Author: jarvisoutdoors

Good morning. Hope everyone is still doing well. I wanted to give a quick update on our guy who tested positive for the virus. I spoke with him about this time yesterday and his symptoms are slowly improving. He’s just over a week since the symptoms started and right at a week since the positive test results. He is still under the weather but even a small improvement is a positive sign. His family is still staying healthy at this time. I’m hoping they all get through the next 7 days and he continues to improve so they may all put this behind them. The rest of the Jarvis Outdoors crew continues to stay healthy and everyone is dealing with this the best we can. Everyone stay safe and healthy. Look back for continued updates soon.

Chris

As I sit here writing this post it saddens me that I have to bring you this news. With most people doing everything they can to prevent the spread of this virus its impossible to stop its spread totally. We all tried to stay healthy, but one of our guys has come down with the virus. He tested positive yesterday, as of now his symptoms are still mild, but never the less it was a positive test. I can only imagine how he and his family are feeling. As you all know we have other lives and full time jobs, most of us are considered essential in some way or another. For this reason not all of us can work from home. It appears that he contracted the virus through community spread by a contact at work. It has been three days since his symptoms started, and the symptoms are still mild. We can only hope and pray that the symptoms stay mild and he’s back to himself very soon. We also hope that his family stays healthy through this time. I’ll keep this short and sweet but I ask that you keep everyone who is dealing with this virus in you thoughts and prayers. I beg and plead with everyone to continue to follow all guidelines, stay home, practice social distancing, wear a mask if you have to go out, and wash your hands often. If we all can strictly follow these guidelines for just two weeks I think we would see a sharp drop in cases and deaths caused by the virus. I am no expert but if you don’t give the virus a way to spread it CAN’T. Please everyone stay strong, stay safe and we will eventually get through this together. Hopefully sooner than later.

Check back soon for updates

Chris

As we move through spring we have mad a few trips to the woods for the spring turkey season. A few of the guys tried to put some fresh spring gobbler meat in the freezer. As those tricky birds can do they had other plans and evaded the hunters. The guys got out for two hunts and had two excited birds fired up but they just wouldn’t close the distance. One bird locked up and put on a show for almost two hours never coming in range. I guess that’s why they call it hunting and not killing. Never the less it still get the blood pumping. There is still plenty of time left in the season and what better way to practice social distancing than spending some time in the woods with nature. I want to remind everyone to stay safe and continue to follow the directions of your officials. I’m hoping we will soon be moving past this craziness. Everyone stay safe and if you can get out in the woods good luck!

Chris

Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. Here at Jarvis Outdoors everyone is still doing well. If you have been following along on our YouTube channel you know that the new shop has arrived and we will soon been getting it organized and ready to roll. Things are slowly coming together and we hope to be up to full speed sooner than later. We made it to the farm this week, we had to go up and take care of some maintenance issues and while we were there we took the opportunity to do a little preseason whitetail work. I was able to check on the late season trail cameras, switched out cards and put fresh batteries in the cameras. We freshened up some established mineral sites and created two new sites. We also set up two SPYPOINT cameras over the new mineral sites and started getting pictures of deer within four to five hours. Thing are looking promising and the late season pictures showed that a few nice deer made it through the season. This should give us a few hit list bucks for the upcoming season. Stay tuned and everyone stay safe.

Chris

With all the craziness going on in the world these days, you wonder what you can do and when things will return to some type of normalcy. There is a lot of unknowns but all we can do is continue to move forward as best we can, that’s exactly what we are going to do. In my last post I told you that we had moved into a new home and that it was going to mean big things for Jarvis Outdoors. Work started this week on the new Jarvis Outdoors Shop. We have started the ground work for the new shop which we will be using for many thing allowing us to grow. We have ordered a pre-built dethatched garage which will be delivered in weeks to come. We had to build a retaining wall and level the ground for the garage, now we just have to wait on the shop to show up. I will upload a video post to our YouTube channel showing our progress shortly and continue to update you as we move forward. This is a big move for us we hope this allows us to bringing you more and better content.

As far as hunting goes and our early season prep things our slow to say the least we are well behind where we need to be. Our Governor has issued a stay at home order which is preventing us from getting to the farm. As soon as the order is lifted we will be putting boots on the ground and trying to play catch up as best we can. We will bring you along on this journey as we can learn together. We are also way behind on our content we have lots to bring you on YouTube and my posting has been inconsistent. I am hoping with in the next month or so we will begin to move past the Covid-19 Pandemic, I know it’s not just going to magically go away it will take time but as things return to normal everyday life we will do our best to get back to normal also. Our thought and prayers go out to all those dealing with this horrible virus and to all those that have lost their fight. Continue to follow your official’s recommendations and orders and we will all move forward. Stay Safe!

Chris

Good morning all. I want to apologize for my lack of posting in the last 6-7 weeks. There has been a lot going on in the Jarvis Outdoors world. We started off with purchasing a new home and moving, this process has just consumed our every moment. It has been very tiring but just as rewarding. The new house and land will allow us to grow as a family and allow Jarvis Outdoors to be that much better. We did have an opportunity a few weeks ago to get out in the woods to do some shed hunting with little success. Our all season trail cameras were still showing many deer with full sets of antlers up until about two weeks ago. We hope to get out again in the next week or so before everything starts to green up.

We thought thing were starting to settle down for us and the Covid-19 Pandemic hit. The Jarvis Outdoors Crew has fortunately stayed healthy so far but the virus has impacted everyone’s life in someway or another. As you all know we all have full time jobs and we are a part of Jarvis Outdoors because it’s our passion. Some of our members have been laid off or have reduced hours, some are self employed and then you have me who falls into the essential employee category and can’t miss a day at work. I want to remind everyone to do their part to help make this virus go away. Follow the directions and orders of your public officials they have our best interest in mind and I am sure they want this to go away just as much as the rest of the world. Wash your hands, stay home if you can, and listen to your public officials. This will eventually get better and things will go back to normal, if everyone does their part we will come out of this better and stronger. As I always do to end a post. Get out in the woods and stay safe! I think it has just a little more meaning this time.

Chris

The 2019-2020 hunting season has come to an end. This season was one of huge ups and downs for the Jarvis Outdoors team. We started off the preseason as usual at the farm we have hunted for many years. Cameras, feeders, and mineral were put out early and monitored for activity. Just before the start of the season we had an opportunity to enter into our first ever hunting lease. We leased the new 165 acre farm in central Maryland and got full access to the property as the season was kicking off. We were behind the ball on this new farm and quickly decided that this season would be a year for us to educate ourselves about this new property. Meanwhile back at the old farm things were going great the cameras were showing us some of the best deer we had ever seen and our hopes were high for a very successful season.

Starting off with a home run on the first afternoon of bow season we were able to punch a tag on a beautiful early season full velvet buck. Our preseason scouting paid off, this deer was in his summer pattern and frequented one of our Spy Point cameras every afternoon for almost a month, we knew his pattern and just had to be there when he came by. We quickly followed up by punching another tag on a beautiful buck during the early muzzle-loader season. We were 2 for 5 and hadn’t hit the rut yet. The rut was slower than normal for us and pretty unproductive. I now know that this was due to the added hunting pressure caused by three hunters pushing their way on to the farm that we had worked so hard on. The new hunters put extra pressure on the deer and pushed them right off the farm or turned them nocturnal at the best time of the season. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. Meanwhile there was a decent amount of activity at the lease and several nice up and coming bucks were spotted during the early season. Jumping forward to the gun season we were able to put two bucks on the ground. Both were management deer but we were more than happy to put meat in the freezer while doing some QDM. One was taken off the new lease and one off the old farm which brought us to 4 out of 5 for the season. That just left me with a tag in my pocket and as we headed through December I was able to get it done with the bow on a nice 8 pointer bringing us to 5 for 5. This year part of the team headed to Pennsylvania for the rifle season and part of the team headed to Western Kentucky for a muzzle-loader hunt. We had great hunts in both states but all came home with stories and tags in our pockets. We also squeezed in a PA flintlock hunt before the world went crazy and hunting took a back seat to life.

Overall it was an excellent season, we went 5 for 5 on bucks, entered into our first lease and filled the freezers with some doe management along the way. However as with everything, all good things must come to an end and we lost the farm we have hunted on for so long. It was tough and the way it was done was wrong but we are thankful for all the good years and all the great deer we were able to harvest during our time there. The 2020-2021 season will bring great things for the Jarvis Outdoors crew. We have renewed our lease which we hope will be more productive as we have gained some knowledge this season. There will be plenty of preseason work starting very soon in efforts to make this farm an excellent whitetail farm. We are also heading to the woods shortly for some shed hunting and will update you on our finds. Check back on the blog to keep up with us also subscribe to the Jarvis Outdoors YouTube channel to see what we are up to. Big plans for 2020!!!! As always get out there and stay safe!

Chris

The 2019/2020 season has come to a close. We were able to get two closing sits in the last week of the season. We saw plenty of deer and were able to get some good intel on late season deer movement on our lease property. We also saw that we need to do some predator hunting to help protect our spring fawns. I will post a full season overview and discuss our plans for the off season shortly. Its time for the off season work to begin and hit the woods for shed antler hunting. Congratulations to everyone who had a successful year. Now its time for all those wild game meals, making room for next seasons success. As always be safe outdoors during the off season.

Chris

We are well into January and the deer season is quickly coming to an end. Things have been crazy busy for the Jarvis Outdoors crew and we haven’t had much time for the woods. Trying to work full time and still have a busy life something just had to give and that was late season hunting. We missed out on the late season muzzleloader hunt and the the 3 day firearms season but are hoping to get a few sits in with the bow here in the last 10 days of the season. We will be focusing on food sources close to bedding, hoping to fill a late season tag. We won’t be picky some quality doe management will be just fine for us but hunting over a late season food source, there is always a possibility of a shooter buck showing up. We will keep you posted here in the last few days. Wish us luck, hunt safe and get out in the woods while there is still time.

Chris

When it comes to hunting there are many family traditions. Weather its trips to a family deer camp for the gun season opener or a wild game dinner at the end of the season, the possibilities are endless. The Jarvis Outdoors crew has several traditions but one that is never missed is PA flintlock season. You may say wow your crazy or why would you want to do that. All I can say is its a tradition that we look forward to every year.

I belong to a small hunting gun club. Its comprised of family and close friends. It has become an annual tradition to meet up at the club the weekends after Christmas for some good old fashioned flintlock hunting. Kandice, Bill and I never miss a season, we meet up with the other members of the club and preform well planed deer drives. We see way more deer than are ever taken. When hunting with a primitive weapon such as a flintlock and shooting at moving deer the success rate is very low. But traditions are not always about the success rates. For us its more about being around the people we love, some we only get to see this time of year, the stories, the food, and the experiences.

Hunting traditions help keep the sport we love alive. Taking a new hunter to his or her first deer camp is something they will never forget. They come to love the people, the smells, the food, and the experiences just as much as they love the hunting. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard about the old timers who have long since stopped hunting who still never miss a deer camp, that truly says something. Start your own hunting traditions, I promises you won’t regret it. Until then get out in the woods and hunt safe.

Chris