Pheasant Hunting Video

[Mike.Smith]

Well, Santa Clause was pretty good to me this year and brought me a new camera for Christmas. I'm excited, because this one is highly portable, waterproof to 130ft, and shoots high definition video. It will be a while before the weather warms up enough to take it Scuba Diving, but it didn't take me long to come up with another use for it. You guys don't think I'm weird for strapping a camera to the end of my barrels and going Pheasant Hunting do you? :)

http://vimeo.com/84014877

Mike

[chris dawe]

Great!thanks for sharing

[Mills Morrison]

Very cool!

[Angel Cruz]

Real nice Mike. I have a head strap for mine.

[Larry Frey]

Mike,
That was really cool. How many misses did you have to edit out?:duck:

[ED J, MORGAN]

Good shooting! do you give instructions? ed

[David Dwyer]

Mike
Turn the camera around so we can see the birds. You are not that pretty!:bigbye:
David

[scott kittredge]

I just picked one up, what setting did you have it on, looks very good to me, and good shooting :bowdown:scott

[Rich Anderson]

Make sure you bring it to Drakes Landing in April.

[Dean Romig]

Awesome Mike!

[Harryreed]

How did you hit the birds with the camera on there? I am impressed:cheers:

[Dave Suponski]

Very cool Mike!

[Mike.Smith]

Larry, there were a few misses that ended up on the cutting room floor, but not many. It was difficult at first with the camera mounted directly in my sight plane, however I did hit the first bird flushed in front of me. Actually the laughing you hear in the background is because the Pheasant landed in the cab of the ATV that's trailing us, and would have hit the owner of the preserve in the head if he hadn't ducked out of the way. :shock: The camera also sat in different places on the barrels depending on which way it was facing. it's a good thing it's incredibly light. It might be the one time that crossing birds were easier to hit, because leading them meant they weren't behind the camera! it's a good thing we're pointing and not aiming I guess.

Scott, I have several other mounts for the camera, including the head mount, but nothing was going to give me the perspective that I wanted except putting it right on the barrels. I shot the video in 1080p HD video on the Super Wide setting, even though the camera will shoot in higher resolutions than that. I purchased the 32gig card, and I ran out of space on the memory card before the battery went dead, and ended up with several hours of footage. The one issue is that no matter how hard you screw the camera to the base, it folds under the recoil a little bit. With the super wide angle it's hard to tell, but I was adjusting it all day. I've since found a company called "Capture Your Hunt" who makes a simple $4 "keeper" that will screw in and stop this from happening.

I'll try it out again in February when we head back to Drake Landing and see how it does for sporting clays. Hopefully I'll have it perfected by the Southern.

Mike

[Dean Romig]

Mike, does it have a 'see thru' mount like some scopes have?

[charlie cleveland]

enjoyed being along on the hunt..hope we can do this again sometime... charlie

[Buddy Marson]

Great job Mike! Thanks for sharing.

[Grantham Forester]

Nice to see all that blaze orange. Mike, were you the only one shooting a side-by-side that day? Was this filmed on a preserve? If so, do you mind telling us which one and where located? Nice cover, great dog work, and best of all, background music from my favorite movie of all time "The Blues Brothers" Yesiree!!:bowdown:

[Dean Romig]

It's funny... every time I watch that and it switches to the camera looking back at Mike I reflexively duck from the barrels that are pointed right at me... it's a really strange feeling.

[Mike.Smith]

Dean, to answer your earlier question, which I somehow missed, there is about a 1/2 inch gap between the bottom of the mount and the barrels where you can see through. If you were sitting still and aiming like you would a rifle, you could probably see through the gap well enough. For this kind of hunting though, it's pretty much useless.

Grantham, this was filmed on a preserve in Snow Camp, NC called Beaver Pond. It's owned and run by a gentleman named Johnny Miller. Beaver Pond is a members only club, however I'm not a member (yet). :whistle: I'm very fortunate in that Johnny runs several "open" hunts like this per year for non-members, and I try to make as many as I can. We don't have any wild birds like this down my way. He has a first class Hunting Lodge and covered Five Stand on several hundred acres. The newest addition is a 14 station sporting clays course, which I shot for the first time the same day I filmed the video. It's about an hour from my house, and I have several other sporting clays courses that are closer, or I'd be out there shooting it more often. While I was the only one shooting a side by side this day, there are several regulars on these hunts who also enjoy toting a Parker or Fox through the fields.

Mike

[Larry Stauch]

Mike;
That was fantastic! And great shooting to boot!

[ken wight]

Great video Mike, what mount did you use, could you post a photo ?

[Randell Beck]

Thats excellent!