Mike Versland - Metro

Bittersweet!  I guess this is that best way to describe the past few days.  I participated in a controlled hunt in one of the area metro parks over the weekend.  It started off awesome.  I went to the park to hang my stand on Thursday evening.  Three minutes after getting into my stand I had a young 10 point and a spike come in.  They sparred for a few minutes until the spike ran off.  Then the 10 point bedded down at 8 yards.  I knew right then I was in for a tremendous hunt.  Friday morning was no different as I had several small bucks pass through my area.  I was on the edge of my seat all day watching the action.  I got to see it all.  Bucks were sparring, searching, chasing, grunting, etc.  I even got to hear a snort wheeze. 

One of my favorite parts of the day was watching the young bucks approach each other sideways just before they locked antlers.  With ears tucked back and neck hair raised they were quite entertaining to watch.  At the end of the day Friday I still had not caught a glimpse of a shooter buck, but I was very happy with what I did see, and I was more than excited to get back in the stand the next morning.  Saturday was a bit warmer and windier than Friday and the deer were not moving as well.  However, I still had some nice young bucks passing through giving me lots of opportunity to continue laying down some awesome video footage. 

The middle of the day was a bit slow, and had it not been for the anticipation of the evening hunt I may have lost interest in watching for more movement.  I did not see any deer from 9:30am until 5pm, but once the first small buck passed I knew others would not be far behind.  The second deer of the evening was a small basket 8 point that was walking 35 yards behind me.  I had the camera rolling and was filming every step he took.  Soon I could hear another deer approaching from the same trail and he was coming fast.  Before I could do anything the big buck appeared and started coming right down my shooting lane at a pretty good clip.  When he stopped at 12 yards and looked behind him I reached for my bow.  I aimed the camera to a small clearing 20 yards from my tree.  When the buck walked around the back of my tree and stepped into frame I drew back, found my target, and released an arrow.  I still do not know exactly what happened but unfortunately the limb of my bow touched either my stand, back pack, or bow hanger and I missed the deer completely.  Lucky for me the deer did not run off.  He presented me with a 2^nd shot at 30 yards.  This time the arrow struck him hard and he bolted out of sight.  I did a quick recap of the hunt on video, waited 30 minutes, and went to look for blood. 

The blood trail looked awesome so I immediately started tracking the deer hoping to see a white belly after a few yards.  At 75 yards I could see another hunter getting out of his tree stand, but still no deer.  I was getting worried.  Once the other hunter got down from his tree he pointed to where the buck had passed, just two yards from his stand!  He told me the shot looked awesome and that the deer had staggered to the top of the hill and bedded down.  I was quite relieved by what he told me, but since I still did not know if the deer was dead we decided to make a slow stalk towards the deer using the last 5 minutes of daylight.  Within 20 yards I could see the deer so I glassed him with my binoculars.  Right away I knew he was down for good!  I am very excited to have taken this deer, one of my biggest.  What a hunt!

So everything up to this point has been sweet.  The bitter never occurred until Sunday.  I was finishing up with my video recaps and storyline and decided to take a look at the footage from the hunt.  I was nearly in tears when I realized the camera had failed me not only during the actual kill but for the entire weekend.  I had nothing but blue screen on 2.5 hours of tape.  Words can’t describe my disappointment as I have worked extremely hard to produce a great kill for Midwest Whitetail.  The only thing I can do right now is focus on the fact that I had a great weekend and I was lucky enough to take an awesome deer!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog one of my students participated in a youth

gun hunt in a local state park on November 5^th and 6^th.  It was awesome to see the anticipation Sam had going into this hunt.  He really enjoys his time in the woods, and was really expecting to score on a huge buck.  Although Sam had a great weekend of hunting, he did not end up placing his tag on the buck of his dreams.  He did however have an encounter with a great mature buck on Saturday evening.  We have trail camera pictures of this deer, and to be completely honest I would have not passed on a shot at this deer as Sam did.  Sam decided to pass on the easy shot because the deer had broken off 3 of its tines.  Had the deer been completely intact it would outscored the deer I shot this past weekend. 

Good luck and hunt safe!

Mike Versland

Craig Warner - Brainerd Lakes Area:

It seems that if we didn’t have bad luck this season Chad and I would have no luck at all.  Take for example, my attempt to shoot my 1st big game animal with a recurve.  I had a Doe walking into my food plot, within my effective range, and as I prepared myself for the shot I tensed up on the string slightly. Chad took that as me drawing the bow before he was ready with the camera, so he rushed to get the camera on her in time and in doing so she spotted his movement. That turned out to be the only opportunity I would have while hunting with my recurve.

Then there was our hunt at Camp Ripley on October 21st. Chad and I were taking turns every 2 hours, one of us would hunt while the other would film. Shortly after switching from me hunting to Chad in the hot seat, a doe came down one of the trails that led past our tree. With Chad’s doe tag filled and mine open, Chad said ''get your bow'' and he didn’t hesitate to grab for the camera. Problem is the camera man stand is always a little higher than the shooter stand, so he had to reach way up to get a hold of it and seeing through the viewfinder was even more difficult. Long story short, when I thought he was on the deer I shot and it turned out he got on her at the same instant I shot (after holding at full draw for about 2 minutes) so the footage was no good and won’t be used on the show.

Then just before the gun season opener Chad took a few days off work. It was supposed to be 3 days but he got sick before his mini vacation could start, so he had to make up some work so that shrunk it down to 2 days now. He sat from sunup to sundown that 1st day and saw nothing. He was gonna sit all day again on Friday, and that day started off good with 2 fawns feeding near his stand and eventually bedding down nearby. But at prime time for buck activity (midday during the rut) the land owner drove a tractor into the woods and started cutting wood near his stand. He switched stands and saw no more deer that day.

As if it could not get any worse. Remember I said Chad was sick at the beginning of the week...Well on Oct 31st the day Chad was sick, I got done with work early and wanted to hunt, but he had the camera gear at his house, and I didn’t want to go there and get it for fear of getting sick too. So I took the day off from hunting. Later that week I pulled the SD card from the trail camera that was on the food plot I would have hunted on the 31st, and I got sick when I saw the picture of one of my hitlist bucks walking past my empty stand an hour before dark!

While sitting on stand this past weekend during the MN firearms opener we talked about the slump we are in with our hunt this year, and how depressing it is that things are not going as planned on our hunts this season.  We always try to make our own luck, but it seems the deer have it all this time. So we are gonna have a "Fresh Start" and treat our next outing as if it were opening day again. Wash everything, wax our strings, repack our gear. Just treat it like a whole new season. And hopefully things will change. Even if it is just our attitude that changes maybe it will be fun again. I have gone thru these sorts of slumps in past seasons and this tactic has worked before. Now don't get me wrong I'm not superstitious, I don't believe that a golden horse shoe will give you good luck and a black cat will curse you, but I do believe in a positive mental attitude and sometimes you just have to change things up to regain that attitude. I hope it works because the best part of the season is upon us and we need to make the best of it. If it doesn’t work for our hunt here in the Brainerd area this week I sure hope it works for us next week in Kansas.  We leave for that hunt on the 17th of the month and the Rut should be rocking out there by then!

Good hunting and God Bless

Craig Warner

Last Week’s Blog....   CLICK HERE