Jesse Ziegler's first buck with a bow

Well all the hard work with carrying two 5 gallon buckets full of water up a steep hill the last 4 months to keep my 60 gallon cattle tank full near our stand site finally paid off in a huge way. I was doing all that work with the thought that it would get Jesse some awesome action and his first bowkill buck, after hearing the excitement in his voice as he told me about his best deer hunting night ever I would carry four times as much water up that hill all over again. He sat the stand tonight after our camera had been showing lots of deer activity and within 2 minutes he sent me a text that a nice 8pt had already passed through, not twenty minutes later he passed on a younger buck and then another 20 minutes go by and he texts me that he shot this buck that we had on camera exactly 72 hours earlier, he was pretty darn happy to say the least and he put another great shot on this deer with his bow; the kid is a crackshot with his bow, really sucks with a gun in his hand at deer, but really, really good with a bow for some reason, I have to admit since I was with him filming when he shot his first deer with a bow and he double lung smoked it (see picture above). I wanted a hunting buddy with a passion for all hunting that rivals mine and I maybe have found it, he seems like he can keep up and probably even show me up soon enough (little bastard). Best part is, it's not even November yet and we each have another buck tag in our pockets!!

South Dakota Pheasant Hunt

This was my third year heading back to NW South Dakota to hunt on the 2500 acre ranch of some friends I was able to make in my first trip out there and it just keeps getting better. I asked my younger cousins Carl and Jesse if they cared to join me for a wild pheasant hunt and I could tell they were pretty stoked about the trip, my only concern was that after three hard winters out there the bird numbers would really be down, I did my homework and spoke with the Rancher and the game warden in that area and they both assured me the population held pretty steady, I told the guys nothing was a guarantee, but lets go give it a try. The 12 hour drive is a little rough, but knowing wild roosters are waiting certainly helps, the first morning we arrived we were greeted with roosters and partridge walking along the ditches all over not 20 minutes into the hunt Honey flushed her first rooster and Jesse quickly dispatched of it, Honey really only retrieves down birds to me for some reason she will run right by other people to always bring me the bird, so as she is dropping it at my feet, Dustin is calling Jesse to talk about my buck that they just found back in Wisconsin, Jesse found out the hard way wild birds don’t tolerate much and he watched about 40 birds flush up in front of him while he tried dropping his cell phone and picking up his shotgun, it didn’t take us too long after that mishap to limit out on roosters with some partridge and quail mixed in as well, I was most ecstatic to see my yellow lab actually stopping and “pointing” birds that’s quite unheard of for flushing breeds and at 8 years old to pick up that trick must mean you cannot teach old dogs new tricks, they will just learn them on their own; she really amazed us for the 2 days we were out there watching her body language helped us prepare for flushing birds and watching her scent trail running roosters for a hundred yards or better was bittersweet for me, I raised her from a pup she is my pride and joy and her hunting seasons are coming to an end in the next few years I keep wondering if I will even have the drive to hunt ducks or pheasants anymore when my hunting companion can’t join me she was the first hunting dog I ever raised and I bet if I have twenty more none of them measure up to her she is that special, the best part is she was a $250 puppy from some random old man that lives near a pheasant club in Waupun, some people trying to end up with a rare pointing lab have them flown in from England and spend $2,000 on a puppy or buy from the best bloodlines I took a chance and bought from a cheap purebred litter with no field champion pedigrees  and went against my uncle’s advice to NOT buy the cutest dog in the litter, her red fox shade caught my attention and her boldness when she came running up to me right away in front of all her littermates, I should have known right there she was destined for good things. I was just happy to be able to pass on the good memories and love for a flushing rooster with my little cousins they enjoyed shooting the birds and watching Honey work and I enjoyed sitting back and watching it all take place, besides it didn’t take me long to realize they were much quicker to the trigger on a flushing rooster than their old cousin was after about the fifth rooster that Honey flushed in front of me that Jesse blasted out of the sky as I was easing the safety off on my gun I gave up, I sat back with the camera and took some pictures at the end of the last day and as luck would have it Carl came running out of the grass looking a little shocked only to tell me he saw a skunk and Honey wasn’t as scared as him…Great! Skunkey, smelley dog to ride home with. All in all we limited on roosters both days combined with some partridge and grouse and even blasted a few prairie dogs and a rattle snake the last day, I could not be more thankful for Todd and Anna my friends in Bison, SD for their hospitality, I have said it once and I will say it again: nicest people in the world live out there.

Here’s to many more memories and hunts to come, Cheers!

Childhood dream comes to fruition

I started hunting and specifically bow hunting in September of 1999, I remember my brother being a freshman in college and coming home on the weekends to take me to our neighbors land and I sat in the same stand every weekend hoping for that trophy buck with my bow I was lucky enough to kill a few nice 120 class bucks in the first  years of my hunting, but I always felt I needed that 140 class or better buck to solidify myself as a legitimate trophy archer and getting one with a gun won't suffice since any knucklhead can line up crosshairs and pull the trigger, 13 seasons later not much has changed really; I have a few more than just one stand-site to choose from now to say the least, but other than that not much has changed really I still focus on the little details of scent control and not burning stands out before the rut, trimming shooting lanes, putting in water holes in the summer so as not to disturb deer too close to season, knocking on doors and lending a hand to any landowner gracious enough to let my family and I hunt just hoping it would pay off in a big way. October 26^th at 7:30 in the morning it finally did! Jeff and I were going to hunt a little in the morning before he had to get off to work and I had to load up my car and take off for a South Dakota pheasant hunt with my little cousins and Honey. This buck decided to make things interesting to say the least, he steps out at about 33 yards facing directly away from me and dead downwind and by the time I saw him he had 6 feet to go to be in thick brush and gone for good, grunting was not turning him and I was at full draw and not about to take a “texas heart shot” at such a trophy animal, in desperation I tried a “snort weeze” that I had seen on hunting shows that peaked his interest just enough to get him to turn slightly and expose that shoulder I settled the thirty yard pin and let the arrow fly and heard the thud of an arrow hitting bone hard, he trotted 20 yards and slowly walked away, I watched for 5 minutes hoping he would fall and coming to the realization that I clearly didn’t make that spectacular of a shot I figured by how hurt he was he would be recovered, but to make an animal suffer slowly is always a bitter feeling. Dustin, Jesse, Jeff and I came back 4 hours later only to bump him out of his bed and find out he still wasn’t quite dead, that was a low feeling and I realized in the future I need to be more patient when tracking them and give them more time to expire in a marginal shot situation, but this buck may be lost due to my stupidity! The problem now was we were supposed to be leaving for a 12 hour drive to our pheasant hunting property. Dustin assured me he would track down my buck the next morning and Dennis said he would help I knew I had the two best trackers you could find on the job, but that was still hard to leave not knowing for sure if he would be recovered, I had other family members and good friends gracious enough to offer to help those guys track him down and by 9am the next morning Dustin sent a text saying they had found him. Gross scored as a 9pt 145 3/8” and netted unofficially 138 2/8ths I got a picture of a nice 9pt I passed on 2 years ago a hundred yards from where I shot this buck,while I don't believe mine is that deer since that buck would be much bigger by now it sure looks like they share the same genetics with the G4's on the left side.It was extremely gratifying to finally get a trophy buck with the bow, though I found out its more about the memories of the hunt and tracking with family and friends that means more than the inches of bone on the deer’s head; my business partner always reminds me “you get what you earn in life” and I have had a lot of close friends and family that have seen my dedication to this sport tell me if there is anyone out there that deserves a great buck its me I have paid my dues. I don’t know about all that, but I do hope they start coming a little more often than once every thirteen years now. This shoulder mount will be hanging up at my buddy Derek Lenz’ house once I get it back from the taxidermy, he told me he wants a couple nice bucks hanging in his house and I told him I am just the man for the job and would be honored to have my deer on display in his home even though he mostly just has beautiful women over all the time that probably don’t appreciate big bucks, oh well it will just give me another excuse to go visit him, for those of you that don’t know Derek’s story check out this link:   http://www.flowrestling.org/video/505598-Opportunities

I cannot say thanks enough to my family, friends and the amazing people that are out there fighting for this country; being able to enjoy the outdoors and share it with others, that’s a helluva “opportunity”!

Nick

Jesse gettin' it done Ziegler style!

Thank God I am out of Dallas!

Carl, Aaron, Honey and I teamed up on some mallards hunting a farm pond with a few decoys one morning, they wanted to be on that pond so badly I didn't even need to call, which is a good thing...

Thirsty?

The Water hole is heating up!