As the third and final part of my Thunder Chicken Saga here is a short story of the most exciting hunt for the 2009 Spring Turkey Season:

The birds were just not responding to calls and decoys the way I had hoped. After setting up on some birds on what seemed like the 100th time I was able to find one gobbler that was lonely enough to come into shooting range. I would guess he was pretty lonely because we watched as he ran like he was in the Kentucky Fried Derby from 200 yards away! He sprinted all the way in and stopped at 30 yards behind the blind, on the other side of the crick. Of course, this was not the direction we anticipated the bird to come from! He was strutting, drumming, spitting, you name it! He was fired up! While trying to open/close windows he flew across the crick and was 1 yard from the blind and strutted right up to the decoys putting on one heck of a show. After getting a bit of footage I hammered the bird while at full strut at a mere 4 yards! It made for the most exciting gobbler of the season!

Later that day we were able to set up in front of a group of birds and they fed right into our decoys and my buddy was able to take another nice bird.

The 2009 season came to a close with a great couple of hunts. It was one of the hardest years that I can remember. I just don’t know what it is about turkeys but they really spin me out of control! I guess I get gobbler fever!

Jared “J-Rod” Bloomgren                                                                                                     

Sitka Pro Staff

Here is my farm that I will spend all my MI time at this fall. This one mineral set is on this farm is a mile back from the road and on the way back many crop fields and hard woods and a lake all before I make it back to this private little haven. 11 acre little bean field, this 11 acre field has one major fence row between another corn field and the other 3 side’s all timber that all bottle neck because of the lake run off which is just like swampy area. So you can see why I want my camera and stands back here.

 

During the spring and summer months I run mineral sites on all my farms even multiple depending on how big the piece is. These sites should be based all on traffic this is not a hiding spot this just that a place to get VOLUM or high numbers of deer. My goal during this time is to get a good account of number of deer on my farm both bucks and does. As the old saying goes…hunt the areas you know they are at…get the idea!

 

Beside all the health benefits to running a good mineral site like the stuff that is in Vita-Rack because it is a lot more than just Sodium based. It helps deer with there immune systems to stay healthy longer and help replace all they lost coming out of a hard winter. It helps does with the fawn’s this time a year nursing which you may be saying who cares but remember that this is your buck fawn now…Buck 3- 4 yrs from now.

 

The next Big Boom is Horn growth and it does help with the growth itself and it helps with the horn even up to after the velvet is long and gone with making the horns harder so we don’t end up having the big boys broken up antlers after the first friendly sparing match.

 

Here are a few pics to go along with what I am doing.

 

# 1, I find a major runway and I mean Major. Before the Soy went in the old field looked like a cattle trail coming into this spot. I will then fallow that trial into the woods.

 

#2, Look to an open area because it is nothing to have 4-5 or more deer here at once so     give them some room to play.  (Also look for a tree for the Trial Camera)

 

#3 Cool Damp places you want the ground to stay soft and almost moist looking if you can. Once it is dry it really kills it. (Fallen log or cut tree as well)

 

#4, once I have done that I take that rake and clean the area away free of all the junk leaves, branches, and so on. Clean a big spot don’t be shy.

 

#5, Now ready for the Goods I put down this Vita-Rack like I said early just poor it right on the ground and then I rake that in the best I can. What I do now is a little different because some of the stuff you buy like Vita-Rack may ask for water which Vita does not but what I will do is take a gallon of like Buck Jam or any of the products out there that is like a liquid or gel and poor that right on top of the Vita-Rack. For Two Reason it is just heavy enough so that Mineral really soaks into the earth.

Reason number two is the big one is SMELL get an apple or corn or Molasses this allows the deer in one day to find this site and start taking advantage of it.

 

 

I have been doing this hard now for at least 4yrs and it is nothing for me to get 1000’s pics or more per camera sometimes per wk! Now that speaks for itself. Remember don’t be upset if 999 might be does but the one pic of that 160’s is well worth it!

 

 

Now you are done and ready for some Great pictures good luck.

 

Thanks

Brandon C. Hammonds

 

 

The Hammonds have landed!

We have not been on a family trip in over a year so needless to say this was much needed week and we could not wait to get down here to Myrtle Beach!!  My wife and I have been to M.B. many times in the past, but this was the first time since our son Maddox was born. We could not wait to see him down at the pool because he love’s to swim!

 But I could not wait to see him get close to the ocean and run the beach with him. It only took seconds for him to fall in love as runs in and out of the water trying to not let the tide get him. Now it’s hard to believe it but we are all ready at the half way point and here are a few pics from the past 3 days.

 

Thanks

Brandon

My blind was darn near trampled because I had so many turkeys come by my location just after they left their roost. I wasn’t able to get a shot off because I was busy trying to get footage of the strutting toms. Needless to say they never came back and offered another shot so I decided to take the hunt to them. After a very slow moving, pressed to the ground stalk, I was able to zip an arrow through this gobbler as he went about his business at 31 yards! He was a nice bird sporting close to an 11″ beard!

That leaves one weekend left and still have some unfilled tags in my pocket! We will see how it goes. Hopefully the birds will start paying more attention to calls and decoys!

Jared “J-Rod” Bloomgren                                                                                               

Sitka Pro Staff

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Trail Camera season is here well at least for me. My home farm here in MI, I will start running 3-6 cameras this weekend every week till season starts. Bucks are growing horns right now! So it is a great time to learn something about maybe a new buck you did not know was in the area or to find that new core area you think he may be hiding out in every now and then.

The cameras to me are much like getting a gift every time I open them up and check the cards. To see a buck or two that I think only live in IA and KS and you find out he is living on your own farm somewhere is something that drives a bowhunter to the core the whole season!

It may take me all of the 6000 photos I get a year but to get

the one of that mature buck that I see only every other year on the same field edge is worth it. Here are a few pics of my MI monsters that I hope to be seeing soon!

 

Thanks

Brandon