2013 Idaho Bear Hunt

Danny and I returned to Idaho for the second time in as many years to try our hand at bear hunting. We didn't like getting beat up so bad last year. But just like last year they whipped us, again. The hunting was a little slow but we at least got within 50 yards of a couple of bears this time. The fog the last few days really prevented us from being able to glass that far.

 

Rain was a constant theme on this trip.

Danny and I thought we would surely turn up a bear in this giant burn, but none showed themselves.

On the second day of the trip I spotted two bears meandering along the other side of the valley from us. They were both adult bears, so I grabbed my bow and set off. Danny sat on the opposite side of the valley watching the whole episode through his spotting scope.

They were both brown, the bigger of the two with dark legs and a golden back. He was a real beauty, the bear of my dreams. But it was not meant to be. The wind was swirling so I tried to circle wide of the bears and get above them. The only direction the wind wasn't blowing was up the mountain. While making my move the larger and better looking bear was coming straight towards me. When he was within 50 yards a bad gust of wind threw my scent in his direction. To say he lit out of there would be an understatement. That bear ran up and over, and up and over hill after hill until he was over the horizon. 

 

  

We spotted only one other bear, and lady luck was not on my side. The bear was feeding in a perfect position for me to sneak up to him. I felt like a real panther as I prowled in his direction. I snuck into that distance where things get real. Just 25 more yards and I'll have a shot. I take another perfect step and what happens? A bedded mule deer doe stands up just ten yards to my right. She spooked, which of course spooked the bear as well. He didn't run like the first one, but he wasn't going to stick around to see what scared the deer.

And that was that. Five days of hunting, two stalks on bears, a little bad luck, and a lot of good memories with my brother.

Our maiden voyage with the new Swarovski  modular spotting scope system. This baby was incredible. Check out the pictures Dan snapped from his cell phone below, and the bears above.

 

 

I bought an adapter kit to mount my SLR camera to the spotting scope, but like a knucklehead, I did not set it up before we were on the side of the mountain. I left the most important piece at home, so my adapter was just a few extra and meaningless ounces in my pack. Dan took these pictures through the spotter with his cell phone...not too shabby for a cell phone.

Will Danny and I drive all that way again next year? Probably. I guess now it is time to shoot a few carp and hit the range. Might have to go spend a few nights in the high country just to pass the time and get my mountain air fix. The fall will be here before you know it. I'm waiting!

Don't miss our Father's Day sale!

Don't miss our Father's Day sale. 

Since this is one of the first promotions we are doing I am letting EVERYBODY know about it. We will be running special deals for our Newsletter subscribers and Facebook followers, so be sure to sign up (at right) and follow us on Facebook for more deals.

Almost everything in the store is 15% off (not including bows).

 25% off almost every knife in the store. That includes orders if we don't happen to have it in stock.

Don't miss out!

A Nebraska limb-hanger

I returned to Nebraska with my good friend, Del, and my brother-in-law, Kelly. We were hunting some of the most pressured public land that I know of, but the birds are plentiful and we are young and overconfident. 

I've never seen birds so weary of blinds. We figured it would be more fun anyway to ditch the blinds and hunt on the ground.

 

We jumped a hen sitting on 17 eggs.

The birds were acting very similar to what I have seen at this time of the year in the past. In the mornings they would gobble a little bit on the roost, but once they hit the ground they got pretty quiet. Toms did not seem interested in anything except living hens. We got toms to check us out after 10am. Del called in and killed a bird around 1pm with his shotgun.

We did a lot of stalking, a lot of belly crawling, and had a lot of fun doing it.

One morning Kelly spotted a big tom in a plum thicket. Kelly made the best of it and shot a great bird.

 

Kelly shot this tom with a Chastain Wapiti recurve, VPA Terminator broadhead, and Carbon Express Heritage arrows.

 

 

2013 Turkey Opener

Opening weekend was good to us here at RMSGear. Danny, my brother-in-law Kelly, and I got out to hunt with our cousin Chad in Nebraska. We drove out with long time friend, and one time RMSGear employee Andy Thomas. Andy has a real job now and only shoots his bow about four times in an average year, once at a turkey, once at an elk, and a few times at deer. You'll see how that works out for him below! I wish I had his talent, the man is a killer.

As you can see in the picture above, there was a large group of turkeys roosted in a powerline a couple hundred yards from the field edge we were sitting on. This is typically a bad sign for the morning hunt. The turkeys will usually stay in the hills and not come down into our field. They also pull a lot of turkeys from our field before they make it to us. On this particular morning that is exactly what happened, luckily there were enough turkeys that we were still able to pull in a few gobblers.

We've hunted this field for quite a few years now so we have a good feel for which direction the turkeys travel.

This time of year we typically try to position ourselves in travel corridors early in the morning. If the turkeys are already headed our direction, and they are going to pass by within 100 yards, then we have luck calling them in. But if they are not already coming towards us it is very hard to change their course.

Only after the turkeys are "done" for the morning with their feeding and strutting have we had better luck calling in toms. 

Every group of hens had a tom or two with them and those toms were completely uninterested in our calling/decoys. One hen in particular was quite vocal. Just for fun I decided to mimic her. Every time she called I would call back with the same tone and cadence. That piqued her curiosity and she came right towards us, a big tom followed just a few steps behind her.

The hen walked right up to our decoys and gave them a good look. The tom followed as well, at one point only a few steps from our blind. I waited for him to walk into one of the blind windows for a five yard shot, but he angled away from us as the hen lost interest in our decoys. 

I was sitting in the blind with Kelly. We had to do some major improvising with the windows to get a shot at this turkey before he was out of our lives. Kelly dropped the window that he was sitting by as I tried to position myself to shoot out that side of the blind. Kelly couldn't get out of my way. As I drew I had to make sure that my limb wasn't going to hit the blind, hit Kelly, or hit Kelly's bow. At full draw I noticed my bow quiver basically resting on Kelly's shoulder. I figured I would be fine, so I started focusing my attention on the strutting gobbler, who was now facing us at 15 yards or so.

In the picture below you can see in blue where I actually hit the turkey, and in red where I was aiming. I'm a firm believer in aiming at an imaginary intersection drawn directly up from the turkey's legs, and horizontal to the middle of his body.

This is not the turkey that I shot, but this is the best picture in my 

library that shows the body position of the turkey I shot.

My shot was only inches from my aiming point. I could see that I took out the turkeys far leg and felt completely confident that he would die in a very short amount of time. He hobbled off the field and laid in some trees lining a creek we were sitting near.

We hung tight in our blind, flung a few more arrows (none connected), and got out a few hours later to retrieve my turkey. To my surprise he was still alive, but very weak. I simply cannot believe how tough these birds can be. My arrow entered a few inches to the right of his beard, and exited through his left thigh. 

Danny was about 1/2 mile away in a blind with Chad. He can pull back his compound once every few hours, still recovering from a shoulder surgery he had after deer season. One shot was all he needed to kill this jake. Danny is about sick and tired of shooting wheels and cannot wait to get his recurve back in his hands.

 

Andy appeared to be in the best spot from what I could tell, but somehow all the turkeys skirted him by 50 yards or so. Late in the morning he threw a few loud yelps at a gobbler across the field. That tom sprinted across the field but hung up at 35 yards. Andy, who hasn't shot an arrow in months, let one go from his Morrison recurve at 35 yards. He couldn't have placed it any more perfect than he did, and his bird was dead within seconds.

I returned for a follow up trip the following weekend, but a tornado spoiled our plans. Thankfully this massive tornado missed us by about a mile. The storm that brought this tornado turned into a blowing snow storm overnight, with 15 degree temps and 40mph wind gusts. The hunt was a bust, but I still had a blast with a few good friends. 

More turkey hunting stories to follow!

Tyler's Nebraska Turkey

Good customer Tyler Arnold sent us this story about his first turkey with a recurve. He did it the hard way too, no blind with a stickbow!

Check out his story and his bird:

RMSGear,

Hey thought I would share a pic of the bird I shot on Easter Sunday.  I was hunting by myself so I don't have a  very good picture with me and the bird. It was my first turkey with a recurve. It was an awesome hunt.  

The hunt took place up in Nebraska. I spotted the birds around 11am and decided to make a move on them.  They had a fire up there last summer which burned up a lot of their ground but the turkeys are still hanging around there.  I got down in a little burned up cedar draw and set my decoy up and started to call.  Within a few minutes the flock was on its way.  I posted up behind a burned up cedar and waited for the action.  I had six big toms and a dozen hens come within 12 yards but I couldn't get a shot without spooking them, so I stayed patient and waited for the rest of them to come.  A tom finally strutted by around 15 yards but there was too many branches in the way to shoot.  He strutted over towards my decoy but I still couldn't get a shot.  I waited and he came back by in front of me and stopped at 15 yards in full strut.  I leaned out around the tree I was sitting behind, picked a spot and let it fly.  I hit him right at the base of the neck he ran up the hill about 20 yards and hit the dirt.  It was an awesome hunt and one I will never forget.  That Blackwidow recurve has been very good to me!

Thanks,

Tyler 

Wyatt's first turkey!

Check out Wyatt's first traditional bow kill! He made an outstanding shot on this big tom during the Nebraska opener.

The first day of the season Wyatt was sitting in a blind by himself. He had turkeys completely surrounding him, with several only a few yards away. Wyatt was very conscious of making a good shot and chose not to shoot an arrow that first day. The next time around he gained his confidence and let the arrows fly!

Congrats Wyatt! What a great bird and an exciting first animal with a longbow!

Wyatt was shooting a 53# Pronghorn longbow. Carbon Express Heritage arrows, and a Magnus Stinger broadhead.

Texas Pigs

This past week a group of eight traditional bowhunters from Colorado made their way to Texas to hunt wild pigs.  I was just so lucky enough to be on the trip. We were hunting on the Martin Family Ranch, north of Abilene. 

The ranch we hunted is 20,000 acres, more than enough for eight guys. The ranch house has 13 beds, a large screen TV, large kitchen, and two bathrooms. The lease managers on the property stayed with us at the house the entire time. They were very willing to help with anything we wanted, or just step back and let us do our own thing. They treated us the exact way I would have wanted to be treated.

Mike Koenig taking some warm up shots

The first night in to the hunt Eric Sawyer shot this beautiful bobcat. Man! I would trade a lot of pigs for the chance to shoot a bobcat. What a trophy! Eric also shot a nice pig the following evening.

They told us that there are not many armadillos on this ranch. This guy was too busy digging around to hear me walk up behind him. I gave him a little nudge with my boot right after I took this picture. 

 

Tracy Gullisken right before an encounter of the swine kind

Pictured below is Poke Mountain. Yeah I know...mountain? I guess not everything is bigger in Texas. It ain't even fit for children to climb! Poke Mountain is supposedly a honey hole for hogs but I never made it up there. 

 

Another view of Poke Mountain at a distance

Some of the beautiful country we were hunting
 

Sign of hogs rooting around was, literally, everywhere.
 

I don't remember the name of the plant but this little booger is what the pigs were going crazy for. Keep scrolling down and you'll see why.
 

That big, long root has the pigs going hog wild. I cleaned it up and gave it a try. I would say that it tastes like a very mild radish. It's really not bad. I'm not sure what it would do to my digestive system but I think it would taste lovely in a salad.


On this hunt I used a Chargin' Bull bow, the second one ever made, crafted by my cousin, Chad Graham. I had not owned the bow for a day before it drew its first blood.

Now on to the hunting part! The guys recommended that I come sit by this feeder for an afternoon, claiming that the pigs were hitting it regularly. But as I sat there a strong, strong, north wind kept blasting me in the face. I looked around, trees and limbs and bushes and everything else were moving all over the place. I decided it would be a dang waste of a windy day not to 'still hunt' up a nearby creek .

 

So I started hunting my way in to the wind. I'd move 30, 40, 50 yards, or whatever felt good, and then sit around and look at birds, look through my binos, or do anything I could to force myself to go slow. I had three hours to make my way through an area that I could walk fast in 25 minutes.

An hour into my hunt I knelt down in a likely looking area. While glassing through my binos I spotted some feet walking on a little bald knob. My first thought was deer, I never expected to see a pigs little tiny legs moving around. But sure enough, a little red pig was feeding along. The red pig and another were kind of angling towards me.

My mind and body switched into Panther Mode. I angled towards them, trying to cut them off.

After closing the distance to about 30 yards I sat down to see what they would do. The wind could not have been better - it was still blowing very hard and right in my face. Since the pigs were coming right at me I waited to shoot. I was enjoying the show.

The red pig fed into a little depression about five yards from the tree I was hiding behind. I drew my new bow as the pig turned its head and gave me a broadside angle. Now I've never claimed to be a real dead-eye with a trad bow, but at five yards even I hit what I'm aiming at...usually.

The pig was in that little depression you can see in the picture below

 

The pig ran about 40 yards after my shot. I used an Eclipse 4-blade on a cedar arrow.
 

 

I think this is a good way to start out with a new bow. 
Just hours into its hunting career and we made meat!
 

Of course I had to snap some pictures before the sun went down. So I took a few pics of the pig and got ready to clean it. The Silver Fox (that's what I call my Dad) put a wicked edge on my knife before the hunt. I couldn't wait to use my sharp knife so I pulled it out to gut the pig. Only five inches into my first cut and I was interrupted by pig grunting. I look up and see a small group of pigs walking right towards me. Back into Panther Mode.

But where's my bow!? Not by my side! It's ten yards away in a bush and I am in plain sight of the pigs.

So I started snorting like a pig and crawled over to my bow. The pigs accepted me as one of their own and kept coming my way. Turns out my wife is right, I am a pig (and a good one)!

The first pig to come by wasn't so convinced that I was a bush, so I let him walk on past. The second pig though...he wasn't so lucky. Arrow #2 was put in flight.

My view from where I sat with the first pig.

 

Both pigs fell within sight. They certainly weren't big. But hey, anybody can hit the big ones!

All in all we had a really fantastic time. Of the eight hunters that made the trip six got good shots at pigs, and most got multiple shots. We are definitely going back next year. Anybody interested in a real good time needs to get in touch with us so we can pass along the information for this ranch. There are no high fences, you can hunt however you would like, and the lease manager is a traditional bowhunter. 

My new, 60", Chargin' Bull recurve weighs in at 64@28". I used cedar arrows and killed both pigs with 4-blade Eclipse broadheads. The first shot was a complete pass-through  and the second shot left about 5 inches of arrow sticking out on the near side. Broadheads were 145gr and arrows came in around 570gr.

Time to get ready for one of my favorite times of the year...turkey season! 

Winter Marathon

Danny and I decided to do a little coyote calling in the mountains this past weekend. We had been seeing lots of tracks and thought that our chances would be pretty good. Plus it was a good excuse to get outside, cabin fever is really starting to set in!

Our first set up, seen below, was in the middle of a part of the forest that was recently logged. We figured it would give us a longer line of sight so that hopefully we could see the coyotes before they were right on top of us.

Nothing came in to our first calling sequence so we decided to hike over to another drainage and call again. On our way we ran in to this:

The tracks were super fresh and I had a mountain lion tag in my pocket, so what could it hurt to follow them for a little bit.  A little bit turned in to a long bit, and we spent the better part of the day following mountain lion tracks. 

It started snowing pretty good on us so we had a good idea how fresh the tracks were. About 5 miles (as the crow flies) in to our hike we came across the cat's bed. A little further and we found some pee in the snow, still warm. It looked like the cat knew we were close, it started to lead us through some real gnarly stuff. The cat headed straight down the canyon from hell, and as far from the truck as we were, we decided that the cat had won. We turned around.

It was very interesting to see how the cat traveled through the country. It would often follow the very top of a ridge, or follow a road. Every time it came to an outcropping of rocks it walked to the edge as if to look around...just like I do.

I had not planned on walking that far and was carrying WAY TOO MUCH gear with me.

Danny is still getting over a shoulder surgery and cannot shoot his bow.

 

We were in pretty big and vertical country. We saw lots of deer and even some fresh turkey tracks. I know where I'll be when the turkey season opens in Colorado!