Stix & Stones

I wanted to give a shout-out to an awesome Outdoors Apparel Company. This is Stix & Stones, headquarters located in Toronto, Ontario! They have a great sense of style for any hunting and fishing wardrobe!

I ordered these three women's tees online and received them this week and am absolutely in love with this company and their styles. The customer service was incredible, they kept me posted with e-mails on where my shipment was and when it would arrive. When the shirts came in they fit perfect to the size charts posted on their website. Matt is planning to order some tees for vacation and I am going to definitely be getting more from these guys in the future. 

My favorite tee I got was this "Big Game" pattern for women. There is also a similar design for men. I love purple and always love a v-neck... this shirt fits great.

Check out their stuff on www.stixnstones.ca, or follow them on twitter. I have been given the chance to preview some of the designs planned for women and can't wait for them to be available! 

2013 Season Part 3 of 3

Late November and into December we were starting to have some success. Cory took this 7 pointer at his stand, we had pictures of him previously throughout the season. The neighbor took a nice 9 point and Jordan who works for Matt's Dad (Darcy) shot an 8 point. It was nice to see some deer being tagged finally. Matt hasn't shot a deer in a few years and I was hoping he would get one before the season was over, he was hoping to see me tag one. 

 Christmas day I finally gave my bow some use and shot a cottontail. It was a 34 yard shot and the first thing I have successfully harvested. 

 We had nice deer coming to Darcy's everyday, and I had been spending most of the season hunting a blind here. There were a lot of daylight pictures, lots of does and bucks coming and going. It was really cold now later in December, but I really wanted to sit through til the end of the season. Everyone was trying get me my first buck. 

The very last night of deer season and this buck finally walks infront of me. He had a broken point, but was a pretty nice deer for my first antlered deer tag. I had been seeing does for weeks and finally just past 4 pm this guy walks infront of my blind. There was a doe feeding to the right and I had Darcy's new Ten-Point cross bow up and ready to pull the trigger. (awesome scope on this bow with green and red pins and narrow enough to shoot out of a blind comfortably) I waited what felt like hours (only 15 minutes or so) for this buck to take a few steps into range. My heart started pumping like everyone warned me and I was shaking cold. It had been -20 and colder that week. Unfortunately the doe ran off and this buck did too. I had an amazing hunt on my last night and never tagged a deer in 2013. Matt and his family have officially gotten me addicted to hunting and I cannot wait for next year to hopefully harvest my first Ontario Whitetail

Keep reading my future posts to hear all about my 2013 Turkey Season in Algonquin, Ontario.

2013 Season Part 2

At the end of August into September we had bear activity around Matt's Dads place where we hunt. We set out a barrel full of bait hoping to attract it in, but by the time we set it up cold hit and we didn't get any more photos. A good plan for this August if we see bear is to bait early and hopefully hunt some bear. 

Meet ol "Floppy Ear" She has survived season after season. Matt has come across her during his hunts and if I get a doe tag next year I may try locate her again. We think she is around four years old 

 Early November Matt and I had set up a few areas of trail cameras. We were ecstatic because Matt's deer he hoped to get a photo of showed up, a nice 11 pointer. My favorite deer from last season, previously a 5 x 2 now 5 x 1 showed up, and we got several photos of him throughout the season. However, I never seen him during a hunt. 

 This nice buck showed up at Matt's Dads property when he was hunting another field during the rut. 

 My first encounter with a buck was with this little guy on Matt's grandparents property. I was just sitting along side of a path and he came right in front of me no more than 10 ft away. This didn't get my heart pumping like some people have said it would, but it was one of the coolest things I have experienced. I had my rifle, but didn't shoot. It was early on and I was waiting to see if something more mature showed up. The neighbors shot this young buck later on in the season. 

Later in November we had lots of photos of my favorite buck. I sat out a few times and he never showed during daylight. As far as we know he survived the season, maybe I will get to encounter him next year. 

2013 Season Part 1

I finished my first hunting season and decided to post the whole story. I have been dating Matt for three years and he has been taking me out hunting since 2012. I instantly was interested in hunting, although I only grew up fishing and camping in the outdoors. Early 2013 I took my hunters safety course and began the season with Matt. 

 I purchased my first compound bow in August, a 2013 Quest Bliss, but planned on using a cross bow and rifle until I improved my skills. 

We started scouting early on. Putting up trail cameras, laying out apples and protein to see if any deer would come and feed. The soy bean fields where we hunt on were growing quick and there was a lot of signs of deer (tracks on tracks). We knew there were a few mature bucks who survived the 2012 season and hoped for photos early on. 

Matt's brother Cory hunted with us in the Fall when he got back from guiding goose hunting out West.  The water levels were so high we couldn't get back to some of our stands and Cory had to come tow us out with the Argo after getting stuck.

I did a solo hunt one morning before work during turkey season and took a walk where I found some deer skulls that the Coyotes must have eaten previously. Matt and I have lure out to try keep the coyote numbers down. Hopefully we take some before the season is over.