Ben Rising - The Looong Off Season

For anyone who is a die hard hunter like I am, Feb through April can be a long haul. Deer season came to an end and the wait for Turkey season began.

We have had a tough winter here in Ohio which included one crazy snow/ice storm which turned into a massive flooding that trapped most of us in our homes for a day or two. The flood waters preceded and eventually we were able to find routes to get into town. But it made for one crazy week. The pic that I have included is at a downtown intersection.

The great part of all that flooding was the fact that it meant all the snow had melted and the shed hunting could begin. We found several nice ones and I was able to include my oldest 3 boys in our search. Of course with boys there age it became a competition to see who could find the most. We found our fair share this spring including a match set from a 12pt I had my wife trying to hunt at the end of the season. He was wounded from a neighboring hunter and we weren’t sure if he would make it so we were tried to get in on him to “see how bad he was”. We never did see him while hunting, but finding his sheds let us know that he at least made it through the winter. Our biggest downfall this shed hunting season was finding Mule. He’s the big one I was after in the beginning of deer season. I watched this deer for quite a while and had TONS of trail photos. BUT he just dropped off the map 2 weeks into the season. I had assumed he must of traveled off our farm and someone else had the fortunate luck of harvesting him. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case and I can honestly say I wish it had been that way. I just happened to be driving past the farm and a shine caught my eye in the woods. Of course I pulled off and took a harder look. My heart sank! How I never noticed him in that patch of woods before is beyond me, I must have drove past it a thousand times. There lay Mule locked with another buck. We have never seen the other buck before, but he was a nice one also. I have heard plenty of stories and seen several pics of deer that have come to a horrible death like this before, I just wish that I never had to find one like this. The DruryOutdoors.com Inner Circle has a Kodak video of me finding these deer in March. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.

Shed hunting is over and we are now finding other things to keep us occupied. Hawkins Lumber Co and Wolf Creek Outfitters put together an ATV benefit this past weekend for a very good friend and family member Clem Sours. He became ill this past Oct and ended up with a blood infection. As an end result he had to have a leg amputated, but oh so lucky to be alive!!! This benefit was to help raise money to cover the cost of a prosthetic leg. We had an ATV ride, LOTS of food, DJ, and silent auction and reg auction that were all donated items. We also raffled tickets off for a new ATV and drew a winner (pic included of Clem Sours, Rick Hawkins, Paul from Valley ATV with the winner-Dane Donely). It’s amazing how many people pulled through in a small community to donate items for the auctions, food, and paper items. All of this went on for 2 days. I’m not sure about Sunday but I do know that we had over 130 ATV’s going through over 40 miles of rugged, muddy, rocky climbing trails. It was a blast!! Check out the Inner Circle for new videos that I am sending in of us getting MUDDY!

I would like to say a special THANK YOU to Drury Outdoors for donating several items for this benefit. You guys are great and we couldn’t thank you enough for what you did! I ended up being the auctioneer at this event (not quite sure how that happened…I sure wasn’t expecting to have to do it, they just handed me the mic and said go ahead and start J) But I can say that your "Giant Whitetails" book was one of the highest bid items. Thanks again from ALL of us!!


Well, last but not least my final bit of my blog I’d like to announce that my family is expecting a new addition to our family. NO, we are not having any more kids LOL. At the time I wasn’t so sure if it would be a good idea or not, but my 13yr old son started reading Where The Red Fern Grows a few months ago. Naturally, he has been begging me for a coon dog ever since. Lucky for him, I grew up coon hunting and it was one of my deepest passions. If you would have told me 15yrs ago that I wouldn’t have a coon dog now, I would of laughed in your face. I lived for coon hunting. Unfortunately, having a large family like ours, owning a logging business, deer hunting, turkey hunting and coon hunting…something had to give. I started working with Drury’s and it just came to the point where I didn’t have the time for my dog like he deserved (if you have ever heard of Timber Cutter the red tick English- he was mine originally) so I sold him. Once I sat Jarod down and we discussed just how much dedication and work he will have to put into this dog, and he agreed to keep up his end of the deal, we got to looking for a pup. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but I’m pretty sure that we have a 14 month old lined up that should be arriving in a few weeks. Not quite sure who is most excited, Jarrod or me, though I have to say that I am ecstatic to see him carry on a tradition that I grew up with. Nothing better than spending your teen yrs in the woods with a dog. I also have to mention that I don’t think Feb-April will be such a drag anymore. Look for a new blog soon!

Ben

Ben Rising - What a Year!

Last year Rising/Woods team had an awesome deer hunting season. This year it seems like if there wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all this season. In order to fully explain all of our bad luck, I need to rewind a few months back to July. My wife Melody was going through a rough time with her back. After finally convincing her to go to the Dr., once she could barely walk, she had Xrays done. Here her left leg is slightly longer than her right which has made her lower spine twisted, vertebra are unaligned vertically and suffering from 2 herniated disks. So she started a long treatment to try and get better. She was desperate to get better not only just to be able to live a normal life again but also to be able to get into a tree by the end of Sept.

Shortly after starting her healing process, our oldest son Zach had an accident. Trying to help me at the mill, he took it upon himself to try and dislodge a piece of wood that was stuck in a conveyor belt. Needless to say, the belt caught his glove and pulled his arm in. He was stuck in the machine for 20 minutes while Jarod Hawkins, his family and my fellow coworkers desperately tried to get him dislodged from the machine. Once we finally got him out I was afraid of what would happen. Surprisingly, while stuck there was little blood, so I was afraid that it would start flowing uncontrollably once we was free. BUT it didn't even though he had a gash about 8" long all the way done to the bone and open about 4" across. After getting him to the hospital he ended up going into surgery for 2hrs to repair his arm. The Dr was completely amazed!! He had just missed his main nerve and artery and could not figure our how he managed to not severe either one. A week after surgery there was signs of infection starting. It was a long recovery for him also, but recover he did and soon started physical therapy to regain strength in his arm. His biggest concern at that point was whether or not he would be able to pull a bow back by the end of Sept.

So basically that is how our summer went. All vacations were canceled and we spent the rest of the summer focusing on getting Melody and Zach healed. Finally by the end of Sept Melody was feeling A LOT better and only needs to go in every so often for adjustments (though her spine is still twisted and unaligned and prob will forever be so) her herniated disks are healed and therefor the pain is gone as long as she stays on top of it. Zach finally ended therapy and has regained strength back from 10lbs to 43lbs of strength in his arm (FYI-he has 96lbs of strength in good arm). Needless to say he will NOT be pulling a bow back this year. But we are just grateful that he will be able to go at all and have use of his arm.

So with all that said and done, it is time for bow hunting season to start. As most know by now, I am partners in an outfitting business with Jarod Hawkins. We start full camp by mid October so that gives me until then to hunt and film on my own personal properties. I have had my sights on a certain buck but he has been completely unpredictable and nocturnal. I was hoping by 1st or 2nd week of Oct he would be showing up more in the daylight. But NO, we hit that Oct lull that everyone's been talking about. The days got shorter, but a whole lot warmer!! Now it seems he has completely disappeared. I haven't gotten a picture of him in over 2wks.

We have had several other nice bucks that we have been keeping an eye on, hoping that they would make it through the season and become some serious studs next year. Unfortunately, we have had calls saying that the bucks we've been watching were harvested by neighbors. One has been hit but not recovered yet. Hope he made it!! I have included a trail photo of one that was harvested that we really hoped would make it. These are deer that have traveled off of our properties and been harvested on by neighbors. One deer in particular that Jarod had been keeping an eye on, was hit on the road. What's a guy to do??

Now it's work time and our hunters started showing up. And let me tell you, it was rough for them too. We were still in that Oct lull when our outfitting started. I don't think Ive ever seen it this bad before. By our second week of outfitting, the bucks were finally on their feet. We had several guys have opportunity, but just didn't make it happen with one wounding a nice one but unable to recover it due to a bad hit. We are now in our 3rd week of outfitting and things are really picking up with several nice harvests. Two of my best buds Kenney Bevans and James Mugrave help us out along throughout the summer hanging stands and such, so they get to come out and hunt our outfitting properties. Kenney was able to harvest a really nice buck on Sunday. I have included a Kodak video of him with his buck.

So now we are keeping our fingers crossed and hustling like crazy to get our hunters deer. In the mean time, I will be guiding and hopefully getting a little free time to get out myself and Melody out and on film. Soon I am scheduled to head out to Iowa and Illinois, so maybe then my luck will change.

Until then I'm hoping the RISING lull will end soon and you will all hear from me soon!!

Ben Rising

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