Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

Our Deer Lease is for bowhunters only and all members are allowed to have one guest at any time to come and bowhunt the member’s stands. This year, long time members John Askew and myself invited his daughter Emily and her husband Colt to join us bowhunting deer. While members can hunt and tag bucks that is not the case for guests, they are limited to does only. However guests are welcome to bowhunt all the wild hogs they want to as well as one wild turkey gobbler.

Emily has been coming along with John to the lease since she was in grade school. She enjoyed going along on hunts as well as being in camp and in the outdoors.

It’s been a pleasure to see her grow up to adulthood and have a family. A few years back she became interested in bowhunting herself and has become good at it.

Emily

“Colt dropped me at the tripod stand at the rock ledge. By about 5:00 the deer began to come into the visible area. Two does with a button buck and a fawn  hung around eating acorns and other browse for about 30 minutes.

Then all but the two does left and I decided to shoot her. When she got in the clear between two trees I drew my bow and took the broadside shot. The doe dropped in 15 yards.”

My buddies Robbie Cramer and Richey Hayes met me at the house and we walked back to the area where I hunted this morning.

“I see your arrow!” Robbie Cramer said as he picked it up and noticed blood on it. Red spatters led us east to a high spot on the gluch. Then the trail switched to the north and went downhill.

Robbie and Richey took the lead. The trail took us a short distance to the doe. Then we took a few pictures.

I pulled up the Hunt Harvest App on my iPhone and went through the short process to receive a digital deer tag. Then Richy used my iPhone to take two pictures of me and the doe.

Yea, today was one heck of a good day in the deer woods.

My apple watch alarm woke and I took a shower, got on the hunting clothes, made sure I had my hunting license (this year it’s a digital one that’s on my iPhone), wiped some streaks of black Carbomask on my face and got my rangefinder. Then I checked the Moultrie Mobile app on my MAC laptop to see if deer were out already where I wanted to hunt this morning. They weren’t presently so I picked up my new Centerpoint Wrath 430X crossbow and arrows and snuck out toward my ground blind at the Mound..

On the way a young buck ambled by. Unnoticed, I let him get out of sight and went to the shed. It was 6:35 am.

40 minutes later I noticed the same young buck, he has a fat belly for such a young buck.

Deer were in the immediate area off and on, I saw them through the trees mostly looking for acorns, a few solo does and two other young bucks. This morning, if a doe came in range I wanted to introduce the Centerpoint Wrath to bowhunting.

Fifty yards from my blind 3 does straggled up separately and from different directions.

As the Fedex truck drove out of sight I opened up the Centerpoint Wrath 430X crossbow packaging and realized that it was not assembled. I phoned Cabela’s archery department to get an appointment to get it put together and set up. Unfortunately, the archery Tech was out for a couple of days.

So I Googled “Centerpoint archery” and that led me to links on YouTube with information about this particular crossbow as well as instructions for proper assembly and tuning. Frankly, I’m not very mechanically minded but usually I can follow instructions. As I watched a few “How To” assembly videos I had a little good luck. My hunting buddy Richey Hayes arrived to hunt deer for a few days and checked in with me.

He took one look at the crossbow parts and said he could put it together. And he was correct.

Richey reviewed the written instructions put together the major parts of the Centerpoint Archery Wrath 430X. Next he connected the stock and rails and tightened them up.

Then he bolted down the limbs in place. The Centerpoint Wrath 430X shoots 430 feet per second and has an inverted cam design that delivers up to 164 foot pounds of kinetic energy, with devastating impact. The axle to axle is a slim 9 inches when cocked and has a folding stock and stirrup, the Wrath 430X is one of the most compact crossbows on the market.

Wild turkeys are native to North America, and they are very large and heavy game birds. Likely, this is what made them so appealing for the first Thanksgiving in America. Today, most people know what wild turkeys looks like.

Wild turkeys have an iridescent bronze color on their bodies and barred wing feathers. The  tails of males make a beautiful fan with brownish feathers that have black and cream colored bands. Gobblers (males)sport a chest beard that gets longer with age. Their necks and head have an odd bluish color, as do their snood (the nose drapery) and the wattle (the chin skin).

Gobblers are generally the ones that do the open tail display (called a fan), although some hens display as well as grow beards. The Toms (male turkeys) gather in clearings in the woods and gobble to attract female hens. This gobble can be heard as far as a mile away. Gobblers also puff up and expel air in a hissing puff, while dragging their wingtips on the ground while engaging in a  strut. Their bluish head, snood and wattle change color to a bright red when they are excited.

The “turkey snood” drops down from a pointy horn-like extension above the bill to a draped lengthy skin over the bill. Gobblers activity is generally  irresistible to the hens. If you are near one, you can induce him to display by mimicking the female cluck or chirp.

Hens lay a clutch of 4-17 wild turkey eggs in a ground nest. These eggs hatch into baby wild turkeys, called poults. For the first four weeks of life, poults find and eat as many insects as possible. That protein helps they grow quickly. After that 4 months wild turkeys become omnivorous and eat eat plants, seeds and nuts. By the time they grow up, wild turkeys reach 3.5-4 feet in height and weight between 5.5 and 28 pounds. Their, wingspread is 4-4.75 feet.

While many people are gearing up for deer hunting season, others find themselves in the hunting store for a different reason — archery.

Matt Stacher, archery coach, got involved after he started working at Hunter’s Haven in Champaign, Illinois 11 years ago. Then, he decided he wanted to spread his passion to others. He teaches students of all ages and said sometimes even two-year-olds can hold a bow!

But, Stacher said the best part of coaching is seeing his students smile and improve from lesson to lesson. They meet the first three Saturdays of the month at Hunter’s Haven in Champaign.

Alyssa Neubauer is a freshman at Uni High. She got involved with Archery in middle school after becoming interested in archery while shopping for camping supplies with her family at Field and Stream.

“I really like the people with archery too. It’s really independent and teamwork,” Neubauer said. “I can just do my own thing and finish and hang out with my friends. It’s really rewarding seeing can do better than I thought I could.”

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Matt Bateman from Grim Reaper Broadheads talks Shot Placement and Broadhead Choices for different types of hunting. If you bowhunt with a broadhead you do not want to miss this.

 

I was blessed with the opportunity to tag one of our target bucks, “Mr. Crabs”, on November 12.  My brother Brent Cearlock and I  have 4 years of trail camera pictures of him and feel confident he was 5.5 years old this season. My first encounter with him was an evening hunt on November 7th.

I was bowhunting the south edge of a wood lot overlooking the wooded bottom and a picked corn field to my south. It was a north wind that afternoon so my scent was blowing out over the picked corn field. With about an hour and a half of daylight left, deer started filtering out into the picked corn field about a 100 yards east of me. 30 minutes later Mr. Crabs stepped out. He spent the next 50 minutes checking out each doe and freshening a few field edge scrapes.

With about 5 minutes of legal light left Mr. Crabs finally started working his way west towards me. He covered the distance quickly and with 2 minutes of legal light he was broadside at 30 yards. I was at full draw, but felt uncomfortable taking the shot due to the lack of light. I let down my bow and let him walk by.

Fast forward 5 days: I’m hunting the same property about 600 yards northeast of my November 7th bowhunt. This hunt I am on the east edge of the timber with a picked bean field east of me and a west wind blowing in the woods toward known bedding area.

I picked this stand hoping to catch one of our target bucks between does and scent checking the downwind side of the bedding area. I settled into the stand at 11:45. By 2:00 I had passed 2 different 3 year old bucks and a few does. I even texted my hunting buddies saying the bucks are doing exactly what I hoped, I just needed one of the mature bucks to do the same thing.

After I broke my right shoulder I could no longer draw my compound or recurve bows. So I got a crossbow and was able to keep on bowhunting deer, wild turkeys, etc. and use up the tags on my hunting license.

When I first switched I used the ‘learn on the fly method,’ which is not that good a method. The video below by Rich Wilson is excellent because it covers what we need to know if we want to shoot and hunt with a crossbow. This is a must view for crossbow shooters.

By Robert Hoague

Below is Rich Wilsons video, it’s both helpful and necessary for shooting good with a crossbow.

   Death by Bunjie

You’re Gonna Enjoy this Easy and Fast To Make, Great Tasting Venison Stew Made In A Pressure Cooker By  Woods2Table.

John Turner shows you how to make an AWESOME Venison Stew in the PRESSURE COOKER (or Instant Pot) in just a FEW MINUTES! You won’t believe how FAST & EASY this recipe is. And you will enjoy how TENDER & DELICIOUS the deer meat is by using this recipe and the pressure cooker method.

     Woods2Table

 

There have been a number of reports on how deer respond to the rifle season. All show changes in deer movements in response to the hunter pressure. Deer knew there was something amiss and altered their movements right before and during the rifle season. It’s fun making movies of their movements, and the movies are even more fun to watch. Those posts generated a lot of discussion, but there isn’t much that can be said from a scientific perspective. A single deer and an opinion do not research make.

But many deer and a complex statistical model do! Are there larger patterns at play? Katie Gundermann, a graduate student at Penn State University, dug deep looking for those larger patterns in her research for her M.S. degree.

Katie had two predictions about how deer might respond to the hunting season. One – they could shift their home range to a different location, as illustrated below (the brown track represents its home range prior to the hunting season and the blue is the result of hunting activity).

Or two – they could contract their home range. That is, only use a portion of their home range like this.

To assess whether deer shift or contract their home range (or don’t!) she used a relatively new tool in ecology called Hidden Markov Models, or HMMs. The models are named after Russian mathematician Andrey Andreyevich Markov (1856–1922) who studied stochastic processes and what is now known as a Markov chain.

November is here and everyone is on the lookout for that big buck. However, it’s easy to overlook the main factor controlling buck movements in November – does.

When the rut starts up, bucks will be criss-crossing their home ranges to dial in on does. If you find and pattern does, you’ll find the bucks. With that in mind, here are some strategies to get close to those hot does and increase your chances of having that shooter in range.

Bedding Areas

Just like bucks, does have home ranges. In those home ranges is where does will spend the majority of their time. In the fall, does are packing on fat for winter. Their core areas usually center around a combination of quality fall food sources and quality bedding cover. The likely targets for feeding are acorns, standing corn, and food plots. Once you determine their food source, then determine the nearest quality bedding cover. You’re now in the right general area. The travel routes to and from food and bedding are ideal ambush areas to both see does and call in amped up bucks.

Mid-day

During the middle of the day, does often get up out of their bedding areas to wander and browse between areas of bedding cover, but they seem to make shorter distance trips.  To find bucks looking for does in the middle of the day, set up between two known bedding areas.  Waterholes in good cover can also be great ambush points for a mid-day hunt, as both bucks and does will stop for a drink on warmer days.  Bucks have one thing on their mind.  Therefore, buck movement can occur throughout the day making it important to not forget those mid-day hunts.

Evenings

As the sun begins to set, does will fill fields and food plots, trying to pack on the pounds before the cold of winter.  Bucks won’t be far behind.  Set up a stand along major deer trails leading to these prime food sources.  Older bucks are often hesitant to step out into the open during daylight.  Setting up a stand 20 yards or more off the field edge, inside the timber may be the perfect ambush.

At Hoyt, it’s not just about the bow, it’s about the system, the adventure, the highs and lows, and the hunt. It’s more than a bow. It’s a Hoyt. And Hoyt’s VTM is the engineering evolution of Hoyt’s most proven riser design, the Ventum Pro, with advancements in every aspect, including a 31% sound reduction.

Sound and vibration reduction has been a focus for Hoyt engineers for several years. It’s hard to believe a bow could get quieter than the Ventum Pro but by stiffening the riser in certain areas, fine-tuning of the string weights, and developing the Holeshot V2, the VTM got 31% quieter. Check one out at your dealer.

By: Staff Writer Bowhunting360.com

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that although deer hunting appears to be a nonconformist activity in theory, that’s not the case. And surprisingly it’s bowhunting that appeals to many who are motivated to eat healthier.

Hunters who tend to be motivated by healthy lifestyles and organic food and, sometimes, are wary of huge commercial farming operations, probably know whether beef is healthier than venison.

Certainly, the traditional hunting community knows the answer, and many have observed the recent impact of such an answer. Hunting is growing.

Venison is 100 percent organic, with no chemicals or antibiotic injections.

As Bloomberg Businessweek reported earlier this year, although hunting appears to be a nonconformist activity in theory, that’s not the case. Even more, it’s bowhunting that often appeals to those motivated to eat well:

Hunting the rut is when many whitetail deer hunters double down on their hunting efforts. . Once breeding starts to take place Bucks begin searching for a receptive doe. The rut is a prime time to spot a buck during daylight.

There are important things that you can do to increase your opportunities for tagging a buck during the rut in your area. In this video Whitetail Evolution discuss a few things that will increase your chances of accomplishing your rut hunting goals.

For More Go To Whitetail Evolution LLC.

Thirty years ago Tim Wells went on his first bowhunt for wolves, and has returned several times, hoping for a chance to arrow the elusive Black Wolf. In this video Tim’s path finally crosses with bow hunting’s greatest prize, the Black Wolf. And the hunt is on.

This is an amazing video of Wolves and close encounters. Watch Tim call in wolves on 4K video with stunning drone and covert wolf footage. TIPS TRICKS and how to hunt the wolf. Slock Master: https://slockmaster.com/

For More Tim Wells Bowhunts And Adventures CLICK HERE.

 

It has been 4 years since the Whitetail World was turned upside down with the news of a new World Record. On November 2, 2018 , Luke Brewster sent a Grim Reaper broadhead through the biggest buck ever killed by any weapon. The buck known as ‘Mufasa’, was aged at 7 1/2 years old and netted 327 7/8 inches by official scorers B&C record keeping.

The following video is an exclusive interview with Luke Brewster and the team that helped to make this story possible. Jay Liechty, the President of Grim Reaper Broadheads got to meet these great guys at the annual Archery Trade show and sat down with them to bring us a little of this amazing story.

One of the main guys in this group, Justin Cearlock has also joined the Bowhunting.net writer staff to share some of his 30 years of knowledge hunting monster bucks. Enjoy the video and catch the latest articles from Justin Cearlock and his photos of several monster bucks still to be chased by these guys.

I’ve used Woodhaven Custom Calls for years and there is nothing better; a call is only as good as how it sounds, and can be made to sound. I’ve trusted WoodHaven Custom Calls this season and many past seasons. Both for bucks and wild turkey gobblers, successfully. Of course, I’m not  the only one of the thousands of deer and wild turkey hunters that get it done hunt after hunt with Woodhaven calls. Check out the PICTURES below. . . . By Robert Hoague

PICTURES From Woodhaven Custom Calls FANS

SHOP DEER CALLS

SHOP DEER CALLS

SHOP DEER CALLS

INTIMIDATOR GRUNT / SNORT WHEEZE

The “Intimidator” Deer Call is designed to be easy to use and requires very little air to op­erate. With the “Intimidator” you can produce a wide range of grunts, varying from whisper soft to extremely loud. The “Intimidator” grunt call also comes with our Inflexor Tube which allows for easier and more dynamic sound control.  With the integrated snort wheeze you can create the range of buck vocalizations to call them close. The overall tone quality of the “Intimidator” is unsurpassed!  Careful hands on construction, assembly, and tuning ensures each call to have an extremely realistic sound.  The “Intimidator”……Realism UnLeashed!

$19.99 Buy Now

 

E2: Whitetaill Ninja Deer Calling Tips – Don’t Be Afraid To Call Jeff Danker of Buckventures shares some of his tips and tricks for calling whitetails. Check out the entire series on our YouTube Channel

 

Copyright © 2022 Woodhaven Custom Calls, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Woodhaven Custom Calls 1340 Ross St. Heflin, AL 36264 Add us to your address book

Morrell Targets announces the introduction of the new Transformer 3D deer target. The Transformer 3D target is unlike any target currently on today’s market. Starting with, the vital area is made of High Roller Foam which is Morrell Targets’ most durable foam ever. High Roller foam is durable, self- healing, and provides easy arrow removal.

The vital area/midsection on the new Transformer 3D target is made of High Roller foam. This target is actually a stand alone target. Bowhunters often shoot at a 3D target when they shoot in the backyard. When they head to deer camp, they bring a portable target. The Transformer target is two targets in one.

When it is time to head to deer camp, the vital area/midsection can be removed from the 3D target and brought to camp. The removable target comes with a handle that is lightweight and easy to transport.

“The Transformer target eliminates the need for bowhunters to buy multiple targets,” Tanner Morrell noted. “Now bowhunters can simply remove the midsection from their Transformer 3D target and head to camp. Best of all, the target is made using our popular High Roller foam, which bowhunters love.”

Learn more about the Transformer Target from Morrell Targets at www.morrelltargets.com.

Robert Hoague
Webmaster Bowhunting.net

Crown Buck stood still, motionless, and stared right at my face. So, I borrowed from a page his own ‘Big Buck Page-Book’ and stood motionless too, not moving a centimeter from the top of my head down to my toes.

I breathed very slowly through my nose, a subtle trick of my own that I thought up year’s ago. It has worked for me more than it hasn’t!

It worked this time too.

Forty Five yards from us a black hocked Doe walked out of the trees and Crown Buck picked up on the doe instantly and switched his attention to her and postured in his “Here I Am Baby” mode. The Doe held her grounds and looked at him; which tipped me off, I had better get doing whatever I was gonna do.

Note: Above is a game camera picture of Crown Buck from November 11, 2020 taken a mile from where we both were now.