Quest for the Ultimate Outdoors Vacation

What makes for a great vacation in the outdoors? A lull on the beach, a sweaty hike into the mountains, tasting local food along the drive to your destination? Considering gas prices are so high and the cost of a getaway is never cheap and fulfilling at the same time, I went looking for an unexpected place. I asked myself, what’s an adventure that most folks tend to overlook? Could I find a place where in one week, my friends and I could have a blast without going broke?

Thinking of something off the beaten path, I noticed Arkansas was mentioned on National Geographic’s Adventure Magazine. Mountain View, Arkansas was named one of the 100 best adventure town in the United States.

Mountain View

So I asked myself, what’s so cool in Mountain View? I’ve been to Arkansas just once driving through from Texas to Michigan and all I remember is the greenery we were surrounded by and occasional rivers we passed. Looking into what there is to do in Mountain View, I found out the town is in north Arkansas, at the very south-eastern edge of the Ozarks. Known for Beanfest, a town tradition since 1982, Mountain View offers newly expanded Ozark Highlands Trails, first-rate fishing holes and canoeing waters and I’m a sucker for all three. The 50-mile looping bike path was dubbed “epic” by the International Mountain Bicycling Association.

Ropes Courses and Zip Lines

For some adrenaline-raising action, there are multiple zipline and high ropes courses in the surrounding area. The newest state-of-the-art course is Loco Ropes, where zipliners speed through a thicket of trees, not an open field like the zipline courses you’re used to. That sounds awesome. Good thing for me that it’s on the northern part of the state, all the closer to Michigan.

Ozarks

See a photo of the Ozarks below

The Ozarks themselves would be a scene to explore – a landscape of rolling hills that stretches from lower Missouri to northern Arkansas and parts of eastern Oklahoma. Contained within is the Ozark National Forest and that just sounds enchanting to me. I can already see all the fog-covered treetops I’d like to photograph early in the morning from a high vantage point.

Wild Caving

Conversely, deep beneath the Ozarks where water still flows, guided wild caving tours take place for the physically fit. In the limestone caves there are subterranean lakes, mazes, crystals, cave-dwelling creatures and wondrous stalagmite, stalactite, helictite and flowstone formations.

The Cosmic Cavern in the Ozarks is one cave that will definitely be high on the list of “must-dos” in Arkansas. It’s one of the top 10 show caves in the United States that’s been featured in multiple newspapers nationwide. The discovery of a 2,000 foot section in 1993, now named “Silent Splendor,” was featured on CBS News. I spoke to Angie Austin, the operations manager for the Cosmic Cavern to find out more. She says this is a living cave, constantly wet, dripping and growing. “There are beautiful formations in our cave,” she said. “soda straw formations, two bottomless lakes… We offer an after-hours tour that is called the ‘wild cave tour.’ It’s where you get really dirty; you wear a hardhat, it’s more similar to rock climbing.”

Buffalo National River

Vying for the top spot against the cavern on my “must-do” list is the Buffalo National River, which celebrates its 40th anniversary as the first national river in the United States. I can float there with my family, fish, camp, and view wildlife like elk that have been reintroduced to Arkansas. I can’t wait to enjoy the prevalent serenity that wasn’t always so peaceful. As somewhat of a history buff, I was happy to find out that the riverbank was the site of many skirmishes and guerrilla group activity during the Civil War. That’s definitely my favorite way of learning history, hands-on and on-location.

White River

I’m just crossing my fingers that the purported White River monster has left the much longer stretch of water that is the White River, not terribly far from the Buffalo National River. In the Civil War, the White River was used for transportation where the monster was believed to have overturned a boat. Its last reported sighting was in 1915. But not even a river monster can scare me away from the White River. Imagining kayaking down the 720-mile winding system that transitions between rapids to still water to industrial ports has me packing my dry-bag already.

Fishing

Of course, I’d like to try my luck at Arkansas’s world-class fishing. The best part of it is that it’s possible to go fishing year-round because of the state’s moderate weather. To find out more about the fishing opportunities there, I spoke to Billy Lindsey, the owner of Lindsey’s Resort in Heber Springs, a stone’s throw away from Mountain View. Lindsey said that Arkansas boasts some of the best fishing in the lower 48. The state holds the world record for largest German brown trout at 40 pounds and 4 ounces. At his resort, he runs guided fishing trips along the Greers Ferry Lake where a dam built in the 50s and 60s causes the water temperature to be ideal for trout, and there are plenty of them! Lindsey recalled fishing for four different species of trout: rainbow, cutthroat, brownback, and brook.

Nine species of bass can be found in Arkansas’s 75 counties. Arkansas lays the claim to fame that it has produced three current world-record fish. Who knows, maybe I could catch the fourth? While there’s much more fishing to be had for bass and crappie, there are activities for those who don’t fancy fishing. Lindsey said Greers Ferry Lake itself is a serene spot with beautiful scenery where people can take part in water sports, scuba diving, and just plain relaxation.

With all that and so much more (I didn’t even mention in this article things like off-roading, freewheeling, hiking, and spectacular waterfalls), there’s good reason why I think Arkansas could be my next outdoors adventure. The beauty of it all is that it’s a small state that sits at the cross roads between southern, western and northern culture that has a concentration of outdoors activities within close proximity of each other.

Links

If you’re interested in an adventure to Arkansas yourself, check out some of these helpful links:

• Loco Ropes at Ozark Folk Center State Park: Zip line and ropes course
• 40th Anniversary of the Buffalo National River
• Wild Caving
• The Little Red River, Lindsey’s Resort
• The White River, Gastons Resort
• Also, Arkansas’s tourism board makes a few impressive travel guides for free. I requested the vacation kit, find the list of guides here.

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The Truth About Shed Antler Hunting in Michigan: Laws and Regulations

In late February, I began researching the best places to go shed antler hunting in Michigan and how to acquire the permits (if necessary) to do so. I called up the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in order to get some information. In response, I was told that the DNR could not recommend any locations as the activity is illegal. I wondered how that could be possible, given that I had seen so many hunting shows with segments on shed antler hunting in Michigan. Were they all unwittingly taking part in an illegal activity? I thought that couldn’t be the case and so I inquired further.

After making a few contacts, it turned out that the the language of statute 324.4010 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (P.A. 451) was not clearly written, leading to some misinterpretation of the law. The department will be correcting an ambiguity in the text to make sure everybody at the DNR and across the state is on the same page. And so I’m writing this for you dear reader, so that you are an informed citizen out in the field.

Definition

Shed antler hunting is the scavenging for antlers that have naturally fallen off a deer. This happens naturally as early as February until about March or April, depending upon the animal and altitude of its habitat. Antlers then grow back over the course of the spring, summer and into fall.

The language of the statute

After some time and by following up on my calls and emails, the Law Enforcement Division Chief Gary Hagler called me back with an answer to my question.

He informed me that it is not the DNR’s intent to prohibit shed antler hunting, but that the regulations as they are currently written could unintentionally lead people to believe it is not legal. To be absolutely clear, the State of Michigan currently has no law prohibiting the collection of naturally shed antlers. Furthermore, there is no permit necessary to do so.

Below is the current language of Part 401 (the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act) section 324. As you can see, it may be misleading at first glance. (Click for larger image)

The statute above says it is illegal to possess parts and pieces of an animal. The statute is meant to prohibit the possession of unlawfully acquired animal parts, not antlers that become detached through a natural biological process. If it is evident that the antlers have fallen off naturally, and were not sawed off, for example, then the DNR does not have a problem with that.

In an email, Hagler said “at this time, Part 401 is silent on the issue of collecting shed antlers… by letter of the law the practice is thus deemed to be illegal… the prohibition of the collection of cast antlers was not specifically intended when Section 324.40106 was written… the natural separation of the hardened antler from the pedicel does not represent a law enforcement concern and does not pose a risk to the health or welfare of the resource.”

Hagler said he and his department will be working with the Natural Resources Commission in the coming months to correct the language and make it clear to everyone at the DNR what the intent of the law is on this issue.

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Archery, Turkeys and ATVs

From a tent in Nebraska – First morning of this week-long archery turkey trek began as promising as it gets. In seriously fading light the night before, on the first night I’d ever spent in the Pine Ridge area of northwestern Nebraska, I had taken a leap of faith and decided on a camp site off Deadhorse Road. Partly because I liked the name, and partly because I had watched a group of turkeys go to roost and listened to a much larger group, which they had joined, gobbling and yelping until long after dark.

Other turkeys had gobbled from various directions, but this was the mother ship and needed to be scouted before our group arrived the next day. So I pitched one tent in the pitch black, a half-mile from the turkeys, slept until near dawn, then walked from camp, in the dark, to a listening spot near where the turkeys had crossed the gravel road the night before on their way to the communal roost. There were hundreds of birds across the road, which turned out to be forbidden acres, my dad’s old term for spots you can’t get permission to hunt.

The early morning gobbling was sensational across the opposing hillside, from north to south and back again in waves. After the birds flew down a good-sized group of hens and toms made its way across to my side of the road, strutting gobblers dragging wings loud on the hardpan in the still morning air, maybe 40 birds in all, led by a raft of hens that hopped up onto a grassy slope below and the whole works came on both sides of me, at one point four big toms in full strut so tight together their heads would have presented one shot for a shotgun hunter. They filtered up the hill and out of sight and I got busy selecting blind locations for the next morning.

Two 15-year-old boys, Levi and Josh, both on their first hunt of any kind, were going to attempt to take wild turkeys with a bow. Nothing like starting at the top. But this seemed so perfect, assuming the birds did the same thing the next morning.

Oh, the wild assumptions we make about turkeys and what they might do.

We’ll get to what actually happened in a minute, but there are a lot of other stories we have to squeeze in. Every one deserves much more space than we have here, the whims of archery turkey hunting being what they are. This is being written, by the way, from my sleeping tent at the end of the second leg of this journey, in one of those million dollar camping spots, along the banks of little Gordon Creek in north-central Nebraska, near Valentine.

Where to begin. The phone rang, maybe a month ago, and it was Joe Peterson asking if I would be interested in testing the latest Honda ATVs and Big Red (a two-up multipurpose utility vehicle, or MUV) in a turkey hunting situation. Sounded like the best idea I had heard in a long time, so I was in. Being a bit older and slowing down physically, I am a big advocate for using ATVs to move along trails, then striking off them to hunt on foot. Been doing it for years, in fact, including using them to take my ailing father on some of his best hunts.

Both locations for this trip were chosen because they have turkeys, and because challenging terrain would let us put these machines through worthy paces.

A Quiet Morning

On our first hunt morning, Josh and his father, John Brandon (who was testing the Hondas for Popular Mechanics), were sitting with me in a blind smack in turkey central from the previous morning. We lit them up good on the roost, but the birds chose a different crossing point and there we sat, out of range as they skirted us to the north and west.

Same story for Joe Peterson and Levi, and Joe Miller, a photographer accompanying Brandon, who were in other blinds farther up the hill. We all sat waiting for late crossers, but after several hours it was apparent the birds had avoided our well-laid battle plan. We walked out to our ATVs and drove back to camp for breakfast.

Trail Tests

If put to a lie detector test, the boys would probably have fessed up that they were as interested in driving the ATVs and Big Red as hunting, so they were enthusiastic about what we did next, and continued to do for several days: saddle up and drive the trail network deep into the interior of our spot.

There were several miles of great trails, because they’ve been cut through rugged and scenic country that looks like the Black Hills. Eventually, we discovered that there is no easy walking other than the eastern edge of our area, but it was fun to put the machines through their paces on the west side. Being an ATV hunter, I had something to compare these to. They are new, so you would expect reliable starting and no mechanical problems, and nothing to report there. (In fact, the fuel injected motors fired up beautifully on cold mornings.)

What was impressive to me, in no particular order:

• The stock tires, from Maxxis, are excellent. High, open tread grips the terrain better than other stock tires I have tried in hunting situations.
• These are relatively low-profile, lightweight, and compact machines, but with good ground clearance. We drove over impressive rocks jutting up out of the trail, recently-downed branches, and through deep ruts, without incident.
• These units feature engine braking, from automotive technology, which is really nice when you’re easing down steep inclines. I have not experienced this with other makes.
• Power steering, in these environments, makes your life much easier.
• Overall, the designs seem intelligent and efficient, something particularly noticeable when climbing steep hills. In fact, no matter how impressive the hill, even when going through sand, I never had to put a unit in 4 wheel drive. We drive slowly and as quietly as possible, because we’re hunting, so it’s best if the engine does not strain or rev up.

Close Calls

What archery turkey story would be complete without close calls?

We had plenty, but here’s a few highlights. On the first evening, young Levi was sitting with Joe Peterson and Josh in one of our blinds. A group of birds walked close without announcing their arrival, Josh spotting three toms as they passed within 10 yards. Levi made what Joe reported to be a good hit, but despite lots of blood we did not find that turkey.

Josh, John and I called a huge flock, maybe 40-50 birds, down a steep hill to us, one strutting gobbler breaking from the pack and coming to about 35 yards, but we held off on the shot. During shotgun season, it would have been a different story.

There were others, including two great shooting opportunities for me on the day our big group hit the road for home and before David Draper, an outdoor writer from Nebraska, arrived to join me. That morning, I called a big strutter in to 19 yards (paced off later), and sailed a crossbow bolt over the top of his head and wide.

After that, I took the bow back to camp and tested it on a table, shooting to an archery target. Sure enough, it was way off. So I re-zeroed it and hit the woods in the afternoon. This time, I persuaded a big tom to leave his hens and he came right in, 11 yards in front of me. I made what for all the world seemed like a good hit, but the bird walked off and I could not find that one, either. Both of these shots are on video, which could have been part of the problem. Attempting to run a camera and shoot the bird with a bow might introduce too many degrees of difficulty.

That’s where the opportunities came to a halt, despite putting in good efforts on two more days, alone and with Draper. Turkey karma no doubt had something to do with summoning big winds, which dominated the landscape in both locations for the final days of this trip. If somebody has a sure way of calling up a gobbler during a big prairie blow, I want to hear it. We’re talking winds consistently in the 30s, with gusts up over 50, that you hear coming in a low roar, that keep you awake by shaking and vibrating the tents.

After driving several hours to the east and settling in to the Valentine area campsite, I paid a return visit to the prairie ghosts of Gordon Creek, a group of turkeys I have dueled with in previous episodes. They spend their days out in vast grasslands, then return to creekside woods to roost. They came, just like clockwork, but did it to me again, flying up on the wrong side of the property line, just like they had last time.

Now it’s almost 11 o’clock at night, inside this rattling tent. Tomorrow is the day before Easter, so it needs to be the travel day to put me back in Minnesota for Sunday.

Perhaps the moral of this story is that it’s fun to test gear in the real world, to putt your way along miles of trails, driving up long inclines so you can hunt elevated benches, and try to get turkeys to respond to your calling. When the weather is favorable, it can seem downright simple. There will be other, calmer days, and there will be different endings, and this sport will remain one of hunting’s great challenges.

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Lahontan Valley Bird Dog Championships Recap

When the Lahontan Valley Bird Dog Club invited The Birdmen TV crew out to film their annual bird dog championships in Fallon, Nevada we jumped at the opportunity. This would be a unique chance to film some of the best pointing and flushing dogs in the country doing what they were born to do.

The first day found us behind a beautiful German shorthair named Jasmine; she belongs to 14 year old Clay Davidson who has been around this game his entire life. Jasmine is 10 months old and was competing in the puppy division for the first time. Clay was accompanied by his buddy and future fowler Sean McCormick as his partner-shooter for this event. Webley & Scott had sent us to field test the new youth model 20 gauge over/under shotgun.  As Jasmine forged ahead in the field searching for the recently planted chukar, she caught a scent and swapped ends, working back and forth upwind, finally disclosing the bird’s exact location. As she stood completely motionless with her tail standing straight up, Clay and Sean moved into position. Just as the chukar flushed and with a couple of well placed shots from the youth model Webley & Scott, Jasmine made a perfect retrieve, within one step (still a legal retrieve in this competition). As Clay and Sean high-fived along with big smiles you could tell this was going to be a great event.

As the weekend played out, pointing dogs and flushing dogs filled the playing fields along with field marshals, judges, shooters, bird planters and spectators all excited to see these top-quality dogs at work. This event consisted of competition in a Pointing Singles Division, Pointing Puppy Division, Pointing Doubles Division and a Flushing Doubles Division. In the Doubles competition there are 6 birds planted and the team has 30 minutes to find all 6, the dog then points the bird, the team flushes and shoots hoping to get him on the first shot and the dog brings it to within one step of the shooter. All of this is done as fast as possible with as few shells as possible as this is a timed event and for every second the teams are under the 30 minute deadline and the more shells they return with the higher the score.

The first day found the “A” division (no collars) with very difficult scenting conditions with most teams taking the full 30 minutes to find their birds. Then it happened, as one of the local favorites made the most amazing run of the day, finding all 6 birds in just over 10 minutes and setting themselves up nicely for the championship run next day. Day two progressed rather similarly with most teams struggling and a small few meticulously but quickly working the field with no errors. In this competition the difference between the top three spots are a couple of seconds, so if you miss one shot or your dog makes one mistake, it’s over. As the top three teams emerged at the end of the day it was a tight finish to the competition with the dogs and teams finishing out in the doubles division as follows:

Double Pointing

1st place: Ron Ricks and John Nieubuurt with Ron’s German Shorthair Pointer Ruby
2nd place: Cleo Anthony and Don Lee with Don’s English Pointer, Koda
3rd place: Joe Cervantes and Roc Cole with his English Pointer, Bruske

Singles Pointing

1st place: Dan Hannum with Red, an English Pointer
2nd place: Ron Ricks with Ruby, a German Shorthair
3rd place: Don Lee with Koda, an English Pointer

Doubles Flushing

1st place: Chip and Zach Bunker with Shivers, a Springer Spaniel
2nd place: Chip and Zach Bunker with Thorne, a Springer Spaniel
3rd place: Roc Cole and Joe Cervantes with Roc’s Black Labrador Skeeter

Puppies

1st place: Cleo Anthony with his German Shorthair, Shilo
2nd place: Cleo Anthony with his other German Shorthair, Penny
3rd place: Dan Hannum with his English Pointer, Daisy

Clay Davidson finished 5th in the puppy division with Jasmine.

What a fun event!

Special thanks to:

Lahontan Valley Bird Dog Club

Webley & Scott

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Will the Early Arrival of Spring Produce More Pheasants?

I woke up this morning with one question in my mind: Will the early arrival of spring produce more pheasants?  To help me answer this question, I reached out to Pheasants Forever biologists Aaron Kuehl from Illinois and Jim Wooley from Iowa.  While the guys made it clear there is no simple answer to my question, they did provide a number of reasons for optimism.

Healthy Hens

The recent mild winter was advantageous for a variety of reasons when it comes to setting the stage for a productive nesting season, but at the top of their list was hen health.  Egg laying, nesting, re-nesting and brood-rearing are very taxing on hens.  Consequently, a mild winter allows hens to begin the spring reproduction season in top shape with the ability to produce the maximum number of eggs per clutch (the average clutch size of eggs is 12).  The math is simple; more eggs equal more chances for chicks, which provide better odds of adding more adult birds to the autumn population.

If a hen loses her nest due to cold weather, predation, haying, flooding, or some other disturbance, she will attempt to re-nest up to two more times.  Each subsequent re-nesting attempt leads to a drop in the average number of eggs a hen will lay.  A second effort will average eight eggs in a clutch, while a third re-nesting generally produces four to six eggs.  As a result, the healthier the hens are coming out of the winter, the better the chances for nest success during these re-nesting efforts as well.

Nesting Season

Let’s start with the basics of establishing a hen’s spring calendar:

Average Nest Initiation Date: May 1 (beginning as early as March 15 running through July 15)
Average Incubation Start: May 24 (beginning as early as April 1 running through August 1)
Average Hatch: June 15 (beginning as early as April 15 running through August 15)

So, if a hen begins laying eggs in a nest on May 12^th, then incubation will start on May 24^th if that hen stops egg production after the 12^th egg drops.  Then on June 15^th, after 23 days of incubation without any complications, the chicks will hatch.

Photo period is the top factor influencing when pheasants begin nesting.  In other words, the length of light in the day determines the bird’s nest initiation.  However, according to Wooley, temperature is an influencing factor moderating the hen’s “decision” when to initiate nesting.  Consequently, both Wooley and Kuehl believe the early spring could accelerate the pheasant nesting season by a few days.

“If you think about the reproductive calendar visually as a bell curve with the peak of the hatch traditionally occurring on June 15^th, this early spring will likely shift that bell curve to the left a few days,” explained Kuehl.

Best Case Scenario

If the weather through April, May and June continues to be warm and relatively dry, then hen pheasants will have a high probably of pulling off successful first nesting attempts prior to haying season.

Worst Case Scenario

If hens begin incubating eggs earlier than normal and our spring weather turns cold and wet, then those eggs stand an uphill battle.  Cold and wet spring weather generally leads to multiple re-nesting attempts, smaller broods and less than ideal chick survival.

Exceptions in the South and West

In the western United States and southern Great Plains, a cold spring isn’t a common limiting factor for pheasants.  In fact, most western biologists will point to the need for spring moisture to “green” things up for insect production as the more important factor influencing their pheasant recruitment success.

The Mr. Mom Advantage for Quail

One major difference between pheasants and quail is the role males may play in the reproductive cycle.  In some years, perhaps particularly when the density of quail is low, a hen may lay a clutch of eggs, and then leave her male bobwhite mate in charge of incubation duties for the next 24 days.  Hens may then take up with one or more additional males.  The male also assumes brood rearing responsibility once the eggs hatch (he has to—Mom is down the road with another boyfriend).  Think about that; a hen quail could theoretically produce two or three broods during one nesting season with the assistance of different males. Consequently, quail have an increased ability to rebound populations quickly given quality habitat and optimum weather conditions during nesting season.  In contrast, rooster pheasants play no role in their reproductive cycle other than hen fertilization, so each hen can, at maximum, produce one brood.

Habitat is the Key

Ultimately, we can’t control the weather and it will always be a wild card in the equation.  However, we can control the quantity and quality of habitat on the landscape.  Habitat is the key to providing hens with the places they need to successfully nest and raise broods.

The Moral of the Story

Weather conditions are lining up well to produce a very good spring nesting season for pheasants that will likely begin earlier than normal.  Keep your fingers crossed the warm conditions will extend a couple more months.

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Are You Like Your Bird Dog?

We’ve probably all heard the sayings about owners and their dogs looking alike, but what about shared mannerisms?  I’ll venture our bird dogs mimic their hunting masters in a variety of ways.  Here’s a sample of the similarities and adaptions I believe my shorthair, Trammell, and I share.

Methodically Short and Deliberately Dainty.

I am not the tallest guy in the room, any room, even an 8th grade classroom.  At 5’ 7”, my short legs work harder than most to cover the fields and forests.  Thankfully, my shorthair works slower and more methodical than other pointers I’ve observed.  Amongst my Pheasants Forever co-workers, Trammell is referred to as a “dainty” hunter.  To some guys, those may be fighting words, but I’m pretty sure Tram and I bag more roosters than those China Shop Bulls.  We may not vacuum up big expanses of ground, but I’m relatively certain we don’t run over too many hunkered birds either.

Hunting Marathoners.

While Tram and I may not beat many tag teams to their daily limit, our deliberate pace does allow us to hunt from the day’s sunrise to the day’s closing bell.

Cattail Skirters.

Unless one of us gets “birdy,” we’re both content to work the outside edge of the cattail sloughs and keep our feet dry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away.

Speaking of dry feet, Tram and I both avoid being outside on rainy days.  It’s funny to watch Tram go outside for a potty break in the rain, she tip toes into the yard as if she’s literally melting and zooms back inside the minute her “business” is complete.  Likewise, I’ve been quoted as saying “this isn’t fun for me anymore,” during a rainy hunt.

No Water Wings.

While I love to eat ducks, I’d rather spend my time and energy walking in pursuit of any bird without webbed feet.  Tram has a similar aversion to spending her hunting hours stuck in the mud over plastic fake birds when the real thing is to be had one step in front of the other.

Favorite Color is Orange.

Hunter orange and Detroit Tigers orange compose our wardrobe’s two seasons.

Birdy Buddies.

Probably most important of all is our shared affinity for upland birds; including, pheasants, quail, grouse, woodcock, sharpies, and prairie chickens.

What about you?  What traits do you and your bird dog share?

This story first appeared on http://www.pheasantblog.org

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Are You Like Your Bird Dog?

Are You Like Your Bird Dog?

We’ve probably all heard the sayings about owners and their dogs looking alike, but what about shared mannerisms?  I’ll venture our bird dogs mimic their hunting masters in a variety of ways.  Here’s a sample of the similarities and adaptions I believe my shorthair, Trammell, and I share.

Methodically Short and Deliberately Dainty.

I am not the tallest guy in the room, any room, even an 8th grade classroom.  At 5’ 7”, my short legs work harder than most to cover the fields and forests.  Thankfully, my shorthair works slower and more methodical than other pointers I’ve observed.  Amongst my Pheasants Forever co-workers, Trammell is referred to as a “dainty” hunter.  To some guys, those may be fighting words, but I’m pretty sure Tram and I bag more roosters than those China Shop Bulls.  We may not vacuum up big expanses of ground, but I’m relatively certain we don’t run over too many hunkered birds either.

Hunting Marathoners.

While Tram and I may not beat many tag teams to their daily limit, our deliberate pace does allow us to hunt from the day’s sunrise to the day’s closing bell.

Cattail Skirters.

Unless one of us gets “birdy,” we’re both content to work the outside edge of the cattail sloughs and keep our feet dry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away.

Speaking of dry feet, Tram and I both avoid being outside on rainy days.  It’s funny to watch Tram go outside for a potty break in the rain, she tip toes into the yard as if she’s literally melting and zooms back inside the minute her “business” is complete.  Likewise, I’ve been quoted as saying “this isn’t fun for me anymore,” during a rainy hunt.

No Water Wings.

While I love to eat ducks, I’d rather spend my time and energy walking in pursuit of any bird without webbed feet.  Tram has a similar aversion to spending her hunting hours stuck in the mud over plastic fake birds when the real thing is to be had one step in front of the other.

Favorite Color is Orange.

Hunter orange and Detroit Tigers orange compose our wardrobe’s two seasons.

Birdy Buddies.

Probably most important of all is our shared affinity for upland birds; including, pheasants, quail, grouse, woodcock, sharpies, and prairie chickens.

What about you?  What traits do you and your bird dog share?

This story first appeared on http://www.pheasantblog.org

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Better Deer Hunting Through Shed Hunting

As I slid along a small ditch that cut through a thick travel corridor full of cover I couldn’t help but notice all the sign in the area.  The deer runs were sunk into the earth from years of heavy use and several trees, including a few pretty good sized ones, showed scars from buck rubs past and present.  It was obvious that this is a major travel corridor and the thick cover that surrounds the creek probably offers good protection and encourages daytime movement.  At the south end of the ditch is a large bedding area that I know deer bed in because I bumped them out on my way in.  I can easily envision deer coming out of that bedding area and funneling through this corridor.

A large maple on the southeast corner of an intersection where two heavily used runs come together would be a great set up for a west or northwest wind.  Access through the open woods east of the tree should make for a quick and quiet entry through an area where deer aren’t likely to be hanging out.  It’s a spot that would surely provide great hunting but it’s also a spot that I would never, ever, hunt.

Why would I never hunt a slam dunk spot such as this?  Because it’s within a local college’s nature center, is located right in the heart of the concrete jungle and is 100% closed to hunting.  So why am I in this area trying to figure out deer patterns and worrying about travel corridors, bedding areas and feeding areas?  Because it is an area that I recently added to my list of shed hunting spots around home.

There are many reasons that I enjoy Shed Hunting.  I think the obvious reasons revolve around the opportunity to get outside at a time of year when we tend to spend a lot of time inside.  Getting out of the house a bit during the winter and getting some fresh air is always a great feeling.  Also the thought that I could be just moments away from finding the antler of a big mature buck makes it exciting and gives me good motivation to keep looking.  It’s as close to deer hunting as I can get this time of year and helps me to scratch the itch a bit and bridge the gap between the old season and the upcoming new season.

One of the less obvious reasons that I enjoy shed hunting is that it is really a great way to keep your scouting skills sharp and often helps to improve your knowledge base as well.  As a deer hunter there are certain types of deer sign that you look for while scouting as well as certain types of terrain or land features that you try to key in on.  Shed hunting offers you an opportunity to get out and search for that sign and habitat just as you would while scouting.  As a matter of fact, shed hunting in areas that you hunt in the fall is a great way to do some pretty aggressive scouting without risking messing up your hunting areas by pressuring them later in the year.

When you are shed hunting you are effectively looking for a needle in a pretty big haystack.  Since the odds aren’t in your favor to start with you definitely want to focus as much as possible on areas that deer are actually using with regularity and not waste your time looking through deer-less areas.

Habitat and terrain features such as bedding areas, feeding areas, funnels or pinch’s between those bedding and feeding areas, south facing slopes and well used fence jumps are a few of the spots that I like to look for while shed hunting.

If you are a deer hunter you should look at that list and realize that most of those features are things that you will also be scouting for when trying to decide where to hang your tree stand or set up your ground blind.

Since the vast majority of my shed hunting is done in areas that I will never be able to hunt in they tend to be areas that I haven’t really scouted in the past.  In the past few years, as I have expanded my shed hunting efforts, I have found myself walking into new woodlots blind quite a bit.  Going in blind, without any knowledge of the area other than what I’m able to gain from aerial maps, can be fun and exciting but is also challenging.  Shed hunting is going to involve a lot of walking regardless of how well you know the area and I really don’t want to add any extra miles by spending time in areas where I have a very low likelihood of finding any sheds.

Using the aerial maps I can usually target a few areas to start my investigating at.  Once I get into that area I try to find a habitat or terrain feature that will influence the way deer use the area.  Once you find that influencing factor you can usually tell pretty quickly if your thoughts are on the mark or not.  This time of year the undergrowth in the woods is all laid down and runs and/or tracks that may have been hard to locate in the summer or fall are now quite visible.  If my theory is right, and the habitat or terrain that I have located is working as I suspect, it is usually pretty easy to find tracks and/or a run that confirms my thoughts.

Once I find a well used run I will start following it and the search is on at that point.  Most of those heavily used runs are going to lead straight to bedding area’s or feeding areas and usually will feed you onto several other runs and good area’s.  Just as with scouting for stand locations you want to go slowly and take note of all the details around you.  While you are shed hunting your focus will be more on the ground than it may be while scouting for stand sites but the principles are the same.  Find a good area of deer activity and begin breaking it down.

While it is true that deer patterns change somewhat during the winter compared to the fall the fact is that the techniques and eye for detail that I use while shed hunting in the winter/spring is going improve my scouting ability and help me set better stand positions in the fall.

Hopefully, if I’m really lucky, I may even manage to stumble my way across a nice shed while I’m out there too.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Better Deer Hunting Through Shed Hunting

Better Deer Hunting Through Shed Hunting

As I slid along a small ditch that cut through a thick travel corridor full of cover I couldn’t help but notice all the sign in the area.  The deer runs were sunk into the earth from years of heavy use and several trees, including a few pretty good sized ones, showed scars from buck rubs past and present.  It was obvious that this is a major travel corridor and the thick cover that surrounds the creek probably offers good protection and encourages daytime movement.  At the south end of the ditch is a large bedding area that I know deer bed in because I bumped them out on my way in.  I can easily envision deer coming out of that bedding area and funneling through this corridor.

A large maple on the southeast corner of an intersection where two heavily used runs come together would be a great set up for a west or northwest wind.  Access through the open woods east of the tree should make for a quick and quiet entry through an area where deer aren’t likely to be hanging out.  It’s a spot that would surely provide great hunting but it’s also a spot that I would never, ever, hunt.

Why would I never hunt a slam dunk spot such as this?  Because it’s within a local college’s nature center, is located right in the heart of the concrete jungle and is 100% closed to hunting.  So why am I in this area trying to figure out deer patterns and worrying about travel corridors, bedding areas and feeding areas?  Because it is an area that I recently added to my list of shed hunting spots around home.

There are many reasons that I enjoy Shed Hunting.  I think the obvious reasons revolve around the opportunity to get outside at a time of year when we tend to spend a lot of time inside.  Getting out of the house a bit during the winter and getting some fresh air is always a great feeling.  Also the thought that I could be just moments away from finding the antler of a big mature buck makes it exciting and gives me good motivation to keep looking.  It’s as close to deer hunting as I can get this time of year and helps me to scratch the itch a bit and bridge the gap between the old season and the upcoming new season.

One of the less obvious reasons that I enjoy shed hunting is that it is really a great way to keep your scouting skills sharp and often helps to improve your knowledge base as well.  As a deer hunter there are certain types of deer sign that you look for while scouting as well as certain types of terrain or land features that you try to key in on.  Shed hunting offers you an opportunity to get out and search for that sign and habitat just as you would while scouting.  As a matter of fact, shed hunting in areas that you hunt in the fall is a great way to do some pretty aggressive scouting without risking messing up your hunting areas by pressuring them later in the year.

When you are shed hunting you are effectively looking for a needle in a pretty big haystack.  Since the odds aren’t in your favor to start with you definitely want to focus as much as possible on areas that deer are actually using with regularity and not waste your time looking through deer-less areas.

Habitat and terrain features such as bedding areas, feeding areas, funnels or pinch’s between those bedding and feeding areas, south facing slopes and well used fence jumps are a few of the spots that I like to look for while shed hunting.

If you are a deer hunter you should look at that list and realize that most of those features are things that you will also be scouting for when trying to decide where to hang your tree stand or set up your ground blind.

Since the vast majority of my shed hunting is done in areas that I will never be able to hunt in they tend to be areas that I haven’t really scouted in the past.  In the past few years, as I have expanded my shed hunting efforts, I have found myself walking into new woodlots blind quite a bit.  Going in blind, without any knowledge of the area other than what I’m able to gain from aerial maps, can be fun and exciting but is also challenging.  Shed hunting is going to involve a lot of walking regardless of how well you know the area and I really don’t want to add any extra miles by spending time in areas where I have a very low likelihood of finding any sheds.

Using the aerial maps I can usually target a few areas to start my investigating at.  Once I get into that area I try to find a habitat or terrain feature that will influence the way deer use the area.  Once you find that influencing factor you can usually tell pretty quickly if your thoughts are on the mark or not.  This time of year the undergrowth in the woods is all laid down and runs and/or tracks that may have been hard to locate in the summer or fall are now quite visible.  If my theory is right, and the habitat or terrain that I have located is working as I suspect, it is usually pretty easy to find tracks and/or a run that confirms my thoughts.

Once I find a well used run I will start following it and the search is on at that point.  Most of those heavily used runs are going to lead straight to bedding area’s or feeding areas and usually will feed you onto several other runs and good area’s.  Just as with scouting for stand locations you want to go slowly and take note of all the details around you.  While you are shed hunting your focus will be more on the ground than it may be while scouting for stand sites but the principles are the same.  Find a good area of deer activity and begin breaking it down.

While it is true that deer patterns change somewhat during the winter compared to the fall the fact is that the techniques and eye for detail that I use while shed hunting in the winter/spring is going improve my scouting ability and help me set better stand positions in the fall.

Hopefully, if I’m really lucky, I may even manage to stumble my way across a nice shed while I’m out there too.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - Better Deer Hunting Through Shed Hunting

3D Hunting Supply “Tames the Game”

At age sixty-four you might find Doug Tyler laying bricks and cinderblock on a local construction site. Yep, he’s a full-time mason and has been at it for most of his adult life. He doesn’t wear a pocket protector or don a lab coat, but what he has done is spent the last 10 years developing a cover scent based on “White Oak Acorns”. He knew that this type of acorn is one of the greatest food sources for many game animals and that if he could perfect the scent they gave off naturally, hunters would benefit. Doug worked hard to refine the new cover scent over the next four years all the while holding down his full-time masonry job. While field-testing his product on a bow hunt, several does walked in from downwind and lifted their heads to face his position. Doug was nestled high in his tree stand and instead of running off, both does turned and walked directly towards him and eventually passed by without sounding the alarm. Right then he knew his cover scent was ready to go public. Tabbed “3D Hunting Supply” this new cover scent is a hot commodity you won’t want to leave home without.

Darrell, along with his brother Dale, have helped combine forces with their dad to market the 3D name to the masses. After five years of using the product something amazing happened, says Darrell Tyler . “My brother and I began to notice while spraying down with the all natural cover scent mosquitoes and other insects never bothered us. See if any other cover scent on the market does that!” Being curious about that myself I couldn’t resist as I had an up coming TV show to shoot in south Florida. Let me tell you there is nothing like a pesky mosquito bothering you while trying to pull focus.

I am currently producing a new series called Skull Bound TV on the Sportsman Channel and hoped to capture a two part series while on location gator hunting and bow fishing along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The mosquitoes where thicker than gravy and I knew this would be a perfect “in the field test” for 3D’s new product! With one application of the 100% natural acorn scent those pesky critters faded away allowing us to bow fish gators, gar and mudfish. Both Jana and I were hooked! I knew if it worked in the mosquito-infested swamp it would be awesome on a midwest whitetail hunt. Jana Waller, Skull Bound TV’s host, would be hunting whitetails in the famed Brown, Pike and Schuler counties in Illinois!

White Oak Acorn Scent has in intense smell that immediately brings to mind a fresh stack of pancakes at the local waffle house. You almost want to eat it while applying it to your clothes, shoes and hat! Truth is it’s one of the best cover scents on the market and an incredible insect deterrent. Jana was able to take a great buck down wind of her stand in Illinois during the 85 degree October doldrums and I harvested a great 11-point buck while hunting in Wisconsin last fall. Proof is in the pudding, they say, well in this case the proof stacked up some amazing trophies for both Jana and I while filming our new series this past fall.

3D is a family affair. Doug, Darrell and Dale are about to quit their day jobs and pursue the American dream of entrepreneurship. They say the mother of invention is necessity and thanks to Doug’s hard work and dedication, 3D Hunting Supply’s White Oak Acorn Scent is a necessity you’ll want the next time you head out to pursue that giant whitetail buck, hog or bear. The list is long and the possibilities endless when the game you’re hunting can’t smell you.

Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine - 3D Hunting Supply “Tames the Game”

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