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.