Here is a poem I wrote a few seasons back. I did a bit of revising and thought I would share it with everyone. Hope you enjoy it.


image credit theapoc



image credit Dawn Endico

Sunday was the final day of the season. How many shots had I fired so far ZERO I think that has only happened to me NEVER.

Image credit Eponabri

That next Tuesday my cousin Aaron shot a doe. I wasn’t able to hunt until the following weekend, but the fate of my second and final weekend would be partially determined on the Wednesday afternoon before the weekend arrived.

image credit Sharpy70

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After filling my belly with a couple of ham sandwiches and some other snacks I headed out to find a new spot. I had a rough idea of where I was going to go. I walked around for about a half an hour trying to find the perfect tree. Then I saw it, it was great just out in a swamp not far for the edge of the woods. The only problem was it was extremely difficult to get to. I tried approaching it form the east and couldn’t find a good way to get there, so I walked to the west side of the tree and still couldn’t find a good way to get to it. Well this would be an amazing spot, but there is no way I would ever be able to find this tree in the early the next morning with just my head lamp. Let alone be quite doing so. The search continued for the next best tree.



photo credit to Wonderlane

I was fuming at the fact I had only one shell in my pocket, but at the same time thrilled I had the chance to see such a beautiful buck out in the woods. This was certainly at least the second biggest deer I had ever seen (alive) in my many years of hunting.

When I arrived back at the parking lot everyone asked if I shot the deer. I said I shot at it. The next question was why only one shot. I had to explain that all of my shells were sitting on the back of Ryan’s truck except for the one I for some reason had in my pocket.

Aaron said let’s go check for blood and see if by chance the deer is still close. We grabbed our shot guns and went into the woods. We walked a ways, and it was if the buck never even existed. Then went back to check for blood. I was pretty sure I didn’t injure the big guy, so the search was very short. Aaron and I made our way back to the parking lot.

When back at the parking lot I confirmed that it was Brandon who had shot at a deer near me earlier that morning. He said it was a nice little four point buck. Ryan saw three does that morning and let them pass because he was waiting for a buck.

What a strange opening morning no dead deer, but everyone saw a deer, even Pat on the way in that morning.” Well we have all afternoon and the next day” some one said. We then proceeded to eat lunch and BS for a while.

After lunch everyone, but Brandon, Aaron and I went to their stands. The three of us went for a walk to see if we could push any deer out of the clumps of brush out in the middle of the fields. We stomped in and out of about six of these little spots with no luck what so ever. (A lot of deer sign) At that point I headed back to my stand to go sit for a while.

When I arrived at my stand I just couldn’t sit in it. I knew the spot I had my stand in was geared more toward a morning location. I felt it was better to move my stand, let this spot cool off, and then try and hunt it the next Saturday Moring.

I quickly took my stand down and quietly walked out of the area. I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get to the new spot I scoped out and I didn’t want to sweat too much. I actually dropped my stand off at the tree I had picked out. Then headed the 200 yards back to the parking lot to get rid of some of my extra stuff, and grab some more water. It was an awfully hot day and it seemed like I was always thirsty.

After I was hydrated I put my stand up and was sitting in it by about 3:00pm. I sat until the end of legal shooting time and didn’t even hear or see a single thing. It was a little disappointing, but that’s just the way deer hunting goes some times.

I don’t believe anyone else saw any deer that afternoon. Which is all right ”it’s only the end of the first day how could it turn out to be a not so productive deer hunting season we have lots of time left” I thought to my self as I jumped in Ryan’s truck before leaving that night.

You will have to wait for Part 4 to see if we shot any deer on the second day of the season.



Ben G.

The other parts to the series
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 2)
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 1)

So as I got down from my tree stand I was pretty confident I had shot the deer. When I was walking over to ware the buck was standing I noticed he was further away then I orignaly thought he was. So I decided to walk back to my stand and step off the distance to see how far of a shot it was to the closest blood. I stepped off around 110 yards and didn’t find any blood.


This seemed very odd so I started to look all over for blood. None here or there I was starting to get very frustrated. I thought for sure I hit him. I looked every where with in 30 yards of where the buck was standing not a drop of blood. “You have to be kidding me” I thought to myself as I was combing the ground.

I proceeded to follow the trail the buck had run on. Gawking at the ground leaning closer and closer the farther I walked into the woods. There was no blood on the trail the first time I walked the trail, or the second or the third. After about an hour and a half of looking for blood I finely decided it was time to give up. Needless to say I was incredibly bummed that I didn’t get this deer.

I decided to walk around for a short while and then head back up to my stand. I got into my stand and sat the rest of the morning. Around 8:30 or so I heard a shot rather close to my stand it I was guessing it was someone form my party. Then shortly after the shot I heard two guys walking through the woods and another shot rang out. By there conversation I could tell they didn’t get the deer.

The two hunters continued on and ended up about 30 yards from my stand. I always get a bit annoyed when people walk by my stand (I was hunting public land so what could I do). About thirty minutes after the two guys walked by I heard some crunching leaves behind me. I gazed in the woods behind me and couldn’t see a thing. Then just as I was turning my head to look awayI caught a glimpse of a good size doe. I only saw her for about a second (not even enough time to think about pulling my gun up).

Shortly after that I heard her rumble into the brush where the buck had come from earlier this morning. I heard her walking around for a good twenty minutes, but the brush was so thick I couldn’t get even the slightest peek at her.

I sat in my stand until around ten or ten thirty and headed for the parking lot to go and get some lunch. I met up with Pat on the way back. He hadn’t seen any a deer other than a nice buck crossed the road in front of him on his way to the parking lot earlier in the morning.

Pat and I were the first back to the parking lot. We chatted for a short while, then Rob, Aaron, and Brian all showed up. Bruce followed shortly after. There is one question we are sure to ask each other as we come out of the woods. Did you see any deer? Well so far every one had seen a deer or two, but no one had shot one. Strangely this was starting out to be an unproductive deer hunting season.

The only two guys left out in the woods were Ryan and Brandon. Someone said here they come and I looked up to see them walking down the trail toward the parking lot around 11:00. A moment later BOOM a shot rang out. I looked down the trail to see what they were shooting. I didn’t see any deer so I started talking again. I happened to glance back at the trail once again to see if Ryan or Brandon were coming or if we needed to go help them get a deer. I happened to look at the perfect moment to see a deer run across the trail. I quickly grabbed my shot gun and ran into the woods, off to the west of the parking lot where the deer ran.

I was startled to see a giant buck just walking through the forest. I reached in my pocket, grabbed a shell, and loaded it in my gun. I quickly brought the gun up to my shoulder. All of this happened so fluently I was didn't even have time to get excited to see this buck in my scope. I took my time and aimed at the giant buck. Slowly squeezed the trigger and with a loud bark my 870 chucked a slug in the direction of this giant.

Did I hit the monster buck or will this be a long drawn out season of misses? Find out in part 3 of A Not so productive deer season.



~Ben G.

Link to other parts of the series
Not so Productive Deer hunting Season (Part 3)
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 1)
Other huting adventures
Trout fishing Part 1
Turkey Hunting Addiction (Part 1)

This year’s deer hunting season had lots of potential as they all do, but a few factors made the season not so productive. Sit back read and I’ll explain.

My brother picked me up around 4:30 opening morning Rob was with him already and the three of us went to the gas station to get some caffeine. After a short stop at the gas station we headed out to the refuge. The car ride opening morning always seems to take for ever even though it’s only takes 30 minutes.

When we finally arrived we hopped out of the truck and started getting our gear ready to head out into the woods. Brian was already in the parking lot, Aaron, Bruce and Brandon showed up shortly after us. A little chatting, finishing up your coffee, and taking a pee before it was too late was all the time we had before leaving the parking lot.

With our stands on our backs, guns on our shoulder, and all the hope, excitement, and optimism any group of guys could have we headed out into the woods. For what would be a very exciting, but not productive day.

I got to my tree and was instantly filled with relief that no one was sitting in it or around it. Then I proceeded to set up my stand and put out a couple of doe scent wicks. Finally I was able to get up in my sand and sit and it was more than early enough.

Sitting in my stand the first thing I noticed was that the wind seemed to be going in the absolute perfect direction out of the south west. Then I realized how hot it actually was out as I was dripping in sweat. “This is not a good thing” I thought to myself “The deer won’t even have to move it’s too warm”.

I sat for a good 45 minutes before I checked the clock on my phone to see what time it was. I had about four minutes till legal shooting time. No more than the time it took me to put the phone back in my pocket I heard a rustling in the brush right where expected I would hear a deer on opening morning of the deer hunting season. A few seconds went by and I heard the rustling again. Then I heard no sounds at all for about three minutes. Thinking to myself “it must have been a just a squirrel or a turkey”. I was just about to sit back down when I heard the same sound yet again.

Now I was on high alert expecting to see a deer. I checked the time again just to make sure I wouldn’t be shooting too early. Right on time, but I still hadn’t seen the deer yet. Then I saw him much further out then I expected to see him. His head was down and on the trail of a doe (I guess the rut was on). He wasn’t heading my direction and not going to stop. I reached for my buck grunt and realized it was still in my pack and didn’t have time to try and get it out.

With no other options other than let him pass by or stop him and shoot. I chose the latter, I made a quick sharp sound just as he was about to go into the woods. He stopped and looked right at me. I knew he was going to be down as soon as I saw him in my site. Blam, I took a shot he didn’t even move. I was completely baffled. Instantly I ejected the used shell and fired again. After the sceond shot he stumbled a bit and ran off.

I sat back down and was really pumped I had gotten a deer no more then two minutes into the new deer season. I sat for about 30 to 35 minutes, so I could settle down before I got out of the tree. As I was sitting there I thought “how many points did that deer have”. I guess I was just so focused on shooting him I didn’t even pay attention to the size of his antlers I just saw antlers.

I got out of my tree and went looking for the blood trail………………………….. Find out in the next part of Not so productive deer huting season if I hit the deer or not.



Ben G.


Other hunting & fishing stories
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 2)
Not so Productive Deer hunting Season (Part 3)
Turkey Hunting Addiction (Part 1)
Trout fishing Part 1

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.

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.


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)

There are many different aspects of deer hunting one of them is processing your kill. Lots of people decide to bring their deer into a meat locker or meat shop, and have all of the processing done for them. From what I understand this can bring with it quite a hefty price tag depending on what you have out of venison made into.

Processing your deer all starts shortly after the kill when you field dress the deer. I don’t care who you are or where you come from if you don’t field dress your animal as soon as possible it can cause major damage to the meat. Although there are a few different ways to dress your deer this step is the just about the same for every one.

Now I will let you in on some of the secrets we have found out over the years of hunting and processing our own venison.

Our party believes the best time to skin your animal is shortly after you bring it in, from the woods or at least with in the same day. The reasoning behind this is the animal is still warm the hide comes off with little effort. When you let it hang for an extended period of time you may have to use a four wheeler to pull the hide off, or spend a large amount of time removing the hide. This can create a much grater risk of damaging or wasting meat.

The next step we take is cleaning the deer off and trimming excess fat. When it’s cold out like most Novembers here in Minnesota your hands get awfully chilly and sometimes numb. Cutting off the excess fat allows the meat to cool much faster during the evening, and washing it gets rid of any debris you may have pick up out in the field. I could go into details here, but it is pretty basic.

Depending on the weather we will leave the carcass hang for up to three nights, but if it is warm which it has been in the past we try to cut it up that night shortly after it is all cleaned up. De boning of the meat is usually a group effort and takes very little time. We try to cut it into bigger pieces so we have the option to make jerky. No matter how good you are there are going to be some scraps, so we make two piles one for sausage and the other for the big roasts. We always cut out the back straps, and tender loins and cook them up that evening. Which makes for a great meal after a long day. Once the meat is cut we seal it in an air tight bag with a vacuum sealer. Then put it in the freezer.

Some time with in the next month after the deer season is over we all get together to make the sausage. First we grind all of the pork shoulder on a course setting, then the venison on the coarse setting as well. Now we go back and grind each one of them again on a fine setting. As we are grinding the meat some one else weighs out the correct portions to make a 60/40 split (60 venison 40 pork). We use to have a butcher grind all of our meat, but after having a couple bad experiences my uncle decided to invest in a grinder. After the correct amounts are weighed out we mix by hand the meat and seasoning.

We typically buy either pig or sheep intestines to use for casings. We use an old antique sausage stuffer to stuff the casings. You just put the casings on the nozzle, fill the stuffer up with as much meat as possible and crank. As you crank the stuffer meat it pours into the casing.You have to make sure you pinch one end so the meat doesn't shoot out the end. Once the lengths look good we cut it, and tie both ends together with a piece of string. Now it’s time to seal it in an air tight bag and take home to freeze. We usually have this set up so two guys are stuffing while two are tying, packaging and labeling everything. It goes pretty quick.

Summer sausage is very similar but the casings aren’t eatable and they are a whole lot larger. After a day or two we hang the summer sausage in the smoker for a while and then you seal it in bags and freeze.

Although processing venison isn’t really hunting, I feel it is part of the whole experience. I have had some really great times with my hunting buddies while processing our venison. If you have never done it before I suggest you try it out not only does it save money, but it makes you appreciate your tasty snacks that much more.

My brother Ryan and I use to spend a lot of time every summer on our Grandparents 80 acre farm here in Minnesota. We were outside all of the time helping Grandma out with chores, feeding the steers and cleaning out the barn. I always loved helping out.

One summer for my 10th birthday I got a spring loaded BB gun. It didn't take long for me to become a pretty good shot (soda cans). Once I became a dead eye it was my mission to shoot all of the sparrows around the farm. I spent countless hours chasing sparrows around the giant pine trees that surrounded the farm. I don't think any of the birds we killed went to waste because we always fed them to the farm cats, and after a while they came to expect us to bring them the birds. This is where the flame to hunt inside me started.

That fall my uncle Larry and his friend took us grouse hunting . Even though Ryan and I didn't know what was going on as we fallowed Larry and his friend around. We watched and learned as much as we could. I do know they missed quite a few grouse that flushed up right in front of them. It was a blast and I'm sure mom was grateful when we came home so worn out.


Around that same time my other Uncle Bruce took Ryan, Aaron (his son) and myself out Squirrel hunting. I shot a .22 for the first time and had a blast running through the woods chasing squirrels up trees. This went on for a few years and I enjoyed every hunt as that flame in side me became a fire.


Once I was old enough to play football I didn't really have much time for hunting . Needless to say my hunting life was put on hold and the fire to hunt was now just a single flame.


My sophomore year in high school I moved out to Sandpoint ID to live with my Dad. He took me out deer and elk hunting. I also did a lot of deer hunting with my good friend Josh. I really only got to shoot at one deer, but the flame inside me to hunt was rekindled and back to fire size.

I moved back to Minnesota my senior year of high school and started right back where I left off. The only difference was I had a job and was able to buy my own .22 and 12 gage. I did so much grouse pheasant,and squirrel hunting I knew just about every woods we hunted like the back of my hand. I could tell you when we were going to flush out the birds and where we would see squirrels. I had tons and tons of fun, and fire was bigger then ever.

I finally shot my first deer when I was 20 what a rush. The fact that it was an eight point buck made it even better. I haven't missed a deer season since and as time went on I kept hunting as much as I could.

After I got married I didn't seem to have as much time for hunting as I use to. I still never missed a deer season and made some time for the occasional grouse hunt and fishing trip.


As recent as this last fall I felt that fire to hunt in me grow and grow. It must have been because of the birth of my Son Wyatt. I to want to teach him as much about hunting as I can so he can enjoy it as much as I have.


Over the last five years or so I have wanted to start my own business I've looked in to so many different things I can even count them any more. Then shortly after deer hunting this season my wife said to me Ben you get so excited about hunting whats with you your just like a little kid. Then it hit me like a brick wall hey dumbo why didn't you think of this sooner. You love to hunt why don't you try something in the outdoors industry. Here I am pursuing my dream, and it's something that I am very passionate about. This is just the first part of my journey in the outdoor industry and plan to keep moving forward from here.

I'll be back soon
Ben G.

This is a story I have to tell everyone even though it’s not deer hunting season any more. So I deer hunt with a group of about eight guys in a NWR here in Minnesota. Most of us are family, along with a few friends. Great bunch of guys we always have lots of fun even if we don’t get any deer.

This past season was a rough one weather wise it was cold and very windy the deer didn’t want to move. The first week had gone by and I think we only had two deer for all eight of us which is very unusual by the end of the first weekend we always have at least half of our tags filled.

After an unsuccessful morning hunt on the second Saturday of the season. My cousin Aaron and I decide to go walk around across the river. After walking for quite some time we decided to sit on a log and take a break, get hydrated, and do a bit of chatting.

About fifteen minutes went by and we decided to change the direction we were walking and go west instead of south. We got up from our log, and after taking no more then ten steps I saw a white flag of a deer bounding through the woods. At that instance I called out deer. I contemplated shooting but it was at least 100 yards off and running full speed. I decided against shooting because I didn’t think the slug from my 870 was even going to come close to hitting any deer at that distance. Not to mention I had just gotten a scope for this season and didn’t have very much practice with it.

Not more then the time it took for the decision not to shoot went through my head, and I hear a loud boom from my right. I thought to myself why is he even is bothering to shoot. Then another shot rang out. I was fallowing the deer through the woods, but I looked away to see if he was going to shoot again. Nope he was done. We both just figured that he didn’t get it because we couldn’t see the deer any ware, but because of past hunts we decided we better go check it out.

Sure enough after a short search we found the deer lying on the ground dead as a door nail. Neither one of us could believe what we saw. The both of us just started laughing and laughing. Not only at the crazy shot but the size of this tiny deer I would guess about 70 to 80 lbs max. Sad but it was another deer.

So here is the amazing part. The bullet went through the hind quarters up through the heart. After we found the deer we stepped off the distance (the deer dropped where it was shot) and it was just over 120 yards with a stinking 12 gage slug gun. When I found out how far it was I just about fell over in amazement.

I don’t know if I will ever see a shot as amazing again but it was fun to witness.
Oh he did get tons and tons of grief from all the guys for shooting such a small deer.
Hope you enjoyed my story
BEN G.