Only found couple morels yesterday and one was dried up but snagged a couple nice pheasant backs. Then i found a few huge buck beds along with a bunch more doe bedding. This one was like the master suite. Hair and buck poop all in and around it. I dont think anyone has been back in this area in quite some time. I really hope i can get permission to hunt this spot. Still working on it. At least i can mushroom and shed hunt it in the meantime. Foot is in the door.
Unfortunately, it appears the camera sat in the woods for 7 months without taking a single picture. Not sure what happened, but, I guess that is what happens when you use a 10 year-old camera. I found it in a box with my FIL's hunting stuff as I was cleaning after he passed. Manufacturer's date says March 2014. Oh well, guess I will have to buy a trail camera if I want to play that game. Also, I should have mentioned that with that buck bed I found, I picked out two trees within 25 yards; one for a N wind and one for a S wind. The bed is 75 yards off of a road that is due east, watching the road. Easy access on a west wind, tough to access on any kind of east wind without going way out of the way.
I have said the same about northern Wisconsin. Back in the 80s and 90s, big deer were being shot all over. Now you see photos and they barely hit 130. It's very strange.
Boat trips, mineral blocks..cameras coming out in new areas to gauge the potential. Locate a monster. Kill a monster.
I'm right there with you. Waiting for turkey season to be over, then hitting the woods looking for summer bucks. Don't want to be out there while others are hunting. Minerals were I can and using cameras again. Haven't used them the last few years, but it's time again. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Went for a strategic walk yesterday on our private spot with my hunting buddy. Have a few new ideas and looked at some new fall plot locations. Work starts soon. The bug is biting me already! Now time to build some new arrows, get a new string on the bow, and start flinging arrows.
Walked for a few hours. Set up one cam in deep. Found a good way in where I can ride a mountain bike for over a mile...come in down wind. I'll go back and get that cam in mid Aug.
Cam 2/minerals put out. Gauging potential of area. I like swampy places but I miss my Virginia ridges!
Found what looks like a fresh rubs while scouting this past weekend. What do you think; early shed buck or something else?
If that’s a cedar it looks like a rub made late last season. I don’t see how any buck in our area could have shed velvet this early. Antlers are still growing.
Jumping in late on this one, but the answer is relatively simple. We are more efficient at killing bigger bucks now than ever before. Harvest data shows the % of 3-year-old and older deer killed each fall is doing nothing but go up. While we may have less pressure and hunters on the whole, we are better at whacking them when they get a halfway decent rack, thus killing them before they get to 150". Genetics, nutrition and overall population numbers haven't changed much. But the age structure of the herd has. We pass all the young ones and kill them as soon as they get a rack big enough for us to post on Facebook.
Got in another good scout on Saturday in the 100*+ heat index. I went with a buddy back to one of the spots that I scouted last weekend. Confirmed a couple of things I found last weekend: 1) the NE Corner of the WMA borders a field on private land that has feeders and box blinds set up for gun season. 2) The eastern border is a military base with a 10’ high barbwire fence running south from the private land. 3) there are multiple bedding locations on the public side of the ridge with the closest to the private land feeders being 200 yards into public. 3) this spot is 1200 yards from the parking and requires climbing a steep 200’ high ridge. It is possible to walk the boundary line with the private from the parking in the north, over the ridge and get between this bedding and the private land. It is foolproof entry for a morning with a N or E wind. In the evening it works for a S or W wind. 4) Looks like it was a bumper crop for acorns last year. The few trees we found that had acorns are in small pockets near suspected bedding areas. 5) I confirmed that the bed I bumped the nice buck of last weekend is still being used. We found several other beds about 50 yards away that looked like doe bedding. Picture is the buck bed from another angle. Can you spot it? It looking like this will be a great spot come late October and early November before the gun season opens. There is a weekend-only youth hunt Nov 5-6 and a muzzleloader hunt mid-Oct for five days. Otherwise, this WMA is bow only. But, I think this spot will become a sanctuary. It is a difficult spot to get a deer out of, especially if you have a kid with you.
Saturday, I moved two stands, one for pre rut/ rut and one for doe shooting/ late season. I’m pumped for the pre rut/rut stand. I have a stand an about 100 yards north of this one but it turned out to kind of be the side stage and the main show is where I moved the new stand. Last year, with some cameras, I was able to nail down, what I believe to be a decent travel corridor. Not all pics were in daylight but who’s to say there wasn’t any day time movement 30 yards away. Here’s the map and last years pics from the two cameras I have there. Two weeks ago, this buck was spotted a mile from where I hunt. I doubt I get him on camera or lay eyes on him, but it’s still pretty freakin awesome to wonder “what if”. Geeeeeez I’m jacked up for this year.
SlickBilly, can't explain why but that terrain screams "big bucks". Be there early/mid Nov come he'll/high-water.
