We strategically place these mock scrapes withing bow range of tree stand setups.  Check out the time stamp on the pictures and see why.  We recommend putting a trail camera on your mocks scrapes throughout October.  As soon as Brian gets daylight pictures, he we go after the BIG 10.

You can get your own Buck Fever products at www.buckfeverusa.com

Video on HOW TO Setup a Mock Scrape below…

HOW TO SETUP MOCK SCRAPE

“I have been using Jim’s products since 2017.  They really work.  Mock scrapes haven’t worked very well for me in the past, but after my 2017 results, I am all in.  It’s all about the synthetic formula that never spoils, vs the urine style that can spoil.  Very happy to partner up with Buck Fever Synthetics.”  – Jared Van Hees, Outdoor Devotion Founder.

Head on over to their site and check them out!  Tell them Outdoor Devotion sent you.

www.buckfeverusa.com

“These regulations are designed to reduce overall herd numbers where necessary, increase license revenues to the Department, keep hunters engaged and participating, streamline regulations across Zones, and pacify the APR movement.”

This illustration below from the LEGLEG website, highlights the new tag options:

This is a step in the right direction to improve deer hunting and hunting participation in MI.

Read full article here:

https://www.letemgoletemgrow.com/news/2018-summit-new-rally-cry-revealed

Bucks and Does are statistically born at a 1:1 ratio, so theoretically you should be seeing just as many bucks as does.  Anyone who hunts knows that this is usually not the case, but that doesn’t mean this birth ratio is far off.  Unless you are hunting/managing very large pieces of property, your herd is most likely spanning over multiple parcels, making this difficult to confirm with precision.  This can present a few challenges when trying to manage, because we all know that the neighbors rarely have the same goals in mind, at least in my experience.  Ideally, we would like to have all the neighboring hunters on the same page, but by at least having an idea of how they hunt, is a step in the right direction.  If you are fortunate enough to have a close relationship with the hunters on the neighboring properties, you should collectively share information you gather from trail cameras and visual surveying.  Don’t worry; you can still keep your 4.5-year-old “Booner” a secret.  With this shared information, you can now gauge the ratios to the best of your abilities, and develop a management plan to implement.  This also calls for open communication of what has been harvested throughout the season, ensuring there is not an over or under harvest to the agreed upon management goal.  If you are not close with the neighbors, you should at least try to talk with them, without preaching your views, and gather what information you can on how they hunt or what their property is holding deer-wise.  Even if they don’t hunt, they may be open to letting you survey their land for deer quantities.  If you’re lucky, it may even land you access to some additional ground either for hunting or accessing your properties stand locations!  Once you have gathered this crucial information you can go from there with your property’s individual goal.

Now that you have decided if and how many does should be taken, it is always better to do so early in the season, for a few reasons.  First, the deer have not been subjected to the hunting pressure that they will likely be feeling later in the season, meaning they will be less skittish, will not be herded up together, and increase your odds of getting a shot.   Secondly, you run less risk of shooting a button buck.  As the season progresses, young bucks will grow to similar body size of a mature doe.  There is no gut dropping feeling like walking up on what you thought was a doe kill, only to realize it has little nubs popping out of its head.  When this occurs, you have not only missed contributing to the doe harvest goal; you have gone negatively against it.  The kicker is, taking your does early will alter the ratio in a given area, and this can help increase/intensify rutting competition within that same season!  Who doesn’t want that?  Lastly, why not scratch that itchy trigger finger, dust off any cobwebs, and get some meat in the freezer to start the year?  You would be surprised by how patient you can be waiting for “Mr. Big” after you’ve had a successful harvest and secured some tasty back straps!

 I know these practices are nothing new, and some have probably heard something similar before.  Just like anything, it never hurts to get a refresher, hear it from a different perspective or read something new that brings it all together.  Hunting is something that we all love, so why not make it better?  How many of us know what needs to be done, make a plan, then opening day gets here and it all goes out the window because we had 1 trail cam photo of a nice buck in September?  I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past.  Make your plan, stick to it, and get it done early – that is the best recommendation I can make.  Before attempting, make sure you do your homework, know your local antlerless regulations, and determine if it’s applicable to the herd and your own hunting goals.

Thanks for reading and stay devoted!

– Pat Cross

Outdoor Devotion

What is a screen?  A screen is a mix of annual seeds that can grow up to 14 feet tall.  One can plant a screen as a visual barrier along roads, property lines, access paths to stands, or around blinds.  It can also provide visual barriers in food plots, so a buck may have to move from plot to plot to check for does, vs just scanning from the field edge.  Usually people use Sorghum, Egyptian Wheat, or Miscanthus(perennial).

The point of this screen on my property, in 2 of the 3 places I planted it, is to provide a hidden access route to the back half of the property.  This means if deer are in the food plots or anywhere on the front part of the property, I can sneak behind my tall screen back to the woods.   This will be planted on the southern property line, for accessing with my best wind.  Northwest.  This is a picture from Killer Food Plots with the screen starting to fill in.

The other place I planted, was in the middle of my larger 1 acre food plot.  So now, I have it divided up into (2) 1/2 acre plots.  The bucks will have to go from one to the other, to fully check them for does.  Can you guess where my stand will be?  That is right….directly between the two.

Let’s get to planting instructions.

1. Get a soil test.  Killer Food Plots does them for their customers, and it takes 3 days.
2. Next you are going to spray Glyphosate(Roundup) on the preferred planting area, to kill the existing vegetation.
3. Once the vegetation is dead, you want to till or disc it under to provide you with good soil to seed contact.
4. Then you will lime and fertilize to amend the soil….according to your soil test recommendations.  Till this in if possible.
5. Planting – Follow the instructions on your seed bag for the appropriate seed to acreage ratio.  Spread the seed on the designated area.
6. Disc or Harrow Drag over the seed to cover/plant it approximately 1/4″ deep.
7. Culitpack with your tractor or ATV tires if you do not own a cultipacker.
8. Pray for rain!

Here is what mine looked like after step 7 was complete.  This was my access screen.  I actually had some weeds come back since my first spraying.  It never hurts to spray twice (step 2).

I should be getting some rain tomorrow and Friday!  Wish me luck!

If you have any questions on screening in your plots or property, please feel free to reach out.  Thank you for reading!

-Jared

Find them here:   http://outdoor-devotion.com/store/od-gear/

Outdoor Devotion’s EAT SLEEP HUNT shirts can be found by following the link below or by navigating through the menu in the upper left corner.  Check out the decals as well!

http://outdoor-devotion.com/store/

and King Salmon.

So far in July of 2015, Outdoor Devotion’s good buddy Nick Van Heest has been slamming the fish off the piers in West Michigan.

There are a bunch of places where one can target these Salmon/Lake Trout on the West side of the state.  Piermichigan.org has a great mapping feature showing each spot while giving a few details of each location.

When fishing, there are 2 techniques that we use:

1. Alewife or Shrimp sitting off the bottom
2. Casting with Spoons

If you have the time, bring a casting net and cast for alewife off the piers.  Salmon love alewife.  This or cooked/uncooked shrimp can be used as a “live bait” technique.  You cast the bait out and let it sit.  Visual and auditory indicators can be used to help see/listen for the strike.  There are a few different places to hook alewife…some prefer behind the dorsal fin and others prefer nose hooking.

Casting with casting spoons in the 3/4 oz. size works as well.  Flashy spoons or glow spoons like a Green Glow KO Wobbler work well, especially if you flash them first.  Before dark or just after dark is the prime time.

No matter which technique you use, be sure your hooks are sharp and your knots are tough.

Sun and wind direction can determine your outcome as well.   We use Michigan Sportsman Forums for updated fishing reports, as well as the DNR website.

FYI – The piers can get busy.  Many fisherman will be reserving their “spot” around 3-4 a.m.

If you have some time, get out there before it’s too late!  Some of the best eating fresh fish, can be caught in West Michigan without using a boat or a charter.

If you have any questions or comments or want to share your success, please don’t hesitate to contact us!  We would love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!

If you are like us, and enjoy filming your hunts…check out the checklist in this post.  There are certain things you “need” when you are finished, to make a quality online episode or video production.  We were not trained on how to film hunts, but figured we can pass along what we have learned hoping to help out you fellow hunters….who trying to capture a hunt with your camera.  This is a pretty basic/high-level version of what you could do.

Equipment we bring into the woods consists of the following:

– Main Camera with Shotgun Mic & Zoom Controller

– 2nd Angle Camera (we use Gopros & Sony Handycams)

– Extra Batteries or Charged Batteries

– SD Cards / Enough Memory

– Camera Arm/Base & Fluid Head

The next step is about being a “Field Producer” and getting all of the right footage to tell the story of your hunt.  We’ve included a shot list of all the different film shots you can get for a hunt in order from beginning to end, with an example of where and when to film them:

Pre-shot

1. Explanation of the current hunt/goals (in truck on the way to hunt)
2. Unloading gear and getting dressed (at the truck)
3. Packing backpack with gear and grabbing bow to go hunt (walking away from truck)
4. Walking to stand (down edge of a field or two track)
5. Climbing into stand or blind
6. Setting up your camera arm/main camera (use 2nd angle camera above you looking down)
7. In stand/blind interview (use main camera)
8. Pan the area you are hunting (pan no more than 45-90 degrees of your surroundings)
9. Take close up shots(cutaways) of bow, arrows, leaves blowing, birds, sky, calling, rattling, etc (these shots will be used as fillers in the film)

At this point you are ready to film your shot on your target animal, and hopefully that all goes well.  It is not easy, but try to keep from sudden camera movements and try holding the camera as steady as possible.  A lot harder than it sounds when Mr. Freak Nasty is within range and buck fever takes over.

Here are a couple of our shots taken right before the buck takes off.  You can see the lighted nock in each shot.

Once you shoot your target animal, it’s time to get serious.

Post-shot

1. Catch your emotion immediately after the shot.  This is natural and cannot be replicated.
2. Film closeups/cutaways if you haven’t already, as soon as the shot was made.  You need to have the same lighting.(do a lot here, you cant always go back and redo this)
3. Lower your bow/gun to the ground (2nd angle or main camera)
4. Start to track – get detailed here.  Information you are seeing and finding along with the trail.
5. When you see the animal, film as you walk up on him.  This will catch your natural reaction, which again cannot be replaced.  We hate seeing the camera already past the deer as the hunter walks up.
6. Get closeups of entrance and exit holes, rack, etc.
7. Add license to your harvest
8. Dragging harvest out of the area you hunt.
9. Tell the story of what happened in detail, while the animal is in a presentable position with good light. (this could be the next day or back at camp telling to your hunting buddies, high-fives, hand shakes etc.)

I know it seems like a lot of work, and believe me it is.  BUT, you will be happy you did all of this when you are editing your footage into a online episode or a video to watch down the road.

Be creative!  There are many things that you can do in addition to what we have listed above.

I hope this helps anyone trying to put together their hunts with a video camera.  Like I mentioned, we are not experts and are still learning everyday.  Ask anyone who has been successful filming a hunt….it is very challenging and cumbersome, but the reward of watching it over and over again and showing all your friends is worth it!!!

As always, thank you for reading.  If we missed anything really important, please let us know in the comments below!

A few of our friends and team members have started collecting these mushrooms already.  These two pictures are from OD team member Dustin Shrum of Grand Haven, who has found over 100 already.

Many of you may know the scoop on Morels, but I wanted to highlight some good information on how to find, and prepare these wild delights.

Where to start:

I always look for dead elms or ash trees to start, but any forest edge where these trees reside can contain morels.  Even old Poplar stands and hillsides can contain Morels.  I have heard that early morning light can help them stick out when you are searching. Once you find one, slowly scan the surrounding 5-10 foot area for more.  Often enough there will be more close by.  When you go to pick them, pinch them off at bottom of the stem, leaving the root system in tact.  An onion bag works great to carry and collect the Morels.

How to prepare:

There are so many ways you can prepare Morels, but a few good tips will help:

– Cut them in half(optional) and soak them in water or rinse to ensure vacating any bugs and dirt that could be there.  Be careful how long you soak/rinse, and you could lose flavor by doing this too long.  There are differing opinions on this…

– I like to add a light coat of flour to give just a little breading to the outside of the mushrooms.

–  Then fry in butter, garlic or olive/canola oil to taste!

Ed Wutke found the above Morels this week!

Below are some great articles/videos we found to dive further into Morels!  If you would like to share any other tips or pictures, you can comment below, or reach out of Facebook.  Enjoy and good hunting!

As always, thank you for reading!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2013/04/finding-cooking-morel-mushrooms

http://www.michiganmorels.com/

http://www.michigan.org/blog/guest-blogger/the-secret-to-morel-mushroom-hunting-in-pure-michigan/