Here’s a great story from a friend at Midwest Whitetail. Jack Borcherding’s Iowa kill is a great one to help get us all motivated to sit on stand for long hours during the upcoming weeks. Congrats Jack! – MK

“It all started last year in late October on a cool windy evening. Jared Mills and I just finished work at the Midwest Whitetail office. I looked at the weather and the wind was right for a spot not five minutes away. We decided to go. Jared grabbed the camera and I grabbed my Hoyt. We got all set up and had a great evening. It was beautiful in the woods. It wasn’t until about last light for the camera when a mature buck reared his face. The buck was walking away and I knew I needed to do something so I grunted at him and he stopped, but then continued on walking. It was too good of a buck to give up on, so I let out a snort wheeze and he stopped and turned instantly. Light was fading fast as he closed the distance to 30 yards. I had an arrow on and was ready to draw back when I heard Jared whisper, ” Too Dark, Too Dark”, My heart sank as my first opportunity for an Iowa giant slipped away into the darkness of the night. That is how the deer got his name.

After running a trail camera on the small property all this summer, I was finally able to get a photo of what I thought was “The Dark Knight”. I made a plan to hunt October 13th. The wind was out of the west and perfect for the spot. After hunting in the morning with camera man, Hunter Kailos, and only seeing a few deer I knew this spot was a night spot but I was not discouraged. The winds were heavy and it was a cool evening about mid 50s. The winds were supposed to calm down around 6:00 pm, and exactly at 6:00 pm the winds died down and the woods came alive. As a young button buck nursed his mom, and a 4 pointer fed on acorns behind us, I looked across the creek and was instantly in awe. I turned to Hunter and said “Buck, Big Buck”.

The buck was walking away and even though it was early in the season I decided to grunt at the buck. He stopped and reared his ears back. Then he proceeded to jump the fence and cross the creek. Once across, he made a rub and Hunter and I could tell he was mad. At this point the buck was about 70 yards away and moved a little closer to about 60 yards where he then made a scrape. I would describe the way it looked just like a dog digging up his favorite bone. I grabbed my Death Chamber call and decided to give a small short quiet snort wheeze and he started to come closer. As my heart was pounding in my chest, the deer got closer and closer. He finally made it to about 25 yards and I drew my bow. I asked Hunter, ” Are you on him?”, he replied, ” yes”, and I let the arrow fly. The arrow hit the deer in the shoulder and got good penetration. I was ecstatic. I had just killed not only my first Iowa buck, It was my first buck kill on video and my first mature buck with a bow. After congratulations with Hunter we headed back to the office. We looked at the video and concluded that the shot was a little high and forward, so we would let him lay over night in hopes of not bumping the deer.

After a sleepless night, Hunter, Jared, Ben Koopman and I headed to pick up the trail. We were sure that there would not be much blood with a shot like that. We found small spots here and there and then it stopped. Then we decided to spread out because we knew he was finished. Then about the same time Jared got to the side of the hill I hear,” I see a deer, I see it too”. I had succeeded! Walking up on the deer was amazing and the deer was huge, not rack wise but body wise. After recovering the deer I realized that it was the same deer Jared and I were not about to kill the previous year, “The Dark Knight”. The feeling of being able to put a plan together and kill a deer that had eluded my arrow the year before was amazing. So, sounding like a sequel to a Batman movie, ” The Dark Knight Falls”.  - Jack Borcherding , Midwest Whitetail Iowa

To see Jack’s hunt on video, visit the Midwest Whitetail Iowa show by clicking the link.

The hunting film industry took off  years ago with the likes of Buckmasters, the Drury’s and other popular hunting videos and DVDs. In recent years the expansion of hunting cable networks has increased the number of hunting shows ten fold and now with the explosion of high speed internet and social media, the rise of the online hunting show has begun. The online medium has opened up a whole new world of possibilities with semi-live releases of episodes, interactive videos and  instant access availability. Online hunting shows have changed the game and it’s safe to say that they’re popularity will only continue to rise. So today, while still in their infancy, lets take a look at a few of today’s  top online hunting shows.

Midwest Whitetail: MW, pictured above, was one of the first and definitely the most successful online hunting show to hit the web. Created by acclaimed whitetail writer Bill Winke, Midwest Whitetail has been so succesful that it recently has begun airing on the Sportsman Channel as well! With unique shows for all the midwest states and new episodes aired weekly during the season, you’ll be hard pressed to find more up-to-date and high quality video coverage of deer hunting online.

Bow Hunt Or Die: Produced by the Bowhunting.com crew, Bow Hunt Or Die has become one of the absolute best destinations online for great deer hunting action on film. Todd Graff and Justin Zarr host this weekly online show as the BH.com pro staff chases monster bucks across Illinois, Wisconsin and other locales across the country. These guys have been putting some really good footage together and their coverage of the season and off-season is top notch. On top of the great videos, they also have a great bowhunting blog featuring authors such as yours truly! haha.

Whitetails Inc: Created by Todd Pringnitz of White Knuckle Productions, Whitetails Inc is another really great online hunting show. If you’ve enjoyed the WKP DVDs, you’ll love Whitetails Inc. I love Todd’s unbridled enthusiasm for the hunt and the fact that all of the hard work and prep for a hunt is featured. This isn’t a show featuring kill shot after kill shot, instead you get a behind the scenes look at all that goes into the year round pursuit of mature whitetails.

Growing Deer TV: Created by renowned wildlife biologist Dr. Grant Woods, Growing Deer TV is the #1 resource I know of for great video tips on deer, deer hunting and deer management. Weekly episodes cover everything from food plot strategies, to management philosophies and deer hunting tips. If you’re looking to learn, Growing Deer TV is a must watch show.

Work’n Class Whitetails: Most of the Work’n Class Whitetails crew has been involved with the Work’n Class Whitetail DVDs, but now these boys have partnered with Realtree to develop an online show that will be airing on Realtree.tv. The first few episodes are up now!

Reality Driven Pursuits:  A group of avid hunters from the midwest have teamed up to chase monster whitetails and just about anything else that you can find roaming the woods. I had the privilege to hunt with Chad Searcey, founder of RDP, this past November and I can assure you that these guys are doing some good work.

Here are a few more up and coming online hunting shows that are worth checking out! Full Drawn Pursuit, Greenback Tactical Hunters, The Chase Outdoors .

Be sure to keep an eye out for more great video from Wired To Hunt this year as well, including semi-live episodes throughout the 2011 season!

Now I know there are plenty more online shows popping up every day, so if you know of any others that we should check out, let us know in the comments!

I’m so excited to be able to share with you all the incredible story of how our good friends Bo Parker and Scott Mensing put down a true Kansas giant and  their #1 hit list buck, Potato Digger. Bo and Scott are members of the Midwest Whitetail team and fellow bloggers on their site Midwest Bowhunter and I’ve really come to enjoy following their hunting journeys over the past year. The history for Bo and Scott with this buck is phenomenal and the fact that they were able to specifically target this deer and actually take him is a mark of true hunting prowess. So lets take a look at a few details of this incredible hunt and then visit Midwest Bowhunter for the full story and all the history. It’s a good one.

“In the summer of 2010, Digger was once again the first mature buck to show up on trail cam. It appeared that he hadn’t changed a whole lot, but his beams had amazingly grown even longer! He had officially reached the “Stud” level in our book as a 5.5 year old KS brute. We were extremely excited to have the opportunity to chase this legend again. His dominant nature was very obvious to us during the summer months as his aggressive demeanor towards other bucks showed even as early as July. He seemed to really command the corn pile… even when feeding near much higher scoring bucks, such as Crab Claw 9. Potato Digger was officially named the #1 buck on our 2010 hitlist… even though we had larger antlered deer to chase. Our history with him and his aggressive nature made him our top priority this year. We hung stands, built ground blinds, and planted food plots specifically for this deer. It was time to take down our old nemesis.

On Friday, October 22nd, around 6:45 PM, the final chapter of our quest for Potato Digger was written.

I don’t want to spoil the footage, so you’ll have to watch the Great Plains show on www.midwestwhitetail.com. I will say that it was an incredible hunt that involved rattling and some intense decoy action. I shot him off the ground and he dressed out over 240 lbs. His beams measured 28″+ and his green gross score was 148 1/8th. Harvesting him was the result of a lot of hard work and was truly a team effort. He belongs to Scott as much as he does to me. We earned this buck! I’d also like to say a special thanks to Craig Galey, our neighbor, for giving me the match to the 2008 shed that Scott found. I now have both matched sets and they will be displayed with the mount in some fashion.

Harvesting a deer like this is a truly humbling experience and it reminds me to give thanks to our loving father. Without you, Lord, none of this would be possible. Thank you for creating whitetails and giving some of us the passion it takes to chase them.” – Bo Parker

To read the full story, see pictures of Digger’s sheds, trailcam pics and lots of history read the full post on Midwest Bowhunter.

And to watch this exciting hunt play out on video, check out the most recent episode of Midwest Whitetail – Great Plains.

Last week Rick Knochel, host of Midwest Whitetail Missouri, smoked this gorgeous whitetail off of his hitlist. “Wishbone”, as he named this buck, ended up green scoring 142 5/8″! Check out the story below and then you can actually watch the video of this hunt on Midwest Whitetail. The video was just posted today, so this is the first look at this great hunt! Check it out here…

Rick’s Wishbone Kill – Midwest Whitetail Missouri

“Wishbone is a deer I filmed in velvet this summer.  He was easy to distinguish because of two giant brow tines on his right side.  I immediately knew this was the deer I was going to pursue early season.  On Missouri’s opening day I snuck into a small corn field with a perfect wind.  This small field was littered with giant tracks.  At 6:30 p.m. “Wishbone” was the first deer to enter the field.  My jaw dropped, my heart raced, but I was still able to draw my bow and settle my 30 yard pin!”  - Rick

Also keep your eye out for my review of the Michigan Midwest Whitetail DVD, coming shortly.

2010 was another great year for the Michigan Deer & Turkey Spectacular and it was particularly exciting for us this year at Wired To Hunt. Not only did I get to browse the usual new products, outfitters and seminars, but I also was able to record a number of great interviews to share with the Wired To Hunt Nation. We had the chance to speak with a couple great crews that are creating terrific whitetail hunting dvds and learn about some new products coming from companies such as Carbon Express and G5. We’ve got a couple of great video interviews with Real Hunting Productions “Work’N Class Whitetails”, White Knuckle Productions and Midwest Whitetail and I’ll be posting DVD reviews for all three shortly. At the show I also got to shoot the Hoyt Maxxis for the first time and oh boy is that a sweet bow.

Overall it seemed like the show was a great success, full of excited hunters and terrific companies and outfitters. Keep an eye out for video interviews, product updates and reviews coming soon!

For anyone that was at the show, what did you guys think?

There will be 10 unique shows this year covering all the “Midwest” states and they already have a  lot of great episodes from this fall’s early seasons. You can check out the home page at MidwestWhitetail.com and if you are a Michigan hunter like me, you can get to the Michigan online videos directly by following this link . This series covers the hunting season from preseason scouting all the way through the fall. I highly recommend checking out your own states videos as your season progresses. Who knows you might pick up a tip or trick that will help you out the next time you hit the woods!

Here’s a sample of a video from last season with the founder Bill Winke…