Drury Outdoors Blog

Mark & Terry Drury - Dream Season Celebrity

2009-10-22T10:35:00.012-05:00

Well, another year and another Dream Season TV group hunt....only this year we are doing a special twist on it - Celebrity Teams! We have brought together 4 celebrity guests from 4 different walks of life. We have a Rockstar, a Bullrider, a Baseball player and a MMA Champ! 4 uniquely different people all with 1 common interest and passion...hunting!

The 4 Teams traveled far and wide to converge on Hadley Creek Outfitters in Pike County Illinois. Each of the 4 celebrities are being Teamed up with a Drury Outdoors Team for the remainder of the hunting season.

We have Team Wainwright which is made up of Adam Wainwright from the St. Louis Cardinals as well as Louie Payne and Lance Chapman as the Drury Team being paired up with Adam.

We have Team Lewis which is made up of Aaron Lewis from the rock group STAIND. He will be paired up with Glen Simpson and Ken Barteau from Drury Outdoors.

There is Team Hart which is made up of JW Hart, the "Iron Man" of the PBR and recently inducted into the hall of fame. He is being Teamed up with Drury Team members Rod Owen and Doug Hampton.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Team Sylvia which is made up of Tim Sylvia the 5 time former UFC Heavyweight Champion. He was paired up with David and Jeff Lindsey from Drury Outdoors.

We had plenty of items to tackle while the Teams were at Hadley, but most importantly we had a few competitions that had to be played out! To say that these 4 Teams were competitive would be an understatement! It was great to see the friendly rivalries start to play out and we think the Drury Outdoors production staff captured some great footage to air on Outdoor Channel starting July 2010.
A special thanks has to go out to Michael Engelmeyer of Great Outdoors Studios, Inc! He did a phenomal job as always and we couldn't do the group hunt with out him!

Keep your eyes peeled for some website video footage to start popping up in early 2010! Dream Season Celebrity promises to be the best season yet! -Mark & Terry Drury

Joe Eugster - Raccoon Madness

2009-10-22T10:30:00.002-05:00

Raccoons are a big problem on our vegetable farm, especially in the sweet corn. With low fur prices, the numbers of coon have sky rocketed. If some of the people against hunting and trapping had to make a living raising produce, I bet their attitude about them might change a little! I figure an adult coon takes down about two dozen each night, times that by $5.00 a dozen for 50 nights, and that coon just cost you about $300.00! The coons seem to come from miles to dine at my expense. Well it was time to take action. We called the DNR to make sure we could trap and hunt coons. The coons were doing crop damage so we were given the green light. My son Jacob (12) started running a box trap line and soon had 27 coons to his credit! The deal was that I would give him $10.00 a coon. Jacob made good money and I was happy too.

One night we brought in a friend with a champion coon dog. Jacob and I have never hunted coons at night with coon dogs before, what a hoot. We treed lots of coon but it was hard to see them in the leafy canopy. One big old boar coon fell to Jacobs 22 rifle, along with a couple others. We really enjoyed the excitement of night hunting with a coon dog, and look forward to doing more of it.

P.S Jacob’s coon bait recipe
Tuna fish
Saltine crackers
Licorice- black
Marshmallows

Doug Hampton - The "Double Deuce"

2009-09-30T14:41:00.004-05:00

The one we're after...

Oh yes we've got bigger bucks on our Kansas leases, but it's just something about this buck that fires me up. Maybe it's the double split G-2's that he's sporting on his rack. Or maybe it's because he's the first buck that I had pictures of on my newest Kansas lease. Or could it be that we actually could have harvested this buck last week during the youth season if I had not convinced myself that we had ruined the spot while cutting shooting lanes for a double set of "Big Game" tree-stands, only to have Reconyx pictures of him within two hours of all the activity. How could he be so relaxed when he walks into that Biologic food plot during shooting hours? Does he not know that we are filming for Dream Season and that he will do fine for a main character?

We didn't necessarily have bad luck last week, we simply fell to the natural instincts of big early season whitetails. My son and I had the big 9 x 5 buck walk by us at ten yards. The problem was that it was so dark and I could barely make it out through my Nikon's that it was him. Looking through the view finder 9 minutes later, I was only getting marginal footage at best. We needed just a few more minutes when the 4 year-old decided to exit the beans and bed down for the day. That evening brought an unexpected party on the neighboring property. Lets just say it was quite the fiesta! The microphone hooked up to the loud speakers made for a hard-rock concert's decibel output. The deer probably stopped running when they reached the Missouri line! Maybe they'll be back in time for the rut! .... Coltin had a few opportunities at some 3 year-old 130's type bucks later, but the 9 x 5 along with the Reconyx photo's of some true studs were definitely clouding the 13 year-olds judgment. I guess it's never to early to start trophy hunting.

We'll my wife is up to bat next! She's holding a Kansas muzzle-loader tag and has not so much as even seen a buck in the wild, much less shot or killed one. She has saw a few while driving, if that counts? I guess if the "Double Deuce" buck steps into the food plot while we're there, I'll have to use the ol' " he's not very big, but you can shoot him if you want" speech to keep her from getting too excited. You never know how a person will react to their first buck encounter in the wild, but I'm sure excited to see what happens! Stay tuned to the journal to see if she connects on "D.D.", or maybe even one of the other good bucks that are hanging out on our Kansas farms. Good luck and kill em' big! -Doug Hampton

Louie Payne - What A Weekend For Team Wainwright

2009-09-28T16:00:00.006-05:00

What a weekend for Team Wainwright, this year Lance and I were asked to be on Dream Season Celebrities and we jumped at the chance and could not have gotten a better guy than Adam Wainwright, we are both looking forward to hunting with him this year.
Lance and I and our wives meet up in St. Louis for the Annual Drury fall meeting over the weekend and what a tremendous awards show this year, all the editors done a fantastic job.

Then all four of us went to Adam Wainwright’s house on Sunday and we meet him and his family for the first time, he is really a great guy and has a wonderful wife and two small children, we got him set up with his new Bow Madness XL bow with a red and white Cardinals string of course.

Then after a quick visit we were off to Bush Stadium to watch Adam pitch against the Chicago Cubs, this was the first pro baseball game that Melissa and I had ever been to and what an awesome experience it was, I can see why so many fans go to the games because when a big play would happen and everyone jumps out of their seats and cheers I got that excited feeling in my stomach just like I get right before I shoot a buck, when you can look around and the stadium is full of fans it look like a red sea filled the stadium and I can’t wait to go back to St. Louis to watch the Cardinals play again.

Louie Payne

Doug Hampton - Daniel Boone Returns!

2009-09-10T14:29:00.007-05:00

A busy week, and Daniel Boone Returns!

Well last week team Hart should have lost a bunch of weight because we stayed hooked up and moving. Rod worked during the day and scouted during the evenings.. J.W. was busy with the P.B.R. event in Brazil while I was getting my hunting spots in Arkansas ready. After a logging crew devastated my best stand location, I wanted to scream! The giant white-oak acorn trees that had provided our deer with food for decades were reduced to just stumps. But then it hit me like ton of bricks,"food plot"! After nine hours of bulldozing, I was ready to disk. I guess sometimes you got to make the best out of the things you can't control anyway, so I did just that. Two acres of Biologic will feed the deer deep into our winter months.

With the food plots complete and the weekend coming fast, it was time for our Catch-A-Dream fundraiser. J.W. and Rod both drove down to my hometown of Monticello, Arkansas to hold a benefit for the Catch-A-Dream Foundation. We knew that it was going to be tough holding the benefit on Labor Day weekend with the Arkansas Razorbacks playing just two hours away in Little Rock. Not to mention that squirrel and dove season opened the same day..... But man were we surprised when my hometown folks began to pour into the doors of that church by the dozens! We were even more surprised when we saw how much money we raised under the circumstances. It was great to see how a small town could get behind us and help us to raise money for such a great cause. We had a lot of people and businesses that donated and helped out with the benefit. Thanks Monticello!

Well Sunday morning Rod and J.W. let the rooster keep sleeping as they headed back home. I went to church to give thanks for the great weekend that we were blessed with before heading to the woods. Rod decided to stop by our Kansas farm on the way home and that's when he spoke the words I been waiting to hear." We got pictures of Daniel Boone", Rod said with an excited voice. " The bad news is that he's only an 8 point....The good news is that he's close to Boone!". Daniel Boone was a ten point last year that we had pictures of as late as February. We had moved one of our Reconyx camera's to a suspected travel route from bedding to a bean field just a few weeks ago, just in time to catch the giant in velvet and then in hard horn. What a way to finish up an already great week! And to top it off, my son will be there in a few days to kick off our Dream Season with our father/son annual trip for the Kansas youth season. Stay tuned !!! -Doug Hampton

David Lindsey - Big Mac

2009-09-04T10:23:00.004-05:00

Whitetail seasons across the U.S. are starting to open and we have our Reconyx cameras out in a couple different states taking pictures. It has been an eventful summer with tons of pictures being taken by our cameras as well as a lot of promising prospects showing up in the summer scouting.

One of the bucks on our hit list that I am happy to see is "Big Mac", he is the only deer I know to ever to have made it through a Rage attack. Last fall I shot a little low and just missed the heart. We seen him in December after he had shed early and then we picked up his set of sheds. We figured if he made it that far, he would show up this summer. Well here he is alive and well, bigger than ever and this year sporting not 1 but 2 drop tines. Its going to be a exciting fall with my sights set on "Big Mac" as the chase is on! First up, North Dakota, I can't wait to see what is in store for this fall! -David Lindsey

Steve Coon - Cabela's Event

2009-08-31T13:33:00.009-05:00

After Illinois it was time to head to Cabala's the following weekend to do a seminar. I have to say when doing a a store promotion it gets you in contact with all the Drury Fans.

After getting my table set up with the awesome product that we use, it was time to meet and greet. Cabala's had such a big turn out for their Hunting sell it was hard to talk with everyone that came by, but I did my best. It really makes you proud to be part of Drury Outdoors when people come by and tell you how much they like the new Drury DVD's and how they enjoy the television shows.

It was such a great turn out as Cabala's that at one point I had Steve and Ken, who will be on the new Predator Madness DVD, assist me at the Drury booth. As the day went on I had some special guest show up and it was Mark, Tracy, and Taylor. With that it could not have made the event any better!

I would like to end this by saying when you work these events you always make contact with people from within the industry. Well I had the great pleasure of meeting Mrs. Meegan Turnbeaugh, Jessica Turnbeaugh and Hayley North who are all on the Archer's Choice Pro-Staff and are also part of the Posse Girls for Archer's Choice. So let me tell you guys if you were back in the old west, you would definitely be a bad guy so this posse would come after you! All kidding aside Meegan is a class act in today's hunting industry and it was a pleasure meeting her along with Jessica and Haley. -Coon Dog

Doug Hampton - It's Almost Here

2009-08-27T10:14:00.005-05:00

Our food plots are in and the days are getting shorter. In three short weeks Rod and I will be taking my son Coltin on our annual Kansas youth season hunt and man are we excited! We have Reconyx pictures from most of our big deer that were using our food plots in late January. It's always nice to know your big bucks made it through the winter months and appear to be healthy. We only have pictures of three of our four-year old bucks so far, but that's fairly common during the late summer on our Kansas farm. Last year it was the middle of September before our older aged bucks started to make their appearance.

This year Rod and I will be hunting with J.W. Hart, the "Iron Man" of the P.B.R. on Dream Season Celebrity. We should be hunting non-stop for the better part of four months. We are scheduled to hunt in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. So to sum it up, we're gonna be pretty busy this fall. Good luck to everyone and we hope God blesses you with a great "Dream Season". -Doug Hampton

Steve Coon - Time To Hunt

2009-08-27T09:22:00.011-05:00

Joe and I were back in the middle of August working on three projects in Illinois. We had to finish our food plots, check and hang cameras, and hang a few new sets.

First on order was to check our Reconyx Camera to see what deer made it through last season and to see if we had any new players. Well as luck would have it we had pictures of three of our stars and some upcoming talent.

After checking the cameras we were off and running putting them in new spots hoping to get a few more pics. Just to give Joe and I a pat on the back, here in Illinois we don't have the opportunity to place any type of supplement at the cameras to get those up and personal photos. So what we do is scout the area just like we were hanging a tree stand and place the camera in hopes of getting a photograph of that dream buck. Because if we do our part, the Reconyx will definitely do it's part.

Next task in hand was to finish the food plots, so after we disked for the third time and we decided what seed went to which food plot it was time to plant. So with a little rain we should be just fine! "Maybe I should do a rain dance."

The third project was to put the Big Game Tree Stands together and head to the timber to place them in the locations that was scouted by the Reconyx Camera plus the two new sets over our food plots which in time will prove to be killing spots for Joe and I.

So after the sets were hung the trimming was complete it was time for both Joe and I to head home.

So with all this madness over the summer that we put in for these whitetails, in a couple of months, it's going to be "TIME TO HUNT." -Coon Dog

Glen Simpson - Food Plot Time

2009-08-26T09:50:00.009-05:00

Food Plot Time! With Aaron still on the Stimulate This tour and Ken spending his time with family back at Fort Carson, Colorado it was off to Illinois to start farming for wildlife.

A few weeks back in mid July Chris and I went up to the farms to start the ground work for our food plot areas. Mowing, spraying and plowing were the tasks at hand and it was all going well until we hit a ground hornet’s nest! If you’ve ever done this then you can relate; however, when it got dark it was payback time and we took care of that problem.

Back at home it was time to start the fall In-Store Promotional events. I had really good time at our local Post Exchange on Fort Knox where meeting and greeting our Soldiers made it all worth while. Also took time to get my daughter acquainted with her new PSE Chaos and I must say “She’s a chip off the old block”. She was shooting well within just a few arrows…it must be the trainer…or maybe it’s just the bow?

When Chris and I returned to Illinois this week it rained several inches and really compacted the soil so to the disc we took and finally got it all worked in with some triple 19. The ground where we were putting food plots had never seen a plow or at least not since Abe Lincoln was president but with a lot of hard work we made it into a very nice seed bed.

The next day found us spreading Biologic Outfitters Blend, Maximum and Full Draw covered with Grow Coat in our strategically placed honey holes. Covering the seed ever so slightly as now we can only pray that good Old Mother Nature helps with rain to make the plots really germinate well and take off!

Next Blog will hopefully be after a Journal entrée as the Kentucky archery season opens on 5 September and we’ve got a nice buck spotted and look to harvest him still in velvet so stay tuned to the Journal.

Last but definitely not least. All you Drury Outdoors and Staind fans be sure to check out Aaron Lewis’s web-site at www.staind.com as we posted a video thread about Dream Season 7 and Catch –A-Dream. These kids can really use your support through your donation as they deal with life threatening illnesses that keep them from achieving their Dream. Let’s all give something back and pay it forward. Thanks. -Glen

Joe Shults - 'Tis The Season

2009-08-21T16:13:00.005-05:00

With all the Southeast states archery seasons getting
ready to open in less than a month Pam and I are busy at the
store! Bows, arrows, treestands, scouting cameras,
broadheads and getting bow strings changed and bows tuned
are all at the top of the list. While Pam has me in my
corner of the store working on and setting up bows she is
busy up front on the phone and waiting on customers at the
register!

Even with the economy in the shape that it is in people
are still getting outdoors as their release valve and for us
that is a good thing. Some days there are not enough hours
in the day to stay caught up on the bows and arrows. So Pam
and I are a little behind on getting our own selves ready for
the upcoming season.

With getting Pam into the outdoors and hunting has been
very helpful in her acquiring knowledge in order to help
customers with their questions on the products that we sale.
We are both pumped about the upcoming season with having
high hopes of filling our tags as does everyone!

We hope that everyone has had a great summer spending
time with their families and friends and getting their
children ready for school. We also hope that everyone has a
safe and successful upcoming season! -Pam & Joe Shults

Jason Edney - Planting Time

2009-08-17T14:46:00.004-05:00

Like so many other teams the months of July and August are spent putting out Biologic seed, hanging trail cameras, hanging new sets, and giving old sets a face lift. Well I got a small window of free time and headed west to our place in Western Nebraska to do the same. Alot of people don't realize that Western Nebraska is considered a high plains desert with the annual rain fall only equaling ~17 in per year. That's not what you want when your planning your food plots! To make things even worse, with my farming schedule back in North Carolina, I had to put the seed in the ground around late July. This is a little earlier than I would like due to the moisture situation. Most years we like to wait until Mid August but that wasn't going to work this year. Well luck was on my side for once and when the last seed was put in the ground it started to rain and didn't stop for ~24 hrs! This is unheard of in Nebraska, we received a little over a inch of rain! This should be plenty of moisture to get the seeds up and on there way until late August when our chances of rain will increase!

Along with all the food plot work several days were spent hanging new sets. Every old stand was visited on the properties to make sure they survived the winter. Along with the safety check just about every stand required a little trimming. A pile of sweat and gas goes into ensuring these sets are in the proper place plus making sure you have a few shooting lanes.

One product I was impressed with was Biologic's new mineral rock (Bio Rock). The first rocks were put out during turkey season and they have been hammered since then. Every site we started back in April already needed a new rock put out! Also these mineral sites were perfect for August trail camera pics. The trail camera pics ended up showing several GREAT deer that look to have "shooter" potential this fall!

All the chips are set for this fall, now all we have to do is wait!

Jason & Britney

Glen Simpson - Reconyx Time!

2009-08-17T11:04:00.004-05:00

It’s that time of year again…my favorite pre-season event…inventory time! I made a trip up to Illinois the middle of July and put out several Reconyx cameras in strategic locations on the farm. The deer sign was as usual…magnificent! I mostly concentrate on pinch point trails just off thick cover going to food sources this time of year as the bucks don’t travel far in the sweltering heat. Also took the time to check the acorn status and it’s definitely a white and red oak year on Team Army’s/Lewis farm this year. Some hunters think this is a bad deal but if you know your deer and what they like then you can hit those patches of acorns on a favorable wind and turn it into a magical time.

Leaving for Kentucky I felt great about my return back in a month to check cameras.

The month of July flew by with an increased anticipation of seeing what the Reconyx Santa had brought this year. The first afternoon back was spent running the camera line swapping cards. Wow…over 5,000 pictures to sort through tonight; however, before heading back to the house Chris and I decided to conduct some long range reconnaissance on the bean fields to see if we could identify any High Value Targets (HVTs) for this year. I’m glad we did. The first field checked had four bucks that looked to be from 1-4 years old. The 3 year old sported a good 140 frame and the 4 year old had an impressive 160 class frame with a huge mule deer split G2 and 14 points which definitely places him on the HVT list!

Driving around the other side of the farm provided more sightings of good up and comers and one awesome split G2 eight pointer that I will go out on a limb and call him “World Class” at 180 inches! I know that while their in velvet you tend to give them more but taking that away, his long beams, 7-9 inch 1’s, 14-16 inch 2’s, 10-12 inch 3’s place him high up there and definitely on the HVT list! Topping this off I believe we’ve got his sheds from this spring and will confirm this when I get a better photo of him.

Well it was back to the house to check Reconyx footage only to find that I didn’t have the Giant 8 but did get a couple pix of the big 14 back in mid-July and boy has he grown in a month! The history with this buck starts now as I have no history with him…no sheds, no video and until now no Reconyx so only time and fate will tell if we can close the chapter on him this fall.

The next posting will find us putting in food plots, checking cameras again and emplacing Big game tree-stands on observed late summer feed patterns. Until next time…Good luck and always remember…”Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted!” -Glen Simpson

Tim Woods - Low Key Anniversary

2009-08-14T09:24:00.006-05:00

Another year of marriage, and another anniversary spent at the 3-D archery range. It’s starting to be a tradition. Since my wife took up archery, we really enjoy heading over to Nelson Ledges’ 3-D shoot. It’s a fun way for us to spend time together, and get some practice in with the PSE’s. How many guys get to spend the day flinging arrows through the woods and call it a date?

Competitive by nature, we kept score. Although, I think Candice using her range finder the whole time qualifies as cheating.
While on the course we got to talk to some Drury fans from Chardon, OH who happened to recognized me. A lot of deer and different targets like alligators got hammered. I ended the day with a 287 and the wife shot 255.

We came home with all our arrows -a bonus to a great day. We found out that the kids had done some practicing as well, with Candice’s dad. I’m sure soon enough we’ll be pairing off in to teams. Jenna & Jaxon just need to get a little older and then the competition will really heat up.

Hopefully we’ll get to reap the benefits of our hard work and practice this fall. There are a few bucks I’ve been watching… here’s a few pics that my Reconyx has captured. -Tim Woods

John O'Dell - Less Then 1 Month Away

2009-08-06T14:03:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone’s summer is going well. Dave and I are less than a month away and counting for our first hunt of the fall. We will be in New Mexico hunting elk, mule deer, and black bears with James Coppedge of Pack-n-Horns outfitters www.packnhorns.com for Bow Madness TV Season 3. We have both been shooting our PSE’s a lot in anticipation of another great hunt with James!

We have also been collecting pictures of some nice bucks in velvet that will be on the hit list for this fall. I have attached a couple of the good bucks we have captured on our Reconyx cameras so far this year. Hopefully these pictures will lead to some up close encounters with these deer when the season gets started!

Also Dave and I will be at the Bass Pro Fall Classic this weekend. My schedule is listed below so if you are in the area feel free to stop by and say hello.

I will be in Memphis TN Friday August 7th 5:00PM – 9:00PM. I will be in St. Charles MO Saturday August 8th 12:00noon – 5:00PM and on Sunday August 9th I will be in Columbia MO from 12:00noon – 5:00PM.

Dave will be at Bolingbrook, IL at 8 pm on August 7th. Portage, IN at 4PM on August 8th and Gurnee, IL at 4PM on August 9th.

My next blog will be when Dave and I get back from NM so until then enjoy the rest of the summer!
John and Dave

Ben Rising - Last Year Or So

2009-08-06T13:01:00.007-05:00

Well where do I begin?? My life has taken on sooo many changes since competing in Dream season TV season 5. About a week after returning from our group hunt at Tara, I was offered a job 2 hrs south of where we were currently living. After great consideration, we decided to take the chance and see if our house would sell which would have allowed us to make the move. Would you believe after 2 weeks of hard praying our house sold!! So within exactly 2 months of getting that job offer call, we started the moving process. I moved in April of 2008 and my family joined me in July. It was a long 3 months of visiting my family only on the weekends. Especially considering we had a 2yr old and 6 month old at the time. (We decided to let our kids finish out their school year before relocating them.)

I am currently a logger/timber buyer for Hawkins Lumber. My work partner Jarod Hawkins and I started up a new outfitting business last fall called Wolf Creek Outfitters. It has always been a desire of mine to do this and couldn't pass the opportunity up. Last fall was a very busy one for me. I had to put my own hunting time on hold so we could focus more on getting the outfitting business up and running.(I finally was able to harvest a great buck late season but was not able to get it on film.) Now after less than a year we have established over 6,000 acres of hunting land and still searching for more. This summer has been a busy one working on these properties brush hogging, planting food plots, strategically watching deer patterns and deciding where our stand placements will be located. The Reconyx trail cameras have been a great assett to us. We are off to a great start with this fall almost fully booked. Still looking for a few hunters for our late season. We also just started providing timber & deer management consulting for land owners to help them establish a plan for their properties.

I think the biggest draw back right now is the fact that I am now seperated from Tim by 2hrs. He has been able to come down several times with his family and has been helping us with stand placements. It's always great to get the kids together. Combined we have a 15,11,9,5,4,3,2&1yr old. Mel & Candice were able to take the little ones out Blackberry picking. I think the kids ate more than they brought home. It sure showed on their clothes and faces, but we were still able to salvage enough for a Blackberry Cobbler!!

Our whole summer so far has not been all work and no play though. We have taken several family trips including an animal park where we got to ride in a wagon and feed exotic animals and waterparks. Though the highlight of my summer was when Jim Thome called me and invited me out to watch him play in Chicago playing against their biggest rival for the weekend. So Jarod and I hoped in the car and headed out. What an awesome weekend to get to hang out with Jim's family and friends. The greatest was when Thome hit a hommer. Have to say the absolute best 2 games I've ever been to. My family and friends were also able to make it up to Cleveland to see Thome play against the Indians a couple weeks later. Thanks Jim for everything!! Well it's time to hit the woods and get back to work!!! -Ben Rising

J.J. Kolesar - Redemption!

2009-08-04T08:58:00.004-05:00

Well, if you have tuned into Dream Season 6 Redemption you would have witnessed Kyle and I flying a remote control airplane to help take pictures. Needless to say, it didn't work very well, but it was fun. However, it did force us to look at a 2-acre piece of timber in a new light.

Last Halloween Kyle and I had an encounter with a buck we call "Redemption", but when he sauntered by our stand we were out of legal light. We never saw him on stand again. The Reconyx picked him up for the last time on Dec. 12th. We feel the buck might be one of those monarchs impossible to kill due to his minimal daytime movement. The bad news is we have taken only 1 picture out of 12 in which he is moving during the day! The good news is HE'S BACK FOR MORE! Here are some cool pics in which we have him in velvet and hard-horned, and accompanying it is a pic of him in velvet this year. Hopefully the next picture has one of us sitting behind him.

This is where you come in!! Please comment on this thread on how you might hunt this deer. We hunted him hard last year and didn't get it done. We have some new ideas this year, but would love to hear your suggestions. Remember, its only two acres, which is pretty much surrounded by fields. Good luck getting your game-camera pics and be safe while food plotting. -Team Illinois (Kyle and JJ)

Glen Simpson - QDMA/Catch A Dream/Staind

2009-08-03T11:01:00.007-05:00

Well here it is, August already and this means time to hit the shows! I spent four days with the fine folks from Mossy Oak Biologic at the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) held in Louisville, Kentucky. The first time the QDMA was held in Louisville and we had a great show. Tons of Mossy Oak and Drury Outdoors fans came to the booth everyday to buy a hat, a new DVD title or just to shake hands, get an autograph and “say keep the good stuff coming”.

I took the chance to get started on our “Catch- A- Dream” raffle and did very well. Talked to folks about Dream Season 7, Celebrity Dream Season and about “Team Lewis” and you wouldn’t believe the number of people that love Aaron and can’t wait to watch us when it airs next year. Wow-I felt like a Rock Star if only for a few days!

Speaking of Aaron and Rock Star, I also spent another evening with our new hunting buddy in Evansville, Indiana after the QDMA. I promised my 16 year old daughter Sarah and her boyfriend Ty that I would take them. Aaron treated them like family and made their first Staind concert a very memorable experience-Thanks Buddy you don’t know how much that meant! If you’ve never experienced Aaron in concert you’ve got to go check him out when they come close to your town! What a show! Aaron really cares about his fans and gives them their monies worth as he leaves it all on the stage at the end of the night. A packed house, loud speakers, and screaming women left my ears numb for two solid days!

Aaron and I spoke in depth about our plan of attack for the upcoming season and I must say we both got a little pumped! We also videoed a small video thread for Catch-A Dream that will be posted to Aaron’s web-site here very soon (more to follow on the actual web-address).

Last but definitely not least, Ken returned from his tour in Iraq and is home with his wife and family. Please feel free to post on the Blog to welcome a Soldier home.

Aaron, Ken and I are stoked about this season and can’t wait until we start knocking the big ones down and posting them to the Journal. The next blog will find us checking game cameras and putting in food plots so stay tuned as the developing saga of “Team Lewis” continues. -Glen Simpson

Glen Simpson - Glen meets Aaron Lewis!

2009-07-28T09:24:00.009-05:00

Well, when Mark called me up a few months back and told me the good news that Team Army had an opportunity to move up to the big league and be part of Dream Season, Season 7, I was elated!

Mark quietly said “There’s a catch, …your going to have a celebrity partner and his name is Aaron Lewis”. There was a slight pause on the line as I collected my thoughts and then asked “Who’s Aaron Lewis?” Mark said “You know Aaron, from the rock group Staind”? I replied “Oh yea, my 16 year old daughter listens to their music”. We shared a few thoughts on the season to come and said our goodbyes.

As a good Army Scout, I instantly started my intelligence packet on Aaron and began my reconnaissance. Pulling up his web-site, I read as much about Aaron as I could. I also stole one of my daughters Staind CDs and played it in my truck everyday back and forth to work. I figured I better at least learn a few of his songs in order to speak knowledgably about his music. When I felt I knew as much as I could about the man, I called and spoke with Aaron for the first time. Very much to my surprise, Aaron is an avid bowhunter and loves getting out into the woods chasing those big mature whitetails and spending his off time with his family and I could see that we hit off from the start!

Over the next few weeks we had several phone conversations as we began planning the upcoming deer season. I had noticed on the web-site that his “Stimulate This Tour!” was going to be near me in Corbin, KY and so we decided that we should meet in person, shoot our bows and the bull before the concert began. Wow, I was amazed at how well he shot his new PSE DS X Force and his Bow Madness bows right out of the box. Within minutes we were knocking the center out of the Glendale Buck at 40 yards! After about an hour we decided to take a break and head into his tour bus to watch Dream Season 12. Just seeing his excitement made this trip worth while as I knew that though we both live two totally different lifestyles that through our passion for hunting we share a common bond that link us together. A very special friendship had just begun so stay tuned for more stories from TEAM LEWIS as we prepare for Dream Season “Celebrity”, Season 7. - Glen Simpson

Kyle Lamore - Plantin' A New Plot

2009-07-23T09:36:00.006-05:00

Summer...and the living is good for a teacher this time of year! Despite the fact that deer season closed here in Illinois 6 months ago, JJ Kolesar and myself have been working towards the upcoming season ever since.

This past off season, we started putting in a new 2.5 acre foot plot..while that might sound easy, the fact that over 600 trees called this home for the last 15 years didnt help matters. We spent every spare minute cutting, dragging, and burning trees since neither of us owns a bulldozer!

Last week was the easy part--the planting. With plenty of rain latey, we are crossing our fingers that this "buffet" of a food plot, with Biologic's Maximum and Full Draw, along with some soybeans will be the ticket this fall! Trail cameras are out and season cannot get here fast enough for us!

Steve "Coon Dog" Coon - Burnin' Up!

2009-07-08T13:16:00.012-05:00

Ok boys weather broke from the extreme heat and it's time to get back on the food plots. Missouri farm is done and now it's time to head to Illinois. Joe and I have our food plts tucked away in the CRP fields, but that just makes it a little extra work.

Once the fields were sprayed, the dead grass is so high, so before you can put a disc to them, it's time to burn. So with the weather cooling down a bit, what else but turn up the heat. With a little breeze it was time to put a match to work and it didn't take long and we were on the tractor turning dirt.So the game plan this year is to work the dirt June, July and in August disc the dirt one more time and put the Bio-Logic in the ground and then watch them come. It's a lot of work throughout the summer, but once you're in the Big Game Tree Stand and that shooter buck walks in, you know all your hard work has paid off.

Joe and I will try to keep you up to date on how our planting season goes and with any luck the 2009 Deadly Combination Team will have another deadly year.

Thank you from Joe and Coon Dog for supporting us at Drury Outdoors.

Jason Edney - Florida Fishing Trip!

2009-07-01T11:29:00.007-05:00

This past weekend Britney (June 19-21) and I headed down to Jacksonville FL to attend the Southern Trophy Hunter's outdoor show. What a great way to pass the time between the seasons! Over the past few years Britney and I have became great friends with Jeff Lageman. Some people may recognize Jeff from his professional football career with the Jacksonville Jaguars or the NY Jets. After several years of playing football Jeff recently retired and decided to call Jacksonville home. Along with Jeff's success with football he has also created quite the name in the local fishing scene. Jeff teamed up with a couple of other local fishing fanatics and began a very sucessful radio show called The Outdoors Show (www.outdoorsshow.com). So when Jeff offered to take us fishing this summer, while we were down for the show, we jumped at the chance!

Well Jeff was kind enough to take Britney and I fishing on Thursday before the show on Fri, and try to get a jump on the fish. There was a little buzz between he and his good buddy Tom Lucas. They kept talking about the conditions were getting just right for the Tarpon to be in the area. Now I have caught a lot of fish through the years and I just thought this was going to be another one but alittle bigger. Thursday ended up being uneventful on the catching part BUT Tarpon were seen and that in turn fired our guides up even more. The best way I can describe the buzz is imagine November 10 and a cold front is blowing into the midwest. These guys were FIRED UP for something big to happen!

After working the show for three days it was back to fishing business. It didn't take long on Monday morning for things to get interesting. The first bait pod we pulled up on there were Tarpon feeding in it. Now for somebody that spends most of there time on the ground chasing critters this was amazing. The tarpon were destroying these bait fish. It looked like something out of Jaws! One of the first cast into the bait pod Britney was hooked up with our first tarpon! Jeff had explained to me about these fish being the "Greatest Athletes" in the ocean, it didn't take long to see he was correct! Britney's fish jumped multiple times, and just would not give up. Finally after approximately 30 minutes she got the fish to the boat.

Normally Jeff and Tom release the fish immediately not to stress them anymore than they have to but seeing this was our first we pulled the fish in for a few hero shots and she was released immediately following the photo session. After seeing the events that just unfolded I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait until next season to hook up with a tarpon. Guess what I didn't have to wait very long the next bait pod had more tarpon feeding. Again on the first or second cast I was hooked up with one of these giants! After another 30 min battle I had my own tarpon in the boat for the hero shots and the fish was released again unharmed! After my battle I was wondering how Britney got her fish in! I was whipped, my arms felt like jello, lower back was on fire, heck I could even feel it in my legs!

Not really ready to hook up again guess what on the next pod my bait was hammered and I was back to doing battle with the 3rd Tarpon of the day. To make matters worse this fish had a terrible attitude! He jumped, rolled, pulled line harder than either of the first two fish of the day. This fish took about 45 Min's to get landed. It seemed each time I would be getting close to getting him in he would turn and make anther 50yd run. Finally he was unhooked and released!

I would like to give a huge thanks to Jeff Lageman, Tom Lucas and the crew at the Outdoors Show for showing us what the fishing has to offer around the Jacksonville FL area. Tell you what Jeff I'll trade you all the 20lb turkeys you want for a 120lb tarpon!

Good Hunting!
Jason an Britney

John O'Dell - What To Do In The Offseason

2009-06-24T15:48:00.004-05:00

One of my other passions besides hunting is fishing. On Father’s Day weekend we headed down to Cary, NC to visit family and we decided while we were there to do some bass fishing. Well to say that the trip was a success would be a huge understatement! Of course it is always great to spend time with family and to mix in some of the best bass fishing I have ever experienced wasn’t bad either. The weather was hot but the fishing was even hotter!! My dad, Jacob, and Madison caught their biggest bass ever which weighed 5, 5.5, and 6.5 lbs respectively. Of course Madison caught the biggest fish as usual. It is becoming harder to drag her away from the water than it was for me when I was her age. These are just a few of the pictures from our awesome family day at the lake.

As we head into July Dave and I will soon be getting some great velvet pictures on our Reconyx cameras of deer we know well such as “Young Stud” and “Crabby” two deer which should easily gross B&C! Hopefully we have some surprises waiting that we have not seen yet so stay tuned as I will be posting our pictures throughout the late summer and into fall.

We are also gearing up for our mule deer/elk trip to Pack-n-horns Outfitters in New Mexico coming up in September. Time can’t go fast enough so until then Dave and I will be shooting every chance we get with our PSE bows.

John O'Dell - Spring 2009 Update

2009-05-06T09:31:00.011-05:00

Well it’s been a busy spring so far. Dave and I were lucky enough to be invited to go down to sunny South Florida in late March to hunt Osceola turkeys with our good friend Scott Crippen who owns White’s Tackle in Fort Pierce FL. Having hunted with Scott in the past I knew that Dave and I were going to have a fun time in FL and we were in for a great hunt! Well the hunt was very successful with Dave and I both harvesting great turkeys and capturing some good video along with some great memories. My Osceola was actually my best one so far. We are already planning to head back down south next spring for some more Osceola hunting with Scott. For more details on the hunt check out the March section of the journal page.

Following our turkey hunt in South FL I took the family on our annual pilgrimage to the Sunshine State for spring break in Mid April. We were headed to beautiful Fort Myers Beach. We really look forward to this trip every year as Suzy, the kids, and I get to spend lots of time together looking for shells, swimming in the ocean/pool by the ocean, and fishing off the beach. This year was one to remember for great fishing as Madison caught her first ever slot snook at 28.5” and Jacob caught his first snook ever which we released right after this photo was taken. We caught 14 snook total as well as many other species of fish including a giant sting ray. We saw lots of dolphins and just had a great time relaxing and hanging out together on the beach.

May has finally arrived and Dave have just returned from a trip to hunt with our good friend James Coppedge of Pack-n-horns Outfitters in New Mexico. He and Curt Richey had a great turkey hunt with James and most importantly they saw and filmed lots of mule deer and elk. They also found some nice sheds. Dave and I both have NM tags for mule deer and elk this year to hunt with James so to say that we are pumped for this fall is a huge understatement!

On May 2nd I was finally able to do some more turkey hunting and Dave had done his homework. He took me to one of our favorite farms and long story shot even though the toms were pretty henned up I was able to harvest a giant gobbler that was just less than 28 lbs and had 1.5” spurs. The giant gobbler was a true movie star and made for a very memorable hunt. I have been extremely fortunate this year in that I have only turkey hunted two mornings and I have been able to take two turkeys with 1.5” or better spurs!
In two weeks we are headed to Central FL for a hunt to spot and stalk wild hogs with our PSE’s for an upcoming episode of Bow Madness. Rick Malik, Dave Reisner, and I will be hunting with our good friend Bobby Mathews. The ranch that we will be hunting is truly incredible and we are all looking forward to the hunt.

Until next time safe hunting and take care!

John

Mark & Terry Drury - Commercials & Radio Ints

2009-05-01T13:43:00.007-05:00

Hey Everybody,

Hope all is well! Hopefully those turkeys are working better for you guys then they have been for us. It has been a tough couple of weeks in our Missouri Turkey Camp. Rainy, windy weather has really cramped our style this spring! We have managed to get a few birds along the way, but it has been pretty tough!

Well, we wanted to send out an update and let everyone know what we have been up to the last month or so. When turkey season rolls around it always seems as though we end up shooting a couple of commercial spots for our sponsors during this time as well. It is really good timing because everyday in Missouri the season ends at 1 pm so we can shoot for the remainder of the day. We had a Mossy Oak spot, an Energizer spot and a few misc. items for Scent Blocker and Bow Madness to shoot.

This year we have a brand new sponsor in Energizer Night Strike Lights and Energizer Lithium Batteries. We are very excited to be teamed up with them and they have a pretty spectacular product hitting the shelves this summer around the end of July. They asked us to shoot a commercial for them to air inside our show. It was a big deal for us and we wanted to make sure and produce it right so we rented a production truck from a local company out of St. Louis and two of the editors drove it up to the farm to get ready for the shoot!

Once they showed up we knew that the weather probably wasn't going to cooperate with our plans of shooting it on Monday and Tuesday so we set up Sunday afternoon and got ready to shoot once the sun went down. We ended up getting 3 trucks stuck, a trailer and we broke the winch on our Bad Boy Buggie (after the buggy pulled one of the trucks out luckily!). It was so muddy on the property we were shooting on! We were fortunate that Coon Dog, Aaron Bennett and the production crew of Colin Hartin, Mike Johnson and Matt Drury were there to help get everything ready.

This shoot was so different for us because we had to film a night scene, but yet light it well enough that you could see the product being showcased. It was neat to see our production crew do their thing and we were very proud of how hard all the guys worked to make it go smoothly! Now it is time for the post production house (Media Grabbers) to put the final touches on it and really make it shine.

Outside of that we also just got done shooting a Reconyx commercial in our studio with good friends Greg Miller and Dan Perez. Jeff Simpson from Fence Post Media came in to shoot the green screens of these guys. Jeff's company does great work and we are looking forward to seeing the finished product on this spot as well!

We have also put up a link to a radio spots that we have done on the American Outdoorsman show (You need itunes to listen). Check it out!

Safe hunting out there! -Mark & Terry Drury