September 2007 Newsletter

• Hunting Begins with a Busy September



• Mark Buchanan Travels Back to Zimbabwe



• Jim Shockey's Moose Season Begins



• Tips and Tactics



• New Products



• Video Reviews

Tips and Tactics

Antelope Hunting

If your headed antelope hunting, there are a few essentials you shouldn't leave behind. Antelope are usually hunted in the open plains and it's been reported that their eyesite magnification is equal to 10x a humans.

First, don't forget your leather gloves and knee pads. You'll find yourself crawling in on these prarie speedsters and this will save bloody hands and knees.

Second, bring your range finder. Antelope are a small animal and it's often difficult to judge distance in the flats where they live.

Lastly, bring a tripod or shooting sticks. Antelope are a small target and the wind is normally howling, not to mention the lack of natural rests, and the better rest you have, the better your shot.

Elk Hunting

When scouting a new area for elk, don't underestimate the importance of finding a fresh track. Check the dirt roads, waterholes, and soft ground as you hunt. Finding just one fresh track is a good indication there are elk in the area.

Be sure to circle downwind the following morning and let out a few soft cow calls to see if you can get a response. Be patient after you call, as it may take 30 minutes for a bull to sneak in to check you out, and call softly every few minutes to keep him interested.

Goose Hunting

Geese have an amazing knack for picking out something that just isn't right in your set up. Pay attention to detail and be sure you and your gear are completely concealed.

The time you spend up front making everything perfect will save you frustration later with flaring geese.

New Products

September has come and gone before we could add any new products. We did get to view a new video by Black Timber Outfitters and we hope work out a deal to sell their videos in the future.

I would like to remind you to take a look at our hunting albums. The albums are hand crafted with the best supplies on the market. Susan does an amazing job putting these albums together, and it is an excellent way to show off your trophy or that trip of a lifetime. Your memories will be saved forever in an album you will be proud to display. The time it takes to put together these albums is not reflected in the cost.

If you have a hunting partner that loves the outdoors and has a birthday or special event coming up, they also make great gifts. We can specialize the album to your tastes or you can just provide the pictures. Susan will take care of the rest.

Video Review

Mossback Mulies Gone Wild 3 by Mossback Productions

Mossback Mulies Gone Wild 3 is the 2006 mule deer season for Doyle Moss and crew. This video is strictly about mulies and some true giants are taken on video.

The hunting video starts with flashes of giant bucks and bulls, enough to get anyone's blood pumping. Doyle then guides an archery hunter to a 34" buck which he doesn't find until several weeks later. Truly a monster archery buck. His second hunter is a lady who takes a great 4x4 followed by another good Utah 4x4.

A heavy non-typical is then taken followed by a huge non-typical. Fellow outfitter Wade Lemon's guide and his hunter take this buck, one gigantic deer plus some amazing footage of the buck in velvet. The video is worth watching just for this buck, a once in ten lifetimes deer. The video then moves to some great scouting footage of huge velvet bucks. There are few things more beautiful than a muley in velvet and the footage is clear and close.

The muley footage continues with numerous B&C bucks and many that grow over the magical 200 inch mark. One hunter kills a 230 inch buck and another non-typical that measures 232 inches. The majority of the hunting is in Utah and Nevada, and Doyle has done it again with some truly remarkable mule deer footage. They pass deer after deer that most hunters spend their life trying to find. One hunter passes on the new #6 typical in the world with a muzzleloader, but Doyle brings another hunter in for a shot at this deer and he takes him on film.

You get to see numerous big mulies on the hoof and on the ground. This is a must for you mule deer hunters searching for that dream buck. You won't be disappointed.

The hunts began with an archery javelina hunt in southern Arizona.

Next it was off to New Mexico for an archery elk hunt. I drew the first season in a heavily wooded area near the Arizona border. I did find some elk and called in a spike, but couldn't get one of the big boys to come to my calls. It rained everyday I hunted and with water everywhere, it was tough to locate the elk. This would be a good area once the rut heats up, but was tough in the first season with the bulls keeping quiet.

In mid-September, we headed to New Mexico for a rifle antelope hunt. New Mexico is known for some great bucks and we hoped to find a couple. Day one we glassed a heavy buck with several other shooter bucks. One of our hunters, Steve was able to get on the buck and shot him early that morning. The pictures don't do this buck justice, as he is one of the most massive bucks I have seen. He measured over 15" and is a beautiful trophy in anyones book.

We found another great buck that afternoon, but weren't able to close the deal. Two of our hunters decided to spend the following day chasing this buck and nearly sealed the deal on day two. As they worked to within 200 yards, Ryan nearly stepped on a rattlesnake on the stalk. The adrenaline took over and the yell he let out as he beat the snake with his tripod sent the antelope to the great beyond. Hopefully he'll be around next year.

I found a respectable antelope on day two. We saw several better bucks, and I had a chance at one of them, but things didn't work out. I took this beautiful buck the morning of the second and final day. He measures just over 13 1/2" and will make a great European mount. I'll be back next year to chase the big boys again.

Once again, we hope you enjoy the newsletter and come visit us at Hunting Videos Online.

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Highlights of Jim Shockey's Yukon Hunting

Below are some comments and highlights of Jim Shockey's Fall Season in the Yukon: Go figure, Cody gets beautiful sunshine weather for his hunting days on the 5th and the 6th and kills an absolute monster caribou ... (OK, I screwed up on the field-judging, but I can still whine), and then when it's my turn to start hunting on the 7th the weather turns and I kill a smaller caribou.

It's been tough weather conditions ever since. We've been fogged right in to our base camp here after returning with the meat from our caribou. Fog right to the ground and rain. I'm supposed to be out there moose hunting! Cody is smiling and smug which adds insult to the injury of my terrible call to allow him to shoot that caribou. Oh, the agony. Two days trapped in base camp with smiling Cody, you don't know the torment.

But, aha, it looks like the weather is breaking, and the hens are coming back to roost. Grab your camera, Cody, I'm going moose hunting! We're heading back to our rough-and-tough spike camp, and I'm hoping to down a giant bull moose that will wipe that smile off Code's face and fill him with envy! He better get perfect 10-out-of-10 video footage, too, or I might just fire the lucky little bugger.

Winter Wonderland Yukon Double! - 9/20/2007 I'm standing out here in the snow, visibility is probably 800 yards ... Winter has come to the Yukon! The whole North Country has shut down now. It's like a winter wonderland up here! We did manage to get David Kennedy in to my camp here after three days of waiting in base camp in Mayo. David got in at 10:35 in the morning ... we waited the required 6 hours (no hunting after flying law) were up. Then we took the ARGO about a half mile and glassed down a valley. Nothing. Then we went down further another couple miles to a high knob, the same knob from where we saw Dad's (Hal's) moose last year and there was a great big moose working his way toward us coming up the valley!

We waited, I called, and he kept coming. We waited some more, I called again, and he came right in. David made a perfect shot on him. Big, heavy, gorgeous moose up near 60 inches. He has 15 points on one side and 12 on the other.

We got him back last night about midnight all quartered up and hung. This morning I got up to do the skull, and look up and there is a big herd of caribou up on the mountain next to us. We were watching them deciding whether we were going to climb up, and all of a sudden they ran right down the mountain to within 800 yards of camp and we went over and David shot the big bull! It's an ancient old bull, big, heavy, no teeth in it's mouth, so David has had a heck of a hunt already!!

Now we're trying to figure out airplanes to get us out of here because, like I said, winter is here!

We've got clients still changing over, and we're getting a little backed up on flights which happens when you get a couple of days in a row of bad weather up here. We've got moose down and everybody is getting their moose. It's been a fantastic season.

We've got a big huge grizzly here near camp, there are tracks within a couple hundred yards of the cabins and there are wolf tracks even closer, so everything's moving. The rut's happening and, oh my gosh, there is a lot of action here.

I'm starting to think of home. I have to be in Spain in eight days. I'm thinking of getting out of here, I might have to start walking!!

Hope you enjoyed the September 2007 newsletter. We sure enjoyed reliving the hunts. We'd love to hear your comments at dukatsoutfitting@yahoo.com. See you in the field!