Local archers turn passion for hunting into successful TV series – KansasCity.com
September 28, 2011
By BRENT FRAZEE
The Kansas City Star
For Mike Hunsucker and Shawn Luchtel, the ultimate is no longer merely shooting a trophy deer with their bows.
It’s hitting a monstrous whitetail while the video camera is rolling.
For Hunsucker and Luchtel, longtime friends from the Kansas City area, that’s the burning desire just about every time they slip into the woods these days.
From the days when they would just go out and experiment with videotaping a hunt, they have developed a popular national television show called “Heartland Bowhunter.”
During the series, seen on the Sportsman Channel, they and six other crew members take turns in front of the camera, bow hunting near and far.
The “near” part? Some of the footage is shot not far from their back yards.
They both still have fond memories of an opening-day hunt in 2010 when they chased a Jackson County buck that they knew quite well.
“That buck was 4 years old when Shawn shot him, but we had been watching him since he was 2,” said Hunsucker, 25, of Lee’s Summit. “We had numerous photos of him on trail cameras, and we knew his routine.
“The deer were coming through this fence opening at just about the same time every day, and we set up near there.”
Luchtel sat in a tree stand, while Hunsucker handled the camera. Despite a thunderstorm moving in, the big buck showed up on schedule, Luchtel drew back on his bow and hit his target with an arrow.
All as the camera was rolling.
“We got some real good footage of that hunt,” said Luchtel, 25, of rural Grain Valley. “That buck was a nontypical that scored 173 — a big one to catch on video.” Click Link Below For Full Story!
Heartland Bowhunter Season 4 Trailer from MAMMOTH on Vimeo.
via Local archers turn passion for hunting into successful TV series – KansasCity.com.
West Virginia big buck contest looms large – National Hunting | Examiner.com
September 28, 2011
Jake Jones
It’s getting cooler than it has been, days are getting shorter, and the smell of fall is in the air. That can only mean one thing! Deer hunting season must be right around the corner.
And with that in mind a number of agencies, organizations and corporate entities have announced a “Big Buck” contest for West Virginia.
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, the Izaak Walton League of West Virginia, the West Virginia Bowhunters Association, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR), the West Virginia Muzzleloaders Association, West Virginia Physically Challenged Advisory Board, and Toyota have announced that they are once again sponsoring the West Virginia Big Buck Contest for deer taken between Oct. 1 and Dec.31, 2011, according to Gene Thorn, Chairman of the West Virginia Big Buck Contest Review Committee.
Big Buck contests are rampant across America during the deer hunting seasons. Everyone from newspapers, corporate organizations, sportsmen’s clubs, and sometimes even a few local governments get involved in the hoopla over big bucks. Sometimes there are cash prizes, plaques, and most get their photo in the local newspaper. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via West Virginia big buck contest looms large – National Hunting | Examiner.com.
Hunting deer, doing good: Americans don’t need government to solve their problems | NY Daily News
September 28, 2011
S.E. Cupp
It’s called “deer fever” – an affliction that affects millions of hunters all over the country, as we awaken from soggy, lazy, waders-clad summers spent obsessing over fly hatches and remember with feverish anticipation that deer season is upon us. The hunting catalogues arrive, the sportsmen’s magazine covers are graced by Jurassic-looking 12-point bucks instead of agile, pursed-lipped rainbow trout, and mornings are spent poring over last night’s trail camera footage with the desperate hope of glimpsing the monster deer you plan to stalk for all of fall.
For most urban New Yorkers, of course, the above probably reads a lot like gibberish, or, worse, the frightening, foreign language of a bloodthirsty tribe of those who don’t frequent Whole Foods.
But this columnist, for one, is proof that we walk among you.
Before you turn up your champagne-sniffing noses at the thought of rubbing elbows with heathen Bambi-killers, might I suggest you throw a little gratitude our way? After all, we pay our fair share.
We might not be rich. Most of us aren’t. But every year, we still make it a point to give, because, well, that’s what Americans do. Did you know, for example, that this year I plan to feed 160 hungry people with just one deer, if I’m lucky enough to avoid the birches that magically sprout the second I pull the trigger? Or that over the past 12 years, New York State hunters have served 2,700,900 highly nutritious meals to folks who might have otherwise gone without dinner? Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Hunting deer, doing good: Americans don’t need government to solve their problems.
Hunting land curtailed – The People’s Defender
September 28, 2011
Adams County sportsmen lose over 3,600 acres of public hunting
Tom Cross
The People’s Defender
In a loss felt around Ohio, the Ohio Division of Wildlife and Scioto Land Company, formally Mead/Westvaco, couldn’t come to terms for the almost 40,000 acres of public hunting land in southeast Ohio.
According to Jim Hill, ODNR Wildlife Management Supervisor in Southeast Ohio, it came down to Scioto Land Company wanting to be paid for the property to remain open for public hunting.
Affecting Adams County sportsmen are the three tracts of scrub forestland off Beech Fork and Mineral Springs Road containing 3,621 acres; almost as large as the Tranquility Wildlife Area near Peebles. Tract #667, known as the Peach Mountain tract, located on Mineral Springs Road was 992 acres, while tract #665 and #553 located along Beech Fork Road was a combined 2,629 acres. The loss also includes a special Ruffed Grouse Society grouse habitat management area located at tract #665.
Back in the heydays of the 70′s and 80′s when it was Mead Paper Company property, those three tracts in Adams and Scioto County were considered some of the finest grouse and turkey hunting areas in southern Ohio.
For over 40 years Mead Paper Company had permitted public hunting on nearly all their Ohio holdings which amounted to nearly 150,000 acres in southeast Ohio.
“We didn’t even discuss price,” said Mark Hemming, Division of Wildlife District 4 Supervisor in Athens. “The Division of Wildlife is in agreement with numerous property owners and we can’t enter into a lease agreement without it affecting our agreements with other large property owners such as AEP and the various coal companies which allow public hunting. With Scioto Land Company it was a matter of their share holders wanting a return on their investments, so they opted to lease the properties.”
In December of 2005 Scioto Land Company based out of Columbus purchased the Mead properties in Ohio and in 2006 reached a five year agreement with the Division of Wildlife on 43,000 acres for public hunting. Locally that agreement again opened the Beech Fork and Mineral Springs properties in Adams County to public hunting which had been previously leased to private concerns by the old Mead/Westvaco Company. Prior to that, the land was basically a Mead Public Hunting Area for almost 30 years.
Adams County still has numerous public hunting areas with Shawnee and Brush Creek State Forest and 4,254 acre Tranquility Wildlife Area. However the loss of over 3,600 acres is significant for Adams County public hunting opportunities.
NUGENT: Happy National Hunting and Fishing Day
September 23, 2011
Whitetail Tactics for Bluff Country | North American Whitetail
September 14, 2011
by Thomas Allen • September 13, 2011
I cut my teeth deer hunting on the steep bluffs along the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. Even today, I consider that terrain some of the most intimidating whitetail habitat in North America. Some of the world’s largest deer have come from the Mississippi corridor, and some of the largest whitetails never to fall to a hunter’s bullet or broadhead still roam those hills. I learned early on that to successfully hang a trophy on your wall by hunting this part of the country, you can’t be afraid of hard work and you need to have plenty of buddies with strong backs and open schedules. Here are some whitetail tactics for bluff country!
ON THE SHELF
I was shed hunting in early spring when I discovered the shelf. I had just finished crawling — literally crawling — through some of the thickest, thorniest cover on the property, and I had come away with a fine, 50-inch shed antler, but not without sacrificing any exposed piece of skin.
“It’s no wonder the deer love that stuff,” I muttered to myself as I began climbing the hill toward the ridge. Within minutes, the near-vertical climb toward the ridge had rendered me essentially exhausted, but as I staggered a few more feet upward, the ground began to level up. The ridge was still well above me, but I had discovered a few feet of level terrain running parallel to the ridge and only midway up the incline. Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Whitetail Tactics for Bluff Country.
PA Game Commission Awards 56 Elk Licenses /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
September 14, 2011
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — After a five-day delay prompted by Tropical Storm Lee flooding that forced the closure of state offices in the Harrisburg area last week, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today held a public drawing to award 56 elk licenses for the 2011 season. The event also was webcast via the agency’s website, drew 599 viewers, and served as a means to enable more people to view the public drawing. All 56 hunters selected to receive a license will be mailed a confirmation letter within about a week.
“Over the past two years, we have been pleased to enable the tens of thousands of individuals who apply for an elk license to find out via our webcast if they had been drawn,” said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. “We recognize everyone who applies is unable to attend and, given our financial limitations, we can’t afford to send everyone who applied for an elk license a letter letting them know whether they were drawn; we only notify those who were selected.
“By webcasting the public drawing, we reached far more than the two dozen people who attended the event at the agency’s Harrisburg headquarters. In fact, according to the webcasting service we used for today’s broadcast, we saw there were 599 people tuned in at one time.”
Roe noted there were 18,253 individuals who applied for the drawing. An additional 487 applicants only purchased a preference point for this year, and were not included in the drawing.
“While state law prevents the agency from publishing a list of today’s winners, thanks to another of the agency’s technological leaps forward, those who were in today’s drawings can check on the status of their applications, by Sept. 23, thanks to the new Pennsylvania Automated License System (PALS),” Roe said. Click Link Below For Full Story!
6 Keys to Early-Season Deer Hunting – Game & Fish/Sportsman
September 14, 2011
by Travis Faulkner
A heavily worn deer path skirted along the edge of the green field, which was surrounded by a combination of dense cover and isolated patches of open hardwoods. The entire area was completely covered in muddy deer tracks and every other sapling tree had been rubbed raw. In addition, my trail cameras had already captured several pictures of a really nice buck with extra-tall tines and a single crab-claw point that gave him character. Needless to say, these photos and fresh sign helped me forget all about the humid temperatures and bloodthirsty insects that go hand-in-hand with early-season deer hunting.
On opening day, I slipped into my treestand that overlooked a staging area just above two converging creek channels and one of the nastiest thickets on the entire property. About 30 minutes before dark, the sound of crackling dry leaves broke the evening silence to the extreme right of my stand. It was the crab-claw buck and he was headed directly toward an open shooing lane. Without hesitation, I quickly came to full draw and let an arrow fly that definitely jumpstarted my entire fall season. If you also would like to consistently bust pre-rut bruisers like these, then you need to pay close attention to the following early-season strategies and big buck essentials. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via 6 Keys to Early-Season Deer Hunting – Game & Fish/Sportsman.
New World-Record Mule Deer Tagged in Canada? | Field & Stream
September 14, 2011
by Steve Hill
It happens every year: Deer seasons open, and rumors start zipping around the Internet about the latest record-breaking buck. Lots of these tales never check out, but here’s one that appears to have legs: A potential Pope & Young world-record nontypical muley was reportedly taken in Saskatchewan in early September.
Canadian Cody Robbins, host of the “Live 2 Hunt” TV show and a longtime camera man for professional hunter and TV host Jim Shockey, arrowed the potential world-beater during the first week of September. Robbins could not be reached for comment and no official photos have been released. But two online hunting forums have reported green scores of 294 to 295, and a source close to the situation confirmed for Field & Stream that those score estimates are accurate. Click Link Below for Full Story!
via Special Report: New World-Record Mule Deer Tagged in Canada? | Field & Stream.
Dove season planted fields ready for the plucking – NewsObserver.com
September 1, 2011
BY MIKE MARSH – Correspondent
Correspondent
Whiteville — For many hunters, the opening of dove season over the Labor Day weekend jumpstarts the fall season. But for those who plant fields to attract doves, the season began in spring.
One of those with a year-round passion for wing shooting is Richard Edwards, who was busy calling hunters during the last couple of weeks before the first dove hunt of the year.
“We polled our members to see if they would prefer to shoot on Saturday or Labor Day,” said Edwards, a medical sales representative from Wilmington. “Some of them might have been busy with other things on Saturday and we wanted to be sure that everyone could be at the club for our first hunt. They decided not to wait until Monday so we will hunt Saturday.”
Edwards planted sunflowers and corn months ago to prepare for the upcoming hunt at the Mill Pond Hunting Club, which is located near Whiteville, N.C. Once it matured, he mowed some of the corn to attract the birds and checked on the number of doves feeding in his sunflower fields.
“I love the fellowship and enjoy the shooting,” he said. “But what I really love most is watching everyone else shooting and having a good time. I also like seeing the doves come into a field that I’ve planted. It’s exciting.” Click Link Below For Full Story!
via Dove season planted fields ready for the plucking – Outdoors – NewsObserver.com.
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