Here are a couple pictures of Scotts deer that I mentioned in the previous post. I also forgot to mention he and Ross both shot does this year as well. So a great year for both those guys.

Hunting Season Wrap Up

Its been a little while since I have posted anything but to honest there has not been a lot to post on. I have had a relativley slow season when compared to the last 2-3 seasons. I have seen some smaller bucks and have actually passed on a 3pt, 4pt, 5pt, 6pt and an 8pt. All have been in my shooting lanes and within 30 yards but just not old enough. The 8 point was a really nice deer for a 1.5 so hopefully he makes it until next year. I have seen shooters, just not close enough or it was too dark when I have seen them. The last encounter was probably my best this year. It was a very steady rain and I was hunting in a ground blind near an area I call the sanctuary. About 45 minutes til dar I spotted a deer stand up in the middle of a bunch of briars. I could barley see him but caught his tail flick then he turned his head I noticed he was a nice buck. However, instead of heading up the hill to the cut corn and to me he exited out the back and went to the apples trees. That bummed me out but it was good to see him.

Julie has gotten out a lot more than she did last year and it has paid off for her. She was out with me late October and she was abel to see the 9 point pictured above. He was within 30-35 yards just on a good run, so no shot opportunity on him. She also had a great chance at a big 10 point we call Tommy Boy. His picture is above as well. She had some turkeys behind her making a lot of racket so she kind of started not paying attention to them. Then when she looked over her right shoulder there he was working along the field edge behind some big sasafras trees. He stayed right behind those trees until he got 20 yards from her and turned strait out into the corn field that made him work his way away from her. She tried grunting him back but he kept on going. She needed him to take 2 more steps along those trees and she would of had a shot. She played it cool though and you can't control where they walk so that was a great encounter for her. She also had a couple doe with in 10 yards that she passed. So she has had a great year.

There have been a couple of success stories this year. One was Scott Gruppen he shot a really nice 8pt during gun season. He has had a bunch of encounters with bucks this year. Just like year's past and has passed on some smaller guys. It's always nice to see it pay off for people. The other was Ross Graveling who shot a really nice 9 pt in Illinois. He had multiple encounters with this buck the days prior to shooting it and had him at 40 yards in his food plot the day before he killed him. They moved his stand and the rest is history. Both of these guys showed patience and the ability to adjust to the deer they were seeing and it paid off big time. So big Congrats to Scott and Ross.

For the rest of the year I am planning on hunting whenever possible but time is running short and with the lack of snow and cold temps, my late season plans are not producing the encounters like I had planned. Nothing ever goes according to plan but this year for me this has been the rule of thumb. October was very slow and I didn't see a doe until November and that was in Borculo at my mom's. I finally saw one down in Gobles the week after that, this is compared to around 30 the year before. It was so strange. My theory is that it was a very tough winter last year and a lot of the smaller does didn't make it. What it did do though was get the bucks up on their feet because they had to work for their women this year. We have never seen as many bucks in years prior as we did this year. That is why we are out there so it is hard to complain, it just has made for some really long sits with seeing no deer. In fact Julie put in an all-day sit without seeing anything, you want to talk about frustrating, but she did it and I was very proud.

So we will keep at it for the rest of the year, but I am not going to get my hopes up to much, so we will see what happens.

Charter Fishing on Lake Michigan

We always try to go on a charter fishing trip out of Grand Haven for my work. Its how we celebrate the end of our seasons. Well today we went and man was it good fishing. We booked 2 charter boats and split up in groups of 4. Our morning started with a fish on before the first mate could get the second line in and while Paul was fighting that fish we had another on and Kevin brought him in. For the next hour and a half it was like that. We had multiple doubles and ended up coming up one short of our limit of 20. 19 fish in 4 hours not to shabby. The other nice thing was they were really nice fish. Except for about 3 of them they were 8-12lbs. Looks like we will be eating Salmon for a while.

Kevin hauling in one of his 5 Kings.

Scott with a big King

One of my Kings.

This is a beautiful sight right there.

This is even more beautiful. Someone else cleaning our fish.

Knocking on the door

I cant believe its that time of year again. Man am I ready. I just helped my father-in-law sight in his new crossbow. What a difference between those and a regular compound. He let me shoot it also, I am sticking with my bow but they sure are nice especially for someone like him who has some issues moving and adjusting in the stand. I think its going to work out really good for him. Julie was shooting her bow tonight as well and she is more than ready, I probably said it before but range finders are difference makers. Ever since we got ours there has been such a noticable difference, it is quite something.
Below are the top three bucks on our "hit list". I hate that term but it works I guess. The first one is really nice 2.5 year 9 point that we have been getting a lot of pictures of and we have a great plan in place for him. The second is another deer that I believe to be Sanctuary but its tough to tell. He is a 3.5-4.5 10 point. I have a long history with this deer and would love to see him at 20 yards this fall. He is the reason I was moving my tri-pod stand in March already. I am so excited to get in that stand. The third deer is a buck we call Peeping Tom but now I just call him Tom or Tommy. He is a 3.5-4.5 year very wide 10 point. He showed up last January during a really long cold spell when Barry had the only food for miles I think. We watched him eat the landscape bushes 10 feet out the window one night at about 2am. Thus the name peeping tom. If he stayed on the property I have a feeling he will be where I put the tri-pod for sanctuary. Now you know why I am so excited to get into that stand.
Anyway those are the bigger bucks we are hoping to see. There are numerous other smaller deer that I have a lot of pics that I believe stayed so it should be a pretty good year. I will keep you all posted.

Watching Them Grow

I haven't posted much on here lately because I have been super busy lately. Although I have found time to check my camera here and there. Its actually been my best year to date using my camera. I have roughly 400 pictures already using one camera (thank you trophy rock). Although, nothing huge has showed up recently (except Tommy Boy in early June) I have gotten some pretty good deer. Most recently I have been watching a nice 2.5 year old 9 point who has showed up regulary for the last 4 weeks. He is not a huge deer but a very nice one. So I thought I would post his pictures from the last 4 weeks and you can see him grow a little bit.








This is about 4 weeks ago weeks ago





Here he is 3 weeks ago

2 Weeks ago

1 week ago, notice how much longer his g2's are compared to the first picture

The thing I like about this deer so far is how he is showing up during the day, mostly. What this tells me is that he is bedding pretty close by this area. I have a pretty good idea where so I moved one of our ladder stands this past Sunday in anticipation of this deer continueing to bed in this area. If he does then we have a good shot at seeing this deer in October during shooting hours. Especially the first week. Julie is going to get first crack at this guy. The first S,SW wind we get she will be in this stand. The cool thing is I also have pictures of a 7 point, another 8 point and a 6 point all visiting this spot frequently so it should be pretty good depending on who hangs around.

The good thing about this area is that just to the SE is a huge bedding area for does, they work their way through this area to go feed at night. I didn't sit here much last year becasue I was obsessed with the Sanctuary Buck, but 2 years ago on numerous occasions I saw 15+ deer while sitting here in the evening and when you see them they are generally close, because its a great pinch area. In fact the one night I drew back about 5 times and missed one doe at 25 yards. So it can be pretty crazy and you can get covered up in deer in a hurry.

So yes I am pretty excited for Julie to sit there because I want to put her in front of a good buck this year. She passed up a little fork horn at 10 yards last year (which made me very proud) and just barely missed a big old doe (which are harder to shoot than a lot of bucks, they are smart) So I can feel she is getting close we just need to have this stand work like it did 2 years ago and I firmly believe it will this year.

Some new trail camera pictures

Well I didn't get any really big ones this time but some really cool pictures and some nice looking bucks.

Some really cool trail camera photos

I got an opportunity to check my camera this past thursday evening and man was I happy to see what was on it. I had about 90 pictures and 80 of them were of bucks. A few small bucks but a few really good looking deer, especially considering its July.
However, what I am most excited about is I can show you all a deer I have named "Peeping Tom." This is a buck that Julie and I saw 3x in 2 days last January when we were down on the farm house sitting and baby sitting. It was when we had 2 feet of snow on the ground and it was getting down to -10 degrees at night. The food was scarce and the deer were coming up to the house to eat the landscape. Julie woke me up at 3 am to tell me some deer were outside, we did not expect to be able to see "Peeping Tom" and "Sanctuary" only 10 feet outside the windows. It was an experience we won't soon forget. Fast forward to this past spring and the farmer who farms Barry's property road over this deers shed and punctured his tire.
So anyway, take a look at some of the better pictures below and you won't have any problem telling which one is Peeping Tom. He is a wide 10 point for sure, thats what he sported last year and if you look close you can see he has started his G3's already. When I looked at the shed the farmer road over I could see he might grow g4's this year making him a 12pt. Even if he doesnt he is one heck of a big deer for around there.


This one looks to have pretty good mass at his bases.

Hard to tell on this one but he looks pretty good to.

I got quite a few pictures of this guy and I want to get some more because it looks like there is a lot of mass at his base so I am curious what happens with him.

Same thing with this guy. He seems to have a really good start. I would say an 8pt for sure.

The next two are the same deer. I only have profile pictures of this one but he looks pretty good to.

Nice looking picture here. Not to shabby buck either.

This is a really nice looking deer. It looks like he has a way to go too.

Well hi there. Both of these guys have a good start. Really exciting to see two like this.

This is a bad picture but I am pretty sure this is a deer I call Santcuary.

Here is Peeping Tom. If this doesnt get your blood flowing I don't know what would. I actually got about 7 pictures of him and he gave me a all good angles, I hope he stays around and if he does I have a really good idea where he will be.

This shows his width. Notice how much longer his right brow tine is.

This is the angle that you can really see what is going on. I would say his g2's are done and g3's are just started (especially on his left side) and there is pretty good mass at the ends yet which I believe will be his g4's. Making him a 12pt.

So now you can see why I/we are pretty geeked for this year. I will give the camera a couple weeks and see what happens but this is a really good start.

My "Hail Mary" Stand/Plan

I think this is going to be my outside the box year as far as what plans I have in place for this coming hunting season. I hung a new stand a couple saturdays ago on a tree line that I have hunted before but not in this spot. When I hunted it before I was farther to the east and really never had a deer close enough to shoot at. I am calling it a Hail Mary because it really is in a spot I feel is either going to be awesome or stink.





My theory is this. Last year there was a small tornado that hit here. Although it was rated F0 it did some pretty significant damage to the neighbors house and camper trailer. Their fifth wheel camper ended up on their house. It also knocked down about a 50-75 yard swath of trees in this tree line. (yellow circle on the ariel below) What I believe has happened is a buck is using these trees to bed in. They are still laying down, the farmer to the south had pushed them off of his property but they are still lying all over the place. Its made for some pretty good cover in my book. So if this holds true I think I have a good set up to catch a buck moving in and out of this area. The green dotted lins are travel routes that I know deer use. So regardless if a buck is in that area it might still be a good stand. What you can't really see on the picture is the fence that goes around the neighbors property, it goes east to where the green dotted line crosses the green field on the ariel. This fence causes the deer to go around it and thus makes a pretty good pinch point at the SE corner of the fence just to the left of where my stand is.


The area to the north outlined in Red is the sanctuary and I know that the heaviest area of travel is from the SE corner of the Sanctuary down across corn field and then across the driveway to this fence line. In fact I found the shed to the buck i named "sanctuary" on this fence line. So this might give me a chance to go after him or "peeping tom" with a north, northwest, or west wind(blue arrows) which I cant hunt in the tripod next to the sanctuary.



I am going to leave my camera over the mineral block for the rest of July and maybe into August, however once it gets late in August I am going to move it to this fence line. I will probably put it near the driveway for a week or two. See I see anybody going through there and what time they are, then I will put it to the east of the stand on the tree line, probably facing the corn field to the south and see if anybody is moving through there. This will give me a great idea of whats going on without getting in to close to this area.



When I first started hunting here I would see a really nice buck in this spot quite a bit when leaving at dark after hunting. So I know it has held them before and I have a hunch it will again this year. We will see.

June Trail Camera Pictures

Well it is that time of year again. Actually I had my camera out early June already. With the lifting of the baiting ban it will be cool to have a mineral block out and see who shows up. I have already had some good signs as you can see below. One word of advice I can give is if you put a camera out make sure you account for the fact that not everything has grown up yet. When I put my camera out in early june a lot of the weeds and trees were not fully grown yet. You will notice the branch in the screen. It got leaves and dropped into the view of my camera so I got about 150 pictures of it whenever the wind blew it. So when I checked the card last Jacob and I did some major clearing of the tall weeds and that branch. So the July pictures should be much better. July and August are the big months for antler growth so the next couple posts should be much better pictures.


However, I was able to get about 60 pictures of deer though in June which is much better than I normally do. As you can see below some of them are really starting to grow already. Its hard for me to tell now if any of these are any of the bucks I am looking for, namely "peeping tom" and "sanctuary" but the one in the first, second, and last pictures seems to be a really nice size bodied deer. The bases of the antlers just don't seem that big so I don't think its either of them. Like I said earlier its really hard for me to tell at this stage who is who. Hopefully, in a couple weeks I will have some pictures of one or both of those deer.





Anyway, I posted some of the better pictures below.