2012 Recap and 2013 Preview

I usually write this post early in the new year but its been a pretty hectic new year already.  Having sold our new house and moving into a new one, that pretty much ate up the first 2 months of the year.  Anyway, I have been able to run my camera over some different minerals and have been getting some great videos.  In fact we just went down a week ago and I changed batteries, sd card and put out a new block for them to munch on.  I have been using this block from Big and J and boy am I impressed.  It really attracts them but it also last a little longer than the bag of minerals.  You can get a good 4-5 weeks out of one and that is with it getting hit 3-4 times a day by multiple deer.

So 2012 was a challenging year.  Somehow, I personally had one of my worst hunting seasons and my best hunting season at the same time.  Yes I was able to harvest a dandy buck but the month and a half leading up to it were tough.  The deer numbers were way down where I hunt and I had numerous sittings where I saw zero deer.  In fact, I saw one deer all the way until the evening before I shot my buck.  3 years ago I would of seen close to 100 deer in that same time frame.  So what caused it?  I think its a combination of things.  One, EHD, I am pretty positive we lost a good amount of deer to this disease.  Two is the growing amount of "business" on the farm during Sept and Oct.  Its good because my brother in law is doing great and getting busier but it does affect the deer with all the extra activity during those months.  So that is why this year we did not add to that business and held off on hunting until the end of Oct.  This year(2013) we might wait until the first week of Nov.  Since we started hunting down there 5 years ago, every single mature buck encounter from the stand has been from the last week of Oct to the middle of Nov.  So it only makes sense to wait until that prime time and not put any unnecesary pressure on any of the stands until that majic 3-4 weeks. 

One big thing I believe I learned this year is that this property is still attractive to these bucks but they are not living there for the most part.  It seems to be more of transition area between bedding and food, which is why I believe the big bucks show up more frequently during this time frame.  This is when they are scent checking for the does that are using it to move from bed to food and visa versa.  This is also when you get bucks that don't frequent the property often but the do come in to check for the ladys.  Perfect example of this is the deer I shot.  I had zero pictures of him.  Julie believes to have missed him the last week of Oct.  Those were the only times we saw him.  Interesting both times it was in the morning, in the same area, and S to SE wind.  Another perfect example of one of these "traveling" bucks is a big 8pt that showed up Halloween night on camera.  Below is the link to the video.  I never saw this deer before or after just this one time.  You can see in the video he was either fighting, picking a fight or dogging a doe.  One of the coolest videos I have ever gotten. (note the deer running across the back about a quarter through)

 In case the one above doesn't work below is the link.

http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0003_zps7ddc902b.mp4.html

Another big thing I learned is mornings have become the time to hunt down there.  It used to be evenings but that has changed.  Why?  Again not to sound like a broken record but its pressure.  These deer are arriving later in the night so in the mornings we are still catching them as they make their way from their food and night time beds to their daytime beds.  Honestly if you see a deer at night there its going to be in the last 10 minutes of light.  The one spot that should be good at night which is the SE corner of the property hasn't been and I believe its because I am hunting it on the wrong wind, so I am going to move my stand to allow me to hunt that spot with N, NW, NE winds and we will see if that makes a difference.  This spot is adjacent to a large bedding area and its a great natural funnel so there is no reason it shouldn't be good.

So 2013, what do I expect, what are my plans?  I expect 2013 will be a little light again as far as deer numbers go, with EHD last year and a very tough winter I think it will keep the numbers down.  However, I know for sure that a very nice buck made it already so I do expect to see some more big bucks this summer like last year and hopefully we can tag another one.

With my brother in law's permission I really would like to try a food plot down there this year.  I am glad I didn't last year because with the drought it would of died anyway.  My plan is the NE corner, same corner we regularly see these big bucks traveling.  I don't know if it will help a ton but it surely won't hurt to plant one. 

Otherwise, my plan will remain very similar to last.  We will lay low until late Oct. and hopefully that will yield the same results as this past year.

"The Wide 9"

I went down to the farm on Saturday the 12th and was able to check my trail camera and also replenish the attractants in front of it.  Just like last year I moved my camera into the pine trees, an area of overgrown firs and spruce that really holds deer during the winter months, especially if it snows.  Like last year I used an attractant in front of the camera, not only to get them to stop but to keep them coming and hopefully keep them coming all year.  I moved the camera on New Years and when I went to buy some attractants they didn't have what I wanted so I tried some new ones.  One was an apple flavored mineral mix and the other was accorn.  I put them in seperate piles just so I could see how each did.  It was amazing every video of deer, rabbits, raccon, and even the farm cat has them eating the accorn mix or at least checking it out.  There are a couple of videos where the deer will check the apple mix but hardly touch it.  The accorn mix was gone when I got there Saturday.  I had over 150 videos in 2 weeks.  So I had another new product this time its a block of the mix I really like but formed into a cube so we will see how that does. 

Anyway, out of all those videos I got one with a buck that was still holding his antlers.  The rest were does, button bucks and a couple of deer that had dropped already.  A pretty cool side note here there were a group of triplets born last spring that hung around all summer giving all of us some pretty cool encounters because they would just show up during the middle of the day a lot and they liked to visit the corn maze.  The kids saw them quite a bit while playing around.  Anyway, I think they are all still alive and hanging around there again because I have video of 3 button bucks all together numorous times.  Wouldn't that be something if each of the triplets were bucks? 

Here is a link to the video of the button bucks
http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0044-1_zps727fee1a.mp4.html

Now on to the good stuff.  The deer with antlers was a very nice suprise.  It was a deer I call "the wide 9" simply because he is wide and he has 9pts.  Original I know.  Well I had video of him back in August in velvet, then he showed up in Oct and then again this Jan.  So he has not been real regular as far as sightings and trail camera pictures go but he does keep coming back.  So there is some promise there. 

Here is a link to the video I got of him in October.  When I saw this video I really got excited because you can see he was a very big bodied deer and his rack was pretty awesome too.
http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0009_zpsa866eaf6.mp4.html

And here is a link to the video I just got of him.  You can see he busted off his G3 on his left side from fighting and the g4 on his left side, even though its tiny, is why I call him a 9pt.  This is a great video of him because he is so close to the camera and you can really get a good idea of his rack.  I pegged him as a 3 year old this year and I hope I get to see what he becomes next year as a 4 year old.
http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0141_zps2146e7f7.mp4.html

Hopefully he starts to come back to this site with the attractants I am putting out and I can get him to bed nearby and hopefully lose his sheds nearby.

Here is a funny side story.  Myself, my father in law and two brother in laws went rabbit hunting the day after I moved my camera.  And the pine trees hold a ton of rabbits, especially when it snows, sound familar?  So I walked by my camera and figured I might as well check it.  While I was checking it, it starting recording and my father in law kicked up a rabbit.  You can see on the video below I hear him yell and shoot three times missing all three shots.  It was pretty funny that i got that on camera though.
http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0005_zps2e4405c7.mp4.html

Coyote and Rabbit Hunt

Since things have really "dried up" down at the farm as far as deer go, we decided to try to get rid of some predators this past Saturday.  So Myself, Jacob, my father in law and brother in law all went down last Saturday morning.  We set up near a spot I had found a den.  It wasn't long after we had turned on the call that I saw a coyote coming out of that area.  It was to far for me to shoot it and it disappeared behind a hill in the field.  Then 5 minutes later we saw another one at the field edge but it went back into the tall grass.  I have a feeling they winded us but it was a great experience for Jacob to see them. 

After our Coyote hunt we went after some Rabbits and they were not so lucky.  We were able to shoot a couple of them and had a fantastic time.  I had forgotten how much fun Rabbits were.

Jacob wanted to try Rabbit so I grilled them up for lunch.  Lets just say he wasn't a huge fan.  

Wrapping up my 9 pt

I wanted to post one more post about my buck I shot.  I don't want to act like I am bragging but I am very proud of this deer so I will post one more post about him and then its on to the next one hopefully.  I did weigh him at the processor and he weighed 190lbs dressed.  That would put him around 225lbs live weight.  When I first looked at him my thoughts were that he was a 3 year old deer based on his antlers but my good friend Ross, who knows a little about deer and deer hunting, said that its possible he is 4 or 5 and just doesn't have the best genetics when it comes to his rack.  He said that he is pretty big body-wise to be a 3 year old.  Either way I am so happy to have gotten him. 

Here are more pictures of him that my father in law took of the recovery. 

This is going to close the chapter on this deer.  I again want to thank everyone for helping out with him.  Now its on to try to harvest one of the deer off our hit list this year, technically this one wasn't because I had no photos of him.  I see a lot of venison and a taxidermy bill in our future but that is why we do it right?

Nov. 18, 2012 Big Buck Down

Well as some of you may know and others may not, I have been having one of my most difficult and trying hunting seasons ever.  I went into this season with very high hopes, having captured and watched multiple shooter bucks all summer long on my brother in law's property.  Well things didn't go according to plan like they usually don't and for me especially the hunting was agonizingly slow.  In fact until last night I had seen 1 deer while hunting there.  Not bucks that's deer.  I wanted to get down on myself but I knew I couldn't and Julie was so great at keeping me motivated this season.  She has been having a rough season as well although she did miss a buck earlier which is good to have that opportunity but bad to miss him.  So for her to be able to keep a positive attitude and to help keep me going has been awesome. 

So anyway on to the good news.  I hunted right next to a standing corn field this morning and saw 3 doe right away which was great.  Then at 8:55 am I noticed something out of the corner of my eye walking up the ridge behind me I turned and instantly knew it was a shooter and he was already 30 yds away.  His path was going to take him directly downwind of me so I knew as soon as I had a shot I needed to take it.  He went 10yds from me and I let him have it.  He ran off dragging his left front leg.  I felt really good about the shot so I called Julie(those are the best phone calls to make) and told her I just shot a really good buck.  After about 20 min i got down.  He ran into an alfalfa field just north of me but went behind a white pine so I had a hunch he piled up in the field.  I walked to the edge of the field and saw him but his head was still up.  I watched him for about an hour trying to figure out my next move and hoping he would die but suddenly he stood up.  I could see he was hurting bad but determined not to give up.  I fired at him twice but watched him run across a bike trail and into a Christmas Tree Farm.  Ok I told myself its now an old fashion tracking job.  I found blood where he crossed the trail and decided to give him sometime.  I went back to the house changed out of my hunting clothes and took the ranger back out.  I picked up the trail into the christmas trees.  It was a pretty good trail and I was feeling really confident.  I kept a slow snail's pace and kept looking ahead and about 300 yards into the christmas trees I saw him laying on the opposite side of a tree.  I put the scope up and noticed his head was still up.  I got behind a tree 30 yards behind him and watched and prayed for about a half hour that he would just pass.  However, it just didn't seem like it was going to happen and I was not going to lose this deer not being this close.  So I chose to get closer I had one more tree between us at 15 yards and I chose to get behind it.  I was able to and could see him really good, and I could see he was hurting really bad.  I waited 15 minutes and started to grunt at him and even yelled "heh"  He didn't move.  I decided he was hurt enough for me to go for it so I got up walked to my right and at ten yards put to slugs though his lungs.  That was all it took and the rest is in the pictures below. 

Turns out my first shot hit him a little low.  Busted his left shoulder and caught part of his lung and exited through his right leg.  I then must of hit him in the back leg when he ran off because it was also broken.  So for this deer to make it as far as he did on 3 busted legs is unbelievable.

He is a 9pt 3.5 years old nice big body.  He was rutting big time.  This deer is by far my biggest accomplishment hunting and I am just so thankful for the opportunity to hunt and be in God's creation.  I thank him every time I go out and I truly am blessed to be able to do this and go up against such an amazing animal.  I am also blessed to have friends and family(especially Julie) to keep me motivated and positive.  It just goes to show that you never really know what's going to happen out there. 

You can see the boys were pretty excited.  This is what it is all about to me sharing these moments with family and friends.  

 Barry's deer gutting tractor.  This was pretty nice this way.

 This is the tree he died by this was my first time getting my hands on him, what a great feeling after what had happened the previous 4 hours.

 This was also a dream come true for my father in law to finally put a big buck in the back of the Ranger. 

I just want to thank everyone for helping out the pictures above tell part of the story but this was a pretty good day for everybody so thank you very much.... ohh and Julie its your turn now.

Rough Week!!

Bow Hunting is a sport that you never stop learning and growing it is full of moments where you go from the highest of highs and then you are feeling the lowest of lows.  Well, Julie and I learned that this past week.  It all started on Sunday morning at the farm.  Julie and I got the opportunity to hunt together for the first time this year so we took it.  Sunday was looking like it might be good.  It rained all night Friday and for the most part all of Saturday morning.  It finally cleared off Saturday afternoon but remained windy all day.  Saturday night the farm was open for a "flashlight" night with the corn maze and hayride open.  I got to drive the hayride and on the first one I started seeing deer in the fields around the property.  So I got a spot light and every ride I gave I was spotting deer in the fields.  It was cool because I could get a good idea of what was going on but also for the people on the hayride.  They really enjoyed me pointing out the deer.  So to say I had a good feeling about Sunday morning was an understatement.  I especially was feeling good about Julie's stand.  She has a stand that she sits in that has produced some very good encounters with big bucks over the years and she has dubbed it "her stand."  All the activity I was seeing the night before was in that same corner.  I sat in a stand that I knew was a gamble but its time to start gambling.  I got skunked so that gamble didn't work. 
Julie, on the other hand, had a fantastic morning and had deer all over her right away, probably 15 min. after getting settled in.  She was watching a group of doe work their way toward her and was going to take a shot at the biggest one, when she heard something from behind her and there he was a shooter buck.  Everything happened really fast and she had to guess the yardage but when he stepped into her shooting lane she shot low.  He ran out into the field snorted a few times and trotted off.  We all know what a sick feeling that is.  I felt and still feel really bad for her because she did everything perfect and the deer did everything perfect the shot was just off and we all know that can happen to the best of hunters.  Its always tough because you want to say something to make a person feel better, but anyone that has hunted for any matter of time knows how she was feeling and you know there is nothing anyone can say to make it better.  The best thing to do is jump back in the stand and keep hunting.  I know its going to happen for her soon and I honestly have a very good feeling about this year.  To many good things going on down there.

This is the deer she thinks it might of been.  This is the "tall 8"

On to Tuesday morning.  I went out at my mom's and had the same thing as Julie.  I had deer by me right after I got in my stand.  With the fog and the darkness I didn't see it very well but I have a very good feeling it was a buck.  I will explain that later.  At 8:00am i had a group of 7 doe come walking through and the last one gave me a shot at 30yds and I missed her low.  I hate making excuses but I really do think I hit a branch because I could see it swaying after I shot.  Either way I missed.  The really neat part about the whole thing was how they acted after I shot.  They hung around for nearly 45 min trying to figure things out I did get another arrow knocked and I could of taken another shot at 35yds but decided not to.  I was able to get a little video of them right after I shot. 

Here is the link to that video.  Its hard to see but there is a group of doe to the right and one to the left and my arrow is the blinking light in the center.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7U-ouZcsPI

Here is the reason I think the first deer was a buck.  When I went to get my arrow I noticed a couple rubs so I figured I might as well investigate since I had already ruined the area for the day.  One of the rubs was very fresh.  I walked a little farther and found a scrape that was also just freshened.  So this was some very encouraging sign to find.  I am going to put a camera over the scrape to see what I am up against. 

All this sign is in-between my stands so that is even better.

Here is the rub

 Here is the scrap.

I hate posting about misses but I figure I should post the good and the bad right?  One positive is that we are putting ourselves into situations that are giving us opportunities and if we keep that up it will pay off soon.  With the rut upon us I feel like the next two-three weeks are going to be fun, no matter what happens.

Things are starting to happen

This year I have been doing things a little different than in the past.  One thing is I am using a trail camera to try to pattern the deer.  In years past I stopped using my camera at the end of Sept.  Then I got a camera that keeps track of date and time this past Christmas.  So I figured I would use it as a tool during the hunting season.  The one thing I worried about is that checking my camera leaves scent and I didnt want to ruin the hunting checking my camera.  So I needed to find a spot that I could check it easily but also a spot that would tell me a lot of info.  So what I did was placed it at the end of a treeline that leads into the sanctuary.

You can see from the ariel below that the blue square is the camera the blue dotted line is where I walk in, the blue circle is where I park the ranger and the yellow dotted line is how I come in with the ranger.  The red X's are the stands I have up right now.  The property looks quite a bit different from what this ariel shows.  The Yellow lines are corn fields this year and the green is the pumpkin patch/alfalfa field.  The deer have been using this treeline to move, I knew this from information I gathered this summer using the camera.  All the videos in previous posts were taken on this treeline.  I also went in there early summer with the chain saw and cut out fall downs and such.  Making it more appealing for the deer to travel through this treeline.  Giving it more of a tunnel feel for them.  It really started working right away I got pictures and videos of several bucks and narrowed it down to 3 shooters (see previous posts)

I have been checking this camera once a week for the last 4 weeks.  My plan has been to watch for one of the shooters and then watch for "daytime" movement as apposed to midnight to 4am movement.  The first couple weeks I didn't get anything some does and a few coyotes.  Then last week I started getting some smaller bucks showing up.  Then this past week finally the bucks we have been waiting for showed back up.  Below is two videos the first is at midnight of Tues the 9th and the second is 7:40 am the next morning.  The first video you will see the tall 8 walk off camera and you will see the wide 9pt in the back ground and he slowly walks closer.  They are heading into the sanctuary which is to the right.  Then the second video which is the next morning you will see a large deer(buck) walking off to the left followed by a small 6 point.  I know I am guessing but I am thinking this is for sure the tall 8 leaving.  It could be the big 9 but something tells me it wasn't.  He could of taken up the rear of this group though.  My camera waits 5 min to take another video.  Either way its very encouraging to see them starting to move at that time in the morning. 

http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0009_zpsa866eaf6.mp4.html

http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/chad182nd/media/WGI_0010_zps46b5254c.mp4.html

The other thing I have been doing different is waiting.  Basically waiting for conditions to be right before we go after these deer.  So as the corn comes off they will use this tree line even more.  I am waiting to hunt it until next week(Oct 22)  Then it is game on, whenever we get the right winds we will give it a shot.  Focusing first on the two stands in the treeline.  If we are unsuccessful then once November comes we will try the stand that is on the north end of the sanctuary. 

Its been tough to wait like we have but I have a feeling its going to pay off in more encounters and hopefully one of these guys walks by at 15 yards and the next post I put up will be of myself or Julie with one of these deer.