24lbs – 3/4″ Spurs – 10″ Beard

2013 Spring Turkey Season
I had a great turkey season opener this year and was thankful to do it with my 5yr old at my side! Our first set didn’t pan out so we picked up and moved to the other end of the property at about 7:30. We slowly moved down a field edge until I saw what I thought was a turkey head pop up and go back down to feed approx 150yrds out. We crawled up to the field edge and a few minutes later I saw the top of a fan about 200 yards out.
I began trying to work some magic on my slate call and the Tom liked what he heard! He had a hen feeding away from us so he worked in slowly, but he put on quite a show strutting and gobbling all the way. I finally put the hammer down at about 30 yards and that completed a great father/son memory that neither of us will soon forget!

Good Luck!

The Haul

Hello fellow hunters! I apologize for my long period of silence, and quite frankly, I can’t promise that it won’t happen again. I am a father, husband, provider, and hunter just like you and sometimes hunter gets pushed down the priority pole. That being said, I will try to do better and must say that I truly enjoy sharing my feats and defeats with you!

As you can see, I’ve been doing some waterfowling this past month and I must say that I’ve had some pretty amazing action. These pics are from a hunt that I was on in North MO. We were hunting in a cut cornfield and thankfully for us, there was a good snow on. This was helpful in concealing our layout blinds. The corn stubble was pretty short so with the snow covers over our layout blinds, we blended in quite well. There were 6 of us hunting so in Missouri this means 18 geese to kill.

On this hunt we set out approx 5 dozen full body decoys along with a few shell decoys mixed in. At the time there were literally thousands of canadian geese in the area. It was a cold day and the stiff north wind wasn’t making it any better. The first groups came in and it quickly became obvious that these geese had been shot at over decoys before. A few sailed right in landing not 15 yrds from our blinds, but the bigger groups kept swinging in and peeling off. It wasn’t long before we had as many as it seemed we were going to get from those groups into range, we made the call and steel began to fly!

This became the story of the day, with groups working us low, but not quite completely committed. We would consistently get smaller groups fully committed, but the bigger groups kept wanting to land to our left or right. I’m not complaining, it was an awesome hunt it simply took a bit longer than a could’ve had we had geese that would fully commit. We all were able to get our 3 goose limit and even collected a band in the process! It’s hard to beat the sight of approx 200 canadians locked up tornadoing down into your decoy spread! I have some video from this hunt along with a few others that I’ll be sharing soon – stay tuned!!

November 8th was one of those days that you just don’t forget for a long time if ever. I was in North Mo bowhunting the rut just before rifle season opened and I wasn’t disappointed when 3 nice bucks come running through corralling 3 does. All three bucks were grunting and I was breathing hard. I saw that two of the bucks were young 8 pointers, but the 10pt in the back looked like a shooter. The does finally ran directly under my tree and the bucks followed suit. Long story short I shot this buck just a few steps from the base of my tree. I shot straight down between the shoulder blades, dropping him in his tracks as the arrow passed through his spine into his vitals. Beautiful deer, great hunt!

My day was going great and could’ve gotten skunked on the evening hunt and been just as happy but that wasn’t to be. I went along with cousin and pro-staffer Ryan to video him as he tried to tag another buck. We saw a couple of deer but nothing in range. We then heard something running through the brush. We were hoping for a rut crazed buck but were also happy to see the coyote trotting through. He began to go around us when Ryan gave a few rodent squeaks with his mouth. He wheeled and came in to our tree as if on a string. Ryan made a great shot of about 25 yards as the coyote was still moving. He ran approx 70yrds before piling up. Needless to say this was a great day in the woods!

Talk about a mixed bag, this is something that you don’t see every day! In MO we have a one week long early season that’s designed to cut down on the resident Canadian Goose population. We tried to do our part this last Tuesday!

The weather was beautiful and we decided to set up on a pond that consistently holds some resident geese. We only had to wait til about 7:30 and here they came. They worked perfectly! The came in from behind and banked hard to get the wind right, from there there feet dropped down and they sailed right in to our decoys. I gave the call to take’em as the geese sailed in to approx. 20 yards. As they say, the rest is history!! We didn’t shoot the greatest, but then again, it was the first time out (that’s our excuse anyway!).

About 30 min later my lil hunting buddy whispered excitedly, “Dadddy, there’s a coyote!” I turned to see a coyote not 40 yrds behind us slipping up to the back of our decoys. I give him a few “kisses” and it locked up just in time for me to put the hammer down with some 3 1/2″ steel 2 shot. The coyote never knew what hit it as it dropped in its tracks.

This is the most diverse mixed bag that I’ve ever had a chance to take part it. It was a very fun and memorable hunt. Good luck to you guys out there, be safe!!

1st Hunt of 2012 Success!

Locked Up

***Click “READ MORE” for VIDEO!***

Starting off with a bang!

Saturday, October 6th was the opening day of the early goose season here in North Missouri. The temp dropped down to low thirties and was perfect weather for an early season goose hunt.

We knew we were going to be hunting in a corn field that had been replanted in wheat so we cut some green pasture grass the night before so we could help conceal our blinds. A good tip to remember when driving around scouting for geese is that when you find them, pay close attention to the landscape, the cover there, etc so you can find similar foilage to cover your layout blind in.

When we got there we realized the farmer had disked the corn under and then had planted some wheat which was only 3 in. tall. So all we could do was grass our blinds and put them in a grassy roadway in the middle of the field and hope for
the best.

We were in the right spot where the geese wanted to be, but unfortunately I think the lack of cover kept them from finishing. As the picture shows God still blessed us with a productive morning even though it’s a lot nicer when they finish right in your face. Great way to start the opening day of goose season 2012!

Pro-Staffer Bryan Remole

***CLICK READ MORE FOR VIDEO***

Watch HunterByDesign Prostaffer Ryan Remole put the smack down on a doe. Ryan made a beautiful shot on this deer and the video bears the proof as the doe ran a very short distance before piling up. Enjoy!

Best of luck to you all!

Nosy One

Little Guy

Who says you can’t find a mature buck with decent antlers in south MO?? Well if you’d asked me up til now, I probably would’ve told you that! I know big deer are killed down here every year, it’s just I’m from north MO and there’s no comaparison in the quantity of those big deer from up there to here. Above is a pic of one such deer that’s not a monster, but is definately an mature buck with some pretty impressive headgear.

I also had to include a few others that were just sort of fun. I tell you, I get just about as much enjoyment out of checking the game cams as I do hunting. It’s like christmas every time I put that memory stick in the computer!!

We’ve got a hunt to share with you this week that we never got published from last year so stay tuned for that and hopefully a lot more!

BIG yote

After having many requests for info on calling coyotes I thought I’d oblige and try and share some info. I’ll be the first to admit that my expertise is in all things deer, turkey and waterfowl and that predator hunting is still something that I’m learning. That being said, I’ve called in bobcat, coyotes and foxes using the techniques I’ll share with you.

The first thing you want to realize is that a coyote has some of the best senses and wit of just about any animal you will hunt. They see, smell and hear extremely well and they don’t seem to forget much either! They have a survival instinct like no other.

1. I believe that the most common mistake is being sloppy getting to your set-up spot. Sneak to your setup spot as much as possible. If that coyote sees you walk in and start calling 5min later he does not forget that it was you, not a squealing rabbit he saw walk into the brush pile. Full camo is also a must. Coyotes generally don’t just lock up when they see movement or something out of place, they usually bolt and a sprinting coyote is NOT an easy target!

2. We all know it’s important to get the wind right while deer hunting but I’m here to tell you that this is just as important with coyotes. It’s best (although not always possible) to have shooting lanes down wind of you, as many times coyotes will circle downwind of the squealing.

3. Coyote hunting can seem 2nd rate hunting, not worth gettin up early for, but if that’s the attitude, expect to waste a lot of time. As for deer, movement is greatest for coyotes in the mornings and in the evenings.

4. We all get hung up on calling, and I do believe that good calling is important, but probably not as important as the above 3 points. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a rabbit in true distress, but it’s not pretty and there really is no rhyme or rhythm to the screeching. Get the pitch right, make it quiver and slide and basically just sound as agonizing as possible! My favorite distress call is the primos Catnip. This call is incredibly easy as it does not have an open reed although it retains its versatility simply by biting the flexible mouthpiece. This is the call I’ve called in a bobcat with and makes some great cat growling if you want to target bobcats. The other distresss call I use is called “tweety” and it is made by verminator. It is an open reed call that I can get a bit more volume out of and is a different tone that I like to mix in with the catnip.
I also like the primos mini howler. I’m still learning what howls to use when, but I can nail all the sounds with this one call. This call is fun at night just playing with packs of coyotes, and helps in learning how to sound as well.

I’m posting a video along with this post that will be most instructive on calling and will hopefully re-inforce much of what I’m saying here just not quite as in-depth.

“Young Deer With Potential”

“Brows”

Here are a couple of pics of some young bucks that hopefully make it through this year. Looks like both of these deer have some great potential and should make for some fun encounters this bow season!

Getting pics in our area in north Missouri has gotten a bit more tough this year as we aren’t allowed to set out salt licks, corn or anything else to congregate deer pre-season for some pics. There were a few cases (and I do mean few) of CWD up north of our area that has put our all powerful conservation dept on high alert and there seems to be a little bit of kneejerking going on around there.

Just got another camera out down here in southwest MO so hopefully I’ll have more pics to share with you soon. Stay tuned…

GOOSE DECALS

Tis the season for all things outdoors! I can’t believe that September is just around the corner ushering in a new archery season and shortly thereafter a waterfowl season! My 5yr old son came walking into the living room a couple of mornings ago having just woke up and announced that he had dreamed I’d killed a really BIG BUCK! After I swelled with pride I told him of my dream of whacking a bunch of ducks and geese. In my household, hunting seasons never take us by surprise, they are always much anticipated!

With season right around the corner I wanted to showcase a few things that we’re doing here at HunterByDesign.com. One of the things I’m really excited about is the logo design we’ve been doing for people lately. This is something that has become more popular for hunting clubs, groups of hunting buds, or a new business that’s needing to communicate well with their consumer base.

DUCK LAYOUT

Custom graphics is sort of our thing here;   it keeps things interesting and fun.  Send me a pic of your 1st buck, that big bruiser you killed last year, or a good trail cam photo of that big one you’re going after this year and proudly display it in vinyl on your back glass.  You can have your own namesake buck that will leave fellow hunters asking questions which allows you to tell your big story one more time

CUSTOM BUCK DECAL

Us waterfowlers are usually pretty proud of what we do and I can think of no better way to display that pride than by custom designing your waterfowl trailer with some kick butt decals!  I’ve got some geese and duck layouts that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Nothing is changing about our goal here on HunterByDesign.com and that is to bring you some great videos of us interacting with God’s amazing creation!  We are going to work harder than ever to bring you consistant footage of great hunts, great information, and simply great fun in the outdoors!

Stay tuned………..