When getting out is a successful hunt

Many people who hunt consider a successful hunt when they harvest game. While I have to agree that makes a successful hunt, I also strongly feel, just being able to enjoy God's great creation of nature is success in itself. No, I am not saying that to make myself feel better for not putting an arrow in a nice buck or harvesting a good doe. I am stating that as many of us have very busy lives and many things occurring which doesn't allow for us to make it out whenever we want to. This year is that case more than ever for me. Minnesota bow and small game season opened September 18th. I cannot remember a year since I started bow hunting in 1993 that I was not sitting in a bow stand on opening day. That was until this year. You see, my wife was pregnant with our second child, and we were scheduled for a c-section September 30th. Just a little too close to travel 1.5 hours away to hunt. Then my wife blessed me with my second child and first son, Benjamin. My 3.5 year old daughter was more excited than my wife and I, I think. Which is awesome. So what did it mean for the rest of my season. Any parent of young children know they are very demanding in the early stages of their life. No fault of their own, just nature. I, of course, wait all year to be able to get out and hunt. My daughter has already stressed (and I emphasize stressed) interest in joining me while I hunt. Next year I plan to take her out hunting with me. I know those hunts will be short and probably without harvesting of a deer, but the experience for both her and myself will be reward enough.

Well, my wife is understanding of my passion and she reluctantly allowed me to plan short trips out to hunt. The first trip started after we woke up at 1am to Ben crying. I was unable to fall back asleep and decided to pack the truck and head north to our property to put in an early morning hunt. I arrived at our camp at 4am, unpacked my gear, and prepared to head out. I was able to setup my stand, my camcorder, and my complete setup by 6am, a full 45 minutes before shooting light. I was tired, but didn't notice it. I was like a child on Christmas Eve...too excited to sleep and anxious to watch the woods come alive. The trees were heavy with colorful leaves and a young doe got too close before I realized she was there. I wasn't able to get the camcorder on her and was also unable to find a shooting lane behind my stand where she was only 15 yards. She won that meeting. A little while later a large body deer caught my scent and snorted its way back where it came from. It was great and a very successful day in the woods. No I didn't harvest anything, but I was able to enjoy 3.5 hours in the stand. Ben was days old and my wife and daughter held down the fort at home.

The next weekend I was able to head up north Friday night when they all went to sleep. I hunted the morning and evening, before returning home at 11pm. It was a long day and again another successful hunt. While I only saw 1 doe while piling firewood mid-day, another while in stand Saturday evening, and a doe and fawn right by our camp when I returned in the dark. No bows were drawn, but it was a beautiful day in the woods. This was a week later, yet every tree seemed to have dropped its leaves. My trail cameras showed me 2 new bucks, a large 10 pointer and a small 10 pointer. This new information has got my blood pumping even more. My wife knows this very well, but I still have to manage my time appropriately to spend my free time with my family as much if not more than in the woods.

Next year this will change slightly, as the entire family will travel to camp during bow season...this year Ben is just a little young to allow for the family outings. I will continue to sacrifice sleep to get out in the woods and not put added stress on my family. Hopefully, next time I will not only have a successful day in the woods, but also put some meat in our freezer.

DNR files petition to have Minnesota gray wolf status reflect Minnesota reality

Last year I blogged about my thoughts on the gray wolf population in the Midwest and how I have become more and more uncomfortable with this majestic predator sharing the outdoors with me. They have been delisted twice and both times opposing organizations used procedural issues in their legal battle to re-list them as endangered. During this time, the wolf populations have increased, the number of complaints have increased, livestock and pet loss have increased, and so has the financial burden on government agencies.

Last weekend I saw a fresh track of a large canine. It was more than double the size of my 60lb Labrador Retriever. It most definitely was a wolf. Neighbors have seen wolves more and more recently. I have to second guess taking my wife and daughter out camping on our recreational property due to their safety. I need to carry firearm protection when going on a nature hike. Quite frankly the wolf population needs to be put in check, and the fear of humans need to be re-introduced to the wolf population as they are becoming less and less weary of human presence.

The Minnesota DNR is petitioning to delist them yet again and return population control to them. Please show your support of this petition with your state representatives. Delisting does not mean the wolf population will be eliminated, but rather proper population control will be done to maintain acceptable populations which allow humans and wolves to co-exist.

A look ahead to an exciting 2010

As some of you may have read in my previous blog(s), my wife and I were working on purchasing some adjoining land to our current hunting/camping acreage. The process started in mid-October and finally all the stars have aligned and the paperwork is finished. We are now proud owners of an additional 40 acres.

So what does that mean? Well in 2009 I created 2 small food plots on my 80 acres. One designed for whitetail nourishment (3/5 acre) and the other for turkeys (1/4 acre). That was my first experiment. The whitetail plot took 2 separate planting and the turkey plot never matured. There were two other small openings between a tamarack and muskeg swamp and oak hardwoods. These openings became my campsite. And unfortunately, they also disturbed natural wildlife movement. Now we will be able to move our campsite almost a full 1980 ft (3/8 mile) away and turn those prime openings into hunt plots. The new 40 acres included approximately 12 acres of open hay field which ran diagonally across the property splitting tamarack and muskeg swamp and open hardwoods. This field and the small openings will become my project for 2010.

As the snow starts to melt, I will be blogging the planning and execution of my property transformation. I will bring you along to experience the ups and downs of “work” to make this all happen. Not only for you to learn from my mistakes and triumphs, but hopefully to gather feedback from those who have gone through the same experiences and can provide some helpful advice.

To get those of you with creative minds started with your own thoughts on what to do, I have posted some photos.

• Yellow is property line.
• Red "H" are houses of permanent residence.
• Red "C" will be my campsite
• East side of property is a gravel road.

Same key as above with the exception of wetland coloration has been added.

• Blue is wooded wetland
• Orange is seasonal wooded wetland
• Pink is seasonal wetland
• Purple is open wetland

A 1991 Black and White aerial photo which depicts contours, wetlands, and openings better. Some of the woodland openings have had poplar regrowth causing smaller clearings.

A quiet Wisconsin hike in the woods

If you have been following my blogs or Dan Block's blogs, you know we are cousins and are both originally from WI. It is there in Northern Wisconsin that our fathers and grandfather helped instill the love of the outdoors. We have a hunting cabin in Northern WI. It is here that we learn from our elders. We learned to respect elders, to have strong morals and ethics, to love God, to respect firearms, and to enjoy the comradaree of family and friends. It is the last one that keeps me heading back every year during Thanksgiving week. The deer population in our unit was 7 deer per square mile. To put that into perspective, in 1990 the DNR stated it desired to reach 20 deer per square mile in our unit. Therefore the population around our cabin is significantly below desired management levels.

As you can imagine, with this type of preface, I saw very few deer (7) and ended the season with tag soup. But my season was far from a disappointment and during my 20th season toting a firearm in the northern Wisconsin woods, I even had a few new experiences.

How was I not disappointed after seeing only 7 deer in 8 days of hunting and hours, upon hours of scanning the woods? Well, first and foremost, our cabin had a new hunter this year and all 13 gentlemen made it through the season without an injury or mishap. That is always the most important thing for us. Next, we had 1 small buck harvested and we were able to eat fresh venison (after registration of course) throughout the hunting season. It was cooked to perfection as well (Dan and I were the fry cooks for the venison meals). Finally, I had 9 quality days with my father, uncle, cousins, and friends. This is why I pay for out of state licenses knowing I have limited chances of harvesting a deer. There is a special bond between family and friends who have been hunting and experiencing the outdoors together since the late 1930s.

What about my new experiences

In 20 years I have hunted out of an elevated ladder stand about 10 times during firearm season. I spend a great deal of my hunting during "prime time" (early mornings and late evenings) sitting in ground blinds at elevated locations (ridges, mounds, hill peaks, etc.). The rest of my time is spent still hunting, track hunting/scouting, sneak driving, etc. It is not because I am afraid of heights, as I have hunted from hang on stands anywhere from 10 to 30 foot high for bow hunting. However, I do not feel comfortable when carrying a firearm to be elevated. It limits my movement and ability to have full range to quickly react to approaching deer. That was until this year. In an earlier blog, I mentioned my friend's success on my private property in MN. He was hunting from a very comfortable style climbing stand and I sat in it the remaining part of the season and became familiar and comfortable with hunting from the elevated location. That led me to purchase a Summit Viper SS climbing tree stand. I utilized this stand in a location I have been hunting opening weekend for all 20 years with much success. By utilizing the flexibility of a climber I was able to increase my visibility and also my opportunity to see more deer. In fact, if I had not been in this stand I would not have seen the two deer I did see on opening morning. And had I used this stand the previous season, I would have potentially harvested 2 different 6-8 point bucks (instead of the small spike I did harvest).

I mentioned the use of a ground blind. Now Dan can probably better describe my typical ground blind. For many years it consisted of eight 4" diameter logs, 2 on each side, with a large tree for my strap-on seat. My blinds were not for concealment, but rather a sign to other hunters that a hunter already hunts this area. That is important when hunting public land. Yes, it is public land and anybody can hunt there, but ethical hunters also do not intrude on other hunter's spots. Unwritten rule which our group holds sacred when considering someone else's hunting spot. Yet we will readily abandon our area to avoid unnecessary conflict. After all, there are thousands of acres of woods and it is only a deer. Not worth an argument or injury. Well, back to my new experience. This year I purchased a manufactured ground blind and I utilized it for the first time while hunting in WI. Having the ability to "move" around without worrying about an unknown deer seeing my movement was "cool" and somewhat unfair the the whitetail. It was because of this that I saw another 3 deer (2 does and a fawn) at 20 yards mid-season. Had I been in my traditional blind, I would have been burnt well before 20 yards.

Another experience was a pine marten which decided to "stalk" me in an attempt in having a food supply for the entire winter. I watched this little guy run back and forth in front of me, looking for food, etc. Eventually he noticed me and made a very "sneaky" stalk on me in an attempt to get position and a better look. I was in my cousin's ladder stand, and this pine marten was very curious and almost climbed into the stand with me.

The last notable experience occurred opening morning. A very heavy fog moved in. I watched it from my climber as it crept in on me. In the location I was hunting in open hardwoods, I can see 200 yards to my north, 300 yards to my west, 400 yards to my south, and 250 yards to my east. That's about a 40 acre parcel of woods for those of you doing the math. But at one point in time, my visibility was literally only 25 yards in any one direction. The temperature dropped and the sky became an unique shade as the sun was rising. It was very interesting experience. To best describe the density of this fog, my father, who was hunting a poplar thicket, said he had seen a doe during this fog period and at one point all he could see was the face and ears looking at him, but not the body.


All in all the season was an enjoyable experience and memories were made once again in the outdoors. I was able to spend many days taking a walk through the quiet woods of Wisconsin, reflect on the year's events and look forward to the upcoming year and activities. The quietness of the woods is a hot topic by many "hunters" in Wisconsin, but I think these individuals fail to see the true reward nature provides to us.

Raining...to hunt or not to hunt

During the fall, I spend more time on the internet looking at the weather than checking my email. Why? I am constantly evaluating if the precipitation forecast, wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, and temperature will be appropriate for certain archery hunting stand locations. I can deal with and overcome any situation of wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, and temperatures. What I cannot deal with or rather, what I will not deal with is rain. Now I know a number of waterfowl hunters reading this blog are laughing, but as an avid archer rain is not good.

It is not that I melt when I get wet. I could setup a ground blind or purchase a tree umbrella. There are very good products on the market to shelter you from the elements. As every ethical archer strives for a clean, efficient lethal shot, every archer should also be concerned with the ultimate recovery of the game. This is where I have determined over the years that I cannot deal with rain. Sometimes just a split second allows the deer to “jump the string” or “take a step”, which causes the 310+ fps arrow to miss the perfect shot. These imperfect shots, and even perfect shots for that matter, can allow a deer to travel well out of sight and require an archer to follow the trail of the deer. Generally, you need to allow that ever precious commodity of time to pass to allow the deer to bed down and expire. In the rain, time is not something you have. Every minute of waiting is another minute allowed to the rain to wash away the trail. If you cannot track and recover your game, then why would you shoot? That is one of the most common ethical question many hunters have to answer, whether they realize it or not.

In a light drizzle, I will hunt with the objective of harvesting a whitetail. In 2004, I used the

light rain to help cover my approach into the woods, the setup of my tree stand, and finally the cover of any movement or noise when the deer approached. This strategy allowed me to watch a 10 pointers walk directly under my stand. My arrow traveled exactly 9 feet and the buck traveled 45 yards. As you can see from the picture, it was still a light drizzle when I took pictures in the field.

In steady average rain, I will do my best to get out, more for scouting than harvesting. This year the second weekend of MN firearm season was raining throughout the morning. I woke up at 3 AM, loaded up my truck and headed up north. I took my Ameristep Brickhouse Ground blind and Browning 7mm Medallion A-Bolt to the same ridge that my friend Shawn took a beautiful 10 pointer one week earlier. Sitting through the early morning rain was comfortable in the blind, but unproductive. It was apparent that not many deer were moving as very few shots were heard in my audible range. Had a deer appeared during the early steady rain, I would have probably just taken a picture. However, as the morning went on, the rain let up to a light drizzle. This was exactly what I wanted, wet leaves, rain dripping from trees, and a slight breeze. This was PERFECT conditions to still hunt. I took this opportunity to slowly move through the thickets and bedding areas. My steps were quiet, any noises were covered, and my movement was blended with the brush movement caused by the wind. Unfortunately, the whitetails were nowhere to be found. This was the ending of my firearm season in Minnesota. The following weekend was opening day of Wisconsin firearm season and I would be joining fellow Block Outdoors Team member Dan Block and our family and friends at our WI hunting cabin.

Finally, the last type of rain condition is a heavy rain. This is when I stop checking the weather and start checking my email J. This is true when archery hunting and firearm hunting.

These are my general rules with rain. Hunt whenever possible to successfully harvest and recover a whitetail. If either cannot be done, just scout or update your blogs.

Minnesota Firearm Opener

The rut can be a very exciting time of the season to hunt.  It can also be a very disappointing and frustrating time of year.  I have read and heard hunting reports from a number of individuals over the past 2 weeks, some of excitement of bucks searching and chasing does and yet others stressing distaste for the lack of deer seen.  This past weekend was Minnesota Firearm season opener.  It runs for the next 2 weeks throughout most of the state.

As I mentioned in my first blogs, this was the first year I really put forth a solid effort in preparing my property for deer season.  There were tons of tasks and I was always looking for help, not only for the labor, but also for the companionship in the woods.  The outdoors is wonderful to experience by yourself, but it is much more memorable when sharing the experience with someone else.  My college friend Shawn jumped on the opportunity to help me this summer with some of the “chores” around my property.  He made a couple day trips with me and of course I immediately invited him to bow hunt with me during for the archery opener.  He helped me with my doe I harvested that weekend and we had a great time playing cards and talking hunting stories.  Neither of us were successful during the archery season in getting a shot at a buck, and personal events at my house threatened the opportunity to firearm hunt my property for the first time.
However, I made a late decision to head up bright and early Saturday morning to my property to meet and head out to the woods to enjoy the woods on the opener.  Shawn was a little hesitant.  He asked me “how much is a firearm license?”  I quickly responded it is like $30 dollars ($27 to be exact) and it would be a great donation to the DNR if we don’t see anything.  I offered to let him stay and hunt the next day if I had to head back home on Saturday night and he eventually agreed to head up and we both agreed, if the deer activity was good and we both did not tag out, we would stay the night and hunt Sunday morning as well.

These decisions found me waking up at 3am on Saturday morning getting dressed and packing the final things into the truck.  At 3:44 I was driving out of my driveway.  Around 4:30, I called Shawn to see where he was and after a little discussion we realized I was 15 minutes ahead of him.  When I arrived at the parking area at 5:20, I quickly unpacked the ATV and started getting my hunting clothes on.  Shawn pulled up as I was putting on my boots and we quickly exchanged greetings and now we were both quickly dressing.  We realized we should have set out another 30 minutes sooner.  We drove the ATV over the low area to the camp site.  We offered “good luck” to each other and separated to the different directions.

On the drive up, I decided I wanted to hunt my food plot as it was near their bedding area and had thicker poplar thickets surrounding it.  I was being strategic in thinking the bucks may still be seeking, not chasing, and this will provide me an excellent opportunity to harvest that big 8 pointers I have on trail camera.  The other spot I was contemplating was a beautiful hardwood ridge with lowland forest swamps to the southeast, west, and north east.  There are plenty of natural funnels and ridges, and a lot of viewing of majestic oaks.  Not to mention tons of grey squirrels (they hide when .22s are in hand I found out this fall).  This spot I recommended to Shawn.  I would be easy to find in the dark and personally probably the best spot to be sitting if the bucks are chasing.

Legal shooting time was 6:29 officially, and at 6:31 a small doe appeared racing through my food plot from the north to the south and ran past me at about 10 yards.  I knew it was game time.  They were chasing and I had a hot doe already.  I may be heading home at noon!!  A minute or two later I heard the running of deer from the north and very deep grunts.  I was standing up and focusing to the north.  I saw movement to the north east of the food plot in the thick poplar.  This is where my past experiences and knowledge caused my only opportunity to fade away.  The wind was out of the west.  Big buck prefer cover and will generally travel downwind of food sources to scent check for estrous does.  I had my Browning A-Bolt 7mm rifle shouldered and I quickly was trying to find horns on the running deer as it was passing by my stand.  As I was realizing it had no horns I heard hooves pounding the ground behind me in the food plot.  I quickly turned to my right to see a decent buck exiting my food plot 10 yard way.  I swung my rifle around and caught him in my scope, but I also had a circle full of brush.  He won this round I told myself.

It wasn’t a minute and I heard a rifle shot in the direction of where Shawn should be sitting and those deer just ran that way.  I was sure he shot him.  Good I told myself while at the same time I was kicking myself for being fooled.  I reached for my cell phone to see if Shawn had emailed me to tell me a deer was down.  Wouldn’t you know it…I left it in the truck.  Now normally I would just forget it, but Shawn and I discussed shooting a doe with his bonus tag and first one to shoot needed to email the other.  I quickly became disappointed as that meant I was out of the game on does.  An hour passed and no more deer, no more noise of deer running, nothing.  Then “BANG” much closer and in Shawn’s direction.  It was then obvious the 6:35 shot was not his, but this one most definitely was.  7:30 and either a doe or buck was down.  You can hear in the crack of the shot if the hunter was successful (within some accuracy) as I heard the thud at the end of the sound.  Either there is a hole in my prize oaks or a deer is down.  But I didn’t have my phone.  I realized there that modern technology has made me reliant on too many of the conveniences of the concrete jungle.  I waited a half hour and then decided it was time to still hunt back to my truck and retrieve my phone.  If the bucks were chasing, it wouldn’t matter.  In fact, still hunting during the chasing phase of the rut can be very productive.


Once I retrieved my phone, I checked my emails and sure enough, “Buck Down” was the message of the latest email.  He got him.  Now which “him” was my next question.  I instilled a management philosophy for my property that young hunters or new hunters who had not shot bucks in the past had the opportunity to take any deer their license would legally allow them to take.  However, for hunters of more experience, I desire they only shoot the bucks with horns around the width of the ears or mature whitetails.  This philosophy is to ensure there are plenty of bucks for the young and new hunters and also to provide the bucks an opportunity to live a deer season and provide a better bounty in future years.  For me to go one or more years without shooting a buck does not bother me, as just being outdoors is reward enough.  Now this philosophy will only be so-so beneficial as adjoining landowners are not following the same philosophy, as is their right.

Well the only way I was going to find out would be to call him.  As I talked to him, he told me the story and that he could count 5 points on one side from his tree and that he has yet to get down to see his trophy.  I told him to get down and have his personal time experiencing the success of his hunt and I would still hunt to his stand an hour later.  An hour passed and I started my still hunting route to his stand.  On my way I stopped and talked with my neighbor to the north in his stand.  He had seen two does by traveling together.  These had to be the does with Shawn’s buck I determined.  I approached Shawn in his stand and asked him where his buck was.  He pointed behind me and I turned and the first words out of my mouth were “That is a BIG buck!”  But I was not referring to the horns, but rather the body size.  It was huge.  Later dressed out and weighed in at 195 lbs.  I asked him, if he had gotten down and seen his buck and he said no.  Well I took out my camcorder and videoed him climbing down, telling the quick event, and then his reactions to seeing his largest buck ever lying on the ground.  It was an AWESOME experience for me as well.  I was very excited and happy for his success.  It was a beautiful buck and hopefully a sign of future success on my property.


We both walked back to camp to get the ATV and from there began the “work”.  Shawn patiently took his time field dressing the buck while I held the legs.  We took a ton of pictures and loaded the buck up in the dump bucket trailer.  When we got back to camp we weighed him, and then left his hanging to drain and cool down.  Shawn answered a number of phone calls and text messages of congratulations.  We then decided we were staying the night since the rutting activity seemed to be strong.  We setup camp and headed back out to the woods for the evening hunt.  It was a quiet evening in the woods and neither of us saw a deer, but I don’t think Shawn was too concerned.  I am sure he was replaying the morning over and over in his head.  We had an early evening due to being awake since 3am and with the anticipation of the morning hunt.  The next morning we received a little rain and again went without seeing a deer.  But what a wonderful morning to be in the woods, as is every day you get to sit patiently in God’s creation.


As we spent Sunday morning packing up camp for the season, I realized how blessed we are to have the opportunity to be outdoors and most of all being able to share wonderful experiences and success of others.  This weekend will remain in my memories for years to come as this was the weekend the first buck was taken from my property.

Hunting the Rut

There have been numerous books, articles, seminars, etc. about the rut.  When it occurs, why it occurs when it does, and when the best time to hunt certain locations.  I have to say I probably have read 80% of the material on the topic.  The one report that has held fairly accurate to myself and my experiences in Wisconsin and Minnesota have been the rut predictions provided by the journalist of Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine.

This year they predicted the peak seeking phase will occur 2-3 days before the rutting moon which was November 2nd.  If you read the posts on Talk Hunting.com or even read the outdoor section of newspapers in the Midwest, everybody started talking about the rut kicking in around the end of October.  What most people don't consider is the multiple "phases" a rut has.

There is the "seeking" phase where the bucks start getting more active, utilizing scrapes and rubs and are filmed on people trail cameras closer to daylight or during daylight, where before they were mostly nocturnal.  The next phase is the "chasing" phase where the does start coming into estrous and bucks (sometimes multiple) are actively chasing these does until the does chose their suitor.  This is the most common phase of the rut for most hunters as this is when they will see bucks and does running all over the place and it gets quite exciting.  The final phase is the "breeding" or tending phase of the rut.  This can be a "where did all the bucks go?" time among many hunters.  Does and bucks tend to be less mobile.  This is typically a short period of time in which the buck will breed the doe.  Then the buck is off and looking for the next estrous doe.

Well what does this mean to me?  Is that what you are asking right now?  Well for me personally in Minnesota it means the most exciting phase of the rut is starting this weekend November 7th which happens to be the firearm opener in Minnesota.  The chasing phase should continue at peak levels for the next 4 days and then start to decline.  This will be my first time I have hunted the peak rut period with a firearm versus my bow.  Unfortunately, I will only get out on Saturday and if I am not successful with a decent buck, then the DNR has my donation for the year.  But that donation will be well worth it, and supporting what I love.

Well the next question some people have asked me is..."didn't you hunt most of the peak seeking phase last week/weekend?"  The answer is yes I did put in many hours in the stand (blogs about the evenings to come in the next few days).  However, the weather (one of the key rut suppressors) did not cooperate.  It was windy (17-35 mph), and rainy (most of the time), and of course the full rutting moon did not help either.  This kept the deer less active during the day time and more active at night.  I did see some young deer, but I did not see the mature deer I was hoping to see moving around.  But that is why they call it hunting not harvesting.  Nothing is a guarantee.  However, if you consider the ability and opportunity to spend time in the outdoors a success, you will never be unsuccessful.

If you have failed to get out of the concrete forest to enjoy this wonderful time of year, don't fret as 3-4 weeks after a does first comes into estrous they will come into estrous again IF they have not been successfully breed.  Which means you will see another "mini" rut during the last days of November (WI Firearm season) and early December.  This rut will not be nearly as explosive as fewer does will need to be breed and much human pressure in the woods will have occurred, causing more nocturnal activity.

I hope this information was beneficial to you, and I wish everyone the best of luck chasing after their bucks.  I hope you enjoyed the bucks I caught on film in the days leading up to my "successful" trips to the woods last weekend.  These are the bucks I will hopefully be looking at in the upcoming days/weeks/months.