Beautiful mature pine stand just loaded up with deer! The upper peninsula of Michigan never gets old and I sure do enjoy all that it has to offer.

Overlooking the Sturgeon River and old damn site. The rut looks to in full swing up here and all the guys at camp are excited about there stand locations this season!

Tex

I love waking up on a beautiful late October morning to head out into the woods with my best friend and hunting buddy behind the camera. Opie and I had a feeling that today was the day and we knew that something was going to die. We grabbed our lone wolf tree stands and headed out into the dark woods in search of a trophy buck or a mature doe if the opportunity presented itself.

The woods were pretty quiet other than several squirrels racing around underneath of us until we noticed a 8 point buck working his way in our direction on the same path we had used. He walked right in and underneath of our stands with not a care in the world and didn’t even seem to notice we were there. Opie was on him with the camera and I started to draw the Mathews back for a shot when he spooked and bounded off about 30 yards. He stopped and looked back in our direction not really sure what he heard but didn’t seem to care much. I got my bow pulled back, waited for my opportunity and put a really good shot on him with a T3. He ran off about 100 yards after the shot and stopped out of sight and we never heard another sound from him.

We continued to sit quietly as we were just absolutely covered up with deer the rest of the morning. I took the opportunity later in the morning to harvest a nice mature doe on video at about 15 yards after she presented me with several nice shots. I sent a T3 right through her pump station with the Mathews Z7 and she didn’t make it far, piling into a bunch of brush. We climbed down, packed up our stands and begin tracking both deer. Finding the doe was no problem at all as she only went about 80 yards with a giant red blood trail. We located the arrow from the buck second and noticed that it hadn’t passed completely through the deer based on the blood left on the shaft. The blood trail was pretty easy to follow for about 100 yards but that’s when it changed drastically to an occasional drip or larger spots in the areas he had stopped. I didn’t want to track any farther until we gave him more time based on what we were seeing as I wanted him to lay down and not get back up. We decided to get the doe gutted out and head into town for some breakfast while we allowed him more time to lie there and die, hopefully without pushing him back up onto his feet.

After about 4 hours and reviewing the shot on the camera several times, we headed back out and got on the blood trail once again to hopefully find this buck dead not far from where we had left off. That wasn’t the case as we spent the next 2 hours tracking him about 100 yards due to the lack of blood on the ground. We eventually ended up jumping him out of a corn field that he had circled around into, we were able to get a good look at him standing broadside at about 100 yards. He stood there and looked at us for a minute and then bounded across a field and into the woods on the other side of the road. We tracked him another 200 yards on the other side of the field before realizing that it wasn’t a fatal shot and this deer is obviously going to live to fight another day. After reviewing the shot over and over again on the computer, we think I may have hit him a little bit forward for the slightly quartering away angle he was standing at.

I am certainly bummed that we were not able to get our hands on that buck but I am also glad we confirmed it wasn’t a fatal shot and he will live. I am a blessed man to be able to enjoy this sport and spend a gorgeous day in the woods with my best hunting bud, chasing whitetails and making memories. Things are really starting to heat up and the rut will be in full swing here in Michigan very soon!

Shoot Straight,

Tex

Sunday mornings in August mean its time to head to the range to have some fun with the boys.

Tex and I met up with a good hunting buddy of ours the morning for 3D archery league at the Potawatomi Bowmen course.

Shooting a challenging course is always a great way to get into shape for whitetail season. I also wore some of the gear ill be taking out west on my elk hunt including a 15 pound pack to help me prepare for a showdown with a great wapiti. Definitely added another element to the shoot.

As always we had a blast and questioned ourselves on why we don’t shoot 3D more often. And of course Tex being the deadeye that he is had to outshoot me again.

Shoot Straight,

Opie

A large group of turkeys feeding in the food plot during the morning hours.

Nice little buck looking on as a mature doe and two young fawns with spots eat a little breakfast.

Beautiful looking Red Fox.

Tex

Tex

I like to mow my clover plots about 4-5 times a season to reduce weed competition and grass encroachment. We have found that deer prefer the tender young shoots that the clover plants produce after a low mowing of about 4-8″, basically cut on a hay schedule here in Michigan.

Whitetail season is right around the corner so get out and make sure your plots are happy!

Shoot Straight!

Tex

I look forward to spending a week away in the north woods with my father each season at hunting camp! This is the man responsible for my crazy hunting/outdoors addiction and love him very much! We are looking forward to getting out in the woods tomorrow morning for opening day of the 2012 Michigan gun season opener. Good luck to all hunters and stay safe!

I headed up yesterday to Michigan’s upper peninsula for the week to my families hunting camp with my farther for gun season opener. We spent today scouting some different properties and got our blinds all setup in the perfect spots. The views up here in the north woods of Michigan are breathtaking and I look forward to spending this week away each season up here.

Tex