked the camera when he left that morning and got some pictures of the big twelve looking up at him while he was climbing the tree. 

That afternoon he went into the woods around 4:00 p.m. and – you guessed it – the bucks were there again. Luckily, he saw them before they saw him and he just let them finish what they were doing and ease off. He said they looked his way several times like they knew something was there but he guessed they thought he was a hog. He finally made it up the tree and was a little worried that they wouldn’t come back. It was about 45 minutes before dark and he had yet to see a deer, and to make matters worse, there were lightening flashes and loud thunder getting closer by the minute.  With all of the thunder going on he never heard the bucks coming; when he looked down, the big twelve was almost under him. As you can imagine how a buck like that behaves, he acted like something was wrong and started easing off downwind trying to figure out what was going on. That is when he made his mistake that day, though. When he got about twenty yards out he turned broadside and looked back, giving Mark the opportunity he was waiting for – and Mark is deadly when it come to making a shot count. He put the arrow in about as perfect a place as a hunter could want. It was a good thing he did, though, because right after he shot the deer the clouds opened up and washed pretty much any sign he had away. The deer had only gone about sixty yards so there wasn’t much of a tracking job.

Mark called me shortly after he got the deer out and started talking about the hunt. He said that a lot of people would think that since he killed the deer on opening day that it was really easy, but what they didn’t realize was he had been working on this for over a month. He did tell me that even though nothing about taking a buck that size is easy, he would have never known he was there or when he was there without the help of the Moultrie cameras!

Game Spy Photo Gallery Featured Hunter - Jon Thompson

Our next photo to be highlighted comes from Jon Thompson in Ottawa, Kansas. This daytime shot of an awesome whitetail buck was taken on August 6, 2010, with his Moultrie Game Spy Camera. I bet a photo like this will start getting everyone fired up for deer season!

Jon says, "He has 13 main points with 7 kickers down low."

Keep sending in your photos and checking this blog, because you may be our next  featured hunter! Please include your name, location, which Moultrie camera you're using and a short story with your photo if you want it shared on our Grow the Hunt blog.

Preparing Your Kill Zone

- By Brandon Wikman

Many archery enthusiasts are gearing up for the cherished opening whitetail weekend, which is mere weeks away. I am as well!  Last weekend I made it a clear objective to wrap up my hunting checklist. I’ve been finishing last-minute touch-ups near my hunting site; I’ve been on the mower clearing trails, sawing shot-blocking limbs and hanging sets of stands like mad!

Mowing:
I consider mowing a timeless way to ease the mind and get some serious cutting done. Considering that I’ve put off mowing for several weeks, the grassy weeds are as tall as I am. Yesterday I started my tractor, popped in my iPod ear buds and ventured to the woods. 

My family farm has several ATV trails that meander across the agriculture fields and through the forestland into the swamps. It takes a solid day to cut down the weeds that choke the small alleyways of woodland intersections.

I like to mow because it makes getting into my stands and trails much easier, quieter and stealthier. Instead of swimming my way to stands, now I can simply jump out of my truck and ease my way carelessly to my stand without worrying about blowing any game out from senseless noise.

Stands:
I’ve always been a concrete believer that you should have your stands in the woods and attached to a tree a solid month before hunting season arrives. After I finished mowing, I threw a pile of stands onto my ATV and got to work hanging my perches. Hanging stands in the summer is obviously no walk in the park. The combination of sauna-style humidity, scorching heat and a bombardment of mosquitoes make it a miserable time in the forest.

I’ll typically try to hang stands on a weekend when rain is in the forecast. I do this for a number of reasons including lower temperatures and a quicker scent wash as the rain will help eliminate your foul human odors.

Limbs:
I’ve had several friends miss incredible opportunities at giant deer due to their forgetfulness to clear shooting lanes. I’ve been super fortunate to never have that problem because I’ve witnessed too many others in that predicament. All it takes is a simple pole saw and elbow grease to clear a few shooting lanes from your stand. This can be done in a matter of minutes.

Clearing underbrush and limbs away from your stand will not only enhance your shot opportunity, but also provide you a silent entry and exit route. There’s no need to worry about getting an eye poked when walking to your stand in the dark. You will be glad you took a few minutes of your afternoon to do so come deer season.

As season approaches, we must be ready for shooting X-rings, but not forget the little things like a weekend’s work finishing last-minute touch-ups at our hunting sites.

Game Spy Photo Gallery Featured Hunter - Wallace Mullins

Our next photos to be highlighted comes from Wallace Mullins in Cochran, GA. We don't get many photos of gators, and these are truly exceptional. Both photos were taken between August 10-11, 2010, with Moultrie Game Spy Cameras.

Thanks to Wallace for sharing these awesome photos of some magnificent animals!

Keep sending in your photos and checking this blog, because you may be our next  featured hunter! Please include your name, location and a short story with your photo if you want it shared on our Grow the Hunt blog.

Moultrie & Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry

Recently, Moultrie had the privilege to help out a great cause, Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. We would like to take the time to highlight a wonderful charity whose fundamental beliefs are shared by so many hunters and farmers that Moultrie is proud to call our customers.

We would encourage any hunter or farmers interested in helping out to contact Nick Favrot at [email protected].

We'd also like to share a short note from Nick:

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"The expo was awesome. Thank you so much for the shirts and hats. All together, FHFH was able to raise right at $3,000. After the show on Saturday, GameDinner.com and Crossfire FHFH sponsored a Wild Game Dinner at The Crest Center in Asheville, NC. About 100 guests enjoyed a menu prepared by GameDinner.com chef Allen Dye that included venison, turkey, catfish, frog legs and more. Attached is a Crossfire FHFH photo that was taken at the dinner. Once again, thank you so much for your support."

              – Nick

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Riding a Tractor Straight Into Deer Season

- By Rich Miller

With deer season opening this weekend in one part of our state, it is a reality that in another month I will be hanging off the side of a tree with my bow in my hand. With the season getting closer, my dad and I have already started getting all of our food plots ready for planting. We had sprayed all of the plots that we were planning on replanting a couple of weeks ago. Since there was a lot of dead grass, I wanted to get them plowed up before the rain they were calling for this weekend came. Friday afternoon I was at a buddy’s that lives next door and he had been plowing with his monster tractor and plows for the last couple of days. So I asked him if he would come and bust up our food plots and for us and save us a lot of time. Thankfully, he agreed and we got started bright and early Saturday morning. Within an hour, he had all of them busted up for us. He saved me a couple of days plowing by coming over and doing that for us; and I know because last year that’s how long it took me to get it done. 

After he was finished I started putting up a bow stand on one of the clover plots when we decided to go ahead and do some planting. We were redoing a couple of perennial clover plots so we got some fertilizer put down. Then got our tractor with the box tiller on it and plowed it again to get a smoother seed bed for the clover. That box tiller is the way to go, especially after we had the big tractor to break the ground up first! Then we broadcast the clover over the area and used the cultipacker to press it into the ground. I always try to use a cultipacker when I can, because it gives you good seed-to-soil contact and you end up with a lot better germination.  Plus, it just makes your food plots look a lot better. 

We got everything we wanted in the ground and just needed the rain to get it going. All day it looked like the bottom was going to fall out, but we never got a drop. Then, Sunday, we had a good chance of rain and nothing again. I should have known it was too early to plant my clover because I usually wait until after the first of September, but I thought that with all the rain they were calling for it might be a good opportunity to get it in. We ended up not getting any rain over the weekend, but according to the weatherman, we have we have a really good chance every day next week…so keep your fingers crossed. 

Game Spy Photo Gallery Featured Hunter - Johnni Welsh

Our next photo to be highlighted comes from Johnni Welsh in Pomeroy, Ohio. The photo of this "Dandy" buck was captured on August 17, 2009, with a Moultrie Game Spy Camera.

Johnni says, "We have been getting pics of this guy since 2006, and have been watching him grow every year. My son nicknamed him "Dandy", for obvious reasons. Two months later in bow season, he walked under my stand and I got him. He grossed 180 and had 13 points. Thanks to Moultrie we have lots of pics of him and we know what is out there, so we can be more selective in our hunting."

Keep sending in your photos and checking this blog, because you may be our next featured hunter! Please include your name, location and a short story with your photo if you want it shared on our Grow the Hunt blog.