Grow the Hunt

Wisconsin Firearm Season Recap

By Brandon Wikman

This weekend, many disgusted Wisconsin hunters puts their rifles back in the case, safe, or closet, and are ready to either call it quits or bust out the muzzleloaders for late season prayer. 

The official 9-day, 2010 Deer Gun Season ended this past weekend. The hype of tradition, heritage, and deer camps across the northern state lost another breath of air. For many hunters across Wisconsin, it will be a bleak final month of late season hunting before realizing their tags won’t be used any time soon.

The blaze orange barrage of Wisconsin’s finest deer enthusiasts hoped to witness a better firearm season than last year’s gong show. The state’s firearm season deer kill was down nearly 30 percent in 2009 as mass numbers of deer were killed thanks to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The WDNR licensed and issued stacks of freebie doe permits. Many hunters took that opportunity to eradicate every fur-bearing critter that roamed the Dairy State. This was a shocking outcome and conclusion for many hunting families.

In some parts of Wisconsin, hunters had to shoot a doe before legally killing a buck. This was called, “Earn-a-Buck.” The entire concept of the WDNR was to exterminate mass numbers of deer that apparently suffered from the Chronic Wasting Disease scandal. At the end of the day, there was no real winner.

This year’s opening weekend firearm season kill was up a smidge at 6%. That ultimately means the average deer kill was still down around 24%. Many hunters have called it quits after seeing more wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions in their woods than whitetail deer!

As for myself, firearm season lacked just about everything… for not only me, but also my family. Opening weekend for me was spent overlooking a large field in the middle of the woods. This was a perfect hot spot for food, travel intersections, and putting my tag on a deer. I sat the spot for two long days and saw three does and one yearling buck. However, I did spot a few coyotes.

As for my family, it wasn’t good. Our farm in central Wisconsin used to be a deer mecca. Farmland mixed with woodlots made for an ideal hunting location. Although, after the last few years of the WDNR eradicating our deer herd, my family saw four does.

It seems that there are several instances of real-life problems that have hit the state of Wisconsin. Our deer herd is not what it used to be and quite frankly, I don’t know if we’ll ever have it back. The days of seeing piles of deer across the Dairy State for many farm families are now only fond memories.

Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest - Week 4 Winner

Congratulations to Rob Gillaspie from Boaz, AL, for having his photo chosen as the Week 4 winner in the Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest!

We had over 100 entries for the fourth week! Keep of the good work! The contest runs until November 30, so don't forget to submit your best buck images from your Game Spy camera to be considered for the Grand Prize!

The "Old Split G2" Falls in Kansas

By Rich Miller

It has been a week since I got back from Kansas and I think I am still in shock over the size of the buck that I was lucky enough to kill out there. It’s a good thing you can’t wear a set of antlers out by showing them around if so I would be in bad shape as much as I have hauled them around!

The day I was to leave Kansas, I was on the phone with a good buddy of mine, Ken Cobb, from Hunting The World TV. He said John Kennedy and another hunter, Joe Lamaster, were in Kansas hunting and filming a show, also. They had been with an outfitter for a week and had gotten one good buck on film falling to John’s arrow, but Joe hadn’t had much luck. Ken asked if they could come up and hunt with us a couple of days and hopefully they could fill their other tag. I told him I had to get back home and wouldn’t be there, but Mick said to come on and hunt for a few days. 

I left Mick’s on Saturday morning about 4:00am to head home and they arrived around lunchtime and started getting some camera stands put up on some of the places where we already had stands in place. The first afternoon of their hunt they got to see what the area offered because Mick finally got to put his tag on a great buck. The guys were not having much luck the first few days they were there, so they moved to the area where the split G2 buck (that I had hunted the last two years with no luck) was roaming.

They went in Monday afternoon and hung a stand and never saw a deer that evening. I think they were probably starting to wonder if we even had any deer around. Tuesday morning everything changed about 8:30 that morning when John looked up and spotted a buck coming toward out of a pasture to the east. The sun was in his face and Joe couldn’t see the deer. John gave him play-by-play on where and what the deer was doing until he jumped the fence and Joe could see him. When the deer steeped into the shooting lane, he grunted to stop him and the made a perfect 30-yard shot. Now, they knew there was a deer in the area that we had been hunting a few years but they weren’t aware of which deer they had killed until a short tracking job as Mick filled them in. They downed the wary old split G2 buck that we had been after for so long. 

The deer was big but he didn’t weigh nearly as much as we thought, but his 156” rack made up for his body weight. Both those guys were thrilled; and to make it even better, that was Joe’s best buck ever. They said the hunt was great as well as the footage that they got. I don’t know for sure but I am think the show will probably air in late summer on the Outdoor Channel on Hunting The World TV. I can’t wait to see it. After all the hours I spent in the stand hunting and never catching a glimpse of him, I will still get to see him die!
 

Opening Day in A Blaze

By Brandon Wikman

The Wisconsin Firearm Season opener may have been a treated delight to some lucky hunters, but many gunslingers across the Dairy State were left wondering if gun season even opened!

Hundreds of thousands of blaze orange outdoor bandits awaited the countdown to Saturday morning. Family, friends and relatives from across the countryside continued their ever so great tradition that has been a staple at deer camps across cheese land for ages. I was just as stoked as the next gun hunter to get into the woods and get a crack at a burly buck!

Saturday morning began strangely slow. I’ve hunted opening day of Wisconsin since I was about 10 old and have never heard the woods so quiet in my life. The fire-cracking booms, bangs, and pops just weren’t there. In years past, the forest sounded like a firestorm of blazing gunshots from the tops of bluffs to the bottoms of rivers… but not this year.

I sat warm and toasty in my blind as the wind whipped across the field top. My eyes scanned a vast standing cornfield that was sure to suck a few deer in throughout the day, or so I hoped. As sunlight speckled through the cloudy morning, only a handful of shots ignited the rolling hill country. I waited my turn.

The morning ensued as my anticipation of cranking back the trigger began to plummet. Hour-by-hour my confidence spiraled into a fiery heap… no deer. I closed my eyes and wondered what exactly was going on in the whitetail world that would put their movement to a sudden halt. There was no pressure by me, the temperatures were extremely brisk, the sky was dull in a blanket of clouds, and there was a storm brewing for Sunday. The variables and recipe just didn’t add up.

My first deer sighting was at 4:30pm. A doe and fawn came into the field for a quick nibble before vanishing into the woods again. Realization fell upon me as night fell. I couldn’t help but attempt to figure out why opening day was so slow.

I came back to camp and was eager to hear about how the others did. Story after story summed up the day. Deer movement was at the minimum and buck sightings were few and far between. I can’t help but ask the deer gods what was going on!

Sadly, Sunday was a spitting image of Saturday. A mix of icy rain drizzled across the entire state and sent many hunters back to camp. Firearm season has just begun, but I hope the season gets better with time. Now that the rut is for the most part over, many bucks are laying low and gaining energy back.

Good luck for the next week as firearm seasons across the country continue!

Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest - Week 3 Winners

This week's entries were the strongest so far! We had such a great selection of images that we weren't able to narrow it down to just one...so we have a tie:

Congratulations to Gary Wieland from Trout Creek, Wisconsin, for having his photo chosen as one of our Week 3 winners in the Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest!

 

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Congratulations to Jace Chancellor from Oklahoma, for having his photo chosen as our other Week 3 winner in the Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest!

 

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We had over 120 entries for the third week! Keep of the good work! The contest runs until November 30, so don't forget to submit your best buck images from your Game Spy camera to be considered for the Grand Prize!

Wisconsin Firearm Season Nears

By Brandon Wikman

Mobs of blaze orange junkies will be decorating the woods of Wisconsin in mere days. The 2011 Wisconsin firearm season will be well underway and I’m more stoked to have a rifle in my hands this year than ever before… for many reasons!

To me, firearm season is an archery hunter’s biggest revenge. As diehard bow hunters have come to realize, it takes several floating variables to come together, lineup, and cluster to successfully put a killing arrow into a deer. The deer must be in your comfortable shooting range, their body position must be ever so perfect to slip an arrow into and so much more. Now that firearm season is tossed into November’s mix, we are lucky enough to get a way with a whole lot more movement, increase our killing range, and ultimately jack the odds of putting a buck on a tailgate. It’s a great thing!

This fall has provided me enlightenment. I realized after hunting 30 days in Wisconsin that there are times, moments and experiences that deter your ability to kill, period. No matter what you do as a hunter, when you’re out of luck, you are seriously out of luck. I’ve been blessed to have several bittersweet moments throughout the past 3 months.
I can count on one hand and remember five different big buck encounters this fall just like it was yesterday. Out of five giant whitetail encounters, I was unable to pull a shot off with my bow! Below are the five instances this fall that I’ve experienced.

Maybe you may have also had this happen to you:

1. 9-point buck scraping directly behind me. No shot.

2. 11-point buck spotting me in a tree at thirty yards. No shot.

3. 10-point buck walks into twenty yards face-to-face. No shot.

4. 10-point buck stands quartering to me at forty-five yards. No shot.

5. 8-point buck stands broadside at eighty yards for ten minutes. No shot.

As you can see, my luck this fall just hasn’t quite bridged success. Each encounter only adds more fuel to my drive for putting a buck on the ground. I will continue to run rapid with the bow in my hands until this weekend. This is the only time when the bow is put back in the case for a few days and the rifle is broken out. Good luck to all as season continues!

A Huge Trophy Buck in Kansas on November 9th

By Rich Miller

I am now headed back through Nashville on my way home from my Kansas bow hunt.  Every year there is always a great debate with they guys I hunt with (and a lot of other guys around the country) about the best dates to head out west to hunt. We try not to hit the wild chasing rut, but to catch all of the pre-rut activity when the bucks are on there feet during daylight hours. You want to get the timing all of that set, and then you want the weather to be perfect, also. That all being said, I have figured it out: if any of you want to know when to plan your hunt for the upcoming year, just ask me when I am going and go the week before or the week after and you should hit it perfectly!

The first morning of the hunt was the best, weather-wise, of the whole trip. The temperature was 34º F and not much wind at all until later in the morning. I saw three does and several little bucks but never the big buck we had on camera. Saturday afternoon and Sunday were about the same; all the does I saw were scared to death and trying to stay hidden and there were a bunch of little bucks running around like crazy. The bad part was, the weather had turned hot and the wind got up and was blowing between 30 and 40 mph. Tuesday morning, the forecast wasn’t going to be any different –  hot and windy was the forecast – but those were the days we had so we had to be in a tree.

The two previous mornings, I didn’t see any deer until later in the morning, and with that being the case, I had planned to sit all day (plus, it was Nov. 9th, and that is my favorite day of the year to be in the woods). When nine o’clock rolled around I had only seen one deer but between nine and ten I rattled in seven more little bucks. Every time I touched my horns together or hit the grunt call, it seemed like a little buck would came running in. At ten o’clock, I rattled for the last time and when I looked to the south of my stand I spotted a giant deer fifty yards from me and getting closer. As he was standing there trying to figure out where the fight was, I grunted at him and he twitched his tail, dropped his head and headed in my direction. The wind was in my favor, and he was going to have to offer me a good shot to get down wind of me. As he came around behind my stand, he gave me a slightly quartering away 24-yard shot. I settled my pin and released my arrow, but when the arrow struck him slightly back of where I had aimed, I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was nerves, the wind, or just plain old buck fever but I hit him about five inches back. When the deer ran off, I could see the signs of a good hit and that did make me feel a little better. I slipped out of the stand as quietly as possible and headed back to my truck to get some help.

After a couple of hours, we were back and picked up the blood trail. It was as good of a trail as a hunter would have wanted to find. After an easy one hundred yards of tracking, the deer lay down twice and when he got up from there we couldn’t find anything after that. We looked the rest of the afternoon and never found anything else. After a sleepless night, I went back to the same stand the next morning to listen for coyotes and crows to see if they would help me find him. There was a large CRP field to the north the way the deer was headed and I thought that was where he would be.

When the crows left their roost that morning I noticed that they stayed in a pasture to the north and east of me all morning. Also, I saw two coyotes that morning that went toward the same pasture. At ten o’clock, I climbed down and drove around to the top of that pasture and watch for the crows and see where they were. After seeing a few flying around the same area, I decided to walk down there and check it out. About halfway to them, I jumped a coyote and then I spotted about five more crows on the ground. After a few more steps, I spotted the side of a rack sticking up. I swear I ran the fifty yards so fast to that deer that NFL scouts would have been after me if they had seen me! The bad part was we were within a hundred yards of the sucker the day before, but there was a little pond there where he was laying and we just didn’t see him. The coyotes and crows had destroyed him already in just one night, but I guess I was lucky to find him either way. 

Most deer get smaller after you shoot them, but this buck was bigger than I originally thought he was. I am sure he is my biggest buck to date and he is the third nice buck I have killed on Nov. 9th. So any of you guys wanting to plan a trip next year you can be assured I will be there the week of the 9th!

Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest - Week 2 Winner

Congratulations to Trevor from Fort Riley, KS, for having his photo chosen as the Week 2 winner in the Moultrie Monster Buck Photo Gallery Contest!

We had over 100 entries for the second week! Keep of the good work! The contest runs until November 30, so don't forget to submit your best buck images from your Game Spy camera to be considered for the Grand Prize!

Moultrie I-45 & I-65 Game Cameras - Buy 1, Get 1 FREE!*

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*Offer applies to Game Spy I-45 Refurb and Game Spy I-65 Refurb models only. All refurbished units are factory reconditioned, guaranteed to be in working order and carry a full one-year warranty. While supplies last. Hurry, offer ends soon!

Using Moultrie Game Spy Cameras to Track Down a Trophy Buck

By Rich Miller

I am in the truck riding through Nashville on my way to Kansas for a week of bow hunting. The odd thing is, the scenery is a lot different this year than in years past. All of the leaves are still on the trees, whereas normally they have all hit the ground by now.  I left the house at 4:00 am this morning and avoided the traffic in Atlanta, but had one little slowdown when we were coming into Nashville. Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be as smooth as the first leg, although I expect Kansas City to be pretty rough by the time we get there. 

In the last week all of the reports out of Illinois and Kansas from some of the guys I know that have been hunting has gotten better. I have gotten several pictures of some good bucks in the last two days and reports that the bucks are starting to cruise around pretty well. By the sound of things, we might hit it right this year and not hear the “ you should have been here last week” saying that we always seem to hear.

I did get a little more good news last week from my buddy, Mick, when he sent me a Moultrie Game Spy photo. Now, since we put the feeder and camera up in August, we have had a lot of deer activity on the camera but no big bucks so far. Usually, every year the really nice bucks start showing up around the middle of October. This fall has been just like the rest of the year and it seems like everything is running behind. 

Last Saturday afternoon, Mick called and said we had a good one on the camera and started explaining to me what the deer looked like. As he was describing the deer, it hit me that this was a deer that I had hunted really hard last year when I was in Kansas and never got a glimpse of the twelve days that I hunted there. When he got home, he e-mailed me the picture and confirmed what I was thinking. To make things better, I had saved one of the hundreds of pictures that we had of him the previous year and he is standing in the same position as the only picture we got of him this year. In the area I hunt, we get a lot of different deer on camera every year but to the best of my knowledge we have never gotten the same buck two years in a row. The split G2’s give it away that it’s him, but man has he packed on the mass from the year before! Not just the antler mass but tine length and body weight, also. 

As I said earlier, last year I had a ton of pictures of this bad boy and never got a shot at him. He was there almost every day. This year he showed himself one time last week but Mick hasn’t checked the camera since then to see if he has came back again. I will definitely check the camera when I get down out of that stand in the morning unless I get an up-close look at him before that!