30 days. 720 hours. 43,200 minutes. 0 good nights of sleep. The countdown has begun for me, as only one final month remains until my 2010 deer season begins. But it will be a long month, as I am unbelievably excited for opening day and the season that will follow.

Opening weekend for me will be an exciting affair. Several of my friends and my dad will be joining me at my farm to hunt the first couple days of the season. Hopefully one of my friends will shoot his first deer, my dad will shoot his first deer with a crossbow and maybe, just maybe I’ll see a surprise shooter on my property! It ought to be a great weekend of good food, great company and bloody arrows.

So my question for you is this. When is your season starting and what are your plans for opening day or weekend? Can’t wait to hear! Nothing beats the beginning of a new season!

Here is more information from their most recent press release:

Each Big Green Target is 100-percent weatherproof, features double-sided targets on the front and back, and is built with 100% recycled heat bonded, layered foam that is capable of stopping arrows shot at 350 feet per second or more. While each target is designed to stop blazing fast arrows, they are also built with arrow ease-of-removal in mind to ensure an enjoyable shooting experience.

The “Green” in Big Green Target refers to the company’s commitment to the environment. Each target is produced from 100-percent post-industrial waste that, without being put to good use, would have ended up in a landfill. To top it off, Big Green Targets accepts all used targets for recycling as well, but don’t expect to wear them out any time soon because they are built to last.

For more information or to pick up a Big Green Target for yourself, check out the Big Green Target website.

As much as I like to think I’ve got it all together, today was a not so subtle reminder that I’ve still got a nasty knack for procrastinating. I’ve gotten behind on a lot of neccessary preparations on my properties and particularly on a food plot I wanted to put in. I finally thought I had everything I needed to quickly til up my plot and plant it tonight, but of course, that didn’t work out. Ended up that my Roto tiller couldn’t dig up the hard as rock dirt and couldn’t handle getting tangled up in all the dead grass. Mission failed, even before I got to spread the seed! Luckily my landlord had a tractor that he generously put to work in clearing my plot of dead grass. Now I just need to try tilling it up one last time and hopefully I’ll be ready to put in my Whitetail Institute No Plow!

This plot I’ll be putting in will essentially be a small attractant plot, that will hopefully bring a few more deer through the area to munch on their way to and from their bedding area. No Plow is a blend primarily of Rye, Rape and Clover that should be particularly palatable and hardy during the colder fall months. If you’re planning on putting in a hunting plot yourself, here are a few tips that might be helpful.

With a blend like No Plow, it’s important to get good seed to soil contact. So when putting in something like this, try to spread the seed on a firm packed surface and then use a drag or cultipacker to make sure the contact is good. Another important suggestion I have heard from a variety of sources is to “sweeten” the plot just before the season or about 30 days after you plant. Use a high nitrogren fertilizer, like 34-0-0, to give your plot an extra boost in productiveness and attractiveness for the season. Another great benefit of planting something like No Plow, with a high Rye content, is that it will give your soil a great nitrogen boost the next spring. The root systems hold a lot of nitrogen, which come spring when disced up will release and help your current crops. Many people plant a grain in the fall to prepare their spring plots for Clover or Alfalfa, and this is exactly what I plan to do. Next spring I’ll be expanding the size of this plot and putting in a perennial clover, so I’ll be getting the attracting power of grains this fall and the added benefit of soil improvement for the spring!

Anyone else recently put in a fall hunting plot? What kind of plot did you put in?

Today we’ll be launching a contest to find out who needs a safety harness the most! If you’ve ever had a close call in your tree stand where you almost fell or did fall out of the stand, we want to hear your story. Whoever has the craziest story or closest call gets a brand new Exo Tech harness sent to your home. The winner will also have their story shared on Wired To Hunt!

All you have to do is write up a quick paragaph or two explaining your incident and then email it to wiredtohunt@gmail.com. The contest will be open til Thursday at midnight EST and the winner will be announced Friday morning. This is a really awesome harness and it retails for $150 bucks! So make sure to send in your story to have a chance to win one of the most comfortable and technologically advanced harnesses to date.

Check out the video below for further details on the harness!

Guest Post: 5 Reasons To Plant Food Plots Now – Whitetail 365: Here are a few good tips about planting food plots now shared with us from John Barsody of Frigid Forage. I’m putting in a last minute plot next week, so I thought this was particularly useful for me at the time!

Big KS Bucks – HBinMotion: I had to include this post because I love seeing monster bucks on trailcam. Check out these pics that Mike Hunsucker of Heartland Bowhunter got down in Kansas. What I wouldn’t give to see a buck like these walk in front of me!

More Velvet Roadkill – Bear Eats Buck – Mike Hanback’s Big Deer: Over the last week, pictures have been floating around the internet of a bear eating a velvet buck, alive, on the side of the road. If you haven’t seen them yet, check out this post.

Last Batch of Pictures – Non-typical Hunter: The blogging world was a little slow this week, so there weren’t a ton of posts out there. That being said, more trailcam pics were definitely a highlight! Marc Anthony has some giants he’s chasing this fall, you’ve gotta see these bucks.

I know you all can feel it, deep down in your bones, hunting season is nearly upon us. For some of you it’s merely days away and for others there is still a month to go, but either way it can’t come soon enough. This was a sentiment I felt very strongly this past weekend, as I had the chance to make the trip down to the big buck land of Illinois. As many of you know, I’ll be hunting this fall with Oak Tree Outfitters in November and on Saturday we had the great chance to head down early, see the property and get acquainted with this monster buck haven. Sitting here now today, it’s hard for me to describe the excitement and anticipation thats running through my veins as I think about this trip. If my visit this past weekend told me anything, it’s that come November,  I’ll definitely be hunting in the right place, with the right people and I’ll have a great chance at some giant whitetail bucks.

Coming to Oak Tree for the first time, it was great to finally meet Josh the outfitting manager and main guide. Josh was super personable and obviously very knowledgeable about hunting big bucks and the properties we will be on. When we stepped into his personal trophy room, I was a bit star struck. It is literally filled from head to toe with bucks like the ones in the above picture and that was proof enough for me that I could trust Josh to set us up well! It sounds like the areas I’ll be hunting will be the main stomping grounds for a whole lot of bucks just like these, so I’m planning on seeing some monsters.

After getting to know Josh and chatting for awhile, we began a full tour of the property. It took us about 3 hours of driving around and exploring to see the main sections of the land and I left with high hopes for many of the different locations we checked out. Josh has got tons of great set ups and this is about as classic of a big buck property as you can get. Loads of crops and food plots, separated by thick timber, ridges and draws. It doesn’t get much better than that. In the picture below, you can see most of the area I’ll be hunting.

In about two and half months I’ll be returning to Oak Tree Outfitters but this time with my stick and string. What’s great about this trip is that we’ll be the only ones on the property and we’ll have relatively free reign to hunt it how we would like. For us it will essentially be a self guided trip, with Josh there to assist if we need it. I can’t wait to get back out there, develop a strategy and  then get in a treestand. As I’ve said before, I’m super excited about hitting the Illinois woods and Josh and Oak Tree Outfitters seem to be the perfect team to help get me out there. These guys are a class act and true big buck slayers. If any of you are looking to set up a last minute hunt for this fall, I believe Oak Tree has one or two openings left, so get in touch with Josh. You can visit the Oak Tree Outfitters website for more info and contact information. Look for video from my trip to come soon!

]]> http://wiredtohunt.com/2010/08/26/preseason-prep-in-illinois-with-oak-tree-outfitters/feed/ 0 http://wiredtohunt.com/2010/08/25/book-review-whitetail-access-by-chris-eberhart/ http://wiredtohunt.com/2010/08/25/book-review-whitetail-access-by-chris-eberhart/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:40:55 +0000 Mark Kenyon http://wiredtohunt.com/?p=2120

Over the past year I’ve discovered a tremendous deer hunting resource, accessible to anyone across the country, but hailing from my home state of Michigan. This invaluable resource is the Eberhart family! John Eberhart and his son, Chris Eberhart, have written several tremendous books and produced a series of incredibly informative instructional hunting DVDs. John Eberhart is one of the most succesful hunters in the state of Michigan and his son Chris has certainly followed in his steps closely. Chris has once again exhibited his hunting prowess and knack for writing in his most recent book, Whitetail Access. This is a book that I read from cover to cover in less than a week and thats something I haven’t done in quite awhile. Needless to say, I highly recommend Whitetail Access.

Whitetail Access is the journal of Chris living the deer hunter’s dream. As many of us have only imagined doing, Chris was able to take a complete season off to go hunt whitetails across the country. In this book ,  Chris brings the reader along for his journey, while enlightening us on his strategies for effectively and affordably hunting deer in some of the best big buck states across the country.

And when I say effectively and affordably, I really mean it. Chris isn’t hunting with outfitters, staying in fancy lodges or eating at 4 star restaurants in the off hours. No, you’ll hear first hand about the van he sleeps in, the cold cans of soup he eats for dinner and the ways he has found access to and hunts private and public land strategically in a short amount of time. This book is full of great tips about ways to save a few bucks during a hunting trip, as well as strategies for making your trip as fruitful as possible. One of my favorite things about the book is that he diagrams almost all of his hunting setups, so that you can see why he decides to hunt from certain locations. Chris seems to be a master at breaking a piece of land down and understanding how deer utilize it. There truly is a whole new set of strategies you need to use when trying to hunt unfamiliar land in a short period and luckily we are able to get some insight into many of these. Chris covers scouting these new areas quickly and disturbance free, how to and when to hunt certain areas, how to deal with nearby hunting pressure and a slew of other valuable topics.

That being said, this book ranks near the top of my list not only because of the information it provides, but also because of the story it tells. Few informative hunting books move at such a pace and cover such an interesting story along the way. Reading this book, I really felt like I was on a 4 month hunting expedition too! During his 4 months, Chris hunts across Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Missouri and it is a wild ride. So if you’re anticipation for the hunting season is driving you crazy in the next month or so, giving Whitetail Access a read might be just the ticket for you!

As I’ve mentioned, I would highly recommend Whitetail Access to any one of you. It is an information packed book specializing in strategies for finding access to and hunting private and public lands in away from home states. But possibly most importantly it is an enthralling tale of an amazing hunting season and a dream that many of us wish we could live. Pick up a copy of Whitetail Access and I can almost guarantee you’ll have a hard time putting it down and an even harder time waiting for your next chance to get out and hunt those amazing Whitetails!

For more info about Chris Eberhart or to pick up a copy for yourself, visit the Eberhart’s Bowhunting website here.

This past weekend was full of deer hunting related fun as I got some great accessories for my bow as birthday gifts and travelled to Illinois to check out Oak Tree Outfitters. But one of my favorite parts of the weekend was on Sunday, when my girlfriend’s family came over to cook out and shoot bows. It’s always a good time when I get to fling a few arrows down range, but this was a particularly enjoyable outing because I had the chance to watch a couple young bucks just getting started with a bow. My girlfriend’s nephew and step-brother both were just trying out bows for close to the first time and it was a blast to see them get started.

Elliot, the 6 year old nephew, was particularly excited about getting started with his new bow and making sure we all saw it too! Firing off arrows from about 4 yards out, he managed to stick quite a few fletchless arrows into the block. Although he may have sent just as many into the corn too! Lost arrows or not, this was the beginning of what I certainly hope is a long passion for shooting and bowhunting. In a few more years and after a bow upgrade or two, I sure hope I’ll get to see him stick a deer some day!

If you ever have the chance, take a young kid out to the woods or to the range, as often as you can. They are truly the next generation of hunters, and we all owe it to them and our sport to bring them into the fold. That being said, I’m curious who are the next hunters that you all are bringing into the hunting world? Post your shout outs for the next, next generation of hunters in the comments!

Thanks to “Ross Outfitters” for the pics!

Q & A with Heartland Bowhunter member Skyler Wirsig – Passion or Obession: This is pretty self explanatory, but I really enjoyed this interview with one of the members of the Heartland Bowhunter show.

Bowhunting World: Mark and Terry Drury – Mike Hanback’s Big Deer: This story was actually posted last week, but I still thought it was worth sharing. Check out this interview for some good insight into the world of two hunting icons, the Drurys.

Dealing With Drought – Growing Deer TV: With so many midwest states experiencing extreme heat, I thought this video would be particularly useful and interesting. Watch this clip to hear Dr. Grant Woods’ advice for helping your food plots get through droughts.

The Best Climbing Treestand for Deer Hunting – Whitetail365: Scott Bestul shares with us what his favorite climbing treestand is, gives his reasons and then gets the readers to share their thoughts too. If you’re in the market for a climber, this is a great article to check out. Definitely check out the comments too.