Dayne over at Hunting Business Marketing has put together a list of the 50 Best Hunting Blog Posts for 2009.  I suggest you go over and check it out there are a lot of good posts to read.

 The top honor goes to Bowhunting.com with a post titled Huge Monster 192”: A Two Year Adventure. Actually Bowhunting.com took the top three spots (#2 being Fixed Blade vs. Mechanical Broadheads – The Great Debate and #3 being Bowhunting Success in Illinois – The Creek Buck).

Whitetail 365  obtains posts in 4th (Whitetail Are Tougher Than You Think) and 5th (Portable No-Trespassing Signs?).

The FS Huntress has the 6th (Hunters Who Happen to Be Women) and 7th (Q&A, Angela Wilson, Taxidermistspots).

Field Notes takes 8th (Environmentalists on Hunters).

Outdoors International grabs 9th (Building Trail, Fishing & Wolves).

 Rounding out the top ten Base Camp Legends nabs 10th  (Idaho Archery Bull).

If you jump down 14th you can see Ben G. Outdoors with Trout Fishing Part 5 (final) a pretty good showing considering how good the competition is.

Hope you enjoy reading all of the great posts.

Ben G.

Another early morning and I wanted to be in my tree stand before even a trace of first light crosses the horizon. Because my stand was so close to the parking lot I decided to wait until everyone else walked by and then go to my stand.


This morning was a touch cooler then the previous morning so I decided to put my boots and suit on in the parking lot and walk the 200 yards to my tree. The short walk was kind of refreshing and woke me up a little. I was all settled into my stand for about a half an hour before I saw first light.

Sitting in my stand I was getting excited for the hunting morning. I had wanted to sit in this area for the last three years, but could never locate a tree large enough to place my tree stand in. Soon after getting comfortable the excitement started to ware off. As I waited for the legal shooting time this all too familiar drowsy sensation started to set in. Fighting off sleep I heard a couple of late arrivers in the parking lot. One I knew was Pat, but the other I wasn’t sure who it was.

I looked at my phone and it was finally shooting time. I forced my self to wake up and be alert which wasn’t too hard considering every sound I heard made me turn my head and look for a deer. I soon found out the other person I heard in the parking lot this morning was sitting in a tree not too far from me. This was fine because we wouldn’t be able to shoot at the same deer any way.

About 30 minutes had passed and I hadn’t seen any deer. I did hear two coyotes barking at each other. About 15 to 20 minutes after that I decided to give my doe bleat a try. What a big mistake that was.(This is where my hunt gets frustrating) Shortly after hearing me bleat the guy sitting close to me starts using his bleat which would normally be fine, but he is blowing on it super loud. On top of that it seem as though he is blowing on it every three to five minutes for around 30 seconds. To put it in my brother’s words “he is pretty good at playing the trumpet”.

I knew now any deer with in a mile radius was aware of hunters in the woods, and would stay put. Me being stubborn I stayed in my tree for roughly another hour before I had enough (I can’t get too mad because I am hunting on public land). I took my stand down and went back to the truck. I entered the parking lot just in time to see an unfamiliar van leave the lot (must have been my trumpet playing buddy). I put all of my stuff in the truck bed, and went for a walk because I had about two and a half hours until lunch time.

I hiked around for a short while and eventually discovered a great little place to sit and take a brief nap. After sitting for some time I realized even though I was so tired I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I heard a few gun shots but nothing in the direction of my hunting party. It wasn’t too long before my stomach started growling and I decided it was time to go and get some lunch.

I was the last back to the parking lot for lunch today. No one had seen any deer this morning. Hearing this was a little depressing, but very typical for the second day of the deer season. The deer were pressured very hard and bedding down in the thickest of the thick stuff.

After lunch today I decided to set my stand up in the swamp I was walking in earlier that morning. I set everything up and plopped down in my stand for what would be a very uneventful evening hunt. I tried a little rattling, and calling, but nothing was going to move the deer after all of pressure the day before. I soon realized my only chance at seeing a deer would be in the last 20 minutes of shooting light as they were going to the fields to eat.

As the light faded that evening I was getting anxious just knowing I might see a deer at any moment. I wasn’t even lucky enough to see a deer that evening. In fact I only remember hearing one shot that evening, and it was quite a long distance away. I took my sand and steps down packed up my gear and headed back to the truck to go home.

Check out my next installment of a Not so Productive Deer Season to see if I had any luck on my next hunt.



~ Ben G.

Links to the other parts to the series
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 1)
Not so productive Deer hunting Season (Part 2)
Not so Productive Deer hunting Season (Part 3) 

 Ben of LandHub.com asked me if I could help him out by doing an interview with Rod White focusing on his company Land and Game, and of course I agreed. This was a fun interview and I do have to say I have never interviewed an Olympic Gold Medalist until now.


Rod, Can you tell us a little bit about your self?

I have a Gold and Bronze Olympic medals for Archery but my background is quite a bit different then most Olympic archers because I started out Bow hunting. I went out with my brother when I was 12 and missed a bunch of deer. My dad said I should take archery class, so I did. When I got to the class all the other kids had Olympic style recurve bows instead of compound bows like the one I was hunting with. At the end of the seasonal class there was a national competition and I came in next to last. The next year I set a goal of finishing in the top ten. The next year I came back to the competition and came in something like eighth. I figured if I could finish in eighth place I set my goal for the next year to place in the top three. The next year I took first. Soon I was traveling from Italy to Indonesia on Jr. World teams and made the men’s adult world team by the age of fifteen. By making small goals and accomplishing them, I eventually climbed the ladder toward the Olympic team and went on to win the Gold at nineteen. Having started as a bow hunter, which is pretty unique to archery target shooters, I picked up major hunting sponsors such as Realtree and Mathews. Through some of those sponsorships, I was introduced to mature deer in the Midwest. I grew up hunting in Pennsylvania and if you saw a 130 inch  buck it was the biggest thing you would ever see. So you can imagine the passion that was ignited in me on my first day on stand in Illinois when a 140 inch plus deer walked a treeless fence line all the way to my stand across a cut corn field. I was hooked on Midwestern bucks and traveled back to PA to pack my bags…I’ve lived here ever since.

Explain to my Readers what LandAndGame.com is.

It’s a land management and real estate company that helps clients find the right properties to fit their needs. Not every property can grow and hold mature bucks so the service we provide for committed clients is of tremendous value. Once we find the piece that matches their hunting preferences and style, we alter the habitat to grow mature whitetail bucks if it doesn’t already have what is essentially needed to accomplish our clients’ goals.

What Sets Land and Game apart from other land sales originations?

The biggest thing is the fact that we are a full service company with the ability to alter the land to produce the best deer possible for that property. We don’t just list the properties, we manage and balance the wild life, crops and over all investment for our clients. That’s something that no one here in the Midwest is doing although a lot of other companies are trying to replicate what we do. But it’s not that easy. Every property is unique like a fingerprint and the experience necessary to take it to its highest performance level possible isn’t something that can be mimicked or falsely represented. I personally design each property layout in a custom fashion based on literally thousands of days in the field in mature whitetail habitat from Alberta to Kansas. The essential ingredients needed to grow, hold, and harvest mature whitetails, remains constant in nearly every state. The types of plants that grow in different areas may change, but the types of landscape structures that produce consistent results remain constant. The complete understanding of all of that is something that can’t be taught in a classroom or by franchising a company name. We will always likely be a small group of professionals, that’s the only way to produce consistent results for our clients have it be in Iowa or Alabama.

What drives you and your team to be such a successful organization?

We are all accomplished in some aspect of hunting and or farm and business management. For instance Jimmer Kostroski killed the world record at the time typical velvet whitetail in Rochester Minnesota. Now that’s an area you don’t hear much about when it comes to mature whitetails! He is now partnered with us by bringing his own crew to our clients’ fields to implement habitat plans. Dereck Lewis learned the whole process through an apprenticeship with me logging countless hours of tree time and field work. I’ve made a huge investment in Dereck and he has proven himself in the field now with his own accomplishments. Now the clients he has been working with are producing results themselves as well. Another thing we do is work with our clients to learn about the whole process of managing the land. Our goals are generally not to just purely manage properties ourselves, it’s to get landowners off to the right start and down the right path to success. From there, most clients take on more and more of the management responsibility each year rather than completely doing the work for them. Although some clients choose that route, most know that part of the joy of landownership is producing their own results and a little dirt under their fingernails is an important part of the feeling of success.

Geographically what area of the country are your clients in?

Actually they are from all over the country we do have a lot from Louisiana for some reason, but a resoundingly large amount are residents within the borders of the states their property is located in. Be it Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, or Canada.

Can you inform my Readers about AHS?

It is the Advanced Habit System and it is a system to grow, hold whitetail deer on properties, and at the same time helping deer to reach their maximum potential. It’s really a very in-depth structure system of management and habitat manipulation that is put in place on properties in a multitude of environments and locales. It’s very complicated to those who are not familiar with habitat alteration, but most of our clients know that it produces consistent results. And, that’s what’s the system is all about…Results!

I have heard a little about the Ron Skoronski farm & know that you had a set time frame to sell it.
1. Can you tell me what makes the Ron Skoronski farm such a good property?

It is an anomaly in its self, being 3400 contiguous acres, which is unusual in southern Iowa. Not only does it produce trophy whitetails it is a great farm from an agricultural perspective too.

2. Would you be will in to let us in on some of the details of the sale?

The seller did not want to list the property with a realtor at all. They gave us a three month time limit and even with the economy in a good state that would have been a huge task. I had a client lined up to go preview the property and for the fist time ever the client didn’t show. How embarrassing! But the owner decided to stick with us given the unfortunate cards we were dealt. We put an accelerated marketing program in place. One of the elements involved inviting eight different realtors to preview the property. With such a large commission involved, we utilized the incentive to bring in other realtors networks. Combining that approach with the incredible video presentations and a multitude of other unique processes we utilize, we had four offers in 8 weeks and the client accepted the last one.

In your opinion what was the biggest factor in making the sale a success?

I don’t think I can say there was on big factor but a few that made this sale such a success. The seller was willing to sign an exclusive contract with a generous commission. By focusing on the property’s attributes and not the commissions. Utilizing our video talents and advanced property packaging. And most importantly, the accelerated marketing program as a whole.

What is the Legacy Land Partnership?

 It is a group of individuals who purchase average to below average land and watch it mature in to prime hunting land and an overall incredible investment opportunity. We utilize the land to maximize the potential of their investment and produce excellent returns both financially and in the form of antlers. A lot of these landowners only have limited time to hunt their properties and this program allows other hunters in the Legacy Land Partnership to use and enjoy the land for their specific hunting needs. Provided they are willing to be a part of the network, this helps to grow the entire group’s holdings and elevate the full utilization of the property.

What does it take for a property to reach Legacy Status?
 
First the Advanced Habitat System has to be put in place and then the land has to reach its maximum potential for what ever game the property owner would like to target. Have it be whitetail deer, pheasant, upland game etc. Finally when it becomes the ultimate property for the targeted species then it would reach Legacy status.
 
I want to thank Rod White for the time he took to do the interview. It was great to talk with him. We chatted for a little while after the interview and I think Rod is a stand up guy who just really enjoys the outdoors , bow hunting, teaching people (about land management, & bow hunting)  and running his business. I would also like to thank Ben at LandHub.com for making this whole intervew possible. All of the extra work he put in to make it work really was nice.

1. Can you explain a little about your position at Bear Archery?

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