Search
The snow is melting, birds are chirping and the peak of shed hunting season is officially upon us! In my opinion there is no better time to hit the woods in search of fallen bone than these first couple weeks of March. That being said, its also the time of year when we are searching for any piece of info that could give us the edge for finding more sheds and I think I may just have the ticket. Joe Shead, author and creator of the book “Shed Hunting: A Guide to Finding White-tailed Deer Antlers” and the DVD “Go Shed Hunting” was kind enough to send over copies of his book and DVD for me to check out. Boy, am I grateful. These two resources offer a boatload of knowledge and insight into the shed hunting world and I am confident that what I have learned will translate into me finding more sheds than ever before.
The Book
“Shed Hunting” is an easy to read, well paced, info packed book. It begins by discussing the science of antlers, which I found particularly interesting. Did you know that antlers grow faster than cancerous cells?! Antlers are truly an amazing marvel in the animal world. The meat of the reading covers how, where and why your should search certain areas for sheds. It all comes down to finding where sheds are, because no matter how hard you search, you can’t find sheds that aren’t there. I think Joe does a great job explaining why he favors certain areas to find sheds and how he then goes about searching these spots. I particularly enjoyed a section where he gave an example of a piece of land he likes, including a diagram, and then he breaks down in detail how he would pick it apart. This insight has definitely helped me better utilize my time while searching my land. In addition to this core information, the book also covers related topics such as shed hunting dogs, shed hunting organizations and how to shed hunt with buddies.
The DVD
The “Go Shed Hunting” DVD is the perfect companion to the book that Joe has written. This DVD follows Joe throughout an entire season of shed hunting, as he treks across the woods and fields of Wisconsin. Being able to actually see the areas that the sheds were found and how they lay was really helpful and I’m sure it will improve my eye in the woods. Not only did the video show sheds, but also plenty of great scenery and deer. It was an overall enjoyable and educational film, that would definitely be helpful to anyone looking to increase their shed hunting success.
Check out this clip from “Go Shed Hunting” to get a better feel for the DVD.
Final Thoughts
In closing I would say that both the shed hunting book and DVD created by Joe Shead are terrific resources for the up and coming shed hunter. Full of information and enjoyably written and produced, both resources would get a big thumbs up from me. If you had to choose just one, I would definitely say go with the book. But the DVD is certainly a nice companion. So if you’re looking to up the ante when going after sheds this year I would highly recommend checking out either the Joe’s shed hunting book or DVD. I’m confident that it will make you a better bone collector.
For some more great tips that Joe shared with me recently, check out this post:
Shed Hunting Tips from Expert Shed Hunter Joe Shead
To pick up a copy of “Shed Hunting: A Guide to Finding White-tailed Deer Antlers” or the “Go Shed Hunting” DVD follow these links:
Buy “Shed Hunting: A Guide to Finding White-tailed Deer Antlers”
- In: Uncategorized
- Tags: deer sheds, go shed hunting, Go shed hunting dvd, how to find sheds, joe shead shed hunting, shed hunting, shed hunting book, shed hunting dvd, shed hunting resources, shed hunting strategies, shed hunting tips, Shed Hunting: A guide to finding white-tailed deer sheds, whitetail deer sheds
Today I was driving to work and the new song by Kenny Chesney, “Ain’t Back Yet” came on the radio. The song talks about the key moments in his life that took him over the edge and changed his life forever.
“I heard a song ’bout a ramblin’ man
Bought a guitar and I started a band
I got a gig at the local Am Vet
I was gone and I ain’t back yet
Lookin’ back at the moments, black and white
I wouldn’t change a thing that changed my life
For the worse, for the better
Man, I was gone, gone forever”
As I listened to this song I couldn’t but help relating it back to my deer hunting obsession. If this was my song it would be talking about the moment that forever changed my life and made me a deer hunting goner forever.
I was 9 years old and up at our family deer camp in Northern Michigan. One of the guys in camp had dragged a big 8 point buck out of the swamp early on opening day, so I was shocked when my grandpa came back in the cabin that evening saying that he shot a nice buck too! We all got changed, grabbed lanterns and headed out to the area that my grandpa shot his deer. I remember as just a young child the unbelievable excitement and anticipation I had as we began to track that buck. We finally came upon the massive 7 point, as it lay perfectly posed on the other side of our stream. As I saw the ivory white tines shine in the glow of our lantern, I stared in awe at the magnificence of that deer. I wondered to myself if I would ever be able to get a buck like my grandpa had. That night and for the rest of the week at camp, I stood in front of the buck pole gawking at those two giant MI bucks, restlessly waiting for the time to come when I could start chasing whitetails myself.
Little did I know that from that point on I would be hooked and I was gone, gone…forever.
When did you know that you were a goner for deer hunting? Please share your story in the comments section!
First Shed of the Season – It’s a Monster!
9 Mar2010
I am both excited and embarassed to announce that tonight I found my first shed of the 2010 season! So yes, I am excited I finally found a shed, but I think I’m equally embarrassed by how long it took me to find one this year! But what I’ve lacked in quantity, I sure made up in quality tonight, right? I mean look at the mass on this piece of bone! This is what that Michigan Quality Deer Management can do! He is going to be one slob of a Michigan buck next year! Ha ha. I wish. In all honesty, its obviously a baby of a shed, but it does make me optimistic for the next week. Today was the first day that the snow has melted enough for me to see the dirt in areas and it paid off with a shed. I’m hoping that with the continued melting of the snow this week and with some dedication on my part, I will finally be able to find some sheds I can be proud of.
Until then, feel free to marvel at my trophy shed. More to come shortly!
Heartland Bowhunter, in my opinion the most stunning and high quality hunting production on TV, recently announced a contest on their website to choose a new team to join HB in 2010. Avid hunters across the country scurried to put together their video applications with the dream of joining the HB team and filming their hunts for the world to see. Now a winning team has been announced and three brothers are the lucky winners. Matt, Scott and Nick White will be joining the Heartland Bowhunter team in 2010 and they seem to be a great fit. I had the great pleasure of speaking with Matt last week and I can honestly say that I am pumped to see them on the upcoming season of HB. These guys are certainly bowhunters and they honestly can say that they hail from the heartland. Check out my interview with Matt as we discuss their journey as bowhunters, how they came to be on Heartland Bowhunter and much more. If you’re not familiar with Heartland Bowhunter, check out the “Heartland Bowhunter Updates” post to learn more and see some clips too.
***
So Matt, how did you guys get into chasing monster whitetails?
It probably started with Nick, our oldest brother. He got into bowhunting at about 14 years old. Our Uncle Danny got him into it, Nick said he remembers being seven years old thinking he only had seven more years til he could hunt. We’d always watch Uncle Danny come back with his deer. Nick’s first season he shot a 165” ten, with a 40 lb Bear bow, shooting fingers, as just a 14 year old kid! He’d missed a spike the night before and then shot this buck the next night. Bowhunting really sunk its teeth into him after that. Then for me, through high school I waterfowl hunted, but Nick was always on me to try bowhunting. Finally my freshmen year of college I tried it, that was 9 season ago, and since then it has been an amazing obsession. It’s definitely our whole life. What’s neat about bowhunting is you can make it that way, it’s all year between shed hunting, scouting and then the hunting season.
Scott actually started hunting the year before me, he has one more season than me but he’s two years younger than me. And ever since then, we’ve killed I don’t know how many bucks. My little brother Scott, he shot a 201” last year and a 187” this year. So he’s had two very fortunate seasons. He’s says he’s shooting a management buck this year, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
How long have you and your brothers been filming your hunts?
We’ve been filming for a couple years now. We bought a GL2, which a couple years ago was a lot of money for us for just a hobby. We ended up being successful filming some hunts, we filmed 5 or 6 good 140” + bucks and getting those done over the years was great. We’ve got to the point where we are comfortable with the camera in the tree and all the thousand variables that adds. We were hoping to take it to the next step and the timing has been just perfect. We saw Heartland Bowhunter put their application on the website and I edited up a video for us and sent it in. They liked it, so here we are.
When you saw the contest on the HB website was it a big decision to make or did you know right away that you wanted to do it?
Once we all had watched their footage we knew we wanted to be a part of that. They portray bowhunting exactly how we do it and like to see it portrayed. You get to see the whole thing, it’s not just some guy that gets in a stand and kills a buck. They show the whole lifestyle. They were successful at putting our lives on TV and I just loved that. Now we get to be a part of that and we are just so excited.
So when is filming starting for season four?
Well the Heartland Bowhunter guys are coming here this spring for a turkey hunt and they’ll be giving us a film hunting school, in addition to one that we’ll be doing one up in Kansas City soon. So the turkey hunt will be on Season Three and all the fall stuff will be on Season Four. I didn’t think we’d be on Season Three, cause we’re late in the game. But turns out the turkey hunts are on Season Three, so we’re excited about that. But we have so much to learn about these cameras. You know before, we ran our cameras on auto settings. But at Heartland, and by the look of their video, you can tell they run everything on manual settings and they really know what they are doing. That’s the great thing, we get to learn from these guys. They’ve done all this work and studying and research and we get to benefit from it right away. When we got to meet them in Kansas we got to learn a little bit, but we’ll have a couple more film schools coming up. They sure do know their way around a camera.
How did you guys find out that you had been accepted as the new members of Heartland Bowhunter?
Well Mike called us and said that they had narrowed it down to three teams and that they wanted to meet us all. We set up a time and we went to Kansas City thinking that we would get to meet everyone and the other teams and then maybe get a phone call later. It’s kind of funny, my grandma lives in western Kansas and she was going to bring us to Kansas City anyways, so she was with us when we went to meet them. She was planning on sitting up stairs and waiting. But Shawn Luchtel’s dad told grandma that she was going to want to go downstairs to see what would happen. So they talked to us for probably 30 minutes about pretty much the same stuff we are talking about right now and then Mike finally said “well guys we didn’t really call you here to meet you and the other teams, we called you here to tell you that we picked you and you’re going to be part of Heartland Bowhunter”. I couldn’t stop smiling, my face was about to cramp. We then sat there for probably three or four hours talking and we could have sat there forever.
After meeting with these guys just once, I was like “those guys are exactly like us”. It felt like we knew them for 10 years. They are just so nice and they are a young group of guys too. Ages range from 21 to like 35, so it’s a fairly young group. I just can’t wait to hang out with them and get things started.
…
***Click here to read the rest of my interview with Matt!***
- In: News
- Tags: heartland bowhunter, heartland bowhunter contest, heartland bowhunter hunting show, heartland bowhunter season 3, heartland bowhunter season 4, heartland bowhunter show, heartland bowhunter team, matt white heartland bowhunter, new heartland bowhunter members, new heartland bowhunter team, nick white heartland bowhunter, scott white heartland bowhunter
How I Practiced With My Bow On The Couch!
4 Mar2010
I sat home late tonight, drinking a cold beer and watching the newest White Knuckle Productions DVD, Ground Zero. As I watched the bucks cruising across the screen, I couldn’t help but want to get out in the woods and shoot a buck myself! Unfortunately the season is still a long ways out, but I’ve found that practicing with my bow can be a great way to get my hunting fix. That being my thought process, tonight I decided that while I was watching the DVD, it would be a great time to do a little bit of target practice.
I ran into my storage room, grabbed my bow and release and plopped back down on the couch. For the next hour of the DVD, I would draw and aim at every deer that came across the screen! As I watched the deer on my TV, I tried to place myself in the situation and think through the process of finding a shooting lane, stopping the deer, picking a spot and then squeezing. Woops, no I don’t want to squeeze in my living room! I was honestly worried I might actually pull my trigger, so I had to continually remind myself to keep my finger off the release.
After playing “deer hunting” for an hour, without one dry fire I might add, I found this exercise to be both fun and beneficial. I was able to work my bow arm muscles, practice holding at full draw, work on aiming at a spot on a deer and also force myself to think through potential hunting situations. I’d say this was a pretty productive way to spend a night on the couch!
Have any of you guys done this kind of “practice”? Any other unorthodox methods you guys have tried to stay in bow hunting shape and up to snuff on accuracy? I’m interested in hearing the craziest bowhunting “practice” method out there!
As I rested my head against the trunk of a large oak this evening, I closed my eyes and tried to let all thoughts and stress just disappear. The breeze brushed my cheek and the corn stalks in front of me swayed back and forth. Everything was right in the world, until I heard a crunch, crunch, crunch.
To the left of me, I saw a large brown shape materialize in my peripheral vision and I knew a deer must be approaching. But to my surprise and dismay, it was a large coyote cruising the soy bean field behind me. I turned in awe and watched a second coyote lazily step into the field behind the first. Now why, you ask, was I so upset about seeing these coyotes? Well I’ve been trying to shoot a coyote all winter, but today I decided I would just sit in the woods with my camera and watch for some deer. Of course it ends up that the one day I don’t have a gun, ends up also being the one day I see coyotes! Figures. Given my bad luck tonight, I figure it’s a good enough time to take a look at a few late winter tips for those of us who want to knock out a few more yotes before the fawns start dropping this spring! My one piece of advice for you tonight, is to always be prepared. Coyotes can show up at the most unlikely moments and you won’t get many second chances if you’re not ready. Tonight, I learned this the hard way.
Here a few more helpful tips.
Excerpt fromThree Predator Hunting Tips from Pro Tim Wells
Call Quietly, Kill QuietlyStart your predator calling sequences quietly. There are several reasons for this. First, you have no idea how close you already are to a coyote. If your first note is at volume level 11, all you’ll see is a coyote turning inside out and shooting across the valley like a bullet. Second, quiet calling can be more effective that loud-mouthing the predators. Your predator calls go farther than you think, and predators hear better than you may imagine. If you’re coyote hunting in big, wide-open country, get loud only after you’ve called quietly for a while.
Start with a small caliber rifle or your bow on your first trips out to a certain calling location. A small caliber rifle or bow makes less noise than bigger-bores and you won’t be educating other coyotes or bobcats in the area when you make that first kill. Also, when you make a kill – especially with a quiet rifle or bow – stay still and quiet. No high-fives, loud shouts of exaltation or quick runs to grab the critter. In many cases there’s another predator or two out there, and as soon as you jump up to run claim your coyote another will be educated.
For the next two tips, read the full article on the Knight & Hale website
Excerpt from Tips for Better Coyote Hunting by Kevin Wilson
Time Your Hunt
To maximize your time in the field consider hunting prime times and ideal conditions. In some jurisdictions coyote hunting is allowed year round but in most situations the months of December, January and February are the best months to pursue these wild dogs. Pelts are in prime condition and the often snow-covered landscape can greatly improve visibility for the hunter while making scavenging for food more difficult for the coyotes. Extreme cold temperatures with a slight breeze carry sound greater distances, increasing the effectiveness of calling. Mild and windy conditions can literally shut things down. Savvy coyote hunters recognize and capitalize on the best conditions. Remember, breeding season is prime time. Females go into heat beginning in January and peak by mid-to-late February. During this timeframe, there is the added bonus of increased visibility. Just as ungulates drop their guard somewhat during the rut, so do coyotes during their breeding season. They can frequently be seen frolicking in open fields or along tree lines, creating great spot-and-stalk shooting opportunities. Males are on the prowl looking for females in heat and groups of multiple dogs are often spotted together.
For 9 more coyote hunting tips from Kevin, check out the full article here.
As I am getting ready to go shoot some arrows this evening, I thought it would a great time to share another archery tip with you all. This late winter period is a great time to get out practicing your bow and to tinker with your set-up. One of the most useful accessories to have on your bow, in my opinion, is a string dampener. So check out this quick tip from T-Bone Turner as he explains the benefits of a string dampener on your bow. My new bow I purchased this fall has a dampener and I’ve been very happy with it, watch this video to learn more.
For more tips from T-Bone, check out his blog. T-Bone’s Blog.
Where are these kind of bucks when I’m out in the woods? Here is an absolute monster of a buck that was recently found dead in Michigan! Just an hour south of where I live, this slob of a buck was tromping around. Unfortunately it never made it up to my treestand, we’ll hope he has a son or two. After being found, this buck was measured by a Commemorative Bucks of Michigan scorer and it looks to be about 257″, but this will still have to be confirmed after the 60 day drying period. It’s a shame this deer had to go this way, but it does give me hope for Michigan hunting. Maybe there are bucks in Michigan that make it past their first year!
2010 Iowa Deer Classic
2 Mar2010
For all of you in Iowa or the surrounding states, you’ve got a big weekend coming up! The Iowa Deer Classic, one of the premier deer hunting expos, will be taking place this Fri-Sun at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. With hundreds of exhibitors, great guest speakers, big buck competitions and shooting contests, this is an event you can’t afford to miss.
The exhibitor list for the Iowa Deer Classic reads off as a who’s who of the hunting industry. In attendance you will find companies such as Bad Boy Buggies, Trophy Rock, G5 Outdoors, PSE Archery and Muddy Outdoors. If you like you’re hunting tv entertainment you can catch staff from Michael Waddell’s Bone Collectors, Heartland Bowhunter, Driven TV, Midwest Whitetail, Rut Junkies and White Knuckle Productions.
In addition to great exhibitors there will be seminars from speakers such as Larry Weishuhn, Michael Waddell, Travis “T-bone” Turner, Rick Krueter and Pat Reeve. Topics such as shed hunting, ground blind hunting and hunting mature bucks will be covered.
Lastly there will be a big buck competition, a big shed competition, archery contest, 3D pop up target contest and a National Archery School Program (NASP) State Shoot!
There definitely seems to be no shortage of attractions or activities to check out at this year’s Iowa Deer Classic, my only complaint is that it’s hundreds of miles away from me! For all of you who get to make it, make sure to let us know how it was!
Heartland Bowhunter Update!
1 Mar2010
I’ve posted a lot about Heartland Bowhunter in the past, but I had to share some new and exciting updates with you all. For those of you not in the know, Heartland Bowhunter is the most stunning viewing experience you can find in a hunting show. Not only does it look amazing, but the content and storyline throughout the show is top-notch and over the course of the year HB has catapulted to the top of my hunting video list. That being said, I like to stay up to date on whats going on with the HB team and right now there is lots!
First off, you need to check out the trailer for the third season of Heartland Bowhunter. It looks ridiculous and I can’t wait to watch the new season. I believe the show will begin airing midsummer.
Second piece of news for you all is that Heartland Bowhunter has launched a new website and it looks pretty darn great. Sticking with their reputation for quality, the design and content of the site is A+. You can check it out here. Heartland Bowhunter Site. Available on the site now, as of last week, is the just released Season 2 DVD!
If you didn’t watch the show when it aired on TV, check out the trailer for Season 2 to get a feel for what you’ll find in this DVD. It’s equally stunning when compared to the new Season 3 trailer and definitely worth a watch or two. I particularly enjoy the music in this one.
In addition to the Season 2 DVD, you can pick up all of their previous DVDs, as well as some great apparel, hats and decals. Make sure you check out the combo options that are available too. When I first visited the store, I wanted to purchase the Arrows Unleashed DVD and the HB Season 1 and Season 2 DVDs. But I decided I didn’t want to spend that much money, so I just bought season 1 and 2. Five minutes after completing my order I looked at the page again and realized that there was a combo deal for all three DVD sets, for 15 dollars less than what I paid for just two! So don’t make the same mistake I did!
Lastly, Heartland Bowhunter has added some new members to their team for next season! This winter HB held a competition to add several new people to the group and the winners were recently announced. Three brothers, Nick, Matt and Scot White from Kansas were selected to join HB for 2010. Congrats to the White Brothers! I’m also excited to announce that I’ll be speaking with Matt in the next day or two and I will be sharing his story and more updates with the Wired To Hunt Nation soon! So stay tuned for more info from the newest members of the Heartland Bowhunter team!
