What's Your Goal

I hate this time of year, we are still a long ways from deer season and I personally have a good 2 1/2 months until turkey season. Sure we go out and look for sheds but we just got another 4 inches of snow on Saturday and we have a chance for a good amount on Thursday so it will be a while until I really hit the trails. This is the time of the year we should all be sitting down and writing out our goals for the next season. Being involved with sports most of my youth I was taught to always have a goal for the season, this follows so true with hunting. Now when setting your goals we have to be realistic, not that there is anything wrong with dreaming, life wouldn't be near as fun if we all couldn't dream a little. But setting obtainable goals is very important because we don't want to set ourselves up for failure. If you have never harvested a deer with a bow obviously you wouldn't set your goal at shooting a 150 inch animal. I think you get the picture. I myself will be heading to the Badlands the first week of September chasing Mulies and Whitetails, my goal right now is to get into better shape and shoot everyday. The shooting is no problem I already shoot at least 15-20 arrows a night in the basement and once it gets nice out I will really do some yard work. The working out part is the tough one working long hours and having a little one running around it can be tough, but it has to be done. I was able to talk with Cameron Hanes a little at the ATA this past winter and this man is hardcore. He is a very intense individual and takes everything to the extreme, he is a great guy to talk to. He wrote a book called The Back Country Bowhunter it is a must read for anyone who wants to take hunting to the next level.

Scouting 09

Well the weather finally broke for us here in the Midwest, it has been a balmy mid 20's to lower 30's for the better part of the week which feels great after being bombarded by sub zero weather for what seems like forever. Eric and I were itching to get out and look for some antlers and check to see where the deer have been hiding. I was actually pretty surprised I thought that we were going to find a "yarded up" area where all the deer had been hanging out because of the large amount of snow and cold weather but it seems that the deer did just fine. I t was definitely still hard getting around if you got off the trails. I think we are going to resume searching after we get a good thaw and lose the majority of the snow. I was able to find the remains of a 3.5 year old, man i would have liked to see what this guy could have turned into. This is just part of being a wild animal. I don't think people understand how hard these bucks run themselves down during the rut, it takes a lot to get back in condition for a long winter and unfortunately this one didn't make it. I am thankful though that I was able to find him, I haven't seen this deer before but I heard about a nice 10 point living in the area where I found him it most definitely could be him.