Veteran wild turkey hunter Daniel E. Schmidt of Deer & Deer Hunting gets his turkey blind set up and readies his TenPoint Crossbow Technologies crossbow for the spring season. Daniel covers what he looks for to set a blind up and shows us how he prepares to hunt wild turkey gobblers in this episode.
Link: Ten Point & Wicked Ridge Crossbows
Last year I was able to get all three of my grandchildren a shot at a turkey. But wait, they are using shotguns and this is a bowhunting website. What gives??? I chose this topic specifically because killing a longbeard, even a jake, with a bow is a tremendous challenge. Each of my boys was successful, yet each one missed a turkey at 15 yards with a shotgun and a rest. Point is, get them successful and excited and then ease them into the archery game.
With gun or bow, introduce a youngster through a ground blind.I run and gun in the Great Plains each year and may put in 10 miles in a day. That is fun, but I enjoy waiting, listening, and videoing turkeys on my small farm just as much. I have my blind set up 10 days ahead and have it stocked with a chair asnd decoys prior to the opening day so that all I have to do is show up with my crossbow and rest. Hearing shotguns boom in the distance makes me nervous, yet I’m confident that an old tom will come slipping by the blind.
Black is the best camo pattern for a blind.I have some pretty cool camouflage that will blend with about any background or weather condition, like snow, yet the best color to wear in a blind is black. You want your blind to be as dark as possible on the inside so that a gobbler can’t see inside. Be extra careful with the new see-through models as they allow light to penetrate the blind and a gobbler can see any movement through your shooting window.
Keep new hunters warm and well-fed.When I was a school principal, I never had a teacher’s meeting without donuts. Even the grumpy ones smile with a snack in their fingers. Kids are the same way. If it’s cold, have a thermos of hot chocolate and bring hand warmers. You want quiet snacks, not potato chips, but have lots of them and let them pick out their treats the night before. You want them to be part of the plan. If the day turns cold and rainy, head for a convenience store, warm up, and come back.
Decoys allow you to predict where turkeys will approach.in six years, I’ve never had a turkey ignore this decoy. Turkeys have been killed and missed while flogging it. Jakes hate it, and Longbeards too. The decoy allows me to have a small shooting window because I know where the turkey will be. For youngsters, this allows you to set up a tripod rest with the crossbow or shotgun locked in. In this way, the youngster can make a very accurate shot. If the bird is strutting, use a diaphragm caller and make a “puck” which will cause the tom to raise its head.
With spring turkey season almost here, now is the perfect time to do double duty with your trip to the woods. Since you probably hunt turkeys in the same areas you hunt deer, why not make a mineral lick? The giant buck in the lead picture fell to the Eskers, identical twins who have developed their own specialized minerals. They are amazingly successful and a mineral site is something every hunter should consider.
I’ve used Tall Tine minerals over the past year with excellent success.Tractor Supply sells these blocks for $15 and I bought five last year. During the season, deer consistently came to the site as I will show on my Vosker trail camera pictures. I wrote a review of these cameras which got a great read from you. Their benefit is solar power and I only change batteries once a year and get as many as 100 pictures per day. That’s an amazing performance from a camera.
VoskerI had given up on the Maryland season last winter when this nice deer showed up. The late archery season was in and this deer was 20 yards from my tree stand. However, I did something stupid. Instead of sticking with minerals, I chose to bait the site with corn. I got 250 pictures the first night of a dozen or more deer, but the site had so much activity, the buck stopped showing in daylight. I really shot myself in the foot.
Yesterday’s Giant BearThis huge bear has been captured on camera for at least five years. It only passes my stand once or twice per year but here he is checking out my mineral block. These blocks last between three and six months so that you can stay out of the woods while still attracting wildlife to your area. I’ll turkey hunt there in early May and probably put out another block.
Yesterday’s surprise visitor.This is the first time I’ve seen a bobcat at my Maryland stand, yet this is a big tom probably looking for a female. I’m hoping he keeps moving because bobcats are a significant predator of deer and turkeys. Mineral licks attract all kinds of wildlife and they will alert you to predators on your property, even if they don’t actually lick the lick.
Ted from The Hunting Public take two youth hunters Caleb and Landon on wild turkey hunts in the early Youth season in Iowa and Missouri.
Canning Venison is easy. John Royer shows you how to do the cold pack canning process for venison. Then he shows you how to use the canned venison to make hot deer meat sandwiches with venison gravy. The deer meat is from a doe that John shot on a hunt
Joel Strickland and ‘Lab Coat Guy’ say “NO” to Soaking Wild Game Meat. They have good reasons too, and you will want to hear those reasons before you begin to prepare your next wild game meat for eating.
Antlers begin as vascular tissue, one of the fastest growing tissues in the animal kingdom. They’re made up of a network of vessels that carry blood and nutrients to the rapidly growing matrix, which is covered by a thin layer of skin and hair we refer to as velvet. As they reach maturity, antlers go through a process of mineralization. Blood flow is cut off and they become hard, dead bone.
Antlers serve several purposes. Bucks use them to spar with other males as they build neck and shoulder strength and sort out dominance. Later, they may be used as weapons when fighting a rival for the opportunity to breed. They also act as signals to a potential mate, larger antlers demonstrating a healthy individual.
Once the breeding season is over, they become more of a liability than an asset. They’re no longer needed to fight a rival or attract a mate. They could tangle in limbs, vegetation or some structure, and impact with a solid object could result in skull fractures or abscesses. So, they’re cast off.
Photoperiodism (changes in the amount of daylight) triggers seasonal changes in deer physiology. As the days grow longer in the spring, the production of certain hormones like testosterone increases, promoting antler growth. As they grow shorter in winter, testosterone levels decline. The connection between skull and antler begins to degrade. An abscission line forms and eventually the connection becomes weak enough that the antlers fall, or get knocked off.behavior are caused largely by. Waning day length prompts a reduction in. That, in turn, causes an abscission line to form at the pedicel base as connective tissue dies. Then the antlers fall off. However, it is not a precise mechanism and there are other influencing factors, some of which are inter-related.
When exactly deer shed their antlers can depend on several things including age, health and genetics. Older bucks tend to shed earlier, perhaps because the mechanisms that cause antlers to shed have been fine-tuned over time. All those mechanisms require sufficient resources to function properly. If a deer is in poor health due to disease, malnutrition (including mineral deficiency) or injury, they may be stressed, causing antlers to be cast off sooner.
Venison ‘Stalkers Pie’ is a once traditional dish that has been resurrected by Scott Rea and it’s absolutely delicious.
Scott Rea is an Author, Butcher and Cook. The personal passion Scott has for butchery and food that he wanted to share before the skills and traditions he learned over a lifetime faded away. But it has evolved and become a movement of like minded people who frequent Scott’s numerous videos to imitate, replicate, modify and experiment!
Enjoy the traditional artisan butchery and recipes being brought into the 21st century for a new generation to discover and enjoy. No longer are these products, recipes and methods frowned upon, Today’s this new audience are getting back to the basics of field to fork, nose to tail eating.
Knowing what wild turkey hens are doing when you hear them helps you get better at bowhunting wild turkeys. This video shows you which calls are important for you to know and understand. And it demonstrates how you can make them and when to.
Every hunter needs a good pair of binoculars. The problem is a good pair of binoculars can cost a small fortune. If you have a new pair of binoculars on your wish list, Nick Hoffman, the host of Nick’s Wild Ride, is here to help. Nick is giving away a new pair of Vortex Binoculars this spring just in time for turkey season.
Vortex Optics are considered by many to be the best binoculars for the money in the industry. “I have been using Vortex Binoculars, riflescopes and rangefinders for years. They go with me on every hunt,” Hoffman said. “There is no doubt Vortex optics are crystal clear, hold up in the harshest conditions, and are built to last. In addition, they offer the best warranty out there.”
To learn more about Vortex Optics, visit www.vortexoptics.com.
Using a bow requires that you get in closer than you do with a shotgun. Setting up in the woods, on the ground, can be tricky. Here are some tips on picking the right place for your turkey hunting situation and setting up so you won’t be seen and will be able to get a bow range shot. This video covers important information applicable to hunting with a bow and arrow that will help you in filling your turkey tag(s) this year.
Jeff Sturgis shares his proven tips for finding shed antlers on both public or private land. In this video Jeff Sturgis of Whitetail Habitat Solutions covers every aspect of finding shed antlers. This is the most complete information I’ve ever heard or seen on the topic of Finding Shed Antlers. Watching this will make you a more successful shed hunter, absolutely.
The wild turkey mouth call is perfect for helping every turkey hunter sound like a wild turkey making its most basic call. This video moves you through the important steps that will lead you through putting it together to make your number one, most effective, turkey call sound.
Learn how to quickly yelp on a mouth call using the best method for building a solid foundation of mechanics. Starting with a single reed mouth call, will allow you to learn how to yelp well enough to call in gobblers quickly while also building solid fundamentals. Then moving to the double Reed no cut and focusing on how to present air to the mouth call using your diaphragm, allows you to learn the proper air control to produce realistic yelps.
Finally going to a three Reed call with rasp and focusing on finding the sweet spot in the call to get that clean top end note of the Yelp and bringing in the rasp naturally by accelerating the air and reducing tongue pressure will have you making the most realistic yelps possible. Following this simple 3 step process eliminates all the bad habits that cause people to struggle with mouth calls.
Tips for finding shed antlers. by Bob Humphrey
For true deer hunters the season never ends. We may not be able to shoot them until next fall, but we can still hunt them, or at least the sign they leave behind. One of the most exciting and informative signs is shed antlers. And just like conventional hunting, there are some tricks and tips to make you more successful.
When the rut is over, bucks focus their attention on feeding, restoring the depleted fat stores they’ll need to survive winter. Find the food and you’ll find the deer, and maybe their antlers. Where to look depends on where you live but it could be oak groves, late season food plots or un- or under-harvested crop fields. A fresh cutting may have remnant tops of downed hardwood trees. An two or three year old cut will have stump sprouts, a favorite winter food of deer. Take note because these are the same areas they use in late fall.
Besides eating, deer survive winter by minimizing energy expenditure. They do this by seeking shelter. In the north woods, they concentrate in wintering areas or yards, where dense softwood cover breaks the wind and reduces snow depth. In steeper terrain or more open ground they’ll spend more time on south and east facing slopes, protected from prevailing winds and exposed to more sunlight. Often these are the same areas they’ll use year round as bedding cover.
Often antlers simply fall off but sometimes they need a little help. This could come in the form of any obstacle that requires a deer to jump over or across, like a fence, a stone wall or a narrow stream. Dense vegetation, like softwood boughs or briar thickets might also hasten and localize the shedding process. All these places might also be regular travel routes during the real hunting season.
On her way back so the pickup Sydney Wells encounters 2 Javelina and gets her bow and arrow into play,
Sydnie Wells drops a boar Javelina in his tracks with one shot. She used a Grim Reaper Broadhead with a 2-Inch cut.
You’ll pick up more shed antlers by searching in high-odds areas. Food sources are the #1 locations to find sheds, according to Dwayne Jones, community manager of Shed Season (shedseason.com), a website that lets shed hunters share their finds.
“Look for the food,” Dwane Jones said. “Regardless of where you live, you’re going to find the bucks sheds where you find the food source.”
Look around crops for sheds. Photo Credit: Shed Season
In Jones’ home state of Indiana, that often means bean fields, standing grain or cover crops like tillage radish. It might be something different in your area, but finding the best food means finding shed antlers, too.
Another tip is to avoid shed hunting too early in the year, particularly during mild winters, when many bucks will carry their antlers into mid-February.
March is the month many wild turkey hunters will be kicking off a quest. The wild turkey Grand Slam involves taking (at least) one of each of the four recognized races of wild turkey found in the U.S. It’s a daunting challenge, especially for a bowhunter, but it can be done with a little planning and a lot of luck.
Seasons open in March making Florida a good place to kick off your slam. The best option for non-resident hunters is a guided hunt, but demand and prices can be high as Florida has a monopoly on Osceola turkeys.
Still, odds for success are also higher with a guide, and this is often the toughest subspecies to tackle. If you prefer the DIY approach, The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission manages public hunting on 6 million acres in their WMA system and the WMA Finder app on their website will help you find locations best suited to turkey hunting. https://ocean.floridamarine.org/HGMSearch/Search.aspx
Merriams wild turkeys can also be challenging, for different reasons. They inhabit rugged, open terrain of the western states like Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Cover is sparse and Merriams travel a long way during the day.
Official Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources bowhunting safety education course
Official Alaska Department of Fish and Game bowhunting safety education course
Official Arizona Game and Fish Department bowhunting safety education course
If you haven’t looked for shed antlers this year, or you have poor success finding them, here are some good reasons to get out in your deer hunting area and give shed hunting a good try this year, right now.
Finding sheds after deer season confirms that the buck survived the season. Photo Joe Shead
Last fall’s rubs, scrapes and trails will still be visible after the snow melts and before spring green-up occurs. Plus, at that time of year, you don’t have to be paranoid about bumping a buck from its bedding area and making him go nocturnal. The deer will have months to forget the encounter. Therefore, it’s a good time to get into the thick bedding cover bucks call home or even to invade the places you may consider sanctuaries during bow season. By shed hunting at this time, you’ll get a feel for where deer are bedding now and how they enter and exit these bedding areas, which can help you set up a perfect ambush when archery season rolls around.
If you find a fresh shed antler in the spring, there’s a good chance the buck that dropped it survived hunting season as well as the winter. He still has to dodge predators and vehicles in some areas for several months before the next bow season. Body size differs between young and old bucks, but aside from that, individual animals are difficult to tell apart after they cast their antlers. But finding a shed is proof positive that a particular buck at least made it through hunting season and is very likely in your area.
