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In God We Trust. On Lone Wolf We Stand

Written on January 25, 2011 by admin in Blog, Hunting, Whitetail Hunting

Opie With His 10 Point and Silent Partner

So I just got off the phone with the great guys over at Lone Wolf Treestands and I have to say I am really excited with their new product line for 2011. I rely on my “Silent Partner” every time I head out to chase monster Whitetails and am always impressed with how well the stand performs. All of us here at FLG that depend on our Lone Wolf Climbers are really happy to hear that all the 2011 models will once again be made 100% in the U.S.A.

Other changes for this year include a new design on the cast aluminum platforms that will accommodate the newer model bows with bigger cams and parallel limbs. This will solve my dilemma on how I was going to modify my current Hand Climber to be able to accommodate the Mathews Switchback that is currently in the mail making its way to my doorstep. Not only will the new bow holder hold all newer model bows but it will still be just as functional with older bows as well. I guess all I have to do now is shell out the money for a new platform (ouch) or hope that Lone Wolf shines down and sponsors the FLG Whitetail team with new stands for this season.

Another really sweet thing Lone Wolf is coming out with this year is the Assault Hand Climber Combo. They have taken the Assault platform and combined it with the Hand Climber seat to create the ultimate lightweight climbing stand. Weighing in at less than 15 pounds this stand will be perfect for those of us that like to pack in a long ways to hunt big woods bucks.

I know that not everyone is a fan of Lone Wolf Stands and that everyone has their own reasons and preferences for choosing the stand that they do. I however like my silent partner and every time I head to the woods I find another reason to be happy with how it performs. Some of the reasons I like my Lone Wolf (and solid points when choosing any climbing stand) are as follows.

It is Very Quiet – I like to sneak into the woods and be able to set up without giving the deer any hint that I am there. The cast aluminum is quiet when climbing the tree and doesn’t make “people” noise when sneaking through the brush.
It is Compact – My hand climber breaks down into a very tight package and doesn’t add to my profile. This means it doesn’t get snagged or caught on anything while I am walking through the woods and allows me enough freedom of movement to shoot my bow with it on my back if need be.
It is Comfortable – Once you have learned to pick the right tree to climb and have figured out the best stand position that fits you it’s a dream to sit in. I can sit all day in my stand without thinking twice.
The “Little” Things – All the small things that the guys at Lone Wolf have thought of and added are superb. From the built in bow holder that keeps your bow in the perfect position to the climbing bands that make climbing any tree a breeze and the platform teeth that always give you a rock solid platform to shoot from this stand is a dream.

So a big pat on the back to the guys over at Lone Wolf for making an exceptional product and for building it in the U.S.A. with parts and labor from right here at home. I know that no matter what season finds me with my bow in my hands that I will definitely be standing on my Lone Wolf 30 feet up in a tree somewhere.

Shoot Straight,

Opie

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Gold Tip Steps into the Small Diameter Arrow Shaft Arena

Written on January 24, 2011 by admin in Blog, Hunting

The New Gold Tip Velocity Hunter

Well if you are an archer like me, you know that you are always watching the horizon for new arrows. Not just name changes but actual new arrow designs. Well my friends, Gold Tip has stepped up this year into the slim shaft diameter arrow market. For years Easton has enjoyed being one of the only companies to offer a small diameter arrow shafts. Their wildly popular Full Metal Jacket, Nano and Axis series arrows are just some of their newest offerings but slim arrow shaft design has always been on their radar.

Gold Tip’s new Kinetic hunting arrows come in their standard Hunter, XT and Pro in spines from .500 down to .200. The arrows inside diameter is .204 compared to .246 in their standard hunting shafts. The Kinetics are going to have their own set of accu-tough inserts and nocks as well as a 9/32 screw in point. You might be asking, “what does this mean for me?” Lets take for instance a shaft of 29 inches in length. In a 75/95, their normal hunting arrows, it would have an outside diameter of .300 and a spine of .340 while weighing in at 258.1 grains with a surface area of 27.47 inches. The new Kinetic shaft in a .300 spine would have an outside diameter of .275 and weighs in at 301.4 grains all with a surface area of 25.17 inches. Thats a whole 2 inches smaller total surface area, 8.4 percent smaller in fact, while weighing 43.5 grains more.

So what does all that mean? Well it means you can shoot an arrow that weighs more but is smaller therefore allowing it to fly with more stability, be less affected by wind and penetrate further. So next time there is the buck of a lifetime standing at 40 yards in a cross breeze you will have the confidence to put him on the wall. The Kinetic series is expected to hit the shelves in February so get out to your local dealer and cycle a few through your bow.

Shoot Straight,

“The Rocket”

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Close Coyote Encounters

Written on January 20, 2011 by admin in Blog, Hunting, Predators

A beautiful winter coyote.

As much as I would like to be I am not yet a full time professional hunter and neither are any of my hunting buddies. So just like the rest of the outdoor lovers we have to navigate work schedules, family lives and various other responsibilities in order to sneak out into the woods and do what we love. So Friday night I got on the phone and rounded up a couple buddies to come out for a Saturday morning predator hunt. They both had to out of the woods by 11:00am for work so we decided to meet up pre-dawn to get an early start on things.

Shortly after dawn we were tucked into the snow along a fence line overlooking a small field and the edge of a swamp that we knew held a significant number of Coyotes. As promising as the spot was and how convincing the dying rabbit squeals coming from our calls were; the Coyotes weren’t coming. The gusty wind that had picked up to over 30 mph just after dawn certainly wasn’t helpful but we were determined to call in a Coyote regardless. We tried several sets in various locations around the property hoping to get within earshot of a hungry Coyote that would respond to our calls but 9:30 found us back at the truck discussing our options for the remainder of the morning.

We decided we had enough time for two more sets on a different piece of property and loaded up to head that way. This time we snuck into position along a north / south running fence line that separates a 60 acre field from a large swamp. We were only 400 yards from the closest neighbor’s house but going any farther threatened to alert any Coyotes that were holed up in the swamp. The wind had calmed down and my two buddies opted to sit in the tall grass on the field edge hoping to ambush any Coyotes that were trying to capitalize on the west wind by coming out to the field and circling to our downwind. I sat inside the woods with only 30 yards separating me from the thick tangled brush that surely held a Coyote.

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So Close

Written on January 14, 2011 by admin in Blog, Hunting

Georgia is Pretty Tired

So I have been scouting pretty hard the last couple of days, trying to find out where the geese are feeding at and what times they have been going to feed. Normally this is pretty easy here in southwest Michigan because they have their favorite spots, however it has been fricken cold lately and all of their favorite spots are frozen…. It was pure luck that I found their roost on Monday, it happens to be right around the corner from my house on a very small river. I have never seen geese stacked in there like this, today there was close to 1000 birds. The problem is that I don’t like busting them off their roost if I can avoid it, this keeps them in the area longer and I get to hunt ‘em more. So tonight as my two daughters and I were watching them take off, I thought sweet lets see where they go, but flock after flock lifted off and then looked like the dropped back down on to the river, this river has tall trees on either side of it so unless the birds gain altitude quickly you can loose them. My daughter kept asking where they were going and I just had to look at her and say “I have no clue.” The geese have not been using any of the fields close by this year, so I was at a loss. How could this many geese just keep disappearing? So just for kicks we drove around the block to see what we could see, guess what, those sneaky bastards were getting off the river and dumping into a cut and chisel plowed corn field 100 yards from their roost. I have seen them feed close to their roost before but never this close. If I had to guess there were 500 birds sitting out there, I had to get permission for this field, i just had to. So as per the norm here in Michigan I started knocking on doors to find out who owned it, I found him, and I got a big fat NO. He first said it was leased, then he said it was private, then he just shut the door in my face. Well, what can you do? The geese are there, the season is open, you have the gear, but you can’t get permission. That my friends is part of goose hunting.

A couple of tips that we have learned over the years that usually work when seeking permission to hunt a piece of property:

Do your research if possible. Use a Plat book and know who’s field it is if possible, try not to just knock on doors.

Go see them in person, its old school I know but its better the a phone call.
Be calm and friendly, chat if they want to chat.
Sometimes it helps it you ask for a one time hunt, this will prove to them that you have boundaries and lets them see what your made of before they give you permission to hunt all year.
Talk to them about your hunting ethics and your reputation in the area for being a trustworthy hunter.
Offer to give them a call or stop by the house each time you’re planning to hunt to get an all clear. This eases a lot of landowners minds by letting them know that even though they have given you permission they still have control over whether or not people are hunting on any given day.
My last resort is offering to lease the property, this can get expensive and if they are motivated by money and someone can always outbid you.

You cannot always get permission to hunt for free, but sometimes you can and it’s always worth a try. Be nice, make friends, because in waterfowling its always who you know.

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Killing Quackas

Written on January 13, 2011 by admin in Blog, Hunting, Waterfowl Hunting

Josh "Rooney" Dickerson and @michaelkotzum

After quite a few frustrating weeks of hunting here in Oklahoma we finally got into the mallards this morning. I took my usual route yesterday morning scouting the birds and seeing how the extremely cold temps had effected the bird movement and the smaller waters. Some of the bigger ponds were still open, and of course the rivers, but all the shallow waters and sloughs were locked up tight with ice. I knew by experience where the birds would be so I headed to my favorite lookout point on the Arkansas River. As I started scanning the shores on the other side with my small binoculars I could see quite a few birds tucked up tight along the shore. You see, in this area, we have thousands of cormorants (better known as water turkeys to the locals) that use the same waterways as the geese and ducks and I wanted to make sure these were ducks. My binoculars weren’t quite strong enough to make out what the birds were but after some examination I noticed they were standing up in the water and flapping their wings. I knew then that the birds I was looking at were mallards…thousands of mallards!!! At that point I made a phone call to Michael and told him to be at my house by 5am the next morning. But, for my regular hunting partner Tommy, all I have to do is send him a text with a time and he’ll be there. Every time. No explanation needed.

Michael was sitting in my driveway at 4:30am this morning when I woke up. I’m guessing he was just a little excited. This is the first time he’s hunted with us. We got the boat hooked up, checked everything out, loaded the dog, guns, gear, and all the warm clothing we could find (it was 9 degrees this morning). This is no time to be messing around, we had to be very careful. We got to the launch and found about 20 foot of shore ice. It was thin enough to launch the boat but I was nervous. After a cold 10 minute boat ride, we were at our spot trashing up the boat and putting out 5 dozen decoys. Just about time we got situated, we had our first pair of ducks coming into the decoys. I took one shot and dropped a widgeon. It was the beginning of a good day. Even with the roto duck not working properly, the mallards were very responsive to the calls and decoys. Most of the birds were skirting our decoys a little forcing longer shots but we were dropping birds out of every small flock. Cody, my retriever, was having a hard time seeing the downed birds with the fog that was lingering over the river. About 10am, we had about 6 birds in the boat and 4 on the water as well as a decoy that had floated away from us. Tommy and I had to take the boat out and make the retrieves ourselves. After that, Tommy cooked up a mean breakfast even though our eggs had frozen solid. After breakfast, we had a couple more flocks of “new” birds come in and we had our limit.

We ended up with 12 drake mallards, 3 hen mallards and 3 widgeon by noon. It was an awesome hunt…FINALLY!! Michael had a great time and Tommy is ready for more tomorrow. Cody also did very well for the conditions and he will sleep well tonight. There were still new birds working us while we were picking up so we will be right back in the same area tomorrow morning. More reports coming soon….

Josh “Rooney” Dickerson

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Heading North For Predators

Written on December 31, 2010 by admin in Blog

Well the FLG Predator Team is headed north. As I write this Tex and I are driving through the fog headed up to Cadillac, Michigan to call Coyotes and Bobcats all weekend.

The weather has warmed over the past few days and most of the snow has faded which will make the hunt a little more difficult. Tomorrow is supposed to bring colder weather and snow before the mercury drops out of the thermometer Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow is also the opener for Bobcat season here in Michigan which has me really pumped up.

Hopefully the predators will all be hungry and trying to find a warm meal before this storm hits and will readily come to our distress calls.

The Jeep is loaded down with our arsenal of predator slaying weapons and gear so we should be prepared for anything that comes our way this weekend.

We’ll be at our destination in about 30 minutes and are hoping to find a fish fry to feast on before have a few beam and cokes as the ball drops tonight.

I hope everyone is ready for one hell of a ride in 2011. Happy New Years.

Shoot Straight,

Opie

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Chasing Green Heads in Oklahoma

Written on December 30, 2010 by admin in Blog

Watching the sun set on the Arkansas river waiting for ducks

I know that most if not all duck hunters have had the dream of a never ending stream of ducks coming into their decoys, one perfect flock followed by another. This is a dream I had a chance to live out this year. My good friend and hunting buddy moved to Oklahoma last year and has been working hard to get me to come down and see what they had to offer in the way of intense duck action. The only problem was…. the timing.

So I agreed to be on stand-by for the month of December, knowing that when I received his call I would have to drop everything, pack up the truck, leave and hope the ducks would still be there when we arrived. Well we got the call on December 18th, which was way closer the Christmas then we had hoped. So crossing our fingers, hoping we would have a family to come home to, the FLG Quaka Killa Team left for Oklahoma at 2am the next morning.

To say that the drive was filled with anticipation would be an understatement. I had brought my bro-in-law Richard aka “sleepy” along for company and driving help but it wouldn’t have mattered on the way down, I couldn’t sleep. Josh called every couple hours to give us updates, which further fueled my dream. Reports of thousands of birds dumping into the fields will keep any waterfowler up at night.

It was 10 min after we arrived that we were suiting up and heading towards the river for a quick evening hunt, it would have been a longer hunt but we HAD to stop at Bass Pro Shops to get some “supplies”. We loaded up on Josh’s decked out duck boat and headed down the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Illinois river. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed, I had never dreamed of this kind water in Oklahoma; Marshes, rivers, sloughs, fields….. It was perfect.

We had a pretty uneventful hunt that night, saw a few birds but only one group committed and we all botched our shots. Rich, who had never hunted ducks before was excited but also wondering what this was all about. Where were all the ducks? Well thats what the next morning was all about…..field hunting.

The alarm went off at 4am… and we were up loading the trucks and off to our field. It is always kinda a race to see who gets there first, knowing that there were other hunters with permission on these fields we wanted to leave nothing to chance. We got the field we wanted and started setting up and digging in. It always amazes me how much work duck hunting is, digging in 4 layout blinds, setting up 5 dozen decoys, cooking breakfast, getting my truck started because I left my lights on, and getting settled in 15 min before shooting hours started, then the waiting.

Well this morning we didn’t have to wait long, the birds we up early and headed….right towards the guys the set up in the field next to us….@#%@ what happened they were in this field yesterday. We were pissed to say the least, but we waiting knowing that some birds would come our way. Less then 10 min later Josh was clucking and calling in a flock of 100 green heads (Mallards). Hearts were beating out of our chests as they committed to our decoys. If you have never had 100 ducks basically fall out of the sky into your decoys, you haven’t really lived. A smaller group of 6 ducks broke off and dropped in faster then the others and when I heard the words “take em” 3 ducks fell to the ground. Rich aka “sleepy” looked at me with eyes wide and said ” that was the coolest thing I have ever seen.”

We had many more flocks that would almost commit, but the shooting that was being done by the guys in the next field would push them off, Josh kept say “these ducks get smart so fast” and that was the truth. By 9 we had 6 ducks on the ground, far from our limit but still some of the best “encounters” I had ever had, when I shouted geese….On the horizon was a pair of geese, who with a lot of coaxing by Josh committed to our spread and then fell from the sky for the last time. There is something special about watching, calling, hoping and having geese approach.

By 10am the show was over, but what a good show it was, we saw over 10,000 ducks, hundreds of geese and enjoyed some great time in the blinds with good company… An almost perfect duck hunt, but then looking back when is a hunt ever “perfect”…

We spent the next 2 days chasing some very educated ducks, rarely getting skunked but never hitting the mother load like we wanted to. I never thought that Oklahoma would hold ducks like that. I can tell you one thing and that is next December….I will be waiting for the call saying “the ducks are in”

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Whitetail Season is Winding Down

Written on December 17, 2010 by admin in Blog

Well it’s December 17th which means we only have 2 days left for Muzzleloader Whitetail season and 14 days left in late Archery season here in Michigan. Everybody is down to their last chance for filling the freezer before we head into the long grey Michigan winter. I personally haven’t been focusing on Whitetails lately and have been opting instead to try and get an early jump on the local Coyote population.

Last night Tex, Jason and I went to some local land to make a Coyote set before it got dark (yeah we snuck out of work early to go sit in the snow), we didn’t get the Coyotes we were going for but we certainly got an adrenalin rush. Tex had just finished a series of rabbit distress calls on his hand call when we were startled by the thumping sound of several large animals running towards us from behind the hill where we were set up. We all turned around to see what was coming at us just in time to see a mature whitetail doe crest the hill 30 yards behind us at a dead run (she was really hauling the mail). I immediately stood up as she barreled towards us which caused her to spook. She tried to hit the breaks but the combination of the snow, hillside and her speed prevented her from slowing down and just caused her to start sliding. All of a sudden her front hooves caught on something and she somersaulted onto her back and slid on her back within inches of Tex who was trying to roll / duck out of her way. She made a couple additional rolls as she slid past Tex and managed to land on her feet and take off again without loosing a touch of speed. All of us were still in shock as immediately another doe crested the hill going equally as fast heading straight for Jason. Flustered in the crosshairs of 150 lbs of venison and not wanting to be steamrolled by a deer going that fast, Jason began waving his .223 in the air in an attempt to alert her to his presence and avoid a direct collision. The doe saw him but it was too late for her to stop or hit the brakes so she went airborn in what can only be likened to a NFL running back trying to avoid a tackle, Jason ducked as she jumped over/by him and landed in the brush and bounded off in the direction of the first doe.

We all couldn’t help but lay there in the snow laughing and overcome with amazement and shock. I think that we came away with a couple lessons learned. First is that Cabela’s Seclusion snow camo is REALLY effective for Whitetails and second that no matter how ready you think you are mother nature always has a few tricks up her sleeve.

Definitely made for a memorable night and we had some fun so that’s what really matters.

Heading out too the woods in a couple minutes to try and arrow a nice doe on camera tonight in the snow and cold. I’m sure we’ll have some more stories to tell tomorrow.

Shoot Straight and Have Fun,

Opie

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Dreary Day Dogs

Written on December 12, 2010 by admin in Blog

Well its pretty wet and dreary this morning here in Southwest Michigan. It’s been raining sleet since 5pm last night and somehow we still manage to have some snow on the ground. We are sitting around the kitchen getting our gear around right now and i just looked out the window to see the sleet change to big snow flakes.

Tex and I are heading out this morning to see if we can call in a few Coyotes. The weatherman is calling for highs in the upper teens all week with lots of snow so hopefully the dogs will be moving good this morning preparing for the big storm.

I’ll give ya’ll an update when we get back in and let you know how we do this morning.

Shoot straight,

Opie

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We Have Snow on the Ground

Written on December 8, 2010 by admin in Blog

Well we are covered in the white fluffy stuff here in First Light Gear country which has me pretty excited.

Have been out a couple times getting all our Coyote spots scouted out and have made a few sets. Still getting the rust off the calls and gear from last year and getting primed up for some serious hunting.

We had a team shoot on saturday which was a ton of fun and all our predator rifles are dialed right in at 200 yards. I definitely wouldn’t want to be within 500 yds of the business end of the team’s rifles if I was a coyote.

That’s all the news for now. Have some great video that tex will have up shortly that I’m sure everyone will enjoy.

EDIT: Check out the Team Video Page for the latest video of our Team shoot the other day… Click Here To Watch

Shoot Straight,

Opie

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