The Doc said he won’t do the surgery until the nerve damage in my arm and hand subsides. This might buy me enough time to still be able to hunt this year using a crossbow. Here is a video blog with all the particulars, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Trev

Thanks again

Trev

Team Outback Outdoors

The weather was perfect, sunny and temperatures in the 80’s with night time low’s in the 40’s. Keeping track of all these kids could not be done with out the volunteers who help cook, teach and mentor all these youngsters. I look forward to this camp every year.

The kids go through a number of work stations which last 90 minutes each. From trail building to conservation to fly tying and photography. An over night hiking/camping trip and archery as well as hunting 101. Most of these kids have never shot a bow before coming to the camp and this year over half of the kids brought their own bows. It is a great way to help grow the sport and teach conservation and responsibility.

This kids camp is four days long but flies by for all the volunteers. Everyone participates in a big bon fire on the last evening and on the last day we put on a big 3 D archery challenge. We break the kids up based on their experience level and some great prizes are awarded for all the top winners.

I want to thank all of the sponsors who donate some great prizes and gifts for all the kids who attended. Montana Decoy, Mossy Oak, Bugling Bull Game Calls, Hunter Safety Systems, Schrade Knives and others.

Kids camp is over and now time to focus on the fall hunts coming up for Outback Outdoors.

The next morning we jumped on the chair lift and up to shoot one of their four 3D courses in the beautiful high country of Utah. The courses were laid out in the picture postcard beauty of the Snowbird summer slopes with a beginners, intermediate, elite and the infamous SMOKER course.

The first day was a lot of fun and Rocket Ryan (who had been in TX working some rodeos and had not been able to bring his bow) ran camera to capture the shooting before he headed back down the mountain to work the West Jordon,UT PBR. Saturday we had a chance to shoot three of the 4 courses (all but the smoker course) and then I got to go to dinner with Mark Renner, Branden VanDyken, Joe Arpin, Cory Taylor and the rest of the be the decoy.com guys and Eric Nothe and the Pimpmybow.com crew. After dinner we hung out,visited, laughed, and caught up with everyone’s upcoming hunting schedule and swapped some great stories looking forward to the next day’s shooting (It was also fun to catch up with Chris Denham of Wilderness Athlete and his son Mark)

The last day brought us some rainy conditions and Rocket and I headed up to meet Corey Benge and the be the decoy.com crew and shoot the SMOKER coarse (where all the winning $$’s in the bet were going to be donated to Brodie Swisher and his Montana Youth Bowhunter Camps). The Smoker course was phenomenal! We had 10 targets of various yardages and extreme uphill and downhill shots (one was a mule deer at 80+ yards and you shot it for 67 yards). The kicker was you only got 2 arrows (1 primary and a mulligan) if you missed and broke it then you had to use your mulligan arrow for the rest of the round and if you missed and broke that you were DONE!) The scoring was a little different too, instead of the usual 12-10-18-5-0 score the small 12 ring was worth only 10 points and the 10 was worth 8. If you missed the vitals instead of getting the normal 5 points you got zero!

Unfortunately I missed and shattered my first arrow on target 3 and Corey was a rock. We had a great time and Corey had ice running through his vanes and at the end Outback Outdoors donated a $100 to Brodie’s camps as Corey put the whooping to me. (Branden VanDyken out shot both of us and he wasn’t in the bet!)

The event was a blast and Rocket and I even got a chance to have Shawn Monsen and Anthony Dixon help us draw for the 2nd Quarter Bowhunting Gear Giveaway for a set of new Nikon Monarch Binoculars (check back soon as we are going to be posting the video of the Nikon Bino winner soon). Already looking forward to next year and I feel we at Team OO are ready for this years archery big game season!

Thanks to Shawn, Anthony, Aneal Roney, Mathew Burrows… etc and all the Bowcast and FMP crew that put this event on …. YOU HAVE TO GO NEXT YEAR!!!

Just got back from a GREAT time with the family in California (Disneyland) and got to see it through the eyes of my 4 1/2 year old. It was awesome!

My wife Sandy and I hung out with all my family and then we went back to Phoenix to see Sandy’s dad and we met my little sis and her husband in Tucson AZ for a triathlon where Sandy and I posted personal bests! It was a ton of fun, too!

I have one more triathlon on Aug 7th in Denver then it will be hunting season and I should be in really good shape to chase critters in the Rocky Mountains with my bow.

Couple things…. I am heading to the Bowcast at the Bird (http://www.bowcastatthebird.com) with our FMP (Shawn “Launch” Monsen and Anthony Dixon) buddies this weekend and Rocket Ryan is flying into Salt Lake for a PBR Saturday night (Talk about killing two birds with one stone) to join me and capture it all on video.

Also we will be drawing (and videoing the drawing) the winner of our 2nd quarter Bowhunting Gear Giveaway (a set of Nikon Binos) and will get the results up as soon as I get back! Thanks so much for checking in with us in the off season and I promise I will get the last part of the turkey webisode up ASAP!

Trev

Have a plan in mind and if possible try and do your scouting in late winter or early spring. This way the deer sign from the season past is still fresh and you will not be driving your deer from your property. I always like to locate the food in the area and than the bedding. I look for small pinch points or travel corridors and go there first. I like to find where the deer trails neck down and possible ambush spots are found and a likely air assault can be placed.

I rather hunt the travel areas and if possible stay away from the bedding cover. Out West usually the deer in the river bottoms travel short distances from food to cover so you have to be  ultra stealthy. The edges of alfalfa fields or other crops are good scouting points but I rarely sit on them when trying to shoot a mature buck. I like to be inside the field edges 100 yards or so where possible so I can catch those big deer staging just before dark. You will see less deer but more of the right deer you are trying to take. This strategy also works well when it is time to get out of your stand. When you sit on field edges and finish your hunt now you have to get down and walk across the same field the deer are in. Not a good idea! I rather slip out back through the timber and go undetected.

Morning hunts are also very tough out West in the river bottom properties. Usually you end up spooking the deer from the food sources when trying to get into your stand site. Most of my time is spent glassing from a high vantage point and evaluate where the deer are entering the cover. They will generally come back out in the same area in the evening. Use the mid day time to scout or hang stand set ups where you will have the least impact on the deer you are hunting. I have sometimes hung stand set ups in the dark while the deer are out in the fields.Just a few pointers to try if you are hunting river bottom property. Try using a small boat or canoe to enter and exit your hunting area and you will leave very little disturbance for the deer to pick up on. Wear hip boots to walk in the water and use while on stand. Your scent will be minimized. Make sure you have someone pick you up on the field edges by vehicle. Deer are used to farm tractors or vehicles driving in the fields and are better than you walking out across the areas you are hunting.

With the rollover of older hunters who are passing away we HAVE to get the regenerate those numbers of outdoorsmen with the younger generation. We must get them from in front of the TV and Playstations (and by the way I love video games too!!) and into the outdoors! This event helps do just that! It was awesome to see 2nd and 3rd generations in a family group shooting together and building that bond that is bound by the love of hunting, bowhunting, and everything outdoors!

I also want to sincerely thanks ALL of my (and Outback Outdoors) who partnered with us in this event and donated their quality products to be raffled off to further raise money for the NM Bullseye 4H Shooting Club!

Below is a collage of pics from the event and we are already planning for next year, I hope you enjoy the pics and hopefully we will see you next year at this event!

Trev

and Team Outback Outdoors

I love talking bowhunting anytime, but this will be even more special as I will be back in my home state with my cousins who really helped me get into hunting to start with…. (and my dad will be running the video camera capturing the excitement as it happens for future Outback Outdoors Webisodes.)

I will be speaking on the heart of a bowhunter and why 10% of bowhunters kill 90% of the game… should be a good time! If you can make it over the Sacramento mountains, I would love to see you there!

Trev

I am married to a wonderful non-hunter! Don’t get me wrong she loves for me to hunt and will cook ANYTHING I kill, but she has no desire to hunt herself. In a way that is good thing. When I am out in the field trying to capture my exciting bowhunting adventures on video for Outback Outdoors or Hardcore Hunting TV, I do not have to worry about her being cold, worn out,  or comfortable. All of my attention can be focused on the hunt at hand. But as most of you hunters that are married know, keeping one’s wife happy during hunting season can be a difficult task. It is not that my wife dislikes hunting, but the time I am in the field and away from the family places a burden on her to keep the machine running smoothly at home, by herself.

I was reminded the other day by a good buddy Jerod Fink about some wisdom that the legendary Randy Ulmer shared on this very subject a few years ago at the ATA show when we were all out to dinner together. Randy explained how important it was to him to have his wife feel connected while he is out stalking a giant muley buck or bull elk.

This how he does it, “Before I leave for a hunting trip,” Randy explains,  “I hide notes that she will find through out the week around the house that remind her how much I love and appreciate her. I will also have a friend drop pre-written postcards in the mail, one each day, that have poems or thoughts so she gets those everyday while I am gone. It has made an incredible difference on my wife’s countenance and our relationship!”

It might sound corny but it works!! A way I have found to “connect” with my wife is doing something together that SHE loves . For MY wife that is competing in triathlons (Sprints – 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run). This summer we are competing together in a few triathlon events and last weekend we finished our first (the pics are from this last weekend’s tri). While we don’t compete in the event “hand in hand” or even always train together we are working towards the same goal and my wife LOVES it.Let’s be honest here… I DO have ulterior motives! Imagine the shape I will be in when it comes time for my mule deer and elk hunts!

In summary a hunter doesn’t have to do a triathlon or run a 5K with their spouse to “build up points”, the bottom line is the investment I make NOW…. in time with my wife, a unifying purpose, and getting into top physical shape will pay HUGE dividends in the fall….. MAN AM I GLAD SHE DOESN’T CROCHET!!

Shon and I became good friends when I worked at Eastmans, We hunted and laughed together a bunch! He is a great guy and loving father and husband!

Shon is the proud father of two beautiful children, the most compassionate husband, loving brother, son and friend, and has proudly impacted countless others.

To so many, Shon is known as an avid archer, builder, fisherman, hunter, friend, and father. Shon has opened his heart and home to so many that love him and will continue to do so for the rest of his life.

Shon’s friends are hosting a benefit to help offset a portion of the financial burdens following Shon’s recent accident, allowing Shon and his wife Julie to focus on his recovery.

Shon’s recovery can be tracked at
http://www.shonsimpson.com