Kyle Lamore - Summertime Scouting!!

With summer vacation in the rear view mirror and fall quickly approaching it's that time to start putting our game plan together for this hunting season!   For the first time in a long time, we will actually be hunting the same lease that we bowhunted last year. The good news is the  same property means that a lot of the legwork is already done such as hanging sets, food plots, trimming lanes etc.  The bad is the landowner does not allow any gun hunting on the farm so we have  had to focus our attention elsewhere for those three Illinois gun  weekends. We started hanging Reconyx cameras a few months ago and were pleasantly surprised to see alot of familiar faces as well as a few new ones. One deer in particular that stands out is a deer by the name of "niner". Although "niner" doesnt really seem to fit anymore because he is now a "tenner"; he still remains very high on our hitlist. However, the problem is that last year we found this deer almost un-killable. Despite being one of the most photogenic deer on the property getting pics of him on literally almost every camera, we never saw him one time from the stand. His pattern proved very unpredictable and for the most part was a nighttime mover. So...the question we have to ask ourselves this year is:

 

How much time should we spend trying to kill this deer? ?  ? ?

What would you do?

On one hand I feel since this deer was almost impossible last year, being a year older at 5.5 now he will be even elusive and nocturnal. However, it is very difficult to just ingore a 160" deer that is living right on your farm. 

Do we just mount our efforts on another hit-lister?? Mabye just wait until the rut?  I still am unsure on what we will decide, hopefully the Reconyx can help us with this decision in the next month before season opens. 
 

 















We also had the opportunity to take care of the missing piece of the puzzle (no gun hunting our farm) by meeting up with Shawn Lucky at Illinois Extreme Whitetails in Pike, Adams and Brown county recently. From the looks of the lodge and farms so far, we are going to be in for a treat with  the accommodations and hunting.  I have been fortunate enough to stay at alot of nice places, however this lodge without a doubt is the king of all. Shawn took us around for the weekend giving us some different options and had the opportunity to see some great deer while we were out scouting. Both quality and quantity of deer seemed evident and I cannot wait for November to get here to head north and try our luck! Good luck to all this fall!

Kyle Lamore
JJ Kolesar

Bart Goins - No Longer Rookies

August is finally wrapping up and I could not be more relieved. Its been a long and hot summer for us! I work hard all spring and summer with my business, and then I take off for deer season. I am definitely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Not to mention, Alabama football kicks off this weekend!!! Roll TIDE!

In the next few weeks, our second whitetail season for Dream Season The Journey will begin. Last year we had so much fun despite having the toughest season we have ever had. We learned so much from all the Drury teams last year and I truly feel like I will be better prepared and equipped for this season. We have some amazing hunts lined up for this fall and our southern farms are looking promising.

After last years season, Blair and I began searching leasing opportunities in Illinois. We have great farms in our home state, but we wanted a farm that would really give us an edge to compete with the other teams on the Journey. So what better state, then in Illinois? We finally found the farm that we wanted in Brown County, IL.

Throughout the summer we have spent three different weekends up there preparing the farm for the upcoming season. We leased from one heck of a guy who has done everything he can to help us. This summer we have put together box blinds, put up Big Game lock ons, cleared off brush and planted Biologic, and set up several Reconyx cameras. The first batch of Reconyx pictures absolutely blew me away. We have got some true giants to hunt this year and I absolutely cannot wait for the game to begin.The biggest problem we have been faced with this summer is the drought. Our new farm has been so dry, literally only receiving four-tenths of an inch of rain since middle of June. Our food plots were planted last week, and I have never prayed for rain so hard! I even went to church on Wednesday! God answered our prayers with sending over two inches of rain on the farm this past Sunday night.

Good luck to all my fellow hunters out there this fall. Blair and I are going to do our very best to bring all of you the best footage that Dream Season can offer. Over the next few months we will hunt over five states and put tons of miles on our trucks. Definitely going to be a busy fall, and on top of that, Im building a house and getting married right after the season! Stay safe and good luck. College football is back and if ya'll want to watch a team that WINS, watch the TIDE! Number 15, here we come!

J.J. Kolesar - Bittersweet Find!

Well, it was opening day (Oct. 1st) for Illinois, and everything was going according to plan! Kyle and I hunted that morning and saw a 140" 10 point working a bean field until 830 into the morning. We guessed him to be the same deer we were getting daylight pics of on our Reconyx cameras largely because of his bleach white rack. He quickly became public enemy #1 due to his risky movements. We watched the deer enter into the northern side of the same block of timber we were sitting. We made a quick decision to "Turkey Hunt" this deer and try to put him to bed. We knew that the evening may produce a repeat occurrence, so we decided to hang a set in hopes to catch the daylight mover on his way back out to the bean field. We crawled into our new set and I had just finished hanging my bow up when Kyle said "there he is", and sure enough he was on his way out to stage up before dusk. So much so, that the big boy decided to bed down in some CRP about 40 yards from our set. One problem, once he sat down in the grass, no shots were available. So it became a waiting game. As sunset rapidly approached our opening day dream was about to become reality. We watched him stand up and offer the only shot he was going to give us. At 40 yds., I picked a spot just above a piece of grass in front of him and let the arrow fly. The deer quickly lifted his head and started his turn when my 2-blade Rage found its mark, however, the penetration of the arrow wasn't much to be desired. I felt I hit the front shoulder and was immediately questioning whether or not we would find the buck considering we watched him saunter away. However, Kyle still felt strongly that I might have hit high off shoulder. Well, fast forward to a below-average blood trail, a crazy un-trained blood dog, and 6 hours of diligent grid walking and we were staring at Buck Sadness. However, each haunting day that passed our most visible buck never crossed the path of one of our numerous Reconyx cameras. This was our best clue that quite possibly I had killed the buck. Kyle proved his theory correct when we were shed hunting on Feb. 19th and found my buck 20 yards from where we had ended our grid search through the thick briars and autumn olive. I can officially say I owe my partner big time on this one and am thankful that he stumbled across his final bed in the middle of a timber thicket. After some crucial phone calls to the IDNR I was able to claim my harvest. Not exactly how I envisioned laying my hands on this deer, but it is one I will humbly accept…Bittersweet moment to say the least! Below I have posted steps to help you if you run into this situation shed hunting. Good Luck Everyone!

STEPS FOR TAGGING A LOST DEER, or DISCOVERING A DEAD DEER

1) Leave carcass/remains in tact at location discovered, if possible take a picture of this undisturbed setting, as this will quicken your overall tagging process

2) Call the State Police; they will put you in contact with the appropriate Conservation Office or Officer in your region/If possible Fill out Salvage Tag or Road Kill Form online provided by your state's DNR

3) Meet with or formally speak with your local Conservation Officer to discuss proper protocol for your state, and also to receive a Salvage Tag if necessary. In Illinois, more than likely this will be the case.

4) Receive Salvage tag issued by your state, and claim your deer

5) This would be the correct process for a road kill or skull find as well, whether you shot the deer or not.

6) Enjoy the Confidence of maintaining the integrity of your state's conservation, as they are always looking in the best interest of the animal.

Jeff Lindsey - New Season. New Goals

    For a brief moment, it appears the dog days of summer are behind us. In has been one of the hottest and driest summers I can ever remember. We have been hit with a small drought but nothing that compares to what everyone out west or in the deep south has had to endure. The crops have taken a small setback but I do believe I feel a touch of fall in the air. That change of air is just enough to make a big smile come on my face . The Reconyx cameras are working overtime to give us a summer inventory, some familiar faces have shown up and it's going to be a fun November. 

    This fall I have 2 main goals that doesn't involve any of the familiar faces Reconyx has let me know about. The first one is to get my wife Ashley a deer with her bow, her PSE Chaos is firing darts and her confidence is growing by the week. The first doe that gets within 30 yards of her is going to get some carbon flung her way! My second goal is to shoot a mature doe with my recurve bow. I have been shooting it almost a full year now but have yet to take it afield. That will change this October. 

    Fall will be here in no time and its all down hill from there. Celebrate the upcoming season, have fun and most of all be safe. Happy blood trails. - Jeff

Aaron Bennett - Busy Summer!

Well, this has definitely been one of the busiest summers of my life! Between planning for a wedding and trying to learn a new hunting lease, time has been flying by faster than I ever imagined it would. My fiancée Jessica, and I have been busy preparing for our September 3^rd wedding date all summer, while I have been running Reconyx cameras and hanging stands on the side. I've always heard that wedding planning was stressful, but now I know why---it interferes with summer scouting! Ha, just joking sweetheart!! 

Anyways, this year I hooked up with Matt Robinson from the Hunting Lease Network ( HYPERLINK "http://www.nationalhuntingleases.com" www.nationalhuntingleases.com) in search of a good piece of ground to lease for the upcoming deer season. He directed me to several farms to look at, and man, they were all smokin' hot farms! Finally, I settled on the one that would suit my needs the best and put in my bid. I won the bid and the lease became mine for the year! The unique thing about this particular tract is that the aerial photo of this farm is very deceiving. It didn't look like much, and I wasn't even going to go look at it but Matt told me I should check it out. He said a couple of other people went to look at it and never even got off the gravel because it didn't look like there was enough timber to hunt. I love to walk farms, so Jessica and I put our boots on and walked every inch of the farm and discovered TONS of deer sign! Needless to say, I am glad those other guys never got out of their truck!

The Reconyx pics have been rolling in and they look very promising! I just hope the big shooters that live on this farm decide to hang around long enough to have a bad encounter with a Rage broadhead!!!

If you are still in search of a good piece of ground to hunt this fall I would highly recommend checking out the Hunting Lease Network, they have hundreds of farms and the representatives are very knowledgeable! Good luck and stay safe! - Aaron

J.J. Kolesar - "NOT AGAIN!!!!"

Well, if you have followed Drury Outdoors at all you may have heard us say more than once that “we are on a new lease.” Unfortunately it has happened again, but hopefully we can maintain this one for long-term period. It is not that we get kicked off or anything, but situations like land auctions, outbidding (money), outfitters, and insurance scares, make it a difficult time to wrap up the type of property we and maybe even you would ultimately like to have. However, after 3 county plat books, 43 no’s, 2 maybe’s, and 1 we will see, we final broke into pay dirt. We have been on the hunt for better ground for the last 3 and half months and just now feel as if we have found where it is we want to be. We feel though we have found a piece that will hopefully lead us down a more successful road and hope that we can bring you some fun and exciting hunting action.
If you find yourself in a similar situation here are a few ways to make it easier and not feel so depressed about the rejection that you will probably face. These were some of the aspects we feel will help your cause:


1) Choose to make 3 calls/trips a day! (Simple, but not overwhelming, not as depressing or frustrating, but doing diligence is the only way to discovery)
2) Find someone in common with the landowner (“Kind of like the Kevin Bacon Game, if you know what I am saying”)
3) Have an answer for any question the landowner may ask:
a) Insurance, # of people, typical season, etc.
b) Know what it is you want, alleviates problems in the future that could cost you your opportunity.
c) Expectations of both you and him!
4) Most importantly, BE HONEST & COMPLETE ON YOUR INTENTIONS, stones left unturned could come back to haunt you!

This brings us to our Blog topic of the early spring. Now that we have acquired a new tract we are in the process of breaking down what is taking place on the farm. We have not set foot on the tract, but in all honesty, didn’t have the choice. We had to pull the trigger and hope that the reputation of the ground treats us right. Without having set foot on it, we have been eagerly studying the buckview program within Reconyx’s new software. With the tools we are able to highlight what we think the deer would do, and identify spots that we believe should be good. Needless to say, we are excited to compare our computer notes to those of the real landscape. With this being said, we at Drury Outdoors would love to hear more about how you break down your new tract and any tricks of trade from which you have benefited, and we will also share what we have done in the past that has led us to some of our mild success on green ground. Good Luck Shed Hunting and we look forward to hearing from you.

Kyle and JJ

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

Jeff Lindsey - Rain Makes Corn...

Rain makes corn, beans makes booners. Too much rain makes for stressed out farmers and deer managers. Ever since turkey season we have experienced excessive rain fall that would make Seattle jealous. However over the last couple of weeks we have gotten a break and the beans have really shot up. The corn has been spotty but we look to be having bumper crops on the high ground.



Rainy growing seasons usually make for great antler production and this year it looks like that is going to be just the case. The first two rounds of Reconyx cameras have been a little slow but have shown us some good growth on some up and comers. The big boys haven’t really appeared yet but every year it seems when the calendar flips to August they decide to go public on their appearances.



August is my favorite month to get a buck inventory on our farms, it seems the big boys let their guard down to fill the desires of their stomachs and we hope to take advantage of that with some well placed cameras and glassing the bean fields the last 2 hours of light. As hard as it is, I have been trying to give the cameras 2-3 weeks before checking them to keep my scent at a minimum. This makes for a serious waiting game but the moment I get those cards in my hands its like Christmas morning all over! Till the next round of pictures I’ll be waiting and trying to imagine what might show up. -Jeff

Doug Hampton - Killin' Em With The Cameras!

What is the number one tool in your bag of tricks for hunting trophy whitetails? If you asked this question to ten different hunters, well you would probably get ten different answers. As for my teammate Rod Owen and myself, It would be hands down, "Reconyx cameras". Every now and then we'll see and even kill a buck that we do not have any pictures of. But like I said, "every now and then". For the most part, almost every single deer that we see while in the field, has already been named and documented. Of course, the rut can bring deer from miles and miles so you always stand the chance of getting that 'big surprise' buck. For the most part, by the time we lay eyes on a particular buck, we've got him rough scored and labeled as a shooter, or not a shooter.

Rod and I use these cameras as early as June, and leave them out until we start to get pictures of bucks on the food plots without their headgear. This lets us know when to begin to hunt for sheds.. We usually face the cameras where if a deer trips the camera, It will take a picture of the whole plot, giving us an idea of how many deer are using the plot at that particular time. We try to run enough cameras on my Kansas farm to give us a good indication of what these deer are doing at different times of the day. But if you only have one, your still ahead of the game.

Saving the pictures until the deer is either harvested or old enough to have been hunted by the Flintstones is also a must. I however, learned this the hard way. Rod harvested a 181" buck that we named "The Jolly Bean Giant" on my farm November the 12th. (see journal entry) We stood over that deer for 30 minutes trying to figure what deer this could possibly be. Oh, don't get me wrong, we did have pictures of the buck from this year. But we could not figure out how a deer that we presumed to be at least four years old, could just show up with such regularity, and we didn't know him from Adam. That is, until I noticed the white stockings that ran almost completely up his legs. " I know exactly what deer this is!", I told Rod after we had racked our brains. "It's the white stocking buck from three seasons ago!" A friend of mine, that was hunting with me at the time, kept telling me that he was passing on a 3 year-old buck that had white-stockings up past his knee's. He said the buck was in the mid 130's. At the time, I didn't think it was a great necessity to keep the photo's. And with absolutely no photo's of him last season, he was not even a thought in my mind, until Rod harvested the buck this November. It would have been neat to have had the photo's to go along with the story. Oh well, lesson learned!

And then there's "Curly". Curly is a five year old buck that we have thousands of pictures of. He would totally disappear during the rut. We could not see him, or even get a picture of him from the first day of October to late December. And this was par for the course for three years running. But the one thing that would always pull him back to the property was the abundance of food. He usually would show up with a broken rack and super hungry. The last place that I got a picture of the buck was in a bean field the last day of September. With the frigid temperatures in Kansas and the rut a distant memory, I stuck a ground blind on that same field that I had gotten pictures of Curly in September. My wife Brandy still had a tag, and I was just hoping for at least one mature buck to be using the field. Guess who made an appearance? (see journal entry on Dec. 7th)

The last 5 out of 6 bucks that I have personally harvested, I owe strictly to the camera's. But the best example of using the Reconyx to harvest a buck, would have to be "Big Red". Big Red was a buck that we had also chased for the last few season's. He seemed to be one step ahead of us every time. He got his name from the color that he usually turned my face every time I would have daylight pictures of him where I had just previously hunted. I've never had a deer make me so mad! But on the evening of December 9th, Big Red showed up to the food plot and was caught on camera. By checking the cameras on a daily basis and locating the buck, we would now have the upper hand and a crucial piece of the puzzle for tracking down Big Red . Referring to the pictures from the past, we noticed that when the temperatures dropped below 20 degree's, the mature bucks visited the plot during legal shooting hours almost daily. That next afternoon my son and I crawled into a ground blind overlooking Biologic Maximum. The afternoon of December tenth was the day that my face turned from red to relieved! ( see journal entry on Dec. 10)

Doug Hampton - The "Double Deuce"

The one we're after...

Oh yes we've got bigger bucks on our Kansas leases, but it's just something about this buck that fires me up. Maybe it's the double split G-2's that he's sporting on his rack. Or maybe it's because he's the first buck that I had pictures of on my newest Kansas lease. Or could it be that we actually could have harvested this buck last week during the youth season if I had not convinced myself that we had ruined the spot while cutting shooting lanes for a double set of "Big Game" tree-stands, only to have Reconyx pictures of him within two hours of all the activity. How could he be so relaxed when he walks into that Biologic food plot during shooting hours? Does he not know that we are filming for Dream Season and that he will do fine for a main character?

We didn't necessarily have bad luck last week, we simply fell to the natural instincts of big early season whitetails. My son and I had the big 9 x 5 buck walk by us at ten yards. The problem was that it was so dark and I could barely make it out through my Nikon's that it was him. Looking through the view finder 9 minutes later, I was only getting marginal footage at best. We needed just a few more minutes when the 4 year-old decided to exit the beans and bed down for the day. That evening brought an unexpected party on the neighboring property. Lets just say it was quite the fiesta! The microphone hooked up to the loud speakers made for a hard-rock concert's decibel output. The deer probably stopped running when they reached the Missouri line! Maybe they'll be back in time for the rut! .... Coltin had a few opportunities at some 3 year-old 130's type bucks later, but the 9 x 5 along with the Reconyx photo's of some true studs were definitely clouding the 13 year-olds judgment. I guess it's never to early to start trophy hunting.

We'll my wife is up to bat next! She's holding a Kansas muzzle-loader tag and has not so much as even seen a buck in the wild, much less shot or killed one. She has saw a few while driving, if that counts? I guess if the "Double Deuce" buck steps into the food plot while we're there, I'll have to use the ol' " he's not very big, but you can shoot him if you want" speech to keep her from getting too excited. You never know how a person will react to their first buck encounter in the wild, but I'm sure excited to see what happens! Stay tuned to the journal to see if she connects on "D.D.", or maybe even one of the other good bucks that are hanging out on our Kansas farms. Good luck and kill em' big! -Doug Hampton

Doug Hampton - Daniel Boone Returns!

A busy week, and Daniel Boone Returns!

Well last week team Hart should have lost a bunch of weight because we stayed hooked up and moving. Rod worked during the day and scouted during the evenings.. J.W. was busy with the P.B.R. event in Brazil while I was getting my hunting spots in Arkansas ready. After a logging crew devastated my best stand location, I wanted to scream! The giant white-oak acorn trees that had provided our deer with food for decades were reduced to just stumps. But then it hit me like ton of bricks,"food plot"! After nine hours of bulldozing, I was ready to disk. I guess sometimes you got to make the best out of the things you can't control anyway, so I did just that. Two acres of Biologic will feed the deer deep into our winter months.

With the food plots complete and the weekend coming fast, it was time for our Catch-A-Dream fundraiser. J.W. and Rod both drove down to my hometown of Monticello, Arkansas to hold a benefit for the Catch-A-Dream Foundation. We knew that it was going to be tough holding the benefit on Labor Day weekend with the Arkansas Razorbacks playing just two hours away in Little Rock. Not to mention that squirrel and dove season opened the same day..... But man were we surprised when my hometown folks began to pour into the doors of that church by the dozens! We were even more surprised when we saw how much money we raised under the circumstances. It was great to see how a small town could get behind us and help us to raise money for such a great cause. We had a lot of people and businesses that donated and helped out with the benefit. Thanks Monticello!



Well Sunday morning Rod and J.W. let the rooster keep sleeping as they headed back home. I went to church to give thanks for the great weekend that we were blessed with before heading to the woods. Rod decided to stop by our Kansas farm on the way home and that's when he spoke the words I been waiting to hear." We got pictures of Daniel Boone", Rod said with an excited voice. " The bad news is that he's only an 8 point....The good news is that he's close to Boone!". Daniel Boone was a ten point last year that we had pictures of as late as February. We had moved one of our Reconyx camera's to a suspected travel route from bedding to a bean field just a few weeks ago, just in time to catch the giant in velvet and then in hard horn. What a way to finish up an already great week! And to top it off, my son will be there in a few days to kick off our Dream Season with our father/son annual trip for the Kansas youth season. Stay tuned !!! -Doug Hampton