As many of you know I am always looking to highlight our listeners hunts. Well, 12 point droptine sent me this picture and a story of his recent hunt. WOW, now that is a Mulie. Great Job and thanks for sending me the story - Jason

It was about 5:30 when I finally got up and ate breakfast. My guide Dave said he wanted us to go over to the east side of the 3000-acre ranch. We where in Colorado hunting mulies and elk. Me and my father where up their in late December and early January. My dad had already taken his mule deer on the second day. His guide said him and my father where going about 300 yards to the west of Dave and me. We left camp at daybreak to go see if we could spot a nice elk or mulie. We had spotted a nice 12-point elk and started to stalk it when we heard some thing running through the woods. My guide did a cow call and a 13-point elk my father and his guide had scared out bugled. The guide said get behind that log and get ready to draw. When the elk came into view he was at 20 yards. I drew back hoping he would stop and turn broadside he didn’t. He just kept coming right at me I told my self not to shoot till I got a good broadside shot but when the elk got to 5 yards I just had to shoot. The arrow went right through the heart he only ran 40 yards then collapsed. While taking pictures the guide told me there was a monster mulie behind me. Then he told me he was behind a tree and to grab my bow and nock an arrow and draw back. I did and when he stepped out broadside at 10 yards I sent a rage broad head right through his lungs and he only ran 15 yards before dying. Long story short it was my lucky day.

....My favorite band...uh...not really.

Aneal keeping tuned up at camp.

As my good friend Matt and a newbie English chap headed out for Kansas, I really wasn't thinking about the recent 2 podcast episodes we were fortunate enough to record with Chris Roe several weeks before.  I was thinking more about if I had enough room in my cooler for 3 Toms (2 in Kansas and 1 in Nebraska) and whether or not I still had that dusty old bottle of Wild Turkey 101 in the bottom cabinet of my camper to slug and do a celebration dance after we put down some turkeys.

But once we got into the field, it became apparent to me by the large flocks of turkeys that were roosted above our heads on opening morning, that we were into some henned up winter flocks.  "Early phase" as Chris put it....and his advice to "Crowd the Roost" was illustrated to a tee.

First morning, all 3 of us picked a spot on a field about 500 yards long and 50 yards wide.  Matt and I were caddy cornered in blinds across the field from each other so we could capture some video.  I was on the wood line under the roosted birds, and Matt was across.  As light came, the turkeys started raining down....approximately 40 in all and it was a magnificient display.  They got down, hens were cacklin, Toms were strutting, jakes were walkin around in their normal goofy form, and my adrenaline was pumping.  We watched that flock break up and reconvene several times before 2 subordinate Tom's came in from right behind me.  I knocked over the camera trying to get in position for an akward shot...and then realized they were headed right for Matt's B-Mobile strutter decoy.  They stopped about 25 yards from the decoy (about 40 yards from Matt), and just stood there for what seemed like an hour (probably only 4 minutes).  Finally, one of the toms made the move, and headed right for the B-Mobile.  I am smirking right now thinking about that Tom running back towards me with the arrow sticking out both ends of his ribs after Matt slinked him with one.  1 Tom down.

Matt took off to take care of his game, and I moved slightly down field and settled in for a nap.  Around Noon, I caught movement out of my right (the far corner of the field.  3 hens popped in and 2 Toms followed right behind them.  I had a Magnus Broadhead nocked, and the Toms crossed the blind at about 22 yards.  I aimed low (knowing my Maguns broadheads flew high with a stiffer arrow at 20 yards) and I swear the turkey ducked (in reality I shot about 3 inches too high).  Oh well, it was only the first day. 

Unfortunately, the next day high winds blew in and the temperature dropped to just hovering over freezing.  While we got under the birds again the next  morning, the fatal mistake was we set back up in the field.  Those turkeys wanted nothing to do with open country in that wind.  I counted 7 strutters marching up and down that field only 5 yards into the woodline.  At 1 point, 4 strutters came to a clearing in the woodline (across the field from my blind) and took turns displaying for my hen and B-mobile setup.  They finally moved off.......that morning's action was done.

The rest of the trip was really about fighting the wind.  We moved our setups into the woodline of this popular area, and Matt was lucky to get a great Tom come in all by himself at 3pm in the afternoon.  The Tom strutted for about an hour before Matt's purring was able to bring him in to 35 yards.  Film revealed Matt's shot was low, and when he went after him, the sinking feeling of watching a wounded bird glide in the wind became embedded in Matt's stomach.  Good news (well really amazing news) is Matt found that bird still alive almost 20 hours later laying in a field with 2 broken legs.  He got another arrow in him and headed back to camp for that wild turkey 101.  As he put it, sometimes it is better to be lucky than be good.

Nebraska riverbottom the week before the Kansas trip. 

While Matt was putting an end to his crippled bird, I found a truck in the spot I was planning on heading out to that morning (this was public land after all), so I had to go in blind to another area I knew was legal to hunt but had never walked on before.  I walked the river bottom calling every so often...not a sound.  Finally after heading in about a mile with my blind on my back, I heard some gobbles about another mile away.  Unfortunately as I followed them, I realized I ran out of public land 1/4 mile up and was stuck.  What to do?  I back tracked and started paying a little closer attention to sign.  The ground was hard and dry, but there was turkey droppings EVERYWHERE.  Nothing fresh, but a lot of droppings.  So I went back and butted up next to the private land and setup on a high plateau overlooking the riverbottom and the farmer's alfalfa field.  At about 9:30 AM (I promised myself I would give it until 10:00 AM), I started hearing gobbles slowly working closer.  I yelped relatively soft, and the gobbles got closer.  They were heading my way, and I was going to get a good shot.  The first 10 turkeys poured into the field and it was 9 hens and 1 jake.....not so good.  The next 10 poured into the field and it was 5 jakes, 4 hens, and 1 tom.   20 Turkeys in front of me and only 1 Tom!  The next 10 (yes 10 more coming)....1 jake, 2, hens and 7 Toms!  This is getting good.

Unfortunately, the winds were still high and none of the Toms went into strut.  They didn't even make an attempt to get closer than 50 yards while the jakes and hens all crowded my jake/hen decoy setup at about 20 yards.  After doing everything I could think of to convince those Toms to come in, I finally thought about coming home empty handed last year.  I put an arrow through a jake at about 12 yards and then chuckled while the other jakes all started attacking the carcass and fanning out.  The Toms and hens wanted nothing to do with it and moved off.

With 3 birds down (for the whole camp) I headed solo into Nebraska for a change of scenery.  Unfortunately that change of scenery was high winds, hail, and snow/sleet mix.  I thought that was my sign, and headed home to the family.

A great early season hunt!  I encourage all you Turkey hunters to go back and listen to Chris Roe's recipe for early season success.  I had many more encounters with Toms that I roosted, and then got right under them (within 50 yards) of when they flew down.  As is the case with Turkey hunting, not all of these "crowded roost" strategies ended up with shot opportunities, but each time there was plenty of action.

My two daughters b-days are coming up here at the end of the month, so I'll be staying close to home for a couple of weeks.  I will then head into the Colorado high country with some of my good friends to chase Merriams around.  Hopefully early may will bring a second breeding frenzy and we'll have some great action.  As always, I'll keep you all posted.

 Sorry for the delay in getting this post up.  It has been a little crazy around here.  As promised I'm going to tell you about the water filters I was at the Outdoor Retailers Show.  The first one is from MSR.  The filter is smaller and lighter than any others that I've tried and it blows the doors off of the competition in speed.  The Hyperflow Pump is what they are calling it and it weighs just 7.8 oz.  It is hard to expect great performance when you are getting such a compact, lightweight unit, but the manufacturer boasts 2.75 liters per minute!  That is almost 3 times the speed of most of the filters out there.  I tried it at the show and was surprised at how little effort it required to use.  Also, a great boon to it's design is that it is field serviceable; no disposable cartridge to plug halfway through your trip.  It takes a couple of minutes to disassemble the pump to backflush the system, but the inconvenience is well worth the benefit.  I've had my disposable filter pump leave me high and dry when filtering murky water. 

   Another new pump that I thought was worth adding to your equipment list is the Platypus Cleanstream.  It is a gravity filter with using the same filter technology as the MSR Hyperflow.  With this filter, simply fill the 4 liter bag, elevate it above the other and the inline filter does the work for you.  It is spec'd at 4 liters in under 2 1/2 minutes!  Cleaning the filter on this one is even easier, simply disconnect your "dirty" water bag and elevate the filtered bag.  The filter gets back flushed, dumping the sediment back onto the ground.  Unfortunately, I don't have a weight spec to provide you with, but their stuff is usually really light.  I'd expect no different from this one. I'll be field testing one or the other of these filters on the next leg of the Pacific Crest Trail my wife and I are hiking next month and I'll give you feedback if either is anything less than excellent. 

   I got some correspondence from a reader asking about how I got over  the physiological impact of the bear mauling I experienced when I was bowhunting in '92.  The inquiry also got me thinking about addressing how I personally was able to become comfortable with making extended solo backcountry trips.  First the bear mauling recovery (for those who haven't read about that, it is published in Cameron Hane's book Bowhunting Trophy Blacktail, still available through his website I'm sure).  I was very fortunate with the extent of injuries I received.  It was a couple of months before I was able to shoot my bow again.  By that time archery season had come and gone, but the opener of rifle season for bear hit about the same time I recovered physically.  I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me, but was very anxious to see how I would handle getting close to a bear again.  Back in civilization, it was easy to talk about and I didn't worry about what might happen if and when I would encounter a bear again.  I knew that all could easily change when I had one at close range though.  So, I loaded up my bivy pack for a 4 day hunt and headed out.  Opening morning I glassed up a bear in a berry patch on a steep hillside.  With the thermals wafting gently up the hill, I was able to close the gap easily while he (I presume) was busy stripping the bushes.  About 20 yards above the bear was a large rock.  I climbed up on top of it, which brought me well above the level of the bushes around me.  The bear sat directly below me, totally engrossed in the business at hand.  I had a small opening lining up with the bear's chest, but a small branch partially screened a clear shot.  My heart was beating overtime, I was shaking like a leaf as I waited for the bear to turn slightly to offer a clear shot.  Anxiety coursed through my veins totally uninhibited, I just knew that bear was going to jerk me off that rock and finish the job the other one had started.  After some great duration of time, the bear finally turned.  As he began to move, I drew my bow.  Just as I was beginning to settle in, the bear completed his turn and lifted his head.  Despite their poor eyesight, the silhouette was not mistaken and he wasted no time in clearing out.  I let out a sigh of relief that almost cleared my stomach as I let my bow down.  I had my answer, I could do it, albeit not very gracefully, but I'm confident I could have pulled it off.  Regardless, I know I was happier that he had left than I was disappointed that I didn't fill my tag.  By facing my fears I learn where my limits are.  I ended up leaving that trip early, my release broke and I had no back-up.  I was relieved to have an excuse not to put myself in the predator/prey or prey/predator position again.  I was pretty rattled from the one encounter and managed to get in another stalk where I was winded before I got a shot.  The following year I was able to close the deal on opening weekend with a 300 boar.  I also helped two other buddies fill their bear tags on spot and stalk hunts that season.  Since then I haven't hunted them much, but it is more because they don't grow antlers than out of concern of becoming a meal.  The year after I got mauled I did run into a sow with cubs in the bottom of the same canyon.  The cub walked out of a thick patch of willows I was walking by in the middle of the day.  A stiff wind blew in my face and it was eating up the 20 yards between us as it wandered in my direction.  My pack hit the ground as soon as I saw it and I was frantically rooting through it to find my pepper spray.  By the time I got my hands on it, the cub was only 15 yards away and the sow had emerged from the willows as well.  When she spotted my form, she stood up and woofed at the cub.  It ran by me and up a tree, leaving me in a very uncomfortable position.  With the wind blowing in my face, I knew if I blasted her with the pepper spray I would be self medicated also.  It was a tense moment as she dropped to all fours, I just knew I was going to see her beady eyes bearing down on me.  She did a stutter step, then turned and barreled off through the willows.  I turned and made record time out of the canyon.  That experience was about enough to make me take up quilting for a safer hobby.  I think one of the things that allows me to overcome my fears is a positive attitude (some might judge it as a bit reckless) that everything is going to be alright.  I don't look at a situation and imagine or visualize the worst, instead I look at it and figure out how I can do it.  My discovery of pepper spray and the research I did on it's effectiveness gave me a tremendous amount of confidence and helped me be successful in my return to bear country.  When it first came out, pepper spray was 15% capsicum pepper.  Now, it has been reduced to less than 2%.  I'm not nearly as confident with the lower percentage and would hesitate to recommend it as your only source of back-up.  I wouldn't be too worried about the blackies, but Kodiak in Oct/Nov, I think I'd be packing the heat.

   I had a friend ask me one time how I am able to do the solo trips.  Anybody that knows me will tell you I'm no macho he-man.  I startle easily, can't watch scary (even remotely) movies and I do enjoy the company of a good hunting buddy.  If someone was to ask me how they might be able to mentally condition themselves to be able to confidently make solo excursions into the backcountry, I would recommend a slow immersion rather than trial by fire.  My first attempt at a solo trip was when I was 17.  I loaded my pack for an overnight and dropped into a deep canyon.  As the sun sank lower, so did my confidence.  I looked around and convinced myself this area didn't look as good once I got down into it as it did from the top.  I made record time back up to the truck and was "safely" surrounded by other people back at the campground that night.  One might look at that as a failure, but I look at it as a first step.  My next, more successful trips, were short, solo overnight forays from a basecamp I shared with a hunting partner. Incremental steps, I feel is the best way to success.  On my early, extended solo trips I carried a small radio, just to hear a voice.  Now, an ipod might be more practical.  Carry a note pad and take notes about your trip or a letter to your wife.  Sometimes just feeling like you are carrying on a conversation is enough to overcome temporary anxiety.  When I'm on top of the mountain, when cell service is possible, I'll check in with my wife or a hunting buddy.  The times I've spent alone up in the mountains rank as some of the most memorable in my life.  It is well worth whatever dues you need to pay to be able to make those solo trips up there.

   Once again, keep the questions/feedback coming.  I'd love to help wherever I can.  Next entry I'll cover my gear list (another request) and talk a bit about why I chose or use the particular items.

The term "Stump Shooting" is a little misleading, DON'T SHOOT STUMPS you will destroy your arrows. The first time I went stump shooting I quickly learned that you really needed to pick your targets carefully. I went thru 4 arrows in about 30 minutes, it wasn't pretty.

Before you go out and start shooting things, you need to replace your fields points with something like the G5 S.G.H, a rubber blunt or add a adder point behind your field tip. You basically need something that will not penetrate too deeply into your target and that will
“kick-up” and not dig into the dirt.

Personally, I like the S.G.H.'s because I can also use them on rabbits and other small game if they are in season.

Below are some possible head choices

The purpose of Stump Shooting is hone your range estimation skills, hone your shooting skills and get a little exercise. The idea is to walk around in a natural setting, pick a suitable target like a cactus or a pile of grass, try to determine the distance and shoot it.

If it is legal in your area, small cacti like the ones below are great targets.

You can also use a small kickable target like the Kick-N-Shoot from Hips Targets to add a little variation to the game.

If you are getting bored of drilling and killing the same targets get outside and try some stump shooting...

Take Care

J-

Sign up for that run, bike, swim, event, competition, or race...it will foster motivation; trust me!

A few more...

"Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." William Faulkner

"The heart controls the mind and the mind controls the body." Jim Lampley

"Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe." Mark Victor