growalot

Rebel That would JUST be my luck...me getting a deer in the swamp at night...Mr B and our son would be Pizzed...I'd have to get it out by myself....I best make sure the winch is working good and the head lamps have fresh batteries today....Ahhh but alas all this will be for no more than fresh air this year...paying my dues for taking 2 8pt's last year...

You could hear a pin drop a hundred yards away this morning..I mean NOTHING...crows never showed until 8:12 and even they were pretty quiet.. Then I realize, I'm not hearing any squirrels...I start looking around and there a bunch of them...and they are all using my trails, then jumping trees to tree/log then back to the trails ...never having to touch a single leaf...hahaha it was funny to watch. My walk in was just as quiet...It was so nice and relaxing out there...too bad the deer all left before day light. pulled cards on the way home...forgot to put a card in one..and they had been in the turnips BIG TIME..figures...I got just one pic before batteries died in another and I got yesterdays 6 pt at the scrape I was hunting over this morning....too bad it was last night he showed...have stuff to do and headed back out for an evening in the swamp...

Go buy some Brenneke's

Yep they say even more on Tuesday here...got the snow tires on and ready to roll...canisters for the buddy heater, gun clothes get hung out side today...

That's great news FL..Congrats to her and you as her parent...It's team work no matter what ppl say...

No wind 40 degrees let's see if they are moving this morning...Good luck guys

Wow! seriously quiet walk to the wooden blind tonight. I had one doe fawn pop up out of bedding around 3:30 ...she crossed the sorghum plot and entered the woods midway between the blind I was in and Rivers blind cutting our property diagonally...which puts her on a straight line to the farmers WW field... so that gives me a clue as to possible morning movement and I have two ,maybe 3 stands that could show some shot ops...Tomorrow morning will an absolute joy to pick any stand I want BTW..... a car stopped to view lane way(rivers blind) and Mr B just asked ..." Did you see the two big deer in front of your other blind tonight" LOL

So the leaf cover made me crazed this morning..pretty sure that buck would have come in closer had he not heard me come in...I just finished every single trail for the last time ...all leaf cover in trees are down. No wind out there for now but they should stay clear enough. Oh and I found the bolt I shot at that buck the other day...thankfully not in my foot or the Gator tire, so being anal about noise payed off with a bolt and good G5...OMG crazy track on all those trails...big small, some very deep and splayed some super long..one trail looks like a cow path under the leaf cover...they do enjoy walking them.. So hopping in shower again and headed out...good luck guys...

I wait until dark and slowly climb down and walk the opposite way...I have done this with deer 15 yrds and less away and they never spooked...but slow and watching them is how to do it.

For the 16 wood ladder stand I made it took Mr B and myself with the front end loader to put up...I also have wooden ladders the 22 ft one it took the tractor and the two of us...With the 16 ft I dragged them out my self and hauled them up to the tree..not talking small 2x6 rails and 2x4 rungs wide enough to comfortably fit both my feet in my pack boots...The hang ons I did my self, I used rope and pulleys.

I believe I have officially given up...the body will be out there the mind is saying it's all for naught.....going to take care of a bit of work and fix a stand for gun season then go ...hhmmm somewhere this afternoon...pulled cams on way in on top of hill. It's almost comical...

Ever try doing it while on stand? It's an art I'll tell ya........especially for me with a 175# draw

Speaking of.....I went in this morning planning on getting to the gully stand...I have 4 stands and 2 blinds between entering the parcel and getting to the gully stand....as luck would have it the wind yet again filled in a lot of the trails...so I spent a heck of a long time trying to walk a mere 900 feet Just as I got to a clear walk I hear the foot steps and trotting around at the head of the gully...Well I can't scoot into that stand ...that's where they are. So I continue...I get to the WR plot and the stand the 5 buck were under and It is squeaking like mad in the wind but the deer are all around and I get snorted at ..just one quick not sure snort...I see the trail past that stand is filled in to the gully stand and the short path to the 5 buck stand is partially filled...20 mins later to walk a whopping 20 yards I get up the ladder and now need to clear many branches off the industrial poly grate I have as a base. Well as luck would have it I barely stand on platform when deer are now running all over, around me from the gully stand 200 ft away to where I am...they then slow crunch crunch crunch as I watch two large light colored bodies walk 5yrds away past the stand to where I'd just come...I was hoping the spray I put on the bottom of my boots would bring them back...but I could make out horns and they were going direct down wind of me.. So back to old squeaky I have to pull a board and move the grating forward to fill the gap and get it away from the tree..It's touching both a filler 2x4 and the trees and that poly howls in the wind when touching anything...Plus the ladder brace board I use to keep the ladder off the grate and the trees let loose on one side.....The noise drove me mad for and hour then I heard faint steps over it...I leaned around the trunk...BTW this is in 3 basswood trees, to see a 6 point I'd shoot( smaller version of huge 6) making a scrape 48 yrds away. he's facing me and on a trail that would take him 12 yrds past me...He makes the scrape and turns to head the other way..WTH! I do a doe bleat and he turns...ya!!! I pick up xbow and set on the nearest opening that is past a group of trees...just on my outer limits of 40 yrds...I have the bottom line and wait...doesn't he come through way past that doing a wide circle through the gully and up over the opposite ridge crossing in front of me before disappearing.. 15 mins later I said...never mind what I said ...I got down and came in..I am going to clear trails and the lawn before gun season for snow is on the way Sunday and Mon,Tues. 2-3 I think tues... So that's what can happen with a 3 trunk stand they move and make lots of noise if not checked often.....PS..... it's actually one of my favorite stands , I got my first archery buck out of it a 7pt with recurve...it's an old stand..That I'm going out now to fix.

I have started making wooden "hang ons" I really like them. and they do not need as much wood ....some are self contained like the one above that buck and others the chains get eye bolted right to the tree...no creaking in any of them

Eddie sometimes the hook on my rt. side will slip slightly to the rt just before I go to pull up...I have been conditioned to double check that on every pull...I find I need to readjust about every third time. If he doesn't have the cocking rope to the right length for a good set that could happen...I had to shorten mine quite a bit

About to shower and head out. At this point I'm wondering why bother, with this luck holding out.At least I can enjoy the beautiful moon and weather. GOOD LUCK GUYS

Two adult doe..one after close thirty yrds past stand...The other Walked up on 15 yrds on the way home...same ole same ole...with one exception..no more 're my big boys on cams...so dead or moved on

I would put a guess at a 3-4 point at most..

It's really a guessing game...not all deer act the same in all areas..I still can't believe your deer papist. Not all double back ...not all run to water ,not all run down hill...I can't tell you how many immediately ran straight up hill....We forget deer are not stamped copies of each other they do react differently ...

If that is a white pine it will continue to grow and they get quite large...also they will bleed big time I have stands in two wht pine in the spring and summer they make everything a sticky mess ...and it looks like you have a lot of branches to cut that will "bleed like mad...just be aware of that...

Rack and nads.... I hope that's a buck...lol

I've posted picture of several over the years and hunt them regularly...here's the thing I find that the 3 tree scenario seems to loosen faster than the four...but that depends on trunk sizes. I put up an inside wooden brace and an out side one as well. on each trunk .I put up the inside first ...then lay my base over that make sure they are several inches wider than the trunk and attach ..I use spiral decking nails around a center bolt. now here is where I go overboard some say...I measure and buy enough chain to rap around the whole bracing set up and then I bolt that to the trunk as well. I leave this looser for growth, if all else fails the worst you get is slippage before the chain grabs.

Too be honest..I haven't a clue...This year they are not doing anything they have done in the past, with the exception of being in the swamp...though on the wrong side of me. These farm crop rotations are killing me..having the new food source of WW for them in a corn field that is normally barren has really messed things up...Then add the alfalfa and new clover in the oats right next to that WW and pine plantation, there is no need to travel. They have everything they want all day and the room to hang in the plantation...even the bucks aren't driving them...I've never seen the neighbors swamp so dead and ours is just a pass through to a farm down the hill. I still have turnip greens and tons of bulbs ...That's unheard of this time of year here...

I am glad tosee something that is so over looked when trying to find a wounded deer being mentioned a lot. I have tried to get this through a bunch of ppls heads over the years and with little success with some. The fact that even more so than going to water...they will do wide swings and return to where they were shot....or to the place they were traveling from when shot. Being able to remember where you watched your deer come from before the shot ,when possible , is sometimes as important to know than where they ran off too. This being on lost trails....

Really Jeremy...lol that's like saying having food plots guarantees you a deer...Have you been reading my posts? Is there a deer I posted on here somewhere I forgot I shot?... Perhaps it's like my phone and I just forgot where I put it ...please help me find it...hahahahaha