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September 17, 2015
Today I have launched the new platform that
I will be updating and sharing stories of my hunting adventures in the
Horn Swamp and elsewhere. My new blog, www.hornswamp.blogspot.com
is now live. The Twitter feed will remain a part of this website but
all future news posts will be uploaded to the new blog location. The
new blog is easier to update from any location for me and it provides a
better reading experience on mobile devices. Thanks to all that have
continued to check in here and I look forward to hearing from you on the
new blog.
Feb. 14, 2015
Good intentions for more reports here this
fall didn't work out real well, as you can see. I appreciate those
that continue to check in here for the Twitter feed and hopes of new
updates. Please continue to check back as I plan to have more to
share as we go forward.
We are filming another hog hunt with The
Chase later this month and I'm chomping at the bit for turkey season to
arrive. I'll keep the Twitter feed going with more regular updates,
brief as they are. But please stay tuned.
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September 23, 2014
Hang in there readers...I'm about to get this page ramped up again for the
fall. There never seems to be enough time in the day but I'll be
keeping the twitter feed going on a more frequent basis and bringing so me
more updates here. Don't give up on the Horn Swamp Online
page! Stay tuned and check back often. Big report on the Brad
Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo coming in a few days.
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August 13, 2014
If you have ever wanted to hog hunt, we have a great opportunity to pass
along. As part of the Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo on September
11-13 in Camden, we have a limited number of local landowners/guides
available to take hunters out to hunt hogs. We have a Friday
afternoon and Saturday morning hunt available for $300 per hunter and this
includes your entry in the Hog Rodeo. Call or email me with any
questions or to book your hunt. (334-525-0462 hornswamp@yahoo.com).
We also have thermal hog hunts
donated by Alabama Hog Control available. This is an all night hunt
with the latest thermal imaging scopes. You will certainly see
plenty of hogs and likely kill some big ones as the night is when the big
boars are active. The cost is $1200 per night for 2 hunters or $1800
per night for 3 hunters. The costs of both of these hunts are tax
deductible as the scholarship fund is a 501c3. Watch some videos of
Alabama Hog Control's hunts at www.alabamahogcontrol.com
Otherwise, if you have hogs to hunt
in south Alabama we would like for you to participate in either the stalk,
trapping, or dog team categories. More information as well as the
brochure and sign up form can be found at this
link.
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May 20, 2014
My bags are packed for Montana! We will be traveling on the 22nd and
then settling in on the 23rd and hunting on the 24th. This is going
to be a great adventure. Stay tuned on the Twitter Feed
above.
You have heard so much about The Chase here
and I know some of you likely do not subscribe to the Sportsman Channel
and might have never seen the show. The following link is to their
Chasing through the Years episode, the final show of Season Three.
You can watch it in full length on YouTube. It's a great show and
really captures what The Chase is all about. Link
over here.
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May 1, 2014
The final third of turkey season produced no results. After I killed
my third gobbler on April 8th, I heard turkeys gobble a little on just one
day. The river had backed into the hardwoods on that morning and one
of the two turkeys that gobbled for a while was roosted over the
floodwaters. The other quit gobbling by the time I reached
him. After that encounter I did not sit down to another gobbling
turkey the remaining two weeks even though numerous gobblers remained in
the area.
When our turkeys do not gobble,
they are difficult to hunt. They do not come out in our small
greenfields and instead remain in the woods, often in the thicker
portions. Thick cover and predators might well explain why the
gobbling is so often at a minimum.
Overall, hunters in the
area seem to have a good season. Many hunters I have spoken with
heard turkeys gobble right to the end of the season. Certainly the
last few days were difficult to hunt with the weather systems passing
through but some gobblers were killed nevertheless this week.
I'll now begin gearing up
for my first black bear hunt with The Chase. Travis and I are headed
to Montana for Memorial Day weekend. We fly in to Missoula and then
head north about 70 miles for a four day hunt. What an experience it
will be and I can't wait. As service permits, I'll be giving updates
via the Twitter feed on this page.
Until then I plan to do a
little hog hunting over the greenfields. As the grains top out the
hogs, and especially some big boars, will be coming to graze. I've
killed two of the bigger boars I have killed in many years in the past
week. Stay tuned....
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April 15, 2014
Officially two thirds of the way through spring turkey season now and it
has been a good one for me. I have killed three and had numerous
other exciting hunts. The hunts, however, have not lasted long
into the morning as our turkeys have gobbled early but have, for the most
part, not gobbled long once they flew down. Overall I am hearing
that the season is going well for hunters in our area and turkeys have
rebounded from the gobbling slump of the 2013 season.
The river has been an issue for
us since Thursday, rising to a high of 75 feet and cutting us off from
some areas of the property except by boat, of which I have not yet
deployed. Last night's rain will keep the river high but it has
fallen to a manageable level for getting around to the turkeys on
land.
I'll post more pictures soon
and tell you about my spring bear hunt in the mountains of Montana with
The Chase, coming up in late May.
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March 18, 2014
I can not remember the last time I spent 48 hours behind the gates of the
swamp, but my five year-old son Andrew and I did just that this past
weekend. We loaded up the truck Friday evening after work and off we
went with turkeys and adventure in the plans. My youngest son shows
the same love of hunting that I have and he told me as we entered the
property that he was "built and made for the
woods."
Our Saturday morning hunt was
uneventful. We heard one distant gobble and nothing else. By
mid morning we gave up and spent the majority of the day moving feeders
from the flood plain that we used during the hog hunt, riding the
4-wheeler, and throwing the football. We tried a short sit at a
greenfield for the afternoon but the action was slow and Andrew decided he
wanted to get back to the cabin and throw the ball before
dark.
Saturday evening we built a
good campfire and lit the grill to cook hamburgers about the time a light
rain began to fall. After supper we crawled in the bunks of the
cabin and listened to the rain roll off the tin roof all through the
night.
My phone went off before dawn
on Sunday with the sound of a tornado warning. I quickly saw that
Coal Bluff, our exact area, was mentioned in the path of a thunderstorm
that apparently had upper level rotation and could produce a
tornado. There is really not a great place to weather a potential
tornado in the swamp so we held tight and watched the storm on radar as it
approached. Modern technology is quite something to behold and I'm
thankful for having a smart phone that can provide so much
information. Even better was the texts and calls from friends that
knew we were in a remote location and may not have known about the
approaching weather. It is great to have others watching out for
you.
Thankfully the storm fizzled
before it got to us and the rain itself stopped around 9am. I told
Andrew we would go to the Red Field as soon as the rain stopped as our
game camera photos showed turkeys there every time it rained. As we
walked down the road approaching the field a turkey gobbled a few hundred
yards from us. I yelped and he answered. I had not brought my
little blind and knew we would need a little luck to kill this bird.
We sat down by a big red oak beside the road and hoped he would come down
the road to us. I yelped a few more times and he answered and each
time he was closer. There was no doubt he was coming to
us.
The turkey was approaching from my
left. Andrew sat close to me on my right side. I coached him not to
move a muscle as the turkey was getting close. According to the
tracks we saw in the muddy road later that day, the turkey did indeed walk
the road towards us and then, reaching a big mudhole in the road, he
stepped off the road and into the edge of the pines. He walked
closer to us and then reaching a thicker area in the pines, he stepped
back to the edge of the road. At that point I first saw him and he
was just15 steps away. I whispered to Andrew that I was about to
shoot him and then I did.
We hopped up and ran out to see the
turkey. I am not sure which one of us was more excited. I have
not killed a turkey in the first two days of the season in quite some time
and to have done it with my little boy at my side was special. It
was his second turkey hunt and I think he is hooked. He already
wants to know when he can go again.
Back to the cabin we went and
after many photos we cleaned the gobbler. We cut open his craw to see what
he had been eating and found his last meal consisted of some grass and
three acorns. Afterwards we buried the carcass in the back yard of
the cabin.
The rest of the day we spent throwing
the football, having a picnic in a greenfield (Andrew's idea and my first
time for that), and having target practice with the Mini-30 carbine, which
Andrew did quite well with. As evening closed in we packed up and
headed for home, but not before Andrew proclaimed it the "best
weekend ever."
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March 4, 2014
Our hog hunt was a big success over the weekend but as I feared the hogs
did not make it easy. Three and a half weeks of running feeders and
barrels was not the magic bullet for piling up the pigs. They were
very wary of the bait and fed primarily at night. In addition, they
were never on a pattern at any of the locations, showing up one day
multiple times and then going AWOL the next day.
Our final tally was 14, with
Scentblocker president Scott Shultz leading the way with 9. Leigh
killed two, I killed two, and Travis killed one. Back pain throttled
Travis for most of the hunt and my fumbles with turning on a GoPro camera
also cost him another hog while hunting over a barrel late Saturday
afternoon. We were all excited that Scott had so much success.
The hunt started amid cold weather and frosty mornings and ended in short
sleeves and shorts weather with mosquitoes buzzing in our
ears.
It seems as though the hogs
have plenty of eat at this point, considering their lack of focus on the
corn we fed. We saw way more deer coming to the corn than we did
hogs. Actually, their focus on the corn was much better back in
August and early September than it was during the month of
February.
We had two big boars on the
Moultrie cameras, one of which I showed a photo a few weeks ago, hitting a
barrel and a feeder. One was strictly nocturnal. The other
showed up at dark most days. We sent Scott to that stand the last
afternoon to try to get him. He saw a good sized sow but passed on
her waiting on the big boar but a swirling wind on the warm afternoon
likely caused him to not show.
The group
Spot and stalk
Scentblocker president Scott Shultz and his first afternoon boar.
That's a .454 SOCOM on an
AR platform. It is quite a hog killing machine!
My biggest of the weekend and one that will air on the next season of The
Chase
One of two for Leigh.
Scott's second hog of hunt, with cameraman Jeff Ensor from
Texas.
Jeff's show, Non-Stop Hunting, aired on The Pursuit Channel in recent
years.
Travis and Leigh stalked this one and Travis got the shot.
Leigh got this one on a spot and stalk through the hardwoods on the final
morning of the hunt.
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February 25, 2014
It's hog week in the Horn Swamp and I think we are ready. It is time
to see if the efforts of the past few weeks to congregate some hogs is
going to pay off. Robinson Outdoors / Scentblocker president Scott
Shultz will be joining Leigh and Travis on the hunt. Scott is
looking forward to escaping the bitter cold of Minnesota to stalk some
hogs in these south Alabama swamps.
The big adventure begins Wednesday
afternoon. Scott and Travis will be here in time for a short
afternoon hunt and then we will get after them with a vengeance from
Thursday through Sunday morning. Leigh will be joining us Thursday
evening. The weather looks cooperative and in spite of getting
regular rains, we have avoided any rising water on the property. All
is set. I'll keep the Twitter feed updated with our progress so stay
tuned.
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February 18, 2014
My efforts to congregate a few hogs and get them in some sort of a pattern
for our upcoming hog hunt with Leigh and Travis have been
challenging. The corn hit the feeders and barrels on February 1st
and activity has been on the increase since then, mostly at the
barrels. Surprisingly they are coming to a few of the feeders and
completely avoiding a few others. The majority of the activity is
also at night. Though sign exists from one end of the property to
the other I think our numbers of hogs is lower than in prior years.
Though hogs are very nocturnal, I am surprised there has not been more
activity at the feed during the day. In preparation for prior hunts
they have not been nearly as wary as they are being at this
time.
A big boar has started feeding
at one of the Moultrie feeders and he looks the size of one I missed with
the muzzleloader last fall. He is a big one by our standards and
hopefully one of the team will get him in the sights next weekend.
He is moving at dusk and dawn and in the night as well. So far I
have not seen a picture of him where there was enough camera light to
shoot. Maybe he will relax a little in the days to come and give us
a chance to get him.
Here are the
four nice bucks taken from the Horn Swamp this fall. Saturday, at
one o'clock in the afternoon I drove right past a super nice ten point
just thirty yards away. I think he was as surprised to see me as I
was to see him. His rack was one of the best I have seen on the
property in years. Once our hog hunt is over I am going to turn the
cameras on to his area and see if I can get a photo of the old
boy.
Eric Smith
Tim Holmes
Josh Smith
Oscar Cole
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February 4, 2014
I have seen reports of some nice mature bucks killed during the first
weekend of the extended season in southwest Alabama. Hopefully most
of the kills will be of mature bucks and not more pressure on the younger
members of the herd. The state is asking that all kills be reported
to the Game Check system and I would encourage all to do so. More
data in the hands of the biologists can only help better manage the herd
and that is ultimately what true sportsmen want.
I spent the weekend putting out
feeders in preparation for The Chase's hog hunt in late February.
Scott Shultz, President and CEO of Scentblocker, will be flying down from
Minnesota to join us. He has hunted all over the world but I do
not believe he has stalked hogs in a south Alabama swamp, so I am
looking forward to helping him check that off his bucket list. If it
goes as well as I am hoping, his first trip here will not be his
last!
My plan is to use some feeders to
congregate the hogs and we will also do a good bit of stalking in the
hardwoods, where the hogs are lapping up the remaining acorns and rooting
for roots and grubs and whatever else they can find. I have out a
bunch of Moultrie cameras and should have a good plan together for our
hunt by the end of the month. I'll be updating our progress
during the hunt on the Twitter feed embedded above.
If any of you have success in this
February season, please let me hear from you. Email photos to hornswamp@yahoo.com.
I will try to add all that I have gotten over the season in the coming
weeks.
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January 28, 2014
I spent the
weekend in Coosa County with Leigh and Travis, hunting their property
surrounding their cozy cabin. I saw some deer but not the mature
bucks that they have on the Moultrie cameras and have seen at inopportune
times in recent years. It was great to tour their property that they
have poured much effort into making a superbly managed tract of
land.
Speaking of the use of cameras,
I have been negligent in using them much in our swamp in recent years but
plan to improve my use in the future. Certainly I have used them in
patterning the hogs in preparation of the filmed hunts but otherwise for
deer I have not used them as much. A comment on The Chase Facebook
page recently got me thinking about the use of cameras. One poster
commented that he was a real hunter and didn't use cameras.
Really? A real hunter he says.
In properly managing the deer
herd, there is little doubt that cameras are a very useful tool in knowing
what is in the woods, especially for those of us too busy to sit there day
after day. When you know what mature bucks are there, you will not
take a lesser buck thinking he is the best in the woods. Alabama
deer are wary and hard to pattern and even with the use of cameras it is
difficult to get the best of them. With cameras all over the
Creekbaum's property, it will still take some luck to be in the right
place at the right time to kill the best deer in the woods. That is
what makes hunting so much fun. And yes, real hunters use
cameras.
It is going to be an
interesting day as snow begins to fall in Alabama at the end of deer
season. Will the Alabama deer move in the snow? Many have
never seen it and others only once in their lives. I will not be in
the woods but for those that are, let me know what you see.
With the Horn Swamp not
in the extended deer season zone, we will close out the season at the end
of the month and begin to get ready to film a hog hunt with The Chase at
the end of February. I'll tell you more about that in coming
weeks. Make sure to see the Twitter feed above for a great buck
killed in the Swamp last weekend by Eric Smith.
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January 17, 2014
Our Archery
Trade Show trip was incredibe. I enjoyed meeting most of the
sponsors of the The Chase and learning more about the business end of the
show. I am excited about the sponsors The Chase has on board going
forward and the quality of the products we are using and will be using in
the near future. It is easy to promote a product that you believe in
and I especially like it when we can promote an American made
product. Case in point are WASP broadheads.
When I was fourteen I killed my
first deer with a WASP broadhead. I've forgotten a lot over the
years but I remember the day I went into Ratcliffe's Hardware in Camden
and purchased six WASP broadheads, my first ones. I still have one
of those originals in my bow box today. Back then WASP seemed to be
one of a small number of broadhead manufacturers. Now there are so
many, never more evident than by walking the floor of the ATA show.
WASP was bought out recently by a wonderful family, the Weavers, and their
super sharp, tough, American made heads are in great hands. Leigh
and Travis and have killed 8 bucks this season using WASP.
The ATA show was Hollywood of
outdoor TV. Every name that you can think of was there and being
nowhere on the scale of crowded as the SHOT show currently going on in Las
Vegas, it was easy to walk around and talk to some of them. It was
quite an experience.
I returned home to the
Wilcox Academy Benefit Deer Hunt. We hosted 102 hunters from 12
states and as far away as California. The weather did not cooperate
for much success in killed mature bucks but there was plenty of meat
killed with hunters taking down 111 deer and 9 hogs. Overall it was
another huge success.
One of my hunters, Tim
Holmes, killed a good mature buck in the Horn Swamp on Thursday afternoon
of the hunt. That make three nice kills we have gotten off the
property thus far and hopefully there will be a few more before the season
ends. Check the Twitter feed above for a picture of Tim's
buck.
And now we move on
to the final two weekends of deer season as the rut is wide open here in
south Alabama. We just missed the cut off for the extended season,
with the line being the Alabama river that borders our property. For
many in our area, they have 4 weekends remaining to hunt the peak of the
rut. I am interested to see what mature bucks go down in that first
ten days of February. Stay tuned...
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December 30,
2013
My Texas hunt
with The Chase was bittersweet. I can not say more about the
experience of getting to see and hunt the Hill Country. The
landscape was indeed hilly and filled with short, scraggly oaks, prickly
pear, and mesquite. It was way more rocky than I had expected.
We hunted A C Ranch, over 15,000 acres of high and low fence. Our
lodging, which by the way was exceptionally nice, was inside a 5,000 high
fence which contained many different exotic species as well as some huge
bucks. We hunted a thirty minute drive away on an area that was
"low fence," meaning it only had fences to keep the cattle
in.
We saw a lot of deer and turkeys on
every drive through the countryside---to and from the stands and in the
stands. Everywhere we went I constantly scanned out the window as
game was literally everywhere. I caught myself imagining the roar of
the gobbles in the springtime from all those turkeys.
All the hunting is done
exclusively around feeders. There are no concentrated food sources
of distinct bedding areas and if one did not hunt near a feeder, the odds
of killing a deer with a bow would be extremely long.
We started hunting Thursday
afternoon. Leigh struck first with a 9 point with her bow the
following morning. Travis killed a turkey the same morning with his
bow. Saturday morning my action came from a ground blind overlooking
a feeder. A few small whitetail bucks showed up just after daybreak
and then several free range Axis deer showed up. They were very wary
of our ground blind which had only been set up the day before. A
shooter whitetail buck was following them and until the Axis got
comfortable and came in, he was not going to either. Finally they
did and here he came. I let the buck get all the way under the
feeder so we would have plenty of camera roll and then readied for the
shot about the same time several deer got between us and him and we
waited. He was 27 yards. Finally an open shot materialized and
I drew and fired.
The lighted nock was clearly
visible striking right behind his shoulder. He jumped and ran as
Tres, my cameraman, said "you smoked him." There was no
doubt I had. For the next 45 minutes I must have been the happiest
guy on the planet. We had no cell service in that remote area but I
so wanted to send Leigh and Travis a text with the good news. Our
guide, who had been sitting 100 yards behind in a shooting house, came
over and too was excited about the shot. He had watched it all
through binoculars.
We then began the
recovery. The arrow was lying there on the ground near where the
buck was shot and I was dumbfounded by what I found on the fletchings---guts.
Considering where the arrow struck the deer and the angle it should have
taken, this was supposed to be a double lung shot. At that point we
made the critical mistake of tracking the deer. For 45 minutes we
had believed it was a perfect shot. The camera said it was a perfect
shot. The arrow told a different tale which we refused to
embrace.
And so we began
tracking, constantly looking ahead for the buck that was surely lying on
the ground nearby. For 350 yards we tracked blood---drip, drip,
drip---until we lost it. There was a lot of black, bare dirt
littered with white rocks. The blood was nearly impossible to see on
the ground but easily spotted on the rocks. It eventually went cold
and we pulled out and called a man with tracking dogs. We went and
ate lunch while we waited for him and around mid afternoon he
arrived. The dogs could track the deer no farther than we had, but
indicated he had begun to circle back in the direction of where I had shot
him. We searched but found nothing. We returned the next
morning---Leigh, Travis, and I along with cameramen Tyler, Jeff, and Tres
and our three guides---and canvassed the countryside. We found
nothing more. He disappeared.
After reviewing the
shot on the camera at 30 frames per second, we are certain the arrow
deflected, most likely on a rib, and changed course through the gut and
exited much farther back than it should have. I believe the dark
blood we followed was liver blood. Had we not tracked him but given
him most of the day to go and bed I believe we would have found him.
It was a critical mistake.
Travis got a nice
8-point with the Traditions muzzleloader to close out the hunt and make
the Texas show complete.
Next week my wife
and I will be going to the Archery Trade Show in Nashville with Leigh and
Travis. I am looking forward to meeting the key people with each of
the sponsors. Upon return home we will be getting ready to host 107
deer hunters as part of the 29th Wilcox Academy Deer Hunt. The rut
is beginning to kick in here and if we get some decent weather we should
have a great hunt. Stay tuned to the Twitter feed for the latest
news...
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December 9,
2013
My Indiana trip
last week with The Chase was a lot of fun. My wife, Daphne, rode in
the bus on the way up Sunday morning with Travis, Leigh, and Gray. I
followed in the car as we would be coming back to Alabama at the end of
the hunt and they were heading to Illinois for a muzzleloader hunt.
We hunted a farm owned by Mike Bassett, owner of Scott-Pet, as well as
the neighbor's property.
It was my first time to Indiana
and to see all those corn fields, now picked of course, that stretch for
miles and miles and miles. The area we hunted also had some
soybeans. Unfortunately our timing was not great for the hunt.
Their two week gun season had just ended which, along with a warming
trend, squelched the deer movement. Of the three of us, only one
shooter buck was seen and he was way out of range. Our attempts to
merely arrow a doe came up short.
We did get a tour of one of
Scott-Pet's facilities, the largest pet treat manufacturing plant in the
country. It was quite educational to say the least and much
enjoyed. Scott-Pet also makes the Big Tine Deer Feed that is a
sponsor of The Chase. I have personally seen how Big Tine draws in
the bucks to a supplemental feeding program. I encourage you to
check our Big Tine for yourself and see how it works for you. You
will not be disappointed.
The last afternoon on the way back to
the farmhouse my bow apparently took a lick, maybe from the truck door,
while in the back seat of Travis's truck. The roller guard got bent
and I no longer had any fletching clearance of the cables. In 28
years of bowhunting I have never had such a calamity to strike my bow and
it was not good timing to start down such a road. So this Saturday I
took it to a bow shop for repair. Since parts had to be ordered and
I had no weapon to take to Texas on Thursday, I came away with a new
Mathews Creed XS. So far I'm very impressed with it, having spent
the afternoon on Saturday sighting it in and getting used to, which
actually did not take long at all.
Thursday morning we fly out of
Birmingham to San Antonio, my third and last hunting trip with The Chase
for the season. We'll hunt through Monday morning if necessary and
fly home that afternoon. It is my first time to hunt Texas and I
could not be more excited. I'll keep you updated on the Twitter feed
at this page.
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November 26,
2013
My fourth climb
in a tree in Alabama finally brought some action. After an all
morning sit on Saturday where I only saw only two yearlings, I was excited
to see a lot of activity Sunday. Though the wind was whipping the
deer seemed to move very well. Such winds are not much good for
getting the mature bucks to move as they are too smart to stir much when
their noses are hampered, but the does and young bucks were certainly
stirring. I took a 30 yard shot at a doe around 7am and she fell
within sight of my stand. It is good to have a little meat in the
freezer.
The boys and I returned to the gar
hole Sunday evening and they are still hanging on. The light rains
we have had in recent weeks have kept just enough water for them to
survive. I am still amazed at how a dozen or so gar can live in
small pool of super muddy water for weeks. Their survival skills
might even surpass that of the coyote. The soaking rain falling out
there today should be plenty to sustain them through the
winter.
The weather forecast for the
Thanksgiving weekend is superb for deer hunting. I hope all of you
will have a little time to get in the woods as I think it is going to be a
great time to be there. My time will be limited myself as I'll be
heading to Indiana with The Chase on Sunday morning. Tune in to the
Tweeter feed above for news from our trip. I will not return until
late in the week so there will be no update here next week other than the
Twitter feed.
I love these Nufletch vanes.
First deer of the season.
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November 18,
2013
To keep you
abreast of my adventures in the woods in the coming months I have
embedded my Twitter feed on this page. I'll be posting updates on
Twitter several times a week and multiple times a day when I am off with
The Chase. Follow me on Twitter if that is your thing at @WilliamMaloneAL
or just stop by this page to check in.
I finally got in a tree in search
of deer on Saturday and once I got there I really did not want to
leave. I was in a great spot of red oaks that were dropping a few
acorns and there was good sign all around from both deer and hogs.
I arrived at dawn and stayed until noon and saw nothing. I spent
the afternoon watching football and returned for a three hour Sunday
morning hunt. Again I saw nothing but mosquitoes. The
afternoon was spent doing a few chores in 80 degree heat. Such
weather is just too hot for deer hunting. It is for me
anyway.
We are now in the midst of the Alabama
muzzleloader season and gun season opens on Saturday. Even in the
heat, it appears a lot of youth got in some kills this past weekend
during youth season. I think the addition of youth season was a
great addition several years ago. The powers that be finally took
notice of the future of hunting. I commend them for allowing the
Alabama youth the first shot each season.
Wednesday night, November
21st, The Chase hog episode filmed in the Horn Swamp in February of this
year will air. The show airs on The Sportsman Channel at 6:30pm
CST. It airs again on Saturday, November 23rd, at 12:30pm
CST. Leigh and Travis are shooting hogs with the Traditions
muzzleloaders and Travis even breaks out the Mathews to take one
out. I have had the chance to preview the show and it turned out
real well. I started feeding the hogs as soon as deer season was
closed and then much of the property flooded, destroying the motor in
one of the feeders and drowning several of the barrel feeders.
Nevertheless, we scrapped and stalked and watched over greenfields and
finally knocked out a bunch of hogs. Hope you get a chance to
watch the show and enjoy it.
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November 14,
2013
Saturday
morning Barry Estes and I put on a good stalk in the swamp in search of
hogs. Barry runs a company called Alabama Hog Control and is
available for guided hunts and hog elimination work for farmers and
landowners. He loves to hunt hogs as much as I do and is quite
adept at it. I was certain that I could learn a few tricks from
him and I was right. A four hour stalk turned up only one group of
hogs but we got three of them, all sows. I took out the first with
my Traditions muzzleloader and Barry followed up with two more before
they escaped.
Sunday morning was the first
morning I have hunted that I did not even see a hog. Sign is
sparse and the hogs are scarce right now. I do not believe the
numbers of hogs I was seeing back in August and early September are
still on the property. Where they went and why is a mystery.
Acorns are not as plentiful as I thought and it seems other than the red
oaks, most trees have few nuts to drop. The swamp is very dry and
the wallows that still have some mud are getting some activity but
finding the hogs that are visiting those areas seems pretty tough right
now. Going forward I think I'll concentrate on the deer and will
be climbing a tree this weekend.
Barry Estes
William Malone
Our "duck
pond" has nearly dried up and the small patch of water remaining
contains a few gar that drifted in with the high water back in
February. Two years ago when this scenario played out the hogs
came and ate the gar as soon as they died. This time I have a
Plotwatcher standing guard and I'm interested to see what happens in the
next couple of weeks if the rains do not return in time to save the
fish. Stay tuned to find out.
Andrew checks out the gar remaining in this small patch of water.
This coming Wednesday, November
21st, The Chase hog episode filmed in the Horn Swamp in February of this
year will air. The show airs on The Sportsman Channel at 6:30pm
CST. It airs again on Saturday, November 23rd, at 12:30pm
CST. Leigh and Travis are shooting hogs with the Traditions
muzzleloaders and Travis even breaks out the Mathews to take one
out.
I have two deer
hunts coming up with The Chase. I'll be heading to Indiana in
early December and then to the hill country of Texas in mid
December. Both hunts will be archery hunts. I can't wait!
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November 5,
2013
What is there
not to like about November? Here in the Deep South, we finally
escape most of the 80+ degree high temperatures and finally see some
nights in the upper 30s and 40s. The leaves are falling along with
the acorns and the deer finally come out of the dense thickets to feed a
little in sight of us hunters. Football continues to be played
each week. Archery season is open here in Alabama and for those
that are not adept with the stick and string, gun season will open
before the month closes. We get to watch via social media and
other outlets as the big bucks begin to roll in other parts of the
country as the peak of the rut hits those areas. November brings
much entertainment to enjoy along with some seriously spectacular
weather. Too bad it only lasts 30 days.
I slipped out for two morning hog
hunts over the weekend, this time toting the Mathews bow. Slipping
through the hardwoods of the swamp on Saturday's hunt, I soon heard the
squeals that broadcast an argument over a sow. I slipped closer
and found several boars putting up a ruckus over a sow. They were
pushing, shoving, and chasing each other in and out of a patch of briars
and into a more open patch of woods. I waited patiently, hoping
for a shot at 30 to 40 yards. Soon they came right to me be in the
briars where I could not shoot and they got very close, spooked, and
were gone.
Later in the morning I heard hogs again a
quarter mile from the last encounter and caught up with the same
group. This time I stuffed an arrow through a big speckled boar
from 34 yards. The arrow hit him in his chest, right behind the
shoulder and low. It appeared to be a heart shot. He ran,
then wheeled around and looked back my way, then took off through a cane
thicket. I waited 30 minutes and then went to inspect the scene
and search for him.
My arrow passed through and he
kicked it out about 10 yards into his escape. The back half of it
was covered in blood. There blood began to spew and as I began to
track it through the leaves I felt sure he would be lying close.
For the next two hours I followed blood easily through the woods for a
distance that I later estimated using Google Earth to be around 1200
yards. Finally it decreased to a speck here and there and I threw
in the towel. I had realized much earlier that I must have hit him
too low for the heart or lungs and though he was bleeding quite a bit,
no vitals were hit.
The next morning I returned and had an
encounter with two boars that I saw about the same time they saw me,
though not knowing what I was. Hogs have poor eyesight and
struggle to decipher a hunter from other movement in the woods. If
you surprise them they often do not know what you are and if they do not
smell you, they will hang around to figure it out before exiting the
scene.
The most wary of the two
turned to face me at 30 yards and began chomping his teeth and making
challenging nasal snorts. I stood motionless with an arrow nocked.
After a minute or two he turned in the other direction and I drew,
almost getting a shot through an opening before they trotted
off.
Farther along I spotted
another big boar through a thicket of saplings. He was standing in
a sunny spot under a big red oak. Though I could not see his head,
his body appeared alert and I was certain he detected me. Moments
later he walked to the left and stopped in a thicker area where I could
not see him but I suspected he was still there. Again, it was the
case that he knew something had walked up but he wasn't sure what it
was.
I nocked an arrow and took a
few quiet steps forward and then chomped my teeth a few times and tried
to imitate the snorts of the hog in my latest encounter. I simply
hoped he would slip closer for a better look. Instead he came my
way at a full run. He was coming in a 25, then 20, 15, and then I
drew. He was still in the saplings and there was no clear shot for
an arrow. He saw the movement of my draw and veered around my left
side and ran out about 25 yards. I had one shot and just as I
settled the pin behind his shoulder he was gone again. I let the
bow down and as church time was nearing, I headed for the truck, but not
without a little more knowledge of tactics to use in hog
hunting.
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October 29,
2013
I did not
make it to the woods this weekend as a family trip to the beach took me
southward. I do have a video
to share from my black powder hog hunts this fall. This is
the first of my videos using a GoPro as well as the video camera.
Unfortunately several of the hogs I shot were through the brush which
made focusing on the hog difficult with my camera and on a couple of
other shots I pulled the trigger just as the animal was leaving the
field of view. Self filming is tough indeed, but I think you will
like this short video. Watch for a real cool GoPro segment around
the 3:55 mark.
I am hoping to finally get
some food plots in the ground this weekend. Limited time and
limited moisture have kept this project on the shelf. Hopefully we
will get a little water later this week but it has been quite a dry
spell for the last two months.
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October 24,
2013
My first trip
on the road with Leigh and Travis was a super fun trip, just as
going to any hunting destination with close friends and spending some
serious time in a tree would be for anyone. Having the cameras
rolling just added another dimension to the experience. I learned
a lot and realized how much more I have to learn. There is a lot
more to shooting a deer on camera than just shooting a deer. That
was no surprise. I've killed a lot of deer in my life but never
with the camera of a TV show over my shoulder. I'll be glad when I
get a few kills under my belt. I think I'll relax a little
then. Well, maybe.
Sadly, we did not get the kill(s)
we needed. Our main guide, SuperDave, at Edge River Outfitters had
some huge bucks on the game cameras but we couldn't get one in the
sights in two days of black powder hunting and one final day with the
Mathews bows. The first afternoon I had a shooter 10 point down a
hill from me in the brush and timber. He was 190 yards away,
checking out our greenfield where several does were feeding and some
younger bucks were sparring. I just knew he was going to come on
up the hill and let us get some better video and a clear shot.
Instead, he turned and headed back into the brush and we never saw him
again. I saw does and young bucks on other hunts but just could
not get a big Kentucky buck in the sights. Travis had a big one
under him one morning well before shooting light and another working in
that busted them when the cameraman moved at the wrong time.
Leigh's luck was just as sour. She was hunting the big 10-point
that she drew and held on back in September for a long time as he would
not step out from behind a tree. She never got that shot and hoped
to settle up with him on the trip but it was not to be. He was a
no show. You can see my full photo album of the trip at this link.
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October 15,
2013
Archery season
opens this morning in most of Alabama. For the first time in a lot
of years, it does not open in all of Alabama on this fifteenth of
October. The southwest area of the state, which happens to cut
across my home area of Wilcox County and has the ten days of extended
season, will not see their archery season open until the 25th of the
month. Us Alabama bowhunters are so programmed to hit the woods on
the fifteenth of October, I wonder how many forgot about this change and
headed to the woods anyway. Hopefully there were not many that
did, but I expect there were some. Change is hard to get used
to.
The woods in our area are just full
of acorns. I stalked around Saturday morning and where I found the
most concentration of acorns I saw plenty of deer and hog sign and often
the deer and hogs themselves. I killed two more hogs with the
Traditions muzzleloader. Once again, if I had not been trying to
video with two cameras and shoot as well, I might have gotten a few
more. But if having fun is the objective, I certainly exceeded the
goal.
Early bowseason is the time to kill
a mature buck in these Alabama woods. It takes very little time
for the deer to become accustomed to deer season and go completely
nocturnal. Already having an abundance of food and plenty of
cover, a hunter's best time to strike is early in areas that receive
even the lightest hunting pressure. So put your chores off until
later in the season and get out there this weekend or the next.
Chores will wait. They always have for me.
I am Kentucky bound on Friday
morning for three days of black powder hunting with The
Chase. The coming cold front will arrive just right for our
hunt and I am expecting great conditions during our stay. Stay
tuned...
Still picture from the GoPro camera.
One of two this past weekend.
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October 8,
2013
The hot and humid
weather was not pleasant to hog hunt this weekend, but I pressed on
regardless of the conditions. Acorns are hitting the ground at a
good pace, mostly water and red oaks, but I was able to find some
overcups as well. I slipped up on a group of hogs early Saturday
and got one, then kept hunting through the remainder of the
morning. Around 10am, I crept to the edge of an overcup bottom and
a big boar, the largest I have had the chance to shoot in some years,
was in some brush at the edge of the opening. He saw movement and
got wary but could not smell me. His poor eyesight could not
confirm if I was danger or not but he began to walk away from me, mostly
concealed by a briar thicket. I never turned the cameras on as it
would have been too difficult of a task. I just wanted to kill
this hog.
He finally passed through a tiny
opening about 60 yards away and I took what I felt like was a good
freehand shot. He ran to my left and made a semi-circle around me
at a distance of 75 yards. I could not clearly see him but only a
flash as he ran through the woods. He stopped and I thought he was dead,
then he took off again. I searched for 30 minutes afterwards and
never found a drop of blood, much less him. I can only surmise
that I missed. What a bummer.
I got in one more quick hunt Sunday
morning before church, stalking back to that same overcup bottom hoping
to see that hog again. The first hog I came to I heard crunching
hickory nuts well before I could see him. When I finally got close
enough to see him, he spotted me readying the cameras and
vanished. I slipped along a little farther and found a group of
hogs working along the edge of a cypress swamp. The second hog of
the weekend went down soon after amid a cloud of black powder
smoke.
The weekend after next is my first
hunt with The Chase. We are heading to Kentucky on a three-day
black powder deer hunt at Edge River Outfitters. I have been checking
out the game camera pictures they have posted on their Facebook page and
could not be more excited. They have some great deer and hopefully
we will bring a few of them back to Alabama. Stay tuned...
10/5/2013
10/6/2013
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October 1,
2013
I got in two
morning hog hunts over the weekend and one dove hunt. All but one
hog hunt was productive. It was a gorgeous weekend with weather
that was beginning to feel like we have turned a corner on summer.
And it is about time for that as well!
I never got a shot during Saturday
morning's hog hunt but Sunday morning I connected on two boars with the
Traditions muzzleloader, both of which I captured on video. I saw
a couple more boars as well but no other groups of hogs. Acorns
from the red and water oaks are falling and the hogs are lapping them up
as fast as they can. The video is still in the editing phase and
I'll have it ready within the next week.
For those that tried the links to the Big
Buck Contest flyer, I apologize that they did not work early last
week. They have been fixed in case you want to scroll down and try
again.
Stay tuned. It is going to be a
busy fall.
First hog Sunday morning
Second hog Sunday morning
Screen shot on the computer from the GoPro footage of the
second hog shot with the Traditions black powder
rifle.
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September 24,
2013
The light rain
early Saturday morning,
which looked much more intimidating on radar, kept me from making a planned hog hunt with friend Terry Sims. It
was one of those mornings that we awoke and checked the weather and
seeing a huge line of rain that appeared nearly on top of us, we made
the call to stay home. Daybreak came and only a few drops
fell. Two hours later only a few more drops had fallen. The
radar fooled us. Rain did come later in the morning but we should
have gone to the woods and made it run us out rather than rely on a
radar that made the storm appear to hold more water than it did. I
know better.
The Wilcox Area Chamber's Big Buck
Contest flyer has been released and this is going to be another great
event. If you hunt in Wilcox or county that touches Wilcox, you
should get into this contest. New to the contest this year is an
archery division. There are so many prizes and different ways to
win and I can not imagine a better contest anywhere in the
southeast. Over $10,000 in prizes are at stake. See the
flyer at these links. Page
1. Page
2.
I am still getting my
schedule together for some hunts with The Chase show this fall and
winter. If you are on Facebook or Twitter, look for or follow The
Chase and keep up with us all year long. On Twitter, look for
"thechaselt" and me "williammalone2." Follow
this link
to The Chase's Facebook page.
A new website is being
launched called www.trophystack.com
that I believe is going to be a big success. I have had the
pleasure of meeting the brains behind this venture and I am pleased to
let you know about it today. They have a unique and simple way of
scoring your kill or catch and you can upload it directly to the
website, create your own trophy room, and share with other outdoorsmen
all around the country. It also ranks your "trophy" in
numerous categories. You can do a quick and free sign up right now
at the site and begin using it. Once the app is released in a few
weeks you will be able to easily upload from the field. Check it
out and join in the fun.
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September 16, 2013
A few weekends ago
my dear friends Leigh and Travis Creekbaum asked me to come along as
a third member of The Chase on some upcoming hunts filming for
season four of the show. I was taken by surprise and was in shock at the invitation
but somehow I managed to accept the incredible offer. I thought
maybe one day I would get to be president of the fan club, but never
dreamed I would have the chance to strike out on the road with The
Chase. Knowing how much fun we have had on the hog hunts here
locally the past few years, I can only imagine the good times we will
have in other locales. The opportunity to spend more time with such
awesome friends and do something I love, not to mention meet even more of the
greatest people in the outdoor industry, has left me a little
speechless. I do not know yet where adventure will take me but I
am pumped to say the least. The Chase is sponsored by
Matthews so I have put down the bow I have shot the last few years and
picked up a sweet shooting Z7Extreme and have been hammering the target
every day. The Traditions muzzleloader is dialed in as well, so I'm ready for
whatever comes my way. Stay tuned!
As promised last week, here are some pictures from The Chase's hunt
during the Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo.
Non-Stop Hunting Co-host Jeff Ensor and The Chase's Leigh Creekbaum,
waiting on hogs.
Jeff Ensor rolls the camera as Leigh smokes a hog!
Videographer Joseph Maier, Jackson Ryley (Scott Pet / Big Tine Feed) and
William Malone
Leigh Creekbaum and hog shot with her Traditions muzzleloader
Jackson Ryley drove 10 hours from Indiana and killed his first hog the
first afternoon of the hunt!
Jordan Ryley, Jackson's wife, got her first hog as well during the
weekend.
Travis Creekbaum and a hog shot with his Traditions muzzleloader.
Leigh Creekbaum and another hog shot with her Traditions muzzleloader
Thursday afternoon
my four year old Andrew and I went back to the Swamp to look for a piece
of camera gear that was unaccounted for from the prior
weekend's hunt. We were not going to the woods without checking a
few spots for hogs and sure enough, before we could get to one of the
feeders a hog stepped into the road in front of us. Andrew jumped
behind me and held his ears as I leveled the Traditions muzzleloader at
the hog and fired. He toted a huge hole in his neck for fifty
yards and then piled up in the pines.
Thursday evening hog with the Traditions muzzleloader
Sunday
morning, I made another brief outing before church. I got to
the third feeder and having not seen any hogs yet, decided to sit down
and wait a little while. I readied the main camera on the tripod and then set
the GoPro beside me and began to turn on the wireless function to be
ready if a hog appeared. As I cruised through the menu of the app on my phone
I glanced up and a hog was right in front of me, just 20 yards away,
walking right at me. I never heard him and have no idea from which
direction he came. I turned on the camera with my left hand
and readied the gun with my right (with no chance to turn on the GoPro) at about the time he saw me and
wheeled to run. I fired and he piled up 30 yards away at the end
of a massive bloodtrail.
Sunday morning hog with the Traditions muzzleloader
These two hogs were the
first animals I have killed with a muzzleloader. I have been
having a big time getting used to shooting one. Initially, it
seemed a chore to clean after each shot or two but I am getting the hang
of it by this point. The 250 grain, 50 caliber slug punches a
massive entry and exit hole in the animal and leaves a much better blood
trail on the hogs than most centerfire rifle rounds
do.
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September 10, 2013
The hogs humbled us
this past weekend. There was no shortage of sweating in the humid,
south Alabama heat, and walking, through the hardwoods of the property,
but in the end we had far less hogs than I had envisioned. Sitting
at the feeders the stale air would shift one way and then the other,
spreading our scent in all directions and alerting the hogs to our
presence. Every hog in the woods is as wary of human scent as a 5+
year old buck and the steady wind from any direction that we needed did
not occur. We ended the weekend with 5 kills on camera and a few
more that were not filmed. It was an incredibly enjoyable weekend
for me, spending time with such close friends and making even more
friends as well.
Along with Leigh and Travis Creekbaum
from "The Chase," Jackson Ryley and his wife Jordan drove down
from Indiana for the hunt. Jackson is the top sales representative
for Scott Pet, the manufacturer of Big Tine feed that is endorsed and
used by Leigh and Travis. Cameramen for the weekend were Jeff
Ensor and Tres Lowery who both flew in from Texas. Jeff is the
co-host of the "Non Stop Hunting" tv show on The Pursuit
Channel. Cameraman Joseph Maier from Pike Road, Alabama also
joined us for the first half of the hunt.
Both Leigh and Travis got two on film and
Jackson killed his first on film. Jordan killed her first hog as
well, but by that point in the weekend we were back to two cameramen and
her hunt did not get filmed. We had other close calls and
encounters as well. Jackson shot a hog that ran and we missed the
direction it went due to all the smoke from the muzzleloader. It
left no blood trail initially and we found it later in the
weekend. An unrecovered kill does not make the show. Travis
approached a feed barrel Saturday morning and huge hog was there but got
spooked before a shot could be made. We jumped a group of hogs on
our of our stalks and Travis made a quick shot on a running sow, knocked
her down, but she ran off and we did not find her.
I am not sure if we got a whole
show filmed for season four of The Chase, but Leigh and Travis will be
back in February for more hog hunting and we'll certainly have it done
by then. Ideally they will only have room for one hog show because
they will kill so many deer this fall and winter. Season four is
already shaping up well with months of filming to go.
If you have not seen it yet, the
hog episode of The Chase filmed last September will air again this week
on The Sportsman's Channel. It airs Wednesday night at 6:30pm CST
and Saturday afternoon at 12:30pm CST. Another hog episode filmed
in February will air later this fall and I will let you know when that
is as we get closer to the airing.
Overall the
Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo went well and we made a little money for
the scholarship fund. Numerous kids and adults killed their first
hogs and existing friendships were strengthened and many new ones
made. We enjoyed some great entertainment Saturday evening at the
Davis's hunting camp and ate some fine food as well. We estimated
400+ attended the event, braving the hot and humid weather. A
special thanks to all who did attend, some who drove several hours to
reach us.
If you are a Facebook member,
"like" the Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo page and you will find
well over a hundred pictures from the event. I will be adding a
few pictures here later tonight so please stop by again this
week.
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September 4, 2013
Two months of
preparation will come together for two and a half days of hog hunting
beginning tomorrow afternoon as another hog hunting episode for The
Chase show is filmed in the swamp. The feeders and barrels are
being hit hard each day and night. I pulled data cards from the
Plotwatcher cameras last night and studied the latest pictures.
The hogs can be patterned about 80% of the time and will leave you
guessing the other 20%. That certainly means we will be hog
hunting rather than conducting a hog shoot. Thankfully the weather
is looking favorable with a very slight cool front coming in that will
at least drop the humidity levels for a few days and the rain should
stay away.
Please remember that everyone is
invited to this Saturday evening's event at the Brad Powe Memorial Hog
Rodeo headquarters on the western side of Camden (Possum Bend).
Beginning at 4pm we will have vendors, musical entertainment by numerous
acts, an amazing southern buffet, and we will cap it off with a showing
of two outdoor shows that were filmed at last year's event. No
admission is required but please bring your wallet as we are accepting
donations to the scholarship fund. If you have questions about how
to find the event, call me at 334-525-0462.
I will have a few pictures to
share with you next week, however, if you are on Facebook, I suggest you
look for and "like" the Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo, The
Chase, and friend me (William Malone) as well if you want to see
pictures throughout the weekend.
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August 28, 2013
We are finally
enjoying some drier days and cooler mornings and it is beginning to feel
like fall is just around the corner. The game plan for the The
Chase's hunt next weekend is coming together and hopefully we will have
some cooler temperatures and a steady breeze that will prevail from one
direction.
Having a permit issued by the game
warden, we are able to hunt hogs over corn and Big Tine feed. Big
Tine, endorsed by The Chase, is a supplemental feed heavy in calcium and
minerals and shown to increase the antler size of deer. I have
been amazed at how the bucks show up to it when they do not come to
corn. I am running several Moultrie feeders and also have my
rolling barrels at these locations. The hogs are draining the
barrels in two to five days but the feeders are keeping some food on the
ground several times a day and the hogs are staying close, even when the
barrels run dry.
Hunting hogs over bait is not
as easy as you might think. Plotwatcher game camera footage shows
that they do not come running each day when the feeders dispense the
food. Some days they come quickly, some days there is a delay of
an hour or two, and some days they simply skip showing up at some of the
locations. They are tough to pattern. Furthermore, sitting
at one of these locations when it is really hot and humid and one's body
is giving off way more scent than is desired, coupled with a swirling
breeze, is simply unproductive. Hogs are different than
deer. Does and young bucks will not usually bolt at the first
smell of a human. Hogs will and every hog, no matter the size or
age, will run like the wind in the same fashion that a 5 year old buck
will at the first scent of man. Put a little pressure on the hogs
and they will go nocturnal.
So we are going to do some
sitting over the feeders and some sneaking in to check the food at the
most opportune times. And we plan to do some stalking through the
hardwoods, keeping the wind in our faces and hoping that a few acorns
might be hitting the ground a little early.
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August 21, 2013
We are closing in
on the 3rd
Annual Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo and this year's event
is looking bigger and better. I am hearing from many more stalk
hunters that are entering this year and I know the dog teams are going
to turn out well again. For the Saturday afternoon and evening
event of which everyone that reads this is invited, we are going to have
some great entertainment, food and vendors. Performing beginning
at 4pm will be Summerlyn Powers, Camilla Tutt, Jess Meuse, Valerie
Stewart, and Randall Haley. We will close the night by showing two
outdoor shows on the big screen. First we will show the "In
the Woods with Ron and Jerry" episode as Caleb Little, the youth
raffle winner from last year's rodeo, hog hunts with Ron and Jerry. This episode recently
aired on The Pursuit Channel. Closing the night will be a showing
of "Scentblocker's The Chase with Leigh & Travis," filmed
at last year's hog rodeo and recently aired on The Sportsman
Channel.
We are selling $20 raffle tickets
for youth (under 16) to have a chance to be on TV with Ron & Jerry
on a hog hunt. All youth that enter the stalk division will
automatically be entered, though they can still buy additional
chances. Sign up forms are available at area stores to enter the
event in the stalk, dog, or trapping divisions and you can also download
the form at the website, linked above.
Meanwhile I am laying the
groundwork for another good hog hunt with Leigh & Travis. We
have feeders and barrels at five locations and have been drawing a good
number of hogs at each place. Plotwatcher game cameras are
watching each location throughout the day. Unfortunately hogs can
be tough to get in a pattern and sometimes they feed early and sometimes
late in the day and sometimes they are feeding through the middle of the
day. They are more predictable at some locations than others but
one way or another we are going to stack some up for another great hog
episode for "The Chase." Here's a YouTube
video with a glimpse of what I have been seeing at our feeding
locations. In the past our most exciting hunts have been stalks
through the hardwoods, looking for hogs feeding on the earliest of
acorns to drop from the limbs.
Our summer break has ended at this
blog and I'll be updating weekly as we go forward. I'll do my best
to get it done on Tuesdays but bear with me and a busy
schedule.
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July 1, 2013
We are just over
two months away from the 3rd
Annual Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo. This year's event is
taking shape and it looks like this one will be the best yet. We
are ramping up the entertainment for Saturday evening to go with another
great spread of food. We are expecting a few more hunting teams to
join in this year and all of our hunting celebrities will return
including those from "Ladies in Camo," "In the Woods with
Ron and Jerry," and "Scentblockers The Chase with Leigh and
Travis." Stay tuned here for more news from the rodeo as we
get closer.
My Fourth of July will be spent scouting
for hogs and getting my focus on how we are going to get the best of
them once again as Leigh and Travis Creekbaum film another show during
the weekend of hunting. This time will be different as steady
rains have kept the low areas in the swamp full of water. The hogs
are not concentrated as they have been in recent dry years. It is
another puzzle to put together and hopefully we will have the hogs
pinpointed for when the cameras start rolling.
"The Chase's" third season
kicks off Wednesday evening at 6:30pm CST (July 3rd) on The Sportsman's
Channel. (The show also airs on Saturday at 12:30pm CST.) The hog
episode that was filmed at the 2nd Annual Brad Powe Memorial Hog Rodeo
in September of 2012 will air on July 31 and August 3. This is
going to be a very exciting show featuring 13 kills with the Traditions
muzzleloaders. The show filmed this past February will air later
in the season, mostly likely around late October or early
November.
I had the opportunity to
attend the National Wild Turkey Federation's National Leadership
Conference a few weeks ago in Augusta, Georgia. Volunteers from
across this country and Canada came together to learn more about the
NWTF. We heard one of, if not the, most interesting speaker I have
ever had the pleasure of listening to--Shane Mahoney. From
Newfoundland, he is one of the top conservation minds in the world as
well as the foremost authority on the Woodland Caribou. He really
brought it home as to how America has led the world in conservation of
wild animals and how important we are to the survival of every species
there is. If you ever have 45 minutes and want to hear a very
interesting guy, click
here and watch this speach on YouTube. This is very
similar to what we heard in Augusta.
While there, I had a chance to
visit with Michael Waddell. He was with us for the weekend's
events. If you are not an NWTF member, I would encourage you to
join.
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