Tommy Brandenburg had success in Arizona with some nice elk sheds. Check out Tommy's Facebook page Bravery Outdoors to see more of his shed hunt. You wont believe all of the encounters he had with different kinds of wildlife.
We are excited to announce our acceptance to the NEXUS Outdoors Ambassador program (makers of Scentlok and Blocker Outdoors). Scentlok is the leading world designer, marketer, and distributor of performance, hunting and casual odor-controlling apparel, footwear and equipment. Scentlok is the only company with access to all scent-controlling technologies including their patented activated carbon technology, which is consistently proven to outperform other technologies tested.
Check out the full line of Scentlok products at www.scentlok.com or Blocker Outdoors at www.blockeroutdoors.com
Spring scouting paid off over the weekend with a nice match set of sheds. As I walked a clover plot checking spring growth, I notice a shed at the end of the plot and 10 yards away laid the other side. I’m looking forward to see how much this buck grows over the summer.
Spring is a great time to walk your property to see how deer are using it. Trails are well defined and easy to walk. This is the only time of year that I’ll walk the edges of bedding areas to see what kind of sign the deer are leaving. Its also a great time to make buck beds and make other improvements to bedding areas. Some people say never go into your bedding areas, my thought is if you don’t go in you’ll never know if your hard work is paying off (note: this is the only time of the year I will enter a bedding area).
For more information go to our Habitat & Management page
I finally made it out shed hunting today and found a few. It was hard walking in the woods because of the snow depth. next weekend should be easier walking with 50’s all week.
Early Spring is also a great time of year to frost seed clover. I'm planning to frost seed two plots that were planted last year (this will help fill in any spots that are thin). The key to weed free clover plots is to have them thick so weed can establish. This will also cut the cost of expensive herbicides. When frost seeding existing plots broadcast 4 pounds per acer works great. If your trying to thicken an older plot increase your seeding rate to 5 to 6 pounds per acer.
We are happy to announce our new partnership with DipStix seasoning. They have a full line of seasonings for grilling and bbq to dips.
Can you say SHED Season!!! well Tommy is on the board with a nice chocolate set of sheds he found in Illinois but Tommy said it was tough walking with 20 plus inches of snow on the ground.
Congratulation Tommy Brandenburg on tagging out with 2 mature bucks in two days. This just shows you how persistent and determined Tommy is and therefore he consistently harvest mature deer year after year. Read more about his hunts in the posts below.
Tagged out in 2 days
Tommy Brandenburg crushed a monster buck. The ultimate chess match is finally over. Tommy never put in so much time and dedication to harvest one buck ever. He's been on him all season but he always seemed to get lucky! Tommy missed him back in November when he was locked on a doe. Dozens of encounters drove Tommy crazy!! Lucky enough to take 2 months off work to focus on him 2 splits finally made a mistake yesterday. What a incredible animal! The body size of this old busier is insane! Tommy said Stay persistent, hunt smart and never give up on your goal!
Congratulations Tommy Brandenburg
Split 2 Buck
Happy New Years! With 2020 behind us we can start thinking about our plans for 2021. One thing I’m doing this year is rotating our corn and soybean plots. We do this every two year, so we don’t deplete the soil of nurturance. Soybeans produce nitrogen and corn needs it to grow so those are easy ones to rotate. Clover and alfalfa produce nitrogen, so both are also great crops to rotate with corn or even turnip. When planning food plots were always think about two or more years down the road. Walking the land you hunt during winter is also great preparation for next season, you can see if your fall and winter food plots are providing food for your deer herd. Winter is also a great time to mark areas you plan on improving over the summer. Over the next couple of months, I’ll share with you what we’ll be planning for this coming spring and summer.
Making a plan for 2021
SLH would like to thank Chris Pazul of Graphic Edge Studio for creating this awesome picture for us. Check out this great idea to memorialize your deer with digital art created by Chris Pazul. All you do is send Chris good pictures of deer you want in the picture and he will create beautiful digital image. For more information and prices check out his website website.
"My best bucks"
The week started off with most bucks in lockdown mode. Younger bucks were still running any doe they came across. We are in the last week of the early archery season and gun season opening on the 21st. Team member Greg Syvrud punched his Wisconsin archery tag on Friday the 13thwith an awesome buck. After having an early season encounter and miss with his number one hit list buck Greg put in the hour and it all paid off.
Both Greg and myself are now gearing up for this weekends gun deer season. Our goal is to harvest a few doe to help out our management plan. This is also a great time to put some venison in the freezer. With the increase in deer processing we made the decision to purchase a grinder and mixer along with some other equipment and go back to processing our on deer. We looking forward to making snack sticks, sausage, jerky, bacon, Italian sausage and ground burger. We'll post some of the processing and making of different products that we do. Its fun to experiment with different spices and mixes.
I hope everyone is having a great hunting season and remember to be safe.
"Friday the Thirteenth"
November 7th Update - Things are starting to heat up in Southwestern Wisconsin.
Greg and I (Brad) spent the last 5 days in stand hunting Greg's 98 acre property. Greg was the shooter with me behind the camera. Our first few days we had good deer moved. Most of the deer were feeding in food plots early in the afternoons. We saw some younger deer but our number 1 buck never showed up. We didn't see any chasing going on and that surprised me (last weekend I had seen 2 mature buck chasing doe). Saturday and Sunday was windy and deer movement was down to nothing. This week temperatures are going to be in the high 60's, that's not ideal conditions but with the rut going coming into full swing we will be in the stand. We hope everyone is having a great season and post some picture of your harvest on our Facebook page.
"The Wide 8"
I walked some food plots over the weekend to see how they matured. I do this at the end of every growing season to see how each crop grow. For me we ended the season with all crop turning out excellent. Believe me this doesn’t happen every year and don’t get discouraged if you have some failure. Most of our plots are planted in strips with multiple crops. By planting this way, you can offer deer a good food source from spring to late winter.
The plot pictured is planted with clover(HB seed called Luck O’ Buck) on the left field edge, then corn followed by brassicas and bulbs (HB seed called Sweet Frost and Tank-A-Licious) then forage soybeans on the right field edge. This make for a food plot deer can feed in from spring to late winter.
Food Plot Design
I punched my Wisconsin Archery tag on October 2 with a 5-year-old buck. It’s bittersweet to fill my tag this early in the season but on the other hand it means all the hard work paid off. I hunted this buck on a food plot that was planted with HB Seed Companies seed blend called Tagged Out and it lived up to its name. October 2nd was our first morning seeing temperatures in the low 30’s. The cooler temps had mature bucks up and moving early in the afternoon. I got in the stand at 3:00pm and around 4:00pm my number 1 buck come in and feed in the plot but was just out of range, so I didn’t get a shot. 30 minutes later my number 2 buck walked into the plot, I ranged him with my Vortex Optics Ranger rangefinder at 20 yards and let the arrow fly. The Crown Broadhead by Thorn Broadheads did its job and the buck piled up 30 yards away. I can’t saw enough about the products we use and the great companies behind every product that make hunting so enjoyable. I’m looking forward to getting back out to do some doe management. I hope everyone is having a fun, safe and successful season.
Brad's Wisconsin Archery Buck