Cameras are hung!

I got my first official permission here in Wisconsin last week, on 240 acres, and I was able to get three cameras hung on Saturday, the 26th. So although the bachelor groups will be breaking up in the next week or two, I'm able to have eyes out there for a short while, while I try to decide where to hang a stand or two.
The primary strategy for the early season is hunting the field edges in observation-stand locations. I know there are plenty of deer using this farm - as there's beans, corn, alfalfa, oaks, and even apple trees for even the pickiest of deer! It's all custom farmed, and of the 240, I would guess that about 160-180 are tillable, leaving about 80-60 acres of timber (mostly along the north edge) that runs up the ridge. I think it's very possible to kill a doe before the end of September on the field edge, and maybe even a buck. I'd like to hang two stands and as we approach the third week in October, I'll move my cameras over licking branches on field edges. I want to find a scrape or two in a staging area up in the woods/pasture that might produce at last light. I'm learning that I don't have enough stands with me!
Stay tuned for some pics and videos next week!

Back to Blogging! Here I Come Wisconsin!

It has been nearly three and a half years since my last blog post - that's INSANE! I remember it being such a therapeutic way to catalogue my thoughts and findings (all in one place) and it must have taken something fairly gargantuan to put a halt to it. Well over three years later, I've married the love of my life, I've inherited two beautiful daughters, and I graduated from North Park Seminary!
The reason that I have decided to bring this blog back from the dead is that we've moved to Wisconsin! I took an Associate Pastor position in Menomonie and no doubt will be chasing after these hill country monsters this fall. I moved to town not knowing one landowner, not one piece of public land, and not having a clue where to start - so this truly will be an adventure from the ground up. I really only had a handful of people that I knew who lived here, one of which was and is an avid hunter/fisherman from back home out of Warroad, MN. His name is also Mitch! Mitch Thortson has a few of his own hunting connections around here, but I trust that my networking and door-knocking will eventually find myself some private land to hunt on. Until then, I'm determined to scope out a few public pieces before August ends. After driving 90 minutes one-way, to hunt in Illinois, I'm prepared to drive 30 miles to get into a good spot here.
This type of hunting will be entirely different. There's actually topological features that I need to learn how to interpret, which will help me understand how and why and how deer (more importantly bucks) choose to use them. This area has it all: corn, beans, alfalfa, acorns, corn, corn, corn and beans! The city of Menomonie is only 19 miles from Buffalo County, which is the county with the highest number of Boone and Crockett bucks recorded out of the entire United States. So either these folks like to record their bucks more than others, or there truly are some giants in this country. These southwestern counties of Wisconsin have the perfect storm: TERRAIN (topographical features), FOOD (corn, beans, alfalfa and acorns), SOIL (quality food), and WATER (rivers, creeks, swamps).

2017 should be a learning year for sure! Hopefully the trail cameras will be out in the next two weeks. I'm hoping to put together a small Hitlist by the end of summer - stay tuned!