Loving Life Today: October 2009

Bowhunting Blog - Check this Out! What an Amazing Whitetail Buck Mount!

Trying to decide what kind of mount you should get with your next trophy, check this mount out at Bowhunting Blog!! Not only is it a really sweet mount, the rack isn't half bad either :)

Bowhunting Blog - Check this Out! What an Amazing Whitetail Buck Mount!

Online scouting and hunting tools

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Well, thank goodness for the internet!! Guess we should all thank Al Gore for creating it :)

Free online hunting tools!! Gotta love them!!

If you're like me, I love to hunt different places in my home state, but also do some hunting out of state. I've got work, family, etc. so time to scout on foot is very limited. So I do alot of pre-scouting using a variety of tools. Using these tools can drastically reduce the areas that you need to scout on foot. You can locate pinch-points, funnels, saddles, foodplots, etc. and then just put the locations on your gps and away you go.

Here are some of the tools that I use:

1) Google Earth - http://earth.google.com
Good aerial photos, and just a cool application to use. Offers maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches. You can use GPS coordinates for searches

2) ACME Mapper 2.0 - http://mapper.acme.com/
Uses Google Maps, but also includes different map types including TOPO and DOQ types.

3) USAPhotomaps - http://jdmcox.com
USAPhotomaps downloads all the data to my pc so I don't need internet. satellite, topo, and gps support. It works flawlessly but, it is a front end for Terra Server and therefor, the satellite pics are not quite as good. I have it on my laptop, so I use it in camp when I don't have internet. This tool was created by an individual so I donated to help his cause, since it's some good software.

4) State Wildlife Maps - Many of the states wildlife agencies have maps of there public ground, so check those out as well. I often use a combination of these tools.
Here are a few states that have online maps available:
Kansas - http://kdwp.state.ks.us/
Arkansas - http://www.agfc.com
Missouri - http://mdc.mo.gov/

If you want to print off some topographical maps of your hunting ground, check out MyTopo.com

Feel free to comment on some tools that you use!! Good luck hope these tools help you!!

Heading to Kansas!!

Male Kansas White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virg...

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Well, I'm heading to Kansas in the morning. I know it's early, but I've got some free time, and since the tags aren't cheap. I figure I better try my hardest and spend as much time as I can up there. I'm just going for a couple days, but hoping to catch some early pre-rut action. It looks like it's going to be some good weather, hopefully I can have some good encounters, and come back with a Kansas giant!! I'll keep ya posted!!

Taking the wife hunting....Lord, give me Patience

Well, after my bear hunting debacle this year, my hunting has been slow!! I took my wife muzzleloading this past saturday. And of course, we get in a little spat before we go. I can tend to think she should know everything about hunting, and I'm not very patient anyway. But I'm working on it, so give me a break. After she got me lined out, we kissed and made up, and heading to the stand. We saw a few does, and she wanted to shoot one, but I had mercy for them, until they snorted at us. I told her to shoot one, but she didn't think I was serious. The way I look at it is if those does want to act stupid, then I'll let the air out of them :) We got some good video of them though. They came into the food plot around 5:30pm and left at dark. They were chowing down on Austrian winter peas mixed with Biologic Green Patch Plus. She didn't get to put anything on the ground, but we still had a great time watching the deer, and spending time together.

Bushnell Trophy Cam = Fast Trigger = Great Game Camera Pics

Here are some game camera pics from my Bushnell Trophy Cam game camera. I'll try and keep posting some pictures as the year goes along. Hopefully, I can post some big buck pictures in the future. The year is a little slow so far. This camera was setup on just a deer trail. No corn or any other attractant. As you can see the camera triggered before the deer even got to full frame. I've used Moultrie game cameras in the past, and while they've been good over feeders, I've never gotten a great trigger speed out of the Moultrie game cameras. But I've usually gotten the$100-$150 range cameras from Moultrie. I do not know how the higher end cameras perform. But so far, I love this new Bushnell Trophy Cam!! These pictures are taken using the 3-megapixel setting. It has a 5-megapixel setting also. Hope you enjoy the pics!!

A must have for easy access to your binoculars and rangefinder

If you're like me having access to your optics is a must. I can't tell you how many times I've been digging around in my backpack while on the stand trying to get my rangefinder or binoculars, before the deer gets out of site. Well, I finally purchased the Crooked Horn Outfitters Bino-System. It's a harness that holds your binoculars and/or rangefinder close to your body, and out of the way if you're bowhunting. I hate binoculars hanging around my neck so these let your shoulders do the supporting. Check them out at Bass Pro Shops.

What binoculars do you guys use? I'm in need of some new hunting binoculars. I've been looking at the Nikon Monarch ATB 10x42 binoculars pretty hard!! Nikon binoculars have a great reputation and great reviews. Hopefully, I'll have me a new pair of Nikon Monarch bincoculars by Christmas! (Hint: Christmas present)

Nikon Monarch? ATB Binoculars - Roof Prism

What to do when mosquitos are eating you alive when deer hunting?

This past week was the start of Arkansas archery season. I was sitting in my stand doing some bear hunting, and swatting at mosquitoes. I got to thinking about a hunt I had a few years back when I really thought I was going to die from all the mosquitoes sucking my blood out. Me and my brother-in-law were trying to drag the deer out of the swamp, but it was just muddy, and thick, and seemed like we just stirred up the mosquitoes worse. So I came up with a better plan, it seemed like a good idea at first...Here's the video

Bears and Big Buck - things are looking GOOD!!

Well, second day was uneventful. Bears had hit the bait at night, but nothing during daylight hours. So on the 3rd day I decided to hunt on the bear stand all day. That morning around 9am I heard something to my left and saw a deer moving behind me. I noticed antlers right away. He was about 60-70 yards away, of course, since I was on the bear stand I wasn't prepared to see any deer, so I didn't have a grunt call or anything. Plus he was heading away from me, and don't think it would have helped. He looked to be around 120" deer, hopefully I can catch up with him later. Saw another smaller buck on the same trail about 30 minutes later. No

bears came into the stand so I decided to get down at 11, and go to camp and get some lunch. I climbed back up into my stand at 1:45 and noticed the barrel had been moved, and two fresh piles of bear crap right in front of my camera. I couldn't believe it. I've sat in the stand for several hours, and took a small break and they come in. I was upset to say the least, so I figured that was going to be it, so I took a nap. I woke up to something running down the hill. I couldn't believe it. Two bears coming in!! My heart started pounding!! Turned the video camera on..grabbed bow. I realized these were two smaller bears probably around 175-200lbs, definitely not the big ones I had on camera, but I decided I'd try and take one. I setting my pin, and shot....right over it's back!! I thought it was just nerves, they didn't spook, so I grabbed another arrow, gathered my composure, released another arrow..WHACK, no that wasn't a whack of hitting the bear I had shot high again perfectly nailing the 55-gallon drum. One of the bear ran one way another the other way..at this point I'm so rattled I don't know that the problem is...I get another arrow, last one might I add, the bear comes in again to try and meet up with the other. So I shot again, and yes you guessed it..right over it AGAIN!! They finally left, so I got down got my arrows and climbed back up. I decided my sights must have been knocked off, so I shot at a spot on the ground, and I was correct. I was over a foot high at 20 yards, so I'm guessing either bumped it on the four wheeler or bumped the sights when pulling it up the tree. Needless to say, I'm still feeling rejected over it...but it was exciting and fun, and that is bowhunting!! Going to shoot my bow right now to see where the problem is!! Here is a couple pics of the bears before I attempted to shoot one of them :)

Arkansas Bow Season Day One

It's finally here!! Arkansas Archery Season started on October 1st. I've spent alot of time this year preparing for trying to kill my first black bear with my bow. I'll post more about in a coming post, but the plan was to hunt for whitetails in the morning then get on the bear stand around noon. Opening morning, I was sitting in one of my favorite tree stands. It's on a point with two good draws running on both sides of it with a clearcut just a 100 yards away. There are alot of acorns dropping in the area, so I thought it'd be a perfect place to be opening morning. I was walking into my stand that morning, and I was about 10 yards from my stand, and I look up and see two BIG red eyes staring at me. It was right at my mineral lick. I just knew it was a BIG bear, and then my mind starting thinking it was a sow with cubs that's why she's not running away, so as I'm trying to think of how fast I'm going to run away, I realized that I had my headlamp on the led red light, so I clicked it to regular white light, and it was a big doe standing there looking at me. It's funny how your mind can make you think some crazy things. I had to laugh at myself for that. The doe ended up walking closer to me, and never spooked just walked by. Later on that morning, I had a another doe come in, and I thought about shooting her but decided I'd pass, and try and get one later. I did find some new rubs, so I'll probably try and get back in there in a week or so. The bear stand that afternoon was uneventful, didn't see anything.

Bowhunting Blog - HUGE North Dakota buck taken by Bow!

It's that time again!! I love this time of year. Nothing like getting your juices flowing than seeing these giants shot!! Congrats to Jon Skalicky for arrowing a buck of a lifetime!!
Bowhunting Blog - HUGE North Dakota buck taken by Bow!

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