WNYBuckHunter's Outdoor Journal

[WNYBuckHunter]

Spent the afternoon doing a little bit of deer stuff around my property today. I built Some mock scrapes near stand sites and the food plots. To build the scrapes, I cut Down some small saplings and wired them to trees, then I snapped Some of the ends of the branches, applied some pre orbital scent, and scraped up the ground beneath them. I have Cameras near all of them, so I should See if any deer use them. 

[grampy]

Was a great day for doing deer stuff! We did some too!

Anxious to see who show up at the mock scrape!

Good stuff John.

[LET EM GROW]

Looks Good Mr! Hope to get out this week to do the same with scrapes. Bet you got a couple of wall worthy candidates over there! 

[WNYBuckHunter]

23 hours ago, LET EM GROW said:

Looks Good Mr! Hope to get out this week to do the same with scrapes. Bet you got a couple of wall worthy candidates over there! 

I actually only know of 1 possible shooter, but have heard there are more. They just havent posed for my cameras yet.

[WNYBuckHunter]

This past weekend I got another 2 sets hung, freshened up my mock scrapes and checked trail cams. Plots are really starting to grow now, with bulbs and tubers forming in the brassica plot.

When I was freshening up one of the mock scrapes, and trying to decide which tree to hang a stand in, I heard a rustling and looked up the hill to see 2 big doe and a fawn browsing my way. I backed up to the tree I was need, leaned up against it and remained still. The wind was in my favor as long as they continued in the direction they were heading. All 3 of them ended up slowly walking by at 15 yards, barely taking any notice of me even though I was in blue jeans and a red sweatshirt. I kept still until they were gone and then looked at the tree I was leaning against. That was right where I was putting my stand lol.

When I checked the trail cam in that area, I saw alot of buck traffic. In fact, all of my cams had a large increase of buck activity on them. The food plots in particular have become hot beds of deer activity. I have added 3 bucks to my "hit list" for at home. Haley has a bunch more to choose from.

Activity at the other farm is picking up as well. I am seeing some good bucks pop up on my cell cam, but only 1 so far that Im at all interested in. I had added my trail cam app to Haleys phone so that she gets the pictures also. Every time one of the bigger boys steps in front of the cam, I get a text from Haley saying "Oh my god Dad!!!!! Look at the pictures that just came through!!!!!". Makes me smile to see how excited she is for this season.

I also took a drive over to one of the farms I wont be hunting much this year and yanked one of my stands down to use at home. It was hung over a plot that I had planted a strip in winter rye and Ladino clover last year as an experiment to see how well that works. The rye had been mowed and the clover was thick and lush. If my plot at home turns out as well as that one, I will be ecstatic. Below are pics of it.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Today I hung 2 more stands, used the weed whacker to clean up about half of my trails, raked all of the sticks and old leaves off of trails going to all but 1 stand and checked up on the plots. My brassica plot looked pretty low when I was driving up, so I checked It and it looks like the deer are hitting it really hard already. I forgot To get a containment cage in and now I’m kicking myself. There’s no way this plot is going to last into late season. I’ve never had brassicas get hit this hard this early. 

I also did some glassing this evening. Saw 2 of my “hit listers” and another buck that’s on Haley’s radar feeding in a hay field down the road  

This coming weekend I have 1 more double set to hang, and I’ll check my cams 1 last time before season starts. I’ve put a lot of work I to This place this summer. Almost time to enjoy all of my work!

[landtracdeerhunter]

Sounds like you're lining things up for the fast approaching season. Are they just eating the tops or the tubers too? You must be the best food source for them right now.  

 

[LET EM GROW]

It sucks to have late season plots get wiped out early. But I guess take advantage of it when you can. Hopefully there still in there during bow season. and that the bulbs/tubers are still in the ground for winter. My only good bulb plot was getting hit early again. kinda bummed. But my other washed out bulb plot is coming back a little bit.. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

47 minutes ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Sounds like you're lining things up for the fast approaching season. Are they just eating the tops or the tubers too? You must be the best food source for them right now.  

 

Seems to be just the tops, but they could be yanking them out and eating the whole thing and I wouldnt know. There are red and white acorns all over the place, untouched.

[landtracdeerhunter]

I walked back to take a look at mine. I don't see any radish disturbed except where I pulled one to post a pic.. Now the oats on the other hand, they are hammering. Grain is or was in the boot. Their chewing them right off. The way it's looking, very few oats will be left to head out.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I havent Been out hunting yet, and haven’t spent much time in the woods working due to family issues, but igot out the other day to check a few of my mock scrapes. All of them are torn up with the licking branches I wired up being used as well. I freshened them up with some Smokey’s and some pee in each. I checked Some of my cameras while I was There also. Between 3 cameras, I had Close to 7000 pics to weed through. The food plots have been hammered hard, both look like a mowed lawn at this point. I spent Some down time today weeding through pics, and what I found made me very happy. 90% or more were daytime, with a large portion being mid day. I have a very large population of does that spend a ton of time in there, and now the bucks are showing up with regularity, morning, mid day and evenings. I have A solid 8 point that I figured was 3 1/2, but have been told that it’s more likely to be 4 1/2. He’s just past the ears, has good mass, what looks like a kicker on one tine and some great brows. Another that I got long distance pics on one cam, is just downright big. Very wide with great mass, but I cant See his tines. He should actually be on one or two other cams from where he seemed to enter and exit the plot, so I’ll have to see when I check Those. There is also a 2 1/2 that has a 4 point side on the right, a huge dagger on the other side, and what seems to be a 3rd antler in between them. I’d actually like to Take him early if possible. He would be pretty dangerous to another deer while sparing or fighting. Here’s a pic of that one, I’ll share the others if I put One of them on the ground.