Nine years ago I set foot into my first pasture with aspirations of finding a treasure.  The treasure was a shed antler.  That amazing thing that came into existence 8 months prior would hold my attention like a diamond would to a woman and still does to this day.  Shed antlers are the journals of whitetail deer.  They show the progression of a young buck to a mature monarch and everything in between.  A shed antler will tell you how aggressive a buck is or if he sustained an injury in the past. A shed will document the existence of that giant you thought you saw for a second during the season.  It will bring you closer to the animal that you chased for months during the season and could never get close to.  These amazing treasures will push many whitetail addicts to spend countless hours afield with numb legs and growling stomachs.  Logical thinking tells you that they are nothing more than calcium formed into a unique shape, but anyone reading this article will ignore logical thinking.  I also choose to ignore this notion.  Anything that steals my attention like a shed antler does is something special.  Something that deserves to be saved from slowly decaying back into the earth.

Over the last nine years I have come to a realization which has more than doubled my shed count each year.  This simple fact that I chose to ignore for years is that whitetail deer are not reclusive.  There is a perception that they are because when we are out and about during the day they are just that, reclusive.  What people don’t realize is that when the sun sets these reclusive animals head to the open for the best things in their life, food, water, and socializing.  I find more than half of my sheds out in open crop fields and pastures in the exact places that bucks go to spend their nights.  With short days in the winter months, a day can be broken down to find that it is dark for over 12 hours in the winter and bucks will spend most of this not in a thick bedding area but in the open, feeding and interacting with other deer.  After adjusting my hiking routes to include these open fields I jumped from finding about 25 sheds a season to 60+ every year.

After having this awakening and boosting my shed numbers I came to another realization.  Walking open fields is BORING!  Walking back and forth across wheat stubble is not a fun thing to do and will wear on a guy after awhile.  That being said, maximizing your time in these fields is key to success before burnout.  One of the most important things in this aspect is scouting late winter.  Finding the buck groups and watching which fields they are using is extremely important.  It’s amazing how bucks will religiously use a certain field when there is one identical to it right next to it or maybe even closer to their bedding area.  Knowing that the bucks have been in these fields will give you the confidence to spend the time combing the field.  Another key to success out in the open has to do with the weather.  Extremely bright sunny days will wear on the eyes after awhile.  It also produces very hard shadows and glares off bright objects.  This combination can make for extremely hard circumstances especially when in milo and corn stubble.  Obviously no one has the time to wait for a cloudy day so if it’s sunny help yourself out and put the sun at your back.  By planning your walk prior to getting started you can succeed in having the sun at your back the entire walk.  You can also try and go mid-day when the sun is straight up which will prevent any long shadows. Cloudy days take care of the shadows and glares and are ideal in my opinion.   These rules also apply in the timber.

Another thing I came to realize is no field is flat.  Not even here in Kansas.  Every field is filled with small elevation changes and even a change of six inches can hide even the biggest sheds if lying tines down.  For this reason no field can be effectively be glassed from the road.  I have frequently scanned a field and saw nothing only to find a decent shed not a hundred yards from where I last glassed.  One more key element is walking slow.  This can be extremely difficulty if you are like me and regularly have two brothers walking with you.  Needless to say competition is always present between brothers no matter what the case.  If you find yourself walking too fast then you have a couple options.  Option 1, leave your brothers at home.  While effective this isn’t as much fun.  We solved our speed walking problem by designating who gets the plunder from each walk prior to starting so no one cares who finds what.  It can really help having extra eyes with you especially when grid walking open fields, which will reduce the amount of trips it takes to cover the field.

So to all the fellow shed addicts out there, I hope that you spend a little extra time out in the open this spring and hopefully find a treasure staring up out of the wheat stubble.

-Matt White, avid bowhunter and member of Heartland Bowhunter

I am very excited today to introduce to you all a new contributor we will be having on Wired To Hunt, Matt White. You may recognize Matt as the new member of Heartland Bowhunter that I recently interviewed for a piece on W2H earlier this week. If not, check out the article here. After speaking with Matt and exchanging emails over the last couple weeks, I knew that we shared a similar deep passion for hunting and the year round pursuit of whitetails. As Wired To Hunt continues to expand, I have been looking to add some additional contributors to add new insight, and I felt that Matt would be a perfect fit. Look for Matt to be sharing his vast experiences, knowledge and stories with us several times a month as he embarks upon his first season with Heartland Bowhunter. Below is a brief introduction that Matt has prepared for us. Check back later today for his first post and please join me in welcoming Matt to the team!

Matt began his bowhunting life 8 seasons ago.  Since then he has been able to harvest six pope and young whitetails and one boone and crockett.  He is a firefighter/paramedic for the City of Salina.  Matt is married to a very understanding woman, Tracy, who sees what bowhunting means to him and is willing to make the sacrifices that it takes to be married to a bowhunter.  They have a beautiful 2 year old daughter Kimber and are expecting a son in June.  Matt also is blessed to have two brothers, Nick and Scott, that share a common vision.  That vision is to make bowhunting not just something that is done in the fall.  Bowhunting to Matt and his brothers is a year round grind that takes them from the top of big cottonwood trees in central Kansas to the high alpine ridges of the rockies every year.  They use every day to work on some aspect of their skills.  Physical fitness is paramount for them and not a day goes by that a challenge wasn’t taken on with the end goal being an improvement in their ability to chase big game and finish the chase with a well placed arrow.

- Matt White

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”

Buy “Go Shed Hunting” DVD

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!

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.

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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.

…

So what’s next, what is the timeline for you guys and the HB team?

Well I’m not sure what everyone is doing. But the team is coming here the second weekend of April to turkey hunt. We’re going to have three video groups filming. Then in May we’ll be going to Ontario for the black bear hunt. Then in September we’ll be going to the mountains to film our mule deer hunt and then probably a spot and stalk antelope hunt in later September in western Kansas. Then the rest of the year will be dedicated to whitetails here in Kansas. We are very fortunate to have some really nice deer and have access to them and we hunt on all private land. We’ve had some great relationships with some farmers for maybe 10 years now. Public land is just getting pounded, so it’s so nice to have that private land. Land acquisition is just getting tough, we are just so fortunate. We cherish those relationships and we make sure to treat those farmers right. They won’t take money, but we make sure they don’t have to cut fire wood or anything like that. We’re very lucky and we are definitely aware of it.

What can we expect to see from the White Brothers on Heartland Bowhunter that would be unique to you guys?

I think part of the thing that we can bring is the do-it-yourself mountain hunts. We only do public land, limited draw units and bivy camp for five or six days at a time. I haven’t seen a hunt like that on HB yet. I think people would eat that up, I mean every bowhunter in the back of their mind wants to do something like that. Between one of us every year, we always head out west to hunt elk, mule deer or bears. We go out west a lot just to shed hunt, scout and then hunt. We are only about 8 hours from the mountains, so we can bomb out there for a long weekend to scout and find sheds, and then be home right away. This year Nick is going to Ontario to bear hunt and also thinks he’ll be drawing a great mule deer tag in Colorado. So we’ll be carrying those cameras all around the mountains and Canada.

Another thing we can bring is giant whitetails. We may not kill those deer every year, but we will certainly get footage of big big Boone and Crockett whitetails every year.

And then just the whole brother thing. We don’t get along all the time, usually we get along great, but I’m sure people we’ll get a kick out of our interactions. It’s cool with my brothers, there’s no asking if they want to go hunting with you, it’s just expected. It’s part of life. We are so fortunate to always have someone with that camera in hand, that you trust and have hunted with forever. You know how they will react and that they won’t complain. We are all in it together, it’s really great. Not very often do you get three people with the same vision and be able to maintain it year after year. And the obsession has only been getting worse for us. Every year I think I can not possibly hunt any harder, but then the next year you find yourself taking it to the next level somehow.

You know we also hunt sometimes with recurves and that’s something you don’t see on TV often. My older brother killed a 150” buck and got it filmed last year with a recurve. He’s pretty dead set on hunting with recurves from now on. He’ll probably hunt with a compound in the mountains where long shots are needed, but for whitetails and turkey it will be recurve.  My other brother and I will probably use one too if the situations are right. It just takes a lot of dedication and practice. It’s 50 arrows a day or at least 25. July through the end of the season it’s at least 25 arrows a day. So many people say that using a compound bow is like firing a gun, you just pull back and it goes where you aim. And yea, maybe that’s true when you are target shooting but when your heart is going 150 beats per minute and your vision is blurred because you are freaking out. You just gotta have that muscle memory from thousands of shots to be successful and accurately kill game. You have to know that your body knows what to do, because your mind isn’t going to help you right now. That one time a year I get a deer in Kansas, it is the most excited I am in the 365 days every year. It doesn’t matter how cold you were before, afterwards you could run around in your shorts.

What would be your words of wisdom for other whitetail hunters out there?

I’d say persistence. I have a quote, from Thomas Jefferson, it says “I’m a great believer in luck and I find that the harder I work, the more of it I have”. I love that quote and it so fits bowhunting. So many people say oh it’s just luck, you sit in a tree and they walk by you and it’s luck. Well kind of, but you know what, the harder you work the more luck you’re going to have. You just gotta stick with it, you know some people will hunt years and years before they get a chance at a big big deer. But it’ll just mean more when it happens. It’s just persistence, don’t give up on those deer. And if you’re hunting a particular big one, don’t give up on him, no matter how stressed out he makes you!

And I would also say, practice with your bow a lot. Even physical fitness, cardio and lifting weights. And it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a tree all the time. Being in better shape keeps your mind stronger and you can use that in the tree when you’re sitting stagnant. And obviously when you go to the mountains, you gotta be in shape. You’ll be miserable if you’re not. Yup that’s it, practice and perseverance. You can break it down that simple.

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For more info about Heartland Bowhunter or to purchase their DVDS, visit Heartlandbowhunter.com.

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

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!