Deer Camp 2011

Well, deer camp 2011 has come and gone and the “buck” pole (an old swing set minus the swings) remains empty. Even so, deer camp is always a time to remember. This year I once again concentrated on getting my daughter an opportunity to kill her first deer. We even pulled doe tags for that area to increase her odds.

With Opening Day on Monday, we ran into a lot of traffic heading north on Friday afternoon but we arrived at camp with just enough time to get changed, grab our bows and run to the stands I had set up weeks before. I’ll just say it was a nice evening to take a nap with all the deer action we witnessed… The next morning was a command performance of the previous nights. So far it was looking pretty scare at deer camp.

My buddy and his son arrived shortly after we had lunch. Deer camp is at his Mom and Dad’s place in Northern Lower Michigan. They’ve been taking care of me, and now my daughter, for over 15 years and it’s a tradition to spend the opener enjoying their hospitality.

After lunch we took a walk to an area we haven’t hunted in years called Cone Head (small hill looks like a cone head…). To get to this area we have permission to cross some private land we’ve hunted in the past and boy are there some deer sign there! As soon as we crossed into the state land, WHAM! Trees, not saplings nor twigs, all rubbed up… and right in front of my old blind, a nice fresh rub. …tempting but its a couple miles hike and getting a deer out would be a night mare… maybe next year.

Anyways, we all got geared up and headed out to the treestands for an evening bow hunt.. same song, same dance…deer someplace are having a grand ol’time.

Sunday started out with high winds and rain so we called off the morning hunt and caught up on some sleep (no complaints here). Did I mention the food served at deer camp? I brought a roast and my buddy brought steaks and chicken for the grill….even if we didn’t get any deer nobody was going home hungry!

Opening day;

Well, opening day was a new experience for my daughter, she got to find out what it’s like to sit in an open stand during a hail/sleet storm! I can only say I’m very thankful it was sleet and hail and not rain…wow! After the storm passed the day improved a little but our luck was still not changing. My buddy and his son saw a couple does and “claimed” the does headed straight for us…likely story (LOL)

Unfortunately, my buddy came to deer camp with a pretty nasty cold and his “drugs” were pretty rough on him. His plan was to hunt Monday night, Tuesday morning and then pack up and get back home as his son needed to be in school Wednesday. He decided that he wouldn’t be able to drive if he stayed any longer so he packed up and headed home. (he’s doing better which is good news since he’ll be hunting in a couple weeks in Michigans Elk season! Drew a Bull Elk tag!!! Lucky dog!)

Since he’d seen some deer in the morning, we decided to switch stands and see if we could improve our score card…

After sitting for a couple hours my daughter quietly says “dad! Deer!” I turn the camera on and look over her shoulder, sure enough, I can see a nice wide brown body coming through the trees. It angles to her right and I can see it’s a large basket spike. She get’s the gun ready and the buck stops broadside at about 25 yards. He still standing and no boom…at this point I’m in the whisper mode of “…shoot, shoot, shoot him, shoot, shoot……” etc. I think my daughter was about to smack me in the head. After what seems like an eternity the buck walks away. By this time I can see his belly is coated in red, he’d been wounded earlier. Since we’ve heard all the local shots, I know this buck has traveled a long ways and while it looks like a lot of blood, it could only be a grazing wound. He’ll be back.

Back to my daughter….After the buck walks away she turned to me and explained that she could not see the deer in the scope, it was just a little point of light… I know exactly what the problem is and explain that by having to turn her upper body a full 90 degrees and then try and hold the gun for the shot, it would miss align her head and the stock and prevent the proper alignment necessary to view through the optics. I am very proud she decided to not pull the trigger on a marginal shot even though that would have been her first deer!

In a future blog I’ll be going over how to train your self to shoot from the opposite shoulder. I’ve been shooting left and right handed for as long as I can remember and it’s natural for me to simply change shoulders when an animal crosses to my off side (even if it drove my coach nuts while on the rifle team! Sorry Sarge!)

After my daughter explained why she didn’t pull the trigger, she then proceeded to explain her thoughts about my repeated comments over her shoulder…so I get excited when deer are around…shoot me. She also wanted to know why her “seat” was shaking so much. I explained that it’s called “Buck Fever” and the day opportunity knocks like that and you don’t shake, is the day you need to stop hunting. Heck, I only had my camera going and my legs were shaking to mix paint. Oh, and in regards to the camera…note to self, make sure camera is ready before you press the record button. Oops.

We finished out the evening seeing 3 more does skirt though the woods behind too many trees and one other deer sniffing around our drag line of Mikes Magic…but he didn’t come in. A lot of talk that evening was about shaky behinds and opportunities…Excitement!

Tuesday morning was almost back to our first day except one lone doe trotted through the field where we could not get a shot through the trees at her.

Stories are made, New experiences are remembered and Deer Camp 2011 shows a win for the deer and great memories for my daughter and me!

A few more pictures from my Duck hunt with Mikey and crew

"Mojo in the Mirror"

"Duck, duck...GOOSE"

One of the other groups out that morning, retrieving a duck they knocked down.

"Perfect Morning"

Ducks, Ducks and More Ducks...

...and maybe a Goose or two.

Well, I’ve finally gotten out and gone Waterfowling a couple times this year….so far the Geese and Ducks are safe even if a few tail feathers are missing.

A couple weeks ago Mikey invited me to join him, Randy and his friend Logan for a Saturday morning hunt at a near by lake. This would be my second waterfowl experience, period. I got all my gear ready, made sure I had the appropriate licenses (including my duck stamp) and ammo. Friday night I got about 3 hours sleep before I needed to get on the road and drive the 45 minutes to Mike’s house. I slept right through my alarm! Luckily, I had set it early so I could stop on the way north and pick a couple things up …skipped that and got there on time…WHEW! Anyways, I got to Mikes and we loaded up his truck, got loaded and headed out. While Mikey has his driving permit, Mike had me drive while towing the boat.

We arrived at the State Park boat launch around 4am and there was one hunter already waiting to go out. We got the boat off the trailer and loaded with most the gear. The plan was to take Logan and Randy over to an island, drop them off to start setting the decoys and come back to pick me up with the rest of the gear. The only problem we had was that Mikey couldn’t get the motor started. All joking aside, Mikey pulled that rope enough times to start about a hundred or more motors. He called Mike, made some changes and BANG! It started. (See Mikey, Dad knows best! LOL).

Once we all got to the island, Mike and Logan made sure all the decoys were set in some pattern only known to them…looked like decoys on the water to me but I’ve been told there is a way of placing them that makes them work. You just can’t throw them out any which way. We “brushed” the blind in more and as Mikey and Logan were finishing up, more hunters started to arrive and soon there were another 4 groups out. The night was clear and warm so sitting and waiting for “shooting” hour to commence was a great time to relax and enjoy being out side. A bit of comical relief was thrown in as Logan seems to be still in the learning stage of applying camo face paint. Black paint (compliments of Dead Down Wind Color Wheel), applied in a heavy pattern that leaves ½ an inch of white skin around your mouth and eyes creates an almost Holloweenish type look....it’s not going to hurt getting it on your mouth or on your eye brows, lids and under your eyes… Once Mikey, Randy and I had stopped rolling around on the ground laughing, we took pity and provided a bit of advice on finishing up what Logan started. Sorry Logan, it was just too darn funny. Oddly enough, after the “paint” session was completed, the two “kids” laid down and fell asleep while the two older (barely!) guys stayed awake. What happened to youthful energy??About 20 minutes before legal shooting time, Mikey and Logan woke up and got ready to go.

TIME TO ROCK! Legal shooting time had arrived and immediately we had two ducks paddling in towards the decoys. As Mikey was telling us to get ready to flush them up, Logan jumped up and opened a rain of steel on them. Guess they brought their umbrellas cause they lifted and flew away unscathed. A few minutes after that, a truck pulled into the boat launch (we were positioned on the island were we could see the launch site) and dropped a bass boat in the water. The two guys proceeded to fish through out the zones of several hunting groups. Not the smartest idea and I’m sure it effected the flight patterns of incoming birds. As the sun started to rise more, several small groups of ducks flew past but none were interested in our decoys or landing and having a chat so several misses later the group was still birdless.

About 9am, I notice a boat heading across in front of us that looked like it had a model plane on the bow…weird until I watched it beach on the public beach area and meet several other folks all carrying planes. Oh Crap. Sure enough, they soon started flying RC Sea Planes back and forth in front of us. Now, while I can’t say without a doubt that they were engaging in hunter harassment as its all public park, there was a section of lake that is off limits to hunting that they could have been on with the same access and facilities…go figure. While I was tempted and while I did pull up on several occasions and put my bead on the planes because they were certainly in range, I never pulled the trigger. First, at times, there was a family on the beach in the direct path of any falling steel and that would have been not only dangerous but irresponsible. Other times I just didn’t have the lead time get a decent shot off. Probably a good thing as I just should have called the DNR to have them ticketed for harassment. This harassment went on until after we left for the day. Then again, I could have been distracted by the couple canoeing that paddled directly at us until they were about 35 yards away, took some pictures of us and paddle around the island…directly into the middle of another hunter’s decoy spread!

Well, while it was a beautiful day and we did get to throw some steel at some ducks, we decided to load up and head home. While Mikey and Logan were gathering the decoys, Randy and I cased up our guns and got the blind area cleaned up. Suddenly I heard a honk! I yelled “Geese”! Randy looked up and yelled “Treetop”. Luckily, Mikey and Logan had not cased up their guns yet and grabbed them quickly. Mikey opened up and missed but Logan got on a goose and knocked him down! Packing up and opportunity knocks! Go Figure. Logan got his first goose. Congratulations Logan.

All in all a very interesting day. I think that if we were not harassed we would have had a ton of opportunities to drop some ducks and geese but at least we had a good time, got a bird and everyone got to go home safe.

Next: the Birthday weekend hunt.

Caring for Concealed...

I just wanted to write a quick blog to remind everyone who has a CCW/CPL not to neglect your carry firearm. I today’s hectic environment it’s easy to come home in the evening, take your firearm off (locked up or secured) and forget about it until the next time you take it with you. You might think, “Hey, I haven’t had time to go to the range and practice, so I know it’s clean…” …WRONG! Carrying concealed, whether you fire your gun or not, is active service. It will get dirty. While I would never say pocket lint or light rust will cause your firearm to malfunction, would you bet your life or the lives of your family on it?

There are a couple of ways you’re going to carry your firearm, against the body or just under a layer of material. If you’re going to carry against the body, like in an IWB rig (Inside the Waist Band), one of the biggest concerns you should address is moisture. Whether you are exerting yourself and sweating or simply carrying all day, your body releases moisture. With the firearm trapped between your clothing and your skin, even with a holster (and especially with a Clip carry), steel components will start to rust. Even well oiled, body moisture can still get to spots internally and start the process of oxidation. You are trapping the moisture in your firearm.

For all methods of carry you should always be aware that dirt, lint and the like can and will find its way into your firearm one way or another. Fibers from your shirt or pants can get wedged into small areas…like behind the trigger, the safety lever or decocker, etc.

It should be part of your habit/routine to not only check for function and load every time you pick up your firearm, but also for dirt and moisture/rust. Make sure you break your firearm down and give it a light cleaning and a quick oil once a week (Dead Down Wind odorless oil is an excellent example). This is for pistols and revolvers…

Protecting our families and our lives is not something that should be neglected.

Rinehart R100

On Saturday, August 7th, the Rinehart R100 was in Saginaw Michigan. I thought this would be a fun day to take Mindy and let her have a good time shooting at different targets. I recently bought Mindy a new PSE Bow Madness XS and put some new Americas Best Bowstrings in her favorite color, purple and white, on it. The week before the R100, I finally got her drop away rest tuned in, her sight set, loop installed and served her G5 peep in. I know, a week to practice after not shooting for months…it was just a fun day. I had Mindy sight in and tune her groups for 20 yards and a few at 30 yards. Thinking about what distances she would need to shoot at for the R100, I had her take a couple shots at 40 yards (4 shots). Time would dictate that we would not get in any more practice before Saturday.

Well, Mindy had to get up at 5am (during her summer break! Oh my!) and we made our way up to Mike’s house. We loaded up his truck and headed north.

We arrived shortly after the course opened and it was already starting to fill up so we all got our bows out and sent a few arrows down the practice range before we started. The R100 offers two courses, the North American and the Exotics. They both have 50 targets (hence the R”100”) and if you’re planning on attending next year, plan for two days. We started around 9am and didn’t finish the North American course until almost 2pm. We chose the North American course because we knew the targets would be ranged more to practical shot distances for actual shots.

The biggest mistake I continuously made all day was in not trusting my gear! I recently installed a G5 Optix XR2 sight which is one fixed and one floating pin. I’ve never used a floating pin before and while I marked ranges for both elevated and ground level shots I continuously over corrected and my scores showed it. For some reason I just could not get used to the sight working the way it was designed and I was making high and low shots because of it. When I set the pin as marked and trusted it…boom! Spot on! That is why practice, practice, practice is so important, especially with new gear.

Now, on the other hand, Mindy with her new bow, with very little practice and 4 shots at 40 yards with none longer….was smoking ME! Everyone in our group ended up missing a target some time during the course. With targets ranged from 18 yards to 53 yards can you guess which on Mindy missed? …the 18 yard target! She was smoking the long range shots! PSE Bow Madness INDEED! I will add a little advice if you’re shooting one of these fast PSE bows…I’m shooting a PSE Omen with Carbon Express Aramid KVs…lubricate the arrows with a little bit of Scorpion Venom, otherwise they melt the targets and are extremely difficult to remove! Then again, if you miss like this I don't think Scorpion Venom is gonna help...

Here's Mike on his 50 yard shot that he missed... and here's his arrow!

It was a long morning with lots of shooting but boy was it fun! My arm was tired and we didn’t get lunch until after 2pm but I’d do it again in a heart beat! I think Mikey gave Mike a run for his money and I know that I could not be prouder of Mindy BEATING her dad’s score! Michigan’s deer heard had better watch out cause there’s a new Sheriff in town and she’s called Mindy!

Hunters Safety, Day One:

Well, Monday night was the first night that my daughter attended her hunter’s safety class. I’ve been introducing her to her outdoor heritage the last two years through Michigan’s Hunters Apprentice program. Through this DNRE program, “The apprentice hunter program allows individuals to hunt without the required hunter education course if accompanied and closely monitored by a licensed hunter 21 and older who is mentoring them in the sport. An apprentice hunter may participate in the program for two license years before being required to take a hunter safety course.” Now that her two years have passed and she’s still interested in hunting (wahoo!), it’s time to take the course.

I signed her up at the Livingston County Wildlife and Conservation Club for their 4 day course. The DNRE mandated minimum class time is 10 hours, LCWCC is providing 14 hours of instruction to better prepare and educate these new hunters. Also, while the state allows for up to a $10 fee to cover materials, LCWCC provides their classes for free (donations excepted).

The first night over 50 new hunters were in attendance and LCWCC had close to 10 certified instructors present. The new hunters included boys and girls as well as a few adults. Parents were encouraged to stay (and most did).

One thing I noticed from the first night was the amount of interaction the instructors maintained with the students. They not only used charts and demonstrated safe hunting and gun handling but, brought students up front and included them in their demonstrations.

Different types of firearms were discussed (break open, pump, bolt and Semi-auto). Ammunition types were covered as well as why you do not mix them up. A bit graphic, but pictures were circulated that showed what could happen if you don’t pay attention and load the wrong ammunition in your gun. The kids thought the exploded gun looked cool…until they looked at what was left of the shooters hand…yuck. (We’ve all probably seen those pictures, taken in the ER…and I agree, yuck). The instructors had a nice segment were they had the kids demonstrate the safe fire zones and carry types in a group (they made sure they had a left hander in the group too). All in all, an excellent first class.

As a parent, knowing how bored and rambunctious a group of young children can get, I was very impressed with the attention and respect these youngsters gave their instructors. An excellent sign their taking this class seriously and paying attention (and a miracle they did it for 3 ½ hours!).

Next; Day Two.

Tight Lines for Troops

Several months ago, while attending a local outdoors show, I met Captain George Peplinski of Netminder fishing charters. While chatting with George about the Up North Journal and what we do, he told me about an event coming up called Tight Lines for Troops. Tight Lines for Troops is an event (this being the inaugural event) that gets charter boats together with Michigan veterans to honor their service and sacrifices with a free day of a Great Lakes fishing tournament, activities and a banquet. During our conversation George asked if I’d be interested in putting a UNJ cameraman on one or several of the boats to video the event first hand. Gee, after a long internal debate (about .000001 seconds) I agreed! So we exchanged business cards and George said he’d pass on my information to the necessary folks.

Within a day we had been contacted by Bob Guenthart, Captain/owner of Renegade charters in Manistee and organizer of the event. Talking with Captain Bob I learned that his idea started with hopes that he could get twenty charter boats to volunteer their day to take up to 60 Michigan veterans out fishing. Preference would be given to wounded veterans first. Not one captain he asked told him no and his efforts quickly grew. By the time the event kicked off, 38 charter boats had donated their time and crews and 160 veterans were signed up to go fishing! Sponsors quickly came on board with the Little River band of Ottawa Indians and Little River Casino signing on to be the premier sponsor. They provided banquet facilities and a fabulous served dinner for the veterans, their families, the captains, their crew and the volunteers (in addition to financial support). Viewing the long list of sponsors quickly highlighted the phenomenal support from the community and local businesses in honoring our Veterans.

Unfortunately, most of the UNJ staff had prior obligations and the only staffer able to attend was yours truly…oh, darn I have to schedule a day out of the office so I can ride along on a fishing charter in Lake Michigan. Somebody had to do it.

When the day finally arrived, I pulled into the Manistee City Marina parking and unloaded the camera gear. 5:30 am and it was already almost 70 degrees out and the start of a beautiful day. I made my way down to the docks and immediately was greeted by Captain Bob (whom I’d never met yet). Captain Bob’s boat, the Renegade, was parked at the gas dock were there was a lift unit to assist in getting wheel chairs onto his boat. Next to the Renegade was the Sandpiper III and Bob introduced me to her owner, Captain Kevin Hughes (at least in this huge crowd of wonderful folks there was one name I didn’t have to worry about forgetting!). Captain Kevin had volunteered to allow me to ride along with him and his crew to film the event first hand. I was quickly introduced to Kevin’s First Mate, Glen and their 3rd crew, Pat.

Around 6 am our first veteran arrived. David Peck, a wounded and wheel chair bound Navy veteran from Vietnam. Luckily, the layout of Sandpiper III allowed David to be hand lifted in his chair down to the fishing deck. In no time at all I was chatting with David and found out that he is the Vice President of Paralyzed Veterans of America, Michigan Chapter. David told us that he had lost his leg when a 750lb bomb was exploded under their boat while on patrol and this was his first time on a boat since that incident. Shortly after David was on board, our next veteran arrived. Ike Eickholdt another Navy Veteran who served on the USS Bainbridge as a EWT Second Class Petty Officer.

With a 7 am tournament kick off, the other boats were starting to leave dock and we’ve yet to load our third veteran. Seems the loading ramp for the bus had stuck in the down position and we were waiting for a second bus to arrive. When the backup bus showed up and Glen is bringing our third veteran down to the docks, we’re the only boat still tied up, the rest had left the harbor. Our third veteran is another Vietnam wounded Navy man, Russell Stewart. Russell is quickly lifted down to the deck in his wheel chair and Captain Kevin gets us on our way. Even though we’re late getting started, everyone is all smiles and good cheer and if there is an award for that, I’m sure Russell would take the prize…I don’t think he stopped smiling the entire trip.

Figuring we’d missed the tournament start you can imagine our surprise to find every single boat waiting for us just outside the mouth of the harbor! This event was not going to start off without every vet present and accounted for. As we came to a stop we received a call to shut down our engines…

Silence on the water, a light and eerie fog floating as a shallow mist, centered in the circle of charter boats, at the heart of all these veterans, from the bow of the US Coast Guard vessel came the sound of Bag Pipes honoring our troops, our fallen, it sang across the waters for all to hear. I can only imagine the thoughts and feelings our veterans were feeling as more than one eye was teary as the pipes completed their song.

A moment of silence and the announcement to get under way. Time to FISH!

One thing I’ll note is that every time I said “just tell me if I’m in your way”, every single one of these gentlemen would immediately tell me the same thing. They went out of their way to make sure I had access to film from what ever angle I needed to. Captain Kevin even told me he’d turn the boat if needed (as much as he could) to change the sun angle if it was interfering with filming a fish on. I can not express my thanks adequately enough to them for going out of their way to accommodate my activities while they were working.

If you’ve never had a chance to go on a charter boat, you don’t know what you’re missing! The Sandpiper III is a 36’ Tiara open and perfect for fishing Lake Michigan. While Captain Kevin was heading towards his location to fish, Glen and Pat were getting the rods rigged and ready. David, Russell and Ike all had that look of excitement and I felt part of a special group, heading for an incredible day.

Dipsy divers, lead core, ten color, 4 color, blue dolphins, planer boards, down riggers, clips, monkey shines, bumble bees, superman, down speed, top speed, temperature…. Ok, I’m lost… let’s just say that these guys knew what they were doing and seeing everything that was going on was fun and informative.

It took a little while but Glen decided to give a couple solid “come on” fish claps and WHAM! FISH ON! Russell was first up but unfortunately the first fish of the day decided that he’d rather stay in the water… At least the excitement factor was working! Shortly after and another rod starts screaming out drag…. David is up and the hook is set. Glen and Pat get a couple rods out of the way and David soon has the first fish in the boat! While the day ended up being a bit slow for fishing, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We all learned about each other, the veterans and myself learned a lot about fishing in the Great Lakes and we got to spend a lot of quality time with new friends.

As the weigh in time approached, Kevin informed us it was time to start bringing the lines in, so if we were going to say a prayer for a last fish, now was the time. I doubt the final Amen and been silently uttered when one last rod started running out line and Russell brought in the last fish of the day. As we entered the harbor we were greated by flags all along the pier, presented by the Rolling Thunder riders.

Here’s the group with the day’s haul…

While our fish didn’t win the tournament, they certainly won the enthusiasm of our veterans.

The awards banquet that evening started off with a repeat of our mornings bag pipes and the traditional warrior and honor songs by the Chippewa Band of Indians Warrior Society. The opening ceremony speech was given by Brigadier General Carol Ann Fausone and a special presentation was given to our attending Medal of Honor recipient Cpl Duane Dewey. It was amazing to see Cpl Dewey, almost 79 years old, walking past me when you realize that while being treated for wounds to his feet from a grenade, he threw the medical corpsman out of the way as another grenade landed next to him and jumped on top of it…he not only survived but recovered. President Eisenhower was right when he told him, “You must have a body of steel.”

Following the welcome, singer Kelly Trudell sang the National Anthem and we followed up with the Pledge of Allegiance. After a wonderful dinner, the awards were presented for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place of best fish weighed in and for best catch boat division (won by Trout Scout). In addition, a Governor’s Cup Award was presented to the best team (Navy, Army, etc…) along with a congratulatory letter from Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm.

After the evening closed with Taps, I was able to sit down for a few minutes with Captain Bob and talk about the event. I’m looking forward to next year and plans are in the process of looking to a couple of close by cities like Ludington and Frankfort to add to the boats available for Veterans. I hope those plans include inviting the UNJ crew back up for some more video opportunities.

Thank You to our Veterans, our service men and women and to all the armed forces that protect our freedoms and our families.

It’s a bit long, but I’m going to list the primary sponsors because they really went out of their way to honor our Veterans.

Sponsors:

Little River Casino Resort, Manistee County Charter Boats, Luna Entertainment, Design Comfort Heating and Cooling, Blarney Castle Oil, Ted and Pam Arens, Bonnie and Joel Kenny, Michael Nauta, Onekama Marine, Paul Downs, Pro Seal Service Group, Ridgeback Rattler Custom Awards, Riverside Taxidermy, City of Manistee, Customs-N-Classics Car Club, Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources & Environment, E-Coolers, Grand Rental of Manistee, Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary, Little River Band Warrior Society, Manistee County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Manistee County Sport Fishing Association, National Association of the Physically Handicapped, Northern Spirits Gift Shoppe, Pepsi, Phyllis Hanna, Rolling Thunder, Seng Family, Showspan, Sports Ink Screen Printing, Steven MacNeil, Tournament Trail, United States Coast Guard, United Veteran’s Council Manistee

And that list does not even include the 40 different Prize Donors!