I went to clean up this old stand site and it definitely appears they are still hitting the mineral site pretty good. I thought that was great seeing how I didn't do anything to it since last October. Anyways I freshened up the site a bit, cleared out my path to the stand and did all the trimming around the stand. This is my 4th stand site that I have got done so far this summer. I still have 4 more sites to go. I did do all the prep work at 3 of the sites for small food plots. Cleared areas, sprayed weed killer, got the fast acting pelletized lime down this past weekend. I'll probably plant those sites around the 1st of September. Hopefully it all grows well. Here are a couple pics of today's site.
Last year I dumped a lot of the powder minerals and also had a large apple mineral block along with several smaller mineral blocks of different flavors. On top of that I would throw corn down every now and then and the attractant I used was buck grub. I have tried several attractants over the years and most tend to work but the buck grub, at least in my area they tend to destroy that stuff .
Good deal. I don't, and we can't use minerals or attractants where I hunt so always interested in what people are using around and what's working for them. Hope it keeps them pouring it through the fall
Gotcha thanks for the reply. Just started a new mineral site a couple weeks ago in a rotted out exposed root from an old downed tree so I may try to find some of that for it. I bought a climber on sale after last season so I was looking for a spot with a few decent trees nearby my hunting cabin for early season hunts and decided that root looked like a good place to center in on for now. Already in a fairly heavily traveled corridor on my property just looking to give the deer a reason to hang around that position a little more.
Haha here's hoping! I'll have to go deeper as the leaves drop and the orange army hits the neighboring properties but I should be able to use this one for a few weeks at least.
Sometimes those early season spots can be awesome especially your first sit in a new stand. Just make sure all your conditions are right. Hunt it on the first front that comes in and make sure the wind is good. Hopefully you have a good tree that is down wind of the prevailing winds in that area. Get that spot going, put a cam on it and let me see some big boys!!!!!
I'm usually there on the weekends, have seen 3 or 4 through the binos that look to be really nice. Gotta get a couple new cameras, even being on private property they come up stolen if not locked to the tree and even turned off if they are cabeled in but the buttons aren't on back or do not have a lockable access panel
I feel your pain. I have had stands stolen, vandalized, cameras stolen multiple times over the years. I have seen hunters on my property and what I really get a kick out of is when other hunters have tried to kick me off of my own property.
Hahaha! Now that I'd like to see. It's actually my mother-in-law's land but of the 200 acres of her own plus 800 some odd adjoining acres of family owned land there only 2 other "full time" hunters besides myself plus a group of 2 or 3 Ohio guys that come over for a week in gun season. Last year was my 1st year hunting there and I didn't see a soul besides the other bow guy. If and when I do I'm sure it'll be awkward af for them walking back to the house with a pistol in their back to explain to her exactly what they thought they were doing.
Never ceases to amaze though. Who tromps all over private land, sees a trail cam and just turns it off? People are stupid.
Yeah, I have gotten pics of many people over the years but could never clearly identify them. To give the guy some credit that did this, he was hunting on a neighboring property and ventured over onto mine. He just didn't realize he crossed over. I hunt on 3 neighboring properties and they also hunt on me. We all know what we want to shoot and limit bucks to 4 years and up. We have several bucks in the 150 plus range and a couple that's pushing 200. Fortunately for me I'm the most serious hunter of all of us and they just dabble a bit in bow season then most of their hunting is gun season while I'm usually sitting at home in gun season.
That's not so bad at least, I can see just missing the property line. Sounds like a great agreement! Luckily I get the run of the farm for the most part in terms of management and improvement, trying to get more involved in it but I didn't have as much time as I would've liked this year. The other pretty serious hunter has had his little blind/cabin set up for a few years now and he stays in his area and will not shoot anything less than a 3.5yr buck generally.
Next year I'm planning on investing a lot more time. I'd like to set up at least a couple ~1 acre plots, improve the center part of the main 200 as a sanctuary, add a couple small watering holes with some old plastic ponds I saved from the trash pile, etc. And of course beef up my surveillance lol. Pretty well done all I can for this year I think, it's getting close and I don't want to push anyone deeper than necessary.
Only problem I have with my area is I have a cousin from Georgia. He comes up and hunts every year. Twice he has killed my target buck. Last year he came up one day and killed my target deer. He was 6 1/2 and grossed in the mid 160's.
I was fuming, cause I checked my camera and I had a daylight pic of him 2 straight days. I sat in my stand and nothing showed. I get a text from my neighbor saying did you see what your cousin shot and he showed me pics. I'm still not over that one, lol.
