Well fellas I'd like to hear what your "area" is shaping up like for the upcoming fall whitetail season. We had an extremely easy winter and very rainy/ warm rut. I havent seen a winter like this since th 04 winter when the bucks I killed in 05 were very nice and I saw several hawgs that year.. Anyway, with a very LOW kill rate this past Nov by rifle hunters and an easy winter, Wolves being hunted now! plus tons of vegetation coming early this spring.. I think Northern Idaho will have a banner year of big bucks being killed. I hope to run 1 or 2 down myself. The recipe for success is in the making. How about you guys, how are things shaping up for fall in your neck of the woods.
well wth, may as well talk to myself.. on this thread.. Saw an absolute monster two days ago, biggest whitetail I've seen in a long time, already had main beams curling and was massive/wide as heck too. two droptines, Gotta get some video of this guy.
Honestly, I have no idea how things are shaping up for this fall. My hunting spot close to home I haven't set foot in since early March. Didn't come up with any good sheds this year, but that's pretty typical. As of December there were at least 3 shooters around so I'm hoping at least 1 or 2 made it through the winter if not all of them. We had a lot of snow cover on the ground this year, but from what I've seen it looks like most of the deer made it. I also had 1 or 2 other bucks that should be borderline shooters this fall, so I'm hoping for a good season. I'm not really anticipating putting my cameras out for another month or so. Probably start some velvet scouting around then too. The lease is always good and is always going to provide us a chance at some nice bucks, I have no doubt about that. With it being 5 hours from home I don't get down there much before the season starts. Currently I'm planning a trip for the weekend of July 10th for some stand clearing, fall food plot prep, and velvet scouting in a nearby bean field. We'll see how things go once I get down there.
I'll be putting my cameras out in a few weeks. I know there will be some bruisers in my area. That's great the you already have a nice one to hunt. I thought it was still a little early for much antler development.
The lands I do the majority of my hunting on are looking nice. We will a ton of corn and beans if things go as they normally do. Something I think may help this season is the low number of bucks killed last season(awful rainy weather during Nov. really limited the hunting pressure) and one of the main pieces of land that borders ours had a significant drop in their harvest (probably due to the weather and the fact that it is mainly old guys, no offense). I hope we have good rains during the spring and summer to aid the deer during development, and to support the farm crops & mast crops. It' looking good so far and I am very excited about the upcoming season.
We had a nasty storm system move in during opening week of gun season last year, right as the rut was kicking off. On the military base I hunt, very few big bucks were killed and many of the training areas were shut down during the season due to military training. Several major roads were washed out due to the rain and the areas around them (thousands of acres) were not hunted hard. I focused many of my scouting efforts in these areas and will hunt them hard, with a plan. I can't trail cam or really glass on the place I hunt, so all I can control is my hunting mindframe. I know it will be sharp and I have worked hard in the off-season. After that, it is up to the forest to offer up it's bounty to me.
I'm not that optimistic at this point in time. We had an extremely hard winter, BUT a very early spring & green up. Deer sign when i shed hunted was non existant, I think the snow forced the deer to winter elsewhere. Turkey season wasn't filled with too many deer sightings as it usually is. The general population I would imagine is pretty good, but the woods I hunt have been changing the past few years and losing some of thier draw. Plus 2 really nice bucks got taken in gun season last year.
Lol!! I always forget about this part of the forum. Our winter here was very long, full of snow, cold as hell. My bet Is that will have an effect on the bucks antler growth here this summer. On another note we've got beans this year In 2 of the 3 fields that the farmer planted who rents out the land. It seems every year we have beans here the antler growth Is that much better. The farmer rotates the crops each year. Beans one year, corn the next year and sometimes he'll plant It In alfalfa as well. Maybe with the hard winter and beans In the ground this year It will even out. As far as my opinion on what will be around this year- It could be a damn good year this year If a few different bucks made It through winter and make It through the summer this year. I'm pretty excited about hunting one particular buck and I'm a little curious on 2 other 3.5's that I passed on last year. One of the 3.5's was 105 to 110 Inches at best last year which was disappointing so It sure would be nice to see him this year to see If he still sucks or blossoms. The other 3.5 was In that 125 Inch range and was still alive the last week of December last year. He has good potential I think.
saw two more decent bucks last night 120 class looking deer to be... bucks and bulls are out and about right now.. June is here, scouting time begins now! Gonna throw up my trail cams in the next couple weeks over min licks.
We had a blanket of snow covering the ground from December through February.. and just as March hit.. it all disappeared.. and it probably was the fastest green-up I've ever seen since. I think I only found about 6 or 7 dead deer this shed season... when in previous years its been closer to 20 or more. And.. to top it off.. the corn was in way late last year. So.. my assessment thus far is for healthy deer numbers this fall. I know the 1 buck I've been waiting 2 years to hunt is still alive (through his bed sign)... so thats about all a man can ask for.
So far the weather has been good. The early winter was tough, but the late winter was nice. More importantly, we're getting good rain this Spring. Hopefully that will keep up. From experience, drought vs wet years makes a substaintial difference in antler growth. Oh yeah, and not having a baby this fall, makes the fall forecast look a lot better already!! lol
Good thread Troy. I wish I could add some exciting info on how my area is looking, but I can't. I've been busting my butt for the last 13 weekends at my place up north. Haven't even spent that much time in the woods. However, I do know that several decent bucks that I'm interested in, are alive and well. I have trail cam pics of them through the end of April, when I pulled my cams. This coming weekend I am taking a break from working up there and am planning on putting the cams back out in several locations that I have scouted out. One of the bucks that I like is bedding on one corner of my land. I think that I know a couple of his preferred trails........ the cams will tell! Here he is.
i second that joey, looks like its gonna be a pretty good season this alot of big bucks to chase. well see what the cameras produce in a month or so. but all in all i hoping for a promising season i think we all are.
Looking forward to hearing more about this guy Mike, did you mention him much over the past two years, can ya give me a little info on him. Is this the big boy you referring to with the big track, but no idea what kind of headgear he's sporting? Greg, that is a dandy buck, I so look forward to seeing what you get off your place, keep us posted, I am looking forward to your cam pix to come!
It is.. the same. In 2008 I hunted this farm for 1 day. Had an encounter with a buck who -no joke- pushed 350 pounds. He was a horse. This season I gained access to the land.. and immediately hunted his bedding area during the shed season.. and it was easy to find... about 200 yrds from that encounter. The pic below is a whitetail bed.. one buried into the dirt it's been used so often. It's about the size of my trucks hood. This weekend while hanging the stand for this particular buck.. I was very pleased to find another bed.. this one not more than 20 yards from my tree.. and tracks bigger than any I've ever seen. That bed was located about 150-200 yrds from the bed pic I will now post below. No need to see his antlers... "Crop-Circles" body-size is okay by me. I just hope to get the time out in the woods this year to hunt him. Although.. I'm probably jinxing myself anyway by posting pics of this....
-More snow cover than usual this year - but nothing drastic (ice/sub zero/etc). -A lot of corn was left in late however, and some were still in when season ended in Jan - no doubt giving the herd a jump start this year. -Lastly, Outfitting #'s were down 30-40% with the big outfitters in our area due to the economy, plus I saw less hunters on the State Parks = less bucks tagged. I really got some great spots picked out last year...just need some time off and the right wind
Real nice Mike, already hanging to kill. Sounds like a big bodied ole boy. I guess if anything it adds to the intrigue of what he "may" be, and if nothing else you already know he's one that you want no matter what he's packin' on his head. Thats cool. I was out again last night for a couple hours perched up on a high ridgeline over looking about 1000 acres of timber land that his scattered with clearcuts. Glassed till dark, saw a couple decent looking bucks and several elk, I swear there is more elk around this year than ever. Anyway, good luck, my motivation this summer is all about spending a considerable more amount of time in "new" public land areas trying to add to my hunting grounds and hopefully finding a hawg along the way to target outside of my already established grounds.
Yeah Ryan I went out into that area where you and I called that bull and small cow way up through that clearcut that evening, I glassed all of that country but from a higher vantage point.. elk all over in different pockets saw 3 more baby calves too!
