phade

Seems like quite a few people are having very slow cam seasons. I suppose drier conditions may be a factor with shifts, but I have water in quite a few of my places and still seeing similar lower-than-normal results. Even low lying, cool shady spots..nada but does/fawns an small guys. The hardest thing are the older bucks I know made it through the season and got pics of in May/June, have been MIA since. Places where they've historically remained. Even spreading cams out to other areas, still not picking them up. We have one 4.5 here in NY that we're getting occasional photos of, and one that we hoped to chase this year, had good frame growth....but busted his G3 and its been hanging down, and finally fell off a week or two ago.

I've been fortunate to catch a citation size wahoo, what an experience. Those are awesome. Such a good eating fish as I am told, but I don't eat seafood. Good luck on the trip. It should be fun. Any specific fish/type you really want to boat? It is always exciting when you get one on a realize "its the one."

It's a weird year for sure. Some bucks I think really suffered from the drier conditions which I believe is tied to less growth opportunities.

We are experiencing the same with bucks. Slowest year I can recall, by far.

That's where the just deer hunting part comes in. Not a ton of people lease $8K parcels. They do in groups. $2K to deer hunt 453 acres with three other guys is a pretty good deal when you have zero liability beyond the lease amount. You are not tied to a bank note, nor taxes. My partner and I lease ground and spend $6,500 or so across four leases in three states. I get offsets through my business taxes so it's not really that when all said and done, other than it being up front at one point and then I recoup. Same with him through his business.

I don't think many people buy land just to deer hunt. It can be one way to use it, but unless you're independently wealthy you want some degree of payback. It's mostly seen as a way to hold assets, clearly not as liquid as cash or stock, but still very much so an asset that in alot of cases ends up with material appreciation. What are the chances you buy land now, in your 40's and sell 20-30 years from now with likely value growth - and one that probably competes well with the market? Pretty good I'd say. Again, I understand both sides of the coin, but if you're looking at land purchases just to deer hunt, you probably don't understand basic personal finance.

And WTI is $$$$. Local Co-Op Extension can do soil sample and much better seed purchases than WTI. They are very expensive.

Likely urea based which will have N evaporate. Might want to consider a follow-up fertilizing. Even $22 bag of triple 10 will go a long way. And make sure the lawn fertilizer doesn't have any weed treatment in there. Seen that before. Woof.

Soil samples are big help but typically recommendations are made for one specific plant type. If you got one for each and followed directions, then you are good. But say for example, amendment suggestions for clover will vary materially from a brassica. Clover fixes N, brassicas are heavy consumers of it. The other thing you noted is that you fertilized at time of seeding which had alot of dry weather. N can literally evaporate out of that fertilizer in dry warm conditions. We like fertilizing 50-100 lbs per acre at time of seeding, but generally come over the top 3-4 weeks later with the recommended amendments. Usually at this time of year, the moisture becomes more reliable, either through rain or ground wetness over night. Ideally, we try to add N before a soft rain, too.

One of our plots looked great. 100 yards away, same prep, same day....miserable. We're going to have to salvage it this weekend. Dang.

Fertilize. Fertilize. Fertilize. Go spread some out next weekend.

I think he has landlocked public?

Plus the taxes - unless you are in programs, you can get hammered on taxes. Our area is notoriously difficult to buy land at a good price. Acreage esp tillable is going for a premium. I'm in the market and seeing sub 100 acre pieces going for 2500-5000 per acre on mixed use ground - ie tillable woods wetlands, etc. The price skyrockets closer to development to 10k per acre +. When you start going below 50 acres, the per acre price also goes up big time, too. Really interesting dynamics. We have ground here that is income limited to ag, some logging, and maybe a few programs or the rare OGM, selling for more than prime land that can drive income off hunting, ag, timber, and major OGM in big buck states. Crazy IMO. Plus you pay more for taxes, too. Worth saying again.

$18/acre is a bit high at that scale, but it's not by any stretch a bad deal in a good county for deer, turkey, etc. Public can be good/great hunting but there is also less control over your experience. Private exclusive land whether owned, permission, leased etc. is more likely to have some degree of control. With people having less and less free time in their lives, some people see the value in leasing or buying to procure a quality experience with the limited time they have. And some people see $8K as a much better financial outlay than buying 453 acres. I have to assume the taxes on that are at or above $8K with the way our state is. Most likely, the group that leases it, will be a hunt club formally or informally, probably camp there, or nearby, and make it an adventure each year. Parts of hunting are evolving and evolving fast. We must learn to deal with it and base our decisions off of that.

Gonna be a fun ride right?

I can't say I've seen that, ever, personally. You use the leafy cover to create the shadow effect of light and dark. That is what open pattern camo mimics in the tree canopy with light and dark tones. Predator, EVII, US digi camo, etc. Not only is it not very likely, but it works reliably in places where open view can be partially obscured to make the shot bow or bazooka.

Add to that, if you snip branches while leaves are green, they tend to stay on the branches well into the season. We use this alot to break up silhouetting.

Looks like ours have for the summer. We're getting rain now, so hopefully that changes. Hopefully some of it heads your way, too.

Buy once, cry once. They are going to treat you well.

HD or non HD? Vortex has been sneaky dickens the past few years, incorporating non ED glass into certain model names, with Diamondback being the primary one.

I have piles of it and can buy more in Ohio if you need it. Hunting partner is an FFL, too, for shipping purposes.

And open carry.

Looks like we're getting rain on top of rain now. I'm going from need rain to worried about the creek coming up into the plots. Sheesh.

Put the socks in the underwear, if that is what you get. Trust me. They'll call you BizCT.

North Texas has a ring to it.