Apologies for the delay in getting your Friday Morning Mashup to you today! I’ve been home sick pretty much all week, and have not been in any condition to write much at all. That being said, I mustered up some energy this afternoon and made sure I could share the best whitetail links from across the web with you this week! So read on, have a great weekend and God Bless!

Giant Illinois Buck is Potential World Record 8 Pointer – Whitetail 365: As always, world record hysteria explodes whenever a monster is killed. But supposedly this one may be the real deal. A one-time world record 8 pointer was actually shot only a few miles from my house here in Michigan some years ago, but it looks like an Illinois buck may be taking on the mantle soon!

Bowhunting Suburban Bucks – Dreams To Reality: A great article from Dan Perez of Whitetail Properties, as he discusses the tactics that can be used to kill whitetails near to town!

The Black Belt Might Be the Best Place To Shoot A Deer During  the Rut – Deer & Deer Hunting: Interesting insight regarding the hunting of Alabama’s “Black Belt” during their late winter rut!

Top 10 Recommendations for Managing Land to Yield Mature, Huntable Deer: Part 3, Cover – Growing Deer TV Blog: Dr. Grant Woods leads us through his 3rd most important factor for managing land to yield mature and huntable deer and it is cover! Great tips from a man I respect tremendously!

Why Food Plots Are Better Than Bait for Deer Hunting – Whitetail 365: Scott Bestul of Field & Stream takes on the topic of food plots vs bait. I stand with Scott!

With February now upon us, the unofficial start of shed hunting season is pretty much here! And with the ever growing interest in shed hunting, I’ve decided that we can do a better job here on Wired To Hunt of  showcasing some of the awesome sheds being found out there. So how do I plan to do that? With the Wired To Hunt Nation’s help of course!

What I’m proposing is this. If you find a cool shed this winter/spring, we want to feature it on Wired To Hunt! If you’d like your shed on the blog, send an email to wiredtohunt@gmail.com with the following items:

- A great picture or pictures of your shed. Preferably one of the pics would be of the shed as you found it in the wild.

- Details regarding the state you found the shed, the date of your find, and a description of the terrain where the shed was located.

Hopefully this will result in all of us being able to check out some awesome sheds, while also learning a little bit more about where/how sheds are found!

So with that being said, whether you are starting now or in a few weeks, get ready to strap on your boots and get walking. As a little bonus, whoever sends in the pic of the “coolest” shed (admittedly this will be pretty subjective), will win a Wired To Hunt trucker hat! Let me know if you have any questions, otherwise good luck shed hunting and I look forward to seeing what kind of monster bone you guys can find!

Today’s story comes from Derek Stahlman of Hallowed Ground Outdoors. HGO just won a Sportsman Channel award for best new show, and given the bucks they’ve put down this fall, I’d expect them to have a great season 2 as well! Read on for Derek’s tale of this big ole Missouri buck.- MK

“Well  this season started  fast and furious here in Missouri for myself and some of the other HGO pro-staff. I’d harvested a dandy 9 point buck on Sept 27 on one of my Outfitters Choice food plots. So by the time rifle season rolled around I was ready to get another weapon in my hand after being behind the camera for a month and a half. After a slow opening couple days with only seeing some young bucks I had to get back in the UPS truck and get those packages delivered.

But then I got the call from fellow HGO member Clay Lockard  and he’d  invited me to his family farm in north Missouri. After working it out with my boss, I  took a couple vacation days on the 17-18 and planned on hunting through the weekend. We started Thursday morning on a slew crossing with no avail. We saw just a couple small bucks crossing what was a beautiful slew, but we just weren’t seeing the doe’s or cruising bucks we thought we should for the mid november rut. So we pulled out about noon and headed to a known doe bedding area on the farm. To say this spot was thick was an understatement. It was made up of mostly CRP and cockle burrs, and Clay had a great shooting house set right in the middle of a 100 acre brush pile.

Right away we started seeing deer activity, a small buck walked by, then another, then another. About 2 hours into the evening hunt a questionable big 8 point came out chasing a doe. “Oh yea, this was the spot” I told clay. We were talking about taking him when he chased her back into the brush. I told clay he need another year any how, but honestly if we could have gotten more b-roll of him I would have harvested him. It wasn’t very long after that  when an unbelievable 2 1/2 year old 9 point walked right under the shooting house. We were busy admiring the potential of that particular deer when I looked across the cockle burr field and saw a huge framed deer walking right to left. I asked Clay what he thought an he said “Uhhhhh yes you can shoot him FOR SURE”! So while he was getting the camera on him I was getting the scope on my 270 Remington classic dialed in.

Once we got on the same page, the big 11 point stopped and with a nice high shoulder shot he dropped in his tracks. What a thrilling hunt. Harvested a 5 1/2 year old 151 6/8 inch 11 point, saw some great up and comers, chalked another kill up for Hallowed Ground Outdoors and enjoyed God’s creation with a great friend. Oh and clay missed a 4 1/2 yr old 145 inch 8 point the next evening. That place was on fire. No worries Clay, you’re a first class fella with a first class farm! (Just think what he’ll be next year). Everyone can catch all of this action on  Season 2 of Hallowed Ground Outdoors starting next July on The Sportsman Channel!” – Derek

For more from Hallowed Ground Outdoors, visit their website here.

Not A Good Start

I ran my trail cameras for most of the summer and by the time October 1^st rolled around I had put together a pretty good hit list of mature shooters. I started off the season like I always do, trying to lay down a doe and put a little meet in the freezer. Easy, right?  The evening hunt of October 1^st a group of does came down the edge of a fence-line like they read a script. Filming myself, I turned on the camera, picked out the doe I wanted, and smoked her at 18 yards. Perfect shot. She ran in to chest-high CRP… for those of you who have ever tried to follow a blood trail in tall CRP, not fun. I looked for about 2 hours in the dark and then decided to come back in the morning and start fresh with an extra set of eyes. One word, “Coyotes”.  If you ever have one of these “pests” within range, kill them dead!   No meat for me, I tried for a doe the next 2 weekends with no luck. I had no idea this is how the rest of the season was going to go.

Shipwreck Falls

Shipwreck in 2010, the year I shot, but didn’t kill him.  

I got my first set of trail camera pictures of Shipwreck (a buck I have been hunting for 5 years) on June 28^th, knowing he was still alive gave me the motivation I needed going into the season. My plan was to stay out of his area until the right conditions were presented.

Picture of Shipwreck from June of 2011 .

But that opportunity never came, as I got a call one day while at work, telling me that a good friend Sam Collora (who hunts a neighboring property) killed Shipwreck the night before; he scored just over 200”. I was sad, happy, and pissed all at the same time.  Knowing that he was no longer in the picture I could focus on other properties.  I also could now truthfully tell my Fiancé she is the most important thing in my life! Look for another article about the Deer God Shipwreck in the near future.

This is where it starts getting good, and when I say “good” I really mean “bad”.

Megatron is a giant 6 ½ year old 8 I have seen for the past 3 years, hope he makes it. 

Aside from a lucky encounter with a buck I named Megatron (6 ½ 160” class 8 – thank God for Ozonics), on a random south wind run-and-gun set up, and another encounter with Johnny Utah (3 ½ 145” 10), that was about it. I can’t say I even saw a lot of Larry’s (small bucks), or even does for that matter. I honestly think the numbers in my particular area were down from previous years. In connection with not seeing a lot of deer, I also had to share this property with another hunter and had a perfect set ruined by some kids driving 4-wheelers. On top of that, due to down fences and gates that were left open by coon hunters, both horses and cattle had free range of the property keeping the deer out of the fields and pushing them to god knows where. This also made me mad, but not much I could do about it.

Had a couple of encounters with Johnny Utah this year and passed him twice.

One Last Chance

The very last day of my vacation I did have a hot doe come through at 2:30pm that was being chased by 4 different mature bucks, one was a 150 class 10 who did not present an opportunity, and the other was a 145 class 8 I named Edward Scissor Hands who I ended up passing in hopes that the other buck would come back through.  He did not, and after reviewing the footage I regret not shooting the 8. Oh well. Right at last light a huge 160 class 10 came through and there was some miscommunication between me and the cameraman on what direction the deer was going, yet another missed opportunity. Story of my season.

This is Triple Sec doggin’ a doe.

I passed Edward Scissor Hands… that was dumb!

The big 10 that I screwed up on. I almost jumped out of my stand.

I did get a couple more chances in December to get in the stand, but with the deer still in shock from shotgun season, I had no luck.  Overall, I did what I could. I hunted hard and put myself in a position to kill every time I went out. I observed and learned more about the properties I hunt in hopes that next year I will get another opportunity at  a mature buck. So now that the bow season is over I switch my focus to shed hunting. I have setup some trail cameras in hopes of seeing what bucks made it through the season and when I need to start my miles for piles.

There’s Always Next Year

Overall, I may not have gotten the results I wanted, but I did learn a lot and I will adapt for next season. And most importantly, I had a hell of a lot of fun and was able to spend time with some of my good friends.  I love this sport and when October comes back around you know where I’ll be.

P.S. I hate coyotes.

The weekend is finally here, so without further delay, here is your Friday Morning Mashup! We’ve got some giant bucks and a few neat shed hunting articles too. And while it’s true that the “off season” is here,  there’s still plenty to keep whitetail hunters busy. So read up on this great whitetail literature and then go enjoy the great outdoors!

Giant Whitetails – A Trailcam Surprise – DreamDirt: Our pal Jason Smith of DreamDirt  got some trailcam pics/video of some GIANT Iowa bucks recently. Gotta love these kind of surprises!

Shed Antler Hunting Tips and Strategy – DreamDirt: Speaking of Jason, he also put together a great shed hunting article, which ought to be useful for a lot of people with shed hunting just over the horizon!

Search for Antlers – HuntingNet.com: Brandon Wikman gives us his two cents on why you should hit the woods in search of fallen antlers! I’d recommend it as well.

We Found Them! G4′s Sheds – Midwest Whitetail Blog: If Brandon’s blog still didn’t get you excited to shed hunt, this one definitely will. Check out the MEGA-GIANT sheds that Bill Winke and his crew recently found off the buck they call the Double G4 buck.

Top 10 Recommendations for Managing Land to Yield Mature, Huntable Deer – Growing Deer TV Blog: Dr. Grant Woods discusses the first of his top 10 recommendations for managing land to grow more mature bucks. Specifically he discusses the fact that “dead deer don’t grow”! …Write that down.

Tall-Tined Indiana Giant Buck – 169! – Mike Hanback’s Big Deer: A great story of an Indiana giant. These big buck stories are just what ya need to stay motivated through these cold winter months to keep working towards the 2012 season.

It may be the “off season”, but is there really ever such a thing? Even though most of us aren’t able to shoot deer right now, the work being done at this very moment could help you close the deal next fall. So with that being said, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get to work and here are four projects you can focus on right now that should help you close the deal in 2012!

1. Look For New Hunting Ground: As we all know, hunting ground can come and go more often than we like. So it’s always a good idea to have more than you need. Now is the perfect time to start your search for new property, and I like to do this in several ways. First off, if you’re looking to determine what properties are worth leasing or asking permission on,  over the next few days you can still spot a lot of deer in fields with headgear, and a few drives around town can help you identify general areas with good bucks. Then in February and March go ahead and try getting permission to shed hunt on some of these properties. From here, take this opportuntiy shed hunting to also do some good scouting and determine whether any of these properties are worth pursuing further.

If you’re looking to lease or buy ground, take advantage of online hunting property sites like Whitetail Properties, Hunting Lease Network or Base Camp Leasing to help you find available properties. The internet is an incredible resource when it comes to finding and researching new properties, and online maps like Google Maps can be hugely helpful as well. That all being said, don’t forget about the power of good old fashion people too. Sometimes just asking around can be the ticket for finding a gem of a hunting location. And remember, when it comes to asking for permission, the worst they can say is no!

2. Practice With Your Bow Or Gun: This is a task that should, if possible, be year round. I know this is certainly not revolutionary advice, but it’s so important I just have to bring it up again. All the work in the world is wasted if you can’t make the shot count in the end.

Practicing with your weapons of choice in the off season is obviously helpful to stay in shooting shape for next fall, but it’s also a fun way to shake off that cabin fever. And if you’re really looking to take your target practice to another level, hit the woods and do some coyote hunting! Kills two birds with one stone.

3. Review Your Past Season: Here’s something that I’ve been trying to do a better job of the past few years, and it is reviewing my past season. If you keep a hunting journal, it can come in really handy for this. If not, no worries, just try to take some time over the coming weeks to look back on your hunts in 2011 and analyze what went right and what went wrong. If you can pick out at least one mistake, and brainstorm how you could have done things better, it should help you down the road.

You can also study any notes, videos or pictures from the past season you collected, and sometimes these records can help you identify trends or patterns. I’m trying to get better at collecting as much data from each hunt as I can, for example wind/weather/stand location/etc, and then recording it. This gives me some great information to look back on and consider for future reference.

4. Keep Learning: If you want to be a great whitetail hunter, I’m convinced you need to be a life-time learner. There’s always more to learn when it comes to whitetails, and these cold winter months are the perfect time to catch up on some whitetail studies.

Looking for some ideas? Here are a few pieces of recommended reading that I’ve enjoyed recently – Mapping Trophy Bucks, Bowhunting The Eberhart Way, Deer & Deer Hunting’s Guide To Better Bowhunting and Hunting Mature Whitetails the Lakosky Way. It also couldn’t hurt to keep up on Wired To Hunt too!

So if you’re starting to get the post-whitetail season blues, don’t fret. A new season has begun and it’s time to get busy!

As many of you know, last week I attended the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, which is the largest shooting/hunting/outdoors convention in the country. Needless to say, it was a wild and overwhelming experience. The week prior I attended the largest archery only convention, ATA, and I thought that was big! But SHOT truly dwarfs it. That all being said, regardless of the size, the SHOT show truly was an incredible experience. With the latest and greatest hunting products from across the hunting world represented, there truly was too much to see. I only had one day, so my time at SHOT consisted of me running back and forth across the mammoth convention center for 10 hours striaght, seeing everything I possibly could.

Along the way I saw some incredible new products, a lot of interesting folks and a good number of my friends in the hunting world as well! A few of the more interesting new products that I saw came from companies like Thompson/Center, Sitka Gear, Under Armour, Bushnell, StealthCam and ScentLok. But there’s truly too much to mention in a single post. So that being said, keep any eye out for new product videos from both the ATA and SHOT shows coming soon! Until then, here are a few images from my time down in Vegas!

A week or two ago I posted an article called “Small Property, Big Dreams” in which I excitedly detailed my plans for turning my home property into a big buck haven. Well that dream has now, quite quickly, disappeared as a possibility. The property I live on is in fact rented, but I had high hopes that after renting for another year or so, I’d be able to work out a deal to buy it. So much for that…

I just recently found out that an Amish family in the community put in an offer on my home/property that was too good for my landlord to ignore, and even though we had the chance to match it, we just didn’t have the funds. So here I am, looking at a fourth move in just as many years. Needless to say I’m disappointed, frustrated and just plain bummed. I was really pumped about this property’s potential, and I was so happy to finally be able to hunt in one place for multiple years in a row, learn it and start managing. That’s all ancient history now though, so I suppose there’s no use dwelling on it. On to Plan B.

From here I only have one option, and that’s to go find new hunting ground (and a home for that matter)! So I’m keeping all my options open, with the number one priority being that I find a great piece(s) of ground that I can hunt for multiple years. I’m open to leasing, finding ground by permission or even buying.

So now I’m on the hunt again and not the kind I expected for this time of year. I figured my 2012 season would start with sheds, but now it looks like I’m on a much different journey and most likely one thats more expensive to boot!

That being said, I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can somehow land a property before the end of March so that I can get in some good shed hunting and scouting, and hopefully still have most the year to prepare. So while my hopes for my current property won’t be fulfilled, there’s no telling what new exciting times might be ahead of me on whatever new land I find. I’m not going to let this bring me down, and hopefully I can take the same philosophies I planned here and bring them to fruition on whatever ground I can get on in the future.

2012 is going to be a good season, it just has to be. While this certainly throws a wrench in my plans, I’m not going to let this stand in the way of my goal. The buck of my life is hitting the ground this fall, and no matter what property I’m on, that big dream can still become a reality.