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Newsletter May 2007
Volume 1, Issue 2
In this issue:
Tips and Tactics
Black Bear Hunting
When stand hunting for black bear up north in Canada or Alaska, often the mosquitos will make your life miserable. Especially for you bowhunters, that need to
leave your eyes uncovered, try a Thermacell. They work amazingly well to keep the mosquitos away and the bears don't seem to detect them.
Antelope Hunting
If you have an antelope hunt planned, try to get to your hunting area several days before the season opens. Antelope normally stay within a mile or two of
where you find them. If you can find a nice buck the evening before the opener, be back at that spot the following morning and the antelope will often be very near where you left him.
Deer Hunting
If you bring your spotting scope along when deer hunting, purchase a detachable mount for your tripod. Add a base to your camera and your scope and not only will your pictures turn out better, but you can use the tripod as shooting sticks by quickly removing the spotting scope from the
tripod.
Backpack Hunting
Don't forget the duct tape when backpack hunting. I like to wrap a few feet around a pen to keep the weight down. It works great for covering blisters when the hiking gets rough, as well as many other uses around camp.
New Products
We have just added six new videos by Marc Watts with Sable Trail Productions. Marc is a former CNN correspondent and brings his experience in the television industry to his hunting videos. They are some of the best produced, and entertaining African Hunting Videos on the market. Marc has been nicknamed "Bwana Moja" (Swahili for One Shot) thanks to his excellent marksmanship which has become his trademark. He currently has six hunting videos on the market, including five of African Safaris. 
One of his better know videos, titled The Mane Event, chronicles a Tanzanian Safari where Marc takes several buffalo, a lion and numerous other species including several shots at over 400 yards. He upholds the name of the Perfectly Shot line of videos once again.
Video Review
Fire and Ice by Sable Trail Productions
Marc Watts latest hunting video, titled "Fire and Ice, Hunting Zimbabwe's Perfectly Shot Dangerous Game" is centered in Zimbabwe's Zambezi Valley with professional hunter Andrew Dawson. 
Marc booked the hunt with Andrew based on his reputation as an outstanding hunter, his experience on screen, and through word of mouth from Craig Boddington. Craig actually joins Marc at the outset of the hunt and makes two excellent running shots with a double rifle on a buffalo cow. It truly shows Craig experience from the 50+ safaris he has been on. Marc then continues the hunt killing two buffalo himself including a beautiful 44" bull with a difficult shot.
Marc initially kills a great waterbuck and as the film rolls on, adds crocodile, leopard, hippo, and finally sable to the list. His crocodile shot is executed to perfection with the croc lying on a small sand bar in the middle of a massive river and the shot taken laying in the shallow water. Any mistake with this shot and the croc would have disappeared into the water.
Andrew Dawson also fools a hunter-wise leopard into coming back during daylight hours with some amazing hunters intuition. Marc also executes a deadly shot on a monstrous hippo through the neck, after missing his first shot at the bull. The final chapter of the film is Marc's crown achievement in taking a 44" sable, Marc's favorite African species. He plots his own course in killing the sable, disregarding his PH's advice.
This film is interspersed with some interesting tips from Marc, promoting his sponsors, as well as testimonials from the many PH's. The video has an interesting storyline, with early confrontation between Marc and Andrew until Marc earns Andrew's respect. It is obvious that Marc has been in front of a camera and the producers have done a great job tying it all together. Overall a refreshingly different and excellent African Hunting Video.
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Turkey Hunting In
Nebraska
Susan and I snuck back to Nebraska for five days to chase Merriams Turkey and show off Sierra to the relatives. We made it back late Wednesday evening and headed out early Thursday for some scouting. The turkeys were gobbling and strutting to the hilt and I got some great footage of the mature toms fending off the pesky jakes. I snuck into a great spot and soon had gobblers and hens surrounding me and just tried to keep my calm to keep from spooking them to the next county.
Day two found Susan and I back in the same area with the same group of turkey strutting in the large flat below us.  We would sneak down, set up and get ready to call, and the turkeys would feed off in the other direction. After numerous set ups, belly crawls, and changing positions, we finally found the spot and had the turkeys within range and strutting by. As the toms closed the distance I was a little too far back, but Susan had a great look at the toms as they filed in front of her. We didn't get another chance that day, but the mornings were as beautiful as they've ever been with some good rain this spring and the wildlife was abundant. We saw deer and plenty of pheasant so it should be a good fall.
Day three, my brother-in-law, Fred, joined Susan and I in the search for turkeys. Unfortunately, the turkeys roosted on property we were not allowed to hunt and there happened to be hunters (turkeys themselves) on the land that stirred the turkeys up right off the roost. It turned out to be a tough morning. We did have one old gobbler headed toward our set up with some calling, but he found something he didn't like and faded back into the pines.
Day four, Susan decided to rest for the morning and Fred and I headed out to try to find a turkey. We found the flock with the binoculars over a mile away. They were feeding toward the land we could hunt, but it would be a long hike to get around them. I got the go ahead from Fred and we headed out in a double time hump (per Fred's description). We eventually got in front of the turkeys and spent the morning watching them strut and sweet talk their hens, but couldn't close the distance. They eventually changed directions and it was off to the races again. That is one of the benefits of hunting turkey in western Nebraska. You can usually see them for quite a distance. It presents a challenge to find a good set up, but you can often put a sneak on them. They finally pecked their way into some trees below a bluff and I decided it was now or never. We took off again at a trot and crawled up to the spot I thought they were headed. After a few unsuccessful peeks over the bluff, we came face to face with one of the gobblers and ended up getting both of our turkeys in their suprise. It was a wild and exciting encounter, and both were mature toms. Another great Nebraska adventure, and it must be Susan's turn again next year. We'll see.
Once again, we hope you enjoy the newsletter and come visit us at
Hunting Videos Online.
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Marc Watts Heads to
C.A.R.
One of our newest members of our hunting video line, Marc Watts has recently returned from a trip to C.A.R. on another African Safari.  As Marc relates "You may have heard the news of my recent trip to C.A.R. I got a big one. A real big one. As in the new #2 SCI ranked Lord Derby Eland. I took it on the thirteenth day of the 14-day safari. He was slightly quartering towards me to the left and it was the culmination of a 5-hour stalk. It is the greatest African trophy I have ever taken, even taking into consideration my dangerous game. What made this trophy so great are the challenges we all overcame to get it."
Marc was hunting with Professional Hunter Andre Roux of Dar El Kouti Safaris and he was in the central region of the country. He had a spectacular camp situated along the Mbali River. At his side for all the rides and thrills, was Kappie, his cameraman. Marc stressed it was hot in C.A.R. 90 degrees everyday. It was  the first safari in which he lost weight. It was made possible by the daily ten-mile walks and stalks.
Marc took several other animals on the safari including buffalo and roan and is in the process of writing a book in which the safari will be detailed. On another note, Marc's African Hunting Video, Fire and Ice, was just awarded the first place Award of Excellence in the VIDEOGRAPHER AWARDS competition from more than 2000 nationwide entries. It was judged Best in Editing/Creative Usage of Music. That is a tremendous honor. This should give you an idea of the professionalism Marc seeks in having his videos produced.
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Jim Shockey Guiding for Black Bear
Jim Shockey has moved into his black bear guiding season. Here are some highlights of this year's bear season:
Despite the pouring rain here on the north end of Vancouver Island, we're having excellent bear hunting ... well, most of us are. Yours Truly (Jim), is getting the short end of the stick, even though I've tried to pull rank on the rest of the guides to steal information and their hotspots! Brian "Wojo" Wojciechowski led his 61-year-old recently retired hunter, Donald Sitton, to a giant of a bear.  The big boar was working its way along an old logging road, and the guide and hunter tailed it until it peeled into the jungle. Hustling ahead, they were able to find the bear crossing an opening, and Don made a perfect 70-yard shot with his .300 Wthby Mag. All of this brings up also Don's excellent physical condition. Don rides his bike something like 20-30 miles a day and is in the best shape of anyone in camp! If there's one thing I've learned about big game hunting over the years ... the guides and hunters in the best shape usually get the biggest game. Don just got back from a successful muskox hunt with my buddy Fred Webb, and he'll be hunting whitetails with us this fall in Saskatchewan as well as moose next year in the Yukon! Now that's a happy retirement!
Even though my guiding skills might be a little rusty, it's not stopping the rest of the guides from leading our clients to big Vancouver Island black bears. Yesterday, Freddy Lackie, my head guide and right hand man in the hunting camps guided 48-year-old Dale Anson of Minnesota to our biggest bear of the season.  Expert guiding on Freddy's part led to a high-percentage shot opportunity which Dale made perfectly through the lungs, for his first black bear ever. The giant old boar green-scores 19 10/16. Freddy actually felt sorry for me a couple of days ago, sent me in to the hot spot, but we didn't find the bear. He went in the next day with Dale and got the job done! Lots of times clients think they have the best odds if I'm guiding them ... not always so, even when I try to pull rank on the rest of my guides for info and hotspots.
We did it... father-son bear hunting team Nathan and Mike Barnes of South Dakota both took huge bears, and, equally importantly, I redeemed myself as a guide after a slow start! We had absolutely ugly weather for the first four days of the hunt, sideways blowing rain and sleet, barely above freezing temperatures.  I found the sign of a very big bear on a grassy overgrown trail, so we left the spot for the day and returned at prime time in the evening. We only walked half a mile down the trail when we spotted the giant boar feeding on the grass along the trail. The bear saw us and only turned broadside for three seconds and then bolted. Nathan made a perfect "Texas Heart" shot, and I totally missed my backup shot. The bear dove into some of the thickest jungle I’ve ever had the displeasure of tracking a bear into. I could see a tall tree wiggling so I knew I was within 10 yards of the bear, but I couldn't see more than a few inches at ground level. Only by looking up into the treetops could I see at all. So I waited for 20 minutes and then worked in closer, an inch at a time. I found the bear's bed, but it was gone. I followed the bear trail on my hands and knees and literally bumped into the dead bear! Scary stuff! This was about the 50th bear we saw and turned out to be the biggest bear of the year so far with a skull green-scoring 19 13/16! It squared 7 feet exactly and was ancient and scarred up. Nathan is getting a full body mount done of the magnificent animal.
Saw 26 bears on Mike’s first day hunting, but I couldn't make a call on the three bears we thought were big. No guts! I kept worrying that maybe the bears weren’t quite as big as I thought, or that one might
turn out to be a giant sow.  Then we saw 14 bears on the second day, including this monster bear. I knew the bear was working a deactivated logging road, so we walked and bumped into the bear at 60 yards. It ran down the trail and up the hill, but couldn't make it all the way up as it
was too steep, so it boiled back down toward us, branches cracking and busting. It crossed back in front of us, but no time for a shot. We ran after it, and it tried a less steep part of the hill at 60 yards again. This time Mike made an unbelievable shot to break the bear's shoulder and then dropped it with a second shot through very thick cover. The shot hit the bear in the neck. It was a Nosler Partition in a .270 Win. Mag. I was making fun of Mike's gun, saying it would be like throwing popcorn at the bear ... was I ever wrong!! Squared over 7 feet, perfect hide, old bear, probably 12 years old and both ears were tattered and torn from fighting.
Sounds like another great year Jim.
Hope you enjoyed the May 2007 newsletter. We'd love to hear your comments. See you in the field!
Susan and David Dukat
Dukats
Outfitting LLC
www.huntingvideosonline.com
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