Craig Warner - Brainerd Lakes Area:

As we drove back from Kansas, Chad and I reflected on the big bucks that we saw during our week long hunt.  Even though we had some close encounters with some great bucks, we never released an arrow at a deer on this trip.

Take the first two days for example, right off the bat I had an encounter with a nice looking 3 year old 8 pointer that was tempting but when you are hunting a state like Kansas those bucks are a dime a dozen and they need another year or two to show their true potential. So I elected to pass on that buck. The next morning, same stand, with Chad up to bat, we had several bucks of the same caliber around us all morning, that made for a fun time on stand, but not the kind of bucks we were looking for. By the second day we began to wonder why we were not seeing more than just a couple young bucks during our time on stand. And while visiting with some other bowhunters who had been there for a couple of weeks we began to figure out why.

You see, we were hunting public walk-in hunting areas, and pheasant season opened five days before we arrived in Kansas. The bowhunters who were there before it opened said the big bucks were very visible until all the bird hunters and their dogs starting hitting the public land, and now those other hunters were seeing just the young bucks as well. So Chad and I started looking for some public land that was not being hit by the bird hunters. And on day three we found a good looking piece of land that showed no sign of bird hunters, and on our first morning sit we had an encounter with a great looking main-frame six by six with split G-2's. I was the hunter that morning and even though the buck was within range I did not feel comfortable with the shot and passed hoping he would come on a trail that would bring him closer. Out of that same stand we saw two more shooter bucks when Chad was hunting the next day.

Our little honey hole didn't last long, though, as the pheasant hunters began to hunt that property several times a day. After that the bucks all but disappeared, along with our hopes of bringing one home with us but, that's the reality of hunting public land in a new place. You have to learn the lessons the hard way and return next year that much wiser. God willing we will go back much wiser.

We got lots of buck footage, and Chad filmed me taking a coyote with my Hoyt so it should be a great show regardless.

We expect it to be on in a week or so. We hope you enjoy it and maybe the hard lessons we learned will help you plan your next out of state trip.

Thanks for watching the show and reading our blogs.

Good hunting and God Bless,

Craig Warner

Mike Versland - Metro

I hope everyone had a joyful Thanksgiving.  As always I ate too much once again this year.  The good news is I found some time to get into the woods this past weekend which hopefully helped burn off some of the extra calories.

I was up at 3 am on Saturday and hit the road to drive well into Wisconsin for an all day sit.  I was 6 miles from the property I hunt when I heard an awful noise in the front of my car.  A brake caliper bolt had wiggled loose and fell out.  I did make it to my spot before daylight, but I only hunted for a couple hours before I had to head back out and fix my car.  So much for an all day hunt, I never saw a deer.

I am now starting to feel that the season is winding down and I do not have enough venison to show for it.  I usually take about five deer per year.  I give three away to specific people and my family eats two more.  However, I only shot two deer last year and one so far this year, so I need to get my act together and make things happen.  I am planning to hunt two days of the Wisconsin muzzleloader season and maybe some of the December gun doe season as well.  Then I’ll do what I can to fill some tags in either Minnesota or Wisconsin during the late archery seasons.

Now that we are getting into December I am going to have to once again change some of my hunting strategies.  If I hunt this weekend with my muzzleloader, I plan to sit during the prime morning and evening hours and then still hunt during the day.  If I can find the patience to move slow enough through the woods still hunting can be very productive.  I have had some great luck in the past, especially on windy days when the deer cannot hear me approach. 

Good luck and hunt safe!

Mike Versland

Jared Sypnieski - Team Young Bucks

Hello Everyone! I know it has been a long time since my last blog but I'll kick it off by saying I hope everyone has had a great and successful season thus far!

Ben and I have had a wonderful season in Minnesota! If you have been following the show you probably saw that I had a great hunt on October 31st. It was by far my best day in the woods in Minnesota! To top it all off I got to share that day with my favorite hunting partner, the one who introduced me to the sport of hunting that I love so much, my dad. That hunt will be a story we will be telling around campfires at deer camp for a long time to come! Words can't describe how awesome it was.... Truly a gift from God!

Since then we have had ample time in the woods hoping to get Ben to connect on his first deer. Now that late season is just around the corner, I am positive that we will score on our Frigid Forage food plot because during late season our plot really comes alive! 

Moving forward, this last weekend Ben and I went out to North Dakota. The part of the state we hunted there was serious winter kill last year, and as a result the deer numbers were down immensely since the previous year according to the local farmers. We found the deer had yarded up on a property about a mile to the east of the property we had permission for, and despite our best efforts we were not able to gain permission to hunt the property. There was a small herd of does that we had 2 separate encounters with. The 3rd night of our hunt we had 3 does at 53.5 yards, and I was not going to take a marginal shot. The second encounter we had was with a yearling fawn and I would rather go home empty handed than shoot a yearling fawn.  I look forward to getting back there next year and taking another chance at my first Dakota deer.

The next chapter of my 2011 Deer Season kicks off on December 3rd in Northern Iowa!! I always tell people, "If you want to kill a giant moose, you go to the Yukon, if you want to kill limits of geese and ducks, you go to Canada, and if you want to kill a world class whitetail.... you go to Iowa." So needless to say this will be the highlight of my 2011 season! The last time I was in Iowa with an open buck tag was 2007, and the final day of the season I came home with a great 130 class buck. Hopefully I can continue my success this year and this time I will try to get the hunt on video!

Keep up to date with the whole Minnesota Team on our Facebook page and also vote for Midwest Whitetail for the Sportsmans Channel Best Hunt Show of the year!

Also a big congratulations to Lucas Mestad as he was able to seal the deal on a great buck this last weekend!

Until next time, Stay safe and God bless

Jared Sypnieski

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Kurt Amundson – West Central MN

Our gun hunting season came and went, we ended up with 3 deer, one small buck that my son Justin shot (on Midwest Whitetail) and two does,…meat in the freezer!

I am looking for a 135+ inch buck and I have only seen one while in the field.  The buck snuck through the heavy brush at 50 yards from me following a doe.  Due to an infestation of buckthorn, I was not able to get a shot.  It was a nice 9 pointer that would have scored 140 inches.   I saw over a dozen deer that day, sitting all day.

Lately, the hunting has been slow.  The timing of Minnesota’s gun season basically ruins any chance of seeing much rutting activity (frustrating)….so I am very encouraged and excited to head down to Iowa for the first shotgun season on December 3^rd.  I have a farm in Iowa that has a lot of deer and nice bucks.  This is the first time that I have hunted it, due to the tag situation. My plan is to sit all day for at least 3 days, and I am hoping to get a shot at a nice buck.

My son will be filming with me in Iowa, he is excited as well, we also have trail cameras down there and we will find out what is living on the 120 acres!

We hope to bring you some good footage from Iowa to show the viewers of Midwest Whitetail.

Thanks,

Kurt Amundson 

Last Week’s Blog....   CLICK HERE