wooly

Awesome man! You've got some great bucks to keep track of this summer! Do you have any antlers from any of these guys?

I think he has magnets in his slippers.... and his undies will inflate into a big rubber ducky if the saftey harness is disconnected,lol

-food sources- This is probably the most important of all in my book. Early season preferred hard and soft mast crops let me choose pinpoint ambush locations deer concentrate on pre rut. Post rut is obviously another good time to target a food source. Regaurdless of all other factors that influence deer movement, their need to feed is one that can't be ignored in order to survive. That said, very rarely will I hunt right at the food source itself.(see cover) -cover- Like everyone, I enjoy seeing and watching deer while I'm on stand. Generally, the more the better! A typical stand in the open forest may see many encounters that fullfill that requirement, but lately my stands are located closer to the cover especially on evening hunts in hopes of catching "maturer" (lol) deer durring legal shooting time on their hooves and off to the food source. I tend to not sit these stands all day. Any unfavorable change in the wind can and will alter any patterns a buck has established in a core area. -trail cam pictures- Love to get good bucks on cam especially when it's not just a one time ordeal. Knowing you have a good buck that calls any piece of your propperty home is the starting point for any solid game plan to hunt him effectively. -physical sign (tracks,rubs,scrapes) This one I probably pay too much attention to when rub and scrape activity begins to increase. Now instead of falling into a rut and hunting the sign exclusively, I'll hang a cam untill I see a pattern worthy of hunting. Not all that often I see good day time activity around rut sign as most will take place under the cover of darkness. If I hunt a new propperty, I can't think of a more exciting place to set up than some fresh, hot sign! -funnels/pinch points- Yep, lots of steep ridges here with food sources at the higher elevations and bedding thickets down below. A nice bottleneck between the two can produce at any time but I prefer the morning sits here! Funnels between bedding area thickets can be hot all day long when bucks are scent checking and cruizing for does.

Good stuff! I guess it's not for everybody, but it is still very interesting to hear from someone who knows so much about their 'bee'havior. Here's a silly question for ya....out of 4000 bees, how do you know which one is the queen....just please don't tell me, "none of your bees wax" lol

Dave- looks like Louie missed a few. Betcha I could have got them ALL in a pine box with nothing more than a fly swatter and a can of Raid! ....while wearing shorts and a T-shirt I might add,lol

Never had it happen to me, but I did see something very similar happen on an episode of Popeye... He simply ate a can of spinach and his muscles popped back out,lol Tell him to try that!

Now that's pretty cool! I saw a colony of honey bees yesterday in a hole in a hemlock tree...not nearly that many though. I hear smoke calms them down, so maybe next time you can spark a Marb and get yourself close enough to use a macro lens,lol

Nice job, and very cool of you to take on a new challenge! I'd imagine that's gonna get real addicting! Might want to keep an eye out for some roadkill to practice on this summer. Looking forward to your next piece.

Awesome again! Love the last shot of the brown eyed girl. Did you run outta lens in that kestral shot? Your shooting 400mm correct?

Thanks fellas! I enjoy the off season just as much, if not more than hunting season itself. Between horn hunting and chasing critters with my camera, I bring home more trophies than I could in a lifetime of hunting alone.

101 in my posession right now. These are within the last 5yrs. Over the last 20yrs or so of doing this, my lifetime total is right around 300+ with these included. I sold off my old collection when I was going through my divorce.

This is true. Y'all have heard of the Atkins diet..? I call this the antler diet,lol! Since January I've lost 20lbs (+/- a few) ....I really can't afford to lose that kinda weight at 160 so I've got 6 months to pack on some winter fat reserves before next season.

Lol- lets just say it took more than 3 attempts.

Snapped a fresh shot of my horn pile today. Finally broke 100 antlers again with this years additions!

Perfect again Dave! If you look close you can still see some placenta in that little fellas ear! Tack sharp!

Thanks guys- glad you liked and appreciate the comments! I just do this for fun. I'm slowly fading out of the hunting stuff but still enjoy the encounters and interaction with the critters.

Couple quick little stories to go along with a few of these. I saw my first fawn yesterday with it's momma in the crick. When the doe blew, the fawn went swimming right up the middle of the crick and got seperated from its mom. Today I went back to that area and saw a fawn franticly running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I got the cam locked on the tripod and got ready to put the sneak on it. When I looked up, the fawn was standing there staring at me about 80yds out. All of a sudden, on a dead sprint, it ran right up to me within a FOOT! I couldn't focus that close, so I reached my hand out to it and it litterally licked my finger twice before it began its mad dash around the woods again! I managed to get one shot that didn't turn out blurry. This will be my 4'th season in a row with a fawn sidekick in this area! Here's a couple shots of her momma from yesterday. Next I headed up to the powerlines looking for bugs. I found a rock pile in the middle of nowhere and had to take a closer look. SNAKES EVERYWHERE,lol! Mostly all garter snakes, which I'm getting pretty bored with...but then I looked and spotted a red belly racer. I've been dying to get a shot of one of these that shows his belly. I tired him out and he turned out some super model poses for me just the way I wanted! I'll be back to the rock pile to try and catch them sunning themselves again soon. Next up was this high noon coon from a couple days ago. Saw him in the crick and took chase to him. Something was wrong with this dude. I'd chase him up a tree and he'd come running right back down at me. It wasn't till after I got a few pics I noticed he had a bloody nose and a scraggly tail. He was trying to climb trees that wouldn't support a roosted sparrow and eventually went splashing into the crick from 10ft up. I'd tormented him enough and started to feel bad for him. I let him be at that point. ...and a chickadee I liked. ..almost forgot my green dragonfly. Now if one of them blue ones would sit still long enough I'd be a happy hiker.

Looks good but that's one of the nails you're not supposed to whack!

To heck with that! This is why I like snakes so much....they eat spiders!

Yeah, it's definately not getting any easier. Kinda limited to open timber now. Fortunately I've got enough of those type of area saved for just the occasion, but it's a really random search. This is where a a partner comes in handy so from now on, I'll be hiking with Lady Luck!

The addition looks fantastic....thanks for sparing us the pics of your "extension",lol Had me worried there for a minute!

Horn hunting has been really slow now that I'm dedicating most of my spare time to chasing critters with the camera. I do have a couple updates though. First off I found another young dead buck on my hunting grounds about 2 weeks ago. Both his antlers were broke off. I spent some time at my sis house this weekend helping her out with some yard chores. Decided to hike it home and came across this little 3pt side not 5 minutes from her backyard on a big piney ridge. I didn't spend a lot of time in there, but I'll be back. It's a nice open area with no undergrowth... perfect for late season sheddin'! Here's #37!

Lol- that's funny! They're smarter than they look. Thanks Raptor-man!

Sweet shots Dave! I like the momma and fawn in the crick! You should get that buzzard blown up into a wall mural for your living room...simply gorgeous bird,lol!