Eric's First Spring Gobbler

GONE FISHIN'

I decided to take a break from turkey hunting this weekend and blow the dust off my rods and reels. I called my dad the night before to see if he wanted to do some pond fishing and he was all about getting out and "drowning some worms." We caught many largemouth bass weighing 1 to 3 pounds. I even had a nice one break my line that I am guessing to be at least 5 to 6 pounds. I did take a picture of my dads biggest bass weighing a little over 5 pounds!

Dad's Daily Double 2011

Dad and I decided to to sit in the deer blind he had built this past year on the farm. We have been seeing a nice group of turkeys around the area, so I decided to put up a trail camera to see if any were coming on our property. The last couple weeks I have captured these 2 nice toms and and small jake on my Moultrie trail camera. These guys would come through almost everyday but the times on my trail cam photos was either 8:00am one day 11:00am another day and 1:00pm and 4:00pm other days. We decided we would sit all day and see if we can wait 'em out. We packed a cooler and lunch and were in the stand early as we heard some gobblers to the North. To make a long story short we were very comfortable in the blind and had to wait until 4:00pm until the two big boys came strolling into make their rounds. These are the same two long beards we have been getting pictures of on the trail camera. You can see the base frame of the blind in the background.

Dad is struggling to hold the turkeys up for a picture while he prompted me to hurry up and take the picture as I was laughing and watching him have a hard time holding them up.

I told dad to let me get a picture of him with with the new decoy I purchased this year. It is called the "headsupdecoy." I have had lots of fun using this decoy as I have had a couple of close encounters with nice birds, but could not close the deal as I barely missed both birds with my bow.

supporting link: http://headsupdecoy.com/

My 2011 Deer Shed Antlers (54 antlers plus 4 more)

I found 54 antlers total for the year and about 10 matching sets. There are 3 of the 54 antlers not posted in these pics as I handed one over to my buddy Justin Vanek as it was a side to one of his target bucks from this year on his property. I also handed one over to my buddy Scott Schmidt as it was a match to the one he had found earlier. Well, I have taken these pictures and thought that is all I would find unless I happed to stumble across some while turkey hunting this Spring. I was hunting for turkeys this weekend with my freind Clint Gottschalk. I told him that it sure feels "sheddy" around here. I later found 2 matching sets that are pictured at the bottom of this post. I am now up to 58 sheds total and 12 matching sets for 2011!!!

One of my smallest shed finds ever (4" long spike)

While holding these antlers Cooper said, "BIG buck, daddy!"

Cooper is looking to the sky and thanking the "Antler Gods!"

I can't wait to to get in the field with my little buddy searching for some antlers!

Here are the 2 sets I found turkey hunting. The one in the front should be a dandy this year!

3-12-11 Deer Sheds

Im starting to bring the 2011 shed antler season to an end. I am going to try at least one more time this coming weekend and then call it good, unless I happen to stumble upon one this Spring turkey season. The following few pictures are some antlers I have found this past weekend while searching with my dad:

NOTICE: I HAVE NOT POSTED MY SHED HUNTING TRIP ON MARCH 4 AND 5 BECAUSE MY BUDDY SCOTT POSTED THEM ON HIS BLOG AND I DID NOT WANT TO DOUBLE POST THE SAME PICS AND STORY. THE TRUTH IS THAT IT SAVES ME ALOT OF TIME FROM DOING IT MYSELF!

HERE IS THE LINK: http://scottsoutdoorblog.blogspot.com.

2011 Shed Hunt (2-27-11)

-Shed hunt with my buddy Justin Vanek.
-First Shed of the hunt...another "textbook" fenceline shed.

-Uh Oh! Many miles walked to find Vaneks "target buck."
-I had that feeling that we were in what I call a "sheddy" area.
-I almost felt like this antler said, "Hey Stupid, over here!"
-When I spotted these tines sticking out of the snow, I said "uh-oh" knowing that this might be Vaneks target buck of the 2010 deer season.

-THE "ATL" (as they lay)

-Trail cam pics of Vaneks target buck ("boss buck")

-More trail cam pics of "boss buck" on Vaneks blog. http://deerandmoredeer.blogspot.com/

-This deer has more mass than what you think!

Shed hunt 2011 (February 20)

After having a great shed hunting day yesterday, I felt like I had to try and get after it today also. I woke up early and was going to take it easy as my feet and legs hurt from the hike from the day before, but it was too nice and felt like I should go for a couple of hours and just binocular some wheat fields. Im glad I did! I didnt find a single antler glassing wheat fields but on the way out I spotted what I call a 50 mph road shed. Driving along and noticed this antler on the other side of the fence. I was excited so I hurried and took a picture of it and noticed another antler on the opposite side of the fence. I though for sure I just found a set, but I was wrong. Another deer jumped this fence on this trail and shed his antler also. I walked up a the trail a bit to try to find one of the other sides but no luck. Watching fencelines where deer trails cross them have been really paying off for me this year as I found 7 or 8 by doing this.
If you look close you can see both antlers in this picture.

After glassing another wheat field I decided to walk this narrow hay draw leading to the wheat and stumbled across this nice 5 point!