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Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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My turkey season started out great, for about 10 minutes. I slipped out of work one night to a new property and immediately fired up a tom. After 30 minutes of him coming and going, gobbling out of obligation occasionally, I realized he had hens with him. Not a good sign for a hunter to see at 4:30 in the afternoon.
The next time I made it out was this past weekend. My first morning hunt started slow as well. I was on a different farm that is usually loaded with turkeys. I heard one tom weakly gobble about an hour after first light. At about 9:30 I gave up on my first spot and relocated to a strut zone. No luck. At 10:30, I went back to the truck to get a quick bite to eat and drive to my "plan B" farm.
I arrived at the next farm at 11:00. I love "second shift" turkey hunting and usually kill my birds during the mid day hours, so was fired up. This farm is all hay fields, surrounded by hardwoods and swamps. I slid down a fence line and noticed a lone hen in one of the fields. I called to her a bit in hopes of seeing a tom close behind. No luck, she ran off! In hindsight, he leaving was a blessing for me.
It was really windy here and I was a bit concerned about my calls being heard in the woods. I set up on top of a hill with a lone hen decoy and pulled out my high pitched aluminum call. I had nothing to lose, so I cranked out the calls loud and aggressively. A few minutes later, some cranes landed nearby. "great" I thought sarcastically, at least something heard me. I kept cranking out the calls, in hopes of catching the attention of some lonely tom. A few minutes later, I saw 3 longbeards coming out of a trail in the woods right at me! They would stop occasionally to strut and get their bearings, but for the most part, they were already committed. I could almost see the expression of satisfaction on the lead toms face when he finally saw my decoy. They came in so fast, I wasn't even ready. When they were safely in gun range, I slowly slid off the safety on the gun across my lap, quick pulled up the gun, aimed, and shot in one fluid motion. The bird dropped effortlessly, and I was back in the truck by 11:30.
The tom isn't the biggest, but at 20 pounds, 9" beard and 3/4" spurs, I'm happy with him.
Don't give up guys! The birds are out there, they are just really "henned up" right now. Be patient and try something new like hunting later in the day when the hens are on the nests.
Good luck! Jason
jakeherb1@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Hunting for Hunting Spots Show/Hide This Article
Shaking and sniffling from the flu, I picked up a popular hunting magazine off the rack while waiting for a prescription that would hopefully end my misery. "4 Hot Tips to Get Access on Great Hunting Land" the headline across the cover read. Okay, I'll bite, I thought as I scrambled to page forty-something, hoping to read something profound and then hide my new secrets by placing all those issues behind the least popular magazines. What I read was this: Tip 1) Lease some land, 2) Buy some land, 3) Knock on doors and ask permission, and 4) Hunt public land.
Wow, are you kidding? Hot tips? I was kinda thinking my 4 year old would've known that much already. One of the most common questions I see on our bloodbro.com forum and in emails sent to me is, "How do I get permission on good properties?" So in these late winter, early spring months that find us pondering the next hunting season, I thought I'd offer up some more detailed, applicable advice when it comes to finding that next hotspot.
1) Lower Your Expectations: First, you're going to need to face the reality that strolling up to a landowner's doorstep out-of-the-blue and gaining exclusive permission to hunt his 400 acre never-before-hunted-yet-teeming-with-big-bucks slice of heaven for free is simply not realistic. Yet, so many of us stubbornly pass on very good properties because they're less than our "ideal" property. Maybe it gets "pounded" by gun hunters. Maybe you'd have to share with others. Maybe you would only be allowed to hunt on Tuesdays. Whatever, the stipulations the landowner has, if the property is good, then it's worth it to sacrifice these less than ideal conditions. If there's one thing certain about the future, it's change. Getting your foot in the door and having a chance to build trust should be all you can ask for. You might not kill a good buck with "Lee & Tiffany" tactics on the property, but if good bucks are around, they've obviously found a way to survive, so if you're willing to pattern the hunters and not just the deer, you could be in for some great hunting.
2) Shorten Your Timeframe: Keep your eyes on a certain property you think would be tough to get access on and keep a mental note of when it looks busy and when it's not. Visit the landowner when things are slow and ask for permission for just that day or for a particular day or two. Tell him specifically that you're just hoping to hunt for a day or two. I think landowners are more willing to take a chance on a stranger when there is a short timeframe around the request. If you do get access, make a point to get to know them more and let them get to know you! This builds trust and might give you a better chance for more access next time.
Glassing a property from a distance can tell you when the best time to make your move is.
3) Will You Be My Friend?: If you suddenly inherited more land than you could possibly hunt, who would you share access with? I doubt you would put an ad in the paper inviting strangers to hunt with you. You'd call up your FRIENDS, right? We all do it. When we need an electrician, we ask a friend for a recommendation. When we need a new bow, we ask our friends, "what do you shoot?" Well, if 'ol lady Tingley finally gets fed up with the deer eating her garden, she's going to ask her friends if she knows any nice hunters who might come out and kill some of her deer! The more you are known by your co-workers, church congregation, family and friends as a respectful, trustworthy hunter, the better your odds that your name will be given to those folks who are "asking around".
I shot this nice late season buck on a property my friend had gained permission for he and I on just for muzzleloader season, once the owner's family was done hunting it.
4) Forget About Hunting: As hard as it might be, sometimes the best thing we can do for our hunting future is to pretend we don't do it. Stop by a neighbor's and introduce yourself just because it's a nice thing to do. Maybe strike up a conversation about the cool old car he has in his driveway. Let him get to know you and see you're a well-rounded person. Don't offer to do some work for him for hunting, just offer to do some work for him, period! Do things for people because you're a good person and don't expect anything in return. Sometimes when we set aside our biggest passions and selfish motivations, the doors of opportunity open the widest.
I wish you all luck in achieving access to the properties of your dreams!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Bowhunter Magazine Article: Marsh Madness Show/Hide This Article
Here's a link to the article Bowhunter Magazine published (written by
Dan Durbin) in 2008:http://www.bowhunter.com/feature_articles/BH_marsh_1108/index.html
Kalamazoo Gazette Article: Trio combines love of hunting, new media skills in Web site project Show/Hide This Article
Here's a link to a nice article that was written about us:
http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2008/09/
trio_combines_love_of_hunting.html
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Dad, me and the Bridge Show/Hide This Article
Grandpa, uncles, cousins, about a dozen family members busied themselves loading a string of 12' aluminum V-bottoms slapping against the floating wooden pier. Strong cold winds with spitting snow made others question the sanity of leaving our cabin but there were no doubts in my mind. This was my first time in Canada, I was 15 and nothing would stop me from being a part of the stories I had only been told of. I sat waiting in the boat tied furthest from shore, Dad was late.
An eternity passed before we were on our way, Dad was excited too. He directed our way out, map in one hand and half spilt coffee cup the other. It was the beginning to an entire day. His hand never left the map, mine never the throttle. Our fishing that day was slow and tedious, Canada shouldn't have been that difficult. Dusk was upon us and we were somewhere between lost and turned around before crossing under the first of three low bridges telling our way back to dock. Dad jumped at the sudden noise, he never saw the bridge coming, always facing me and keeping himself warm while I took the elements head on. He jumped again at the second bridge, it was then a plan dawned on me. I fought back grins as it detailed in my head, this was too good to tip Dad off.
Bridge number three was our worst. A closed draw on the channel side made clearance the tightest yet. I kept our craft pointed straight at full tilt and inches before passing under I faked a quick lunge downward while yelling my best near death "LOOK OUT!!!!!" My amazingly reactive Father hit the bait like a starving school of stripers. In the moment it took me to regain the throttle he left his hat in mid-air, sent the coffee cup sailing and emptied an always open tackle box on his way to cover. He finished at the boat's bottom curled up tight with hands laced overhead. The motor's whine covered my hysterical laughter as he stayed protected amongst fish slime and treble hooks. I was having a tough time breathing and almost crying by the time he peaked up to see me. Oh, did the cursing begin!! First me, the bridge, the boat, then me some more until finally he sat forward and shot a finger towards camp. To this day he has never again turned his back with me at the helm :)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Ant and the Grasshopper Show/Hide This Article
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and
well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the
shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home
with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody
cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where
the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then
has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that
the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for
an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act
retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green
bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.
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