WOW... I have been home for a couple of days and I am still amazed that the entire weekend went so well. I have been sitting here trying to figure out how to share with everybody what went down but the event was something that needed to be attended to really understand the awesome energy of the entire weekend. I guess what I will do is just give you a layout of how it went for Stella and I.

Friday - Stella and I flew into SLC from NM. Nothing to dramatic, I fly so much I don't get too worked up by airports anymore.

That evening we had dinner with the sponsors. It was really neat, we had representatives from Hoyt, Evolved Habitat, Nikon, Realtree, Trophy Hunter Mag, Western Hunter Mag, and The Outdoorsman from AZ.

Anyway the purpose of Friday was just to meet everybody and shoot a little 3-D before everybody else got there. (We didn't get in town early enought to shoot on Friday).

THINGS I LEARNED - Shane from Evolved Habitats is really on the ball. He really understands deer.

Saturday - Stella went to the Spa for the first half of the day so she slept in. I left the motel around 6:00 am so I could be at the Lodge with plenty of time to help put out fires. As it turns out Aneal did such a great job planning and getting everybody on the same page there were no issues.

As people started arriving Shawn, Robbie and I went up the mountain to the 3-D course to get some tables setup and to take our stations on the course. I was stationed at the first set of targets on the course. My job at the first target was to make sure that as everybody came in on the Hay Truck that I would give them the run down on the course and the events for the rest of the day. It worked out pretty well. The neat part is that by staying at one target I was able to meet everybody.

Below is a Picture of everybody on the Wagon

Okay how about a little about the course. Well, some of the shots were FARRRRRR but that is okay, for me the purpose of 3-D shoots is to push my limits and see what I am capable of and what shots are beyond my current skill level. The course was also a little more spread out than most 3-D shoots but that is okay. Overall it was one of the better courses I have shot.

This was the first target on the course.... 68 yards

So after the shoot Anthony gave a brief shooting seminar. He did a great job describing his shot sequence and what he does to "make the shot".

Anthony giving his talk

After the seminar we headed down the mountain to grab some lunch and listen to Shane from Evloved Habitats give a very brief talk on herd management. Again, Shane nailed it.

Overall, I think that we in the West are not real sure what the laws are regarding food plots, bait stations and mineral licks. Shane was put in a tough spot but for me it pretty much came down to' as long as you are not hunting over bait then you are okay. For my purposes, in NM, it would be legal to put out some Buck Grub to take trail cam pictures but I couldn't hang a treestand above a bait pile. I also think that you need to check with your local game and fish officers.

After Shanes talk we all went our seperate ways to get some rest and get ready for the movie preimer.

Proof was scheduled to start at 7:00 but the movies that they were showing before Proof ran a little late so they didn't open the doors to the theaters until 7:20. You should have seen the looks on the peoples faces when they were greeted by 300 bowhunters eager to get a seat in the theater.

About the movie... Awesome, Amazing and Well Worth it....

Some of the movie goers

About the After Party... A whole lot of fun.

Sunday - Matt, Aneal, Troy, Stella and I broke down the 3-D archery course. Then Stella and I headed to Cabelas to do a little shoping. After Cablea's we went to see Step Brothers at the local theater then went to the motel and crashed.

Troy with some of the decoys

Monday - Headed back to NM.

So that is pretty much it.

Once again thank you for everybody that came out... We have already started planning next year shoot.... See you there...

Jason

While I was up in Montana, Matt Hogue was able to get up and check the 3 new stealth cam trail cameras I had set out a couple of weeks ago.

Trail Cam #1 (Wallow)

You have already seen some pictures from Trail Cam #1 over a wallow we hunted several years ago.  To date, we only saw herds of cows coming through the wallow area.  The good news is that we did get some pics of bulls.  All pretty small, but from a scouting standpoint this is good - hopefully as things continue to dry up and the season approaches - some big boys will start moving into this wallow.

Unfortunately, at some point the cow in picture two approached the camera and started licking it - so much that she sent the camera sideways.  From there are in we have a number of elk but all you can see are their hooves (and a few of them look like bull hooves!).

In addition we did get some pics of a few small deer.  Nothing to write home about. 

Trail Cam #2 (High Alpine Slide)

I had put a second camera a few hundred yards up above the wallow being watched on Trail Cam #1.  My goal here was that we often see mule deer traveling in the high basins and I was trying to get an idea of where they were typically entering down into the trees.

Unfortunately, the only trees to hang a camera on and look up into this alpine basin were small lodgepole pines.  Seemed like a good idea at the time, but the reality is the high winds were pushing that tree around and causing the camera to trigger quite a bit.  A lot of "nothing" photos.  Lesson Learned - use big solid trees - and ratchet straps could have made some improvements.  We did get a couple of pics of some small deer.

Trail Cam #3 (Dark Timber Trail)

The last camera I placed on a well used trail coming up out of the dark timber into a small meadow.  I was expecting more out of this cam, but only got a few cows using the trail.

Trail Cam Scouting Summary

We know our wallow is going to produce animals (Trail Cam #1).  I'll hang a stand there on the first weekend of the season (late August).  Matt moved the cameras off that wallow to another wallow a few hundred yards to the west.  

Our other 2 trail cams told us that the spots were not hot.  Matt moved both of them to another area.  Of course, we did get animals on both those trails, so they are definitely areas I will check out when I am still hunting the area.  But, we hope we find another traffic zone like we did on the wallow from Trail Cam #1.

How are you all doing with your camera scouting?

Aneal 

Below is a list of the prizes that were given away at the BowCast VIP Raffle and the associated winners. I hope you can all join us next year, and congrats to all of the winners!

Jeremy	Shipler	Florida Guided Hog Hunt
Jesse	Brewster	Florida Guided Hog Hunt
Jeremy	Aguilar	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Justin	Gordon	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Jonathan	Hansen	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Ethan	Howell	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Larry	Keele	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Chad	Larsen	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Brian	Larsen	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Macoy	Nielsen	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Eric	Parry	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Shane	Payne	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
christopher	tartaro	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Mike	Vanderhoof	Evolved Habitat Product (Deer Co-Cain, Rut'n Apples, Throw and Grow, Buck Jam, Buck Grub, Rack Up)
Ben	Bilanzich	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Dustin	Gleed	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Stacey	Gleed	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Allan	Horrocks	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Kipp	Jamison	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Greg	Keele	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Jessica	Morse	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Chris	Schafbuch	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Jeff	Shipler	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Carson	Watkins	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Dallen	Selley	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag and Hoyt Prize Pack
Tom	Bullock	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Richard	Burgess jr	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Jason	Monsen	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Travis	Montague	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Sady	Mounts	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Heath	Muir	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Lee	Pineo	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Andy	Sager	Realtree Max1 Duffle Bag
Jim	Morse	G5 Quest Bow
Tamara	Hawkins	G5 Optima XR Sight
Jeffrey	Scharman	G5 Expert II Rest
Randy	Browning	1 Year Subscription to Western Hunter
Joe	Mounts	1 Year Subscription to Western Hunter
Preston	Price	1 Year Subscription to Western Hunter
Monte	Green	1 Year Subscription to Trophy Hunter Magazine
Mitchell	Slot	1 Year Subscription to Trophy Hunter Magazine
John	Chamberlain	1 Year Subscription to Trophy Hunter Magazine
Mark	Broderick	$700 Evolved Habitats Gift Pack

Below are some more pics of BowCasters shooting with Anthony at the 3D shoot before the FMP premiere of Proof. Thanks to BowCaster dkhntrdstn for providing us with these photos:

Anthony shooting with the guys.