The Rut is Almost Here!

Okay, so I have slacked off a bit in keeping up on my blog but I have a great excuse. I have been hunting for the last 3 weeks. I would be lying if I said it has been a great season for me so far. It has actually been frustrating. However, three individuals that I hunt with have tagged out here in Kansas. I think this has been the longest pre-rut that I can remember. I just haven't seen a lot of peak rut activity. The little bucks are chasing does around when they can find them. The fawns are by themselves or grouped together. The big boys are moving only at night and the alpha does are almost non-existent. Any does that I have seen don't show any signs of being bred. The rut guides (provided by various private companies) all advise that the peak of the rut is really late this year and is scheduled to break free on this coming week. I hope it comes tomorrow! If you have not tagged out yet, don't worry. My my two biggest bucks were both shot in late December, well after the rut. I am not convinced the rut has officially arrived yet.

I will not tell you how many hours I have put in the tree stand already this year, on grounds that it may incriminate me with my understanding wife :), but it has been a lot. I have the next few days to hunt a cold front that is moving in but after that, I will be hunting the frigid days of December.

Aaron gives a bull buck the judo chop!

My brother-in-law, Aaron, shot an old dominant mainframe 8 point with 11 scoreable points. This buck looks like a bull with a neck that measured over 29" without his hide. Wow! I am guessing the deer is at least 7 1/2 years old. We had a picture of him last year but he has gone down hill a little since then. What a true trophy. He gross scored in the upper 130's and was a great kill with Aaron running out of time to hunt. Congrats Red Fox!
(Details on the story to follow)

Steve Knocks Down Crab Claw!

Here is a picture of Crab Claw before he was shot:




The second picture is of Crab Claw after being harvested by my cousin Steve. He ended up gross scoring in the upper 150's. This buck was on our top four hit list this year. Great job Steve!
(story of the hunt to follow)

Jeff gives the first buck in our group a dirt nap.

My brother Jeff shot a mainframe 8 point this morning. He called him all the way across a large CRP field with his coaxing grunt tube. Jeff is getting pretty good at calling and rattling deer. Good job, bro!

Brian starts off the season with a monster!

Brian is a co-worker of mine that has been hunting hard for big mature bucks over the last three or four years. He has been studying whitetail deer and is making quick progress. At the beginning of November, Brian knocked down a really nice Kansas deer (his biggest to date). I asked Brian to describe the hunt in his own words. Congratulations Brian!!

Ah...what a great day! I crept into my stand at about 5:30 this morning (early, I know) in Wabaunsee County. I got all settled in with a southeast wind at the side of my face. I started in with a rattle/grunt sequence. About thirty minutes went by. Just when I reached for the antlers again, I noticed movement from about 150 yards away. This big Kansas bruised gingerly walks in and renews a scrape at about 45 yards from my stand. My heart is pounding at this point and I was worried that he would catch my scent. He walked to the right, turned his nose up and didn't seem to like what he was smelling. So...off to the left he went. He was starting to have a diagonal approach while walking closer to me. He got into about 30 yards...had to wait for him to look away before I could draw. He finally looked back where he came from. It gave me just enough time to settle in and let an arrow fly! The arrow hit him hard. I got a double lung shot up higher than normal. He ran about 60 yards before he crashed. WHOOT!! I took him to Cabela's to have him scored by a B&C guy. He is unofficially 168 3/8". They even took a 5" deduction while tallying up the score. This is my second ever buck. I'm feeling really blessed right now.

Rebecah's 320" Bull Elk

This is a giant bull elk that was harvested in Colorado by Steamboat Springs. It was taken by the wife of one of my friends. What a beutiful animal. Great job Gary and Rebecah!

October Lull

If you are like me, you were really excited to get out in the woods opening week to bow hunt. I had 3 specific deer that I was after. I have numerous trail camera pictures of them and felt like I had them somewhat patterned. I had set aside 5 days to hunt bucks and 2 more days to doe hunt. This almost seemed easy to me as I planned everything out based on my information obtained last year. I thought by October 3rd I would have a couple of does and a big buck on the ground. We even had a cool down in temperatures and the right wind for 3 consecutive days. Everything was set for success.

From the first day of hunting, things have been frustrating and unpredictable. The first night out I hunted with my Dad on a food plot where we saw 3 shooters last year (at this time), plus 20 additional deer. Unfortunately we saw only 2 consisting of a small buck and a curious doe who touched my ground blind window with her nose. Where were all of the deer? The food plot had burned up in our current drought and wasn't pulling the deer in like last year. I blamed the food plot but didn't think much more of it. Time to move to another farm with better fields and food plots.

I spent the next 3 days hunting my favorite stands without seeing a single buck and sometimes not even seeing a deer. I also had to give up a hunt one evening to chase off some (would be) trespassers trying to hunt our fence line. What was happening to my plan and where did all of the deer go. My stand locations were dead, they weren't coming to the food plots and soybean fields. I didn't even get a single big buck picture on our 7 trail cameras either. Frustrated, I began to experience the thoughts about all of the other things I could have been doing with my time off. Like spending more time with the family, getting work done around the house, taking the wife out on a date, school work, etc., etc. What had happened to all of the deer? I blamed the October Lull! I blamed the weather and the farm. I should have blamed myself.

So, I have been thinking a lot about this the last couple of days. How could hunting be so good last year during the early season but so poor this season. I did recognize that our weather pattern was different but other hunters that I have talked to have also experienced the same problem. Their big bucks have vanished. Where could they have gone? Is the October Lull for real. Do bucks bed down and lay around for a couple of weeks before the rut kicks in? I started to believe this was true but I still knew I needed to take ownership for my lack of success. What was I doing wrong?

Kansas has been extremely dry for the last three months. Our creeks are dry, ponds are only half full, most have harvested their failed corn crops, the soybean fields have only produced half of their potential, etc., etc. I knew this was different from last year but it was still able to pattern bucks in August and the first 2 weeks of September. Then something changed and I missed it. Due to the hot dry weather, the bean fields have dried up significantly and have turned yellow. Deer will stop hitting them hard until late season now. Due to weather, forage is also changing in the woods sooner that normal. Acorns are already falling, the leaves and forages in the woods have changed more significantly and are sweet and palpatable, apples and persimmons are ripe for the taking. The deer are now eating mostly in and around their bedding areas where they have security cover. There is no need to travel long distances to crop fields when they have all they need right now in their bedroom. This usually doesn't happen in our area until October 10th but due to our weather pattern it has started 2-3 weeks earlier. I failed to recognize the change and was hunting the wrong areas.

So what can we learn from this? Remain flexible in your hunting. Just because you think you have the deer patterned and have a great plan to ambush them today, doesn't mean you wont have to throw it out the window tomorrow if you want to be successful. Although we have to remain persistent and put our time in the stand to be successful on mature bucks, we also must remain flexible with an open mind.

I have learned a valuable lesson for next season. Even though I currently have a better understanding of where the bucks may be and what they are doing right now, I am not about to move in on them in their bedding areas and over pressure them. For me, I would rather give them a month to be comfortable and not pressured before the rut. At the end of October I will start again on trying to pattern the bucks during the pre-rut. I usually start by moving from the outside in. This gives me something to prepare for and look forward to next month. Besides, we probably don't have a lot of nice days left after this month to finish our work around the house and have fun with our families outside. It is time to get outside and enjoy the weather.

8 Years Ago Today

September is usually one of the most exciting months for deer hunters (next to November). The mornings are beginning to become cooler and the grass is filled with dew. As archers, we are shooting our bows now more than probably any other time of the year. We want to ensure our equipment is on its mark and building our confidence for that moment when the big one steps out. I also look forward to the early season evening hunts. The deer don't know that the season has begun and they are still fairly predictable in their feeding patterns.

However, September is also a month that has two days that are personally challenging for me. One day that I obviously struggle with, as a firefighter, is Patriot Day. Just like you, I reflect back on that horrible day on 9-11-01 when our country was cheap shotted by a bunch of cowards. I ache for the firefighters and their families that had their lives turned upside down with the loss of 343 of our brothers and sisters in the fire service. Not to mention the loss our country felt from the additional thousands of victims that died that day. I happened to be working on shift this year for the 10 year anniversary of Patriot Day. We had numerous families stop by the station to express their gratitude and bring us food. One lady said to me that she was so grateful for the sacrifices that firefighters made that day. I replied that although I did feel a special bond to our lost 343, I feel Patriot Day is truly about Americans and not just firefighters. She replied, "what do you mean?" I continued that there were no firefighters on Flight 93 but those passengers were truly heroes as they attempted to reclaim the plane from their attackers. They saved hundreds or thousands of lives that day. There are countless stories about ordinary people who stepped up that day to do courageous things, saving lives. They are as much a Patriot as as I am as a firefighters and they displayed the true courage and pride that all Americans should have inside their hearts. Today we are free but we should never stop defending that freedom. We should never stop thanking those soldiers that have, or currently are, defending that freedom for us. Please- don't let a soldier, or previous soldier, walk by without thanking them for their sacrifices. It is the least we can do!

The second day that I struggle with each year in September is today. Eight years ago on September 19th I received a phone call at the fire house while I was finishing my shift. It was my father who struggled to maintain his composure as he explained that my grandfather had passed away. I still vividly remember how he struggled to get the words out and how hard it was for me to comprehend and accept the information. You see, my Grandpa Fred had been one of my best friends and hunting buddies. So I actually lost three people that day. A grandpa, a best friend and a hunting buddy! I still often feel his loss, eight years later.

So, what does this have to do with hunting? Actually it has a lot to do with hunting. Patriot Day should be a day that we morn the loss of heroes and Americans. It is also a day that we should be thankful that we are Americans and have the freedom to hunt animals and pursue our passions. Think of all those soldiers that are protecting us when many of them would rather be hunting just like us.

September 19th is a day that I lost a loved one who was responsible (in conjunction with my father) for sharing the outdoors with me. I am a hunter because of his influence. How did you get into hunting? Have you taken the time to thank those that introduced you into hunting? Better yet, have you tried to return the favor by taking them hunting or fishing? Have you introduced someone new to hunting? I am not oblivious to the fact that we are all going to experience loss in our lives. What is important is that we cherish what we have and who we have in our lives today with no regrets tomorrow.

Thanks Grandpa Fred! We miss you and know your in a better place.

(The last picture taken of grandpa, before he passed on, is at the bottom of this page to the right)

Fall Food Plots Have Been Planted

Today my Dad and I headed down to the farm to re-cooperate some of our fields that were choked out with weeds this summer. We still have some standing corn left but the deer and coons hammered it this summer. Three weeks ago we brush hogged the fields, sprayed them, and disked them. We have been waiting three weeks for some rain but could not wait any longer. Although there were areas that still had a lot of dead grass on them, we didn't have to do to much to get them ready. I disked all the fields twice to chop up any remaining dead grass and prepare the seed bed while Dad drove to a nearby farmers to borrow his culti-packer (I am hopeful that we can buy it).

Once the fields were prepared I couldn't help myself and had to go check the trail cameras that I had out. I got a few more pictures of Sling Shot and Lucky #7 out of velvet (he should go 170") but I accidentally deleted them trying to move them to my specific 2011 trail camera file (sorry). They sure seem to be somewhat photogenic. I also had two pictures of the neighbor driving his 4-wheeler along the property line. Hmmmm.

Most farmers have already harvested their corn. They tell us that the soybean fields are green but have very few pods on them. This is going to be a bad year for farmers in our area. We will have to see how it affects our hunting. I remember two years ago when it was December and farmers still had standing corn in the fields.

I did get pictures of three new bucks on a pond that hasn't dried up yet. One buck is a mainframe 10 and the other two are nine pointers.








Once Dad arrived we fertilized, seeded and rolled approximately 5.5 acres. We planted Whitetail Institutes Chickory Clover and Pure Attraction. We also planted Mossy Oak Biologic Maximum and Green Patch Plus. I can't wait to see what they can do but we really need some rain. The ground is cracking and the creeks are dried up.

We are only 10 days away from opening day. I can't wait to get out there at the end of the month and hunt some early season bucks. I think there is a good chance that one of us could see Lucky#7. Get your stands up, hunting clothes washed, and broadheads shot in. It is almost deer season!!!

More August Trail Camera Pictures

Five days ago Dad went down to the farm and sprayed our fall food plots for weeds and grasses a few days after we brush hogged. So, today we went down there to start discing the fields to prepare them for planting before our next rain (not sure when that is going to happen). The grass was dead but still pretty thick. I hope our seed will be able to penetrate the grass and make good soil contact when we do get to plant. Maybe we can plant next week if we can just get some rain to move in. The fields are extremely dry right now.

While we were there I checked some of our cameras. I did get 6 more pictures of Lucky #7 and his bachelor group on a food plot called Field #3. I had placed some Whitetail Institute Kraze mineral attractant. The bucks just love the stuff! I also put up some snow fencing on one side of this field to funnel them through the food plot. Lucky #7 was still in velvet as of yesterday but bucks are starting to show up out of velvet already. In fact, the more I look at the pictures of Can Opener from last week, the more I think he was already out of velvet.

There was no sign of Can Opener on the cameras this time (bummer). So, I decided to move all of the cameras around to new locations to scout other parts of the farm. I probably won't check them for 4 weeks unless I have time to check them after we finish planting next week. My Dad and Cousin think that Can Opener is going to be hard to kill because he moves at night and is skittish. Lucky #7 could push him off the farm if they start establishing their dominance. Do mature bucks battle for territory and push one another out of an area completely? I am not sure. We need to shoot Can Opener before the rut though because those long brow tines are bound to get broken once he starts fighting with other bucks.

On our way home, Dad and I decided to stop and check some of the other cameras that have been up for the last 3 weeks at our other farms. It looks like our newest farm has a couple of shooters on it. That is exciting considering the cameras were not located near any food sources. Here is what they look like:






I call this buck Lefty because he has 7 points on his left side and only 4 main points on his right side. He seems to be a mature buck and is pictured in the 3 photos above.




There are actually three bucks in these 2 pictures. The 2 shooters in front (on the left) with a smaller buck to the right. Both of the larger bucks are difficult to make out but I know they are not Lefty. They appear to be over the 140"+ class. Hopefully I can get more pictures of them to determine what they really are.


This is a group of younger bucks that were hanging out together on another farm. The larger of the 3 will be nice in a couple of years with a lot of character.

August Velvet Pictures

Well, I went down to one of our hunting farms this weekend to do some brush hogging with my Dad. Unfortunately we are going to be replanting half of our food plots on that farm due to a wet spring (weeds) and a miserably hot summer. I do enjoy working the fields with my Dad though. We have a good time together and it is fun to experience the anticipation on how well the food plots will do later in the fall.


I had previously put up 4 trail cameras on that farm, 10 days ago, to start our deer inventory. When I returned home to check the 4 SD cards I had 2400 pictures. It took me half the night to go through all of them. I baited the picture sights with Trophy Rock and corn. Most of the pictures were does and their spotted fawns. However, there were some young bucks and 3 shooter bucks. I always struggle trying to score deer on trail cameras when they are in velvet. Many times the deer end up being larger than they appear on trail cameras, however, sometimes the opposite is true and they end up smaller. This is especially true of velvet pictures.

Here just a few of the pictures that I found on the cameras. I would be curious to here what you think they will score. Let me know what your best guess would be.





1. Slingshot- I believe this deer is a 3 year old. He was a huge 4 point last year. I am not sure he is good to have around with his lack of points (poor genetics) but he is interesting, none the less. He looks like a mule deer.






2. Crab Claw- This buck is pictured last year under the 2010 tab of the blog (November). His G-2's have split and he has added some length to his beams. This buck should also be taken out because he won't amount to much more. I believe he is 4 years old.







3. Can Opener- I do have a picture of a large 8 pointer last winter that had a lot of trash on his bases but I am not sure it is the same deer as this one. I call this deer can opener because his super tall G-1's are split and look like can openers. I'm guessing they are 8" long. This buck seams to be spooky and only moved at dark around 2 o'clock in the morning. He may be hard to kill. He was by himself (not in a bachelor group) and appears to be out of velvet already.





4. Lucky #7- My wife named this deer because he has 7 points on each side and is a typical 14 point. WOW! I have a picture of him as a mainframe 10 last year walking in the sun (see August 24, 2010 posting). I didn't recognize him at first from previous pictures but he seems to be related to the crab claw buck, and another 10 point the property owner killed last season, with his crab claw-like points. He added 4 points this year. This buck was fairly photogenic and walked by 3 of the 4 cameras that I had out.


I can't wait to finish planting the food plots in the next couple of weeks. Then I can focus on practicing with my bow and getting ready for early season. It is only a month away! Once I check them, I will post any pictures that I get from the other cameras that we have out. Take care.

Pictures of fishing in Wisconsin

Steve's bass


Ryder's 5 lb. largemouth bass (caught all by himself). Actually, he picked the spot to fish too.
My brother Ben

Liz's smallmouth bass
Grandma's bass (she still can fish!)
The Cabin

I'm Back!

Well, I have to apologize if you have checked my blog in the last couple of months and found no updates. I have been pretty busy with work, school, vacation and the family life. Last week I put out 8 trail cameras so I should have some pictures to post in a couple of weeks. Hopefully there will be a couple huge bucks to get excited about. I put some corn down to help the deer find the Trophy Rock in front of the cameras. A friend of mine has placed 2- 25 gallon drums of water by his Trophy Rock and they have been producing a lot of pictures for him in this dry Kansas heat. Unfortunately we lost one of our farms to hunt this summer but there are still 6 for us to hunt.

Kansas had a ton of rain this spring to feed the weeds and then July came with no heat and temperatures over 100 for the majority of the month. I have never seen our creeks dried up before (except for the deeper pools) on our farms. We missed our 3 weeks straight of 100 degree days while we were in Wisconsin (pictures to come). It was 75 up there and hard to come back to the miserable heat. The fields look bad down south for corn but the soybeans seem to be doing okay. They are just a little shorter than usual. The local seed distributors here tell me that a lot of farmers are already starting to combine corn fields (for silage) because the are all dried out. When I checked our corn at the farm last week (to put out cameras) I found them in pretty good shape. Here is what our food plots look like:

Field #1- Corn looks good, except on the west side of the plot. The corn didn't grow well on that side and the weeds choked it out a bit. We are going to plant an annual there this month (probably Biologic Maximum). The coons are hitting this corn pretty hard. Any suggestions to get rid of them? We have traps but we aren't down there enough this time of year. The existing clover that is on the north side of this field looks dormant. We will have to fertilize it and try to get it to come back as the weather cools and we get some rain.

Field #2- This spring we broadcast 2.5 acres of soybeans and planted the rest in corn seed from last year. The corn didn't make it and the weeds choked out the soybeans so we are going to leave the weeds/corn on the perimeter of the field and plant whitetail clover and Maximum in the middle 2.5 acres of it.

Field #3- Deer ate the clover down making room for the current weed patch. I have talked with 2 separate experts from the Whitetail Institute and Mossy Oak Biologic and I am going to have to except the fact that a perinial just won't make it in this field. From now on we will only plant annual plots on field #3. With the current PH, we will be planting Maximum.

Field #4- Corn looks great in the field (except for the far west corner. So we are going to replant the west corner with Wintergreens (Whitetail Institute).

Well, considering our drought this summer I am pleased that most of our corn made it. Actually I saw a corn field a few miles away that had an irrigation system for it and it still looked no better than ours. Unfortunately we have to plant almost half of our 13 acres of food plots thanks to the Kansas weather/summer. Farmers tell me they sprayed their fields 2-3 times this year and still couldn't kill all the weeds. We should have the fields planted by the end of the month with the new annual plots. After that I will start checking the cameras. I am excited about this fall because we should have an abundance of late season food for the deer. Most of the crops should come off early around us pulling the deer in. The Wintergreens and Maximum are late season plots that we chose because we already have clover. We wanted something to hold deer in addition to the corn for late season. It should be good during the rut also.

It is going to take some work and money this month but we could still salvage our fields and make them deer magnets. It will be up to God and the weather.

(P) Ben shows us how it's done!

Last weekend was a great time for the Mains boys. My Dad, three brothers and I head down to our hunting farms for 2 days to attempt to kill some turkeys. We had been planning the trip for approximately 6 months. One of my brothers (Ben) had never hunted turkeys before so this was a new experience for him. I also wanted to help my Dad harvest his first thunder chicken.

The first morning rained on us and the birds were not cooperative. So we hung a few deer stands during the middle of the day then headed out in the evening to put some birds to bed. We located a few toms in the back of a field which made a great ambush spot for the next morning. After that we all went out to dinner and strategized for the next day.

The next morning was also frustrating. We had 4 gobblers roosted within 200 yards of us at day break but they flew down to another field and worked away from us. For the afternoon hunt we split up into 3 groups to cover more ground. I saw 5 hens that afternoon but no toms. Dustin and Dad saw a couple of toms but they wouldn't come close enough to the ground blind for a shot.

Ben and Jeff headed to a field edge where I had witnessed numerous toms visiting before heading to their nightly roost. Around 7 pm they called in a huge tom into their Primos decoy set and Ben shot him. The bird had good spurs, a 10" + main beard , with a total of 4 separate beards. WOW!! I have never heard of such a thing. Ben was really excited and told me that he finally understands why we like to hunt so much. He talked about the camaraderie, adrenaline rush, hard work, team work, and sense of accomplishment. Congratulations Ben and welcome to the hunting club. That truly is a remarkable bird.

Ben plans to have a full body mount of the turkey. Sorry, it was too dark for pictures.

(P) Planting for 2011

Well, Dad and I successfully finished planting our food plots for this year. It is such a great feeling to be done! This year, with the assistance of the land owner, we burned off our old food plots (except for established clover) from last year to add nutrients to the soil and kill weeds. Then we spayed our fields with round up to kill any remaining weeds. This process eliminated the need for plowing our fields, saving a lot of time and work. The burning and spraying was necessary because our fields were full of weeds from our wet year last season.

This year we have 5 fields that will committed to food plots. The first one was planted with 1.5 acres of corn next to 1.5 acres of established Whitetail Clover. This field is located between two bedding areas.

The second field is planted with 3 acres of soybeans and one acre of corn on the north end. The 3 acres of soybeans are also surrounded by 4 rows of corn to break up the field. This was necessary because this field has CRP grass fields to the east and west making it relatively open without security cover. Last year the deer usually stayed off this field until after dark. There are also small fingers of woods to the north and south. The northeast and southeast corners of the field have small established clover food plots too.

The third field is located in the middle of the woods. We built it four years ago with a bulldozer. It is planted with 1.5 acres of new Imperial Whitetail Institutes Chicory Plus Clover. This is a great chicory and clover mix that provided us with success last season in other locations.

The forth field consists of 3 acres of corn and two small established clover plots on the south edge of them. Woods lines the west and south edges of this field.

The last field is made up of 2.5 acres of established clover and chicory. There is a thick bedding area to the east and south. The stand locations are in the woods to the north for easy ambushing.

We disced the fields, drug them, fertilized them, drug them again and planted them all in two days. We obtained a newer disc this year that worked great. We had better seed beds in our fields than ever. As long as the weeds don't cause us a problem later, our food plots should be experiencing the best year to date. Hopefully that means our deer hunting will also be the best this fall!!!! All we have to do is mow the clover periodically and spray for weeds as needed. I can't wait for deer season.

(P) Turkey hunting with the kido's!

I finally had the opportunity to take Ryder and Ashlynn turkey hunting today. They wanted to wake up in the morning and be in the ground blind by day break. I had been up late the night before completing water rescue night drills until midnight. So the last thing I wanted to do was wake up at 4 am. My plan was to sleep in until 7 and try to be in the ground blind by 9am. Ashlynn had other ideas though and proved to be more motivated than I was. I heard my bedroom door open at exactly 4am. It was Ashlynn asking if I was ready to get up and go turkey hunting. I was shocked! I asked her how she happened to wake up at exactly 4 am. She replied, " I don't know, I just knew it was time." I managed to talk her into another hour of sleep but that was it. Ashlynn and I woke Ryder up at 5 (with no problems by the way) and drove down to the farm.

We arrived in the ground blind shortly after daybreak. We sat in the ground blind for about an hour and a half with no sightings of a turkey. We were hunting on the point of a clover field where I often see turkeys around 9 am. I had a Primos decoy out (Killer B) with a string tied to the tail of the pretend Tom. The kids had a great time making the decoy move in different directions. While they were making the decoy dance, I started to fall asleep. All of a sudden the kids woke me up saying that there were lots of turkeys in the field. I thought they were playing off of their imagination but when I opened my eyes I saw approximately 15 birds headed our way. In the group were 3 Toms. Unfortunately when the first hen saw our decoy she turned and walked away from us. All the other birds followed giving us no shot with the bow. My calls brought no interest to the Toms that were secure with their group of hens.

We decided to take a break mid-day and helped my Dad work on our farming equipment. Around 4:30 we headed back out to the woods and set the ground blind up in a natural travel route that the turkeys use to get to a nightly roosting sight. I decided not to use the decoy this time so I didn't scare away any hens that may have a trailing Tom. The afternoon was filled with excitement. I called in over 15 hens from every direction, sometimes 4 at a time. However, we did not see our first Tom until about 20 minutes before dark. For some reason most of the Toms stayed just out of shooting range as they headed for another group of hens that were located about 80 yards away from us. I only had one shot opportunity at a very large Tom. He actually came in behind us and caught us by surprise. I had to reposition the kids in the ground blind to get the shot off before he was out of range and I rushed my shot. I shot too low and missed out on the opportunity. Truth be told, I was a little too excited which also could have played a role in my poor shot. I was very disappointed not to be successful with the kids but they didn't seem to mind much. In fact, on the drive home that night they said, "Dad, this will be one of the best days we ever had." The day was obviously a success even without the thunder chicken!

(P) Scouting for 2011

Sorry that I haven't posted anything on the blog for a few months. It has been a cold winter with a lot of snow. It has been hard to get motivated to work outside with the conditions that we have experienced. However, I did purchase almost all of my new gear for the upcoming fall. I switched my arrows back to the Easton Axis Nano's. They are very tough, accurate and the least affected by our consistent Kansas winds. I also purchased another Scent Blocker suit and a new pair of snake boots. I can't wait for turkey season.

Well, my cousin Steve left today after spending 5 days helping me scout our properties and hanging stand sets for next fall. We found a few sheds as we worked but no huge ones. My Dad found one side of the younger Crab Claw 10 which survived last year. Steve found a dead buck that was very respectable (mid 160's) that looked as if he was hit by a car sometime last winter. We were able to scout and hang stands on 1560 acres. This was a great accomplishment because we picked up a couple of new farms this year that we have never seen before. We only have 2 farms left to hang stands on. AWESOME! Thanks for the help Steve.

Grandpa's meat for the freezer

" It is realy cold outside. My Dad and Grandpa have been hunting a lot ..... But finally my Grandpa shot a doe !!!!!! It was very late when they came in last night. He shot it around 5:30 pm. They came to the house around 9 pm and hung the doe up in the garage. And right when Dad came in he ate a hot dog and we left. The kids went home earlier with my Mom around 7:30 to put them in bed . But I got to stay at grandma's longer then they left. Ryder would of stayed longer but my Dad didn't have a enough room in the car. While they were hunting I was watching the marathon of Little House on the Prairie. And there were two kids that were just brats and there Mother never said no or even raised her voice to the children. Is that crazy or what? And when I got home I went straight to bed. I was so tired. By the time I went to bed it was like 11:00. It was crazy but it was still FUN!!!!!!!!!!!"

Written by Ashlynn