February 23

IA (early) Shed Antler Hunt 

After we returned from our vacation to Texas, we were pleasantly surprised that much of the snow had melted in North Iowa and Southern Minnesota following a week of unseasonably warm temperatures.  I went to Iowa for a quick afternoon of shed hunting hoping to find the antlers to 2 big bucks that I had been hunting the prior fall.  It was a great day to get out of the house and get some exercise, but no sheds were found.  I suspect that many of the bucks are still carrying their antlers.  Shed hunting also is a great opportunity to see sign that was left during the fall such as scapes and rubs.

KK  

February 16

Whitetail Dream Trip-

My wife and I planned a trip to San Antonio, Texas to escape the snow and cold of February in Minnesota.  As we were driving south on I-35 past Des Moines I couldn't help but find myself starring at the wooded hills and timbered draws of southern Iowa.  Famous counties such as Warren, Clarke, and Decatur have become a deer hunter's Mecca.  This area has the management practices and genetics that simply yield monster bucks year in and year out.  

Flint Hills in Kansas

As we continued south into Missouri, we passed through Harrison Co. Missouri one of the top counties in Missouri for Pope and Young whitetail harvests.  We stayed in Kansas City for the night and refueled with famous Kansas City BBQ.  The next day we traveled through Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally Texas.  Kansas is another state that boasts great deer hunting.  The trophy caliber of bucks harvested in the southeastern counties of Coffey, Greenwood, and Butler are second to none.  

Oklahoma is an up and coming state for trophy potential and Texas, although mostly private land, has a long and rich tradition of excellent deer hunting.  A trophy deer hunting road trip down Interstate 35 just made it on to the bucket list!

KK  

February 9


Central Minnesota Ice Fishing

Corn Belt Outdoors got out for a weekend of ice fishing on a Central Minnesota private lake north of Brainerd. The recent warm weather and rain made the ice conditions less than ideal.  We were sitting on approximately 2 inches of water/slush over 14-18 inches of ice.  

The goal was to try to and find the elusive crappies in the lake. It is quite the crappie fishery, especially in the summer.  We had read in other blogs that we were going to find them in the deepest part of the lake and they would be suspended up from the bottom. Sadly we failed in our quest to find them.  The bluegill did cooperate and we were able to get into some in approximately 28 feet of water. The structure of the lake was a transition from sandy to weedy bottom. The conditions were perfect to try our Marcum Recon5 underwater camera.

The Recon5 was great, my only complaint about the product was with the smaller thickness of cord it is hard to get camera to stay still.  It tended to drift and spin slowly.  We got some great small perch images on the cam and were fortunate enough to watch a 30 inch Northern Pike take our bait.

Overall a great weekend, we caught enough fish for a fish fry and we got to test out one of Marcum’s great products.  We are hopeful that our next trip out to find crappie yields some better results.

CN

February 2

Western Big Game Hunting-Part 3


Our 2014 trip to Wyoming found us back at the original ranch where we harvested our first pronghorns.  This time we were after Mule Deer.  The ranch manager had spotted a big mature buck on the southern boundary of the property a few days before the season opened while hunting pronghorn. Immediately when we arrived we drove to the southern boundary to see if the buck was still using the rocky draws to bed mid-day.  There was no sign of the buck and we spent the rest of the day setting up camp and getting ready for our evening hunt.  Our evening hunt found our group spread out across the ranch overlooking a large creek bottom.  It has becoming tradition for us to encounter bad weather on our western hunting trips.  This trip was no different.  The wind switched and the temperature plummeted.  Our evening hunt ended with a few deer spotted (no bucks) and us getting hit hard with the first Arctic clipper of the year.

The next day our group split up again and found success.  We were both able to harvest our first mule deer bucks.  What made this hunt a success was using our optics to scan the rugged draws and coulees.  Both of our bucks were bedded under sandstone rock outcroppings.  Drastically different hunting techniques from hunting whitetails in the Midwest.

The people that we have met on our trips to Wyoming have been amazing.  We have been fortunate to develop great relationship and lasting friendships.  Our 2015 hunt is a great example of that.  We stayed with some friends south of Casper, Wyoming and had great success hunting the neighboring mountain foothills.  We spent an entire day scouting and did not see any bucks.  Opening day yielded the same results, no bucks.  We were getting a little worried, but on the second day we saw three legal bucks feeding in a secluded meadow half-way up the rising foothills.  I was fortunate to harvest a nice 4x5 buck.  The following morning (last day of the hunt) in the same meadow Jason's .270 found its mark on a great 3x3.  His hunt lasted a whole 5 minutes.  

An out-of-state hunting trip is something I would highly recommend to anyone especially to the western states.  Answering the following questions can get you on the right track to the hunt of a lifetime!-KK

• What do you want to hunt?
• Where do you want to hunt? private land vs. public land, outfitter vs. DIY
• When do you want to hunt? Early October deer seasons can be difficult to find mature bucks as opposed to a November rut hunt.  On the flip side, November in the high country can (and will) pose weather issues
• How do you want want to hunt? gun, archery, muzzeloader?  

Here are the application deadlines for several Western states:

Application Deadline	Elk	Deer	Pronghorn	Sheep	Moose	Goat
Montana	3/15/17	3/15/17	6/1/17	5/1/17	5/1/17	5/1/17
Wyoming	1/31/17	5/31/17	5/31/17	2/28/17	2/28/17	2/28/17
Colorado	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17	4/4/17
Utah	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17	3/2/17
New Mexico	3/22/17	3/22/17	3/22/17	3/22/17	NA	3/22/17
Arizona	2/14/17	6/13/17	2/14/17	6/13/17	NA	NA
Nevada	4/17/17	4/17/17	4/17/17	4/17/17	NA	4/17/17
Idaho	6/5/17	6/5/17	6/5/17	4/30/17	4/30/17	4/30/17