2010 Season Blog, The Summer Grind
Welcome back! Another week has come and gone as we inch ever closer to October 1st. Another spell of hot, muggy weather has made it hard to even remember what a crisp, cool morning feels like but they will be here soon enough. It won't be long and we'll be stepping out the cabin door into a crisp high pressure morning. Your breath visible in the dark morning air and leaves crunching beneath your boots as you head off to the stand with bow in hand. Man that sounds good!!!!
Until that day gets here we will continue to check cam's, work food plots, check and hang stands and daydream about fall.
This week I stayed at home and let my brother in-law Chris do the work!!! My wife and I had an evening of BBQ'ing and going to the Tigers game planned so Chris and his wife went north to handle the "work" up there. I certainly enjoyed my weekend but was definitely anxious to get Chris' report as well.
If you have been following the last few weeks you know we haven't been getting many images of decent bucks so far. It has been plenty of does, fawns and small bucks but nothing with any decent headgear yet. We aren't overly worried about it but it would be nice to get a decent buck somewhere along the way!! Past years have shown us our best bucks show up on the cam in early August so we are anxiously waiting to find that first good buck.
Chris' first report hit my phone and it wasn't the great news I had hoped for. Plenty of pictures as usual but still just some small bucks. Don't get me wrong, we love getting pictures and any buck is cool to see. We certainly haven't been bummed out this year but we're ready for more. We don't expect to see huge bucks or anything in our area, but a few decent 8pts would be nice!!
We had put one cam on a small trail we found last time we were up. It goes out into an area that we call The Horseshoe corner. It is the corner of a few acre opening that will eventually become the Plateau Plot. It is part of the area we fenced off earlier in the year and we were very happy to get this area fenced off and available as a potential plot.
Caught mom and baby moving through a few times but that was it.
Aside from that cam we also had the plot cam's out again as usual. Our plots haven't been as busy this year as they were last year. I am thinking it is due to the fact that there is so much browse available this year. Everything is green and lush right now so our plots aren't as needed. Hopefully that will change as we near the fall.
We did get an interesting looking buck on our Southline (clover) plot. His right side looks like a normal spike or fork but his left appears to be a large, thick tine that almost looks bladed at the top.
The Fenceline (alfalfa) plot had a frequent visitor as well. Looks like he will finish as a 6pt. Currently he is a 5pt, can't really tell in this pic but he has both brow tines, and looks like he may fork his left beam.
Our last camera was across the street watching a trail running parallel to the cornfield. If you remember from before we had gotten a buck on the cam last time that we started calling the Paddle Buck due to his thick right side beam. We were hoping to get some more pics of him so it was good to see this picture.
He is the biggest buck we have on camera this year. We both think he may be a 2.5yr old, it's hard to tell from this picture but in last weeks picture he appeared to be a bit thicker in the neck/shoulder area than most of the 1.5's we have on camera. Hopefully he sticks around and gives us a few more pictures. If he can make it through till gun season he is hanging around where my father in-law and other brother in-law hunt. Neither of them have ever taken a buck so it would be nice if they could get a look at him.
That cam also gave us a few other nice pictures. This picture here just makes my trigger finger itchy!!! Maybe she'll give me that pose again in a few months...
I have to admit, I have been pretty pleased with my Wildgame cam so far. Pic quality has been pretty good and for $69.00 I am thinking I should have gotten two!
Aside from checking the cam's, chris also went and sat a stand one night. He decided to go out to the Big Pine with his video camera in hand and see what he could find. The Big Pine is a stand we put up last year overlooking a large bedding area that butts up to the corn field, the alfalfa field, the woods and the hayfield. The stand is on the west side of the bedding area so any west wind works well. (For an aerial view of our property that shows the location of the Big Pine, you can check my "2010 Season Blog, Welcome to the Farm" from a few weeks back.)
Chris picked the right spot, and had a few visitors come through the bedding area.
YouTube- 10072510.mpg
All in all it was another good report. The deer continue to use the plots and are also moving around our stand sites. Hopefully we will find a few target bucks in the next couple of weeks but even if we don't we know they are out there.
Next week I will be venturing north to do some work in the plots. I will be trimming both plots and over seeding both with Biologic Maximum as well as spreading some fertilizer. Hopefully the Maximum will come in like it did last year. The deer devoured it and we are hoping for the same again this year.
I will be doing the work either Saturday or Sunday and the 10 day forecast is calling for rain on Monday. Hopefully that holds true and the the new seed gets off to a good start.
Check back in next week for some more trail cam pic's as well as some plot work pic's and stories.
Take care, and thanks for reading!!
Until that day gets here we will continue to check cam's, work food plots, check and hang stands and daydream about fall.
This week I stayed at home and let my brother in-law Chris do the work!!! My wife and I had an evening of BBQ'ing and going to the Tigers game planned so Chris and his wife went north to handle the "work" up there. I certainly enjoyed my weekend but was definitely anxious to get Chris' report as well.
If you have been following the last few weeks you know we haven't been getting many images of decent bucks so far. It has been plenty of does, fawns and small bucks but nothing with any decent headgear yet. We aren't overly worried about it but it would be nice to get a decent buck somewhere along the way!! Past years have shown us our best bucks show up on the cam in early August so we are anxiously waiting to find that first good buck.
Chris' first report hit my phone and it wasn't the great news I had hoped for. Plenty of pictures as usual but still just some small bucks. Don't get me wrong, we love getting pictures and any buck is cool to see. We certainly haven't been bummed out this year but we're ready for more. We don't expect to see huge bucks or anything in our area, but a few decent 8pts would be nice!!
We had put one cam on a small trail we found last time we were up. It goes out into an area that we call The Horseshoe corner. It is the corner of a few acre opening that will eventually become the Plateau Plot. It is part of the area we fenced off earlier in the year and we were very happy to get this area fenced off and available as a potential plot.
Caught mom and baby moving through a few times but that was it.
Aside from that cam we also had the plot cam's out again as usual. Our plots haven't been as busy this year as they were last year. I am thinking it is due to the fact that there is so much browse available this year. Everything is green and lush right now so our plots aren't as needed. Hopefully that will change as we near the fall.
We did get an interesting looking buck on our Southline (clover) plot. His right side looks like a normal spike or fork but his left appears to be a large, thick tine that almost looks bladed at the top.
The Fenceline (alfalfa) plot had a frequent visitor as well. Looks like he will finish as a 6pt. Currently he is a 5pt, can't really tell in this pic but he has both brow tines, and looks like he may fork his left beam.
Our last camera was across the street watching a trail running parallel to the cornfield. If you remember from before we had gotten a buck on the cam last time that we started calling the Paddle Buck due to his thick right side beam. We were hoping to get some more pics of him so it was good to see this picture.
He is the biggest buck we have on camera this year. We both think he may be a 2.5yr old, it's hard to tell from this picture but in last weeks picture he appeared to be a bit thicker in the neck/shoulder area than most of the 1.5's we have on camera. Hopefully he sticks around and gives us a few more pictures. If he can make it through till gun season he is hanging around where my father in-law and other brother in-law hunt. Neither of them have ever taken a buck so it would be nice if they could get a look at him.
That cam also gave us a few other nice pictures. This picture here just makes my trigger finger itchy!!! Maybe she'll give me that pose again in a few months...
I have to admit, I have been pretty pleased with my Wildgame cam so far. Pic quality has been pretty good and for $69.00 I am thinking I should have gotten two!
Aside from checking the cam's, chris also went and sat a stand one night. He decided to go out to the Big Pine with his video camera in hand and see what he could find. The Big Pine is a stand we put up last year overlooking a large bedding area that butts up to the corn field, the alfalfa field, the woods and the hayfield. The stand is on the west side of the bedding area so any west wind works well. (For an aerial view of our property that shows the location of the Big Pine, you can check my "2010 Season Blog, Welcome to the Farm" from a few weeks back.)
Chris picked the right spot, and had a few visitors come through the bedding area.
YouTube- 10072510.mpg All in all it was another good report. The deer continue to use the plots and are also moving around our stand sites. Hopefully we will find a few target bucks in the next couple of weeks but even if we don't we know they are out there.
Next week I will be venturing north to do some work in the plots. I will be trimming both plots and over seeding both with Biologic Maximum as well as spreading some fertilizer. Hopefully the Maximum will come in like it did last year. The deer devoured it and we are hoping for the same again this year.
I will be doing the work either Saturday or Sunday and the 10 day forecast is calling for rain on Monday. Hopefully that holds true and the the new seed gets off to a good start.
Check back in next week for some more trail cam pic's as well as some plot work pic's and stories.
Take care, and thanks for reading!!
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