big game – The Outdoors Guy

September 10, 2014

Trail camera preparation in comfort & style

Oh, the beloved trail camera, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Perhaps the most exciting part about fall and hunting season is getting to play with my favourite toy; the wildlife surveillance camera, otherwise known by hunters simply as the ‘trail cam’.

Here I’m adjusting the settings on my trusty Bushnell Trophy Cam – Bone Collector. This particular trail cam has been in that same tree for more than a year now, and I’ve only changed the batteries once. Once!!

Not bad for an estimated 15, 000 photos.

Certain trail cams like this one, which gets lots of action, I set to low res. image (3 MB) to allow for the 300 -350 photos it captures each week. Other cams I may opt for ‘HD Video’ instead, keeping in mind the amount of space an HD vid occupies on the SD card.

These little Trophy Cams are not only reliable, they’re about as user friendly as it gets. Scrolling through the menu and changing settings with this model can be done with ease, and Bushnell remains consistent with their new models as well; keeping menu options and layout pretty much the same across the board.

TC4

Trail cameras with Invisible/Black LED’s like these two models are great for those ‘camera shy’ critters who don’t enjoy being photographed at night.

Since the LED Glow is obscured, they also make a better ‘surreptitious surveillance’ system for around the house, or to monitor your hunt camp for break-ins.

Checking-on already established trail cams or setting-up new ones is about as close to actual hunting as it gets.

(Warning – blatant product plug coming…)

Wow, what fantastic looking footwear! Do I look good, or what?

These new Merrell’s I courtesy of Shoeme.ca, made this week’s trail camera set-up an even more enjoyable experience. I felt like I was floating on air!

Thanks to the good folks over at Shoeme.ca for the opportunity of trying-out a fantastic pair of new shoes. I’ll be wearing these puppies to hunt camp next weekend when I set-up another series of trail cameras.

For more information on the latest in trail cam footwear: http://www.shoeme.ca/collections/merrell

Happy trail-camming one and all – may your SD cards runneth over with big game images!

Outdoorsguy

November 21, 2013

Hunters' bragging board(new stories & photos!!)

OK folks, it is that time of year again…when men are men and the bears, moose and deer are nervous!

If you’re back from the woods and have enjoyed a successful big-game hunt this fall (& have harvested something other than Labatt’s or Molson) I invite you to share your story and photos right here at the Outdoors Guy Blog.

As someone once said, it’s time to show ’em if you got ’em! You’ll notice that all my hunting pics are from previous hunts as no ungulates fell to my rifle this fall.

Please keep in mind that all photos (submitted by pm please) should be in a small file format. Usually less than 1/2 GB is fine.

As I point out in my latest Pembroke Daily Observer Outdoors Column, not every hunt requires a grip-and-grin photo to be truly successful (stated by a man with no such photos this year..)

Pembroke Daily Observer: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2013/11/21/harvest-less-deer-hunt-was-still-a-blast

Outdoorsguy

Congrats to Hunting Mom and her son Sam on a great deer hunt this year!

Memorable Hunt – by Hunting Mom

It was another memorable hunt for us this year. As I’ve said before, Sam and I have the privilege of hunting with a group of highly skilled men with years of experience. They are mentoring Sam and he is benefiting so much from their expertise and wisdom. I do appreciate that they let me tag along too. Sam got this nice doe on the first day of our hunt, and it was not the only one he shot at. Our group got a total of 7 deer during the week — 4 of them were on that first day. It was action-packed — everyone seemed to be getting a shot at something (except for me of course). The rest of the week was great, but that first day was one to remember.

Looks like Imacdon also enjoyed a productive hunt this year – not a bad way to start your retirement!!

Hi Jeff, we got two deer the first week, a doe and four pointer and a five pointer the second week. Nothing big, we seemed to do a lot better than the surrounding hunt camps. Does not seem to be a lot of deer around. We only saw the two bucks, the rest where does and fawns. Even got in some duck hunting the second week.

Imacdon’s brother with some ducks and his old buddy Duke. He could not get his young dog Jed to sit still for a picture. Duke retrieved the ducks.

Matt had a great time hunting with his grandfather this year. Evidently the excitement of a deer hunt never disappears, even at the age of 87!!

Hey Jeff , here’s a special pic of me and my long time hunting partner of over 30 years , my 87 year old grandfather .unfortunately he didn’t get to harvest this nice little 7 point but he wasn’t far away when I did!! Although he did get a crack at a nice ten point on opening day it appears after 50 plus years of hunting “buck fever ” set in and he had a clean miss !! I guess that’s allowed at 87 years young eh ? Lol Cheers Matt

Seems there was so good deer action over at Iggy’s hunt camp this fall. Iggy Junior took a very fine buck which field-dressed 197 and sported a great-looking crown too! Evidently Jr’s buck was a scrapper based on one of the main beams! And from what I read, there may be more pics from Iggy headed our way….

Iggy’s Deer Camp

Opening morning is what everyone dreams of, first chase, a doe and two bucks down! My son, dogging the bush with one of the dogs right in front of him jumped two deer, he got one but the other one got away and ran right past a watcher before he even got a chance to shoot at it.

The two other deer were stirred up by the other dog man and ran to two different watchers. We got another buck on Wednesday, one of our guys that enjoys hunting at the notch was sent there with a little reluctance. It’s probably the hardest watch to get to, but once there a nice eight point ran up from the valley below and that was the end of line for him.
We got another dandy buck on the Friday….Iggy

My pal Maple (and his son Maple bud) also had a great deer season by sound of it!

Hey Jeff, The other day I got your e-mail but decided to wait a couple of days before replying since my son was due to come hunt on Wednesday, and you never know. Anyhow, here’s the short version and a couple of pics….

For me, it’s been a hard deer season. Wasn’t here in early October, and the deer were elsewhere when I was hunting bow season. Since I only had a buck tag, of course, there were lots of does and healthy fawns seen. A good sign.

Some nice bucks showed up for the trail cam photos at night which did me no good until shotgun season in November, when a 5-pointer made his way into my sights at 12:30 PM, and I gladly took him. The first one I’d seen all year! Meat in the freezer and sausages on the grill!!

After that, I had to wait for my son and his buck tag to come hunt with me, which wasn’t until yesterday during the muzzle-loader season. We sat in the stand together for the afternoon and caught up on the news in whispered voices. As the evening settled in, a doe came into the field 60 yards off and kept watching to our left. Sure enough, this thick chested animal shows himself and his antlers at 70 yards, and soon my son sparks up the old smokepole.

As always, we wonder about the hit, get the ropes and big flashlight, and go to the hit sight. Easy tracking in the snow brought us to a dandy 9-point buck only 50 yards into the bush.

Thanks given, photos taken, and tag applied, we hauled him out to join our family and friends for supper throughout the year. What a lucky bugger that son of mine is. Him and his 3 hour hunts. – Maple
Sureshot dave’s deer hunt:

The crew arrived on Sunday, spent the afternoon checking a few tree-stands and setting up a ground blind. A few of us decided to check our guns to make sure they were still shooting straight. That’s when the adventure started for Mike Jr. Let’s just say it was a challenge to get his guns to pattern. He ended up using his dad’s shotgun. That’s how good things were going with his own guns…Anticipation was running high for Monday morning. What would the deer gods put in our sights throughout the week?

Monday morning was cold, and still. Not much wind, which made it a perfect day for deer movement. I had a doe right next to my ground blind at legal light, and then the morning started out with a bang! Well, a bang, bang I guess. Mike jr had two bucks go running past his stand, behind him of course. Without time to adjust, he had to shoot left handed. First shot was about 10 yards, second would have been closer if the slug had not buried itself in the tree right behind the stand. He called on the radio, I told him to sit tight for a while because it was such a perfect morning. When I got to his stand later on, he and Michel were scouring the ground for any sign of a hit. There was some hair, but no blood. We spread out a little and continued to look. Nothing. I decided to go back to the stand and start over. I walked the ATV trail checking for blood. I’ve been lucky in the past to find drops of blood where deer have crossed the trail. Sure enough, one drop of blood. Something to start with. Once we found the trail, it wasn’t that hard to follow. We found where the buck had stood for a while, then where he bedded on an old ATV trail. The frost was all gone from the spot, and lots of blood in his bed. I told Jr to be ready to get another shot off if he wasn’t dead yet. I knew he couldn’t be far judging by the blood we were seeing.

A little farther up the trail, he jumped up and took off out of the hemlocks. I managed to find him in my scope for a second. The .257 barked, and it looked like he went over a hill just as I fired. We walked up to where he was when I shot, and there he lay. A nice basket rack 8 point was the first deer of the week. We tagged and gutted him before going back to the camp. Everyone saw deer that morning except for Big Mike at the front food plot. The afternoon sit was just as eventful. Mike St. Amour is always one of the first to head back out. He picked the condo, never sat there before so he wanted to see some new ground. The rest of the gang headed out, and I settled into my stand just after 2. Not long after, a shot rang out, and almost immediately Mike St. Amour came on the radio. “Buck down” was the report. The excitement in his voice was obvious. Sounded like a kid on Christmas morning.

I headed over to the condo, and sure enough there was a buck across the beaver meadow. Turns out that Mike had shot him in the neck, when I got to the buck he was still alive so I put another round into him to end his ordeal. Tagged and gutted him right there because we were going to have to drag him a little ways to get to a trail. Or so I thought. Turns out that the Keddy’s had cut a new trail in, and it was a 50 yard drag to it. Nice and convenient. Michel was down at the homestead, so we got in and out of there quickly as to not screw up his hunt. Mike walked back to the camp, I climbed in to the condo stand to see if lightning would strike twice in one afternoon. Not long after, a shot rang out from the homestead. Michel had a spike come out to the food plot and decided to take a crack at him. Sure enough, just down the hill lay a nice little spike. 3 bucks on opening day!

Thursday afternoon Rodney chose the condo. He had gotten a nice buck there a couple of years ago. Sure enough, at 2PM another buck came down the same trail that St. Amour’s buck did. Rodney had to put down his smoke, but he did a fine job of sending some lead on its way. I had brought the boys to the camp for the rest of the hunt, so the first thing we got to do was go and look for Rodney’s deer. The boys were excited to get out and search for a buck. It was right where he shot it, victim of a perfect shot right behind the shoulder. Two bucks, middle of the day, on the same trail. Not bad!

Friday we sat for a couple of hours, then decided to push some bush. The honey hole didn’t produce any deer, but yours truly missed a big coyote with the 12 ga. Those buggers are fast!!! Since we were all together, we decided to put the Shadow Ridge push on. As I was going around to get started, the boys put up a bunch of deer on the way in. A nice buck with a couple of does, and then a spike. Apparently the deer were already where we needed them to be. No shots presented themselves, so I just hoped that I could get them turned around. On this drive, Cameron was with Big Mike, Evan was standing with Michel and Ryan was with Jr. I got into the pines and it wasn’t long before I saw some deer ahead of me. I got on the radio to say that they were heading towards the guys and to be ready. A shot rang out soon after, and Jr came on the radio saying “deer down”. We only had one buck tag, and one doe tag left, so we needed to know what had just hit the dirt. “Doe down” was the call. So now we needed antlers. Nothing more came out of that drive, but Ryan sure was pumped when I got out to them. Jr. had shot the doe at about 10 yards, and Ryan saw the whole thing. What an awesome experience for a 7 year old boy!

That was the last tag we filled. Friday afternoon we saw some more does and fawns, but no bucks. Not a bad week!!! – Sure shot Dave

Ok , we all know how ‘timing’ plays a huge role in anyone’s deer hunt. We all know the concept of ‘being in the right place at the right time’ and conversely we have experienced the sorrow of ‘being in the right place and then abandoning it right before the big buck arrives’. Its a situation demonstrated here by Otter Burn:

Right place wrong time – by Otter Burn

“First decent Buck I have seen on Camera and/or LIVE… since Oct. 1, 2013…AND I was AT THIS SPOT on 11.28.13 until about 4 pm…..WAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! :o( LOL…but as they say…..”that’s FISHING”!………………

Needless to say, I know now where I will be spending the hours in the cold until I can arrow this puppy or until end of season Dec. 31…..Which ever comes 1st…..

A magnificent animal…worthy of the effort not experienced since ’09 success with the two year quest of “Bouble Brow”….

October 4, 2011

Big game hunters Bragging Board

OK folks, it is that time of year again…when men are men and the bears, moose and deer are nervous.

If you have enjoyed a successful big-game hunt this fall, I invite you to share your story and photos right here at the Outdoors Guy Blog.

As someone once said, its time to show ’em if you got ’em!

Please keep in mind that all photos submitted by pm should be in a small file format. Usually less than 1/2 GB is fine.

Outdoorsguy

Thanks to Sure-shot Dave for sending in his moose story:

Made the 16 hour drive to Thunder Bay on Sept. 23^rd. Had high hopes of putting my tag on a nice bull. The scouting report was that there were some nice ones hanging around.

Spent the better part of six days chasing them around the swamps, and sitting in stands without seeing a thing. It was warm, but not as bad as 2009, the last time I was there.

Monday (day 3) I got the invite to go down to Timmins to try and fill a cow tag… Resisted the temptation. I wanted antlers. Wednesday (day 5) got another invitation to go down to Timmins… Started to cave a little bit. After the Thursday morning hunt I decided to pack it in and head for Timmins, again after some convincing from Andy. That guy is persistent. Left Thunder Bay at 7PM on Thursday, had a co pilot so was able to sleep for a couple of hours in the truck on the way. Made it to Timmins for 3AM, up and heading to the hunting spot at 5AM. I must be crazy…

Andy put me on a skidder trail and gave me instructions on where to go. Follow this trail to the hydro line, if nothing, come back half way and take the other trail out to a fresh cut. Sounded pretty easy to me. I waited until first light, and slowly made my way up the first trail. It’s amazing how many stumps, root balls and dark objects looked like moose after 6 days of not seeing a thing…

After about twenty minutes, Andy got a hold of me to say that Chris had seen a couple of cows head into a small piece of bush, and I needed to get down the other trail ASAP to cut them off. So off I go. I picked a likely looking spot, but not knowing if I was in the right area, I waited for further instructions. I then moved to the highest point so that I could see as much terrain as possible. Andy was going to wait until the rest of the group could get set up before going in after the cows. After a while, he came out of the bush and motioned for me to come over to him. He said that the cows are probably still in the patch of bush, but that I needed to get to the other end of the bush to watch the beaver meadow. Off I went at a pretty good pace so that I didn’t miss them. Andy said “look for the tamarack tree with the branches cut off one side”. Millions of trees, and I’m supposed to find that one tree. Ok I thought to myself, like that’s going to happen. I walked in to the corner of the beaver meadow, and noticed some cut brush and a small open area. Looked up, and there was the tamarack tree. Well I’ll be a monkey’s arse… I took a few steps to get out into the open meadow, and just as I look up, I see a cow come bursting out of the brush on the other side. She’s trotting at a pretty good pace on the other side of the 200 yard wide meadow, heading for the far end and the tag alders for cover. Great I think to myself, I finally see a moose, but there is no way on God’s green earth that I am going to get a shot at her. As fast as this fat ass could run, I head to cut her off. After about a 75 yard sprint, she turns and heads right across the meadow, right towards me. At this point I still don’t have an arrow nocked, and I’m not even close to being ready. Add to that that I am gasping for air, and things are not looking good. Halfway across the meadow, she stops to look back over her shoulder to see where the danger is. That’s my opportunity. I throw off my gloves, grab an arrow, nock it and hunker down in the grass. After a few seconds, she starts to run again. I come to full draw as she’s coming. 20 more yards, and she’ll be in the bush and gone. I yell “hey” and she slams on the brakes. Of course, she’s right behind a tag alder bush, and I have no shot. She sees me, and walks out from behind the bush to have a better look. Quartering towards me slightly, but I think I can make the shot. I put my 40 yard pin on her, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger on my release. As if in slow motion, I watch my neon yellow arrow head for its target. All the while, I’m praying that it will fly true to its mark. With a thunk, it hits the cow and buries itself 2/3 of the way in. I’m pretty confident that she won’t go far. I call Andy, and he answers in a whisper “what’s up”. Huffing and puffing, I say “I got her!” He says “you got her?” I say “yeah I got her!!” The excitement in his voice grows, and the next thing out of his mouth is “who’s your daddy?? Told you I’d get you a cow!” I tell him not to get too excited yet, we need to find her before the celebrating can start.

I walk to where she was standing, and start looking for blood while I wait for Andy and Roger to come over. Andy comes across the meadow, and before I can even show him where she was, and where she went, he’s on the blood trail. It was a very easy trail to follow. Like someone was pouring blood out of a paint can. If it were a deer, it would have gone less than 50 yards. This being my first moose, I had no idea how much blood they could lose before falling over. We followed the trail for about 150-200 yards, and found her piled up on the edge of a cut over area. Now the celebrating could begin! My first moose, shot with my old reliable High Country bow. If only all things in life were as reliable as that bow! Andy laughed at me for still shooting it, but it’s never let me down. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!!

We spent the next couple of hours field dressing, and loading her into the ATV trailer. Then it was off to the butcher to get her skinned and quartered. That night we celebrated with obscene amounts of alcohol, and I was introduced to sleeping in a prospector tent for the first time. There are stories to tell about the evening, but we’ll leave those for another day. What happens in moose camp, stays in moose camp!!

I sure am glad that Andy was so persistent, and that I made the overnight drive to Timmins. It was the experience of a lifetime. Thanks to all the guys for making it a hunt that I’ll never forget!!!

Regards,

Sure-shot Dave

Our friend Rick P had a great weekend it seems!

On Sunday evening, he took what he’s calling his ‘meat buck’ at 6:30 PM with a ten yard bow shot.

Now Rick is concentrating on the big guys!

Congrats on the nice looking buck!

I finally got out yesterday for my second hunt of the season.

It was a beautiful “summer” evening, kind of hot for hunting but I needed to get out of the basement.

The wind was wrong but I decided “John’s Ridge” stand was calling to me. It is a nice hardwood ridge and I figured I would hear any deer coming. I was wrong. The wind was just strong enough with so many leaves still on the trees to muffle any approaching deer. At least that is my excuse for not hearing him coming.

At 6:30 I glanced to the east around the tree I was in and not 15 yards away was a deer.

I grabbed my bow and had to decide which side of the tree he would present me with a shot. Luckily he came around in front of me and at ten yards I let fly.

The shot was horrible!

I had changed my setup this summer and added a peep. I felt very comfortable with this setup but had not practiced as much as I would have liked. With the deer in front of me I forgot to look through the peep – aarrrgggg!

I watched him run about 80 yards in a semi-circle and then slowly hobble behind some big trees. He then slowly walked another ten yards and seemed to be in distress. I could see blood from the wound.

As the shot was not where I wanted I decided to get out of there and wait until morning to look for him even though it was very warm. I hoped/expected to find him where I had last seen him.

This morning I walked to where he was standing when I left but no deer. Some blood but not as much as I expected.

It took an hour plus to follow a some time good blood trail and some time bad blood trail some 100 yards to a dead deer.

This six point fills my meat needs, now it’s time to get the big one.

Rick P (AKA Whitetail Guru)

Thanks to Alain for sending in this screen of a nice bull taken near his camp.

As you read below, Iggy’s gang took 1 moose this fall. This beautiful 54″ bull was taken by Tony Kennedy at 7:30 on opening morning.

Great job Tony!!

Dave D’Aoust sent in this photo of the big buck he took near Carleton place this past weekend with with Excalibur crossbow.

His buck dressed out at 220 pounds. I like the forked browtines, Dave!

My old College pal Bobby Kuntz, who lives in the Yukon, sent in these photos of a caribou swimming the Teslin river and the ‘meat bull’ he took last week. (Only in the Yukon is a 34″ bull and meat moose!)

Well, our friend Keebler has finally taken his first moose..a unique looking bull I have dubbed ‘Texas Longhorn #2″ Congrats on the nice bull and I cant wait to hear the story!

Hey, when does the wife make you shave off that scruff anyway..hehe

Below is the story of Yukon Bob’s favourite moose hunt:

This is to date my favorite moose. I shot him Oct3rd 20?? The years are getting blurry.

We called him in 2 nights in a row but we couldn’t get him to come out in the open. My buddy had to return to work, so I took him home and talked the girlfriend into joining me.

The new plan was to take him with the bow and if it didn’t work out then Rebel would get her 1^st moose. The plan almost worked perfect. We sprayed ourselves with scent killer(something I’ve never done) and we went into the bush where I thought the moose was doing all the raking the previous nights. The bush was a little too thick for shooting lanes for the bow but we set up anyway. 5:45pm I gave a call and we heard him right away maybe just under a km away.

We never heard any other sounds, at 6pm I gave another call and he started raking trees about 50yds ahead of us. I new what the moose was going but the girlfriend thought he was on a dead right for us. I seen a palm of antler through the bush, I looked back to see how my back up was doing and she was shaking so bad I could have worried about my on safety if I asked her to shoot. I chose to ditch the bow and disarm her.

The moose circled to one side and I got a shot at 30yds and dropped him. It was only then that I got to see the whole rack. 58” I’ve shot wider but I liked the surprise of not knowing what he looked like.

Below is is photo of Chessy’s big buck he took on opening morning. I’m calling it the Salmon River Buck…just because it likes to eat salmon.

That’s Chessy’s son in the photo:

Rob St. Denis picked up images on his trail cam of this bad boy..he says the buck only travels at night..so far!

Below is Iggy’s pal Ron Cutbill (already famous for catching a brookie in the Ottawa river) proves his hunting skill this time, with a dandy 10-pointer.

Nice buck Ron!!

Our pal Chessy managed to bag himself another nice buck! This time he pulled it off with a blown scope and the help of his kids…but he still did it!

A dandy 8-point too:

Bob McNally, who hunts at the camp beside Iggy, took this 4-point towards the end of the rifle hunt. Congrats Bob..love that deer trailer too. Here’s is Bob’s story:

Well in almost 2 weeks of deer hunting I FINALLY got to see one!

Most movement on my trail cam has been at night in fact in the past 2 days there was 1 doe and 5 different bucks but all in darkness.

I had high hopes for today first cause the weather had finally got colder which should get them moving a bit better but also cause tommorrow I”m back to work… 🙁

There was a good frost on the ground this morning. As I got closer to where I would stand I noticed that some of the scrapes had no frost in them and looked like they had been turned recently. I moved slowly cause I was expecting to see something anytime now.

Got to my stand under a spruce next to a pond shortly after 7 am. In front of me about 30 yds was a trail that the deer have torn up with all the scrapes along it. Maybe this would be the day I would finally get some movement during daylight.

I caught movement about 9:20 to my left in some thick spruce where the lower branches were mainly dead. It was so quiet I thought it to be one of the many red squirrels that had been pestering every time I have sat in that area. I suddenly noticed the rack of a buck and then his head which was in a sneak postion. I was surprised to see how slowly he snuck in.

He moved forward about 20 ft and got in behind several large trees and offered no shot. I was hoping he would continue straight ahead as he would reach one of my shooting lanes I had cleared out on my first sit in that location. He stood behind the trees for almost 5 minutes, checking things out before he moved. He decided to go left which meant he was walking away from me and I”d have to shoot quick. He got almost 45 degrees to me at about 30 yds and I fired. I was pleased to see my aim was true and he dropped on the spot with 1 shot.

Bob

ps: I added 2 more trail cam pictures from the 2 days before. I think my buck was sneaking in cause he was the smaller of the deer and didn’t want to get his butt kicked by the bigger bucks!

Here is one of the bucks taken at Keebler’s camp up in North Bay. Sounds like he had one heck of a great year!

Avid sportsman Chris Kemp surely made his family proud this fall with the taking of a buck he is calling the ‘Memorial Buck’..in honour of his Grandfather and uncle who passed away this year:

The Memorial Buck

I took this guy on the last section of the last chase of the week, in a year that we lost two members of our camp.

My grandfather Eldon Kemp passed away in the spring at the age of 89. He was a lifelong hunter who passed on his Savage 1899 .303 to me. I used that rifle to take my first deer, and hunted this week with it his honour.

My uncle (Gord Kemp) was a firefighter who died in the summer of leukemia. A great big, tough guy, he was a tireless dogger who never carried a gun, but was a vital part of many hunts.

Chris Kemp