We enter that time of year when outdoor activities will soon begin to change, just like the weather. It is a great sunshiney day here and it make the attitudes an outlooks so much better, you can't believe it.
Why does the sun make such a big difference with the way I look at things? Can't I convince my mind that the sun is shining everyday, and that should make me feel the same every day.
Can't I make the choice every day, to be
thankful for a great God, world, and all the outdoors has to offer and be joyful and happy?
Sure I can, and so can you!!!!
We still have a lot of snow in NE Wisconsin, but the temps are climbing every day. Avg temp now is 31 degrees. Days are getting longer and March Madness is almost here.
I enjoy March and all the basketball that it brings, with the hopes for the golf season to right around the corner.
Ice fishing will be exciting in the weeks to come, but shacks will have to be hauled off the lakes in a few short weeks.
Hope your spring is around the corner! What ever outdoor activity you are looking forward too. But, enjoy the ones you have right now. Make that Choice, I am.
--Outdoorwiz
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
2nd Annual Buckhunters Coyote Hunt
What an awesome experience! What a great day to spend in the snow filled woods of northestern Wisconsin.
I found someone to go with me at the last minute. I want to thank my cousin Wayne for coming up. I pretty sure he enjoyed the day as well. His started a little earlier than mine. He had to travel over an hour to get here around 6:00 am Saturday . I hope he packed his gear the night before. I know I had to even though I got home late the night before because of a basketball game with my daughter.
I apologize for not having any pictures, but you'll have to trust me the day, was cold in the morning around zero, and the wind very light, if any. The sun came up and it was awesome being on stand when the woods came alive at around 7 am.
We decided to go to my father-in-laws 10 acres south of town, since I have heard many coyotes there while hunting for whitetails. After getting dressed up and guns loaded, we entered the short road to get to a blind stand and a tree stand. We decided to use them, since there were several sets of coyote tracks passing on the road quite early. We thought we may as well use the deer stands.
I placed the electronic, remote call between us just off the ground and faced it in the direction of a swamp nearby. Since I had never used a call before, I started with a short cottontail call, and gradually increased the length of the call, for a total of around 5 minutes of calling before I shut it off. We didn't get any response that we could tell. So, I repeated this another time. Don't know for sure how many times you should do this before moving on to another location. But, we spent less than an hour at this location. No coyotes responded, but I did jump a deer on the way in.
After getting stuck once and finding many more hunters on public land, we decided to go to another plot of private land that we got permission to hunt. I loaded the ATV and off we went. The snow was deep and we couldn't get back to the one swamp I wanted to try. We stopped and tried calling twice from a ridge that was several hundred yards from where I wanted to go. Nothing.
We went down the road further to a food plot and an elevated box deer stand. But, we got stuck again with the ATV. It took a while to winch ourselves out, and we made plenty of noise, so we really didn't know if we should even try. "Stranger things have happened" I believe the comment was. So, we climbed up into this huge blind to more-or-less rest. Like a dufus I left the call right under the stand. Yup, started calling and here came a small coyote heading around down wind and it stopped. I couldn't get my gun high enough over the side of the blind to get it in the scope. I noticed the coyote looked back, and sure enough a huge one was right behind. Wayne could get a shot at that one so told him to take it. MISFIRE@#@#@# Some much for reloads. The big one took off and I decided to blast at the smaller one while standing. I got a tree.
What a mess. Everything happened so fast. How did we mess that up? Rookies!
Oh well, we thanked GOD for the experience and tried the rest of the day to call more, but to know avail.
We got a lot of exercise, a lot of sun, a lot of laughs, and probably got hooked on doing this more often. So, we sure would take any advice. I do have a lot of questions about hunting these dogs.
Until next time. Hunt safe.
I found someone to go with me at the last minute. I want to thank my cousin Wayne for coming up. I pretty sure he enjoyed the day as well. His started a little earlier than mine. He had to travel over an hour to get here around 6:00 am Saturday . I hope he packed his gear the night before. I know I had to even though I got home late the night before because of a basketball game with my daughter.
I apologize for not having any pictures, but you'll have to trust me the day, was cold in the morning around zero, and the wind very light, if any. The sun came up and it was awesome being on stand when the woods came alive at around 7 am.
We decided to go to my father-in-laws 10 acres south of town, since I have heard many coyotes there while hunting for whitetails. After getting dressed up and guns loaded, we entered the short road to get to a blind stand and a tree stand. We decided to use them, since there were several sets of coyote tracks passing on the road quite early. We thought we may as well use the deer stands.
I placed the electronic, remote call between us just off the ground and faced it in the direction of a swamp nearby. Since I had never used a call before, I started with a short cottontail call, and gradually increased the length of the call, for a total of around 5 minutes of calling before I shut it off. We didn't get any response that we could tell. So, I repeated this another time. Don't know for sure how many times you should do this before moving on to another location. But, we spent less than an hour at this location. No coyotes responded, but I did jump a deer on the way in.
After getting stuck once and finding many more hunters on public land, we decided to go to another plot of private land that we got permission to hunt. I loaded the ATV and off we went. The snow was deep and we couldn't get back to the one swamp I wanted to try. We stopped and tried calling twice from a ridge that was several hundred yards from where I wanted to go. Nothing.
We went down the road further to a food plot and an elevated box deer stand. But, we got stuck again with the ATV. It took a while to winch ourselves out, and we made plenty of noise, so we really didn't know if we should even try. "Stranger things have happened" I believe the comment was. So, we climbed up into this huge blind to more-or-less rest. Like a dufus I left the call right under the stand. Yup, started calling and here came a small coyote heading around down wind and it stopped. I couldn't get my gun high enough over the side of the blind to get it in the scope. I noticed the coyote looked back, and sure enough a huge one was right behind. Wayne could get a shot at that one so told him to take it. MISFIRE@#@#@# Some much for reloads. The big one took off and I decided to blast at the smaller one while standing. I got a tree.
What a mess. Everything happened so fast. How did we mess that up? Rookies!
Oh well, we thanked GOD for the experience and tried the rest of the day to call more, but to know avail.
We got a lot of exercise, a lot of sun, a lot of laughs, and probably got hooked on doing this more often. So, we sure would take any advice. I do have a lot of questions about hunting these dogs.
Until next time. Hunt safe.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Coyote Hunt Eve
Well, I thought I had a team put together of 2 of my buddies, but found out last night that neither of them could make it tomorrrow morning. So, I had to make a few texts to my family memebers and see if they wanted to travel up and try this hunt themselves.
I just might have a 2-5 man team ready to take a stab at this wildly coyote thing. So that will be fun. I will find out later tonight exactly who will be coming. I also will have to come up with some sort of plan of attack.
Or we could just get up in the morning and wing it.
It sounds like there will be more participants than last year which is good. Weather looks like a low of 13 degrees tonight and high of 28 tomorrow. Partly cloudy skies and a NW wind from 5-15 mph should at least be good weather as far as I know.
So, I'll certainly blog about our tactics and results after the big hunt Saturday.
Hunt safe!
I just might have a 2-5 man team ready to take a stab at this wildly coyote thing. So that will be fun. I will find out later tonight exactly who will be coming. I also will have to come up with some sort of plan of attack.
Or we could just get up in the morning and wing it.
It sounds like there will be more participants than last year which is good. Weather looks like a low of 13 degrees tonight and high of 28 tomorrow. Partly cloudy skies and a NW wind from 5-15 mph should at least be good weather as far as I know.
So, I'll certainly blog about our tactics and results after the big hunt Saturday.
Hunt safe!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Crandon / Forest County Coyote Hunt
This Saturday is the 2nd annual predator hunt in the northeastern part of Wisconsin. Last year was a learning year, but still had a good turn out. The event is becoming quite popular with the recent increase in predators hanging around the already thinned out deer herd.
Whitetail hunters in the northwoods are not happy about the deer population at all. So, this may be the opportunity to take out any coyotes that are helping to thin the herd.
I'm planning on forming a team and giving it a go this year. I am certainly not an avid coyote hunter, but could become one very easily.
I'll keep you posted on the hunt.
Take someone hunting in your woods, and be safe!
Whitetail hunters in the northwoods are not happy about the deer population at all. So, this may be the opportunity to take out any coyotes that are helping to thin the herd.
I'm planning on forming a team and giving it a go this year. I am certainly not an avid coyote hunter, but could become one very easily.
I'll keep you posted on the hunt.
Take someone hunting in your woods, and be safe!
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