Michael Sobieraj and Cole Shultz
Posted By
Ben Koopman
at
8/27/2009 12:00:00 AM
Michael Sobieraj was raised to be an outdoorsman. The first 18 years of his life were spent living in Florida. The whitetail hunting there was tough to say the least but the pig and turkey hunting were outstanding for Michael. Michael's father introduced him to hunting and doing everything outdoors. He later got into filming when he was a freshman in high school and spent a great deal of time fishing for nearly everything that can be caught in fresh and salt water. After high school, Michael made the decision to attend college in Indiana where he stepped up his hunting game. Things have changed since last season for Michael in nearly every aspect of his life. The changes include a new job, new house, new girlfriend, new hunting grounds, and new hunting partners. Michael is now working in Northeastern Indiana as a mechanical design engineer. His job is only five minutes away from his house and all the properties are right around home as well. Michael plans to be in the deer woods EVERY single afternoon of the season. Hopefully this allows Michael to lay down some big buck action for the Michigan show
Being a newbie when it comes to hunting in the Midwest, Michael is always learning. Instead of jumping around a lot like he did last year, Michael plans to change his stratagy this year by focusing on a few properties and hunting them hard instead of changing locations all the time. Michael has also learned a lot about filming and is hoping to put everything together to put down a mature buck for the 2010 season.
Cole Schultz's family owns and operates South MilFord Grain and Indiana NorthEastern RailRoad so, as you can imagine, as deer season arrives so does harvest so they are extremely busy. Luckily, he's met a lot of farmers and gained access to hunting ground this way. He was introduced to hunting by his grandpa (Richard Swager) at the age of 9. He taught Cole about hunting ethics and the responsibilities of a hunter ,but due to health problems they didn’t get to make it out much. Another family friend introduced him to archery hunting when he was 14. After that Cole was hooked for life, and he began searching for all the answers to all of his questions about hunting. When he was 18 he started to trophy hunt and realized that mature deer are a completely different challenge. A year later Cole harvested his first mature buck and has been doing a pretty good job of regularly fulfilling this task annually since then. Now it’s time to do it on film!
Michael's 2010 Hit List
"Casper"
This is a buck that I have a lot of history with and have been hunting for the past 3 or 4 seasons. He is the true definition of a Michigan giant! This buck lives in a tight core area and is the top deer on my hit list. The difficult part about hunting this buck is that the woods he lives in are so large and the amount of hunting pressure he will face from other hunters including myself is going to make this deer nocturnal very quick.
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/HitListVideoLive/Casper.mp4
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"Gimpy"
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/HitListVideoLive/Gimpy.mp4
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Gimpy is a deer that returns from last year’s hit list. This buck is proof that injuries can create some very strange antlers. Gimpy has a severely injured leg and a rack that's just plain weird. It's got a drop tine on the left and a downward-pointing beam on the right. Last year, he was not considered a mature buck so I did not pursue him but this year he has jumped tremendously!
"Twins"
These two bucks are returning from last year’s hit list. Once again I felt that neither were mature enough to hunt so I left them alone hoping that they would make it through the season. Both grew up big time this season, but one more so than the other. The two bucks live in the same core area as last season and I believe that they do not travel far throughout the season.
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/HitListVideoLive/Twins.mp4
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"Elvis - The King"
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/HitListVideoLive/Elvis.mp4
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Elvis is the biggest buck on my hit list. I heard reports from several farmers that there was a big buck in the area, but never laid eyes on him all of last season. Then at the beginning of this summer this buck appeared at the same time in the same field. He is a prime example of what will happen when a buck is given a chance to reach full maturity. I believe that this buck is mainly a nocturnal deer and I am waiting until the rut to pursue him.
Peek-a-boo
This is a buck that came out of nowhere this season. I have seen this buck several times this summer, but everytime he is always hiding behind brush so that is how he got his name.
http://midwest2.digitaloffice.com/2010Live/HitListVideoLive/Peekabo.mp4
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Michael's 2009 Hit List
As amazing as it sounds, Michael is just now understanding how to hunt whitetails in the Midwest because where he grew up a lot of the hunting techniques were different. His Hit List is really just a sample of the deer this kid is after.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/NewGuys.flv
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"THE NEW GUYS": These are a pair of good-looking bucks that live on a property Michael and Kasey just gained access to. It's a very different type of hunting situation so stay tuned -- it should be interesting.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/Gimpy.flv
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"GIMPY": This buck is proof that injuries can create some very strange antlers. Gimpy has a severely injured leg and a rack that's just plain weird. It's got a drop tine on the left and a downward-pointing beam on the right. He's on the list because he's cool and he's easy prey for a coyote.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/TwinTowers2.flv
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"TWIN TOWERS": He earns his name for his long brow tines. Michael and Kasey don't have a ton of history with this deer but they have seen him in the past. He's not an overly large-bodied deer and that makes him tough to age. A closer look is needed but he's a probable shooter.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/Tiny.flv
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"TINY": This is a buck that Michael knows well. He was the sidekick to the buck that Michael tagged last season. Tiny isn't a small buck -- but his body paled in comparison to the brute he ran with last season. This deer is following a very similar pattern to the buck Michael killed. Probably not good news for Tiny.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c0171041/TheTwins.flv
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"THE TWINS": These are two bucks that seem almost synchronized. They travel together, feed together and hang out together, and if they happen to stand too close together at the right distance this fall, well, they just might wear a tag together.
