As requested, the video shoot cellular interuptus story.
About 10 years ago, a friend of mine came up with a concept for a new hunting video series, and pitched it to me. Rather than go to all kinds of places most hunters dream about, why not show them, mainly the viewers in Erie county PA, Warren County PA, Erie County NY, Chautauqua County NY, and Cattaragus NY, that they have plenty of good hunting opportunities right here at home. To me, it sounded like a good idea, and no one else seemd to be doing so, except around certain towns in these places. So we started the planning stage, got our gear toegther, and started with a dew scouting and pre season videos. We got some nive game footage, shot some beautiful sights while out there, and even slipped in a few Lake Erie and other bodies of water, fishing videos.
next, he went to talk to sponsors, and got a couple small local shops, to sign on. one LGS, a few bait and tackle shops, and an archery pro shop. he did better than I thought he would.
Now, we shot some small game stuff in September, and some Spring turkey hunts in May of that year, but we were waiting for the rut to start, and the start of Archery season. when it did, we filmed several days of hunting, more than a few shots had to passed up, because, even though Ed had a shot, I didn't on the camera, and he had decided to pursue one deer that year, nothing less than the big buck out by his BIL's place. he also filmed for me, and I took an early season 6 point, age 4.5 years, and passed up a few does, saving my late season tag, antlerless, for the muzzle loader season. I also managed to fill ponje of my doe tags on a day we didn't film, so by the time shotgun opened, my freezer was full.
his still wasn't.
the first Saturday of shotgun, we went out to the woods, and snuck in about 04:00, and got set up, right over the bedroom of a big buck. i was up first, and when he came back up the trail to bed down, I waited for a good broadside shot, and as soon as I conformed it would be on film, I pressed the trigger. Clean hit at the base if the skull from 20 yards, DRT. after dressing and taking him to the house, so we could hang him to drain, until I went home that night, we went back in, to another pair of stands on the property, and I took the camera gear up with me, Ed took his shotgun, and settled in.
he didn't see but a spike, and two doe all day, and had to pass on the doe, because they were out of view on my end. no clear shot for the camera.
About 16:30 it started getting cooler, and the light was just starting to fade, and we were thinking about calling it. After we checked through coms, what the other was thinking, i told him to wait, as we still had about a half hour of legal light left, we decided to stick around, and enjoy the quiet, before heading home.
i never would have catured the following events, he we mot, and had Ed turned of the VOX settoing on his two way.
As i'm sitting there, filming a squrrel playing a couple trees over, I hear a soft beep through my ear piece. i look over, and I see the light of a cell phone, and hear Ed answer it. Turns out it was his wife. I only heard one side of the conversation, but it was a good on, judging by his replies. then I saw movement in the brush under him, and moved the camera to pick it up.
As he's talking with his wife, which the camera mike is also picking up BTW, a doe walks out, right under the stand, stops, and looks up. Then a second one does the same, followed, as soon as they moved on, by a nice 8 point.
All three of them stopped, sniffed the air, and looked right up at him, as he's talking with his wife, and just doesn't even look down. that's all he would have had to do, to see them. by this point, my lip is bleeding, as I'm trying not to LMAO, and blow the shot. I wanted to see how this played out. I even locked the camera in it's pracket on the rail, and slid my shotgun up to the rail, but I just could not keep still enough for a shot, between watching the looks on the faces of those deer, and hearing the half of the conversation i was getting.
Shortly after that, the deer moved on, and ed hing up. he then called it, and climbed down, took the gear from me, and then I climbed down. We went to his BIL's barn, pulled down my deer, and I checked my messages, which let me know I was needed at his place, to help his dad process his buck, so we loaded up, and left.
once we had all 3 between mine and his dad's two, I went in, pulled the memory card, and sat down at his sister's computer, to pre-screen for an edit. Soon enough, I got to Ed's hunt, and called over his family. Including him and his wife.
never saw a couple turn so red in my life. must have been one hell of a conversation for that end result.
After everyone, especially Ed, got their laughs over it, I looked right at him, and said, :"next time, hang up and hunt." At that point, he asked me why i didn't shoot. My reply:
"I was too busy LMFAO. I couldn't hold still enough to get a shot, without risking hitting you. that buck, as you can see in the video, was close enough to chew on your boot laces. tyhe bigger doe was even closer."
"i didn't hear you laughing, otherwise, i would have looked."
that's when I pulled down my lower lip, and showed him the bite mark.
We did this for a couple years, but it never really caught on. I still have the master discs from the shoots, and enough bloopers and bonus stuff to make a package of it, and we wound up giving copies of them to family and friends aor Chritmas each year.
When Youtube came out, we even considered a channel on it, but I'm glad we didn't with recent events. it was fun, we had about a dozen of us, filming real hunts, no BS, only show it when the big deer comes out, shooting for mass, or anything along those lines. Also made a few target practice sessions recordings in that time. We had a lot of fun doing it, and to us, that's what mattered.
Ed gpot even two years later, when he filmed a hunt in my back yard, where I lived in NY. All i am going to say about that one is, it involved the apple orchard in the back of the property, four arrows, four clean misses, with the buck I was shooting at, sticking around until sunset.
it's not that I didn't practice from elevation, I just didn't practice from the
right elevation.
And I'm still convinced, had I had one more arrow with me, I wouild have had him on the next shot. Each time I fired, he'd take a few steps, look around, and go right back to browsing.
As a result, I now practice from the stand.
