By Alex Comstock
Public land is a great thing in the hunting and outdoor world, no doubt about it. But sometimes, when you hunt public land, you are going to deal with people that just don’t quite get it. Unfortunately, some hunters don’t understand ethics or respect others. I wish everyone did, but it’s a sad fact, and it can put you in a uncomfortable position. So how do you handle sticky situations? That’s the goal of this blog post.
Don’t Lose Your Cool
So let’s say you show up to your stand that’s wayyyy back on public land. No one else is coming back this far right? As you walk up to your stand, you notice your trail camera is on the ground. And to make it worse, there’s no SD in the camera. The first reaction can be anger and cause you to make a decision that you won’t like. The last thing you want to do is retaliate in some form.
This exact scenario played out with me this past summer. On a piece of public land in North Dakota that I’ve hunted for the past few years. Over the course of those years I had never seen another hunter before. But this August, as I went in to check a trail camera, I found it on the ground with the SD card taken. I was downright pissed off. But I thought whoever did this might just have been someone passing through, so I decided to put the camera back up with a new SD card and I left. I returned a month later to hunt, and this time not only was my camera on the ground again with a missing SD card, but my stand had been stolen. In hindsight, what I should have done was set my trail camera back up after it had been messed with the first time, but I should have hidden a second trail camera watching it, that way if the person returned like they did, I could have gotten evidence of them stealing my belongings. Long story short, when someone messes with your stuff, don’t lose your cool, but think through the scenario, and what decision you can make.
Attempt To Mediate
When someone presents me with a scenario they had on a public land, and ask for advice on what to do, I always side with the option of communication and trying to mediate. It won’t always work, but I’m going to run through a few difference scenarios with you below, and how you can attempt to establish communication to avoid future issues. Even if someone isn’t being respectful to you or your equipment, I feel as though it’s always important to take the high road.
Scenario 1: This scenario was presented to me by a buddy recently. He had a stand up way back on public land and a trail camera. As he went in to check that trail camera, he noticed a treestand that was hung…in his shooting lane. Obviously on public land, you can put your stand anywhere you’d like, but to put it in someone else’s shooting lane is a pretty rude thing to do, and not very respectful. He asked me what to do, and I recommended leaving a note on the hunter’s stand explaining that he had already had his stand up, and that it was right in his shooting lane. Well, he left the note, and the hunter got back to him and explained that he hadn’t noticed his stand, and wouldn’t go in there if he was hunting. Still not ideal, but at least there was a bit of communication and a solution, rather than a negative confrontation later in the year during season.
Scenario 2: This is a scenario that is probably pretty relevant to most public land hunters. You’re up in the stand, it’s an hour from primetime, and all of a sudden you notice movement. Rather than it being a deer, it’s another hunter and he’s hunting from the ground, but headed right at you. Please, in this situation, don’t get all pissed off and start yelling or something. What I would do is give a whistle, or something to get their attention. Then climb down, explain your hunting situation, and talk with them. See if you can come to a conclusion where they turn around and go back for the night, or something along those lines. Being calm and collected will go a long ways in a scenario such as this.
Scenario 3: The last scenario I want to bring up is kind of a roles reversed one. Let’s say that you have picked out an unreal looking spot on a map, and are dead set on hunting it. As you walk it for the first time, it looks even better in person…until you notice someone else already has a stand in there. There are a couple different options you could do here. First of all, please whatever you do, don’t mess with that hunter’s stuff. You could say screw it, and bail on the spot, you could set up a stand anyway somewhere close, but not right on top of the other stand, or you could try and establish communication in this scenario as well. My advice would again be to leave a kind note of some sort. You may have to come back if you don’t have the means to do so currently. But leaving a note on the stand letting the person know you had picked out the area on a map, but want to respect them and possibly coordinate to see if you could tag team the area isn’t a bad idea at all. I did this once, and the guy called me letting me know he probably wouldn’t be back much because he was an out of stater and left his stand. He told me I could hunt it whenever I wanted, and I have sat it a number of times in the last couple of years.
Conclusion
Hunting public land presents all sorts of challenges. Among them can be dealing with others, and knowing how to do it in the right way. No matter what, I stress to you that negative confrontation should always be avoided. But, nice communication can lead to a lot of opportunities. Having run ins with other hunters on public land doesn’t always have to be a negative.
By Alex Comstock
Now that the 2019 deer season has concluded, it marked my fourth season self-filming my hunts. Self-filming is by no means a walk in the park, and you truly have to understand what your goals are that come with it before you set out to try and do it. When I first started, I wanted to just have fun with it, which if that’s your end goal, then all the power to you. But I quickly realized I wanted to become enamored with it, and turn it into creating content and so forth. So, I started a YouTube channel, and here we are a few years later, as I ultimately turned filming and photographing into my full-time job, even though a large majority of that is based outside of the hunting world. But, I still run a YouTube channel, and kick out videos weekly. With that, I’m going to link to a YouTube video which explains this blog post in it’s entirety, but if you’re not able to take the fifteen minutes to watch, I’ll run through it quicker here as well.
By Alex Comstock
Over the last year and a half or so, I’ve started using Vortex Optics. The first piece of Vortex I was able to get was the 10X42 diamondback binoculars. And ever since, I couldn’t have been happier. Before my Vortex binoculars, I had never owned a pair of quality glass, and I eventually knew it was time to get something that was quality, but at the same time I didn’t have the budget to spend a crazy amount of money. Eventually that lead me to Vortex. Today, I want to go over a quick and simple review of the 10x42 diamondback binoculars and why I like them so much.
By Alex Comstock
Recently I got the chance to review a few products from BioLite Energy, and let me tell you, this kit of products is pretty cool. Coming from a hunter’s perspective, I’ve found these products to not only be beneficial for being outdoors, but they’re also great to keep in your home in case of an emergency. With that said, let’s jump into what these products are, how they perform, and how you can put them to use.
By Alex Comstock
If you’re not familiar with #VelvetFest, it’s a kick off to deer season started by our good friends over at Exodus Trail Cameras. #VelvetFest is meant to help get people excited about deer season and summer scouting. Velvetfest runs from June 12th to July 12th and there’s a lot more than just simply getting excited about summer.
By Alex Comstock
If you haven’t heard of the TV show MeatEater, you’re missing out on one of the best hunting shows out there. It’s such a great show, in large part because of the infectious personality of host, Steven Rinella. Rinella in my opinion, is one of the best public advocates for hunting for a variety of reason, and he is able to articulate about hunting so well. He shows not just the hunt in his show, but everything that goes into it and what comes after it. That includes the butchering, packing out meat and cooking it. But today, we’re not talking about his show MeatEater. What we are talking about though is Rinella’s film that was recently released, “Stars in The Sky: A Hunting Story.”
By Alex Comstock
In 2019, there’s more people than ever consuming not only whitetail content online, but high quality whitetail content. In today’s world, there’s a ton of places on the internet you can find great deer hunting content and in this blog post, I wan to focus on YouTube. YouTube is mainly where I consume all of my video content and there’s a lot you can learn from and enjoy on YouTube. With that said, here’s what I would consider as five of the best deer hunting YouTube channels out there.
By Scott Spitzley
When it comes to connecting and engaging young children into the outdoors, there may be some uncertainty as to where to begin—it is in my opinion, overlooked.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife national survey conducted every five years, our hunting community is declining, despite the population increase. I can only speculate that this is attributed to modernization as well as a lack of interest in hunting, especially amongst our younger generation.
By Alex Comstock
The last couple of days I have gone over my budget friendly and recommended products that I came across at last week’s Archery Trade Association Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Today, I wanted to highlight three rather unique products I noticed, and then let you make your choice on what you think of them.
By Alex Comstock
Yesterday, I went over three budget friendly products from the ATA show last week. Those particular products I thought were the best if money is a top concern. Today, I wanted to go over my recommended products that I came across at the ATA show regardless of price. These four stood out to me above the rest.
By Alex Comstock
Last week I attended the ATA show in Louisville, Kentucky and as always everyone is always excited to see what products are coming for the upcoming year. This year, there didn’t seem to be many buzzworthy products, but I’m always looking for those smaller, budget friendly products. Below I will go through three of my favorite products from this year’s ATA show that won’t force you to take a big hit in the wallet.
By Alex Comstock
As a hardcore bowhunter, deer season truly never ends. We’re doing something deer related every month of year. But during the actual time of year when we can shoot deer, everything gets intensified. For months during the fall, we spend hours upon hours in a treestand or blind, and when we’re not in the field, odds are we’re looking at the weather, maps, etc. It’s non-stop and can sometimes end up being a mental grind, especially when we get to this time of year. Here are three reasons deer season can end up being a mental grind and what you can do when the grind hits you.
By Alex Comstock
Public land is a great thing in the hunting and outdoor world, no doubt about it. But sometimes, when you hunt public land, you are going to deal with people that just don’t quite get it. Unfortunately, some hunters don’t understand ethics or respect others. I wish everyone did, but it’s a sad fact, and it can put you in a uncomfortable position. So how do you handle sticky situations? That’s the goal of this blog post.
By Alex Comstock
If you aren't a member of the Quality Deer Management Association and you love deer hunting, it's time to look at becoming a member. Whether you own property and want to learn how to manage it more efficiently, are a public land weekend warrior, or somewhere in between, there's a lot to be learned from being a QDMA member. Here are a few specific reasons why you should consider joining today.
By Alex Comstock
The term "Trophy" buck. What does it mean to you? I'd be willing to bet that it's different than what I consider a trophy, or what your friend considers a trophy. Yet, the phrase "Trophy Hunting" often is associated with deer hunting negatively, and I don't like that. But, at the same time I think it can sometimes be partially our fault as hunters. I believe we ought to explain to people what we mean by trophy hunting, and that just because someone says they are a trophy hunter doesn't mean they only care about antlers and not anything else.
By Tyler Jones
Having toured in a band for nearly 10 years, I find traveling easier than most, I guess. All the time I hear, “I wish I had the guts to just go like you do,” and I’m thinking, “I wish I had your paycheck.” I feel like I’ve been tough for some time now, but I think I’m also just plain callused because since age 18, I’ve never known what it was like not to scrape by. The lifestyle can be stressful, however it also has a freeing quality to it, and because I have chosen to live this way, I’ve been forced into learning how to travel and hunt out of state on a slim budget.
By Adam Crews
As a kid, I always remember my dad and his yellow legal pad with his “To-Do List” penciled at the top. He's the hardest working person I know and he always has a plan. If anyone had the right to tell me my priorities were wrong, it was him. He may not admit it, but he gets stuff done, and it’s all because he has a plan.
By Alex Comstock
"The quality of being great, distinguished, or eminent" - the definition of greatness. But does that hold true when it comes to deer hunting? I've pondered this a time or two. When you hear someone claim they want to become a "great" deer hunter, what does that even really mean?
By Alex Comstock
As I sit here and type this, I'm thinking hard about exactly what deer hunting has taught me, not only about animals, wildlife, and as an outdoorsman, but as a human being. When deer hunting is one of the most important things to you in life, you'll inherently spend a lot of time working at it. In turn, deer hunting will actually teach you a lot about life, and it's my baseline on how to be successful. Don't believe me? Well here's five life lessons that deer hunting has taught me.
By Alex Comstock
In this day and age of hunting, with numbers continuing to fall, especially with the number of deer hunters, I think it's important we reach as many "non-hunters" as possible to explain the intricacies that people may not understand about hunting. Deer hunting is such a multi layered activity, and there's so many different levels to it. I think sometimes people get it misconstrued and think we only shoot big bucks for chess pieces on the wall, or that we don't respect whitetail deer.
By Alex Comstock
As a hunter, you are inevitably going to be asked at some point in your life why you hunt. It might be someone challenging you, or it could be someone that's genuinely interested in hunting who wants to understand where you come from. It's actually pretty compelling to me. As a hunter, we're in the center of everything that has to do with hunting right? We live it and breath it everyday, and sometimes it can be hard to see it from the perspective of someone who has never hunted a day in their life. So if you were to take and try to explain to them why you hunt, how would you put it? It can be a unique conversation, and here's my attempt at how I would explain to someone why I hunt.
By Alex Comstock
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the declining number of hunters in America. The numbers are slightly alarming, and as hunters, if we want hunting to prosper, we need to be recruiting more people to start hunting. One organization that is making a big difference when it comes to recruiting new people to hunting is the Quality Deer Management Association.
By Alex Comstock
In our latest Q&A, I interviewed two professional photographers in Steven Drake and Sam Soholt. It was one of our best pieces on WhitetailDNA (you can read it by clicking HERE) and it inspired this blog post. It's something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and that's the declination in the number of hunters. We'll be having a more in depth piece coming soon about the declining number of hunters, and what we can do about it, but one thing I wanted to bring up now was the fact that we as hunters need to make sure we're portraying hunting in a positive light at all times, and not just focusing on the kill.
By Alex Comstock
I've been thinking recently about how big bucks make people do things that are pretty crazy and dumb. And I'm not talking about in a good way. Not the crazy and dumb where you sit all day in a tree in single digit temperatures. I'm talking about about the crazy and dumb where people steal, trespass, poach, etc. all because of one thing - big bucks. Big antlers and giant bucks are awesome, no doubt about it, but when they start dictating you, or cause you to do illegal things that you otherwise would never think about doing, that's when it becomes a problem.
By Alex Comstock
A good attitude can go a long ways. It can even affect decisions you make, and ultimately the results that you have in a particular aspect of your life. No matter what it is, attitude can play a big role, and have a larger impact on things than you may think, and deer hunting is no different.
By Alex Comstock
Are you looking for the perfect excuse to get out for a weekend of shed hunting? Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity! Whitetail Properties is putting on their annual #Shedrally, which is the world's largest shed hunt again this year. #Shedrally is an organized shed hunt, meant to bring together people all over the country out in pursuit of antlers. This year, #Shedrally will be held on March 10th and 11th.
By Alex Comstock
This time of the year I tend to spend a lot of time in deep thought about all things to do with deer hunting. From tactical to the path our country is on as it pertains to the hunting world, and everything in between. Lately, I've been spending a fair amount of time thinking about the developments of our hunting industry and some things that people may be overlooking.
By Alex Comstock
In today's hunting show realm, the digital side of it continues to grow larger and larger. For me personally, I don't have cable TV, and therefore I consume all of my hunting shows via the internet. There's a ton of online shows out there, and a lot of different places you can go to consume online hunting shows. Today, I wanted to run through some of my favorites, and some websites you can go to in order to watch these.
By Alex Comstock
This past year I started using a new tool for hunting, and it's been something that's been game changing for me. OnX maps has literally changed the way I scout, look at maps, identify public and private land, and ultimately hunt. OnX is something I'd strongly recommend to anybody, whether you hunt public land, or own your own property, and here's why.
By Alex Comstock
A couple weeks ago, I picked up the Mathews VXR from my local archery shop, Custom Archery & Outdoors. Randy, the owner of the shop set it up for me and tuned it, and within an hour, Randy had transitioned all of my accessories (rest, sight, stabilizer, etc.) from my Triax to the VXR and I was shooting great. It was a seamless transition and now after shooting it almost everyday for over a week, I wanted to give you my first impressions, because I’ve been absolutely blown away by this bow.