Teams are all checking in right now at Bang's Paradise Valley Hunt Club here in Ehrhardt South Carolina. It's raining buckets right now but optimism is high. Lots of hog sign and good areas. We will have our rules meeting and banquet tonight to kick off the 2009 Challenge Circuit season. Our full 15 team circuit will kick off here, then move to Indiana for turkey, South Dakota for antelope and conclude in Illinois for monster bucks at Campbell Illinois Whitetails.
We had an awesome start to the video circuit last night. Teams endulged in a great meal of prime rib and all the fixings. Our first rules meeting was pretty lengthy as we had a few new faces to the circuit this year. Wayne Burns from Outdoor Allstars TV was there for the banquet. Wayne will be filming behind the scenes of this event for one of his future shows, here is this years circuit team lineup
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Lots of excitement the first couple days, many thanks to all whoo helped out in this event. Bang and all his staff as well as Geneva and her daughter Tara showing all the teams just what good southern cooking is all about!!
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Tonight teams were soaked to the bone when they came in, but we had some good footage and several hog sightings. This day really put the gear and camera equipment to the ultimate test. We got over 3 1/2" of rain in the last 2 days here. Definately the most intense rain conditions any of our challenge teams have ever faced. Last night we hooked up with Dave Watson from Cabelas Memories in the field. Dave and Wayne will be filming a hog hunt while here and last night all the teams had an opportunity to visit with them. We also had a visit from Ken Hedrick from New Dawn Outdoors. Ken is a sponsor for Team American Bowhunters and was here to showcase his Vortxx quiver and other products. Weather is supposed to get better for the teams tomorrow so hopefully we will have some action.
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Day 2 proved to be way more eventful, most teams have seen hogs today and the weather was much better today. Mark Helmer and Philip Seng of Team Reign Broadheads came in with some really good video of a hog hunt. 3 other teams had close encounters with some really nice hogs but things just didn't work out. With this being the first submitted filmed hunt of the hog challenge, this puts Team Reign Broadheads in the lead in this challenge and the overall circuit as well. After all that excitement We celebrated Bang's birthday and listened to Dave Watson and Wayne Burns jam out on their guitars. Tomorrow should be clear and a little warmer and with a day and a half left a lot can happen.
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Today was pretty eventful for a few teams and we had several hogs brought in. Camo life filmed a nice hog at noon today. Then tonight Reign broadheads filmed two more hogs and Almost Heaven filmed the biggest hog of the event so far. The current challenge leaderboard will be updated soon.
Here are the results, congratulations go out to Phil Seng and Mark Helmer of Team Reign Broadheads!!!!
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We had an awesome time here at Bang's Paradise valley hunt club. I have a feeling we just might be back next year. Many thanks to Bang and everyone at Paradise Valley Hunt Club and Mill Creek Outdoor Productions, naming rights sponsor of this event!!! Next we're off to Tell City, Indiana for eastern turkeys as the 2nd leg of the 2009 Campbell Outdoor Challenge video circuit.