I could never justify going to Iowa to spend time in the woods with Barry Wensel at one of his schools... and it always pissed me off a little. I mean if you want to learn how to kill big bucks (or any deer for that matter) you can't do better than Barry Wensel. Just recently Barry has made his knowledge available on DVD for a reasonable cost.
Due mainly to Barry's generosity I recently received both discs in the mail. It didn't take too long and I had the package open and ready to rock. I've got to tell you there were visions of sugar plum fairies (you know the kind I mean) dancing in my head. Most were wearing outsized antlers of all sorts of configurations.
I felt like I'd just been handed the missing corner of Captain Kidd's treasure map, the secret password to the cave of gold, the key to Marie Osmonds chastity belt. This was going to be good. No! Better than good. This was going to be great.
Like a school boy with his first Playboy magazine I waited to have some peace and quiet. Alone time as it were. Easier said than done around here.
I didn't know what to expect when I popped the CD into the Player and kicked my feet up in my easy chair. I'd not learned a lot from the men in my family about hunting deer. In the country I grew up in there were dam few deer in the 50's and 60's. All the old uncles were hell on small game but couldn't remember the last time they'd seen a deer. What I learned about deer hunting I mostly learned on my own.
As I grew older good hunting information became more available. A lot of it didn't seem to fit my situation. Those authors mostly faded away. Maybe they didn't know that much anyway. There were guys you could trust of course and right from the beginning two names kept popping up. Barry and Gene Wensel.
Back east they seemed to have done pretty well. But early on they pulled up stakes and headed west. Western Montana that is. I was on my own western sojourn about that time but there weren't any whitetails close to where I lived.
It soon became apparent to me that the brothers had a plan and it was a good one. In those early days it almost seemed that whitetail deer were a non species in the west. Mule deer were the big deal. Like a chicken on a june bug Barry and Gene were after the whitetails.
The twins started dragging some whoppers out of the mountains and cottonwood bottoms. Hell, I didn't even know that deer that big existed out there. Although they were both aware in their hunting I think their real learning started in Montana.
I followed them closely in archery magazines and even some VHS tapes showed up but I never could figure how to apply a lot there stuff to where I lived. Yep, that was it. They were just in a really good place and I'd never learn what I needed to kill big bucks in Missouri. Then they packed up everything and moved to Iowa. Now I'm paying real attention.
Barry and his brother began knocking down some pretty impressive midwest bucks.
Well, I always wanted to pick their brains about hunting midwestern bucks.but never got a chance to even though I came to know Barry and Gene by running into them at shoots and shows while I was connected to the archery industry by Magnus Broadheads. Until now I never got in a one on one situation in the woods with either brother. Until now.
The DVD's were great!! The low key presentation gave me a feeling of one on one with Barry. More or less Barry videoed himself while walking through the woods with you pointing out this sign and that sign, why it's there, how to handle the situation, where to hang stands and a zillion little tips and tricks. It's really about detail. I know I'll be looking at my hunting spots differently in the future.
Of course the tactics had lead to the taking of several very nice bucks. It's what they are after in the long run, but what I noticed was that you can also apply every bit of information to taking any deer . Newcomers will cut several years off the curve learning to read sign if they practice the information that is given.
.
Topic: because I'm a deer hunter (Read 3583 times)
