Pinnacle Award Winner

Here I am with my Pinnacle Award for Outstanding Achievement. I won this award at the Professional Outdoor Media Association’s business conference in Knoxville, TN on March 21st.

POMA's Pinnacle Awards are the highest honor the organization can bestow upon its media members for their creative works. The Pinnacle Awards are presented by presenting partner Mossy Oak.

If you haven't got a copy, you can order one from Amazon.
Here's the link,

Grab your copy here

Thanks,
Jim

Do you know the way to bigger bucks?

Apple Creek Whitetails Photo

Here's an exercise for you; imagine that it's possible for you to harvest bucks much bigger than you currently are. If you're taking 120" bucks, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to take 150" bucks consistently..

The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how hard it's for me to harvest the quality of bucks I’m currently taking, you wouldn't be suggesting that I could start harvesting larger buck consistently."

Well, my response to that is "Don't sell yourself short."

Mark Twain once wrote: "there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason."

The truth is, the average American hunter has the potential to harvest far bigger bucks than he or she is doing currently.

That's why I created a special book for you called "Buck Naked."

 

Grab a copy today and increase your hunting potential

Increase your hunting potential today,

Jim

Look for Easy Travel Routes

Apple Creek Whitetails Photo

 

Big bucks prefer to travel the easy way. Often they will follow a trail or abandoned logging road. When standing over a road or trail always set up on a curve. Deer can’t see around the bend and will often be in range when he comes into view.

Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

More on travel routes

Don’t Bet the Farm

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

If you’ve located a big buck close to a road with plenty of access, don’t bet the farm on him being there when the season opens. You can be sure other hunters have seen him too. While you shouldn’t over look these convenient places, your pre-season scouting should be focused on giving as many options as possible.

Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Get the Book

We’re Not Hunting on Television

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

We're not even living in a reality show either.

Outdoor Television has seduced us into believing that we only have to hunt like they do and we’ll be successful. Real hunts don’t take 30 minutes and big deer aren’t hiding behind every bush.

In real life little depends on what happens in the next ninety seconds. It takes more than 30 minutes to hunt a whitetail.

Real hunting is actually far better than it is on TV. It takes longer and the deer are harder to come by.

-Jim
Get the Book Here

Do you have the heart of a hunter? (gift inside)

Have you read my book "Buck Naked" yet? Since it's release, I've received incredible feedback from readers raving about how this book has changed their hunting and enabled them to harvest bigger bucks more consistently.

If you haven't heard of my book, or haven't had a chance to check it out yet, I want to give you a chapter free. It's titled "Inside a Deer’s Mind."

Get it here

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

If you're reading this email, then it's already clear that you're a hunting leader. Leaders stick out from the crowd, and for good reason.

Keep checking your email over the next few days because I'll be sending you more free gifts.

In the meantime, don't forget to read this chapter of my book for free.

Jim
Get the chapter here

http://jimcollyer.com/

Lunch Is for Wimps

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

Everyone knows dawn and dusk are the periods of greatest whitetail activity. It is also when we find the greatest number of hunters afield. Typically, we hunt in the morning, break for lunch, and then hunt again in the late afternoon.

What a lot of hunters don’t know is that a deer cannot go all day without feeding. While everyone else was eating lunch I stay in the stand. It’s proven to be a great strategy. 30% of the bucks I’ve killed were between 11:00AM and 1:00 PM.

If you want to dramatically improve your success ratio on big bucks, stay in the stand.

Lunch is for wimps.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Social Ranking Among Bucks

Editors note, Guest blogger, Jim Collyer has written a most insightful book, Buck Naked – The Straight Dope On Trophy Whitetails. It has been a good long time since I’ve read and digested something of this magnitude. It is fresh, free of the tired old anecdotes, straight forward and accurate. I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing for consistent success on trophy bucks; it’s that good! R.G. Bernier 

Here is an excerpt from a blog posted on www.bigwhitetail.wordpress.com

Social ranking among whitetail deer is not always based upon strength. Dominance is primarily determined by intimidation rather than brawn. Dominance is generally established well before the rut while the bucks are still in velvet. Body posturing and staring are ways bucks intimidate an opponent. If the dominant buck has the largest antlers in the herd it is merely a coincidence.

We’ve all seen dozens of articles written about hunting dominant bucks. We imagine the dominant or Alpha buck to have the largest antlers and to be superior both mentally and physically to all other members of the herd. This just isn’t true. The hunting industry produces at least a dozen dominant buck calls and dominant buck scent attractants. These are marketing strategies and have little to do with what’s going on in the woods.
All bucks are territorial. They mark these territories by rubbing trees, making ground scrapes, and pissing all over the place. However, big bucks don’t necessarily have the same territories. Rather their territory overlap, a buck might be an Alpha in part of his territory and a Beta in the rest.
You can read the complete post here http://bigwhitetail.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/social-ranking-among-bucks/

Jim

What’s Getting in Your Way?

 

 

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

You don’t know what to do.

You don’t know how to do it.

You don’t have the skills to do it.

You’re afraid.

Once you figure out what’s getting in your way, it’s a lot easier to find the answers to the problems.

In hunting, being stuck is a state of mind. Fortunately, it’s curable.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

R.G. Bernier

R.G. Bernier

 

Here's what R.G. Bernier has to say about my book Buck Naked; "Having just finished reading your book, Buck Naked I felt compelled to write you. No stranger to the hunting literary world, and having authored four titles on tracking trophy whitetails primarily in the Northeast I found your book absolutely refreshing. In fact, it may well be one of the best I've had the good pleasure of absorbing in a very long time."

 

R.G. Bernier is the worlds foremost authority on tracking whitetail deer. I have read everything he has written and you should too. The first book I read was; The Deer Trackers and I highly recommend it to anyone serious about whitetail deer hunting.

I  want to encourage all of you to visit his website bigwhitetail.com

and his blog  bigwhitetail.wordpress.com

 

You find information on these sites which will elevate your hunting success.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,

Jim

Grab a copy of Buck Naked here

http://jimcollyer.com/

 

Quit Waiting

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Time and again I run into hunters who are looking for success or are just plain waiting for success to find them. They dream of harvesting a trophy buck, but they just don’t know how to get started. It’s like the “big buck” is barely out of their reach. They are waiting for a break-through or a new and unique product that will revolutionize their hunting world. They have the misconception that if they can just hang in there long enough success will find them. Sadly, it rarely works this way. The truth is, waiting for success to find you is like waiting to be struck by lightning. The odds are it won’t happen.

Quit Waiting

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim
http://jimcollyer.com/

Getting into Rhythum

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

In trying to control our world, we tend to exclude ourselvesfrom nature. Of course, humanity exists only as part of nature.
Too often, hunters try to take charge of something that is not his or hers to take charge of. Success in the field is often determined
by a hunter’s ability to lose his or her ego, and get in step with natural rhythms.

All of nature is like a web. It is impossible to touch one part without the vibration being felt elsewhere. A man walking through the forest creates a great disturbance. I always feel two sizes too big for my skin whenever I move through the woods.

Most of the deer will be aware of the hunter’s presence and scurry off long before he sees them. What deer a human does see are usually bounding off with tails flagging. Getting into rhythm is a matter of letting go.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Learning to see

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

All around us, we are surrounded by limits. Some see this as crippling and settle for something less. Others see the opportunities.

Most novice hunters spend too much looking for a big deer and not enough time seeing what’s right in front of their eyes. We have conditioned our minds to look for deer where we expect them to be and not necessarily where the deer want to be.

The trick is to see what’s around us without judgement. Our subconscious can process the information much faster than our conscious and we avoid having our preconceived notions blinding to the reality of the situation. Seeing, despite the name, isn't merely visual. It’s also a feeling.

Only after we have truly seen an area for what it is can we apply judgement as to best approach on how to achieve our desired results.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim
http://jimcollyer.com/

Learn to Backtrack

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

Everything in nature happens for a reason. Deer use the same travel routes and inhabit the same patches of cover year in and year out for the same compelling reasons.

Backtracking deer is one of the fast tracks to hunting success. Through backtracking we can gain some wonderful insights into the local deer behavior. We learn where the buck has been and why. The secrets of when and how to intercept the buck will be reveled.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim
http://jimcollyer.com/

Hunt Backwards

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

Most of us have been taught to start at the beginning and work towards the end. If we just follow the steps success will come. Unfortunately, this tends to be the long route to success.

Hunters who achieve consistent success do just the opposite. They start at the end and work backwards to the beginning. By doing so all of their efforts are aligned with the end result.

Start with where you plan to kill the buck, NOT how to kill the buck. Once we know the where, the how’s will revel themselves.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
http://jimcollyer.com/Jim

Confusing Lucky with Good

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

This is why trophy hunting successes fade. This is why amateur hunters so often fail. This is why one-off hunting analogy stories make no sense. Success at the beginning blinds us to the opportunity to get really good instead of merely coasting.

The only thing more sad than the self-limiting arrogance of the confusion between lucky and good is the pathos of the converse: confusing ungood with unlucky.

Most hunters don't get lucky at first. Or second. Or even third. It's so easy to conclude that if you're not lucky, you're not good. So persistence becomes an essential element of good, because without persistence, you never get a chance to get lucky.

True luck requires persistence.

Get the Book

Good Luck and Good Hunting,

Jim

Hunting Sheds

Among the whitetail hunter’s fraternity the spring search for shed antlers has become almost as competitive and widespread as hunting itself. Over the years I have found hundreds of shed antlers, the vast majority of which I didn’t even bother to pick up. A handful were of Boone & Crockett quality. What, if anything, can finding sheds do to help a hunter in his efforts to be more successful the following fall? The answer is plenty, if you know what to look for.


There are three things that affect the dropping of antlers: diet, stress, and hormonal fluctuations. The loss of hormones is the strongest determining factor. The largest bucks never seem to hold on to their headgear very long after the rut. Bucks fatigued from excessive fighting and breeding during the rut will be the first to lose their antlers.

Once I found a pair of fresh sheds on December 2 that clearly came from a “Booner.” The very next day I found an even bigger shed. Although finding sheds so early is unusual, it is even more uncommon the find a truly big buck carrying his antlers into January. I have spent a lot of year’s bow hunting in December and find it’s a race every year to get a big buck before he sheds. By the middle of December, panic starts to set in as we become aware that "Buckzilla" could become a "baldy" by morning.

Just like in deer hunting, the sheds from smaller bucks are much more common than those from larger bucks. Smaller bucks can keep their antlers well into February and March. For this reason small sheds offer us little valuable information.

The biggest bucks begin to lose their antlers shortly after the rut. I like to start looking for sheds as soon after the end of the hunting season as possible. December’s moist earth or fresh snow makes it a great time to look for tracks and to learn more about deer patterns in your area. Snow reveals the truths about the how’s and why’s of deer movement in any area.

Most importantly, if you find a monster shed, you’ll know exactly where that buck was during the rut, and should have a darn good idea where to look for him next fall. This is when you start looking for trees to hang a stand in next year. Look for nearby funnels, and brush thickets close to bedding areas. This is the one time of the year that busting a buck out of his bed won’t come back to hurt you. The buck has a whole year to forget about you. Regardless, be careful not to stress the deer anytime during the winter and early spring months.

I have used shed hunting to pattern several bucks over the years. It is often much more effective than preseason scouting, especially if you plan to hunt the rut.

I was looking for sheds and found an exceptionally large antler in a narrow timbered funnel. Towards the end of the season I hung a stand with hopes of catching the buck as he searched for does. About half an hour before the end of shooting hours I saw him coming. There was a large draw between us and I momentarily lost sight of him. I prayed he would come into view before it was too dark to shoot. He passed within twenty yards of the stand. As he quartered away, I let the air out of him.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim
Buy the Book for X-mas

Get BUCK NAKED for X-mas

Get BUCK NAKED for X-mas

Looking for that special gift for the outdoorsman in your life? Give them the gift that truly keeps on giving, a copy of the book Buck Naked; The Straight Dope on Trophy Whitetails.


Here’s a gift that will be appreciated this Christmas season and for years to come. Buck Naked is jammed packed with tips, tactics, and strategies that will benefit both the novice and seasoned hunter.

At $15.84, it’s affordable for all of the hunters on your list. It also makes a great stocking stuffer.

Have a great Holiday Season,
Jim
http://www.amazon.com/Buck-Naked-Straight-Trophy-Whitetails/dp/1466498234

http://jimcollyer.com/



Scout Now for Next Seasn's Buck

I am often asked, “when is the best time to scout?”


The answer is “immediately after you harvest your buck.”

The biggest advantage is you will be scouting exactly where the deer will be come hunting season next fall. I like to do my scouting a couple of days after a fresh snowfall. This allows the deer enough movement to show travel routes, feeding preferences, and bedding sites. I’m not worried about spooking deer now as there’s nearly 12 months before I’ll be hunting them again. That’s ample time to let the herd settled now.

If you hunt in areas that don’t receive much if any snowfall, wait a couple days after a hard rain to do your scouting. The old tracks will either be washed away are rounded out by the rain. Look for tracks with crisp edges. Also, keep track of any rubbed trees are scrapes you my find.

If an area has the cover, security, and feed to hold large deer one year, the odds are that it will hold that deer or another large deer the next season.

Missing sign all together or misreading sign is one of the most common mistakes made in hunting. Most hunters tend to block out apparent sign and focus only on the sign that they are comfortable with. They use scouting to support some preconceived conclusion of what the outcome should be instead of letting the sign speak for itself. People tend not to believe what they see, but see what they believe.

Buy the Book Now
If you scout immediately after your hunting season, you’ll be well on your way to harvesting another great buck next fall.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
Jim
http://jimcollyer.com/

Get Buck Naked for X-mas

Get BUCK NAKED for X-mas

Looking for that special gift for the outdoorsman in your life? Give them the gift that truly keeps on giving, a copy of the book Buck Naked; The Straight Dope on Trophy Whitetails.

Here’s a gift that will be appreciated this Christmas season and for years to come. Buck Naked is jammed packed with tips, tactics, and strategies that will benefit both the novice and seasoned hunter.

At $14.95, it’s affordable for all of the hunters on your list. It also makes a great stocking stuffer.

Have a great Holiday Season,
Jim

Get Buxk Naked for X-mas

http://jimcollyer.com/