Zooming In 1 (Season 2)
Show 1 – Jeff Miller in North Dakota!
The area in North Dakota where Jeff arrowed the velvet 9-pointer is a perfect example of the type of habitat found across much of the state. The terrain could best be described as flat, featureless and, with the exception of shelterbelts, pretty much treeless. But as Jeff quickly discovered, the resident whitetails have adapted well to this open environment.
A couple evenings prior to his successful hunt, Jeff had used his Nikon spotting scope to watch a bachelor group of bucks as they left their bedding area in this thick cattail marsh. After spending a few minutes staging near the edge of the marsh, the bucks headed across these harvested wheat fields, crossing through these two treelines, on their way to a lush alfalfa field located here. Interestingly, just before reaching the alfalfa the bucks stopped to eat on a single windrow of wheat laying right here.
Based on his observations, Jeff and cameraman Matt Tandy went back the next morning and put up a Yukon Tracks ground blind here along this brushy fenceline that borders the east side of the alfalfa field. The windrowed wheat lay a mere 15 yards straight out in front of the blind. As Jeff noted during his hunt, the southeast wind direction was perfectly suited for the blind’s location.
The footage from the hunt clearly showed that the first group of deer did exactly what Jeff had predicted. They walked through this row of trees and made a beeline directly to the windrowed wheat. A big velvet 10-pointer that was trailing the group appeared to be headed for a date with destiny.
But before the 10-pointer got within range, the 9-pointer suddenly ambled into view from the opposite direction and stopped broadside just 30 yards from the blind. Fortunately, Matt was able to make the necessary adjustments with his camera and got the 9-pointer center frame just before Jeff released an arrow.
After the hit the 9-pointer ran to this treeline and stopped. Jeff and Matt watched the buck until darkness fell before sneaking out of the area. We recovered the trophy whitetail the next morning right here in this thick shelterbelt. Congratulations brother on your first velvet buck!
Hey, make sure you tune in next week to see where on earth we’ll be Zooming In. See you here!!
Greg
I have watched part of the DVDs. Very cool. I realy like the fact that you guys are keeping it real.No stalking the camera.No pointing the gun or bow at the camera.No having the camera man at the kill and the hunter saying ” O here it is”. Damm I hate that.I do not understand why those guys think they have to make a movie. Any way, Thanks for keeping it real.You make it feel like I am on the hunt and that is how it should be.