It is getting closer....

It is getting closer everyday and will be here soon. Hopefully everyone is starting to shoot their bows as the early doe season is less than a month away. This weekend sure felt like it was October already and got me thinking it is time. I was doing a little work for our annual meeting and thought I would share a few numbers.

We started seriously managing the property and keeping records in 1999, so this year will be our 10 year anniversary of full out Quality Deer Management. I can say we have come a long way in that time, from the quality of our bucks and deer to the quality and condition of our land. We have done some amazing things like Native Grass Plantings, Irrigation, and Timber Harvests that have greatly improved the natural value of the land. To date we have shot 99 BUCKS and 399 DOES off the property, I call that an achievement that will be hard to beat in West Michigan.

African Leopard Hunt

How old are you?

Deer aging results from the past season.

1. Briana DeWitt - 11pt Hills - 3.5 years
2. Eric DeWitt - 8pt Hills - 4.5 years
3. Jason DeWitt - 10pt Hills - 4.5 years
4. Mark Huyser - 8pt Hills - 3.5 years
5. Alex Vanderkolk - 7pt Hills - 3.5 years
6. Mike Bursley - 7pt Hills - 3.5 years
7. Keith DeWitt - 9pt Hills - 5.5 years
8. Tom Norman - 8pt Reed City - 3.5 years
9. Marvin DeWitt - 8pt Reed City - 2.5 years (90 years old and still hunting – that’s awesome!)
10. Eric DeWitt - 10pt Iowa - 5.5 years
11. Jason DeWitt - 10pt Iowa - 5.5 years

Keith shooting his African bull elephant. Shot at 18 yards with his .416 and a perfect brain shot that dropped him in his tracks.

Lost & Found

This is Grandpa DeWitt's buck that he shot at Allen Creek this past fall. They did not find it when he shot it but all of them thought it was a good shot and would find it in the spring. Well they did find a little while ago. I belive it measured in the 150's.

In this video we are recovering Eric's deer after he shot it and did his own followup tracking it down through the creek bottom and shooting it again. It was work to get it out of there but well worth it.

Keith & "The Wide 9"

I had this on Youtube for a while but thought I should post it here because I have switched to a different video host.

Iowa Hunting 2008

A little clip from our hunting trip in Iowa, this is Jason shooting his 10 point on day 2 of the hunt.

Zman does it again!

Zman was at it again last night, this time in a different stand behind the house. Nice big doe who came in and presented a 12 yard shot and then ran about 100 yards and piled up right on the two-track that leads to the river. His brothers, who love to help track, could easily follow the blood trail in the snow. As of today, Zach has shot more deer than his Dad and Grandpa this year! From Steve DW.

Looking forward to the 2009 Season!

Trifecta! - Big Buck Down

Keith finally got a shot at the Wide 9 on Tuesday night. This buck has been eluding us all season long. We have pictures from this September until this past Saturday and he finally made the mistake of coming out onto the food plot on Tuesday night. Rough scored as a 150' buck which is near the top of the biggest to come off the property yet. This completes the Trifecta of all 3 of us shooting bucks in one year. Here is a link to the video "Wide 9"

Following Up X 2

Jason shot this buck on the 2nd night of the season in Iowa.  Came out onto the food plot a little after 4 oclock and I watched him for a while as there were other deer coming out.  Another buck starting chasing does off the field so I took the shot.  Dropped him with a high lung shot on the edge of the bean field.  10 point, 20.5 wide, nice and heavy all the way out, gross scored 166.

Opening Day X 2

Eric managed to find another big buck on opening day, this time on the Iowa gun season opener.  22" wide, 12" G2's rough scored about 165.  Shot at about 175 yards out of one of our new coops.

2 more bucks

Congrats to Mike on his first hills buck. Mike took this nice seven point on Saturday night. The buck weighed 162 #'s dressed and had a 17" outside spread. At sixty yards it was a good lung shot and the buck fell 10 yards behind his blind.



Congrats to Alex VanderKolk. He was able to take this nice 7 point for his first buck on Tuesday night the 25th on the corn field under the powerlines. The shot was right in the vitals and despite several attempts to get up the buck dropped right in the field. He weighed 142 #'s and had an outside spread of 16 inches.

Vote for Dave - The OL 25's People of the Year

VOLUNTEER WATERFOWL BANDER AND DUCK BOX TENDER

Michigan native Dave Brower works for the state's Department of Natural Resources, but he's not a scientist. He's a volunteer with a passion for banding ducks, which he learned from a friend who worked with the DNR. For more than 15 years, Brower has devoted his time and resources to maintaining his 190 duck boxes, determined to band as many hens as possible.

Link to article, click here and vote at the bottom

They maintain probably 25 boxes throughout our river bottom every year and have had tremendous success. They have had ducks coming back to the same boxes for over 3 years in a row, flying down to the southern states in the fall and returning in the spring.

89 and Still Counting!

Grandpa D has been braggin to me all fall about this 8 point he has seen at Reed City and how he was going to shoot it. Well he shot it on opening night, it was about a 60 yard shot and the buck went about 30 yards. A very nice 8 pt with a 16” outside spread. Not bad for an 89 year old!!

I owe Dan for this one, He called and said he saw a good buck chasing a doe in the swamp and saw it go towards the east and said I should head that way to cut it off. Didn't see the buck Dan saw but this one came from the south. I was standing behind a tree and the deer came within 6 feet until he saw me peek my head around the tree. He took off and at about 50 yds stopped and looked back and that was it. 8 point 19" wide.

2 for 1 Special - #3 & #4

Saturday morning was a nice cool morning for hunting, light breeze and slightly overcast.  I took a while for some does to come within range but once they did I let an arrow fly.  Both were about 12 yard shots standing in the same spot.  

#4 has pushed me past the 3 I shot with my bow last year, my record is still 3 in one hunt which I am trying to beat.

A look at browse from my tree stand.  The doe by the cherry tree growth is #4.  With the lack of acorns this year it is putting some additional stress on our regeneration growth from logging.

Doe #2

Took down doe #2 tonight, first and last deer to come close enough to shoot.  Double lunged her are about 20 yards.  

When Coyotes Attack

Check this out, I have a couple of coyote pictures on this field this year and now this. I didn't even notice the deer laying dead in the field half eaten until I looked at the pictures and thought she couldnt have made it far.

BBD - Big Brow Tine Buck

I Shot this 8 point last night at 7:00 aprox. 28 yard shot with my Bow. This is the 3rd time I have seen this buck this year. Cool thing is Dad saw him at 50 yards (fortunately upwind) walking towards my stand at 6:40. I watched him in the field for 10 minutes and then he started making his way towards me. I stopped him with a little grunt and pulled the trigger. Hit him good but turned out to be a little quartering towards me. I had to watch him bedded down 50 yards away from me looking injured but perfectly alive, he got up right before complete darkness and walked 20 yards and laid back down now looking really weak. We came back 1.5 hours later and he was getting stiff already so he died shortly after I left. Turns out I just nicked the heart, hit a small piece of a lung and the bottom of the liver. Stats are 18” wide, 6” & 7.25” brow tines and 9” & 8” G2’s, rough gross score of 130”. Live wight was 235 Lbs. dressed out at 195 Lbs. Forgot to say this is my 2nd buck with my bow, it been a long time waiting.

BDD - Big Does Down

Whacked a couple does this weekend, Eric shot one on Friday night and I shot one on Saturday morning. I figured I should get it out of the way and make sure everything was working good. It was a low 20 yard shot and I saw her fall over after a 30 yard run.

Also saw some smaller bucks that weren't quite big enough to shoot on our program. They presented some nice shots but I will have to keep waiting.

We caught some POACHERS!

This is what happens when people try to poach on our property and we catch them. Alex and a friend were duck hunting in the rainy weather when they noticed a couple of people walking out into the woods, after a few quick calls it was confirmed that it was not anyone that should be in our woods. They tracked them down and found one of the them sitting in Mitch's treestand, the other person took off running and was picked up on Tyler St. They had parked by a neighboring business where a bloody arrow was found in the back of their truck. With a little convincing from Alex and Brian they confessed to shooting a 8 point buck on Monday or Tuesday. Ivan Perez was called and they had their gear confiscated, licenses taken away, buck horns and meat will be confiscated and both will face some pretty serious fines and probably lose their hunting rights for some time. Here is their picture, one of them is from Zeeland he graduated a year before I did. The other guy is from Hudsonville, I did not get his name, he is the one that shot the buck and was sitting in the treestand. These guys are either really brave, really stupid or both, they had to cross a brand new fence that was finished in the last couple of weeks to get into the property.

Mr. Turkey

Gary shot a nice turkey on Monday morning, about a 8" beard. I heard it was Gary's first "wild" turkey that he has ever killed. Nice job Gary.

BBD on Opening Day!

Eric and I decided to try and cover some area on the big field and see if we could get lucky and catch a buck sneeking onto the field before they get pressured. This one came out early but we were winded by some does in the center of the field and they all ran back into the swamp. 45 minutes later he came out again and Eric made a good 30 yard shot as he was sneaking through the grass. We tracked him for quite a ways into the swamp and ended up finding him floating in the creek. Heavy 8 point, 19 1/4" wide, 10" G2's and 8" G3's. Gross score is 146.5 inches.