stubborn1VT

The rut is a whole cycle. Lockdown is the part of the cycle where the does are actually bred. When this happens, a buck and doe pair off, often for 24 hours. They hang out and do the deed, usually in a secluded location. Romantic! Those pairs are MIA because they aren't moving around much and aren't on a regular pattern. They're holed up in a thick spot, out of the way spot, oddball spot. Hope that explains it a little. Maybe someone else can chime in. The basic idea is that they are busy gettin' busy, so they don't walk by your blind/treestand.

Either heat or lockdown. Nothing to be alarmed about.

That's what Pygmy said!

How has your experience been with the hay wagon/blind setup? I've thought of trying this myself.

Charlotte, NC or VT?

Charlotte, NC or VT?

Congrats!!! Seems like I hear somewhere that this was your year!

Quick, low impact sit in the blind. Nothing seen. Checked cam and had resident doe& fawn after dark the past two nights. Not sure if that's because of high temps or my hunting pressure. Big 8 point was around on Halloween at 7:30 and 10pm. Looked like he was scent checking the plot, not feeding. I'm off the family farm to check cameras, move a stand, pull another stand and hunt the evening. Good luck everyone. It's about time isn't it?

Heck yeah!!! That's when shootin' was shootin'!

I wore work clothes (unsprayed) instead of hunting clothes (sprayed) and I should have known better. Some of the reed canary grass was almost head high. Permethrin works.

Just got back from scouting a piece of permission ground. Customer owns 80 acres. Mostly beef pasture that hasn't been used in a year. Not much to funnel them, but pretty easy to observe from the high ground. It's only 5-6 minutes from my house. We'll see. I picked about 30 deer ticks off my clothes before I got in the truck. That's a good sign, right?

Good luck Zeke. That much arrow should do the trick. Hopefully a dog brings you guys right to it. Positive thoughts.

As others have mentioned: margin for error. You lose bullet weight, penetration, knockdown power and recoil. The only benefit IMO is that the .243 is more shootable for someone who is recoil shy. I have seen instances where a person was more accurate with smaller caliber than one they were afraid of.

Good luck Zeke. Dropping temps. I bet we see pictures before too long.

My plots look somewhere between those two. Wish I had bulbs like that here. The best of my brassicas are mowed down. Took too long for them to get established thanks to the damn dry conditions. On a positive note, I stopped by TS for birdseed and looked through the leftover food plot seed. They had 1/2 acre bags of WI Fusion marked down to $25 from $36. I was pleasantly surprised when it rang up to $18 at checkout. I have two narrow woods plots that I want to expand. I have had some success with chicory in the past, as well as small burnet. I'm hoping that doubling the size will make both these staging plots better. The biggest issue is leaves. I may experiment with dragging them with the 4 wheeler and chain harrows. I guess I would resort to a leaf blower if I had to. I hate the sound of them more than just about anything.