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It's a New Day in the Outdoors
New Day Outdoors Blog
Indiana Opener Head Chop
Today marked the opener of the regular turkey season here in Indiana. I set out to the same farm that my youngest daughter, Sydney, shot her bird at Saturday evening. The morning started out very uneventful with not a single gobble as the sun came up. Shortly into the hunt a hen appeared. A while later, a long beard also, but 60 yards was all the closer he would get. He wanted nothing to do with my setup. Soon, three more hens and I could see a tom strutting across the ditch that divides the farm, right where Syd had killed her bird. Some more waiting and then at around 10:00 I noticed a Tom emerge from the timber out behind me, then another ... GAME ON! The two long beards made their way to my set up and began to flog the jake decoy. I took aim with my bow and let an arrow fly at the one's neck. I connected, but not well. As the bird stumbled at 5 yards from me, I launched another arrow and anchored him. His buddy decided to hang out and strut and gobble for 45 minutes after my shot. 4 jakes also showed up and the 5 birds put on an amazing display.
The video will be up in less than 48 hours.
Youth Season Successes for Team New Day!
WOW ... what a weekend. I'm running on very little sleep right now, but this past weekend was the youth turkey season here in Indiana. So I relished the opportunity to get my two young daughters into the field for some early turkey hunting action.
Trevor and I headed to meet a friend from the NWTF on Saturday morning. Little did we know that the farmer was going to show up to work in the field as well that morning. With a hunt that got interrupted by trucks and tractors, we moved deep into the timber in hopes of catching birds hanging back in the woods. Sure enough we had some jakes come into the set up. However, due to the tight shooting conditions, we found that an 8 yard shot with her 20 ga. was just a little too close. A clean miss later, two jakes ran off to grow up for next year.
Saturday evening found Sydney and I hunting out of a ground blind on a new piece of property that I just acquired. We had not been set up 10 minutes when a hen showed up and hung out with us for about an hour. Sydney enjoyed the show that she put on. About 25 minutes after the hen left the field, I looked out and saw 6 long beards making their way across the field. I hit the call one time and it was all that it took to turn them our direction. They came the entire width of the field right into our set up. Two of the birds attacked the jake decoy and then Sydney took her time getting her cross bow settled in on the bigger of the two. She made a PERFECT shot on the bird and he did not go even 2 yards after being shot. Sydney was ecstatic, as was I. We managed to get the entire hunt on video and it will be on the website in the next day. Her bird was 23#, 9" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs.
Sunday morning found Trevor, myself, and my friend back at the same farm, hoping that our farmer would go to church rather than work. The winds had died down and it looked to be a picture perfect morning. The birds began gobbling about 45 minutes before shooting time and continued to gobble well after fly down. Upon fly down they all seemed to go other directions, however about 20 minutes after they all seemed to have moved way away, we had two working their way back our direction. Eventually, I saw them strutting and gobbling in an open spot behind the blind back in the timber. After a few more minutes they grew frustrated and decided to make their way to us. As we readied Trevor for what we knew would happen, the two long beards walked from behind the blind stopping long enough to gobble not 5 yards beside of us. They then strutted all the way into the decoys about 20 yards out in front of us. Trevor took aim and dropped one of the long beards with her 20 gauge. I ran out to secure the wounded bird and in the furry of thrashing (by both the bird and myself) I accidentally stepped on his tail, plucking EVERY last tail feather from the bird. We laughed about it and I will make the wall fan mount look right, but it made for an ugly "hero" photograph. Trevor was so happy with here first long beard and as Dad, I could not have been prouder of her. 20#, 10 1/2" beard, and 7/8" spurs. This hunt is all on video as well and will also be up on the website in the next day.
I would encourage every adult hunter out there to take your child or a child you know hunting.
Derek Craig
Gearing Up For Turkey Seasons
Well the snows have finally melted and the days are starting to get longer. The desire to go chase turkeys in the spring woods is running through my veins. In recent weeks, I have been shooting the bow a lot and getting the Magnus Broadheads tuned in for some head lopping turkey action. I can not recommend the Magnus products enough, especially the 125 grain Bullheads. I took a turkey last year using these heads and the results were fantastic. These broadheads fly great on the Victory V1 arrows that Magnus recommends. You do have to spend some extra time tuning your bow, especially on the newer speed bows that are out these days. Fortunately, I'm running an older (i.e. slower) Mathews Outback, so tunning is rather forgiving.
Lately I have been doing some re-edits on some of my older video work. If you look on the videography page you will find a re-edit of my 2009 archery hunt. I was contacted by Dave Smith Decoys about using my video on their website, so I did this re-edit for them. If you have not checked out Dave Smith's turkey decoys, they are the Cadillac of turkey decoys and worth every penny in my opinion for holding birds in the decoys and drawing in that wise ol' long beard that has seen his share of Wal-mart foam dekes.
I also did a 2010 promo video that is on the videography page. Just editing this video, got me all excited to hit the turkey woods. Great memories from the 2009 season.
With seasons fast approaching, I will be posting more blog updates at a more frequent rate, so stay tuned.
God Bless!
Derek Craig
2009-2010 Goose Season is a Wrap
Well today marks the official end of the Indiana 2009-2010 Canada goose seasons. Part of me is sad, because I love to hunt them so much, but part of me is grateful as it has been not only fun, but exhausting. Overall, what an amazing year of hunting with outstanding friends. Our waterfowl seasons started off very slow and were very unproductive for much of the fall. However, once the corn finally came down in mid December it was Game On. We ended the year on Saturday evening with a great hunt. In the end, we took 66 birds in the special February season and over 150 birds combined through the entire 2009-2010 season.
Time to get ready for spring turkeys!
The last photo of the season.
Blizzard Hunt
Four of us went out yesterday in a blizzard to hunt geese here in northeast Indiana. I had every intention of simply running the video camera on this hunt. However, shortly after getting set up, I realized that my expensive camera and audio equipment was quickly getting soaked from the massive amounts of snow. So I packed up all the video gear and pulled out the shot gun for some gunning fun with friends. We ended up with 17 birds, 3 shy of our limit. We had a great day overall, even if I didn't accomplish my primary objective of the day ... video.
Left to right: myself, Mike Friend, Andy Gardner, and Pete Decker.
Mid February Goose Season
Well, the February goose season is in full swing here in Indiana. Myself and good friend Pete Decker had a couple great hunts earlier last week during the opening two days, bagging 20 birds. Then Friday, we followed up the earlier hunts with a great hunt. Andy Gardner joined in the fun and helped us bag 15 birds that afternoon.
Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow and the three of us are going to hit the fields again. I believe that we are going to video the hunt, so hopefully I will be posting up some major goose hunting footage in a couple days, so stay tuned!
Photo from Friday.
It's a New Day in the Outdoors
Welcome to the Blog for New Day Outdoors Productions. This blog site will be used to track hunting and other outdoor related news and events. It will also serve as a conduit to the latest videos and field photography work of New Day Outdoors.
I am not sure where this journey will take myself or my small production company, but it is sure to be a wild ride along the way. There is no map for this road. There will seldom be pavement on the journey. The bumps will be the most exciting parts so hang on!
Derek Craig
"It's a New Day in the Outdoors"
