LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
As the cold, blustery days slowly inch towards the end of the calendar year, so the hunting gets tougher for whitetail enthusiasts across the country. For the first time this season, Bowhunt or Die went live with an episode that did not feature one of our team members harvesting a deer. Unfortunately, that is the way late season hunting goes, but our staff members were still out there hunting hard. Let’s recap the action from Episode 9 of Bowhunt or Die!
Click here to watch the footage of Bowhunt or Die! Episode 9!
Todd Graf kicks off December hunting his piece of property in Northwestern Illinois looking to harvest his second Illinois monster of the 2010 season. Todd has invested a lot of time and effort into this piece of property to provide a literal buffet for whitetails in the form of food plots. Everything from turnips, clover, sorghum, corn and soybeans has been planted to attract deer to his property and it’s beginning to pay off big time. Todd wasn’t able to harvest a buck for this week’s episode, but he saw plenty of deer and passed on several smaller bucks. Whitetails are a slave to their stomach this time of year and Todd has plenty of food to give himself a legitimate chance at a monster during the late season. We will have to see how it pans out!
Pictured is one of the nice bucks Todd passed on in Episode 9 of Bowhunt or Die! He certainly is a nice buck, but just not what Todd is looking for. Note the food that is available to this buck. With turnips to his left and corn to his right he’ll definitely have plenty to eat on this winter!
We then catch back up with Pro Staffer John Hermann and join his quest for an Illinois buck. As you probably know John harvested a monster buck in Wisconsin during the early season, and if he were able to, taking down an Illinois giant would cap off an incredible season. John had several great encounters with some smaller bucks, as well as a shooter buck he had been chasing that just didn’t want to commit to his calling. Despite not being able to harvest a buck in Illinois, John had several cool encounters with bucks which is always exciting. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be!
John Hermann had several nice buck encounters on his Illinois hunting trip, he just wasn’t able to connect on the buck he was looking for. John had no intentions of shooting this buck as he skirted past his stand, unaware of John’s presence.
Bowhunt or Die then heads east for the first time this season as I hunted my home piece of property in Western Virginia for the Thanksgiving holiday. My brother offered to be my cameraman for the week (which was a pleasure as I had been self-filming all year) and we were determined to harvest a deer on film. Despite our efforts, we just weren’t able to get close enough for a shot over the Thanksgiving holiday. We saw plenty of deer, but the 4th week of gun season in Virginia just put those deer on edge making them extremely difficult to bow hunt and forcing me to return to Illinois empty handed. Still, it was a blessing to be able to go home and spend quality time in the woods with my family which made the trip a success.
This photo is one of our food plots my family has planted on our hunting property in Western Virginia. It was fun to be able to hunt back home for a week, I just wish I could have connected on a deer!
After chasing whitetails hard for 2 and a half straight months Todd and Justin Zarr took a break from the woods and attended the recent Mathews Retailer Show in Wisconsin. This show featured the release of the new Z7 family of bows by Mathews as well as other cool products and accessories that will be released for the 2011 hunting season. Visit our New Products video gallery for more in depth coverage and an exclusive first look at some of these exciting new products.
Here is Justin pictured with the Mathews rep at the Mathews Retailer show in Wisconsin talking about the new Z7 family of bows.
Although our team wasn’t able to harvest any deer for the first time this season, Bowhunt or Die was still an exciting episode. Our guys are still out there hunting hard and documenting their hunts on film to share with everyone, so be sure you continue to tune in to Bowhunt or Die the rest of the season!
