I’ve landed at my desk again after two frustrating-filled weeks in Nebraska and Kansas. The plan was to get two more shows for Extreme Pursuits to add into the 2011 lineup, but I only was able to accomplish 50 percent of my goal.
Hunting for mature bucks was as difficult as listening to congressional members explain to me why we have to spend more money to lower the deficit.
The Nebraska property I had permission to hunt was loaded with deer. In fact it was nothing to see 30 or more deer a day, but the mature bucks were either hiding in the briar patch or simply nonexistent.
The hunting strategy was to dig deep into bedding cover and hope a buck would pass by us on the way to food. The mornings were the best, but I paid for it by getting into my stand an hour before shooting light to avoid being detected. It was bitter cold and my Heater Body Suit paid for itself and then some. Day after day I stuck to my guns with lots of sightings, but no big bucks.
Five minutes before the end of shooting light on day five a “shooter” buck bounded from the brush. He paused for a second to look at my stand and then decided to vamoose. I barked like a coyote to stop him and lit the fire as he prepared to flee. He only made 70 yards before tipping over. My TC Triumph teamed with a Hornady bullet and Hodgden powder did the trick.
Now on to Kansas for a late-season archery hunt. I’ll make this short. The bucks were savvy and despite my best efforts, foiled my every attempt.
Nocturnal bucks were the name of the game and without a blizzard to push them into daylight feeding I was beaten.
Even so, I had a great fall and put together a super lineup of shows for the 2011 Extreme Pursuits series on the Pursuit channel. Look for the new shows beginning in the summer of 2011.
Thanks for showing up. Don't you think you were cutting the deadline for my hunt a little tight?
We’re in the heart of late-season hunts and I’m in the middle of two hunts. I’m hunting the late-season Nebraska muzzleloader season and then moving to Kansas to wrap up some bowhunting. Here are my plans.
First, I’m hunting food. Tired bucks will be hitting any food plots, agricultural crops and mast crops available. I’ll be set up nearby to take advantage of any buck showings.
Second, I’ll be hunting early and late. Bucks have been hunted for months now and are paranoid at best. They’ll only show early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Be there well before legal light and stay until the last minute. If deer arrive and stay late, sit it out until they leave so you don’t spook them from a good spot.
Finally, I’m dressing warm. I’m using my best Under Armour Coldgear along with plenty of handwarmers and my Heater Body Suit . I’m too old to be uncomfortable so even though I may look like the Michelin man, I’m the one who is laughing. It’s because I’m warm and comfortable in the harshest of late-season environments.
Good hunting this winter!
Who's laughing now? I'm warmer than a kitten in a wool sock!
Believe it or not, most of the hunting I do is business related so sometimes I have to make decisions based on business and expenses. For instance, when I hunted on my own I routinely went home with unfilled tags. I was perfectly happy to hunt for the biggest buck and go home empty handed if fate wasn’t on my side.
When hunting for TV I sometimes go home without, but it’s because the deer were smarter than me, not because I opted to pass. I was really torn on my last hunt right before Thanksgiving. Outfitter Dave Tatum who runs TNT Outfitters had spotted a giant of a buck with an estimated spread of two feet.
The first morning of hunting Dave confirmed its existence and we came close to putting the giant down. In the end all I was offered was a running shot and I held off hoping for a better opportunity. Three days later it never happened so instead of holding out and keeping hunting without my cameraman who had to leave to make it home for Thanksgiving, I made a business decision.
We’d been seeing another reliable whitetail at another location every night. The buck was on a pattern and a player who didn’t mind being seen. Even though I had time to hold out for the giant, I opted to make TV on a tight schedule. We slipped in late in the afternoon, still-hunted into heavy bedding cover and waited for Mr. Reliable to show.
Right before sunset he started chasing does with several of his counterparts and moments later we had a TV show. Sure I’m bummed that I didn’t get the big one, but I still felt proud of patterning this buck and slipping into his bedroom to bring you another great episode of Extreme Pursuits.
Another show in the can and I get to have Thanksgiving at home. It doesn't get much better than that.
I love big antlers and if you ever visit my house you’ll immediately see my antler fascination. Still, during hunting season you can’t always find the buck with the biggest antlers. If I can’t find a giant (and I’m often in that circumstance) I try and hunt for mature deer.
That was the case while hunting a favorite ranch of mine in South Dakota. I knew there was always the chance of spotting a monster buck, but for the past several years my friends and I had passed on a mature 3×4 buck with a nice frame. I decided if I couldn’t find a giant, I’d put the chase on Papa whitetail.
Papa turned out to be a worthy quarry. Even though he was a player and captured often on trail camera, he wasn’t a pushover. In fact, while scouting the ranch earlier I only caught a glimpse of him once and at long range.
When I had my rifle in hand I decided the best plan was to stay in his zip code and hope sooner than later we’d come face to face. I stuck to that plan, but as the hunt was winding down I felt I may have put too much faith in my strategy.
Finally, in the last hours of the hunt I caught a glimpse of the old guy sneaking in some willows while pursuing does. I pointed his location to my cameraman Lonnie Garland and prepared for some fast shooting. My Nikon spotting scope confirmed it was Papa buck and I steadied my TC Pro Hunter on my Harris Bipod.
Lonnie gave me the nod to take the shot and I took a second to place the crosshairs for the 286-yard shot.
The shot was true and a few minutes later I was standing over a buck with an estimated age of 6 ½ years or older. It made for a great show to target one buck and successfully complete the goal.
Sorry old timer, it’s time for retirement.
It’s hard to imagine how crazy November can be when you’re trying to get as many hunts filmed as possible in the narrow window of the rut. This year was one of the craziest ever and oftentimes we only had three or four days to film an entire episode for Extreme Pursuits.
One of the craziest hunts took place immediately after taking the sunflower buck. That evening cameraman Lonnie Garland and I hatched a plan to leave in the dark the next morning, travel to a nearby Indian reservation and try to complete a hunt in less than 1 ½ days.
I called outfitter Lyle Anderson of Double A Outfitters and he pointed me in the right direction to get the job done fast on tribal lands. To make the show reality based I began the show with the fact I had less than two days to get the hunt done.
Then, I did what I do on every hunt. I looked for the most out-of-the-way areas and focused on them. I could tell there had been a lot of hunting pressure from talking with locals and from the tire tracks at access points. Instead of wasting time in zones easily accessed by others, I hiked around to a roadless area to access a super, thick section of riparian zone.
In the process of sunk into a muddy creek up to my crotch and barely was able to free myself. It was worth it. Two hours into the stalk and I rattled in a mature buck in the dense jungle using my HS rattle bag and True Talker grunt tube. We had a stare down for nearly 10 minutes and finally the buck turned to give me a less than perfect shot in the tall vegetation. I guessed on the buck’s vitals and rammed the Hornady bullet through the brush.
The highway of blood told a great tale and sure enough a big-bodied buck lay at the end of the trail. It was an enjoyable sunset of gutting and dragging. We wrapped filming the next morning and headed off to another whitetail adventure.
My pants are mud-soaked, I’m freezing from the waist down, my gun is muddy, but hey, I got my buck and in record time!
I’m still hunting, but as I look back over the bulk of the season one thing that I always enjoy is getting together with good friends, chasing deer and making memories. Back in November I teamed up with North American Hunting Club executive director Bill Miller and freelance video photographer Ernie Lanthier for a whitetail hunt. We were guests of Pat West and Fred Lamphere at Dakota Ranch Outfitters.
It’s always great to hunt with Bill. Not only does his relaxed candor and attitude rub off on you creating an enjoyable atmosphere, but I always enjoy the updates on the club from an inside perspective.
As for Ernie, him and I have spent enough time chasing critters together that it’s as if he reads my mind on my next move and prepares to film whatever is about to occur. That’s exactly what happened on our hunt.
While sneaking into bedding cover a hot doe with a buck in tow surprised us. Bill spotted them first and prepared for the shot. Ernie was rolling in seconds, but for some reason I found my vision obscured by a giant cottonwood.
Bill rolled into action and with a nod from Ernie finished the hunt. As we walked up on the buck we all were happy. Bill had bagged a nice buck, Ernie captured the entire adventure on video and I had a front-row seat, but with a somewhat blocked view.
Nevertheless we all shared a great hunt, some camp laughs and added another episode to the North American TV lineup for 2011.
Yep, he's a shooter all right, now that the cottonwood isn't blocking my view.
I landed at home in time for Thanksgiving and I had lots to be thankful for; mainly just being home. I’ve been on the road since late October and a month away from the ones you love and your own bed definitely makes for a great homecoming. I’m still hugging my family!
This return to home is going to be brief since I’m still trying to gather shows for Extreme Pursuits and help the crew at North American Hunter TV. Hopefully I can put another deer or two on the ground for more exciting adventures before Santa fills his sleigh.
I apologize for being sluggish on posting blogs and replying to comments. When I’m on the road I generally hunt all day and that day starts anytime from 4 a.m. and ends around 9 p.m. There’s not much time for internet or Facebook time, not to mention wireless connections are often nonexistent.
Here are a few answers from past NAH blog comments. Thanks for reading and for the feedback!
Regarding the weight and score on my sunflower buck; I didn’t have a scale and haven’t put a tape to him yet. I estimate his live weight at 250 pounds and his score just shy of 140 points.
Regarding all the invitations to hunt Eastern public lands; we’ll see. I’m going to be putting my 2011 hunting schedule together in early 2011 so if you have ideas where I might have a good chance for success (need it when you’re spending $$$$ on production) drop me a note. As for this year, most of my hunts were on public land or DIY, but I did hook up with some of my good friends in the outfitting industry. Most are old friends and wouldn’t trade those hunts, and memories for all the tea in China.
Regarding the internal performance of the GMX bullet; I shot seven big animals with my TC Pro Hunter in .300 Winchester magnum caliber. I used the 150-grain GMX Hornady bullet for all including elk to pronghorn. All were one-shot kills and none walked further than 40 yards before tipping over. All were pass-throughs with massive destruction internally. What more can I say?
Regarding whether you should shoot an animal when it’s drinking; I say why not. Most of my archery pronghorns were shot while guzzling. They are distracted and the noise of slurping water covers your archery shot, but likely not the crack of your rifle.
Happy belated Thanksgiving!
That's enough of that. Get busy putting up the outside Christmas decorations!
Here’s another update from the road. I just wrapped an adrenaline week of bowhunting whitetails in central South Dakota’s grain country. Instead of hunting big blocks of timber I opted to hunt standing sunflowers and believe me, it was truly flower power!
My good friend Cody Warne operates Warne Ranches for pheasant and whitetail hunts. His country is open, but the wetlands, food plots and the occasional reservoir create enough cover for the plentiful game. One reservoir had a ring of cottonwoods around it and standing sunflowers surrounded it. The whitetails loved it.
I set up two different stands to cover varying movement and different winds, but almost every deer that entered the field passed right past the reservoir. To create more interest within bow range I set up my Flambeau Boss Buck and relied heavily on my Hunter’s Specialties deer calls.
A few nights ago rain and snow was pelting me in the face as I watched seven does and fawns feed below. Suddenly they scattered like flies on a carcass being visited by a coyote. The reason was obvious: a buck ran onto the scene.
Instead of hoping for luck I grunted at the buck several times. He heard the message and charged my way. At 20 yards he spotted the decoy standing in the nearby sunflowers and kept his eyes on it as he side passed. I tried to stop him with another grunt, but he was too busy sizing up the decoy and he kept walking. My shot window was about lost so I pulled slightly ahead and let go of the string on my Mathews Z7. My Rage two-blade blew through the buck and he rolled in a ball 44 yards from the stand.
I was supercharged with adrenaline and it was a good thing because it took the extra energy to drag the buck out of the unharvested field.
I have to also thank my good friend Lonnie Garland who filmed the entire event, plus helped me drag the farmland brute out of the field. I’m still on the road so I’ll update you when I get another Internet link.
There are enough spit seeds here for the World Series teams and the entire stadium crowd.
Neither unusually hot temperatures, cactus nor dumb decisions could stop me from tagging my first whitetail of the season. Yes it was hot last week. Yes I had to crawl several hundred yards to make the shot. Yes I made a dumb decision and actually thought too much about this buck.
Despite temperatures at nearly 80 degrees I was able to put an ambush in place to take this great buck last week. The hunt started at daybreak and after glassing several nice bucks this buck popped out of some brush less than 300 yards away. He started to feed and I debated shooting him while watching him through my spotting scope. After some short thought I decided to shoot, but it was too late. He was chasing another buck and the hunt was on.
I followed the buck into another deep draw and spotted him off and on for the next four hours as he chased does and jumped fences. At noon he jumped back onto property I could hunt and after losing his does he bedded in a deep, dark hole to get away from the hot temperatures. I used his afternoon nap to crawl slowly into shooting position and let my Under Armour clothing dry in the hot sun after being soaked from perspiration.
After several hundred yards of crawling I found a small knob and waited. I waited for nearly five hours, but when the buck got up, he almost gave me the slip. I caught him sneaking out a back door and after ranging him with my Nikon rangefinder I dropped the hammer on my TC Pro Hunter. The Hornady GMX 150-grain bullet stopped him within a few steps.
He grossed more than 155 points and I was one happy camper. Nope, the heat nor the cactus couldn’t stop me from shooting this buck, but my own slow decisions almost let this dandy get away.
Geez dude, you need to go on Jenny Craig!
It’s the rut. Get out and get after those whitetails. I am. You already know about calls, decoys and scents, but here’s a hunting location you might overlook. Hunt near water.
During the rut bucks are star athletes and while celebrity athletes guzzle Gatorade, wilderness athletes need water to keep going and going.
If I’m in a water deprived environment I always set my treestand near a seep, spring, reservoir or creek. Bucks will seek these areas out and fill up whenever nearby.
Don’t put aside your whitetail hunt any longer. It’s time to be in the woods!
Hey, you look thirsty. Free ice water here, just like Wall Drug!
I just decoyed in my first buck of the year and what a good feeling it was! I teamed up with my good friend Cody Warne at Warne Ranches. I was hunting a standing sunflower field and situated near a small reservoir in the middle of the field. At dusk a young buck sauntered in and started toward the buck decoy in an aggressive fashion. He fell for the ruse and in seconds he was within 12 yards, and giving me a hard question to answer. Should I shoot or pass?
He was young so I passed, but I felt good about another bigger buck taking the bait later in the hunt. If you’re up for a decoy hunt, here are a few tips I’ve found to be helpful:
First, get a lifelike decoy. Montana Decoys are very lifelike since they are photos, plus they are lightweight. I also like full-body decoys and my favorite is the Flambeau Boss Buck. It looks real and deer fall for it.
Next, spay your decoy down to get rid of scent. Douse it with Scent-A-Way spray from Hunter’s Specialties. Then add some deer scent nearby to fool any downwind arrivals.
Now, set it close. I usually set my decoy up right under my stand to avoid having a wary buck circle too far out. I had several opportunities the other night to shoot the buck from 12 to 20 yards.
Finally, use your deer calls to draw attention to the decoy. I grunted softly to get the buck to look in the direction of the decoy. The buck responded with multiple snort wheezes. It was cool and now I hope to tag a brute in the same manner.
You smell great. Now do your stuff.
This week I’m back in my old stomping grounds of South Dakota archery hunting rutting whitetails. One of my good friends from Wyoming was over here the week prior and had a close encounter with a giant that he figured would come close to the state archery record. I’m wishing for that, but hoping for a chance at a 140-class buck in reality.
Since I’m hunting agricultural ground my strategy isn’t about food, but more on travel routes and water holes to quench the thirst of rutting bucks. I’ll be hunting ground blinds and treestands, plus utilizing a decoy to bring bucks in a bit closer for a sure shot.
I’ll keep you posted from the heartland and I’m hoping the pheasants leave me alone just long enough to arrow a corn-fed buck.
If this is a corn maze I'm lost already.
It’s been a warm fall; almost too warm for most of my hunts. That all changed the other day when I awoke to a real, raging blizzard in Wyoming. The wind had blown for several days and I heard all night long, but when I awoke to prepare for the morning’s hunt it was a winter wonderland outside.
Actually the wonderland wasn’t that wonderful. I was nervous about accessing a back pasture for hunting with drifts beginning to build and the visibility at zero. I was tag teaming with Lonnie Garland my video photographer and producer of Extreme Pursuits.
We discussed the options and said “let’s just do it.” It turned out to be the right choice. Almost from the start we were in mule deer and the snow helped make them stand out against the barren landscape.
We had one close encounter. I crawled up on a bedded buck and had the scope on him, but it was too close and the buck wouldn’t wait for Lonnie to get the tape rolling. That’s how it often goes with filming. Shooting a buck is easy. Getting the action and him on film is an entirely different story.
Oh yes; by the end of the day the snow melted and the sun was shining making for a great afternoon hunt.
Yesterday I needed sunscreen and today I need a scoop shovel to go hunting.
Here’s a quick update from the last minutes of my public land hunt for a muley. On our last morning out I spotted a buck leaving a bottom area near a county road. The buck was on a straight course for me and everything looked like it as going to happen like a fairy tale. Even the does were cooperating.
Then the wicked witch showed up. The buck bedded on a knob that was basically inaccessible. I sat watching the buck for nearly four hours before deciding that if something was going to happen; I’d have to make it happen.
I did what Kayser would do. I started to crawl. Nearly an hour later and several hundred yards later of belly crawling through the sage and cursing at cactus I reached a reasonable rifle range of 250 yards.
As I set up to shoot something spooked the entire group and they all stood including the buck. I didn’t hesitate after nearly six days in the field chasing ghosts. My Nikon reticle was clear and my Hornady GMX bullet was true. I completed a grand slam on public land with a nice pronghorn and a mature muley.
I’m packing right now for a month on the road and I hope to keep you up to date on tactics that are working and some that are not.
Good hunting.
Quit looking for this buck you public-land hunters. He's in my cooler now.
I’m in the midst of a filming project in my Wyoming backyard. To bring my series Extreme Pursuits down to earth we’re filming on public land for pronghorn and deer. Yesterday I wrapped my tag around a plump public land pronghorn early on the hunt.
After scouting for a day and a half and putting the spotting scope on more than 100 pronghorn a lightning fast opportunity played out right in front of me. Several bucks slipped through a saddle next to my position and with some quick maneuvering and a short belly crawl I ended my pronghorn quest with a 287-yard shot.
The buck wasn’t a giant, but definitely a contender on public land, especially when you consider the season has been open for more than a month. I was pleased with the buck and happy to have some more meat in the freezer.
My next target is a mule deer, but the forecast is turning foul and I’ll keep you posted if the rain and mud puts a limit on my hiking abilities.
Sorry guys. I beat you to this one on public land, but you can watch it on Extreme Pursuits!
