Archive for August, 2010

Our Bow Stands Setup

Monday, August 30th, 2010

We currently have 12 dedicated bow stands setup on our hunting lease in Georgia. We have some secondary stands but these 12 are our primary locations.

We use Millennium M100 lock-on stands (View their Website) with different climbing options. We like the M100s due to how comfortable they are on your back. I personally cannot stand the little stools that feel like they only fit half of your bottom and cause the other half to hang off. Also, I do not like sitting for long periods of time reclining at 90 degrees. The M100s have a great reclined back seat that is great for the lower lumbar. I can sit for hours in these stands.

 

Now when I say climbing options, I mean methods of getting up to the lock-on. We have ladders that are 12 feet to 20 feet. We have 20 foot mini ladders. We also have 20 foot climbing sticks. Of course, we have a safety system for all of our bow setups that I am writing about in a future blog posting. I have some pictures below of our setups plus a video. Be safe!

 
 
 
 
 

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Something New – Gator Hunting

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

A good buddy of mine was lucky enough to draw a Florida alligator tag. He immediately invited our two friends down from Georgia who have a lot of experience hunting gators. Next, he talked me into filming it and since I have never been, I was very interested in experiencing this type of hunt.

I used my Canon HV40 to film the daytime shots and I used a Sony HD HandyCam for the nighttime shots since it has an infrared mode. Be patient with my videoing because it was hard to film while in a boat with 3 other guys in the pitch dark. Another factor is we started hunting one hour before sunset and did not finish until one hour after sunset. We got 9 good video occurrences of gators in the video.

Now, I could only film the first 2 evening hunts and the guys were trying to get a nice size gator. On the 3rd and last evening, they decided to be less picky and they got a beautiful 6 foot gator.

I hope you enjoy these videos. I personally had fun with these guys and chasing these Florida alligators.

Important Note: Part 2 has the best gator footage so make sure you watch this part also!


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Bow Food Plots

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Last weekend, I planted 5 food plots specifically for bow hunting accounting for about 4 acres. These plots consist of buckwheat and iron and clay peas (cow peas) and are strategically placed in front of our bow stands. We have witnessed that our bucks love the buckwheat when it comes to flower about 30 to 45 days into the growing season. Look at the buck photos below to see one of our past mature bucks chewing on buckwheat.

 
 

The deer love to eat the green leaves of the iron and clay peas. We plant these for the green plant not expecting to ever make any actual peas. Hopefully these two mixtures will get some rain and attract some deer within bow range during the upcoming season (September 11).

  

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Turkey Poults Update

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I recently got some more pictures of our turkey poults on various trail cameras around our GA lease. These photos are shown below.

One thing to note is the different size of the poults. It looked like one of the hens got her nest broken up during her 28 day nesting cycle and she had to been re-breed. Her poults look like they are a couple weeks behind the bigger ones in the other photos. Either way, it looks like the best hatching group we have ever had.

 
 
 

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Determination – Creative Summer Packing

Monday, August 16th, 2010

My family and I were home in Mississippi this summer to visit family where I met with the owner of Millennium tree stands (Visit their Website). Really nice group of people and they make a great stand that we have used for many years. The owner made me a great deal on stands and we bought 5 new stands and 3 sets of climbing sticks for our lease.

When I got back to my parent’s house, my wife asked how I was going to get all that stuff home back to Jacksonville, FL. I told her no problem, as you can see my packing job below. That is 5 Millennium tree stands, 3 sets of climbing sticks, 1 new Primos Camera Arm, and 1 bow case plus all our luggage for a 17 day trip, 2 dogs, 2 kids, and a very loving, understanding wife. It is amazing what you can do when you are determined.

 

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My Camera Arm Setup for This Fall

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I really enjoyed filming my turkey hunts this year and sharing these stories here on my Web site. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to figure out a way to continue filming during deer season especially during bow season. The problem is, when I am bow hunting I am always by myself up in a tree stand, so I need a method to film myself.

I started studying the different methods the professionals use on TV. I quickly realized I needed a tree arm. I looked at different ones, especially for the entry level videographer, and they all seemed cheap and not very well made. I then ran across one made by Primos (Web site link). They promoted it as a film yourself type camera arm. I was really impressed with the quality material and how sturdy it is made. I am looking forward to trying it out and hopefully with some success. Here are some photos below.

 
 

Here is a little video I shot with my iPhone 3GS to show this setup.

Now to back track a little, I have what the consumer market calls a prosumer camera. This means my camera, a Canon VIXIA HV40 (Web site link), falls between a top end consumer camera and an entry level professional camera. It takes great video including low light but does not cost as much as the professional version, plus its size is easier to manage through the woods. I highly recommend this camera. The HD video is unbelievable and my YouTube videos do not do its capabilities justice. I also noticed that a number of hunting shows use it as their secondary camera.

Here is a promo video for the camera arm setup by Primos. Real good to see how the arm works plus these guys are pros in how best to set it up.


Click here to Play!

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Examples of Fishing for Whitetail Bucks

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Back on July 20th, I published an article about one of my trail camera techniques that I use called Fishing for Whitetail Bucks. Here are two examples using this technique.

1. The first example involves two mature bucks that we have on our leased property. We got pictures of these deer back in May when we started putting our cameras out and when they started growing their antlers. After a few months of running our cameras and evaluating the photos, we have determined these deer’s summer home range. They are feeding on our planted soybeans, field peas, sunflowers, and corn. They are also visiting 2 of our feeders. Shown below are pictures of these different locations with an aerial photo showing the different cameras. Hopefully, these deer will not change their pattern too much before bow season. You never know! It seems that once they rub their velvet off, they go crazy with their movements.


 
 
 

2. The second example involves identifying breeder does. I do this by paying attention to does that have their fawns first and also have twin or more fawns. The picture below is what I call a breeder doe and I have been watching her for 3 years.

 

I hope these examples prove my technique does work. Good luck!

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