Diversifying your Hunting Portfolio

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Sorry I have not posted in a while. Been busy with school and getting ready for my son to get here in February. If you watch any of the national news today you will see the horrible situation that is happening in Europe. Greece and Italy are on the verge of collapsing at any moment. At the same time we in the United States are trying to recover from an economic recession. When trying to ensure a strong financial portfolio, it requires many decisions and precautionary steps; much like what it takes to be successful at hunting (no matter what your definition of success is). Having a diversified portfolio is one HUGE step to ensure the integrity of your financial portfolio, you can also do this in your hunting preparations for this season and future seasons.

Leading economists view having stock in Gold is important in a strong, diversified portfolio. Generally speaking, when the rest of the stocks in the market are falling; Gold is rising. Relate Gold to owned hunting land (I will touch on leases later). Owning your own land allows you to be able to hunt (without paying an expensive yearly lease fee) and gives you some mental stability in knowing that at the beginning of each season you will have somewhere to hunt. I understand that you do have to pay for the land, but it is a piece of stock that you can rely on to enjoy the season. Leases are much like investing in higher priced stocks that you hope will pay out/off. They are risky investments, in that if you buy-in and the stock falls, you could be out a lot of money; on the flip-side, it could pay off greatly.

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Another stock group recommended for a strong portfolio is commodities. These directly correlate directly to hunting. Gas, water, fertilizer, corn are all an example of commodity stocks. Holding these are good so that in a strong market you can have a strong portfolio. Gas is essential to a hunter so that you can run your truck, tractor, or ATV. Corn as an attractant and fertilizer to grow food plots. Water also for food plots and for the hot, drought of summer. If you have enough oak trees on your property, count acorns in this category.

The rise of technology in our society today demands holding stock in it. The same is true in your arsenal for hunting. From scouting cameras to angle adjusting range finders, technology has become just as much apart of hunting as it is our everyday lives. The use of game cameras has dramatically increased the success of the average hunter. It allows you to keep eyes on your food plots, feeders, trails 24 hours a day so that you can see exactly when game are moving. Some now can have the pictures sent to your home computer via cellular service. Technology is also more than just game cameras and range finders; it is also the weapon used. Some compound bows in today's market can shoot on the upper end of 340 fps (feet per second) and not to mention the advancement in firearms.

Having the guidance by a financial planner is important for them to guide you through the process of buying and trading stocks in the market. Related to hunting, the guide can be anyone that knows more about hunting than you. To me it is my father, he taught me how to hunt whitetails. I always know that I can rely on him to give me sound advice that will pay off at some point or another. It can be a literal guide that you use once a year that offers you great insight on how to run a quality deer management program, or a wildlife biologist. No matter who it is, having someone that can help point you in the right direction is just as important at the gun/bow you use.

The ways and possibilities that you can have a diversified hunting portfolio are endless and I know that I barely chipped the iceberg on it.  There are hundreds of ways to do this that I did not mention.  Remember to have security for success in your hunting, diversifying is a great way to accomplish your goals.  Most importantly, have fun and teach others about our great way of life.

October Doe Harvest

Early in archery deer season is the best time to harvest does.  Being able to manage them is only half the battle of growing/harvesting big bucks.  Many hunters believe that it is best to wait to harvest does until the end of season to fill their doe tags, but I disagree. The first reason is when there are less does running around during the first rut, then the larger bucks have to come out and breed earlier.  This will have create a higher percentage opportunity of harvesting a bigger buck. This will also decrease the chances of the second rut (which is just the does that did not get bred the first time around).  When the rut starts in a high doe saturated area, then the big bucks do not have to travel as far to find one; which means a decreased chance of seeing the bigger bucks up prowling around.  Lower the number of does and you will see just the opposite affect happen. The bigger bucks will have to get up sooner and travel farther distances to find a doe in estrus to breed; creating a higher percentage chance to seeing that buck of a lifetime.

Let's look at it from a quality deer management standpoint.  Each and every spring the does drop their fawns from the previous fall's rut season.  It is natural for a doe to have twins.  That shows that she was not under stress and had plenty of nutrition.  Doe management allows for nutrition to stay plentiful and for pressure to stay a minimum (from a over-population perspective).  I personally have seen what the affects of having too many deer in an area can do to trees.  In a river bottom property, as far as you could see, the deer ate all the leaves off of the trees and bushes for as high has you could see.  It looked as if someone when through with a limb saw and cut the branches off as high as they could reach.  This will cause the deer to be small, malnourished, and the bucks to have little racks.  The number one way to prevent this is to harvest does.  During the rut, the bucks are running and  running chasing does; keeping the doe population down will ensure they get what they need to stay strong during the rut.

Winter meat in the freezer.  Harvesting early season does is great for those cold winters.  Chili, deer steak, kabobs, stew, you name it! Many people in the south do not even buy beef, because they have deer processed that can last them an entire year.  I think that I would be safe to say that all the meat they had was not just from buck deer. To me, there is nothing better than coming in to the camp from a long afternoon hunt and smelling the table full of potatoes, gravy, corn, biscuits, peas and a large plate of tenderized deer steak. It is definitely cheaper than buying ground beef throughout the year.  If you are on a budget or not it will help you put money back during these hard economic times.

All in all, whether you are looking to bag a buck of a lifetime or just putting meat on the table, harvesting does in the early season is a great way to be successful at both.  It is good sportsmanship and helping to keep the deer population under control.  Good luck and shoot straight!

Optics in Diverse Terrain

Optics play and important role in all aspects and phases of hunting. I feel the necessity of optics is totally dependent on the hunting area and method of hunting.  Optics are a very useful tool in bow hunting and rifle hunting.  Being able to distinguish certain features and identify game that is being hunted is very important, especially in a management scenarios.  There are various sizes and styles of optics that all have different applications.  Regular binoculars come in different sizes and magnifications for hunting in close range areas and wide open ones.  For really open and long range viewing, there is the spotting scope.  Allowing the hunter to be able to see a very long way with a solid stand base to help eliminate shaking.  On the opposite end of the spectrum there is the laser rangefinder.  Normally they have a low magnification to them and are very well applied in close range situations where binoculars are too magnified.  Laser rangefinders are also compact and lightweight.

Various terrain types require different optic needs.  Lets continue with the close range hunting scenario.  Hunting in thickets and dense foliage limits the need for high magnification.  As previously mentioned, laser range finders work very well in this situation because it allows for a small amount of magnification to be able identify specific characteristics about the game. It also allows for a bow hunter to range (for yardage) the prospective shot location without having a lot of movement by switching from the binoculars to the range finder.  A monocular would also work well if you did not have trouble judging yardage from a tree stand or if you have already made landmark yardages.

As the hunting area begins to open up like a river/creek bottom up to the edge of a food plot or field, binoculars come into play.  The higher magnification gives the hunter the edge in deciding a "shooter" or not before the game gets too close.  Binoculars are very versatile in that they can allow the hunter plenty of time to get ready for a shot well before the opportunity arises.  In a game management system, binoculars can aid the proper game harvesting.  There are different harnesses on the market today that allows for the binoculars to be worn on the chest where they are out of the way to shoot a bow, but are easy to access at a moments notice.

The wide open country of the west offers a variety of terrain that calls for the "big boys" of optics.  Hunting in the plains and mountains out west, having a high powered binoculars or spotting scopes is just as important as your weapon. Spotting scopes can be mounted on the window of a truck or on a tripod stand.  Game species out west are very good at seeing, making it very important to be able to see a long way and see them before they see you. Optics allow you to plan a stalk, so that you are not visible until the shot is taken. 

Game management systems give the hunters great reason to invest in optics.  Making the decision to harvest the animal or not quickly is key. Good optics give you an enhanced view of the animal, allowing for better analysis in harvesting.  Scouting is another area that optics play a large role in.  Walking the hunting property is key when making stand location preparations and finding the deer travel routes.  Binoculars/spotting scopes aid in this process.  They allow you to view the game in route to a bedding area, food plot or just cruising.  Being able to see the travel corridor without interrupting it will gain a great advantage when season rolls around.  Aside from just preseason scouting, early to mid season scouting is crucial.  There is more traffic in the wild and a good set of optics will allow you to study the travel patterns after hunters have invaded the ones mapped preseason without disturbing the animals.  There is a reason that the big bucks are hard to find during season and a large part is the added pressure from hunters causes them to use alternate trails than the ones used out of season.  Spotting these trail from afar will aid the harvesting of a mature whitetail or other game.

Hunting method is another factor in using optics.  Obviously bow hunting is a method that has tremendous gains by the use of optics, but lets look at rifle hunting.  Out west it is still a necessity to use high powered optics other than the scope of the rifle.  In the south and midwest terrains, the type of land is key.  Hunting public land, the use of binoculars is very important.  Using the scope of your gun is very dangerous because you may not know where someone else is at and the last thing to want to see in the cross hairs is another hunter.  Safety is the name of the game when dealing with high powered firearms.  On private land, where you know the location of everyone that is on the property, it is still recommended that binoculars be used; just to be on the safe side.

Magnified optics are an incredible tool that helps to level the playing field between hunters and wild game (when it comes to senses).  Most wild game can hear, see and smell better than humans.  Being able to enhance a hunter's vision so that correct and safe decisions can be made will only help the hunter have more success and fun.  Find the right set of optics for your hunting area and hunting method.  There are hundreds of options available that allow you to be able to get exactly what fits you. 

Almost here!

When this time of year gets here and everyone is getting the football buzz, I cannot help but think of being in a tree on October 1.  There is something about being out on opening day that cannot be explained.  The anticipation and excitement of having a chance to harvest the first deer of the season on opening day is what I would imagine hitting a grand slam to win the World Series would feel like. The excitement is hard to contain, so I channel it to things geared to get me ready for opening day.  I can't help but review the pictures of the trail cameras placed by stands and patterning the big bucks to when they will be there (despite their 6th sense to know when bow season starts and seem to disappear).

I think of the years past, getting to spend time with my father, grandfather and brothers at the deer camp.  Sharing stories and talking about the plan for the next day's hunt.  The smell of bacon and sausage streaming out of the skillet as we pull up on the four wheelers from the morning pursuit of whitetails. All these memories come flooding back from seasons past to invigorate me to be over prepared for opening day.  Sighting in broad heads, refletching arrows, walking/jogging to loose just a few extra pounds, working out, washing camo, filling corn piles/feeders (where legal), watering food plots to give them a little extra because of the dry summer are all things that are frantically being done to prepare for the start of bow season.

Being in the south on opening day does bring about some difficult bow hunting conditions.  It is still warm enough to sweat profusely sitting in the shade with the wind blowing; making it nearly impossible to control scent. Light-weight camo is key in helping to combat these conditions. Then, there is the small bird-sized mosquitoes.  If not properly armed with a ThermoCell and refills, it is likely that you may be carried off by these over-sized insects.  One of the biggest concerns with the higher temperatures is the reduced time frame to recover and process the game taken, due to the increased rate of meat spoilage in the warmer October weather.

Even with these drawbacks, come to the south on opening day and you are very likely to see several trucks pulled off in the ditch by a gate, with hunters out in the stand and hoping to fill their first tag of the season with a bow.

Beau

New at this

So I got a wild hair to start a blog about bowhunting and life around it.  I got the idea while reading some magazine articles on hunting and thought to myself "Hey I could do that."  There may be different unsaid rules that I have no idea about; so if I break them and offend you, I'm sorry. 

I want to help fellow bowhunters and those of you that are getting into it or just curious. Topics on health and fitness, bow tuning, equipment, food and many other topics.  I am always open to suggestions, questions or comments.  There is a good chance that there will be people that totally disagree and I welcome it. That is what allows for diversification within our society.

I hope you enjoy my blogs and insight!