as close to in the stand for me right now 7:16 am this morning think only 1 of these would be legal in the county I hunt but I'd be thrilled if 3 little bucks walked in front of me. You can see a stand in the background of the picture
1 of the two main highways through the NC mtns into TN...closed and gonna take months to reopen. Pretty much all roads in western NC have been closed per state DOT. No power, phone, very scattered service. Pretty much every swift water rescue teams headed to the mtns, if they aren't already there. There will be many dead.
Well, the wind was completely wrong to slip into their bedding area so I broke off a different direction. Had a really funky spike come in to cow calls. He had two antlers growing from his right side, one was quite a bit longer than the other. The longer one was all rubbed off and the shorter one still had velvet. He had no antler at all on his left side where one should be. Other than that, no action. Headed back off the mountain to recharge at camp before heading back out this afternoon.
It's like that in VT when Hurricanes or Tropical Storms come through. Terrible flooding, mud and rock slides, roads washed away and sometime people die from falling trees or getting to close to the water. It's a terrible thing , nature can be very violent.
I'm on the ground, all set up and waiting for deer. I've shot a couple really nice Bucks here and several Doe. Solar panels were put in a couple years ago so I moved about 80yds from where I used to sit. I'm about 50yds off the solar panel fence line, hoping they will walk somewhat close to the fence, head to the brook 20yds to my right and the cross right in front of me on the way to the standing corn 20yds to my left. Lots of corn damage here, so I think it's a good plan. I'd hang a stand here but there are so many low branches on these trees that they would interfere with shots from 20' up. Good luck Friday Hunters.
I'm aware. Mountains just seem to comb the moisture out of passing storms. Fwiw-I grew up south of Saratoga. A good bit of my mother's kin from VT & the Adirondaks regions. The black flies and deer flies also no joke at their peak seasons...
Love the natural ground blind. Puts you on the deer's level, which can be pretty intense. Here's a pic from my blind from yesterday evening. I have a great view of where they come through, whenever that'll be.
As you know Ive had a busy summer. Today I finally had time to check out swamp property. Checked a problem line to find several signs missing and stands just feet off line. This is a hill side property. Gradual slope on top, 200 yards then a steep drop to a mid hill swamp. This is start of several streams, gradual 100 yrd slope then a steep drop to main lower swamp. Lots of mature beech, oak, river birch, some pine and a lot of witch hazel lower section is a lot of dead ash, some apple, black walnuts and a few maple. I snapped many young beech for shooting cleaned trails to stear deer off the property line checked the big open box blind. Need to do some work on the upper elevated box blind. I stayed clear of the lower swamp ladder stand until a first hunt. A lot of fresh heavy used trails. Some fairly nice hoof size. Heavy, heavy oak drop Will go down and replace the signs and hang some cams a long the one line
Well the power company came by and decided to Bush hog the fence line. Now it's starting to rain on me. Maybe I should have gone to the tree. There's a tree umbrella there and its 400yds from the noise.
He's finally gone, 1.5hrs of shooting time left. Come on deer. So far just light rain. I'm gonna stick it out.
More on the damages in the mtns. https://x.com/nikoliasgoninus/status/1839759876450595237?s=46 https://x.com/two_plus_twins/status/1839797139649544506?s=46
That's how it was for me yesterday evening. Just a light rain, which I was willing to sit through, then all hell broke loose with a 15 minute downpour! I sat through that also, but my efforts weren't rewarded. Gotta play to win. Here in SE Penna, it's supposed to be crappy for the next several days. Won't hunt again until the latter part of next week.
Boys are starting to get frisky. 100” 8 and a 6 have been sparring in front of the cam for a good 20 minutes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Rise and shine all you East coast hunters. Good luck to everyone who's out today. Deer are going to die today.
Tree umbrellas are so nice! Rain covered my noise in, didn't get wet under the layers. 62deg and staying in the 60s all day. Gonna get quiet, Rain should stop in 45min, shooting time about the same.
