WNYBuckHunter's Outdoor Journal

[WNYBuckHunter]

Thanks! She actually cant hunt until next year, I wanted to get her courses out of the way this year so we werent scrambling next year. She will be out with me more this year than in the past. We have several double sets ready to go, she bought a video camera with her birthday money and will be filming hunts this year. Should be good prep for bow hunting.

[gfdeputy2]

Congrats to Her!!!

same score my youngest daughter scored on her Archery education

[WNYBuckHunter]

Headed down to the farm this morning loaded up with 3 stands, 2 sets of climbing sticks and all of the goodies to go along with them. Once we got down there, we came up with the game plan. Add a second stand to a set we call the Poison Ivy Stand and swap the screw in steps for ladder sticks, Pull a stand out that we call the Junk Pile stand, check things with other stands, clean up lanes and start looking for a new place for a stand we call the corner stand. That stand and the Junk Pile Stand both sat at different points on an inside corner of a field. Its a hot bed of activity right now, and through hunting season when the field is in corn, but this year its beans. The area dies off a bit after the beans are cut, but is still a funnel type area for the deer. Neither of the two stands are in quite the optimal spot, and they are about 130 yards apart. We figure we can pull one and put the other in the ideal spot for the funnel, so thats what we will do. We also wanted to swap a stand out that has rusty cables, so that we can replace the cables on that stand. We ended up getting everything done but move the corner stand and trim out access paths to a few sets. We will get that done tomorrow. We are also going to head to the other farm, hang a new double set and trim lanes there. After tomorrow, we should be almost completely done getting the prep work done.

 

My daughter and I in the Poison Ivy Stand. Always a great stand, with a long history of successful hunts. Hopefully she will film me putting one on the ground here this year.

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Spent Yesterday back down at the farm. Trimmed out paths to all stands at one farm. Went over to the other farm and scouted out a spot for a new double set. We looked at two areas we thought might be good, but turned out not to be, so we headed up to the North end of the property, near the area that I had an encounter with one of the really big boys on the farm last season. I already have a stand up near there, but there was an area about 100 yards from that stand where I had placed a cam this year that was showing some really good pics, and I thought there might be a spot where we could get in there with a set. As soon as we pulled into the area, up jumped a nice buck. He had some mass on him and was out past his ears with a good size body. I figured from the quick look that he is at least 3, possibly older, but Id need a better look at him. He popped right out of a spot of heavy cover that I know the bucks tend to lay up in. We started looking around and I found a nice looking Hickory, that is surrounded by 5 smaller trees for good cover and breakup, so thats where we hung our set. I can see into part of the bedding area, and cut 4 lanes, 1 into thicker cover, 1 to a known travel corridor and two into the field on either side of the point of trees. Should be a great set.

 

 

Next we went around and checked the plots, all are doing great. First heres the Rape, PTT, Sugar beet plot...

 

 

 

The DeerAg plot...

 

 

 

 

After we left, I went over to a friends house and ended up making a deal on a new trailer thats heavy duty enough to haul mid size tractors and other equipment. It was a pretty fun weekend, and now Im back to work. No Labor Day vaca for this guy...

 

[Lawdwaz]

Spent the last couple of days at my daughter's bow hunters safety course. She scored a 98 on the test. Best grade in the class of 55 people. Shes very happy about that, and Im pretty proud. Her gun course is in 2 or 3 weeks.

 

Your X must be gorgeous 'cause the little princess didn't get those looks from YOU. 

 

Congrats to the little lady!!

[landtracdeerhunter]

You must be getting itchy to get back in that stand,  LOL.

[dbHunterNY]

had a bad experience going up a hickory with an older climber when I first started bowhunting.  went right out and bought a new one.  aren't really prevalent on my properties but I subconsciously now avoid them I think.

[WNYBuckHunter]

You must be getting itchy to get back in that stand,  LOL.

 

I assume you are referring to the Poison Ivy stand. Luckily I dont get Poison Ivy unless I basically cut a large vine and rub the juice all over. Its not a guarantee that will get me either.

 

I am itching for the season to start though!

[WNYBuckHunter]

had a bad experience going up a hickory with an older climber when I first started bowhunting.  went right out and bought a new one.  aren't really prevalent on my properties but I subconsciously now avoid them I think.

 

I wouldnt mess with them with a climber, because of the shaggy bark, but hang ons and ladders work well with them.

[WNYBuckHunter]

After work yesterday, I headed down to the farm to swap out camera cards. I know the bucks are shedding velvet and the last week or so, Ive really been itchy to get down there and swap them out. I really try to keep my camera checks to 2 weeks minimum, and this time of year it gets really hard to do. After swapping cards in the cams at the one farm, I headed to the other one. The first cam sits on a mid ridge trail just below my DeerAg food plot. As soon as we wheeled into the plot, I saw a flurry of deer scattering out of the plot. The plot is looking great, so we did a walk around to check it out. Here are a few pics, you can see how the deer are really browsing the hog radishes, and how well they regrow after browsing. The turnips are doing pretty good also, my son and I couldnt help but pick a few and eat them.

 

 

 

 

I ended up pulling the camera off of the trail and moved it up into the plot. Usually I get a ton of action where the cam was, but this year, not so much.

 

Next we headed up to the other cam on the property, and jumped a bunch of deer off the pasture. After that, we headed down to check the other plots, which we ended up jumping deer off of as well. Here are a few pics of those plots.

 

 

 

 

Winter Rye plots are coming in good as well

 

[grampy]

Sure is a good looking young buck in the last pic! Plots look amazing! Nice work!

[WNYBuckHunter]

Thanks! Hes been helping me with the plots and things all summer, and this will be his first year to go out for a few sits.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Spent this weekend at my daughter's hunters ed class. She passed with flying colors! Now she is all ready to go for bow season next year. We are also talking about heading out to Colorado to visit family and go elk hunting next year. Ive been looking into the trip for a couple of years now, and now that she will be ready to go, Im going to start putting it together. Luckily, unless something changes, my family lives in one of the only OTC elk tag zones. Im also going to look into antelope just in case we both get our elk with enough time to try for something else as well.

 

Yesterday, I stopped at the farm to take a peek at plots, they are still doing great. Heres some pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Tonights project, prusik lines.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Fixed my ground blind tonight. Replaced a couple of broken poles with fiberglass driveway plow markers. Instead of epoxying them in the aluminum ends, I wrapped the end in duct tape and shoved them in there after drilling the old ones out. Should be nice and easy to replace them if need be.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Got down to the farms yesterday and installed the prusik lines in the hang on sets. I also installed the seat pads in the ladder stands and a few hang ons. One ladder stand had a seat frame that scraped on one of the vertical bars when you would try to flip it up or down. Pretty much made it unusable for bow season for me. I had my hammer with me so I beat the seat frame into submission. It doesnt rub any more and flips up and down nice and easy lol. I also setup the ground blind at the end of one of the brassica plots. Should be great to take the kids in. I noticed that scrapes had started opening up, so I moved a couple of cams around accordingly.

 

Today I had to stop down again to put up one of the cams, and I noticed big, wide paths smashed down in the brassicas. I also noticed large piles of poop near and in both of the plots. As I was looking around, you could see a few places where the grass on the edge of the plot was matted down, like a deer bed but much larger. As I was walking back to the truck, I found another plie of scat, but this one had a pretty large bear track in it. I have never noticed bear sign at this farm before, but now I have a reason to do a few sits down near the plots. Id really love to have some bear steaks in the freezer!

[WNYBuckHunter]

Winter Rye plots

 

 

 

Rape is doing well, and its starting to get browsed

 

 

 

Ground blind setup

 

 

 

[burmjohn]

Looks amazing

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[WNYBuckHunter]

Scrapes opening up

 

 

Heres a few of the young up and comers that Ive gotten pics of. All 2 1/2 year olds. Hopefully some of them make it to next year. I wont be pulling a trigger on any of them.

 

 

 

 

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Yesterday was opening day for me, though we only had the afternoon to hunt. The weather forecast was a perfect setup for a new set that I hung specifically to go after my target buck on this farm. Hes a 4 year old that has been using the area very frequently. Around 2, my daughter and i got ready to go and headed down to the farm. When we got there, I decided to leave the ATV on the trailer and silently walk back in, which is more than 1/4 mile hike. We spotted 3 does and a coyote on the way into the stand. The wind was a pretty steady 10 to 12 mph and blowing so that our scent would pass into the open pasture, away from bedding and travel corridors. It didnt take long after we got up in the stand to start seeing deer. Does started pouring into the pasture area right where I usually see them. My daughter had her video camera and camera arm out for the first time, and was loving the footage she was getting. I scanned the wood edge and saw a large body appear. I had a good itdea what deer it was, and when he raised his head, he confirmed it. It was the buck I am after. I whispered to my daughter and she spotted him and started capturing footage of him as he fed along the hedgerow and began chasing does around in the pasture. His full attention was on one specific doe, which was hanging with another older doe. He followed and pushed her around the area, never letting her out of his sight. He stayed in the pasture and ended up bedding down 60 yards from us. Thats where he stayed for over an hour and a half. He got up a few times, looked around and laid right back down. He finally got back up when a 2 year old 8 point entered the pasture and approached his does. At that point, I thought Id try grunting and see what happens. I let out a single grunt and his head snapped to our direction. He pawed the ground, turned and went over to a bush and tree where he proceeded to tear up the ground, grunting and thrashing the bush and tree. Unfortunately, my daughter did not have her camera on. In the mean time, the two does slowly worked our way, and he disappeared behind a patch of thick brush. Within minutes, we heard crashing of antlers as the two bucks appeared from behind the brush, with the big buck clearly pushing the 2 year old around. The bucks fought off and on as the does had gotten to the 20 yard mark. I started getting myself in position for a shot when the bucks headed our way, and my daughter reached for her camera to get it powered up. That was the moment when she made her mistake. The second doe saw her move and the jig was up. I told her to freeze, and the doe stared her down, stomping and head bobbing, trying to figure out what she was. After a minute, she turned and ran toward the bucks. I grunted a couple of more times and the does turned and looked. They all stood there for 5 or so minutes and then started nervously working our way again. Neither of the bucks were nervous at all, they were just following the does, fighting every few minutes. The big buck got to within 45 yards, but did not offer a shot. After 15 or so minutes, something off in the woods spooked the does and all of the deer headed off in the other direction. My daughter and I talked about how cool everything was, and about the mistake she had made. I told her she did great overall, but made the same mistake that all hunters do at times. I said she should not feel bad about it, she should just learn from it. The rest of the evening we were covered up in deer, and we waited till dark and got down and snuck back to the truck. She was a little upset, so I gave her a big hug and told her that it was the best day of hunting I ever had, because she got to experience so much cool stuff with me, and that we would get back after that buck another day when the conditions were right again. We headed home and watched the video she got. Lots of great shots of the action. Cant wait for next weekend, when her and I have 2 solid days to ourselves to spend in the woods.

 

Pics to follow...

 

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Ready to head in...

 

 

In our stands...

 

 

 

Does in the field

 

 

The only pic I took of him...

 

[turkeyfeathers]

Awesome !!! I'm so excited to get my 13 year old daughter in a newly made ground blind with me on gun opener. Your daughter has some good gear ! Mine will be clad in whatever is warm lol. And a orange vest of course. I do buy her new turkey hunting clothes and boots every spring .

Great looking food plots !

Hope your daughter didn't take getting busted too hard. Sounds like a great day, I've hunted awhile and never saw bucks fighting. Cool stuff for you and her to share. Have a big smile after reading your blog. Hope to post a similar great experience after gun opener.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Thanks! We worked hard on the plots this year and it paid off. My daughter is really into it, been going out with me since she was 4. I think she will get over being busted, shes like her old man, determined. She buys most of her own gear, its what she spends birthday, Christmas and allowance money on. Im glad shes into hunting rather than video games and stuff like that.

 

Sounds like you and your daughter are all set to go! Good luck to you, cant wait to read about you guys and your season!

[moog5050]

Sounds like a great day and you have that buck pegged. He will be back

[WNYBuckHunter]

This past weekend started out for me on Friday. I called in sick to work as we had the perfect winds for hunting the set situated for the buck Im after. I sat on another farm in the morning, then went and picked my daughter up at school. We headed to the farm and decided to go swap camera cards quick before we went to our stand. On the way to the first camera, we came to the cow pasture, and about 125 yards away were a few does. We stood behind some brush to see if they would leave, but no suck luck, so we detoured to another spot to change cards in another camera. We checked the sugar beet and turnip plot, and swapped the card. We then headed up to our stand, and as we got to the pasture fence, I saw a deer across the pasture, near our stand area. I scoped things out with my binos, and sure enough, there was a couple of bucks and 3 does out there already. We were about 20 mins too late to get in the stand ahead of them, and it was only 3pm. I decided we could get around the pasture and still get near to the stand and possibly setup on one of the typical exit routes and see if the deer headed that way. No such luck, the bucks ended up wandering off in another direction and the does bedded in the pasture. Both bucks were very nice 2 year olds that I wouldnt have shot anyhow. We snuck into the stand and climbed up and got setup with 3 does bedded 80 yards away in plain sight. To say I was impressed with my daughter's ability to do so at 11 years old, is putting it lightly. We sat and ended up seeing 7 different does that evening, and just a few minutes before sunset, a nice doe started walking in to one of my shooting lanes. I got ready and as she stepped into the lane, I took my shot at 30 yards. I saw the arrow headed right for the boiler room, and all of a sudden its path moved up and the arrow went right over the doe's back, and she took off. I watched her leave and then looked back toward where my arrow was and noticed I had nicked the only branch that I hadnt trimmed at the very edge of my shooting lane. I guess I had a bit of tunnel vision as I concentrated on my pins and the deer, and never noticed the branch. I really should have let her take another step, but I got anxious and let it rip as soon as she got by the trunk of the tree. My bad. We ended up sneaking out of there once the other does cleared the pasture, and headed home.

 

Saturday we hunted the evening at the other farm and ended up with 2 does, a fawn and 2 yearling bucks for sightings, with only the two yearling bucks ending up in range. Sunday we didnt hunt, as my daughter woke up with a pretty good fever.

 

The next two weekends, Ill be on my own. Maybe Ill even give self filming a shot, seeing as I wont have my camera girl there with me.

 

Pics to follow...