Canadian Sub-Arctic Hunt - Photo Blog

Photo Blog of Shannon's First Black Bear Hunt

First chartered flight!

The runway at the lodge...it's dirt!!

Dusty films the arrival

Float plane to camp

Home sweet home

Looks like a bomb of equipment went off!

No need to explain

Laundry day

Poor Ralph, wilderness hunt with a bunch of girls!

Vicki fishing for some lunch

Happy guide!

Walleye paradise

Who can resist candy?

Common sight every evening

Sunset at midnight

About as dark as it gets

Yes, it is a Thursday, and we are at work!

Once again, who can resist candy?

Ralph's huge chocolate bear

Dusty's black bear

FIRST black bear!

Massive

Behind the scenes

Happy hunter!

Summer Chores

Summer means beaches and vacations to a lot people but for turkey hunters it means chufa planting. Since our turkey population here in SC seems to be on a decline, its more important than ever to manage the habitat on our hunting ground. Chufa is a great tool for turkey habitat improvement just about anywhere corn will grow.

In case you didn't know, chufa is a plant that looks like decorative border grass. It produces underground tubers that turkeys, pigs and ducks (when flooded) love. I'm hoping the pigs leave mine to the turkeys.

The NWTF imports their Turkey Gold Chufa brand from Spain but there are growers here in the states that produce it for sale as well. Click here to see some FAQs about chufa.

Planting in June is a hot, muggy undertaking but good friend Patrick and I braved the heat and deer flies yesterday afternoon to get a few chufa plots planted. The process is not simple and usually requires multiple trips to the property to kill weeds, prepare the seed bed, fertilize and plant.

Sweat equity at it's finest. Hopefully these plots will pay big dividends next spring by holding at least a couple of gobblers on our lease. And if you know where these plots are please don't tell Shannon or Kelly......

Wyoming Field Research

I recently returned home from Wyoming where we shot prairie dogs, ground squirrels and rock chuck with the guys at Silver Spur Outfitters in Encampment. And man was it cold…at least for me. The week before I left for the trip, I was in shorts and t-shirts in South Carolina, and while I was in Wyoming, it dropped to a whopping 30 degrees and snowing.

Talk about a damper on shooting prairie dogs.

However, the ground squirrels didn’t seem to mind the snow and wind, so we stayed out with them. Luckily the snow only lasted one day.

We shot Winchester’s new (in 2009) 22LR and 22 Win Mag lead free ammo, 22-250 and the latest .223 Ballistic Silvertip lead free ammo that was just introduced this year.

We tested the product on the varmints from 10 yards all the way out to 540 yards and no matter what the distance was, the ammunition performed great. The results from some of the shots were unbelievable. It’s amazing how high you can launch a prairie dog or ground squirrel in the air with a 22-250 or 223.

Without being too graphic, I’d just have to say that Winchester’s product works. The new BST lead free load designed by Winchester and Nosler features a plastic tip to reduce tip damage and promote long-range performance, and a gilding metal jacket. The fragmenting copper core is engineered to explode on impact. And it indeed exploded.

If you don’t believe me, go out and buy some yourself to try.

You won’t be disappointed!