Opening day is closing in fast and I'm stoked to say the least. I will be heading up to my lease to check trail cams tomorrow if I don't get called into work. We need to sign up soon for a replacement for Damian Mahlich.
Well, nothing to report other than I saw one of my target bucks and a lot of does. Will be out next week and weekend sometime. Will keep everyone posted.
Whoa dude, that was close. I had a feeling you'd be around soon. Don't go disappearing on us again! We are counting on ya! Just teasing ya, good luck out there and be safe. Tell us a little about your hunting grounds/scenario. We'd love to hear about it.
Just got back from a decent scouting trip. Seems like the deer are following last seasons pattern to the T. Set up a trail cam and a mock scrape adjacent from a scrape line. No rubs yet but hopefully things will heat up soon! I'll be checking the came in 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll have some monster bucks pics. I know for sure the area has a huge doe population and last year I saw a nice 8 pt. He ran past me mach 10 style! Not even sure if he was an 8pt may have been more but definitely wasnt less. Praying for another awesome season!
Monsterman7 checking in. My real name is Kevin and I'll help bring some experience to this youthful team. I live and hunt on my back 20 here in Northern Wayne County, PA. I've got a pics of 11 different bucks so far this year, lots of youngsters, but I've seen a nice 140+/- 4&1/2 year old. I call him the corner buck. He beds down in a really thick area in the corner of my lot, my dog doesn't bother him, he only comes out around the rut and at night... He'll be my target. Happy to be a part of the Ant Farm, let's stick some *** and fill the freezers!
JM, I'm with ya, 49 anniversary's for me, perhaps our experience can be of some help to our young guns or maybe they can help us.... Kevin
Damien, sorry but you were 36 hours late checking in and I've been told that you need to sign on the alternates list. Monsterman, kill us a big one.
Might have a camera check tomorrow. If I dont get in the woods tomorrow I might not get a good chance for a while since it looks like Wednesday might be our first/last rain in months.
Ben and team, Happy to be a part of the Ant Farm! Our season starts on September 29th here in PA this year, so I'm pretty amped to get out in the woods. I put in alot lot of work this Spring/Summer, 4 quarter to half acre plots of clover, chickory, forage, brassica's, rape & some oats. 11 different buck pics in June, a few shooter pics in August and a nice 140 class buck that I've yet to get a picture of yet. I have a doe tag, so I'll try to harvest one early. I'll get some pics uploaded when I check the cameras later this week. Lets hunt hard and make our own luck this year! Make it happen, Kevin
Got back from the farm late last night. Nothing too exciting on the cams. Maybe thats a good thing. The past few years I have had pics of 4-5 good shooter on cam all summer and just couldn't get them to move during daylight when the season finally opened. But 4 years ago, the first year I owned my place I couldn't get any good bucks on camera during the summer and had lots of sightings during the season and killed a decent one. Maybe this year will follow that one. Welcome MM7, looks like we have a full team now and are ready to go. Also moved 2 stands to new areas and cleared out a few more spots for my climber.
I've been away too long here. Glad to see everyone has checked in and got bucks sighted already. I took a couple vacation days last week and opened up old trails which were basically gone, from flooding the past 4 yrs. The picture below shows private property I have access to along the mighty Mississippi. Brown line is property boundary. Red line is trails opened and or made. Milo is the only food plot put out so for. The property is just under 400 acres which floods at a 28 ft. river stage in St.Louis. From the Flood of "93" the ground was becoming a hunters dream where several bucks were reaching 160 class. The corn and beans will not be harvested till first part of Oct. due to late planting. There are a few tracks showing up already this year but it will be hard hunting. This is going to be the first time in six years I have the ability to put in food plots. I hope with the time and money spent, the river stays down for a few years. I will still be helping you all out by hunting a few weeks up north in Brown County. I will still hunt this river property every chance I get though. You never know what might cruise through during the rut. Landowners 4 miles north have had high ground the past 2 yrs. of flooding with lots of deer which will be returning to home ranges. I'll post pics. when I have more time.
Here is my primary hunting ground. It is some river bottom ground that has flooded the last three years. When it did flood, it was actually alright. It would clean out some timber and keep stuff from growing so thick. With this drought, it is weeds galore in the timbers. The open area is CRP and the yellow dots represent where I have tree stands. Early season, I hunt the two far east stands. Once the end of October rolls around, I hit the bedding areas in the thick stuff. Last year I took a 131 during peak rut on the middle stand. A couple days before, I had a 150+ bust me on the far southeast one. Right now I have three cameras up on this ground and will probably get a check tomorrow. Hopefully I have some good news to report!
This is my property in Jersey County, IL. Like I tell people, it's a lot of hills. It's 85 acres, but if I flattened it out it probably would be 150 acres. The long skinny field is crp in the creek bottom and the odd shaped field on top of the hill is my 5 acre food plot. Lots of hills and hollows between the 2. Too many small ridges. I always seem to be 1 or 2 ridges off.
Not a large are to hunt, but it sure is convenient. There is a 2000 acre Hunting camp across the street from me to the North & a large mountain to the south that a few of my neighbors own. A couple thousand acres of farmland to the west with corn and hayfields interdispersed... Our lot is somewhat of a funnel and is very thick, so it's a good safety area when deer feel pressured...
