The last part of April I went to Western Illinois to do some behind the scenes filming of Ralph & Vicki Cianciarulo. I had a chance to meet them briefly the month before when we were filming interviews for Whitetail Country down in Atlanta. 

I was excited about getting a chance to hang out with them for a couple of days. It was neat to get to see their day to day life. These two are great to be around and it doesn’t matter if the cameras are rolling or not, what you see is what you get. They are fun to be around and there is never a dull moment around these two.

Be sure to check out their shows on The Outdoor Channel!

For more information, check out their web site  www.archerschoicemedia.com

My son, Kolby, and I went for a haircut this morning. Being a former Marine, I usually get my hair cut very short. Kolby, age 5, said he wanted to get a short haircut too. My wife likes his hair and didn’t want Kolby to get his head shaved. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves!!! 

The After Picture!!!!!!

After Allen tagged out he got his dad to come over to Manhattan, KS and try his luck with the turkeys. His Dad made the drive over to and got ready for his hunt. Allen went out the evening before his dad’s hunt and roosted some birds.  The next morning was cold. It was 26 degrees and we made our way to the area that Allen roosted the turkeys. It was a cut corn field bordered by a creek. We snuck in before light and set up along a fence line that ran along the banks of the creek. As the sun started to rise, the gobbles began. We knew we had snuck in close to the turkeys, but we didn’t know how close we were until it got light enough to see. We were less than 50 yards from 3 different birds. We could see them strutting on the roost and we were hoping that they would fly down to the field we were set up on. 

On ce the birds started flying off the roost, they started coming from all directions and they were coming to the field we were set up on. We had a total of 9 longbeards and 3 hens in the field. They were a little over 100 yards from us and we were hoping they would see our decoy and come our way.

Allen started to call and this got the birds all fired up, 4 were strutting and 5 were fighting through a barb wire fence. After a few more calls, two of the toms noticed our decoy and started strutting our way. Allen’s dad got ready as the birds kept coming.  Once the birds got in range Dave sealed the deal!!!!

Great Job Dave!!!! Below is a picture of the happy hunting party!!

A few weeks ago my daughter gave her life to Christ. Today she was baptized. She has made me very proud in her 10 years here with me and I know the good Lord has great things in store for her! Way to go Rachel, Mom and Dad are very proud of you!!!!   

Rebecca, from Bass Pro’s Next Generation, and I went to Winchester, Virginia last Saturday morning for a turkey hunt. Our host was Mr. Jim Clay, the founder of Perfection Turkey Calls.  Rebecca and I went hunting with Mr. Clay last year, but we didn’t have any luck. We saw some birds,  but we just couldn’t get them close enough for a shot.This year Jim wanted to take Rebecca to his “Honey Hole”! He set up a ground blind 3 weeks prior to our arrival and had been keeping an eye on their movement. He had been seeing and hearing plenty of Gobblers and had high hopes of Rebecca being able to get her first turkey.We met him before light last Saturday and headed to the blind. He said he had seen 4 different gobblers around the blind the afternoon before.  We snuck up the mountain in the dark and settled into our blind. Jim put some decoys out and Rebecca and I got settled into the blind. Once Jim finished setting up the decoys he joined us in the blind. We started hearing some gobbles at 5:50. In all we counted 7 different birds that we heard. As the sun started to rise we could see the birds flying off the roost down below us. We had a gobbler close in on the blind, but we never could see him because of the thick brush.We had 3 hens come into the blind, but we never  could get a gobbler to come check out the decoys. Due to Virginia law we had to quit hunting at 12:00. We are planning to get her back in the woods and try to get her a bird this spring! Rebecca and I have had some terrible luck the past 3 years. Hopefully we can get rid of our curse and have some luck in the field thisspring!   This picture below is about the only luck Rebecca and I have had together!  This fish was caught in the Albemarle Sound in Eastern North Carolina.  

Well the bags are packed once again and this time I had to pull out the long underwear!!!!! I’m heading to Northern Saskatchewan for a whitetail hunt with Jim Benton and my good friend Chris Douglas. The weather will be very cold, but the reports are that the deer hunting should be the best it’s been in years!!! I will be back next weekend to give you guys the run down of the hunt!

 Have a great week!

The buck is on the ground!!!! Shot him at 3:47 central time in the snow.

 Story and photos to follow as soon as possible!!!

Every hunting season I have an occuring problem. I travel so much and sleep in so many different beds, that when I wake up during the night it takes me a few minutes to realize where I am! It’s kind of scary at times, waking up and not knowing where you are! I’ve even woke up and heard someone snoring and not know who was in the room with me because it was so dark! I also wake up some times with a despirate urge to pee! The problem is that once I get up I usually have to stand beside the bed for a couple of minutes until I realize where I am and which way the bathroom is!

I knew it was coming this hunting season and it happend when I was in the Yukon! I woke up in the middle of the night and needed to go to the bathroom. The cabin I was sleeping in was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I sat up in bed and had no idea where I was. After a few minutes of sitting in the sleeping bag I realized where I was. Then I had another problem. My Surefire flashlight died on me the second night I was in camp! I had to find my way to the door in the dark! You could not see your hand in front of your face and I had to find my way out of the cabin and once I was done I had to find my way back into my sleeping bag! Needless to say, finding my way back into the sleeping bag was the hardest task and it was done with no injuries!

Just walked in the house from the Yukon trip.  We were successful!!!

First order of business is to get some sleep and then spend some time with the family tomorrow morning. Both of the kids have soccer games.

There is so much to tell about the Yukon trip that instead of writing one big post I will be writing a series of posts over the next few days, but I need to make it quick!

Next up is Colorado Antelope. Leave Tuesday for that trip!

Trying to pack this into a waterproof, compact carrier!!!!!!!

Over the next 30 days I will be camping out for Elk in Oregon and then move up to the Yukon for a 18 day moose hunt. I had an old military sleeping bag, but I wanted to upgrade my sleeping bag and get something I could put in a compact carrying case. Oh how I had forgotten how fun it was trying to put a sleeping bag in something that small!!!

 Here’s the final result!!! It only took me 20 minutes, but I got it done!