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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hunting family

I recently did a guest post for Elizabeth at the Deer Passion blog tilted Why Hunting is the Best. In that post I noticed a lot of people commenting about their own hunting families. I would like to give you a little bit more background about my hunting family and why I call them my hunting family.

Like Gary of Base Camp Legends said,” And when your best hunting friends are your family it is the best –“. I agree a good portion of my hunting family is family too. I hunt with my cousins, uncles, and my brother it just makes it that much better. I deer hunt with a few other guys too, who are just like family now.

To quote Blessed of A Blessed Crazy Life Blog“the interaction doesn't just stop at the end of hunting season - it's the middle of summer and you need help with your truck, or a tree in your yard, or just want to get together for a bar-b-que - the hunting buddies are there”! My hunting buddies are the same way and it is so great any time I need help I can guarantee at least a couple of them will help out no matter what time of the year it is, or what the task may be.

Our deer hunting party always has the core group of guys. The group consists of My Uncle Bruce (The Silver Back), My Brother Ryan (Big Foot), my cousin Aaron (If I can see it I can shoot it/Deer slayer), my other Cousin Brandon (The Cook) and my self. We try to get others to join with us every year, and have added one more guy who hunts with us every year Pat, and another guy Rob who hunts almost every year. Last year we recruited one more guy Brian (It was his first year deer hunting), and we are hopeful he will become a regular.

My hunting family does expand past my deer hunting party, but only with a few more guys. When I go out grouse, pheasant, or squirrel hunting I add to the family, my good buddy Luke, another good buddy Troy, my uncle Larry, and my cousin Nick. This group I’m a bit more hesitant to add others. The reason is when you are doing this type of hunting you are usually in pretty close range of one another, and you never know how safe the new hunters are.

I really enjoy hunting with every one of these guys I call my hunting family. I hope every one else who hunts can find a great group like the group of guys I hunt with. The hunting time I spend with all of these guys will give me a life time of memories, and lots of stories to tell.

Ben G.


Hunting Boots at the Lowest Prices at BootBay
Friday, April 24, 2009

Giant Moose

I am not to sure if these photos are real. If they are holy cow that is one big Moose.





If you know anything about these photos leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.
Check out My Encounters with Moose
Other video & picture posts
Huge Black Bear
Huge Duck Blind
Bear Dance
Lion Hunt?
Wonderful Photo
Wyatt is Ready For Turkey Hunting
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Have you ever found a nice place hunt, but can’t?

I have recently discovered a 30 acre plot I would love to hunt but can’t (ok I’ve known about it for a while). My Mom and Step Dad live in a neighborhood that has a 30 acre nature preserve for the residents to enjoy. I had been out on the preserve a few times in the past but just for short walks on the mowed trails.
The view of the preserve from my Mom & Step Dad's Deck
As of late my Mom has been watching Wyatt and Daffy once every other week which allows Amber to go to work. Amber, Wyatt, and my self usually stay for supper that evening. We usually have to wait for my Step Dad to get home which is great. It gives me an hour or so to go out and explore the nature preserve with Daffy. I think Daffy enjoys the time out in the woods more then I do.
Here is the bummer, after getting this place all scoped out I would love to try and hunt it. There are tons of deer sign, lots of pheasants, and ducks. There is NO Hunting allowed on the Chatham Hills hunting preserve. It makes sense though because at any time someone could go walking out in the preserve just like I do with Daffy.

Proof to Ryan there are Buck out in the preserve


More Proof

One type of hunting they can’t stop me from doing is shed hunting. Even though I haven’t been very successful it’s still fun.
The Beavers have been busy

If you ever run into this scenario just do as I have been doing. Make the best of it and enjoy being outdoors. I guess I just cherish every chance I can get outside, and don’t necessarily need to be hunting, just out in the woods or on a lake. (Some times I even enjoy yard work don’t tell my wife though)
Ben G.



Bid Now at GunBroker.com
Friday, April 17, 2009

Review of Camo Vision’s Eye Ware

I had the chance to talk with Mike Singleton at Camo Vision we had a nice conversations, and he sent me out a pair of their hardwoods green camo eyeware with the anti reflective coating.

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the box was the glasses really were all camouflaged. I know I saw it on the web site, but I still had my doubts. When you have these glasses on there really is no way for anyone or anything to see your eyes. You can now be 100% invisible out in the woods.

The next thing I had to do was get them out of the packaging and put them on. When I picked them up I couldn’t believe how light weight the glasses were. I put them on and it didn’t even feel like I had them on my face. They fit so comfortably no pinching or extra pressure on my head (no head aces).One thing I did notice was that when I put them on I saw dots. I thought to my self how am I going to be able to shoot at a Turkey with all these dots. I decided to look at the packaging and see if it addressed this problem. Of course it did the package says if you wear them for 10 to 15 minutes your eye’s will adjust to the dots on the glasses. I had to test this one out to see if it was true, so I decided to wear them on three different walks with Daffy. Sure enough about 10 minutes into each of my walks I didn’t even notice the dots any more.

After inspecting the glasses for a short while I noticed the nose piece looked rather unique. It was rather large and split in the middle. This maybe something rather common with glasses. I don’t wear glasses very often so I hadn’t seen this before. When I wore them on the walks I found that is feature may be to help keep you from sweating while maintaining maximum comfort. The nose piece also detached from the glasses for easy cleaning.
Camo Vision has about 24 color options for the glasses including all of your favorite camo patterns. With each set you have the option of camo lenses with a flat black frame, camo lenses with camo frame, and you can add the anti reflective coating to either of these options.

They also offer themed glasses and can put your school or corporate logo on the lenses. How cool is that?
Now about the anti reflective coating, if you noticed in my photos there isn’t any glair form the lenses. I believe this is a huge feature and a must have when out hunting your favorite game. The last thing you want on a sunny day is a deer or a turkey to catch a glimpse of the glair from your eye ware it could ruin your hunt.


I love Camo Vision’s Slogan “Don’t Let’em See The White Of Your Eyes”! How much better does it get. If you decide to get a pair believe me you won’t regret it. They also have a testimonial page check it out.
web site http://www.camovision.com/



Ben G.
Thursday, April 16, 2009

Bear Dance

My mother sent me an e-mail with this funny little video. I guess bears can dance too.


Hope you enjoy!




More Videos

Lion Hunt


Ben G.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Weekly NWR Post

I missed last week and will try and post two this week.

This time we will travel across the Minnesota borader to Wisconson and check out Horicon National Wildlife Refuge

Over 21,000 acres in size, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge is located on the west branch of the Rock River in southeastern Wisconsin and encompasses the northern two-thirds of Horicon Marsh.



Horicon Marsh is a shallow, peat-filled lakebed gouged out by the Wisconsin Glacier about 12,000 thousand years ago. The headwaters of the Rock River, Horicon Marsh is 14 miles long and three-to-five miles wide. Branches of the Rock River, small and intermittent streams, and groundwater springs provide the water resources for the marsh. At 32,000 acres in size, it is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States.



In 1990, Horicon Marsh was designated a "Wetland of International Importance" by the Ramsar Convention. It has also been designated as "Globally and State Important Bird Areas" by the American Bird Conservancy and a unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve.

Brochure

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/horicon/docs/brochure.pdf

Recreation and Education

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/horicon/recreation.html

Hunting

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/horicon/hunting.html

Enjoy

Ben G.
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/horicon/docs/HRChunt.pdf



Shop online at uscav.com!
Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter even though it's a day late. Hope you enjoy these photos of Wyatt and his new buddy.



Other pics of Wyatt Camo Family
~Ben G




Thursday, April 9, 2009

The Long Way Home

Photo Courtesy of http://www.freefoto.com/
When ever I am driving, and have extra time I try to find a new way home, or a new way to get where I am going. I usually end up on country roads driving like it’s a Sunday afternoon. Often times I find “better ways to get where I am going”, or as Amber calls it “the long way”.

I enjoy these drives a lot. I get to see the country side, find new fishing spots, or public hunting land I didn’t even know existed. Not to mention these drives relax me. It’s almost as good as being out in the woods, or out fishing in the middle of a lake.

Taking these drives brings me back to summers with my grandparents on the farm. Grandma, Grandpa, Ryan, and I use to all pile into Grandpa’s Ford Ranger, and head to town to get a bite to eat.

Grandpa graded the gravel roads for the county, so he knew every single one of them, and were they all went. Instead of just heading to town the quick way, we took the gravel roads as far as we could. It was a blast looking at all of the farms, forests, pastures, cattle, deer on feeding in the fields on the way home, and any thing else we happened to see.

Some time between the ages of 10 and 12 Grandpa let me drive the truck on the way to town. Once we got to the tar roads Grandpa always hopped back behind the wheel. (I remember at first I had to sit on a pillow so I could see a little better).

Oops, I kind of got off topic, but I hope you enjoyed the post.

My advice would be to give it a try, get lost, and find your way home. Just make sure you have a full tank of gas. Who knows you might find you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ben G.


Hunting Boots at the Lowest Prices at BootBay
Monday, April 6, 2009

10 Tips for Deer hunting on Public land

If you have been following my blog you know by now that I hunt public land quite often. I thought it would be nice to share some of the tips I have learned over the years. So here are 10 tips for deer hunting on Public land.

1. Make sure you wear more then enough blaze orange. You are hunting with lots of other people. You don’t know how others hunt or how safe they are. Stay safe, wear lots and lots of blaze orange.

2. Make sure you have at the very least two areas scoped out for your stand. On opening morning or any morning for that matter any one can sit any where, so when you get to your spot their may be another hunter sitting there.

3. On opening morning make sure to get out extra early to avoid the down side of tip two. This way if you are the fist one there it is more likely the other hunter will leave.

4. If you can, wait in your Tree Stand until at least 10:30am or so, lots of people get cold or bored and get out of their stands. This means they will be pushing deer all around and increase your chances of getting a shot at one.

5. Human scent is all around, so the deer don’t know where to go. If you are scentless you will have a better chance of seeing deer.

6. There are a lot of people to talk to when hunting on public land. Use this to your advantage ask them where they are seeing or not seeing deer, how they have had luck, and/or where they have their stands (so you can avoid those areas). For instance last season it was really cold, windy, and the deer didn’t want to move. Just by asking we found out that lots of guys were having luck walking around and kicking deer up.

7. If you party hunt make sure to set a time and place to meet. This way some one won’t sneak up on you and you can avoid any chance of a tragedy.

8. Know where every one in your party is hunting, so you don’t disturb their hunt when you get out of your tree early to take a walk.

9. Don’t leave your stand up even if it is chained to the tree. I forgot the key to my tree stand after opening weekend last year, and had to leave my stand out in the tree. My brother went to go get it the next evening or so and someone had stolen it.

10. Just be as careful as you can, and be considerate of other hunters. I also want to stress the blaze orange again you can never be too safe.


Other Tips
11 Tips How to get Hunting Gear on a Limited Budget
Ten Steps for a successful Whitetail scouting trip
10 tips for Picking the Best Place for your stand and setting it up for success
11 Tips To help you lure a deer in to shooting range
How to get to your deer stand with out getting noticed (in the dark)


Shop online at uscav.com!
Friday, April 3, 2009

Weekly NWR Post

Starting today I am going to do a weekly post about a National Wildlife Refuge. I’ll start with the one I frequent here in Minnesota. I hope to hit at least one in each of the 50 states. I will also provide you with links associated with each of these NWR’s and hopefully some pictures and/or a map. I hope you enjoy.

Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge
Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge is located in the east central region of the state, approximately 50 miles northwest of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area and 30 miles southeast of St. Cloud. The refuge protects 30,700 acres of habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife.

The primary mission of the refuge is to represent a diverse biological community characteristic of the transition zone between tallgrass prairie and forest. Established in 1965 to protect and restore the habitats associated with the St. Francis River Valley, refuge management today focuses on the restoration of oak savanna, wetland and big woods habitats.


Recreation and Edcuation Oppurtunites
History of the Sherburne NWR
Visitor Info.

~Ben G.



Hunting Boots at the Lowest Prices at BootBay
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Six Feet High and Rising

Saturday afternoon I took the pup out for a walk at our favorite park. Wow was I surprised to see how high the Mississippi river was. The water came up to the edge of the parking lot. Just last weekend my family and I were at the rivers edge watching the ice chunks float by, and the river looked normal. I know I haven’t seen the river this high since I was a youngster living in Sauk Rapids.




What you can’t see is the boat landing and probably about 6 to 8 foot drop in the shore line.



Daffy and I took off through the woods on what was supposed to be a quick half hour to 45 min. walk. Little did the two of us know what was ahead of us? We saw some water here and there and eventually had to side track off of the trail to go around a rather large puddle. Actually, I think Daffy enjoyed the puddle. We made it around with no problems at all.

We kept walking until we came across this giant trail blocking puddle. I decided to go around this one too. To my surprise the water just kept going and going. There was no sign of the water even getting shallow enough to walk through. Daffy and I kept going trying to find a spot to cross. Eventually we ended up with water on three sides of us and no were else to go.


Where do we go now?


Daffy and I had to back track and go out the woods the way we came in. Our little walk ended up taking us around an hour and a half, but we both enjoyed every minute of it.



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