Steve Coon - Cabela's Event

After Illinois it was time to head to Cabala's the following weekend to do a seminar. I have to say when doing a a store promotion it gets you in contact with all the Drury Fans.

After getting my table set up with the awesome product that we use, it was time to meet and greet. Cabala's had such a big turn out for their Hunting sell it was hard to talk with everyone that came by, but I did my best. It really makes you proud to be part of Drury Outdoors when people come by and tell you how much they like the new Drury DVD's and how they enjoy the television shows.

It was such a great turn out as Cabala's that at one point I had Steve and Ken, who will be on the new Predator Madness DVD, assist me at the Drury booth. As the day went on I had some special guest show up and it was Mark, Tracy, and Taylor. With that it could not have made the event any better!

I would like to end this by saying when you work these events you always make contact with people from within the industry. Well I had the great pleasure of meeting Mrs. Meegan Turnbeaugh, Jessica Turnbeaugh and Hayley North who are all on the Archer's Choice Pro-Staff and are also part of the Posse Girls for Archer's Choice. So let me tell you guys if you were back in the old west, you would definitely be a bad guy so this posse would come after you! All kidding aside Meegan is a class act in today's hunting industry and it was a pleasure meeting her along with Jessica and Haley. -Coon Dog

Doug Hampton - It's Almost Here

Our food plots are in and the days are getting shorter. In three short weeks Rod and I will be taking my son Coltin on our annual Kansas youth season hunt and man are we excited! We have Reconyx pictures from most of our big deer that were using our food plots in late January. It's always nice to know your big bucks made it through the winter months and appear to be healthy. We only have pictures of three of our four-year old bucks so far, but that's fairly common during the late summer on our Kansas farm. Last year it was the middle of September before our older aged bucks started to make their appearance.

This year Rod and I will be hunting with J.W. Hart, the "Iron Man" of the P.B.R. on Dream Season Celebrity. We should be hunting non-stop for the better part of four months. We are scheduled to hunt in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. So to sum it up, we're gonna be pretty busy this fall. Good luck to everyone and we hope God blesses you with a great "Dream Season". -Doug Hampton

Steve Coon - Time To Hunt

Joe and I were back in the middle of August working on three projects in Illinois. We had to finish our food plots, check and hang cameras, and hang a few new sets.

First on order was to check our Reconyx Camera to see what deer made it through last season and to see if we had any new players. Well as luck would have it we had pictures of three of our stars and some upcoming talent.

After checking the cameras we were off and running putting them in new spots hoping to get a few more pics. Just to give Joe and I a pat on the back, here in Illinois we don't have the opportunity to place any type of supplement at the cameras to get those up and personal photos. So what we do is scout the area just like we were hanging a tree stand and place the camera in hopes of getting a photograph of that dream buck. Because if we do our part, the Reconyx will definitely do it's part.

Next task in hand was to finish the food plots, so after we disked for the third time and we decided what seed went to which food plot it was time to plant. So with a little rain we should be just fine! "Maybe I should do a rain dance."

The third project was to put the Big Game Tree Stands together and head to the timber to place them in the locations that was scouted by the Reconyx Camera plus the two new sets over our food plots which in time will prove to be killing spots for Joe and I.

So after the sets were hung the trimming was complete it was time for both Joe and I to head home.

So with all this madness over the summer that we put in for these whitetails, in a couple of months, it's going to be "TIME TO HUNT." -Coon Dog

Joe Shults - 'Tis The Season

With all the Southeast states archery seasons getting
ready to open in less than a month Pam and I are busy at the
store! Bows, arrows, treestands, scouting cameras,
broadheads and getting bow strings changed and bows tuned
are all at the top of the list. While Pam has me in my
corner of the store working on and setting up bows she is
busy up front on the phone and waiting on customers at the
register!

Even with the economy in the shape that it is in people
are still getting outdoors as their release valve and for us
that is a good thing. Some days there are not enough hours
in the day to stay caught up on the bows and arrows. So Pam
and I are a little behind on getting our own selves ready for
the upcoming season.

With getting Pam into the outdoors and hunting has been
very helpful in her acquiring knowledge in order to help
customers with their questions on the products that we sale.
We are both pumped about the upcoming season with having
high hopes of filling our tags as does everyone!

We hope that everyone has had a great summer spending
time with their families and friends and getting their
children ready for school. We also hope that everyone has a
safe and successful upcoming season! -Pam & Joe Shults

John O'Dell - Less Then 1 Month Away

I hope everyone’s summer is going well. Dave and I are less than a month away and counting for our first hunt of the fall. We will be in New Mexico hunting elk, mule deer, and black bears with James Coppedge of Pack-n-Horns outfitters www.packnhorns.com for Bow Madness TV Season 3. We have both been shooting our PSE’s a lot in anticipation of another great hunt with James!

We have also been collecting pictures of some nice bucks in velvet that will be on the hit list for this fall. I have attached a couple of the good bucks we have captured on our Reconyx cameras so far this year. Hopefully these pictures will lead to some up close encounters with these deer when the season gets started!

Also Dave and I will be at the Bass Pro Fall Classic this weekend. My schedule is listed below so if you are in the area feel free to stop by and say hello.

I will be in Memphis TN Friday August 7th 5:00PM – 9:00PM. I will be in St. Charles MO Saturday August 8th 12:00noon – 5:00PM and on Sunday August 9th I will be in Columbia MO from 12:00noon – 5:00PM.

Dave will be at Bolingbrook, IL at 8 pm on August 7th. Portage, IN at 4PM on August 8th and Gurnee, IL at 4PM on August 9th.

My next blog will be when Dave and I get back from NM so until then enjoy the rest of the summer!
John and Dave

Ben Rising - Last Year Or So

Well where do I begin?? My life has taken on sooo many changes since competing in Dream season TV season 5. About a week after returning from our group hunt at Tara, I was offered a job 2 hrs south of where we were currently living. After great consideration, we decided to take the chance and see if our house would sell which would have allowed us to make the move. Would you believe after 2 weeks of hard praying our house sold!! So within exactly 2 months of getting that job offer call, we started the moving process. I moved in April of 2008 and my family joined me in July. It was a long 3 months of visiting my family only on the weekends. Especially considering we had a 2yr old and 6 month old at the time. (We decided to let our kids finish out their school year before relocating them.)

I am currently a logger/timber buyer for Hawkins Lumber. My work partner Jarod Hawkins and I started up a new outfitting business last fall called Wolf Creek Outfitters. It has always been a desire of mine to do this and couldn't pass the opportunity up. Last fall was a very busy one for me. I had to put my own hunting time on hold so we could focus more on getting the outfitting business up and running.(I finally was able to harvest a great buck late season but was not able to get it on film.) Now after less than a year we have established over 6,000 acres of hunting land and still searching for more. This summer has been a busy one working on these properties brush hogging, planting food plots, strategically watching deer patterns and deciding where our stand placements will be located. The Reconyx trail cameras have been a great assett to us. We are off to a great start with this fall almost fully booked. Still looking for a few hunters for our late season. We also just started providing timber & deer management consulting for land owners to help them establish a plan for their properties.

I think the biggest draw back right now is the fact that I am now seperated from Tim by 2hrs. He has been able to come down several times with his family and has been helping us with stand placements. It's always great to get the kids together. Combined we have a 15,11,9,5,4,3,2&1yr old. Mel & Candice were able to take the little ones out Blackberry picking. I think the kids ate more than they brought home. It sure showed on their clothes and faces, but we were still able to salvage enough for a Blackberry Cobbler!!


Our whole summer so far has not been all work and no play though. We have taken several family trips including an animal park where we got to ride in a wagon and feed exotic animals and waterparks. Though the highlight of my summer was when Jim Thome called me and invited me out to watch him play in Chicago playing against their biggest rival for the weekend. So Jarod and I hoped in the car and headed out. What an awesome weekend to get to hang out with Jim's family and friends. The greatest was when Thome hit a hommer. Have to say the absolute best 2 games I've ever been to. My family and friends were also able to make it up to Cleveland to see Thome play against the Indians a couple weeks later. Thanks Jim for everything!! Well it's time to hit the woods and get back to work!!! -Ben Rising

J.J. Kolesar - Redemption!

Well, if you have tuned into Dream Season 6 Redemption you would have witnessed Kyle and I flying a remote control airplane to help take pictures. Needless to say, it didn't work very well, but it was fun. However, it did force us to look at a 2-acre piece of timber in a new light.

Last Halloween Kyle and I had an encounter with a buck we call "Redemption", but when he sauntered by our stand we were out of legal light. We never saw him on stand again. The Reconyx picked him up for the last time on Dec. 12th. We feel the buck might be one of those monarchs impossible to kill due to his minimal daytime movement. The bad news is we have taken only 1 picture out of 12 in which he is moving during the day! The good news is HE'S BACK FOR MORE! Here are some cool pics in which we have him in velvet and hard-horned, and accompanying it is a pic of him in velvet this year. Hopefully the next picture has one of us sitting behind him.

This is where you come in!! Please comment on this thread on how you might hunt this deer. We hunted him hard last year and didn't get it done. We have some new ideas this year, but would love to hear your suggestions. Remember, its only two acres, which is pretty much surrounded by fields. Good luck getting your game-camera pics and be safe while food plotting. -Team Illinois (Kyle and JJ)