the good, the bad and the ugly today... checked two trail cams which are in different counties actually.. I will start with the ugly and work towards the good... The ugly.. one of my trail cams memory cards failed and had an error, THE only one I didnt take a test pix or two with before I left... so it sat for 3 weeks...not a single pix at a place I am very very excited about .... The bad ... at this cam.. NOTHING other than the memory card error. The good, this place was completely obliterated with elk and deer tracks, unlike any system of trails I have ever set up on. This is a wagon wheel of trails leaving this natural water hole hub.. its just amazing.. fresh elk and buck sign all over in there. This place is DEEP in the forest on a mountain side ridge that I would have never found if it wouldnt have been for a hard core search two years ago for a "certain" shed that my friend had found the other side too while getting firewood. So I changed the card out, checked the camera twice and pix worked fine, got it set up and got the heck out, after seeing this sign in there, I can not wait to see what these 90 degree days will bring to this hidden waterhole.. Second trail cam down the road about 40 miles.. The good, place was hammered with fresh tracks and sign, scrape has been being hit forsure. Camera is turned sideways when I get there... 14 pix on the card then a black bear pix then right after that one... SLAM.. bear must of jerked on it so hard that it shook the batteries loose. Once i opened it up inspected it and put the batteries back in tight it worked fine... So for three weeks, I got 14 pix out of two places that are litterally be pounded by elk, deer and bears.. Good new is I have them running now, added some extra straps to help secure them and hope and pray the NEW cards i switched out will work fine for the next couple weeks. These two places were so torn up with so much activity that I would hunt these without trail cam pix.. but man do I want to know what is using these areas. I saw the biggest bull elk track I have ever seen at the secluded water hole.. a giant track. big buck tracks at both spots too. I believe I am going to get a ton of daylight movement at both of these spots. Time will tell .. I guess sometimes we just gotta roll with the punches.. NO sign of any humans in these areas either.. which was nice.. I had my son Ty with me and he was bummed but I got to teach him that things do always work as planned with mother nature and wild animals! Checking 2 more tomorrow and then off to go sturgeon fishing at noon for the weekend! Let the others cook till next week as I cycle through the rest of them..
Shed- it is always so dissapointing when you are giving the trail cams time to sit and when you finally check them something little has changed the outcome of what you were hoping for. Sounds like that secluded water hole you have found will produce some great pictures.
I'll be setting my 2 Captures up about the second week of August, when most of the antler growth has taken place. Sort of a "what you see is what you've got" kind of thing.
Been A Busy Year So Far Well I was able to finally get out to the bush to hang a few stands and put out 2 TC to see how the deer have wintered. Never did find any winter kill so it could be promising. The bush has never been so full of under growth and the fence lines are almost filled in. Man I'm pumped ,with all the rainfall so far this summer the deer should have good antler growth.I'll be able to tell in 2 weeks after I bring in my TC to see whats lurking on the property. Still have 4 more properties to check out and revamp as the growth is rediculus and I'll have to get back in there to recut shooting lanes in almost all my stands . It's pretty bad when you go into a stand location and can't find your stand because of the growth. Specially since I've had the one stand in the same location for 12 years,LMAO ,or is it senility setting in????. Good luck to all bow hunting this year,and be safe. God Bless Rocky
Just got done looking at trail cam pictures. Didnt get any pictures of potential targets for this year. Was hoping to get a picture of a big eight I have been glassing. Had a lot of 1.5yr old bucks, does and fawns. Have another cam to pull cards from this weekend coming up. Food plots have been growing like crazy, deer are hitting the plots and the mineral stations hard. Headed out tonight to do some glassing, should be a good night for it.
Here is a buck I first captured on trail cam at my buckfever synthetic scrape last year for the first time in August 09. I called him shorty due to his short left browtine, I felt like he was a 3.5 year old 5x5 in this black and white pic from last year. I am getting tons of pix of him this year frequenting the scrape already. This year he's a 6x5 now and one of those bucks that I will have a hard time passing but know if he can make it one more year he will really put on some size. He will have to be a gametime decision for me.. Notice his split in his left ear, its a dead give away... same buck. added a couple other bucks in the same spot hitting the BF mock scrape licking branch
Shed- Ya that split in his left ear definitly gives him away. Looks like this year was very good to him on packing on additional antler. He is going to be hard to let walk by if he gives you the chance. He has a great big body on him. Best of luck with shorty.
Oooh Man Troy, he's a nice one. I may just have to set a cam over a scrape at my main spot. Curiosity is leaning on me.
Shed, That is an incredible animal. Good luck. Hope to see a photo of you with him in the near future.
Checked a different camera for the first time today.. they are cooking up nicely, got 7 different bucks hitting this BF synthetic scrape. I was really hoping to get one particular big 4x4 on it in there, Ryan (rybo) and I had glassed him last fall while elk hunting.. anyway, this cam I set really is cooking! 1200 plus pix of elk and deer and a couple shooter bucks.. ( have it set on every 30 seconds so I am getting lots of pix) 1st pic, is of the big 4x4 I was hoping to see alive this year, I call him "Prettyboy" 4.5 or older 2nd pic is of a buck I call "Shooter" cause hes just a beauty of a buck, he's a shooter forsure. 4.5 or older 3rd pic is of a nice 4x5 I call Lopsider, his right side 5 is really much more dominate than his 4 point side.. hes a 4.5 year old as well 4th pic is of a buck I call Curley due to his curled up main beams. Hes looking good for a 3.5, needs one more year 5th pic is of a couple decent bulls feeding through.. This cam spot has 3 other bucks hitting it, just little guys, I was very happy to get so many daylight pix this should be a nice spot to hunt in a month. This is an area I have never put enough effort and time into hunting, I knew i needed to get in deep and set up this scrape and camera, I found a big scrape in March that I believe is a community scrape, based on the terrain features and all the trails that intersect at this area, I set mine up 20 yards away and overmarked the existing scrape. I am also getting 4 different does that I can tell on the TC in there as well, this is definately a hub location for these whitetails and its up in the big timber, thick and nasty on a beautiful natural bench.
Solid pictures like always shed. The body size and the racks on the deer there is awsome! Once again, best of luck with these great deer this season.
Shed it looks like you really put in the time and do your homework. I hope it pays off big for ya next month. Those are great animals for public land hunting, wow!
Thanks guys, checked a completely new camera today for the first time, public land again. Deep in the mountains, timbered area, big bench ridge, lots of ungodly thick brush combined with about a 60 -80 year old logging job.. Got these guys hitting my scrapes. No complaints .. a few elk and moose in here on the camera too. This spot is definately right on the edge or very near beds, this spring I had to crawl on my hands and knees many times in this area trying to look for sheds.. Anyway, every big buck pic on this camera was during daylight hours, that tells me I am very close to beds and in a great comfort zone of theirs.. 5 different bucks total counting a spiker regularily hitting my mock scrapes since July 3rd. Couple Shooters I have posted pix of below. the last pix is of my 4x4 "prettyboy" He's running both sides of this mountian, not the best pic but I had my strap get pulled on by some elk and it flapped over about half of the pix on this set.. GRRR wont happen again.. I fixed that today.
Thanks BF, these better bucks r 4 and 5 year olds imo. As far as body size they should push up to about 250 on the hoof at best. As far as racks go, I'm not sure I even have a 150 gross scoring buck yet.. maybe close on the buck I call "shooter" the 5x5.. I think the big wide 4x4 "Pretty boy" is about a 146 gross buck, hope he proves me wrong, I really like him.. He's just cool, I dont care what he scores, he comes by he's eating an ACC 371 shaft .. I have two really great cameras set up that I can't wait to check, have not checked them yet, gonna get one checked tomorrow, possibly both by the end of the weekend, they are long drive away.. I sure hope I can find a true hawg.. Out here in these mountains, a buck really doesnt put on any mass in general (always a few exceptions) until hes about 5.5 or 6.5 .. No complaints though I am very happy with my daylight frequency of many of these bucks, some of these guys I am getting 4 and 5 times per week in the daylight consistently. I am documenting every visit by every buck on a spreadsheet to build a better pattern on them.. Its funny how a couple of these guys are very on schedule then a couple others are very random in their times.. So far on 3 cameras that I have stand sites set .. or set to go in.. I have 21 different bucks counting the little guys. 3 forsure shooters, 2 others that will be a gametime decesion and some really nice 3.5s that will let walk.
My deer forecast is a near 100% chance of deer from now until Oct 1. Then changing over to a 0 % chance of deer after Oct 1, along with partly cloudy conditions and a North wind 5-10 mph. :D LMAO. I hope the forecast is wrong.
WAY late to the party on this one (I'm like Steve; I never even think about this forum ). Just saw where you'd mentioned it in the mock-scrape thread. I think this got glossed over and caught my attention right up front; I'm surprised no one discussed it more in depth on the following seven pages: I 100% agree with this, and it's what I've tried to do lately as well. The only difference is I'm doing something a little different this year; I waited until just last week to put out ANY cams... I admit I'm a sucker for only wanting to see the bone once it's about shaped up, so I've just refrained from going into the woods at all. I can get excited about seeing them now... now that they're really filling out. I saw a NICE 10... maybe 12-pointer in the beanfield beside one of the areas I walked back into to hang a couple cams last week. I've GOT to start taking my camera with me... Of course, now that I've got my new camcorder on the way, I'll probably start taking that instead. My crop rotation is in my favorite format which has yielded the best results for me over the years on my main farm. With a little luck..
Been a while since i've touched base with anyone. Awesome looking pictures Troy, i'm excited to see what you can produce this year. Glad to see everyone else's season is on track and looking good. I have been working night the past few months so my scouting for the year has been very minimal. FInally got a promotion and put on days so more time can be spent on scouting now. Have a few good stand sets done and close to home for quick before/after work hunts. Have several smaller bucks, does, and one buck 120-130'' on camera. I have to get a better picture of the bugger buck yet, will be pulling the card on wednesday. Area is full of rut acitvity and doe's, so we should be seeing more bucks come late october, early november. However if the bigger buck i've got on camera steps out, and meets my 125'' goal for the season, he shall recieve a lethal dose of slick trick and carbon On a side note, just payed my deposit for a russian boar hunt this upcoming April
I'm way behind on getting stands and cameras up for this year. Only have 1 ladder stand hung, and that's just because I left it up. Only really plan on setting about 3 more up though on our farm, and staying mobile with my Lone Wolf the rest the time. Been busy getting a house ready for the parents, so hopefully I will have some free time soon. I did see the one of the bucks I'm after this year feeding in a bean field. The flooding in the area has all the deer pushed into the hills and away from any creek or river, so he was a good distance from what I think is the area he uses the most during the season. From what I could tell from the binocs he is a stud 12 pointer.
Went out glassing Tuesday night and finally put my eyes on what I have been waiting to see. I was pretty sure that this deer made it through the season, but seeing him has confirmed it. He definitly has gotten bigger but I am extremely impressed with the mass he has but on this year. I know where this deer is living, now the waiting game for October. I will be hanign 3 new stands on Saturday to hunt this buck.
Just got back from pulling the card out of my camera. Not really the results I was looking for. The two biggers bucks I got might break 115'' but not much more, should be really nice next year. Also, got several does/fawns which will be good for the rut.
