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. 

Our 2012 "Hit List"

Every year I always try to use the trail camera pictures I have gathered through the summer to come up with a "hit list" for us.  This year as been exceptionally good and we have 3 def. shooters that we are going to be looking for. 

Lets start with number 3:

I just call him the tall 8.  He is a perfect 8 point.  All his tines are very close in length.  He is a bit narrow but pretty tall. 

Here is a video capture of him:

Here is is 2 weeks ago hard horned and ready to meet our arrows:

Number 2 on the list I actually just found 2 days ago while going through my videos.  At first I had thought this was the big 8 point that you will see below but after looking at the video of him and watching it in slow motion I found he had 5 points on his left side and his right side g2 and g3 are different than the big 8.  So we are calling him the big 9.  After finding the video of him I started to look through my pictures and I found pictures of him as well.  When I compare him to the big 8 he is wider and the end of his main beams to curl in as much.

Here are a couple video captures from the video I have of him: The video was a bit bright but if you click the picture you might be able to see all 5 points on his left.

 

 The big difference is the g2 and g3 on his right side both are very long.  Compare that to the big 8 below. 

Here are a couple of still photos of him here you can see how wide he is. I had a discussion with my friend Ross about these pictures and we thought maybe this was the big 8 but the brows are different and you can see the mains just don't curl in like they do on the big 8.  

Last but certainly not least is the big 8.  He is just a stud of a buck.  Nice big heavy rack long tines good spread.  I have so many pictures and videos of this deer so it is really cool to have that.  It would be so awesome to put him on the ground having such a history with him.

Here are some video captures of him:  Notice the right side g2 and g3 like I mentioned above.  The g2 is about twice as long, this will make him easy to spot, that and the giant rack on his head.

 You can also see his left side is really stout. 

Here are some stills of him:

So there are the ones we know for sure.  I have some other pictures of really good deer I am just not sure if it is one of the 3 above or a different buck.  This is the best year by far as far as the potential deer we have to hunt.  Above are 3 mature big deer and usually I get 1 of those maximum on camera.  The key is going to be taking it slow and wait for the right times to go after them.  I am excited for what lies ahead this season.  Wish us luck and good luck to every one else out there as well. 

Hard Horned Bucks!!

Yesterday (Sat. Sept. 8) we had to put our dog of 12 years, Cooper down.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, much harder than I thought it would be.  I guess you don't realize how much of a part of your life they are until it comes time to make the decision to put them down.  He was part of our family vacations up north, numerous hunting trips, he was there while our boys grew up and many other memories.  We are going to miss him a lot.

So that was how I started my day.  Then in the afternoon we did drive down to Gobles to do some work around the farm.  We were unsure of going down but it really was good medicine, just to kind of get our minds off of things.  I was also able to finish clearing shooting lanes around the rest of my stands down there.  I know I am late but its been one of those summers.  

I was also hoping to get some pictures of some hard horned bucks this past week and I was not disappointed.

I believe I got two different shooters.  I will let you be the judge.

The first one I know for sure because his picture was so clear.

This is the buck I have video of 3-4 weeks ago bullying a smaller buck over my minerals.  He didn't really lose a lot when he lost his velvet.  

Here is his picture:

Here is the video:

Here is the picture of the deer I think is different its hard to tell because the picture got blurred.  It might big the big 8 that I have a ton of videos and pictures of.

Here is the picture I got:

Here one of the videos of the big 8


The reason I question if it is the same deer you can see in the picture the left side g2 looks taller you can see in the video the big 8's right side g2 is quite a bit taller than the right.  But with the picture being so blurry it really is hard to say.

I put some apples out in front of this camera to get them to stop so hopefully I get some better pictures this week.  The good news is both these deer are going to and coming from the sanctuary and using the treeline I planned on them using.  I actually have 4 stands covering different parts of this tree line.  So we will see.

New Pictures and Videos...New Shooters!!

 I was able to check my cameras today and boy did we get some action the last 4 weeks.  I set my Wildview to take 30 second videos and I got some of the coolest videos of deer.  I am attempting to post them on here and I am not sure how it will work so if the video doesn't play I do apologize and I will try something else.
Now the two cameras are set up over two separate water holes/mineral blocks and are on opposite sides of the property.  However I did have bucks visiting both sites which was really cool to see.
One buck, the big 8 from my previous post is making himself very visible.  I have him at both sites and 6-7 times and one time for a half hour.  I have probably 25 videos of him.  Another buck has turned up and he is a really tall 8 point, not wide at all but his G2 on his left side is very long as you will see.  Both of these bucks are at the top right now as far as our "hit list" goes.  Julie really likes the Big 8.
A couple other good bucks that I only have pictures of one time each are a wide 8-9pt and another tall antlered deer whom I believe is the same 9pt I had a ton of pictures of last year near this same spot.  He was a 2.5 year old last year.
My water holes worked awesome.  You will see in the pictures that follow that there was quite a bit of water at times.  They do dry up pretty quick but once it rains they fill right up.  I am very pleased.  I did notice though that the big bucks are paying much more attention to the minerals and that is probably because they are getting a lot of water from just eating right now and also that their bodies are requiring more minerals at this time.

The two pictures to follow are of the wide 8-9pt his tines are pretty short but he looks like he has about an 18" spread.

 These next two pictures are of the buck I believe is the tall 9 pt from last year.  Its hard to tell but I get to know these deer pretty good and his rack shape is identical to that of the deer from last year.

This next picture is of the tall 8pt I mentioned I have videos of him at the other spot as well.  Very good looking buck.

These next two are of the Big 8 that I have a ton of videos of and some pretty good pictures as well.  The second one here is a great picture of him.  Also one of the few times he has come out during day light.

 I have a bunch of pictures of fawns now also.  These triplets are standing directly in my water hole look how much water is in there.  This makes all the hard work worth it.

The next two are of the Tall 8 again.  Look at the G2 on his left side.  

This is the Big 8 again.

This I believe is a different group of fawns.  This is promising seeing all these fawns.