I love the July 4th holiday. And, seeing as how it is just around the corner I thought it would be worth mentioning what that means around my household. First, I use this holiday as my official start date for trail camera deployment, hoping that for the next several weeks I will get some photos of the great bucks that will no doubt make a fool out of me come this fall. Also, by this time most of the western draws are complete so I generally know what my fall will entail. As is generally the case, this year proved to treat me pretty much the same way in the draws as it has for the past several, meaning, lots of refund checks, and very few hunts. I say that as a true hypocrite because I actually have a very full plate this fall and the coming holiday always drives the point home that in a few short weeks we will all be unleashed by the western states to match wits with the animals that keep us up planning, scheming and hoping that this will be the year. I hope everyone’s fall is turning into what you want it to be! Also, I don’t have any pictures to post with this because frankly, I don’t really know what type of photo would be appropriate!
Every year during Elk Seminars, this seems to be a repeated question. Switching to the Ascent 14 last year for day hunts forced me to compact my gear. Below is a list and photos of the equipment and gear I keep in my day pack. On “Going in Deep” day hunts I will grab the Bivy 30 so I can at least get one load of meat out if needed. By keeping most of my pack contents in stuff sacks it makes it very easy to switch packs before leaving camp.
- Water Bladder (One for each pack)
- Head Lamp with fresh batteries
- Extra Release*
- First Aid Kit (1/4 role of cloth tape or duct tape, 2-3 bandages, quick clot, butterfly bandages, space blanket, small tube of Neosporin a Maxie Pad ” Don’t laugh they are supper absorbing”, Inhaler, Epipen, Benadryl, and Ibuprofen.)*
- Iodine Water Tabs with 1-2 packs of WA Drink Mix
- 2-3 WA Bars
- Parachute Cord (50-100 ft)*
- Rain Gear (Sitka Storm Front Lite)
- Gloves
- 10 latex free gloves
- 4-5 extra mouth reeds
- GPS
- Havalon Piratna knife with 5 extra blades
- Extra Broadhead with blades*
- Batteries ( 4 AA and 1 3V for rangefinder)
- Lighter or flint*
- Allen Wrench set*
- D-loop material (my Range Finder is tied to my pack with 2 ft of quality D-loop material).*
- Flagging/Marking Tape
- One large black contractors garbage bag (Bivy 30 only)
- 5 - Alaskan Game Bags that are vacuum sealed. (one set in each pack)
- 2 – One Gallon Zip locks (1 – for those Grouse Breasts and 1 – to keep the TP dry)
- 1/2 Roll of TP with 5-10 unscented baby wipes.
- 1/4 tube of string wax*
- Pepper*
- License and tags
Items with a * behind them all fit into a small stuff sack.
Everything layed out
Main Compartment minus SF lite and Water Bladder
Outside compartment. TP, WA Bars and Drink mix are placed into the water bottle pockes on the outside of the pack.
It amazes me that it all fits in such a small pack, but it does with room to spare.
The general spring bear season in my area has about a 2 week window of bear activity before closing. My buddy and I made the most of it this year with 2 successful spot and stalk hunts.
Tyler's first bear with a bow- A textbook stalk led to a 20 yard shot and a 6 ft Black Bear for Tyler.
My 1st color-phase bear - The last hour of the last day produced this nice 6 ft chocolate boar.
Cooling in the draw - We left the hide overnight to cool and "de-tick" for the pack out.
As school finishes up for the year, my times becomes a little more flexible and it’s time to get back to doing what i love to do! This year, we slated a pig trip for June down in California. The late spring made the hunting very tough but one pig was killed that was worth talking about. Kurt was able to take this great boar that was sporting a 4 inch tusk on one side and broke off at about 2.5 on the other. Hands down the largest wild pig i’ve seen down there. I want to say it was 243lbs without guts if i remember right. Hope everyone’s summer is going well and look forward to reading about some of your trips. We had a ball and it was a need vacation!
A good day fishing at lake Miniwanka, in Banff Alberta. Its always nice starting your day catching a 15 lb Lake Trout and end it with a 32lb, surrounded by mountains and sheep.
Sharing it with the man who ignited the fire in me, and the little man I’m now passing it on to at a local 3D shoot.
Three generations…
Dad…
Cade…
The 2 most important men in my life…
Joining us were good friends Glen, his son Gregg, and his son-in-law Brian…
Last shot of the day, the steel deer target. Always a test of one’s confidence…
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Happy Fathers Day!
Sorry for the lousy cell phone pic, but you get the point. It takes serious effort to look this goofy! Summertime hog hunts get HOT around these parts. Having a zip off convertible Ascent pant would be awesome!
I’ve been laying off the hogs myself an have been playing guide for buddies. Attached are some pics of a few more hogs from my crew this year.
Now that turkey season is over, and not quite time for the trail cams, it’s time to hit the river for some fun!
First fish of the year...
Reelin' him in!
My favorite 'fishing head, Muzzy carp point...
Next target spotted...
The result of the stalk...
My 58″ Bear Grizzly with an AMS Retriever…
These fish can be real spooky and require every bit of "stealth" one can muster at times. Just like stalking critters on land, some situations are easier than others. Great fun!
I wasn't the only one enjoying the river this morning...
Spot and stalk bowfishing, not a better way to spend the first couple hours of a late spring morning...
The first of hopefully a lot of "hunts" on the river!
After Kansas deer season I make a hard run at late season scouting, shed hunts and then spring turkey season but my motivation seems to tail off as soon as the mosquitoes, ticks and poison ivy take control of the properties I spend time on. I do enjoy summer 3-D shoots and a little bowfishing but I typically use my summer downtime to inspect and revamp gear. That is also my time to invest in new items that hopefully make my time in the field better. By better I mean more efficient or comfortable. That may seem subjective but I look for items that lighten my load, serve multiple purposes in less area than the collection of items currently used, or things that make the process more comfortable. Sitka Gear was an obvious upgrade, it speaks for itself but for other equipment that choice can become quite complicated. I find a lot of resources on line and download “gear lists” and add new products to my search engine “favorites” list keeping myself knowledgeable of what’s available.
Tripods seem to stir up as many conversations as bows or arrow brands. I want something that offers some versatility and can be used in the field from the truck and for “bag” photos. The Promaster “Clamper” is my new choice for a tripod. I don’t use a scale to shave ounces because most my hunts are not back country wilderness hunts but this is reasonably light weight and compact unit that offers a lot of possibilities for set up. This versatile tripod can be clamped to a car window, attached to a fence post or set up on a reasonable level surface for glassing or snapping a photo.
The 2010 Kansas Spring Turkey season came to a close on the 31st of May. We are blessed with a 2 month long season and two tags to chase around pesky longbeards. We had some success this spring starting with a nice Rio I killed on the season opener. I was hunting out of a ground blind with my good friend Matt Bain in the Northwest part of the state.
Opening Day Rio
Saying I was Proud would be an understatement!
Jerri and I had both filled our Unit 1 tags and would have to travel to the eastern part of the state to try to fill our game tags. We planned to take a trip to north central Kansas in May to visit our good friends, Pete and Haley Gile, and hoped to do a little hunting as well. The weekend proved to be a ton of fun and we even had some success when I was able to get in front of this bird on our way into our afternoon set.
Even though we were unable to fill all of our tags, the season was a tremendous success due to the awesome memories shared with some of the best family and friends!!
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