Early Opening to Turkey Season

Florida is a destination for a lot of people but it interests me for one reason only....Osceola turkeys. When I worked for the National Wild Turkey Federation I help trap and transfer some birds once but had never hunted. Thanks to an invite from good friend Greg Gatto, that was all about to change.

I was lucky enough to have Ray Eye to help with the calling for me and videoing the proceedings for Outdoor Life's Chasing Spring. Actually, when hunting with Ray you have to work pretty hard to get a yelp in....he does love to call. A trait I admire in a turkey hunter. The hunt also served as another chance to put my Nikon Turkey Pro scope and Xtended Range shells to the test. Happily I can report it all worked as planned.

The bird was a good one even by Osceola standards, sporting spurs well past the inch mark. And he completed my Grand Slam. A great trip with some good friends.

If you go, even this early in March, do not forget your Thermacell. You'll thank me for reminding you.

Livin' the Dream

Throughout the course of a year I get to work on a lot of cool projects and one of my all time favorites has been Nikon's Livin' the Dream magazine. In printed form the magazine is bound with the 2011 Nikon catalog and available at dealers across the country. But we wanted to do something special and expand on the content and interaction..... So Livin' The Dream digital was born.

Livin the Dream digital

There are hotlinks to products, advertisers and web addresses. We also linked videos to almost every article title. It's located on nikonhunting.com. Check it out if you have a little down time.

Happy 100th Post!

I think everyone in the Chevalier Advertising headquarters in Oregon has finally recovered from whatever crud followed us home from the 2011 SHOT Show. I usually try to scout out the coolest/most unusual stuff at the shows. Remember ATA 2010?

As a waterfowl nut, I am totally stoked for Winchester Ammunition’s Blind Side! Watching Winchester Ammunition’s own Brad Criner demonstrate the capabilities of Blind Side at the Bass Pro Media Day was pretty neat.

The tightly packed and stacked Hex shot hit the ballistic gel like a ton of high-velocity tumbling bricks. The channel was massive on the gel from the Hex shot. Since the Hex shot is stacked, you’ve got 15% more shot pellets in a shell.

The math for me is simple:

More shot + Hex Shot + Massive Wound Channels = Happy Hunter!

Unstrung bows

This morning I crawled out of bed early, not to carry my bow into the woods for a hunt....only to unstring it. That act always means the closing of a hunt or a season, and in this case it was both.

Fortunately I did extended my season by hunting a friend's property in Alabama. It's a beautiful place that's loaded with deer and it gave me my first deer with a longbow. Something that has been much harder for me than tagging deer with my recurve. Not sure why as the mechanics of shooting both are very similar. However, the stars aligned and a healthy doe got a little too close.

But of course I'm bummed that deer season is officially closed for me now and I have no more options until this fall. Guess I'll have to make do hunting pigs until turkey season gets here....

Tis’ The Season Of Tradeshows

January marks the end of deer seasons across the country. For manufacturers in the hunting and shooting industry, January means trade shows, and lots of them.

January 6-8, 2011 hundreds, if not thousands of bow-geeks invaded Indianapolis for the Archery Trade Association Show (ATA).

I hung out with my buddy Carrie Z from Bowcast. If you have never heard of her or Bowcast, be sure to check them out! Carrie and I set out on a quest to find the latest and greatest the bow industry had to offer.

Carrie and the crew from Bowcast put together the video below, it gives you a small taste of what ATA 2011 offered. Stay tuned for coverage from the 2011 SHOT Show!