Why you should be taking your turkey hunting talents out of state this spring.

As a Michigan resident, I know it’s hard to imagine in less than 65 days some of us will be listening to a Tom gobbling his face off in a tree on a nice 55 degree morning. In mid-February, the cold wind is slapping you on the side of the face with such a bitterness it makes your eyes water and face sting, so even picturing a green background with relatively warmer temps kind of irritates you because it seems like such a dream. I assure you though, those days are not far off.

I look forward to Turkey season every year, not just because I get a huge thrill out of calling in a gobbler, but because it signifies a change in season; warmer temps, happier people and the thought that summer days are right around the corner. As a Michigan hunter though, sometimes those days are short lived because we live in a state where we are only granted one turkey tag. Depending on the tag you buy, your Michigan turkey season lasts anywhere from one week to six weeks, but some of us are “lucky” enough to harvest a turkey on one of the first hunts of the year. The feeling of pure joy and accomplishment is shortly followed by the sad feeling of finalization. Two hunts, your season is over, and now it’s time to wait 12 months before you can do it all over again. Let me tell you though, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. Fill your Michigan tag, then hit the road for a long weekend or two and fill another tag in a state nearby!

My buddy Tommy killed this Jake on our first evening in Tennessee last year. In Tennessee, you can kill three bearded turkey’s in a season so Tommy didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on this Jake on our 3 day hunt. Tennessee’s season also begins the first week of April, so we were able to kick off our season a couple weeks early!

The majority of the hunters, especially Michigan hunters, that I know love to take their whitetail talents out of state each and every year for the sheer adventure and to try to notch a tag on a big whitetail or some other big game animal in a region or landscape that isn’t as familiar as the one back home. I also know a lot of turkey hunters here in Michigan, but for some reason very few of them leave the state of Michigan to notch a turkey tag on an annual basis. If you really love to turkey hunting, I don’t know what you have to lose testing your metal against a thunder chicken that doesn’t call the great state of Michigan home.

First of all, the cost of a nonresident turkey tag doesn’t bite the bank account has hard as most nonresident deer tags. Our friendly neighbor Indiana? $175. Want to go further south to Kentucky or Tennessee? $85 in Kentucky, $215 for a seven day license in the volunteer state. Our other not-so-friendly neighbor Ohio has an annual nonresident hunting license fee of $180 plus $38 for the turkey tag. A bit steep, but if you’re going back there to whitetail hunt this fall (I’ll touch more on that soon), you already paid your annual license fee, you just have to fork over $77 for your deer tag. If those gorgeous white tip tail feathers have you intrigued and you want to go hunt a Merriam this spring, drive to Nebraska and your turkey tag is only $128! I’ve written articles about how to keep your nonresident deer hunting budget relatively low, but I don’t feel the need to do that with nonresident turkey hunting. Hop in your vehicle with a buddy, camp or stay a couple nights in a cheap motel, buy a turkey tag, each cheap food and do any of these trips for less than $500!

Secondly, hunting these crazy birds somewhere other than your home state extends your relatively short season. Like I mentioned before, your turkey season might only last a day or two in Michigan, so plan a nonresident hunt that extends your season and gives you more time to enjoy listening to the spring woods wake up and Tom’s gobble at you from 60 feet up as you wait patiently for them to leave the roost. Furthermore, a lot of the states I mentioned above like Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee also allow you to kill more than one bird, so if you’re lucky enough to notch a tag on your first morning of your out of state turkey hunt you aren’t done like you would be in Michigan! Get up and do it all over again the next day! On top of that, when doing your research while planning your out of state turkey hunt, make sure to look up season dates because some states open up well before Michigan, which would allow you to have the choice to extend your season on the front end before Michigan opens up. Last year, my buddy and I chose to get our season kicked off early and went down to my aunt and uncles farm in central Tennessee the first week of April. It was a riot. Everything was already green, the temperature was warm, and we were able to hunt three weeks earlier than we were used to!

Last year I killed this bird in Michigan on one of the first evenings of the season. Don’t let the joy of notching your tag on a bird become a feeling of finalization that your season is over; Hit the road and hunt gobblers in a new state this year!

Lastly, I have to include my whitetail snippet before I wrap it up. If you plan on going on an out of state whitetail hunt this fall and already have your state picked out, GO TURKEY HUNTING THERE THIS SPRING! Obviously check and make sure you can buy an over the counter turkey tag at that specific state before you plan a turkey hunt, but I’m guessing a lot of you already have a scouting trip planned for this spring to the state you are going to hunt this fall. I don’t know about you, but scouting sounds a lot more fun when you combine it with hunting a gobbler! Turkey hunting an area can actually give you a lot of knowledge on how deer are using the area as well. While trying to track down a gobbler, pay attention to deer travel routes, transition areas, food sources, and you might even stumble into a few sheds! How awesome would it be to come home from your scouting/turkey hunting trip with a few sheds and a long beard?!

If you’re a turkey hunter, I just don’t know what you have to lose by giving yourself a chance to kill more than one long beard this year and enjoying the adventure of an out of state hunt! You still have a couple months to plan, so THIS YEAR, don’t let yourself come to the realization that your turkey season is over as soon as you fill that Michigan tag. Hunting adventures are out there in the spring too; take advantage of the opportunity and go chase down a thunder chicken somewhere other than your back forty!

We Live in the Golden Age of Whitetail Hunting, Go Explore!

In today’s world, when you scroll through social media platforms, it’s challenging to find many positives to cling to in our everyday life. I think we can all agree that the year 2020 hasn’t been our nations finest hour, and we can only hope that better days are ahead. On the other hand, if you’re a whitetail hunter, it’s very easy to see that we are currently living in the golden age of whitetail hunting. Every day, there’s men and women posting pictures of monster bucks on trail cameras, grip and grins with mature bucks, and multiple mature bucks in their bachelor groups feeding in a summer bean field.

It really doesn’t matter where you live either, you’re probably only a couple hour drive from places that hold big mature bucks, because this day in age they are everywhere! More people than ever are passing up young bucks on both public and private lands across the country. With so much information at our fingertips on how to kill mature bucks and where to kill mature bucks, a lot more hunters are finding it easier to pass young bucks and trusting the fact that they won’t be killed by their neighbors. When you think about hunting giant whitetail bucks, most hunters attention turns to the Midwest, and rightfully so; states like Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio year in and year out live up to their name as great whitetail states. However, if you don’t live close to the Midwest, there’s no need to panic. Giant bucks, mule deer and whitetails, are getting pulled off private and public lands all over the country. Head west and run into Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Head east and run into New York, Virginia, and New Jersey. Head South and run into Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Lets break it down by region and see where you should explore during the golden age of deer hunting while tags are still readily available and mature bucks are still running around in high numbers.

MIDWEST

Top States to choose from: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio

Over-the-counter tag states: Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio

Application/Points needed states: Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa

Summary: There are SOO many quality states to choose from and you really can’t go wrong with any of them. If you’re pinching pennies, I would lean toward Indiana or Wisconsin. Both of their tags are under $200 and both states have great opportunities for both public and private land hunting. Missouri and Ohio are both quality whitetail states and the tags are still reasonable, and you can buy tags tomorrow over the counter, so if you’re trying to plan something short term for this year or next year, go explore Missouri or the buckeye state. Even in the Midwest though, there are a couple states that stand head and shoulders above the rest; Iowa and Kansas. Illinois is still a very quality whitetail state, but it lacks the luster it had a decade ago and there really isn’t much public land opportunity, which means you have to have a lot of money or know somebody. Some people would prefer Kansas over Iowa simply because they don’t want to wait to hunt it; there are giant bucks running around everywhere and you have a great chance to draw a tag the first year you apply, while Iowa you have to pay for preference points for 3-4 years before having a good chance of drawing an archery tag. Iowa is Iowa though, giant rolling hills of thick timber, CRP lands, and high-quality feed. It’s deemed “Land of the Giants” for good reason. An Iowa whitetail hunt will be expensive, and you will have to wait for it, but I’d spend the few years of waiting exploring other regions of the country, and spend the pretty penny to hunt a once in a lifetime buck in the best big buck state in the country during the golden age of hunting.

Top State to explore : Iowa

WEST

Top states to choose from: Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho

Over-the-counter tag states: Nebraska and Idaho

Application/Points needed states: North and South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming

Summary: I know there are other states out west that have good deer hunting that I didn’t mention above, but I didn’t want the list to get too long. Again if you’re looking for a hunt to plan as soon as possible on a relatively low budget, the over the counter deer licenses aren’t overpriced in Nebraska or Idaho. Nebraska isn’t as mountainous and strenuous as Idaho, and holds a large of amount of mule deer and whitetails. The tag in Nebraska is good for either species as well, which is an awesome added perk. If you want to go after world class mule deer, and can be patient, Colorado offers an unbelievable mule deer hunting experience. Depending on the unit you want to hunt though, you could be waiting anywhere from 2 to 10 years to hunt. Montana is just a general application, and you have a great chance of hunting the first year you apply. It’s hard to beat Montana’s beauty and the vast amount of big game animals you could stumble upon while chasing deer; the one downfall of Montana is that it will cost you over $500 for your license. I’d say if you’re going to spend a lot of money on a tag in Montana, you should probably utilize the money to buy an elk tag. North and South Dakota are both great deer states, and you’ll have a fairly good chance of drawing a tag your first year applying. Neither state is too expensive either. Before picking one of those states though, I would choose if you want to chase mule deer or whitetail. If you’re chasing whitetails, North Dakota is probably the state to choose; South Dakota would be your go-to state if you’re itching to chase a monster Mule deer. Again, there is no wrong answer here, but it’s really tough to beat Nebraska this day in age. The tag is less than $300 over the counter, and if you head west toward the sandhills, you can chase both whitetails and mule deer with the same tag. Nebraska doesn’t hold near the beauty of other states on this list, but if you’re looking to explore wild country where tons of deer roam, the cornhusker state is a must.

Top State to Explore: Nebraska

I was able to harvest this buck in 2019 on opening day of Nebraska’s rifle season. Nebraska is greatly underrated and gives you the chance to harvest a mule deer or a whitetail.

EAST

Top States to choose from: Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

Over the counter tag states: Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

Application/Points Needed: None of states mentioned above

Summary: Notice I didn’t mention any of the states in the far northeast like Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, etc. It’s just a different type of hunting up in the northeast in those vast tracts of timber that have relatively low deer numbers. I’m not saying at all to completely avoid it, because big woods bucks are killed up in that territory every year, but I just think for “exploring” purposes that you would need a lot more time to explore those lands to be successful. Lets focus on a few states that have high deer numbers, and might be a little easier to navigate. The major plus about all of these states I mentioned in the east is that ALL of them offer over the counter tags, and none of them are over $200; a perfect option for someone who wants to explore different whitetail states on a tight budget. Pennsylvania offers good opportunities to hunt public land; the downfall of Pennsylvania in most hunters’ minds is the number of hunters that occupy the state. Yes pressure is high in the Quaker state, but according to QDMA’s latest whitetail report over 147,000 bucks were killed in 2018, and only 36% of those were 1.5 year old bucks; which tells me there’s still thousands of good bucks killed in the state every year. Virginia and New York are on another level when it comes to public land though, as both states have MILLIONS of acres of National Forest, and plenty of good bucks to go around. There might not be as many big bucks running around those states as there are in the Midwest, according to QDMA’s whitetail report though, in New York in 2018 59% of bucks kills were 2.5 years of age or older, and in Virginia that number is 61%. Even in the some the highest pressured states in the country, big bucks are getting killed at a high rate. New Jersey is small and doesn’t have much public hunting land, but suburban deer numbers are higher than ever. Tac on a few extra days of your hunt to go door knocking and you could end up shooting a monster buck in someone’s backyard. In my opinion, New York go-to state in this region. When people think of New York, they think of Manhattan and Times Square, and very rarely do they think about chasing whitetails. The reality is that the majority of the state of New York is whitetail country consisting of rolling hills, thick timber, and good agriculture; the perfect recipe for big bucks to thrive. With the absurd amount of public land New York has to offer, I’m exploring the empire state to try to run into a big northeastern whitetail.

Top State to Explore: New York

SOUTH

Top States to choose from: Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alabama

Over the counter tag states: All states mentioned above

Application/Points needed: None of the states mentioned above

Summary: Again, another region where all whitetail tags can be purchased over the counter, which is a huge plus if you’re a last minute planner or just don’t want to go through the hoops of purchasing points and patiently waiting multiple years to draw a tag. Some of these states have more public land than others; Texas definitely sticks out as the state that has minimal public land opportunities. Quite obviously though, Texas is one of the best big buck states in the country and has been for a long time. If you get with a rancher or an outfitter, there’s a good chance you could kill a buck of a lifetime. States like Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi all have good public land opportunities, and there’s plenty of good bucks to go around. Tennessee has the most expensive tag out of those states, but speaking from experience the rolling hills of East Tennessee are a beautiful place to explore and you can find quality deer. Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi are very enticing states because in parts of this region the whitetail rut isn’t during the normal late October until Mid-November time frame we are accustomed to in most parts of the country. The rut in parts of the South and Southeast portion of the country actually hits its peak in late January. What that means is if it you want to explore the southern region of the country, you could potentially get two rut hunts in the same year; stay home and hunt the rut in November, then head south when your season is over in January and try to chase down a big whitetail during the rut in the south. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama all have very cost-effective over the counter tags, and in all three of those states over 80% of bucks harvested in 2018 were over 2.5 years old according to QDMAs whitetail report. I like those odds of running into a good buck during the rut. Oklahoma has quietly become one of the best big whitetail states in the country over the past decade; in 2018 over 65% of the bucks killed in the state were over 3.5 years old! For public land guys, there is almost a million acres of public land in Oklahoma. For private land guys, there are plenty of great and affordable outfitters in the state as well. With all of plentiful public lands in Louisiana and Mississippi, the cheap over the counter tags, and the chance to hunt the rut in late January, I'm picking one of those two states to go explore along the Mississippi river and try to chase down a swamp donkey. I love the thought of hunting a “second” rut in late January as it gives you something to look forward to when your season ends at home.

Top State to Explore: Louisiana

A buddy of mine in Alabama killed this buck last fall that was aged at 4.5 years old. The southern region of the country holds a lot of mature deer, and offers large tracks of public land to go chase them.

All of the suggestions I made above or just that, suggestions. This is no doubt this is the golden age of deer hunting, and you really can’t go wrong anywhere in the country. Every region is unique in its own way that will offer you different challenges and different terrain, but the one thing they all have in common is that they all hold big bucks in high numbers. With a lot of states starting to go to a draw system, some of the states that are readily available today may not be as available in a decade and the opportunity to hunt them may not be as easy. Who knows what the deer population will be in a decade either; we cannot fully predict that the deer hunting around the country will be as good as it is today. Take advantage of this time and use the next couple years to explore the different landscapes around the country, and hopefully notch a tag or two along the way. Happy Hunting!

PUBLIC LAND ADVENTURES - CHASING A ROCKY MOUNTAIN DREAM

I had never been so wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at the tail end of a long road trip; my buddy Keith and I had left our home state of Michigan about 26 hours ago, and were making a turn onto a gravel road that looked as if it was going up the side of the mountain on a 90 degree angle. As we made the turn, the sign on the side of the road read “Uncompahgre National Forest.” Uncompahgre is a national forest on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies that stretches over 100,000 acres, created by none other than the father of American wilderness and conservation, President Theodore Roosevelt in the summer of 1905. The national forest is home to a vast majority of wildlife including the black bear, mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain lion, and moose. The big game animal that sticks out the most when you think of the Colorado Rockies though is the wapiti, most commonly known as “elk,” and that’s what we there to chase.

For hunters across the country, the elk is undoubtedly the most sought after big game animal the western part of North America has to offer. Hunting elk is more of a dream than a reality for outdoorsman that live east of the Mississippi river. Outside of some small regulated areas in Northeast Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania, the vast majority of North America’s elk population roams from the Rocky Mountains to the pacific coast. The first time I had ever seen an elk hunt on television was when I was 8 years old, and from that moment forward I had dreamed about hunting them and hearing the one sound that makes an outdoorsman's hair stand up on the back of his neck; the sound of an elk bugle screeching through the dark timber of the Rocky Mountains. This dream was about to become a reality as our tire tracks slowly moved across 30 miles of gravel road to the spot we had picked to park our truck for the week.

Just as the sun was setting behind the mountains and the treetops were turning from a precious gold to a dusky purple, we parked the truck on the side of gravel road approximately five miles from where we had marked where we were going to setup base camp for the week. Since it was late evening and we didn’t feel comfortable hiking into base camp in the dark, we decided to sleep in the truck that night. Now I’ll say there’s two types of cold at night; there’s the cold that keeps you tossing and turning in your sleep, and there’s the type of cold that instantly wakes you up like you’ve just experienced a terrible nightmare. This type of cold was the latter; when we went to bed at 10:30 pm it was a comfortable 57 degrees, and now only three hours later it was 26 degrees and dropping. Keith and I hadn’t taken into consideration that we were about 8500 feet above sea level, so we scrambled through the backend of our truck to find our sleeping bags we had packed for the week. The rest of the night was a bit more comfortable, but I won’t say we got anymore sleep; WE WERE GOING ELK HUNTING TODAY.

I’m guessing we did what most midwestern hunters do on their first big western mountain hunt, we grossly underestimated the time it would take for us to hike the five miles into the locations we picked to setup base camp. Simply put, five miles in the mountains is not five miles, not even close. We strapped our 60 pound packs on and started our trek at sunrise around 6:45 am, and we figured we’d be at our base camp by noon. Long story short we were sadly mistaken; after a total of 12 miles of hiking we arrived at our base camp dehydrated and exhausted at about 4:30 pm, and we spent the final hours of daylight setting up our camp and enjoying the view from our spot 9000 feet up. If it wasn’t for the OnX hunt app, it might’ve been an even longer day due to the fact that it is very easy to get turned around in pure wilderness with mountains on all sides of you. The last hour of the day was spent filtering water from a nearby creek so hydration wouldn’t be an issue if we got caught chasing an bugle all day the next day; the dream hunt was on.

Our view from camp was nothing short of spectacular. Every ounce of land you see in this picture is public land for all of us to enjoy. There isn’t a camera in the world that can take a picture to give this place justice.

What we experienced when we woke up the following morning is hard to put into words. I would say it was like a dream, but what we were experiencing as the sun peaked above the mountains was far better than anything I had ever dreamed about. My goal for this trip wasn’t to shoot an elk, nor was it to see an elk; my goal was to hear what every outdoorsman yearns to hear at some point in his life; an elk bugle. If I heard just one elk bugle on this trip, it would’ve made the $700 tag and 26 hour drive well worth it. After the first five minutes of daylight on the first day, I realized that I had to re-establish my goals very quickly because we weren’t just hearing one bugle, there were bugles echoing through the mountains from every direction. It was something from a movie; for the first hour of daylight there wasn’t a five minute timeframe of silence. Bulls were bugling above us, below us, and seemingly within a couple hundred yards of our camp.

There was elk sign within 50 yards of our base camp, so we decided to not go far to setup for our first calling sequence of the morning. We were about 120 yards from camp when Keith hit the bugle tube, and it wasn’t long before we got a response. After waiting in silence for about five minutes, we heard something go crashing down the hillside only about 80 yards to our right. I’ve heard many whitetails go crashing through the timber in my day, but this was unlike anything I’ve ever heard; this sounded like a freight train tumbling down a hill. Elk. Our fear had been realized moments later when we walked in the direction we heard the crash coming from, and saw elk tracks heading down the hill away from us. At first, we though it had caught our wind, but our thermals and wind were in our favor, and after being briefly confused we came to realize that the elk had seen our camp! We looked ahead from the last track before the elk took off down the hill and noticed our tent was a mere 60 yards away sitting in the open. Unlucky, but it was still an awesome encounter and gave us confidence that we could call an elk toward us.

We would work the ridgetops the rest of the day, continuously cow calling and throwing in a bugle every now and then to see if we could locate a bull. We would hear a couple more bugles that morning, but were never able to get our eyes on another elk the rest of the day. The day didn’t end without anymore excitement though; as we were walking back to our base camp during the last hour of daylight we stumbled up on a black bear and her cubs feeding in the scrub oak. They didn’t realize we were there until we were within 50 yards of them, and after the sow stood up on her hind legs to get a look at what we were, all three of them took off in the other direction. This was Keith’s first encounter with a bear in the wild, so that just added icing on the cake for a day well spent in the wilderness. The close encounter we had early that morning had us jacked and eager to see what the next day had to offer.

The following morning didn’t shower us with bugles like the morning before had, but it wasn’t completely silent as we heard a couple bugles echo from above us. We decided to take a long hike that morning up to a large plateau about 1000 feet above our camp; the opposite side of that plateau was nothing but dark timber that we figured would hold some elk on a day that reached 79 degrees. Through a lot of pre-trip planning and research we knew that elk liked to bed in dark timber on hot days to keep themselves shaded and comfortable while the sun was at its highest point. The first half of the day we worked one half of the plateau without any luck. Our approach was to just walk about three quarters of the way up the ridge to keep the thermals in our favor, and hit the cow call every so often to see if we could get a bull to respond or possibly get him up out of his bed to check us out. We also found a great vantage point to glass for a couple hours in an area that was littered with elk sign, but we had no luck putting our eyes on anything besides beautiful country. I should mention that we both had either sex tags in our pocket, and any elk would’ve tickled our fancy, horns or not. If a cow was going to give us an opportunity to fill our freezer with elk venison, we weren’t passing on that opportunity.

Although we weren’t able to glass up any elk, just being able to enjoy and appreciate true wilderness through the lenses was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

After a short nap in the sun and a couple spoonful’s of peanut butter for lunch, we trekked across the plateau through two miles off scrub oak to the very opposite end of the plateau. Looking at our OnX maps, the part of the plateau we were heading toward seemed to be the most promising due to it holding a ton of dark timber, and it seemed to be a place where not many hunters venture. It was about 10 miles from the closest trail head, and only had one access point due to the severity of the cliff drop on the opposite end of the timber.

As soon as we entered the dark timber at the top of the ridge we knew there were elk close. All of the sign was extremely fresh, and we could SMELL them. I had always heard that you smell them when you’re close, but never really believed that notion until I stepped down into the timber at the top of the ridgeline we were hunting. If there was any kind of sizable herd in the area we were close because there was no way only a couple elk were making the kind of sign we were seeing.

We crept along the ridge top, walking in the muddy trails the elk had created and throwing out a cow call every 20 yards to see if we could get a response. My heart exploded when we heard a crash out in front of us, but as quickly as my heart rate increased, it came back to normal when I noticed a couple mule deer bouncing away from us.

We continued along the ridge with the sign only getting heavier; the trails were only getting thicker, there was elk shit everywhere, and every fifteen yards there was a tree shredded from a bull. Elk rubs are like whitetail rubs, but instead of bending down to look at the rub, you look up at the top of rub that usually stretches from ground level to about 8 feet up the tree; that is if the tree is still alive and standing after being absolutely mauled.

I turned to Keith, “Something is going to happen, there’s no way we don’t run into an elk before it gets dark.”

After about a mile of hiking just beneath the ridgetop, and the sign continuing to stay very fresh we started to become confused and a little frustrated. How is there this much fresh sign and we haven’t seen or heard a peep? Are we pushing the elk ahead of us? The thermals and wind were in our favor, so if we were pushing them how were they detecting us? Was our cow calling and bugling THAT bad that it was kicking the elk out of the area? Should we stop making so much noise as we walked along the ridge? We had heard from many experienced elk hunters than while walking along the ridge you should throw rocks, step on lots of sticks to emulate elk moving along the ridge. So many questions were spinning in my head as I hit the Hoochie Mama (cow call) again. I then spotted a stick a few steps ahead, and aggressively stepped on it for it to make a loud snap that echoed down the ridge. That’s when it happened.

An absolute explosion about 30 yards in front of us on the ridgetop; a moment that lasted all of seven seconds, but that seven seconds will live crystal clear in my mind for rest of my life.

Four words. “ELK! BULL! RIGHT HERE! ” Keith softly exclaimed from five yards behind me as he flipped open the camera he was holding. I quickly took two steps backwards at the same time clipping my release to my bowstring, and looked in the direction Keith was looking. The fact the bull got up from his bed so close to us, and Keith saying “RIGHT HERE,” I figured the bull had to be in bow range. I had no idea how big the bull was going to be, or if was moving fast or slow; I just knew I needed to prepare myself for a shot and do it fast.

As I stepped out from a pine tree and into Keith’s point of view, it was like stepping into a dream. Standing there behind some scrub oaks was not a rag horn bull my mind was expecting to see, but standing broadside inside 40 yards was THE herd bull. A majestic 6x6; the kind of bull that you only thought existed on private ranches across the west, not the kind of bull that is suppose to survive on public land in the most pressured elk state in the country. Growing up in Michigan, the only reason I knew a bull of this size existed was through pictures on social media and watching the outdoor channel. Pictures and television don’t do these things justice though, the beauty and size of the bull was overwhelming, and this bull that had somehow eluded public land hunters for probably the last five-plus years, stood in bow range looking back in my direction with no idea what was transpiring.

Somehow in this unfamiliar situation, through the grace of God, as soon as Keith said “ELK,” I was very locked in; I think the fact that this encounter happened so suddenly, it didn’t give me the chance to overthink the shot, become nervous, or get bull-fever. As I stepped out into a shooting lane, I drew back my bow and noticed my HHA single sight pin was set at 30 yards, and as I looked through my pin at the bull, he looked to be right at 30 yards, give or take a yard or two. I didn’t have time to pull out my rangefinder, but I’ve been judging distances whitetail hunting my whole life and feel very confident in judging anything inside 40 yards. Here’s the thing though, I grew up judging distances from a treestand hunting whitetails. This animal was twice the size of a whitetail, and the terrain was anything but flat. The bull was actually probably a good 10 feet above me, and I didn’t take either of those things into account. I put the pin right on his vitals, and even though there were scrub oaks in front of the bull, he towered above them and his whole vital area was clearly showing with not even a branch in the way. With my pin settled on his vitals, I was steady as I am shooting at the range, and supremely confident that I was about to put a lethal shot on this bull of a lifetime.

I took a breath as I slowly pulled the trigger on my release just as I do when I shoot at the range. The flight of the arrow was like slow motion, and will always be deeply engrained in my memory. The first 25 yards of the arrows flight looked as true as it possibly could, with the arrow flying straight for where I put my pin behind the shoulder. The flight path the last few yards are what will haunt me for the rest of my life; my heart sank as fast as an anchor in water while the arrow dropped off drastically the last moments it was in flight until it was below the vitals, and then “SMACK.”

“YOU MISSED, YOU MISSED UNDERNEATH. KNOCK ANOTHER ARROW,” said Keith from behind the camera. The bull wheeled around and went trudging back up the hillside. I scrambled to knock another arrow, all while looking up at the massive animal stop at the top of the mountain about 85 yards away and look back at us. When he looked back I saw how giant the bull really was, and my heart sank as he jogged over the mountain top and out of sight. Then it hit me, “if I missed, how come I heard such a loud SMACK?” I raced up the mountain to where the bull had been standing to see if I could find my arrow. That loud smack couldn't have been from hitting a limb or tree behind the bull? Did I hit the bull low, and Keith just assumed I missed low?

Ten seconds later I had my answer. After scrambling to find my arrow in the scrub oak, I finally found it laying on the ground short of where the bull had been standing. No blood on the arrow, just blood on my Montec broadhead that had been broken in half; which means I probably got a half inch of penetration. Shoulder. That “SMACK,” we had heard wasn’t a tree limb or rock, it was the shoulder - probably the one place you absolutely cannot hit an elk with an arrow and kill it. Penetrating a mature elk’s shoulder is like trying to penetrate a rock, it’s just not going to happen. Part of me was thankful knowing the elk wasn’t going to be very wounded at all, and would go about his daily business in good health. The other part of me was sick; God had just blessed me with an opportunity to kill an animal of a lifetime on public land, and I had blown it. Thirty eight yards. Thirty eight yards was usually no big deal for me, and if I had known the correct distance before the shot I was confident that I would’ve executed the shot. Misjudging the distance had cost me a freezer full of elk, and hundreds of stories shared when folks would inevitably ask me about the elk on my wall at home.

My broadhead after the shot. I had always heard an elk shoulder is as hard as a rock, and this evidence of my one-piece broadhead being snapped in half just adds truth to that notion.

What the misjudged distance didn’t cost me though was an unbelievable trip with a great friend. In the months leading up to the trip, Keith and I agreed that if we even had an encounter and an opportunity to kill an elk, we would count it as a successful trip. With the amazing shot opportunity I had, along with hearing countless bugles, and making countless memories, this trip was definitely a huge success. Keith and I ended up hunting a couple more days, but our trip ended up getting cut short for a couple reasons. One, or solar chargers started to fail on us, and we needed our phones charged to follow the maps back to the truck. We decided to charge our phones up as much as we could on the evening of the 4th day, and pack out in time to get back to the truck before nightfall. Two, our water filter had broken on us, so the last couple days of the trip we were boiling dirty water and drinking it warm. With that being said, if you’re reading this and planning an elk hunt in the future, make sure you bring TWO water filters in case one of them stops working. Drinking boiled water with particles floating around in it isn’t the greatest way of staying hydrated.

On the last couple days of the trip after the missed opportunity, we didn’t see anymore elk, but we made many more memories hiking the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Looking back at the trip, if the elk encounters had never happened, it still would’ve been worth the trip considering the amazing mountain top views we had all week while camping 9500 feet above sea level. Missing that bull just makes me more eager and excited to get back out west and continue my chase of a rocky mountain dream. Growing up, the “rocky mountain dream” was killing an elk, but after being out there and experiencing the hunt, chasing the rocky mountain dream means so much more. It’s not just hunting elk, it’s experiencing the most beautiful landscapes this world has to offer, living wild and connecting to the natural world because you have no other choice when you’re miles and miles away from any civilization, and understanding why so many people have fought so hard to keep our wild places wild. When you chase your rocky mountain dream, I hope you kill an elk, but in your pursuit, don’t go blind to the beauty of the wilderness that surrounds you. Living wild in a place like that is a dream in itself.

It's not too late! Plan a quick DIY whitetail trip on a $1000 budget for this fall.

It’s that time of year, everyone is dusting the rust off their bows, trail cameras, and digital scouting apps in preparation for the upcoming season. On the other hand, it’s also the time of year when men and women around the country are finding out that they didn’t succeed in their out-of-state hunting applications, or realizing that hunting season is around the corner and they don’t have the time or money to plan something for this fall. This will actually be the first year that I'm not stressing about planning a last minute hunt; I have a September Colorado Elk hunt planned, along with a November Missouri whitetail hunt written in sharpie on the calendar. I have been in the last minute decision boat many times over the last few years though, and I have been lucky enough to taste success on a DIY public land hunt on a very strict budget. I’m not saying any of it was easy; there were some uncomfortable nights sleeping in a tent in frigid temps, but if you can make due, you can give yourself a chance to hunt mature bucks in some of the best whitetail country North America has to offer for less than 25% of what a guided trip would cost.

You can probably get away with planning one of these hunts a week in advance, but if you truly want to do it right, you should pick a spot within the next few weeks to give yourself a couple months to digitally scout, and save up a few dollars. The Onx hunt app has changed the game when it comes to digital scouting, and can help you successfully plan a public land DIY hunt with just a few nights of dedicated research. I’ve been lucky to chase whitetails in a few different states on both public and private ground, and I also have a few close friends who have been successful on DIY whitetail hunts in the Midwest. Now don’t me wrong, I love chasing Michigan bucks, but a change of scenery, and an increased chance of shooting a magnum mature whitetail in states close to home will always have me itching to leave the great mitten state for a few days each fall.

Just like almost everyone else, my budget doesn’t allow me to do guided trips on an annual basis. On top of that, with the costs of guided trips increasing every year, I don’t anticipate that an annual guided trip will be the norm for me. I’ve actually never been on a guided whitetail trip; the only guided hunt I've ever been on was an inexpensive Ontario black bear hunt in the Spring of 2018. Many hunters out there still believe that an out-of-state hunt will always be outside of their budget, but I’ll tell you, I’m very confident I could look at the majority of hunters budgets, and find a way to save for a DIY hunt on an annual basis. If you can put $1,000 in an emergency fund within a few months because Dave Ramsey told you to, then you can definitely put away $1,000 for a hunting trip every year or two. I also understand there’s a million other things in life you have to spend money on that are more important than a hunting trip, and that $1000 is still a lot of money, but maybe it’s as simple as putting the golf clubs away for a summer to save up the money. Lets be honest, if golf is more important to you than hunting….well lets just be nice and say you need your priorities realigned.

With all of that being said, here’s my top 3 choices for a DIY whitetail hunt that you can embark upon this fall, and all of them are less than a half day’s drive!

Hunt #1: Ohio Archery Hunt

I was able to put down this Ohio buck on the 3rd day of a 4 day archery hunt on public land in 2016. Ohio offers thousands of acres of prime public land. Shotgun season can be busy, but archery season is pretty quiet on most public land in the buckeye state.

There are thousands of acres of national forest in Ohio. The central part of the state is mostly farm country, with some corn-raised brutes running around. If you want a true adventure hunt though, head to the southern part of the state where you’ll find rolling hills, and on top of those ridges you’ll find mature bucks cruising during the rut looking and scent checking for does. I find myself in Ohio on an annual basis in November chasing big public land whitetails only 6 hours from my Michigan doorstep. Don’t want to wait to the rut? No problem, Ohio’s archery season starts the last weekend in September, so you might not need to wait until October to get into a stand after all! All Ohio nonresident deer licenses can be bought over the counter anywhere that sells licenses.

Budget Breakdown

• Fuel (17 mpg vehicle at $2.70/gal. for 900 miles): $143

• Lodging (Local motel at $75/night for 4 nights): $300

• Ohio nonresident hunting license: $181

• Food (5 days at $20/day): $100

• Local Meat Process: $85

• Total: $809

Penny-pincher tip: If $800 still seems like a lot of money, an easy way to save money is to setup a tent on national forest ground. Most national forests are free to do primitive camping on, or you could find a close campground to throw a tent up for around $20/night. On top of that, you could process your own deer to save on a processing fee. Remember, with the new CWD laws, all deer must be de-boned before crossing state lines.

Hunt #2: Nebraska Muzzleloader Whitetail/Mule deer

I went with a few buddies last December to Nebraska for muzzleloader hunt. To speak mildly, the weather didn’t fully cooperate with us, but my buddy Levi was still able to throw some powder at this nice 10 point on our last day. Even though the weather was a big issue, everybody in our party saw quite a few mature bucks.

Last year, I went with a few buddies to Nebraska for a muzzleloader hunt the first week of December. I did it all for under $600, which is mostly because most of the costs (besides licenses and food) were split amongst the group. However, you can still do this hunt by yourself, or with one other person for less than $1000. There is plenty of public ground to hunt in Nebraska, and if you drive toward the western part of the state, you will see a healthy population of mule deer. The great thing about the muzzleloader tag in Nebraska is that you can shoot either a mule deer or a whitetail with the same tag. If you aren’t having much luck on public ground, then spend a half day knocking on doors and I’m sure you’ll find a land owner kind enough to let you a hunt a day or two on his/her property for a small trespassing fee or potentially for free! Just through talks with a few ranchers in the area while we were there, I noticed quickly that most of them were much more open to the idea of giving hunting permission compared to the landowners here in my home state of Michigan. All Nebraska nonresident tags and habitat stamps ($25 habitat stamp is a must) can be bought over the counter anywhere that sells licenses, or to avoid driving around looking for a store you can buy everything online before you depart from home.

Budget Breakdown

• Fuel (17 mpg vehicle at $2.70/gal. for 2000 miles): $318

• Lodging (Local hotel $70/ night for 4 nights): $280

• Nebraska nonresident muzzleloader license + habitat stamp: $267

• Food (5 days at $20/day): $100

• Meat Processing: $0

• Total: $965

Penny-pincher tip: Notice I put $0 for the meat processing on this trip. This probably isn’t a hunt where you can walk in a few hundred yards off the road to kill a nice buck, especially on public land. I’m taking a guess that you don’t want to drag your deer over a mile either, so if you’re going on this hunt it would be best if you knew how to process your own deer. Process the deer in the field, and make sure you de-bone it before heading home and crossing state lines. If you want to drag your deer and let somebody else process it that is fine, but if you’re looking to save money and stay within your $1000 budget, then its definitely in your best interest to do your own processing. LEAVE NO MEAT TO WASTE!

Hunt #3: Wisconsin Early Season Archery Hunt

Wisconsin doesn’t have quite the reputation it had a decade ago when it comes to whitetails because of the recent CWD issues, but there is still plenty of mature bucks roaming on public ground in the lower half of the state.

I personally haven’t been to Wisconsin on a DIY whitetail hunt yet, but I have plenty of buddies that have, and they have the grip and grins and stories to prove that this state still holds a ton of good bucks. This is the ultimate budget-friendly hunt if it’s your first time going to Wisconsin due to the fact that a nonresident license is only $80 for your first Wisconsin hunt. After your first year it goes up to $160, which is still very reasonable. Wisconsin’s reputation has been damaged a bit lately because of their approach on handling their CWD problem (that’s for another topic of discussion), but the deer numbers are still very high in the southern part of the state, and there’s still plenty of opportunities to hunt public land in very good whitetail country. If you are successful, make sure to take your deer to a local check station to check it for CWD, because the CWD numbers are very high throughout the state. On another more positive note, their bow season starts in mid September! Even if Michigan has its challenges, or no matter where you live, it’s still hard to leave your home state in the rut. This hunt is the best of both worlds; you can stay in your home state for the rut, and start hunting two weeks earlier than you’re accustomed to! Instead of waiting around for October, pack your gear in mid-September, and take a drive to Wisconsin and start chasing mature whitetails before your season even starts back home. All Wisconsin nonresident tags can be purchased over the counter anywhere that sells licenses, or you can buy online so you can leave home with the tag already in your pocket.

Budget Breakdown

• Fuel (17 mpg vehicle at $2.70/gal. for 900 miles): $143

• Lodging (Local hotel $75/night for 4 nights): $300

• Wisconsin nonresident first time deer license: $80

• Food (5 days at $25/day): $125

• Local Meat Processor: $90

• Total: $738

Penny-pincher tip: To keep yourself from spending extra money on food while you’re on your trip, go to your local grocery store before you leave home and stock up on sandwich goodies like lunch meat, peanut butter, and jelly. I also like to buy a large pack of cheap bottled water, and a few cheap snacks to keep yourself from getting hungry and splurging on fast food or restaurants. If you can keep your food cost to a minimum, it’ll go a long way in keeping your total cost down.

Lastly, the ultimate penny-pincher tip is to go on these trips with a few buddies. Going with a group of guys helps greatly minimize the cost of gas, lodging, and food. Not only will it help you save a lot of money, but most importantly it’ll add to the overall experience. Coming back together on a nightly basis after the hunt and telling stories adds a ton of memories and excitement to the hunt. Comradery in the hunting world is unmatched, and I promise you won’t remember a penny you spent, you’ll just remember the excitement and joy of going on a hunting trip with your good friends. Now stop reading this, build the courage to tell your significant other you’re going on a short hunting trip in a few months, invite friends, save money, go sit in an unfamiliar tree across state lines, and shoot a trophy you’ll remember for a lifetime.

Spring Turkey Hunting, or what I call "Elk hunting on a budget"

Listen, I live in Michigan and I want to elk hunt as much as the next guy. You turn on your television and flip to the sportsman’s channel, you watch people communicating with and chasing elk with archery equipment and you hear that bull bugling at 50 yards and even watching it on a television makes the hair on your back stand up. I want to be that guy in the Rocky mountains with a bow in my hand too, but I live in Michigan, so elk hunting is more-so a dream than a reality. To elk hunt we have to either wait multiple years to draw a coveted Northern Michigan Pigeon River Elk tag, or save money for multiple years to go out west and chase a big bull with no guaranteed success. For most of us, it’s just not in the cards to elk hunt on an annual basis; we might get to chase a bull a couple times in our lives if we’re lucky.

However, what if I told you there’s an alternative to elk hunting right here in the mitten state? What if I told you there’s a big game animal right in your backyard that you can communicate with and chase from sunrise to sunset? What if I told you that when this animal responds to your call that the hair on the back on your neck will stand up and you’ll be hooked for life?

Enter the wild turkey.

You’ve probably seen hundreds of red headed bird-looking creatures in the cornfields on the side of the highway while driving throughout the state, or maybe you see them in your yard on a daily basis and just see them as stupid birds that keep eating away at your bird feeder. Step into the woods though on a cool April morning and just listen to them chatter. There isn’t another sound in North America that matches the sound a Tom, which is the name of an adult male turkey, makes when he gobbles from his roost to let the whole woods know that he’s the man of the timber and you’d be stupid to come mess with him. Whether it be a mouth call, a slate call, or box call; if you mimic the sound of a hen and tom responds with a deafening gobble and your hair on the back of your neck doesn’t stand up there’s more than likely something physically wrong with you. If it tells you anything, western hunters are known to travel EAST to hunt these things. That’s right. ELK HUNTERS TRAVELING THOUSANDS OF MILES TO HUNT BIRDS IN YOUR BACKYARD. If that doesn’t get the juices flowing I don’t know what will.

You can distinguish a Tom from a Hen by his red head, long beard under the base of his neck, and his pointy spurs sticking out from the back side of the bottom of his legs. Oh, and that unearthly perfect sound known as a gobble.

By the way, even though they seem like they’re everywhere; they ARE NOT easy to kill. If a tom could smell as well as a whitetail deer, he would be virtually unhuntable. They can hear extremely well, but what really makes them tough to kill is their eyesight. A turkey’s eyes are on the side of their head, which allows them to cover 270 degrees around them, and even though I've never given a turkey an eye exam, it is a well known fact that there eyesight is more than three times better than a person with 20/20 vision. What I’m trying to get at it is that with a great combination of hearing and vision, making any kind of movement while turkey hunting can be catastrophic to your chances of success. Some of the most skilled woodsman around the country are left bewildered and eating their turkey tag on an annual basis, so if you’re going to chase turkeys, be prepared for an extreme challenge.

Most of us whitetail hunters sit in a treestand all fall and use bleat calls, rattling antlers, and grunt calls to lure bucks into range. Even though we do have success in doing so from time to time, its EXTREMELY rare that a deer ever actually communicates back to you. That's why elk hunting is so intriguing to most of us, to be able to communicate with a large big game animal like that just seems like the ultimate adrenaline rush. Here’s a not so well kept secret that I already gave away above: TURKEYS COMMUNICATE BACK. Hens and toms respond to calls on a regular basis. The tricky part is luring them into range while trying to stay undetected by their keen eyes and sense of hearing.

There’s nothing like hitting the slate or mouth call, listening to a gobbler respond a couple hundred yards off and trying to make a move on him. It has all the same logistics as an elk hunt. Call, locate, chase and setup, then call him into range, fail, and then do it all over again. It flat out sucks when you chase one around all day and then get within 50 yards to only get detected because your foot moved 2 inches accidentally and all you see is a turkey’s tiny little skinny legs sprinting away from you. It can be demoralizing, but at the same time you feel a small sense of relief because you still have your tag in your pocket and you can do it all over again tomorrow.

I’m not going to go into all the different methods of turkey hunting because that’s a long article in itself. All I’m asking of you is to try it. Especially if you sit there drooling in front of your television watching elk hunt after elk hunt. I’m not going to sit here and tell you hunting and killing a turkey is as exciting and adrenaline pumping as hunting and killing an elk, but it’s as close as you can get to it here in the Midwest. There’s a reason legends like Aldo Leopold, Will Primos, and Steven Rinella are passionate turkey hunters, these things are fun to chase. Keep saving that money for your next big trip out west, but in the meantime spend $15 at your local sporting goods store and buy yourself a spring turkey tag. Whitetail season is six months away, and your next big trip out west is probably a couple years away, so mind as well “elk hunt on a budget” and go call and chase the most exciting big game animal to hunt here in the Midwest, that big old red headed bird in your neighbors backyard.

PUBLIC LAND ADVENTURES – CHASING TAIL IN THE BUCKEYE STATE

The anticipation is real. It’s different; different than what I’m used to. I’ve grown up and lived my whole life in West Michigan; chasing and harvesting Michigan bucks. Let me start off by saying I still love and will always love hunting Michigan. The anticipation for October 1st will always be there, and I still get jacked driving up north with my old man to hunt our lease in Onaway, Michigan for opening day of Rifle season. We’ve been hunting that property up north since I was 14 years old, and that place will always hold a special piece of my hunt-crazed heart. This is different though; this is an anticipation that I really haven’t had before in when it comes to chasing whitetails.

Columbus, Ohio: 10 miles ahead.

That’s right; we’re no longer in the Mitten. We’re in the buckeye state, and even though they share a border, they couldn’t be more different when it comes to whitetail hunting. You can sit all season in the Michigan woods and see multiple young bucks, and if you’re lucky you might see one mature buck along with the hundreds of does you’ll inevitably see throughout the season. Remember bucks and does are born at a 1:1 ratio, so the fact that you only see one buck for every ten does in Michigan really illustrates the problem throughout the state that too many young bucks are getting killed. Take that stroll down to Ohio though, and it’s a whole new story; not only is the buck to doe ratio much improved, but the number of mature bucks is significantly higher throughout the state. There are many reasons why there are way more mature bucks and more bucks in general; their gun season is much shorter than it is in Michigan, the number of hunters is significantly lower in Ohio, and you can only shoot one buck per year. I could go on and on with other reasons, but those are the three major ones that first come to mind.

Let me back up. Over the past few years I had heard stories and seen pictures of mammoth whitetails, but I needed to see it for myself; so in 2016 I made the trek to a piece of public land with my brother Tommy to see what this Ohio noise was all about. (Tommy is not actually my brother, but we’ve been inseparable since we were in diapers, so I consider him a brother.) We did a little bit of research, and I knew some friends that had hunted a couple different pieces of public land in southern Ohio, but we truthfully didn’t do a ton of homework. We just picked one of the pieces of public we softly researched, took a few days off of work in early November and jumped in the truck.

We pulled up to the piece of public land we’d be hunting at 8pm, it was pitch black outside, but that didn’t stop us; it was November and we couldn’t waste daylight time the next day throwing up stands. Which meant we were putting up our stands in the dark—at a piece of property we’d never laid our feet on. Now let me verify, I do NOT recommend this, but you put two avid whitetail hunters in a new spot and only give them 4 days to hunt the rut, you bet your ass we were spending every last second of daylight 20 feet up looking for a monster. Our stands had to be up that night.

Let me paint the picture: We’re going about 5 miles per hour down an old dirt road with more potholes than a Michigan highway, my head out my window, Tommy’s head out the other peering into the blackness looking for the highest ridge possible, all while looking at an aerial map laying in the counsel. We pulled over at a spot where there were extremely high ridges on both sides of the road. The reason we were looking for high ridges; the higher the ridge, the more shelves or “Military crests” there are on that ridge. These shelves or “military crests” are flat travel corridors of ground at different levels of the ridge. Bucks are known to travel these shelves in the rut to scent check and look for does at the tops or bottom of the ridges. We settled on which side we’d each hunt, and got to work.

Let me tell you, these ridges and hills are no joke. To Michigan boys, these were mountains. We started on the side of the road Tommy would be hunting; we climbed and climbed and climbed. It was hard to tell how close we were to the top due it being pitch black outside, but we settled on a spot that seemed darn near close to the top. (Tommy would find out the next morning that our estimation was wrong, he was about halfway up the ridge.) I’ll be honest, it was definitely eerie putting a stand up in the middle of the dark in a place we’d never stepped foot on; not to mention we were in the middle of the boonies about 25 miles from the nearest highway. The eeriness was cranked up a few notches when a big Great Horned Owl decided to swoop in on the branch just above the tree stand and watch us for a good five minutes while we struggled to overcome the darkness to get the stand secured in the tree. We eventually finished up Tommy’s stand around 10:30 pm, and made the trek across the road and up the opposite ridge to put my stand up. This time we climbed all the way to the top of the ridge; the tree I selected was nearly at the crest of the ridge. It was dark, but I could see there were two well-travelled shelves on both sides of ridge about 30 to 35 yards from the top. My stand was only about 12 feet in the air, but since I was at the crest of the ridge, the main trails were at least 30 feet below me.

By the time we finally made it back to the truck, it was 12:30 am and we were sweating so bad it looked like we had just jumped out of the pool. The high that day had been a scorching 82 degrees, and the temperature had only dipped into the high 60s, which is unseasonably warm for early November even for Southern Ohio. The rain was coming the following morning though, which was naturally accompanied by a major cold front which had us stoked for the following few days. Before a horrible night’s sleep in the F-150, we found a local drinking hole and gulped a few while we watched the Cubs curse come to an end in Cleveland for their first World Series since before World War I.

Nothing too special when it came to our camp; a truck, couple coolers, and a four person tent. In my opinion, roughing it in a tent adds much more to the whole hunting trip experience compared to staying in a hotel.

I’m going to skip ahead to day two of our 2016 Ohio hunting trip because day one brought rain that was supposed to taper down around noon, but didn’t end up clearing out of the area until 8pm the following day. This wasn’t a bad thing though, because 24 hours after we were drenched in sweat from putting up stands in the night time heat, the temperature had dropped to 39 degrees. We knew if there were bucks in the area, they’d be on their feet the following morning, and boy were we right.

We woke up to a cool frost; you know what I’m talking about, that kind of early November frost that gives every bowhunter an instant erection when he steps outside. It’s safe to say this was the most excited we had been to climb into a tree stand in our young lives. Even though it was cold, by the time I walked up the ridge and got to my stand I was sweating like I had just played pickup basketball for two straight hours; so much for showering myself in Scent-a-way before making the trek uphill.

Twenty minutes after daylight I detected movement about 100 yards at the top of the ridge in front of me. I put the knockers to my eyes – buck. I quickly discovered it was just a young 5 point making his way down the ridge, but it was good sign the bucks were on their feet. I hit the grunt call to see if I could get any response from the young guy, and sure enough it was like taking candy from a baby. One grunt and he swirled around and headed my direction on a string; he finally got downwind of me when he got to 10 yards and scampered off, but that was an awesome encounter to start the morning. Later that morning around 10am, I saw more movement about 150 yards straight in front of me on top of the ridge. Again, I threw my knockers up – buck. This buck was a better buck but looking through all the branches I couldn’t tell exactly what he was. As soon as I saw he had a decent rack on him I hit the grunt call twice. “This is public land? This is too easy,” I remember thinking to myself. He threw his head up in my direction and almost immediately started walking straight at me. He closed from 150 yards to 30 yards in less than a minute. It quickly came to my attention though that this buck wasn’t a shooter; he was a two-and-a-half-year-old 9 point. For most hunters throughout the Midwest, this is an easy buck to pass on. For an ole Michigan boy who dreams of seeing a buck like this pop up on his trail camera in the summer in the beanfields of Michigan though, this was NOT easy. This buck is dead and most likely on my wall if I’m sitting in a tree stand in the Mitten. This buck stood 15 yards in front of me for a good 10 minutes before he eventually made his way down the ridge. About 30 minutes later, just as I was watching yet another young 8 point making his way up the ridge in my direction, my phone buzzed.

One of the many young bucks we let walk that week. Their responses to the calling sequences we were doing was nothing like anything I had seen before. I called this buck into 10 yards with 2 soft grunt calls.

We had barely any service where we were hunting and both of our cell phones were running out of battery life fairly quickly due to the lack of service, so before Tommy and I went on our separate ways that morning we discussed we’d meet at the truck briefly at noon, and that the only reason we would call each other beforehand was if there was either if we flung an arrow or we were in some kind of trouble.

I looked down at my phone and sure enough it was Tommy. I picked up and for about 10 long seconds I heard was heavy breathing, followed by, “Dude, I just shot the biggest buck of my life!” I didn’t care that I had an 8-point walking up the ridge at me; I immediately stood up in my stand and did a huge Tiger Woods-like fist pump. Are you kidding me?! We had been sitting in a tree stand for only 3 hours on public land in spots that we had setup in pitch dark, and I had already seen 3 bucks and Tommy just stuck the biggest buck he had ever seen. We didn’t stay on the phone long; his buck had disappeared down the ridge pretty close to him and he didn’t want to be too loud in case the buck was still close. We agreed we would still meet at the truck at noon for some story telling and a quick lunch.

I ended up seeing another small buck just before noon; honestly, if Tommy hadn’t shot a buck that morning, I probably would’ve stayed in the stand all day, but I had to hear his story. If you’re a hunter you get it, we all LIVE to hear stories of successful and unsuccessful days in the woods.

When I got back to the truck, Tommy revealed to me that he had made an extremely long shot and hit the buck pretty far back – most likely a gut shot. When in doubt, back out. We decided to not go back up his ridge that afternoon to pursue the buck and go after it the following day. We were going to be there a couple more days and with no rain in the forecast there was no reason to rush it and pursue the buck that day. Just like the bucks I had seen that morning, Tommy had grunted this buck in on a string to 10 yards…10 yards! Just before the buck stepped out into a shooting lane though, the old bastards sixth sense that had kept him alive for years kicked into high gear, and for no good reason out of nowhere he looked straight up at Tommy. He busted Tommy and jumped back and ran out to 50 yards and stood in Tommy’s shooting lane looking back at him. It was now or never, so Tommy let one fly and watched the arrow soar and unfortunately hit the deer a little far back since the deer had a split second to take a step forward. Gut shot deer die though, and we were confident if we didn’t push him he would be laying dead not too far from where Tommy hit him. The forecast called for it to stay cold, so we were confident the meat would still be salvageable the following day.

The Lord was shining down on us, because somehow the weather the following morning was even better than the previous morning. The temperature had dropped into the low 30s; the frost gave the leaves the same crunch as if you were walking on floor covered in frosted flakes cereal, the wind was calmly making its way through the timber at about 5 mph out of the north, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. If there’s such thing as buck-killing weather, this was it.

It had been light for about two hours now, and I hadn’t seen a hair yet, which I found relatively surprising considering the buck-filled morning I had the previous day. Even though I hadn’t spotted a deer yet, I was still soaking every second of this beautiful morning from my ridgetop while doing a calling sequence every half hour in case a buck was cruising a ridge near mine. Deer or no deer, watching the sunrise and enjoying Gods beautiful creation in this remote piece of public land made the trip well worth it.

 9:03 am. I had completed a calling sequence about ten minutes prior, and had just stuck my phone back in my pocket after checking the time when I heard it. The most beautiful sound in the world to a bowhunter; the faint sound of leaves crunching at the base of my ridge behind my right shoulder. Buck. I’ve been in the woods enough in my lifetime to distinguish a deer from a squirrel making its way through the timber, and this sound wasn’t the soft crunch a slow-moving deer makes, these were heavy crunches one after another, and most importantly the sound was getting LOUDER. My heart instantly started to pound and knees instantly began to shake as I quickly realized this deer was coming up toward the top of the ridge that I was sitting on, and it was walking at a pace that a doe doesn’t walk at. This was a heavy-hooved buck walking my way, and as I slowly stood up and shuffled my feet around in my treestand to face the direction the buck was coming from I noticed the buck had covered some serious ground and was only about 40 yards from the crest of the ridge walking straight at me. I could only see the tips of his antlers, and already made the conclusion that this was a mature buck that I was going to try to kill. He continued to climb the ridge until he stood right on top looking over the other side of the ridge, most likely to see where the grunt I had made minutes before came from. While he stood at the top, I noticed he was actually eye level with me only 30 yards away, but I had no shot because he was standing right in the middle of thick thorn bush that would be impossible to squeeze an arrow through. I hadn’t even drawn my bow back yet; I think I briefly blacked out in sheer awe and excitement that this magnificent mature buck was standing in bow range without a clue that I was in his presence. He stood there for what seemed like an eternity, which was probably more like 10 seconds before he started making his way down the ridge toward me. I hadn’t cleared a shooting lane in the direction he was coming from, but noticed that I had a natural lane about 25 yards long straight behind me that would he would be crossing within a matter of seconds. It was killing time, and when it’s killing time there’s no excuse for letting adrenaline or so called “buck fever” to keep me from putting an arrow in this deer. I drew back, calmed myself, and locked in on my target just like I would if I were flinging arrows at a target in my backyard. Just as the buck stepped into my shooting lane at 24 yards, I softly made a grunt-like sound, and he stopped broadside as I settled my 25-yard pin a touch below his vitals and let it fly.

 As soon as I touched my release everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I watched the arrow fly and disappear behind his shoulder as he began to launch himself forward; immediately I knew I had made a lethal hit on this buck. As he made a few bounds down the ridge, I noticed how massive his body was, definitely the largest-bodied deer I had ever seen while hunting. He made a few bounds down the ridge and disappeared behind some leaves, and after that there was immediate silence. I watched and listened intently in the direction the buck bounded off, and after a couple minutes of silence the adrenaline kicked in again as I picked up the phone to call Tommy. While trying to tell the quick story to Tommy on the phone, I kept my eyes in the directions where I saw the buck disappear. I thought for sure the buck bounded down toward the thick bedding area at the base of the ridge, but after quietly relaying the story and celebrating with Tommy over the phone I saw movement from where the buck had disappeared. As I saw a flicker of a tail, I first thought it was another deer coming from the same area because it had been a couple minutes since the buck had disappeared. That’s when I saw the best sight I had ever seen in the deer woods; as I peered through the leaves, I saw the bruiser I had arrowed a few minutes prior slowly tip over and roll 20 yards down the ridge.

“BIG BUCK DOWN” is what I continued to repeat over and over to Tommy as I had witnessed all of this happen while I was on the phone with him. Unless you’re a bowhunter and know what I’m talking about, watching a deer go down from your arrow is a feeling you cannot buy or cannot match anywhere else in the world. With all of the preparation that goes into bowhunting, no matter the size of the animal, reaping the fruits of your labor is a feeling that you cannot describe. On top of that, the fact that I was able to accomplish this on public land that I had never bow hunted before just added to the sense of accomplishment and joyfulness.

Not much of a track job on this buck! A local landowner was gracious enough to help us track the buck and haul it out with his quad.

Later on that day, we got the trail of Tommy’s buck he had shot the day prior in hopes that he wouldn’t be far since we decided not to push him the day of the shot. Long story short, we were unable to recover the deer; we found blood about 100 yards from where Tommy hit the deer and followed that blood for a solid 50 yards before we lost it for good. We scoured the ridges for hours on end in hopes to stumble across a dead deer, but after a full days’ worth of looking we came to the conclusion that the buck was most likely still alive. There was no sign of it being a gut shot either. The fact that Tommy was able to put an arrow in the deer on a 50-yard shot with a bow he has had since high school was very impressive, but to our dismay it didn’t seem to be a fatal hit. Bowhunting is so challenging and rewarding, but like anything is challenging, it has its downfalls, and its biggest downfall is the possibility of wounding an animal. Our intention as bow hunters should always be to make a fatal shot so the animal doesn’t have to suffer, but being accurate with a bow while your adrenaline is through the roof is an extreme challenge, and unfortunately inaccurate shots happen from time to time. It definitely put a damper on the trip because coming home with both of our tags filled was the ultimate goal, although a lofty one since we were hunting public land in an area we had never hunted before.

Tommy hunted one more day before we headed back to Michigan, and saw a few more nice bucks, but didn’t get a chance to draw his bow again. On our way home, we counted how many bucks we saw between the two of us in our three and a half days of hunting. Fifteen. Fifteen bucks in just over three days, and over half of those bucks were decent bucks that anybody would be happy to shoot in our home state of Michigan. Our eyes had been opened to a whole new world of whitetail hunting, and there was zero doubt in our minds that we’d be coming back the following year.

Gripping and grinning with my Ohio bruiser. This buck will forever have me hooked on chasing mature bucks on public land. Side note: the tree I was sitting in is right at the top of the ridge behind me; the buck expired less than 60 yards from the stand.

Now fast forward a year and the “Colombus 10 Miles Ahead” sign is now miles and miles behind me to the north. We’re no longer in the truck with our anticipation riding high. The anticipation has ticked upward if that was somehow possible because now we’re sitting in our same stands on our same ridge tops as the year prior waiting on another chance at a buck of a lifetime. I’m looking to achieve the impossible and fill my Ohio tag for a second year in a row, and Tommy is back for redemption from his miscue the prior year. We are more confident this year because have a better understanding of the lay of the land and the bucks that were in the area. This was due to the fact that we were able to get down the first week of October for an early season hunt/scouting trip. We had DOZENS of shooter bucks on our trail cameras, and we made an adjustment to Tommy’s stand location to put him on top of his ridge where two other ridge tops all intersected in one area. It’s November 4th, and we’re back in our paradise; now it’s time to see if we can once again reap the fruits of our labor.

I look at my phone and it reads 5:30pm. I’ve already seen a couple young bucks running the ridge tops, but now it’s primetime and it should only be a matter of time before one of us sees a good buck cruising along the ridge. I stand up in my stand, and I feel my thigh vibrate and see Tommy’s name appear on my screen.

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

As the phone vibrates, a quick thought passes through my mind, “We’re coming back to this honey hole for the rest of our lives.”

“BUCK DOWN!”

Public land paradise strikes again and Tommy redeems himself. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there’s NO WAY IN HELL we are telling you where it is.

Tommy’s redemption buck. A solid buck that we had on camera from scouting in the early season. No matter the size of the buck, it’s so rewarding to fill an out of state tag on public land with stick and string.

 -Steven Crawford