#Target Communications – Share the Outdoors

Christmas Gift Book Idea…IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Glenn Helgeland

By Denny Geurink

Published by Target Communications Outdoor Books, LLC
Danger & Adventure Hunting Brown Bears in Russia’s Forbidding Siberia

IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR, by Denny Geurink, is an inside look at the excitement, mystery, danger and adventure of hunting huge, aggressive brown bears in Siberia and traveling in Russia from 1991 through 2011, a time of political turmoil when the Soviet Union was evolving into Russia.

In addition to hair-raising stories of lethal brown bear attacks on people and livestock, bears digging up coffins in cemeteries, bears invading camps, and brown and grizzly bear hunting in general, IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR contains historical perspective of what was happening politically at that time in Russia, detailing how the Siberian people lived, worked, survived … and how they viewed ordinary Americans — favorably. Siberia is a long way from Moscow and politics.)

Geurink was the first American guide/outfitter to take clients to Siberia, the brown bear capital of the world. Nearly 70 percent of the world’s brown bear population is in Russia, with much of that in Siberia. Russia is a game rich country; few residents are allowed to own firearms. There is little hunting and game animals get the chance to grow bigger and older…and bring in needed cash flow to local economies.

IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR is an outdoor adventure book. Fascinating stories all, in 23 engrossing chapters, 284 pages, 6” x 9”, paperback, available at www.targetcommbooks.com or on Amazon.

IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR — 23 CHAPTERS OF ADVENTURE

Journey to the Evil Empire
Hanging Out with the KGB
Brown Bear Natural History
Bear Attacks: Girl Calls to Say Goodbye as Bear Kills & Eats Her, Bear Drags Off Sleeping Bag and Man, Killer Bears
The People
The Food: Fish Bread, That’s Not Pasta, Moose Meat Surprise, Nothing Goes to Waste
The Culture
Surrounded by Bears
A Lesson on Fear
An Encounter with the WWF
American Hunter Taken to Police Station
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (hunters)
Tales from Grizzly Camp
If It Weren’t for Bad Luck
Russian Bear Stalks U.S. Astronaut
Excitement in Camp: The Russian Way of Dealing with Poachers, Bear in Camp, Bear in the Creek, Baby Snatchers
Big Stags on The Black Sea
Lady and the Bull
The Capercaillie Two-Step
Encounter with Rut-Crazed Bull Moose
Bear Charges Snowmobile
More Tales of Bear Attacks
They’re All Heart and Determination

AUTHOR’S BIO — DENNIS GEURINK: Michigan native Denny Geurink has been a teacher (now retired) and was for several years the Midwest Regional Editor of Field & Stream magazine. He wrote a newspaper weekly outdoor column for nearly 40 years. He guided/outfitted in Siberia from 1992 through 2011, when he sold his outfitting business, then bought it back just recently because he couldn’t stay away. He missed the adventure, the hunting, and the people he worked with in Siberia.

BACKGROUND INFO: In the early 1990s, the USSR wanted to boost its tourism industry and the revenue it would bring. Hunters and fishermen usually aren’t at the head of any list of tourist invitees, but in 1991 the Soviet Union, working with a U.S.-based travel agency, looked primarily at the spectacular hunting and fishing opportunities in Siberia and invited Denny Geurink, a Michigan-based outdoor writer, on a moose and brown bear hunt. He had excellent success, but even more, enjoyed learning about and adapting to an unfamiliar culture and existence that he felt more-closely resembled the U. S. Wild West 150 to 175 years ago.

Geurink liked the total experience so much he became a hunting outfitter for Siberian brown bear (the largest, most aggressive in the world), grizzly bear and moose hunts, plus incidental hunts for bighorn/snow sheep, wild Russian boar (the largest in the world), with now and then a grouse or wolf hunt added.

For nearly 25 years Geurink lived adventure with a capital A, enjoying every minute of the hunts, the people, the culture, the political discussions, the travel throughout Russia … and in the process developing strong attachments to the Siberian people and the land, sometimes staying for 90-day stretches to serve groups of hunting clients. He has traveled there more than 50 times and continues to hunt Siberia annually.

Deer Hunter’s…5 BIGGEST MISTAKES, May Still be Time to Fix Your 2017 Hunt – Part 1 of 2

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Glenn Helgeland

Know the Deer You Hunt
Scouting, Being Detected
Gear & Gadgets, Over-Dependence
Patterning our Hunting Pattern
Where, When and How

By John Sloan

**Deer cross obstacles such as roads and fences in the same place, most of the time. Learn to recognize these crossings.**

Each year deer hunters, all of us, make mistakes. Sometimes they are minor mistakes, sometimes major. Not always do even the major mistakes turn out badly in terms of killing a deer or getting a shot. But sometimes they do. Over the 60 years I have hunted whitetail deer, I have determined what I feel to be the five biggest mistakes a hunter makes. Here they are in the order I rank them.

Keep these items in mind for hunting now, for scouting after this season, and for scouting next summer and fall for next year’s season.

Mistake #1: Failure to understand the animal you are hunting.

I have been a student of whitetail deer for more than six decades. I am still learning. I am still constantly reminded of how little I know. I have always wondered how a hunter can expect regular success on bucks over age 3-1/2 if they don’t work to learn all they can, and then test what they have learned.

**Persimmon is a preferred food source when dropping. Did you know there are two types of persimmons, early and late, and deer don’t always eat them?**

Just reading and asking questions are not enough. You must get out in the woods and read sign, see what the deer has done. Then ask yourself why. Why did that deer do that? What caused that reaction? Will it happen every time?

If you ask any deer hunter what the deer’s preferred food source is right now, and they don’t know, they have not learned enough about the animal they hunt. Does the hunter know what will be the next preferred food source? Does he or she know why the deer are crossing a road in a particular place?

The questions and the answers are endless. It takes much more than just spending time in a stand. The more you ask and the more you learn, the better prepared hunter you will be, and it is a serious mistake not to be prepared.

A successful deer hunter will always have more questions than he or she has answers.

Mistake #2: Improper Scouting

Nothing prepares you for success more than proper scouting. Nothing costs you more than improper scouting.

Far too many hunters wait until the week or maybe the month before the season to begin scouting. However, proper scouting never stops. By far the most informative scouting is done in the weeks just after the season closes. That sets the stage for the rest of the scouting. It is then you learn what the bucks were doing when you were hunting them. It is then you find their hiding spots and secure travel trails. It is then you formulate your game plan for the next season.

Summer means long distance, non-invasive scouting with good optics. It is a prime way to spot where a buck enters and leaves a field without spooking him and may be a clue to finding autumn food sources.

In the summer, your scouting is non-invasive. You glass open fields just at sundown. There is little to be learned other than there are some deer here. That’s all you need to know at that point. There is little reason to be in the woods. That starts when the mast begins to form on trees. You are now looking for food sources. You couldn’t care less if you see deer. In fact, you hope you don’t. You are looking for where the deer are going to be, not where they are.

**Hang a stand in the right place and stay away until you plan to kill him.**

In early fall, you combine your hunting with your scouting, you are looking for new rubs, early scrapes, previously unknown creek or road crossings. You adjust as the deer do, as new travel patterns emerge.

In late season, you adjust again. The stand that was so hot in November may be useless now. Look for the trails in deep cover and secure food sources. Look for the trails that lead to agricultural crops and, in doing so, pass through the really thick stuff.

To scout for only a day or so in September or October is a serious mistake. It will cost you deer.

**Do plenty of post-season scouting and make notes. This often can be the key to next year’s success.**

Mistake #3: Over-Dependence on Equipment and Gadgets

As technology developed new and improved products, deer hunters got lazy. Magic potions in bottles or in spray cans replaced knowledge and work and study. We began to depend on our equipment to compensate for inaccurate shooting, good yardage judging, clean clothes and proper stand placement. We began to believe the advertisements and all the new theories. The latest call couldn’t fail. The hottest new camo couldn’t fail. The most popular new scent couldn’t fail. The new scent eliminators couldn’t fail. But they did… and do.

**Don’t be afraid to hunt from the ground. With the right setup in the right place, it can be productive. Doesn’t always need to be a ground blind.**

There are no magic potions or gimmicks. They are all aids and, yes, they are an aid. Properly used, under the right conditions they do work sometimes. None of them work all the time and some of them are counterproductive. Unless you understand what the product is; know how it works; know how to use it properly and understand the limitations of the product, you are making a mistake. If you depend on a spray or clothing to prevent deer from smelling you and do not take advantage of the wind, you are making a mistake.

These products and others can be invaluable for the unforeseen vagaries of hunting. But to depend on them alone is a mistake and it will cost you.

Consistently successful callers (deer, elk, turkey, etc.) always anticipate success and prepare for a response. This anticipation is what I call the confidence factor, and it usually comes from experience and a working knowledge of the language of the game you’re hunting. You don’t have to learn the hard way. Learn the language, and when you make a deer call expect a deer to show up.

Call that Deer to You, TIPS THAT WORK for Deer Calling Success

Posted on January 23, 2024 by stoadmin

How to Be Ready
See a Deer, What to Do
Using the Right Call

By Gary Sefton

Big, healthy bucks follow hot and ready doe’s, the hunter has many options, learn some of them here. *Joe Forma Photo*

Be Ready

“You’re not going to believe this,” the excited deer hunter said. “I haven’t seen anything all morning, so I let my bow down and started to unfasten my safety belt. I remembered my brand new, never used, deer call and thought “What the heck”. I let go with a couple of parting shots on the call before beginning to climb down. Just then, the buck of a lifetime came boiling out of the brush like his tail was on fire. He stopped broadside, 20 yards from my stand, but I’m holding 25 feet of rope with my bow tied on the other end. “He was huge,” he said, holding his hands about two feet apart.

I had this conversation at one of the early Deer Classics and have had many more like it since. I believed him.

This hunter’s experience was not that unusual, especially for first-time callers or callers trying a new technique. With no confidence in the call or the technique, he’s thinking “I never heard a deer make a sound like that” or “This will probably run off anything within hearing”.

He has no idea what he is saying when he makes the call. He has no clue what it should sound like, and/or he has never had a deer respond to calling, so he has no real reason to believe his deer call will work. So he sets himself up for failure by making a call and not expecting anything to show up.

I began working with game call companies in 1986, doing field testing and research on every aspect of deer calling, including interpreting and dissecting unusual and possibly significant vocalizations. There’s not much you can do or say to a deer that I haven’t tried for experiments’ sake and/or in hunting situations, and there aren’t many reactions to calls that I haven’t seen. This article is from my book CALLING WHITETAILS: Methods, Myths & Magic. It is available at www.targetcommbooks.com.

When he’s trailing and he’s grunting!

I can’t begin to tell you how many tales of woe I’ve heard from seasoned deer hunters who missed out on golden opportunities because their brains were on pause when a buck showed up. If you believe in something enough to buy it and haul it to the woods with you, then you should believe something is going to happen when you use it. You want the deer to come into the area to investigate the deer making the call. He may come in hard and fast or he may slip in and be gone before you know he was there.

Make the call, then wait for him! Look for him! Stay on ‘red alert’ for 15 to 20 minutes after you make the call. Expect a response and anticipate success. You will still get caught with your guard down from time to time, but you won’t feel so dumb about it.

When You See a Deer

Deer have big ears. They are good at pinpointing the precise location of a sound’s origin, so my rule is: If you can see a deer coming toward you, let it come, even if it is dawdling and taking its time.

You are in good shape as long as it is headed your way. If you make a sound while it is enroute, you will call its attention to your location and increase the possibility of getting picked off.

She smells a rat!

The doe’s that are ready to breed are in charge. Learn the details to pay attention to. *Joe Forma Photo*

If the deer veers off in another direction, a soft doe or buck grunt could be the right invitation to bring it back on course. You don’t have anything to lose in those situations.

When I’m in this situation (the deer is not heading my way) I’ll call to any deer I see wandering around, but I keep it soft and passive unless I see or hear a buck trailing a doe. When that happens, I’m going to get more aggressive, with some heavy breathing doe bleats to try to turn his head. I have called several bucks to me that were trailing does. They thought the bleating doe was the same one they were trailing.

When you are doing blind calling, always take a hard look around before you make a call, to be sure the immediate area is clear of deer that could bust you. If you get busted, let him go. There’s no reason to call to a deer that you know you have spooked. He won’t come back once he has you pegged, and he might very well associate the call to human presence. What do you think he will do the next time he hears a call?

Learn the Language

Before your start blowing on your deer call, be make sure you know what you are saying so you don’t say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Deer can’t change their language, so just be sure you are familiar with the basics. Beyond that, you have to be the judge of what is right for you. Knowing the right sound to make to trigger a specific response gets you in the game. Making the proper sound in the correct sequence gives you a chance to score.

When she talks, they listen! Set Up to Call

An important but often overlooked aspect of calling success is in the caller’s location and set-up. Do your calling in a high-deer-use area where deer are comfortable making and responding to calls. You are not going to call many deer when they are alarmed or distressed.

“What do you do when a buck comes almost close enough to shoot and won’t come any closer?” I wish I had a quarter for every time I’ve been asked that question.

The reason he won’t come any closer is because he can’t see the deer he’s been hearing. He wants visual reinforcement to the audio signals he’s been getting. A warning – if you call to him while he’s looking in your direction (he usually will be if he’s responding to a call), he’ll most likely look you right in the eye and the hunt will be over. Your best bet is to let him walk, then try to call him back when he gets out of sight.

If you plan to call, try to position your stand on a rise or in thick cover so the deer will be in range when he comes into view. Don’t forget: if you’re going to do aggressive calling or horn rattling, always try to set up with a natural barrier downwind of your stand. If you can keep a buck from scent checking your position when responding to your calling, your chances for success are much better, especially with older, smarter deer.

Gary is an expert caller of deer and turkeys and has been so for a long time. A competition caller as well as an active hunter, he won the 1993 and 1994 World Deer Calling Championship and has conducted far more than 1,000 deer calling seminars throughout the U.S. to help hunters understand and successfully communicate with deer. He has written articles for Deer & Deer Hunting magazine and other regional and national outdoor publications. He has appeared on nationally syndicated radio and television outdoor shows and is featured on several DVDs.

His book – CALLING WHITETAILS / Methods, Myths & Magic –is a no-nonsense, back-to-basics guide to calling deer, and other deceptions to help. Chapters include whitetail deer practical vocabulary, deer calling basics (why deer respond to calls), calling during the rut (mating anticipation), antler rattling, other deceptions (scents, blinds, decoys), tips to increase your calling success, be familiar with your calls, and have a plan. CALLING WHITETAILS is available at www.targetcommunications.com.