Practice Makes Peace

I started late on setting up the hunting land this season.  Between bowfishing, writing, and work, I just haven’t had the time I can normally dedicate to prepping.  So this last weekend, I put together a couple of gravity feeders and set them up in a couple of locations that in the past has been productive.  I also set the trail cameras and did some brief scouting around the perimeters.

Even though I have been hunting recently for feral hogs, I have not practiced shooting as much as I usually do.  In fact, I only took 3 shots with the bow prior to the hog hunt to make sure my sights were still where they needed to be.  So I also made time to take a few practice shots after work one afternoon.

I put out the target and placed a small piece of paper near the center to represent the bullseye.  I paced off 20 yards.  Then I shot twice, laid down the bow and retrieved the arrows.  While I was cycling between reps of shooting twice and retrieving, I thought about the locations I selected for the feeders.  I thought about the monsters that were on the trail cams last year just prior to the opening of bow season.

I shot some more and retrieved some more.

I visually ran through the coming opening day on how I would hunt it.  Early in the season, especially if I have both nocturnal deer and ones that are hitting the feeders just after sunrise, I like to get out in the stand early.  By early, I mean I have been know to be walking to the stand at 3:30am.  Some say it is overkill.  I believe if I head out and scare off a few deer, once I have settled down in the stand the deer will be back out before day break.  I’m not getting the opportunity to skirt a field and get a shot at 200 yards.  My targets have to be within 40 yards.  20 yards preferably.

Hence the next 2 shots at the target from 20 yards.  I retrieved the arrows once again.

I thought back to some of the misses I have had.  Yes, I have missed before.  Unless we are face to face, then I have NEVER missed!  But I am human, and I do miss.  Just not often.

I focused on where I would need to be looking and where the deer usually would enter the field in the morning and evening.

I shot a couple of more arrows at the target.  I retrieved them.

Throughout all the thoughts and planning, I was completely at peace.  No distractions, no thoughts of work, no stress.  I was just pulling back the string and releasing it.  Two times each time.  Then I would retrieve the arrows.  I would often re-start a thought as I walked to the target.  I found myself thinking about the hunt while pulling back the bow and centering the bullseye.

After a little while my target paper resembled the stars on the bb gun targets at the state fair.  More holes than paper.  I reached down and grabbed a green leaf and put it up where the paper had been.  A fresh new bullseye.

I went back to my 20 yard mark and began the cycle again.  I noticed the green from the leaf blended in with the black and blue target backdrop.  It reminded me of how a deer blends in with the ground and soil just before shooting light escapes the horizon at the end of the day.  A few years ago I landed a shot on a deer some 40 yards away at the last possible legal moment to shoot.  I could not tell where the shot landed but I did see the deer disappear some hundred yards away in the field.

After coming down from the climber I went and searched for blood.  I could not find any.  After a few minutes of searching I did spot my intact arrow.  It was covered in red.  I had to postpone the search that evening.  The next morning I again could not find any blood near the impact zone.  But I did spot a rather large pool of blood 125 yards away from where the deer was hit.  It took less than 10 minutes to find the deer about 20 yards in the tree line after that.

I shot at the leaf; I retrieved the arrows.

I thought about the killing involved with hunting.  It seems heinous for someone to want to take a life.  That is before we dig into the matter a little more.  I wanted to focus more on this thought as I shot, trying to think in an anti-hunter’s point of view.  But as I tried, I pulled a couple of more arrows out of the leaf.

My thoughts moved to the premise that an animal is just as important as a human.  I do not believe this.  I believe God granted humans stewardship over this earth and its creatures.  Animals kill other animals.  We do not chastise them for this activity.  It is what they are and how they survive.  The same can be reasoned for us.  We were hunters long before we were contractors, technicians, doctors, lawyers, and accountants.  It is who we are and how we survive.

And if one can reason animals are as valuable as humans, then why are plants not of an equal basis as well?  They are living creatures.  Their life scale is just on a much different pace.

After retrieving the two arrows once again I pulled back and realized it was just too dark to keep shooting.  I then realized I had shot a LOT more than I have shot in any practice or competition.  The best I could count I had released the arrow over 60 times.  Maybe much more, but it was hard to count many of the holes.  I also noticed that I had very few misses.  In fact, I only saw 3 shots outside of a 2 inch radius.  I was relaxed and at ease.  I was lost in the hunt, and the thoughts of the hunt.  I had a hard time recalling individual shots, yet I turned in one of the best practices I have ever had.

I was at peace with myself.

Turkey Hunting - Part 1



My hand and Chuck Norris' hand.

It is called hunting and not killing for a reason.  Chuck Norris may go killing, but the only thing I have in common with Chuck is our hand size.  Hunting has a number of variables that you may never think will come into play.  Through scouting, patterning, and general species education and knowledge, you can put yourself in the best situation, but one moment of something completely unexpected can alter the outcome completely.



For the last few years I have sought the elusive Eastern Wild Turkey with the bow.  Up until last year, I had been the general proximity of a tom, but not nearly close enough to take one.  Then last year, I learned a valuable lesson while hunting the bearded bird.  Patience is a virtue.  If you have read my columns in the past, you may remember the story of my lack of patience causing me to miss getting a shot at turkeys on three different occasions.  I was determined it would not happen that way this year.

I usually miss opening weekend of turkey season.  My wife and my daughter celebrate their birthday that same weekend, so I usually will schedule a hunt the next weekend.  Of course, the birds a little more seasoned by that time, as they have dodged shotgun blasts and arrows for a week up to that point.  This season, my female family members headed to the coast leaving me to watch the boys.  It also gave me a chance to go out on a Sunday bowhunt.  Not opening day, but close enough.

Now the story that follows may at times seem far-fetched.  Much like the old fisherman that swears he had a 10 pound bass hooked until he tried to pull it in the boat, the story could easily qualify as an exaggeration, if it were not completely true.  By the way, when you hear the fish tale, the question is always asked “how do you know it was 10 pounds?”  The response is always the same…"Cause it has scales!"

The hunt began as planned.  I re-fletched some arrows earlier in the week and practiced with them through the week.  Groups were tight for 40 yards in my practice sessions, even after doing some long hikes before the sessions.  From distances of 50 to 70 yards, groups were not as tight, but were falling in a 6 inch circle steadily.  This is great for elk hunting, but I would never take that shot at the minute vitals of a turkey.  A turkey has two kill spots with a bow.  The first is the heart / lung shot.  The second is the neck.  The neck shot is usually done with a broadhead called a Guillotine.  The Guillotine is designed with extra long blades made for cutting the neck.  The heart / lung shot is performed with a regular broadhead used for any big game hunting.  I was using a regular broadhead.

Saturday I put my gear together, checking everything to make sure it was ready.  I cleaned my decoys consisting of two hens and a jake (a young male).  I made sure I had extras of my vital gear such as arrows, broadheads, bow release, and batteries.  I charged my cell phone and my two cameras I was carrying with me.  I sprayed my hunting clothes with permethrin to barricade my body from ticks, chiggers, and other insects.  I made a packed breakfast and lunch.  I would be there for the duration for this hunt.

Sunday morning I was on the road at 3:30am.  The hunting destination was several hours away and I wanted to be there before sun-up.   I met the land owner at the gate.  We drove about one mile into the area and he unlocked a second gate.  The path was well worn with numerous mud holes and wallows.  About 500 yards in was a box deer blind at a path crossroad.  He advised me to set up with the box blind to my back.  He had seen the turkeys use the crossroad in their routes from their roost to the fields.  He also informed me of a small path about 200 yards away from the blind where I could park the truck after dropping off my gear.  Both were good information.

After dropping everything at the blind and parking, I set up the 3 decoys.  I tried to set them up so 2 would be seen from each of the paths at all times.  The decoys were all set between 10 and 15 yards from my Ameristep Doghouse blind I had positioned next to the tower box blind.

Just after sitting, I hit the mouth call with two series of clucks.  I listened and watched.  No gobbles anywhere.  I glanced behind me down the path and watched a large tom flew down from his roost on the left to the path about 150 yards away.  This was going to be a good hunt!

Not 30 seconds later, a small jake joined in behind the big gobbler.  Both were making a steady walk my way.  They were not running, but they were keeping pace.  Two hens then exited the woods from the right about 30 yards behind them.  My first thought was the hens would likely turn my birds around.  Fortunately they did not.  I kept quiet and patient.  I would have a shot soon enough.

My blind was positioned where I could shoot to my left, front and right.  My rear had a sight window but would not offer a shot due to the box blind.  After videoing the birds, I set my chair to the right rear corner of the blind.  I moved into position on the right front corner allowing me to draw my bow and take an angled shot through the window opening as the bird came into range.  I counted the pace of the big gobbler, and so I figured he would be near the window around the count of 15.  I drew the bow at 10.  He never appeared.  I let off the bow and checked his location.  He had turned and headed back down the path.  After he and the group were about 100 yards away, I proceeded to hit the call once more.  They turned, and began their second approach.  This time, they turned about 20 yards behind me into the woods to the left.  I was not worried.

I figured with the turn they would likely come out to the right side of the blind.  I backed against the left wall and waited.  After about a minute the big one showed himself.  I took a deep breath, released about half the air, and drew back the 70 pounds of death.  Then they flew.  In an instant it was over.  The birds were gone.  In a millisecond I had several thoughts run through my mind.  Did they spot me?  Did they hear me?  What could have spooked th…e…m…

5 yards from where they were standing a large black bear made his way out of the woods.   This was only 20 yards from me.  I never thought about any danger from a bear / human episode.  All I thought about was this bear just blew my best chance I have ever had at a turkey with the bow.

It was ok though.  I had just witnessed 4 turkeys and a black bear in the first 10 minutes of a hunt.  There is nothing like nature.  This hunt was far from over!  And next week, we will cover the rest…

Special Moments to Last a Lifetime

I was having a conversation with someone a few months ago who was planning what I would call a dream hunt.  He is on the young side, mid to late 20’s, but was forgoing some of the common extras in life to make the hunt possible.  When I mentioned the particular hunt he was scheduling is usually something someone much older usually takes, he told me of a saying his father had taught him.  “Do the special things young, that way you have the rest of your life to enjoy the memories.”

Haley Price is a 19 year old student at North Carolina State University, majoring in agricultural business management.  She seems to be your typical county girl.  Her father got her involved in hunting back when she was 12 years old.  Through her teenage years, her passion for hunting remained.  When she was 16, she decided to try bowhunting, even though her father is not a bowhunter himself.  She enjoys bowhunting so much; she hardly ever uses her rifle any longer.

When she was 17 years old, she was hunting some land in South Carolina near the North Carolina border.  She did not live far from the border, so she frequently hunted in both states.  She took her first deer with her bow there.  A clean 26 yard shot.  The same day she took her first deer, a feral hog appeared.  From 17 yards, she was able to take a nice double.  Things like that make memories of a lifetime.

But Haley was not done.  Opening day of bow season here in North Carolina brought some excitement to the young lady.  Haley had gained access to land in Forsyth County a year ago.  She immediately set trail cameras on the land to start the scouting.  One particular location on the land showed many bucks, and as the season opener drew near, she decided this would be the place to hunt.



Haley Price with her 120 1/8 inch Velvet Buck taken.

The deer showed movement after 3:00pm on the cameras each day, and Haley would be ready.  She set up in her stand at 12:40pm.  This would allow a couple of hours of quiet before the deer started moving.  Patiently she sat, and just as her scouting had revealed, a nice buck came out in the open shortly after 3:00pm.  She readied her Hoyt Trykon compound.  She released the arrow as the deer stood 24 yards away.  And down he went.  Haley had scored a huge 5 by 5 buck in velvet.

This particular buck had not shown up on any of Haley’s cameras.  He just happened to be at the right place at the right time for Haley to take the shot.  The buck scored 120 1/8 inches net.  This was big enough to take the North Carolina State record for typical velvet by a female.  Her work had paid off regardless if the deer had been seen before or not.

Haley is a fan of rocker and hunter Ted Nugent.  She is capable of pulling 60 pounds draw weight, but has her Hoyt set to 54 pounds.  Nugent was stated anything over 55 pounds is wasted.  Following Nugent’s philosophy, Haley showed that 54 pounds is enough to bring down a monster.  She dreams of one day landing her own hunting television show, and next year she will appear on a local show called HuntFX.

Haley certainly has done some special things at a young age, and now she has memories she can enjoy for the rest of her life.

Swamp Rats

This is an excerpt from my article in BowAmerica e-Magazine.  You can subscribe for free at BowAmerica.com or http://issuu.com/bowamerica/docs/bowamerica_february_2012.

NUTRIA

     I headed out to the duck blind early.  It was about 6am, another 45 minutes before shooting time.  I spotted some a commotion deeper in the swamp.  I adjusted my LED Lenser headlamp from wide angle light to a spotlight.  I saw a bunched up brushy area ahead.  It was likely a beaver hut.  I scanned the water and could see ripples, but I could not find the source.

     Shooting light came and after a 20 minute span of high flying wood ducks and ringnecks I knew the hunt was likely over except for just a few stragglers and maybe some Canadian geese.

     Down near the beaver hut I saw some more ripples.  I figured it could be a grebe, merganser, or maybe a woodie swimming from deeper in the swamp.

     Nope.  Dead wrong.  I caught the furry head.  Trailing was a motion filled ‘S’.  Not a beaver.  But it was huge.

     Nutria usually make their homes in holes they build on the shoreline.  Often, their digging will tear and expose roots.  This particular one had not made a home of the beaver den; rather it seemed curious as to whether it was occupied.

     Nutria are as rat-like as it gets.  Their long tail is round and slender like a rat, rather than the waffle shape of a beaver.  Their head has rat features other than being much larger and having a blunt nose.  Also unlike a beaver, its fur is of different lengths and appears unkempt.

     They were introduced to North America, relocated from South America, due to the fur trade industry.  They were valued for both their meat and their hides.  Once the value of the fur increased to a premium, at one time as valuable as mink, farmers found a way to raise them.  They were easy to keep, had large litters, and females could breed the day after giving birth.  Due to the farming of the nutria, the fur become over abundant and the value plummeted.  A hurricane hit the Southeast and many of the farmed nutria escaped.

     Like many invasive species, they began to take over their habitats.  Nutria feed only on the bottom of saplings and plants, leaving over 80% of the plant useless.  They choked out the muskrat, as they shared habitats and dens.  And with the beaver falling to near extinction, the nutria’s breeding habits, able to give birth nearly 3 times in a calendar year, the nutria overwhelmed many areas.

     If you know where to look, you can find nutria in nearly any southern state, and they range as far north as Ohio.  They can expand further north if there are subsequent mild winters.  The only barrier is they tend to get frostbite on their tails, causing infection and death.

     As mentioned prior, I took note of where I saw the nutria and the time.  The next time I would be in the water, the bow would be in hand rather than the shotgun.

     A couple of days later, the nutria had a head start on me.  As I was headed to where the blind was, I saw him already swimming well ahead as the water and air was clear.  I positioned myself near the blind and could see it still swimming amongst the trees in the swamp.

     It only took 15 minutes for it to become curious enough to see what I was.  Once it was in range, about 20 yards, I released the arrow towards its mark.  No thrashing, no circling, no fighting.  Just a roll over and the arrow was sticking nearly straight up.

     Once there, I had to look to see if it was a beaver and not a nutria.  It was as huge up close as it looked the other day.  I pulled it into the boat and headed to shore.  This was by far the largest I have taken.

 

Hunter's Safety - Lesson Learned

Several years ago, a man was heading out for a week of scouting and hunting.  We will call him Mr. Smith.  His plan was to scout some farm land in the Triad area of North Carolina during the weekend and then meet his buddies in Eastern North Carolina to hunt deer during the week.  Mr. Smith told his wife where he would be and when he would return.

Mr. Smith stopped at a local gas station to fill up his truck shortly after leaving the house.  An insurance agent was also purchasing fuel and noticed Mr. Smith was in camouflage and packed.  The agent inquired about whether Mr. Smith owned or leased his hunting land, and spoke briefly about some insurance products they may interest him and his hunting partners.  The agent left a handful of business cards with Mr. Smith as they parted ways.

After paying for the gasoline and a soda for the road, Mr. Smith started thinking, “You know, Eastern deer season is already in, and I can scout up here next weekend.”  This would allow Mr. Smith a couple of extra days of hunting before his buddies ever arrived at camp.

That Friday afternoon, Mr. Smith pulled up to the hunting cabin, quickly unloaded his stuff, and made a hurried track into the woods.  He spotted a nice straight tree overlooking a natural trail and fastened his stand.  After climbing up to the stand, he began to clip some limbs that would be in the way of making a clear shot.  There was one rather long limb from another tree nearby that Mr. Smith believed he could reach.  Stretching as far as he could, he grasped the end of the limb and pulled it toward him.  Once he had it pulled as close to his stand as he could he reached out with his other hand and clipped it as far away from his stand as he could.  Picture someone playing tug of war and the other person suddenly letting go.  Mr. Smith lost his balance and tumbled over the backside of the stand.

SAVE A LIFE! - HARNESSES FOR HUNTERS

Mr. Smith awoke later, unable to move and in severe pain.  Up in the stand was his backpack and rifle.  Inside the pack were his cell phone, food, and water.  He looked down to his leg, and saw an iron property spike protruding through his shin.  When he tried to pull his leg off, he passed out from the pain.

Mr. Smith continued this same scenario several times through darkness and light.  He saw a couple of deer, squirrels, even a rabbit while he lay there helpless.  He knew he was in big trouble due to the amount of blood he had lost.  At one point a beagle woke him while licking his face and wound.  Mr. Smith brushed the dog away in frustration.  Certain he was going to die in that spot, Mr. Smith found the business cards he was given at the gas station in his pocket and began writing his last will on the back.  He also found several orange clothes pins he was using to mark his trail in the other pocket.  An idea came to Mr. Smith.

After much calling, the beagle once again returned.  Knowing the beagle belonged to someone, Mr. Smith did his best at drawing a map of where he was in the woods, added his wife’s phone number, and the words ‘injured – help’ on the business cards and pinned them to the collar of the beagle.  He then shooed the dog off again.

A minister was returning from church service that Sunday evening when he found several orange pins and a single business card attached to his frisky pup.  Within the hour, rescue personnel had located Mr. Smith, badly injured and dehydrated.

I tell this story often in the hunter education classes.  Two things of importance are taught.  One, stick with your plan unless you let someone know the plan has changed.  Second, wear a safety harness whenever you are using a tree stand.  Mr. Smith now teaches hunters the importance of both, as well as how to tie different types of knots in the haul line so if one were to fall, he can pull on one line to have the pack drop to him on the ground.

Over the last month there have been a number of deaths and permanent injuries as a result of not using a fall restraint system.  Will Jenkins has started a campaign titled Harnesses for Hunters in which safety harnesses can be donated to hunters who may need one but cannot afford to purchase one.  If you would like to donate a harness, or if you are in need of a harness, you can enroll in the Harnesses for Hunters program at TheWillToHunt.com at no charge.

You may also like Bill Howard's Outdoors: Trees Beg To Be Climbed

                          Bill Howard's Outdoors: Safety First!

Bill Howard writes a weekly outdoors column for the Wilson Times and Yancey County News and the bowhunting blog site GiveEmTheShaft.com. He is a Hunter Education and International Bowhunter Education instructor, lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, Bowhunter Certification Referral Service Chairman, member and official measurer of Pope and Young, and a regular contributor to North Carolina Bowhunter Magazine.

Let's Go Scouting!



Troi Shade, Matthew Edmundson,
and Cooper Howard (back to front)
 during the hike to High Rock.

I promise to do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people, and to obey the Law of the Pack.

As a child, that promise really meant something.  It fit right in with the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner.  It built character, pride, values and achievement.  It was an exciting time.

At least once a week, we would see the Cub Scouts and the Brownies dressed in uniforms at school on the day of our den meetings.  We were all proud to be scouts.  We followed our promise, always trying to do the right thing.  We studied what electives and achievements we could accomplish so we could get new belt loops, badges or beads.

Daddy and son with their Camp Charles

Family Camp badges. (Yes I am happy,

it is just very difficult to press that dang

button on the camera with one hand and

hold the badge with the other!)

When camp came around, we learned things that we otherwise would have never been exposed to, and we usually did it with our parents there as well.  We were happy our parents were participating with us.  It was one of the few times we wanted our parents around.

My youngest son Cooper is a member of Pack 89.  We went on our first Cub Scout Family Campout a couple of weekends ago.  Me and Cooper and several hundred other young Cub Scouts and their parents and leaders.  Recipe for a migraine?  Quite the contrary.  Everyone had an absolute blast.

The scouts were able to participate in such activities as shooting bb guns, archery, slingshots, fishing and hiking.  We watched a great movie under the stars about the pinewood derby (Down and Derby) and finished off the evening roasting s’mores over the campfire.  We settled in to the tents shortly after.  Even with the cool weather in the 40’s everyone followed another scouting motto: Be Prepared.



S'mores over the campfire, a true scouting tradition!



Scouting often provides our first real taste of the outdoors.  Remarkably, with all the people at the camp, no one ever had a cross word, an altercation, or got mad about anything.  Sometimes the lines for some of the activities were long, but even with the young age groups, patience prevailed.  Patience was tested mind you, but yes, in the end, it prevailed.

Maybe us adults should look back on those days of our youth and remember the joy we had sharing the outdoors, sharing our relationships with our friends and our elders, and experiencing life.  You know that pledge at the beginning…even as adults, even if you were never in scouts, is not a bad thing to follow.

To learn more about scouting and if it is right for you, visit www.scouting.org.

Bill Howard writes a weekly outdoors column for the Wilson Times and Yancey County News and the bowhunting blog site GiveEmTheShaft.com. He is a Hunter Education and International Bowhunter Education instructor, lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, Bowhunter Certification Referral Service Chairman, member and official measurer of Pope and Young, and a regular contributor to North Carolina Bowhunter Magazine.

Gear Review: ScoutLookWeather

So, here I am, 4:26pm on a Sunday, sitting in a climbing stand on the edge of the woods.  Typing on a netbook.  Crazy right?  Well, I should have about an hour before the first deer sneaks her way out of the darkened tree canopy and finds her way into shooting range for my quick and silent compound bow.

The reason I am working on this now is twofold.  One, I need to get this product review done, and two; this is the perfect time to write about what is going on with this particular hunt.

GPS systems became a great tool for the outdoors person several years ago.  Utilizing the array of satellites put in orbit by the government in order to help one find his position globally protected the hiker, hunter, or fisher from getting lost.  They developed from a display showing longitude and latitude so you could find yourself on a map, to displaying satellite and terrain images.  Along the way, the more bells and whistles the GPS system had, the more expensive the unit would cost.  Downloadable maps, some ranging several hundred dollars in cost, were neat features, but unless you were a diehard outdoorsman that traveled to exotic and unfamiliar locations, they were questionable as to whether they were worth it.

Now I like to have the tools necessary for me to be successful and safe, but I do not want to carry around a small army’s worth of supplies on my excursions.  With the GPS functions of the current smart phones, I quickly adapted to several applications available on it instead of carrying around excessive amounts of electronics.   Free mapping and weather programs were great, as I could not only pinpoint my location, but I could see weather as it developed so as not to get caught off guard on an approaching rain shower or storm.



Screen shot from ScoutLookWeather.com indicating
stand locations, expected deer movement, and scent cone.
The orange arrows were added by me to show movement.

A couple of weeks ago, I was offered the opportunity to test and review a website and smart phone application called ScoutLookWeather.  It seemed interesting enough, so I agreed.  Before downloading it on my Android based phone, I checked the website: ScoutLookWeather.com.  The website was easy enough to get a grasp of without a lot of instruction.  After the download, the application worked the same way as the website.  Also, I noticed it had immediately synced between the website and the phone application.

There she is!

After checking the app, according to my scent cone (a green cone that indicates where your scent will travel based on current conditions) I should hunt the northern stand on the property.  My scent would travel right into the path the deer usually take to the field from the southern stand.  So, that is where I am hunting.

(LONG PAUSE AS THE HUNT TIME BEGINS, THEN FAST FORWARD)

Sure enough, I had a deer come out to my left about 6pm.  After the deer paused and offered a broadside shot just 15 yards from the stand, I released the arrow for the kill.  While waiting in the stand, 10 minutes later 3 more deer came out to my right but came no closer than 40 yards from the stand.  I also noticed looking back at the southern stand, several deer in the field where I expected them to come out also.  If I had hunted the southern stand, those deer would likely have caught my scent in the slight breeze.

Blood soaked arrow does
not mean easy to trail!

Hard to follow at night with only this much sign spaced
several yards apart.



While the shot was true, the deer retreated hard into the woods.  I had a hard time finding bloodshed, but after a 20 minute or so search, I spotted small drops of blood.  The track was on.  I used the way marker feature on the ScoutLook app, using the GPS from the phone to indicate the blood trail.  I proceeded to do this each time I lost the trail so I would have a reference point to come back to.  This was extremely handy as I was in the thick brush and swamp, and light was non-existent except from my LED Lenser headlamp.  After following the trail approximately 150 yards, I lost the blood.  It was now around 9pm and I was crawling on all fours in order to track the blood I did find for the last 30 minutes.  I decided to resume the search in the morning, as the shadows from the brush limited my site lines.  Using the satellite imagery feature of ScoutLook, I made my way back out.  If not for that, this could have easily been one of those cases where the hunter gets stuck in the woods overnight.  Again, limited vision, a low concealing canopy of trees, and not so much as a single star shining through offered no help in keeping my bearings.



Blood trail way markers set
on ScoutLook.

The next day, I worked my way back into the woods, following the blood trail markers I had placed on ScoutLook.  This worked well, and I found the trail I needed to find.  After a couple of more hours, I finally found the deer.  This would never have taken place if I had not used ScoutLook for way markers the evening before.

  



Decoy set-up for incoming waterfowl
as indicated by ScoutLook.

ScoutLook is not only good for the application I tested it for, but it offers a set-up style map for waterfowl hunting, it can be used for hiking and other outdoor activities, it has a drift-point for fishing, and even has a golf mode to help with wind direction on the links.  It provides a cache for photos while in the outdoors, and it will have a log book style feature in the future.  One feature I did not have to use on ScoutLook is a radar map of your area.  This is great for when inclement weather is in the forecast.  It will allow you the opportunity to enjoy your activity until the very last moment.

This result would never had happened without ScoutLook.
Your results may vary!

Screen shot of inclement weather on ScoutLook.

Overall, ScoutLook appears to be a winner.  ScoutLook is easy to use and figure out how to use (no manual-just help screens), is cheap ($1.99 over Android Marketplace, but is available on IOS also), and syncs automatically with the regular website so you can check your locations online and on your phone.  Again, $1.99 for what some GPS systems would charge $199.00 for.  The only thing I could not test, and could not find a direct answer on, was if ScoutLook will save your location maps in areas where only GPS (no cellular) service worked on the smart phone.  I know it will save your markers, just not sure if the maps must download through the cell service each time.  I will continue to use ScoutLook and I look forward to using the log book feature in the future.

Another review of ScoutLookWeather can be found HERE on SoCalBowhunter.

 Want to read more reviews?  Bill Howard's Outdoors Reviews and GiveEmTheShaft Reviews

Bill Howard writes a weekly outdoors column for the Wilson Times and Yancey County News and the bowhunting blog site GiveEmTheShaft.com. He is a Hunter Education and International Bowhunter Education instructor, lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, Bowhunter Certification Referral Service Chairman, member and official measurer of Pope and Young, and a regular contributor to North Carolina Bowhunter Magazine.