The year of 2014 was a great year for me personally. It was filled with a lot of hard work, long days and some of the greatest moments I’ve experienced in outdoors. Those moments will forever be etched in my mind. The year started out with my son Drake harvesting his first turkey. At 7 years old he is shooting a youth 20 ga, he has the drive an enthusiasm that gets me excited for the future.
Later on my last hunt of the Iowa turkey season I was fortunate enough to harvest a longbeard with my PSE DNA bow. I was spending time with Curtis and Ty in turkey camp. I was able to capture the hunt self-filming, which isn’t an easy task while bow hunting. The next day I filmed Curtis killing his last turkey of spring 2014.
With a long summer of running trail cams and target shooting I was preparing myself for a archery deer hunt in SD with good friend Ryan Warrick who also had an antelope permit. That trip was a blast, on the opening day of season Ryan was blessed with an opportunity of getting up close and personal with a mature antelope. While tucked into a group of rocks I had the video camera running trying to capture the events as they happen. Ryan made a unbelievable stalk an closed the deal one his first antelope ever. What a great start for Ryan’s season as well as mine. Victory Outdoors was on the board early!
After returning home in early Oct the drive to hunt my home turf for whitetails was at full peak. After several weeks of hunting and only having a few sightings of mature whitetails, I was ready for the rut. The calendar turned to the magical month of November! My favorite time of year! On a snowy day in the middle of November Collin and I slipped into one of my favorite set ups. The snow was blowing and it was cold!!! We had no more than sat down in the stand when the sight of deer legs coming through the cedars held our attention. I running the camera and Collin with on the bow, prepared for an opportunity that we had been working for all season. With a great shot placement the 152 inch whitetail had expired in seconds. What a great feeling to be in the same stand with your brother an film him harvest a great animal.
A week later he had the opportunity to repay the favor. The early morning dawn had broken with a layer of snow still on the ground. A small buck had made his way by us along with a very nice 3.5 year old that will be spectacular in a year or two. The action had slowed for a bit an allowed us to do the interview. Shortly after we caught movement from the same location as Collins buck had appeared, a deer that I had never seen before showed himself and came in on a string. Leaving me speechless after the shot, I couldn’t believe what had just happened!! He was not the highest scoring deer that I’ve shot but he had the most character of all.
With a world class whitetail already at the taxidermist, Curtis and I headed to New Jersey to hunt black bears with friend and fellow Mossy Oak Pro, Nick Bockbrader. The weather was not looking good for the home team but on the opening day of the season I filmed Curtis harvest a nice bear with double ear tags. This bear was the only bear besides a couple cubs that Curtis an I saw in 3.5 days of hunting. Even though I wasn’t fortunate enough to harvest a bear myself, I still felt that the hunt was a success. With 4 TV quality hunts captured on film 2014 was one of the most rewarding years of my life. I’m looking forward to the opportunities that 2015 will bring. Stay tuned to Victory Outdoors for another great year full of informative blogs as well as great videos.
