Bart Goins - Seasons End

I saw the last white tail flicker off into the distance as darkness slowly rolled in. I have watched countless sunsets from this particular stand, but this one would be different. The disappearing sun had brought an end to what is now last years whitetail season. This is always a weird time for me because for the last five months of my life I had been in the woods day in and day out. As a deer hunter, you just get in this routine everyday to suit up and hit the deer stand. As I sat there many thoughts ran through my head. My twelfth season as a whitetail deer hunter had come to an end. But this season was definitely a life-changing season for me.

The ride home from the farm brought somewhat of an empty feeling … knowing that I wouldn’t be returning to the farm to actually hunt deer for a grueling eight months. It seems like such a long season and towards the end your almost ready for a break … but not an eight-month break. There is a drive there that never gets filled. No matter how many times you go or how many deer you kill. That’s what separates me from a lot of “hunters” today. It’s a madness ….a sickness for real! This season was different for big brother and I. This season was special in the fact that my brother and I were apart of the Dream Season Workin’ Man Cast. So that meant an end to being on Dream Season as well. As I thought more about the season … I was overwhelmed with a sense of satisfaction and completeness. I had given it my all and hunted my tail off. I traveled more than 3500 miles with hunting seven states. I made the most of every opportunity that was given to me this season. I had introduced new people to the sport that I love so much. I had also learned more things about the animal and myself. I had watched more sunrises and sunsets than I care to remember … and loved every minute of it. I definitely grew as a hunter and an outdoorsman.

As I look back on the season, one of the greatest things was the people that I had met. Every year I meet great people in deer camp … but this year was the best. I feel like I have made a few new best friends for life. The type of people I could call on anytime, anywhere for help. There is no telling how many times I had gut aches from laughing so hard with some of the new people I met this season. I’m certain I wont remember every single deer I saw from a stand … but I will remember the people that I was blessed to get to meet. There was also one experience in particular from the season that I will never forget as well. I am so grateful that I got to be apart of the Catch A Dream Banquet at Tara. Its not everyday you get to see something like this and it literally blessed my heart to the core. Makes you realize really how blessed and fortunate you are.

The next few days will consist of me putting the hunting gear up for the year and finish logging tapes for the Dream Season editors. One of the greatest things about being an outdoor videographer is that you get to go back and relive all the memories of the previous season. For many previous seasons in that matter. Everything that happened to us this past season is documented on video … both good and bad. I can’t wait to see how Dream Season 8: Workin’ Man turns out. I would like to thank each of you who took the chance to get to know my brother and I this season. Thanks to all of you that HELPED our cause in one way or another. I know I have said it before, but I will say it again … Thanks to Drury Outdoors for giving the two Bama boys a chance. Blair and I truly were blessed this season, and for that I am grateful. Even though next deer season is several months away, turkey season for us is a mere 6 weeks away. Lets get ready to bust some heads boys’! Roll Tide , over and out!
-Bart

John O'Dell - Jacob's First Deer

Well I had been waiting all year for a really special hunt in North Carolina with our good friends Matt Bullins and Jason Bowers who are on Dream Season Working Man. During spring turkey season Matt had invited my dad and my son Jacob to come and do some whitetail hunting on his family farm in NC. I look forward to these opportunities to spend time with my dad as we live in different states and don’t get to see each other often Also this was to be Jacob’s first deer hunt ever so to say I was excited would be a huge understatement.

After putting in the time on the practice range I felt comfortable that Jacob who is 9 would be able to handle his TC safely and make a good lethal shot so fast forward several months from April to December. My dad, Jacob, and I were on our way down to NC for our family deer hunt. Matt said the deer had been moving well and that he had filmed a friend’s girlfriend harvest her first deer ever with her TC muzzleloader a nice 8pt buck. He also said that he had a couple of spots picked out for us that he thought would be very productive. Jacob and I were headed to a shooting house on the edge of a food plot and my dad would be hunting a funnel along a hardwood ridge that the deer had been frequenting.

When we arrived in deer camp we went out to dinner and shared hunting stories and jokes (that were age appropriate and mostly at my dads expense). Then the next day we were in the blind and set up by 2:30PM. Right away Jacob and I had some big gobblers come into the field. He had fun watching them through his Nikon binoculars. I was just hoping that they stick around till spring and that Matt invites us back for turkey season. After that we had several hours with no movement of any kind. I would be lying if I said I was not getting a little discouraged as I was hoping we would see some deer even if Jacob could not get a shot. Well just when I thought the days hunt was over I caught some movement on the edge of the field and sure enough there were 2 does and 3 fawns headed to our food plot. There were some tense moments as Jacob and I worked to make sure that we were on the same deer (me with the camera and Jacob with his rifle). Luckily for us the biggest deer which was a big mature doe stepped away from the group at about 80 yards and offered Jacob the shot he had been waiting for. Jacob made a great shot with his TC Contender. As you can imagine there was much celebration in that little shooting house! I was so proud of him. He said “it was the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him in his whole life”! Later we found out that my dad had also harvested a doe (Jacob told him later that his was way bigger). We also received word that Amy Bullins (Matt’s wife) had also harvested her first deer ever, another doe and she did it with her Browning/PSE bow!

All in all it was as much fun as I have had in deer camp in as long as I can remember. To have my dad along and to be able to introduce my son to the great sport of hunting and be with him for his first deer harvest was awesome! It reminds me of how lucky we are as sportsmen to have the opportunity to go hunting and to pass on this great tradition to future generations!

A HUGE thank you goes out to Matt and Jason for making this hunt possible!

Until next time good hunting!
John

Matt Bullins - Uncommon Ground

For Jason and me, our journey not only begins several years back as we became hunting partners, but it begins every time we pack our bags. As most of you may know, we live on the east coast and hunt primarily in both North Carolina and Virginia. Most anyone who hunts on the east coast can reflect upon and have experienced what we feel as some of the toughest whitetail hunting in the country.

However, take nothing away from hunting in the Blue Ridge Mountains as we do, there are wildlife a plenty and we love where we live. Growing up in northwest North Carolina and Jason in southwest Virginia, we long dreamed about one day being able to chase whitetails somewhere far from home. Having said this, we had no idea that it would actually come true and have Drury Outdoors and their pro-staff to thank.


Reflecting upon the season thus far, Jason and I began to tally mileage, time, and all the necessities that come with traveling out of state to hunt. Needless to say, we were stunned at the results. We had no idea at the efforts we had put forth for this deer season and filming for Dream Season 8: Workin’ Man.

Ultimately, at the end of the road, we will have traveled through nineteen states, hunted in nine states, drove (ALL DRIVING TIME) over 220 hours, and tacked on 13,600 miles, which doesn’t include our flight from Greensboro, NC to Kansas City, Missouri and back for our late season hunt with the rest of Team Reconyx.

Over the past several seasons, Jason and I have become accustomed to traveling and spending much of our time driving to different parts of the country to hunt. However, without doubt, it is something that we enjoy and hope that Drury Outdoors will continue to allow us to do for many years to come. On each trip we take, our goal is to not only to produce hunts, but to meet new people and share experiences with them while doing so.

If you’re on the road somewhere, you never know, look around and you just might see the Virginia Boys in route to their next destination.

Matt Bullins

Bart Goins - Dream Season Workin' Man

November 25, 2010
Bart Goins- Highs and Lows


Wow, what a year it has been thus far! If you rewind one year ago today, my brother and I were on an all time low with hunting. Last season we hunted five states with only one buck harvest … and it was a management buck at that! It was one of those seasons where you were glad to see it go and start looking forward to NEXT season. Needless to say, there have been many changes since then. Back in April, my brother (Blair) and I submitted yet another video to Drury Outdoors. This time it was an application video for the new upcoming Dream Season 8: Workin' Man. This could be a dream come true … something we had wanted for so long. Matt Drury called us two months later and revealed the good news. The Bama Boys had made the cast for Dream Season 8! We were proud to be the first team ever for Alabama and we wanted to do the state proud. Can I get a ROLL TIDE?! Our summer routines of hunting season preparation was here and gone before we knew it. The season was here and upon us. The season started slow in Kentucky in September with only a doe harvest. But that was good to get our feet wet. I found out on September 8 that I had been laid off at my job at Wiser Company in Murfreesboro, TN. This brought mixed emotions. I was upset from losing my first professional job, but then again it came at a great time in my life. I have no wife, no kids, and no other responsibilities beside myself. After a couple of weeks, I moved all my stuff back to Alabama. At the end of September, we took the long trip out to Misty Morning Outfitters in Kansas. The plan was to look at some properties and hang some sets for November.

October 15 was the Alabama opener for bow season. One of our goals was to kill a four-year-old or older buck in our home state with the PSE. For those of you who are from Alabama …. You know this was not going to be a simple task. Killing a four-year-old buck in any state isn't a simple task., especially with archery equipment in 80 day gun season state. That's right, 80 days! Alabama is a tough state to hunt! But we were up for the challenge. In the days prior to the Alabama opener, the faithful Reconyx had found two definite shooters for us on one of our farms. Daylight pictures at that! Big Heavy and Big Tex were the two deer that were targets for this particular farm. October 15 was upon us and found us sitting on a white oak flat ridge. The conditions were sent from heaven. One hour after first light, the Bama boys had checked in with a four-year-old Alabama bruiser named Big Heavy! We were on an all time high to start the Alabama season. Not to mention … thirty minutes after Blair put a rage in Big Heavy, Big Tex walks twenty yards by our stand. Unreal!
October 22 found big brother and I headed north to Hadley Creek Outfitters in Illinois for the first group hunt of Dream Season. Excited - was an understatement! Upon arriving at the Castle and meeting everybody, the archery competition was underway. The whole Dream Season 8 Cast was given the brand new PSE X Force Dream Season Evo with our names engraved on them. Let me tell you …. I have shot a ton of bows in the past and I have never shot as well as I have the past few weeks with this bow. This bow is WICKED! Without revealing to many surprises on the new season of Dream Season … all I can say was the archery competition was a blast. You know Mark and Terry love to put new twists on things!


Seven days and one big buck later, big brother and I were leaving Hadley Creek and headed to Misty Morning Outfitters in Kansas. I made a ton of friends at Hadley Creek and had so much fun! There are some good people at that place. After 468 miles, we pulled into Misty Morning lodge in Kansas and were ready to start our hunt. I killed my biggest buck to date with a bow five days later. The roadtrip was an overall success!

Hunting can be compared to life in general. It's a series of highs and lows. Blair and I have definitely paid our dues over the last few years. Were on an all time high as this season keeps rolling. Today is Thanksgiving Day and I definitely have a lot to be thankful for: God's forgiveness, great family and friends, and the great sport of HUNTING! Thanks to Mark and Terry for being two of the pioneers of this industry. Thanks to Drury Outdoors for giving my brother and I this wonderful opportunity. Were having a blast! Good luck to you all the rest of the season. There's still a ton of season left so go kill 'em and be safe!

ROLL TIDE!
-Bart

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

Jared Lurk - Lurk's October Lull Activities

Justin and I have been in the woods several times this season already. We had a great encounter with a 2.5 year old stud (check out “The Inner Circle” dated 10-3-10 to see him), we also saw a shooter that wasn’t close enough for archery tackle and have seen a pile of does. As the October days click by and approach the middle of the month – we are officially enter the “October Lull” period. I first heard about this so called “lull” around 15 years ago when I went to visit Mark and Terry at Deer camp. I remember them saying, during the “lull”, you would be better off doing anything other than hunting deer (in particular – bucks)! That advice has stuck with me ever since then....

With limited vacation days, we try to be as efficient with our time in the woods as possible. We love hunting that early October period when the big boys are still hitting our biologic maximum and trophy oats plots. But when the “October Lull” hits (it usually begins around Mark’s birthday), its back to our daily routines which include working and spending as much time with our loved ones as we can.

To heed that advice garnered from my uncles almost a decade and a half ago – both Justin and I utilized the opportunity to spend some much needed family time prior to venturing back off into the Iowa deer woods to hunt the “rut”.

This past weekend, my daughter Eloise and Justin’s girlfriend’s daughter Liv (they attend the same daycare / preschool) had a Fall Festival. The school had a theme in each of the classrooms with games for the kids to play with candy & snacks for prizes. The kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes, saw all their friends, played a ton of fun games, picked pumpkins from the makeshift pumpkin patch on the playground and ate some delicious food prepared by the teachers. It was great to see them so happy in their costumes, it’s needless to say, but we can not wait for Halloween to get here so they can dress up again.

After Halloween, we will be back at it. Good luck to you all this fall!!

Bric Steward - 2010 Biologic Award

Well talk about a weekend of excitement. Every year 160 something raging whitetail killers converge on St. Louis for the annual DOD Shoot to Thrill Awards. This is a weekend that has become the same as a family reunion to me. It’s a great time to catch up with the rest of the DOD Team and see the trail cams they have gotten of giants though out the summer, hear of out of state trips planned and trade woes and woos about rain or lack there of for our food plots.

Saturday morning is a class for the finest editors in outdoor video/television to update us on the latest technical camera information. The second half of the day is packed full of sponsor rotations. This is where it gets good. It’s a chance for representatives from our sponsors to come and bring the Team up to speed on their newest equipment and even give us sneak peaks of innovations yet to come. And let me tell ya, some of these things are going to make you want to run to Cabela's and start making a Christmas list!! For instance Blake Shelby from PSE was on hand and brought the new Dream Season EVO! WOW, is all I could say after drawing this bow. Michael Mayer was able to show us a few things in the works with the new Cold Fusion Technology and update us on the Numbered Layering system ScentBlocker uses. The HuntVe guys were on hand delivering Mark and Terry’s new Dream Season Edition HuntVe's. We were able to test drive these machines, and what an eye opening experience. It’s unbelievable the thought that went into these vehicles to make them hunter friendly. Craig Cushman was able to unveil the new Dream Season Omega. Oh, and the TV star himself Bobby Cole, or also know as “BobbyLogic”, was able to show us a great new product in the works that will for sure be the “Last Bite” of many monsters(Hint… Hint.)



Then the evening is capped off by the most amazing full featured award show in the entire outdoor industry, The Shoot to Thrill Awards! There are numerous awards handed out throughout the night to various DOD Teams. Some awards to mention are, “Best Reaction”-won by Rod Owen, the “Mossy Oak Passion Award”-won by Rick Malik, Best Produced Bow Madness Episode-won by Dave Reisner and John O’Dell, and the most Prestigious of awards “The Producer of the Year” was won by the Team that truly had a Dream Season last year Doug Hampton and Rod Owen. Dad and I were proud to be nominated for many of these awards and we were floored to have been chosen the winners of the “2010 Biologic Award!” It was a true honor to be presented with this award. Biologic has truly changed the way we hunt and it has truly changed the farms we hunt on. In my opinion Biologic is the winner for producing the best wildlife seed blends on the market, and for changing the quality of hunting experiences brought to everyday hunters across America. Thank you Bobby Cole and Biologic for all you do for the Drury Outdoors Team!