Scott's 2008 Hunting Schedule

-September 6 -7- MN Early Goose Hunt- Barry, MN (Logan and Pete)
-September 13- MN Early Goose Hunt- Barry, MN (Logan)
-September 14- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN
-September 26-28- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Macon, MO (Pete)

-October 4-5- MN Duck Opener- Barry, MN (Logan)
-October 11-12- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN
-October 25-26- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN
-October 29- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN

-November 1-8- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Macon, MO (Pete)
-November 15-16- MN Rifle Hunt Whitetail- Garrison, MN
-November 22-23- Archery Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN
-November 29-30- Muzzleloader Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN

-December 7- Muzzlelaoder Hunt Whitetail- Annandale, MN
-December 13-17- Texas Deer/Hog Hunt- Throckmorton, TX (Pete)
-December 24- Pheasant Hunt- Western, MN (Logan)

MO Turkey

5/3/08- I started out the morning hunting at Green's farm. I set up on the west edge of the timber where Scott & Josh had seen several birds the previous weekend. The temps were in the low 40s with strong west winds gusting 20-30mph. There were 5-6 toms roosted along the creek about 100 yards to the east of my setup. They were gobbling great all morning and responding to all of my calls. I heard them fly down around 6:20am, but the birds were hesitant to move much. Around 6:45 a pair of toms finally committed and starting closing the distance, they were gobbling every 10-15 seconds. Then they just shut up. About 3 minutes later I spotted movement to the north, only to see Brian walking down the fence row. I'm guessing the birds saw him and bugged out. I got on him pretty good about screwing me again and not staying put. All this after I told him I'd come get him around 9am. I'm pretty sure he knew I was pissed by the time I got done laying into him.

We decided to move to Glen's middle farm and on the way in spotted 7 birds in the corner of the field. We snuck around the east side of the property and got into the creek bed that paralleled their position. The conditions were perfect with strong winds and the location of the birds. We worked our way through the creek bed south and popped up were we thought the birds should be. Our guess was on the money. 1 tom and 6 hens in field about 60 yards out from us, the game was on. We crawled out of the creek and into the grass leading into up to the field. 4 of the hens started to feed west and past us at 20 yards without ever knowing we were laying there. One of the hens had about a 7 inch beard. Once they fed past us I continued the sneak. I got to within 30 yards of the tom and the other 2 hens, and stopped to make sure Brian stayed put. There was no need for both of us to keep going. There was a small drainage ditch in the grass and it was the perfect route to get even closer then we had planned. I crawled into the drainage and followed it for another 15 yards and was literally 5 feet from the field edge and still undetected. I could make out the tom through the grass as he was just standing in the field watching his lady friends. I stayed put for about five minutes hoping he'd work west and follow the other hens right past me, but he was locked on the 2 remaining hens. The tom gobbled one time and I decided it was go time. I took the safety off and slowly started to raise up above the grass. The birds had no idea I was even there. The shot absolutely stoned the big tom in his tracks, not even so much as a wing flop out of him. I was twelve steps from him when I let the Benelli bark. It was a huge relief after having a pretty frustrating season to this point. The bird was a solid 2 year old weighing in at 20lbs. with a 9 1/2 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.

To top the day off we hammered fish on Big Pond for the rest of the afternoon.

MO Turkey Opener

4/21/08 - Brian and myself started the MO 2008 turkey season out at Green's Farm in southwest MO. The first morning started out with a bang. The blinds I placed several weeks ago had blown down during the storms we had the week earlier, so our first line of business was to try and locate them. After finding the blind about 100 yards down the tree line and resetting it, it was finally time to hunt. The temps were in the mid 60s with overcast skies and a slight south wind. We only heard 4 gobbles on the roost, but nothing close. We had scouted the night before and watched 6 big toms strutting in the field we were set up in.
Around 8:30am we finally heard several gobbles from the east field, and the game was on. The toms were fired up gobbling at almost all of our calls. The first bird entered the field about 300 yards to the north then a second, third, fourth, and fifth bird followed suite. All of them were big toms and they waisted no time closing the distance on our position. It was awesome to see all of them strutting, spitting, and gobbling the whole way in. I was hunting with my Hoyt and Delany was supposed to be running the video camera. I ended up filming the birds until they were about 40 yards out, and then handed the camera over to Brian (big mistake!!!!). The birds came right into the set and then everything went down hill, and fast. Brian couldn't get the camera on the birds and was moving the camera all over the joint, all the while I had 5 toms strutting between 14-22yards. Brian finally got the camera sorted out, and then knocked the camo cover off the camera. The fist bird of the group saw this and the gig was up. All the birds started bugging out and I had to hurry a shot at about 33 yards. Unfortunately I didn't account for the blind being unlevel and my arrow hit right below the shooting window and missed the bird. Brian proceeded to try and take a shot with his gun, but forgot to click his safety. He finally got it sorted out, and took a fleeting attempt at about 50+ yards. The only thing that accomplished was educating all 5 of the birds.
We didn't have any action for the rest of the day, and couldn't get a bird to gobble at any of the farms we went to.
What should have been a great day in the turkey woods ended up being one of the biggest disaster in my hunting career.

4/22/08 - We headed back out to Green's farm for the second day of the MO turkey season and hoped our luck would be a lot better than the previous day. We had decided to hunt the north field, and got to the farm extra early in order to make the long walk up there. A storm front had moved through the night before and there was an unbelievable lightening show to our north. We reached our setup and as we were putting out the decoys the first bird gobbled on the roost not 150 yards from our setup. The temps were still in the mid 60s with south winds, but the turkeys decided to gobble early and often today. We had two big toms roosted right off the field and they gobbled at everything. Around 6:50am I spotted a bird roosted about 70 yards from. It pitched into the field and landed about 20 yards out from the decoys, unfortunately it was a jake. He came straight into 7 yards and decided something wasn't right. About that time the 2 toms pitched down and landed right on the field edge, and instantly began to strut and gobble. The jake started to putt and I think that prevented the toms from committing to the setup. They just worked their way north gobbling the entire time.

Around 8:30am we decided to make a move and worked our way north east through the creek bed. We struck a bird about 9am and he was about 60 yards in front of us in the bottom. We set up and started calling. Two more birds responded and the game was on. The birds acted like they weren't going to move, so I decided to work around to the south and sneak up on them through the creek bed. The birds were gobbling the entire time and around 10am I had finally made it about 30 yards from their location. The underbrush was thick and I was trying to get a visual on the birds, when I heard Brian calling directly north of my position. He decided he didn't want to sit at the first location and snuck down the north edge of the bottom. About two minutes later Brian shot twice and showered me with BBs from about 50 yards. He got the bird, but I chewed his ass for not staying put and almost shooting me. I wasn't very happy about the whole situation.

Turkeys Farm #1

April 13th Pheasant Farm Shoot

I went to Gold Meadows Pheasant Farm on 4/13/08 for a little spring time shoot. Our group of 3 bought a total of 12 birds and we bagged all 12. Above is a picture of Logan with a couple of the birds and below is another of Logan cleaning his first pheasant. Get after it boy!

2008 MN Starling Season Starts With A Bang

I made it out for my first Starling hunt of 2008 on Sunday afternoon (4/6/08). The wind was blowing from the south at 10-15 mph, overcast skies and light rain. Because of the weather I decided to hunt from the kitchen blind at my parents "farm". Right off the bat I had several Starlings come into my feeder. Finally after 2 or 3 minutes I had a hen starling give me a 13 yard broadside shot and I just happened to have a hen tag in my pocket. Smack! Hen starling pinned to the ground.

5 minutes later I missed on a mature male starling before getting out of my blind to go shoot at the Gander Mountain Range. I returned to the kitchen blind around 4 PM to hunt the late afternoon. After 5 minutes I had a couple starlings come into my feeder, but none where shooters. I had a perfect wind so I was undetected. Finally, the Starling I had been dreaming my whole life about dropped from out of the trees and under my feeder. I came to full draw, but the starling stepped behind the feeder. I stayed at full draw and waited for what seemed like hours for my trophy to give me a shot. Finally the Starling cleared the feeder. I took careful aim and "Smack!" My first record book bird was lights out immediately!

As you can see I got great penetration with my cabelas field tip and Carbon Express Maxima Hunter arrow. They are a lethal combination when teamed up with a Hoyt Vetrix and I highly recommend that setup when hunting record book Starlings!

My first "book"bird and a great start to my 2008 starling season!

Buck Masters Article "Double Jokers"

http://www.buckmasters.com/bm/Resources/Articles/tabid/135/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/736/Double-Jokers.aspx

The ablove link will direct you to the Buck Masters article about the 2006 harvest of the "Double Jokers" first P&Y buck.

TX Hogs

This is a picture of the the boar I shot on 2/3/08 at QV Ranches in Throckmorton, TX. I stalked to within 4 yards of this pig before taking the shot. Do you smell pork chops!!!! See Scott's post below for the hunts details.

Thats how you do it in Texas boy!

Headed down to Throckmorton, TX from Feb1-3 for a couple days of Hog Hunting, sun and relaxing. We hunted QV Ranches which is a high and low fence operation. The ranch made for a great hunting camp. They had good accommodations, great food and good ole down south hospitality. I would highly recommend the ranch to anyone looking for a Hog, Turkey, Quail, Deer or Exotic hunt.

We showed up to camp around noon on Friday, Feb 1. After sighting in our rifles and relaxing we headed out for the evening hunt. Everyone saw plenty of wildlife and Rod took an all black hog. Rod's hog was a perfect eater and weighed around 75 pounds. Pete had a huge 10 pt. buck about 60-75 yards from his stand for nearly an hour.

Saturday morning was crisp and clear. Pete, Rod and I hunted a low fence ranch about 15 miles west of the main ranch. The rest of the crew stayed and hunted the main ranch. We saw tons of whitetail on the low fence property but no hogs. No shots where fired at the main ranch either. Pete and I went for a ride to check coyote traps with owner Ben Koonce in the afternoon. Ben dropped us off in a creek bottom and told us to spot and stock our way through the creek bottom. After 15 minutes Pete dropped the boom on a pair of piglets with one shot. Pigs took off running everywhere after the shot. I took the gun from Pete and had a good size hog come out of the creek bottom about 2 minutes after Pete shot. I took a quartering away shot and put the all black pig instantly in the dirt. Later that night Pete and I hunted together hoping to get some footage of a kill but had no luck. Only animal we saw was a horse. Brian shot a hog similar to the size of Rod’s. 3 "official" hogs down so far.

Sunday morning was also slow. Pete and I did spot 6 hogs sneaking through the broom weed about 250 yards to our south. Otherwise we saw plenty of Whitetail, a Black Tail Buck and a group of Axis Doe. Around 8:30 we started to stalk for pigs. Finally ran into a good group around 11 AM. Pete put a nice Black hog down and we could have had several more if the Broom weed wasn’t so thick. Brian also got two more hogs while stocking the other side of the ranch. Overall we ended up killing 6 hogs.

Overall it was a fun hunt, but a bit slow on hog movement. The hogs where tough to see in the broom weed and seemed to only feed late at night. The guides at QV did all they could to get us on hogs, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I look forward to hunting QV Ranches in the future.

MO Duck Shoot

12/21/07 Jimbo's West Side

Me and Brian hunted The West Side this morning. Brian and Kevin's group shot 33 birds last Friday, so with the cold front moving in we decided to give the field anothr shot. The wind was SSE about 4-7 mph with clear skies and 26 degrees. We hunted on the SE side of the main channel. Brian broke open a 40 yards hole in the ice using his 4wheeler and we put out 18 mallard decoys, 1 jr. mojo, and 18 canada field decoys.

The moring started out slow but around 9:15am flocks started pouring in every 8 - 15 minutes. The shooting started out poor, but I regained my form with the new Benelli after 2 flocks. The birds worked right into the spread. The bigger flocks were pretty shy, but the flocks of 5-20 birds would circle 2-3 times and drop right in. It was a solid shoot and nice to get back after the ducks. I wish Q could have been here, it was a perfect setup for him!!!!