Special Live Blogging Event!
Be sure to check this page at 4 p.m. (central), on Friday, Aug. 12 as John Geiger of Game & Fish / Sportsman magazines hosts a live blogging event during a seminar about the latest techniques to pattern mature bucks with game cameras.
Seminar speaker Dr. Grant Woods is a lifelong hunter and pioneer in Quality Deer Management who has developed many of our modern deer-management practices. Put your cams to use this year to find out where the biggest bucks are!
Land & Wildlife Expo
August 12-14, 2011
At Gaylord Opryland | Nashville, Tennessee
Agenda | Seminars | Exhibitors | Directions
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency showed an impressive display of whitetail racks and turkey fans that were confiscated from poachers in the recent Operation Jawbreaker initiative. Gives new meaning to “fair chase.”
Jeff Foxworthy was one of the many celebrities who is walking the lanes of the Expo. The avid whitetail hunter and comedian was signing autographs and having his photo taken with fans.
Jadd Campbell of the National Wild Turkey Federation tells Alosha Baker of Rockvale, Tenn., about gun safety before the boy shot BB's at targets at the indoor section of the Expo.
The indoor part of the Land and Wildlife Expo is bustling.
Hundreds of gear companies, like Hunter Specialities, many outfitters, like Whitetail Properties, state agencies, like the Tennessee Wildlife Agency, and retailers, like Bass Pro, have pretty much covered up every corner of the 113,000-square-foot room inside the Opryland Convention Center.
And if there isn’t a vendor making a footprint, there are hundred if not thousands of attendees walking from booth to booth with heavy swag bags nearly dragging on the floor.
These folks are land owners, hunters, land managers and just folks who want to make their property better.
One of these find people is Bill Campbell who came from Rockvale, Tenn., with his wife and three kids. They own a few acres, and they wanted to get ideas to attract more wildlife. The kids were loving the National Wild Turkey Federation display where they got to shoot Daisy airguns.
“This is a very good event,” said Bill of the Expo. “We’ll be back next year and every year.”
Seems to be the general consensus among people from as far away as Texas and Maine.
Any day in the South in August that is below 90 is a downright cold front.
Today, Day 2 of the Land and Wildlife Expo, temperatures are expected to stay below 90 with little chance of rain. Tomorrow it’s more of the same. That translates into more than bearable conditions in the outside 105-acre demonstration area, also called the Outdoor Village. Whatever you call it, it’s a fun place to be.
If it does get too hot, the indoor events include seminars, a 113,000-square foot expo space with organizations and companies showing what’s new and big events coming up tonight.
At 7 p.m., Dave White, chief of the National Resources Conservation Services, will speak at the Conservation Dinner. Jeff Foxworthy will be there, and Country music artist Craig Morgan will rock the place.
Day passes for the Expo are $20 per adult. Kids under 12 are free with a paying adult.
For info on attending the dinner and concert, go to the ticket booths at Opryland’s Presidential Lobby, or check out landandwildlifeexpo.com.
17.09
That’s about it. I hope this was informative.
17.03
Can you check cams more often on a working farm where deer are used to seeing people and equipment?
Deer get wise to changes. Do what ever you can do to avoid disturbing them.
(**Please note, unless a response is in quotation marks, it is not a direct quote but a paraphrase of Dr. Woods’ response.)
17.00
What size cards do you use?
I get 4,000 photos on a 2GB card. That works fine. Three bursts or five bursts. Deer show different angles, and it’s hard to judge age. So three or five bursts help make a good decision on whether to pattern a deer.
16.57
Why do you put a stick behind the top of the back of the cam?
That helps the cam point down so you don’t get horizon. Grant puts time-lapse cams high. he used a 10-foot step ladder to mount the cams.
16.55
What cam is best for security?
Something with IR flash. Grant likes Reconyx. He has others that cost less, but he doesn’t get as many years of service out of them.
16.53
Questions:
In the image of the cameras (the Reconyx patterning software), are all those cams used all the time?
No. He will move the cameras around, so you do not need all those cameras.
Grant owns about 19 cameras.
16.50
Grant will be in the Lincoln Room E at the Opryland Resort and Convention Center tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011. If you’re around, show him your trail cam photos, or stop by to say hi. He is a wealth of knowledge about patterning deer, and is a friendly bowhunter who love his deer.
16.48
Grant drew a Kansas tag last year. He put his tactics to work and this was his result…
16.45
5 steps to harvest a mature deer:
Growing, scouting, patterning, hunting and killing.
Hunting and killing take planning, too. For example, don’t use your best stand on marginal days.
16.40
It seems deer don’t like change. Brushing in a ground blind might look good to humans, but to deer, it’s something new. Grant thinks things like this will spook big deer. Put them up a minimum of two weeks before the hunt.
Turkey could care less, but deer might think, “That wasn’t here yesterday. I might have to think about that for a few weeks.”
16.38
Grant’s definition of patterning: Patterning is identifying a limited resource that deer do not associate with fear.
16.33
This software is a free download from Reconyx.
Very cool survey of where one big has been on Grant’s property. The “25″ refers to 25 photos of that one deer. Now he know’s where to hunt. Nice.
I want to hunt with Grant!
Can you see the image OK?
16.28
Here’s a plot with fencing over part of it. You can see the outside has been eaten up, and the inside is still ready to go.
16.25
Grant put electric gates over part of some of his plots to prevent overforage. That way, he can take the fence down later in the season to attract deer then as well.
16.22
A time-lapse cam can take a photo of a deer 200 yards away. Can a motion-trigger cam do that? Nope. But check this out: a motion-trigger cam will give you much more information on a deer because you can see what the deer might be doing when he is closer to the cam.
16.18
Time lapse is great because deer running through are not “patternable.” They’re being chased by a dog or passing through, as opposed to those that are feeding in a field, off in the distance. Good point Grant.
16.17
Grant is talking about time-lapse photography and how it helps pattern big deer.
Can you see this slide? Grants talking about it now. He’s a big fan of time-lapse images. (But I know he also like motion-trigger cams, too. A cam that does both is the best.)
16.14
Trail cams must not disturb of the game. Infrared and cams that make no sound are the best.
Grant uses cams to 1) Monitor food use and 2) Pattern big bucks.
Trail cam surveys are an excellent way to find out what’s out there.
16.11
16.08
4:07 CT
Grant is on the podium, talking about how much fun it is to have a big deer in front of you. I can related to that.
15.55
Dr. Grant Woods is in the room and is about to tell us about using our game cams to pattern the biggest bucks. This is one of the many Mossy Oak True North Seminars today and tomorrow here at Opryland.
Here’s a little background on Grant. He is a wildlife biologist and consultant who specializes in deer management. A QDMA pioneer researcher, Grant has been involved in research and management projects in 25 states. Grant has a pretty good handle on managing deer all over the U.S.
At some point — not right now — you’ll have to check his site, growingdeer.tv. Grant is a workaholic and produces a new web episode each week. He’s also a long time hunter.
But right stay here. Dr. Wood will be at the podium in a few minutes.
Grab a cool beverage, and come right back for our live blog…
13.46
Check back at 3:45 CT for the start of the live blog with Dr. Grant Woods.
Live Blog begins at 3:45 p.m. Central Time on Friday, Aug. 12.
Kenny Darnell of Murray, Ken., tried out a VersaMax on some innocent clays at the Expo. Darnell, a rabbit hunter, took eight of 10 at the 5-stand course.
If you like pulling triggers, this is a good place to be.
I just shot 10 shells at clays on a 5-stand course using a Remington VersaMax. I like the gun a lot and actually took a Missouri turkey with one earlier this year. The Promatic traps set up for the occasion were excellent. The clays were only broken when the shot hit them, as opposed to some traps that are tough on the pigeons before they are even airborne.
Kenny Darnell of Murray, Ken., also shot clays and like the VersaMax. “I didn’t even feel the recoil,” he said. “But I did feel the turkey loads!”
The National Wild Turkey Federation has targets set up and offer shots from Mossbergs with field loads or 3-inch shells at targets 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 yards away. The 40-yard target canbe humbling, and show how difficult a 40-yard shot is.
For bowhunters, the National Archery in Schools Program has a 3-D range set up.
“I shot a bobcat!” said my son who is attending the even and is enjoying all the kid-friendly options in the 105-acre Outdoor Village.
Off to demo more products.
I am headed out to the 105-Acre Outdoor Village here at the Land and Wildlife Expo.
I talked with event organizer Brian Abrahamson, and he is breathing a sigh of relief: temperature won’t top 90 today in Nashville, and there’s no rain in the forecast. Tomorrow there is a better chance of thunderstorms, but today is as good as it gets in August in the South.
The outdoor area is unique among mega-hotels. Abrahamson, vice president of corporate communications for Gaylord Entertainment, which owns the Opryland Resort and Convention Center, said the 105 acres is perfect for outdoor-related companies show off their new products where they are meant to be used: in the great outdoors. There are indoor events and product demonstrations as well.
Remington, Polaris, Dodge Ram Trucks, BioLogic and many other companies and organizations will have their wares on display at this consumer show.
Think of a trip to Nashville today or tomorrow if you are in the region. It’s the place to be.
Let’s go see what’s happening!
Land managers who want to attract more ducks have to be “messy farmers.”
So said Dr. Brian Davis of Mississippi State University. He was talking to about 60 participants in a True North Seminar Summit, Aug. 12, on Managing Wetland Soils and Habitats for Waterfowl, at the Land and Wildlife Expo.
Much of his talk was about how to plant and harvest moist-soil weeds and grasses to supplement rice or corn production and attract ducks.
When he talks about “messy” farming, he means that ducks might be put off when they see perfect geometric patterns from above.
“When you plant crops or knock down weeds, don’t make patterns — no circles or rectangles. We don’t want baseball diamonds,” said Davis, who is called the E.F. Hutton of wetlands management. “The dirty, messier the habitat, the better. Mother Nature does not make perfect patterns all the time.”
The “messiness” also applies to what you plant because you want weeds among your corn, rice or soybeans. It helps your forage diversity, which will attract ducks and protects from floods or droughts, but also to increase protein content.
Eight percent of a duck’s feather is made up of protein, said Davis, and especially in the fall, when mallard drake heads are greening-up, or later, when hens are growing their camouflage feathers. They need to feed this growth. They get a lot of protein from bugs and beans. An effective way to produce more is through growing “grassy corn,” which is nothing more than doing a poor job of growing corn.
Millets, like the tall Chiwapa, Japanese or browntop, and yellow grasses, are rich in protein.
To get the sun’s rays to hit the grasses between rows of tall corn, Davis suggests:
–11 inches between seeds within rows.
–38 inches between rows
–16,000 to 18,0000 pounds of seed per acre.
“Do a poor job of farming, and you can really compliment your crop for ducks.”
If you have questions, you can reach Dr. Davis at bdavis@cfr.msstate.edu.
Stay tuned for more from the Land and Wildlife Expo.
-end-
Land & Wildlife Expo in Nashville is Epicenter of Outdoor Action
Do you like hunting? Shooting? Land and deer management? The Land & Wildlife Expo at Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, will be the epicenter of what’s new in the outdoor world on Aug. 12-14. It’s the place to be for hunters, anglers and land managers to learn from the nation’s leading experts and try out the newest outdoor products.
If you can’t be there, Game & Fish/Sportsman magazine will be live web-reporting from the event at www.gameandfishmag.com/land-wildlife-expo.
Be sure to check the site at 4 p.m. (central), on Friday, Aug. 12. John Geiger of Game & Fish/Sportsman magazines will be live blogging during a seminar about the latest techniques to pattern mature bucks with game cameras. Seminar speaker Dr. Grant Woods is a lifelong hunter and pioneer in Quality Deer Management who has developed many of our modern deer-management practices. Put your cams to use this year to find out where the biggest bucks are.
At the Expo, companies and non-profit groups will be showing off what’s new with their products and programs at an indoor and outdoor exhibit area. Remington will have its new VersaMax shotgun on hand at a five-stand area. Dodge Ram Trucks, John Deere and Polaris will offer demo rides of their newest vehicles. Mossy Oak BioLogic and Tecomate have maintained food plots on site to show you the latest growing strategies. National Archery in Schools program will host an archery demonstration, as well as Ducks Unlimited. National Wild Turkey Federation will have a Jakes Experience for kids.
Check www.gameandfishmag.com/land-wildlife-expo for updates and links to seminar times, fees and other activities at the Expo.
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