Growing Pains

Hunting season is just around the corner and head gear is starting to take shape as we push into August. Send me pictures and I will get them posted.

Wierd Beard

Alex and friend shot this turkey on the last day of the spring season this year. The beard discoloration is supposedly caused by a malnutrition or high stress period of time. Possibly from this winter when we had bad weather and a lot of ice on the ground.

Shed Hunting

These are some pictures of sheds we found in Iowa a couple of weekends ago. The first one measured about a mid 150's class buck, hopefully he will put on 20 more inches this year. This is getting me to think about hunting season which is only 6 months away.




One of our friends down there also found some nice sheds and shot a good buck with his bow.




A farm down the road had a good year as well taking this nice buck. They also found the sheds off the 12 point in the motion picture.

Last One of the Season

Don's buck, 8 point no other info provided.

BBD Southern Style!

The gun opener in Iowa was a cold and wet one with temps in the high 20's, strong winds, and lots of freezing rain. There is a lot of clay on the property and they didn't know if they were going to be able to get out.

It must have been tough hunting in the rain and sleet, same weather we have had here only a day earlier in Iowa.

Things warmed up in a big way for one lucky hunter on the afternoon of the second day of the season. The new Ultimate Muzzleloader served its purpose making an extremely long shot (we'll confirm the range tomorrow, but its safe to say it was over 200 yds.) on a great buck.

12 points, 24.5" outside spread, 6" bases
183" Gross B&C Score.

Unbelievable we have trail camera pictures of almost every buck we have shot off out properties. These were taken in early November when Eric was bow hunting. When you get pictures like these it makes it easier to sit on the stand a little longer.

Thanksgiving Feast

Merle shot this awesome 12 point Friday morning after passing up many young bucks throughout bow season and early gun. This one has double brow times and double G2's & G3's on the left. Truly the type of bucks we are looking to harvest off the property.



Brian shot this 8 point Friday morning as well. It had an injured rear leg from something, possible hit by a car as there was some bruising under the skin.

Dale finally got a chance at this big 10 that we have several pictures of. About 20" wide with nice long tines, and almost perfectly symmetrical. Not quite as massive as Merle's or Nancy's so it will be interesting to see how old he is from the tooth analysis.

2 More

Chris and his boys had a good night in the blind when they shot this 9 point Saturday night.

Nancy started the opening morning off shooting this nice 10 point ending a seven year drought of no bucks.

Buck Down

Shot this 8 pt. on the morning of November 9 at about 8:45. It was chasing a doe, could not get the buck to stop until the doe stopped. About a 35 yard shot. I released and the arrow found its mark and I watched him run about 60 yards until he fell. It weighed 145 lbs. dressed and it has a 17.5" outside spread.

Happy Hunting,
Steve

The Final Countdown

I believe we have a couple of pictures of this one already, notice the 9th point on the left beam and long tines.

Holding Out!

Here are a couple of examples I wanted to share to show everyone what we are looking for and trying to grow out in the Hills. This came off of our Iowa property in the last 2 weeks. Look at the body size, thick necks, massive horns and old face.

Compare this body with the ones below and you can see a big difference, this one is smaller and thin, but has great potential.


Size of the neck and big belly, horns are small for the area and would probably be let go.

This guy looks good from this angle. Massive horns that are clearly outside his ears.

Yup. definitely a shooter.

Look how the neck is an extension of his chest, it makes his head look small.

October Lull