Update on this buck As you recall I posted where a buddy on the lease shot this buck a while back.. Good news. He was seen last night 70 yards from where he was shot by my buddy. The shot hit him in the neck right in front of the shoulder blade. He has a scar and it looks like it was just a meat hit.
Got great news from the Covert scouting report. One of my hitlisters has showed up at one of my cameras 10 minutes after dark 2 days in a row. I know where he is bedded and I know where he is going and I have a stand right in the middle. Tonight is one of the most pumped times I have ever been to hunt.
Thats awesome. Whitetails are made to take a beating and keep ticking. I'm glad he was spotted again alive and well. This is the major reason I try to video now. The camera will tell you lots later that you did not notice, well hopefully. Now that one of his lives are down lets clear the other 8 and put this brute on the ground
Checking during lunch break. I might have to abandon Virginia until late season. The last 8 sits have resulted in nothing but passed time. I did hunt here on NC last night. We relocated a stand here an I love the setup. It tucked back in the wood line as far as I could without crossing the property line. I could see the tree it used to be in and no wonder we did not see much there. I mine as well had a neon sign above me as the setting sun lit it up like a star. Near dark I had a huge doe and three fawns come out. Had a 40 yard shot on one of the sinks but passed I was not sure if it was a button or not. Had to ask my step sone to drive the truck down to the field to bump the deer so I could get out. Not a bad problem to have. Seeing something helped raised my spirits as I was starting to get bummed a little. Looking forward to this weekend. Good luck to all that go out this week and be safe.
Craig - how is your NC hunting season going? I haven't had this hard a time early season finding deer in a couple years. There is acorns everywhere! The deer have completely shunned all corn and bean fields. This makes it mighty hard to pattern anything. I'm still waiting on the first real hard cold front to come through. Looks like it's happening gradually this year. I also am going to have to rely heavy on my trail cam information this year (never done that before) and try to hunt where the most does are coming through. Also, I just got word from a couple local farmers, there's a disease going round (in Zebulon, atleast) that is killing deer. They believe it's from a fly bite, not exactly sure how/why that was determined, but that's the word so far around here. So far, I have only found 1 fawn dead earlier in the season but that's about it. All the deer on my cameras look healthy so hopefully our farm wont be affect to offly bad.
Here are a some daylight bucks so far. Not the specific buck i'm looking for but 2 are definitely next year prospects...enjoy.
Didn't get a shot at my hitlist buck but did see two other bucks and a doe. Had one buck and the doe underneath me and then he started dogging her around the alfalfa field. I think I am going back to that stand tomorrow night.
continued Look on the right side of the picture for the next 3... Is this the same buck as the last one? I'm having a hard time with the body color and rack color...the timing leads me to believe it is but the colors do not.
Now that's what we like to hear! Good news! Good luck man. Hoping to see your hit list buck in pictures real soon
I have to get it done tomorrow. Going back to school tomorrow night and won't be able to hunt again until the weekend.
Chris, With the acorns deer have not been moving much at all. Last year at last light the fields would start to flood and all you had to know was which trail they preferred. This year is a matter of which tree they prefer. SO essentially a needle in the haystack. Bad news for me is that needle is not on any of the property I have permission to hunt. However Chatham County where I hunt in NC has been much better than Virginia because there are fewer acorn trees and more pines in that area. Due to that The deer are coming to the fields a little more. Hopefully though in the next couple of weeks primal urges will get the boys walking about in daylight searching for a hot doe. Because we had a wet summer they are saying that EHD is killing off a few deer here. I have not seen many fatalities and honestly by next month that should not be a problem as temps will kill off the flies if not already. With EHD the deer get fevers and generally are found near water because they try to get cool. Here is the link to the story in the News and Observer. Insects spread virus that kills deer | Outdoors | NewsObserver.com I personally don't think its a numbers issue due to the lack of bodies but then again I have a small patch of ground in which I am contained currently. In Va I think my cousin found the right tree because on Saturday he saw 8 before 7 am. I am really considering staying home this weekend and hunting in Chatham county but we will see. I am drawn back to Virginia for some reason, maybe familiarity. I did see a decent buck in NC during daylight. Unfortunately it was on the side of I-40 near Chapel Hill and I was in two lanes of traffic moving at a good click.
Chris, If you by chance see that black coyote put a few holes in him. As I understand it they are like black bucks and generally if they are darker they are the alpha. Not sure how true that is but either way the only good coyote is a dead one. There is only room for one alpha predator in the woods.
Usually with ehd you don't get a lot of deaths when there is plenty of water. It's when there is a drought, and deer cluster at the small stagnant water holes. So if there is plenty of clean fresh water, ehd deaths should be at a minimum. We have been hit pretty hard here in the Midwest the last couple years, but this year has been good.
I hear that! That's the plan, tho, hopefully i'll get him in a trap. Then i'll stuff that boy. Never seen a black yote before. And thanks for the EHD read, I'll be keeping an eye out for any more sickly or dead deer. I'm really hoping it doesn't get any of the bucks, especially the mature ones. They are few and far between in these parts.
I would venture to guess, excessive rain, is the worse parts for these parts. It's mostly swamp and low lying land where I hunt. So, when rain comes, it sits in pools until it dries up. Our swamps have some of the nastiest waters i've seen in a while right now. I've also heard that deer prefer stagnant water over running. The idea the biologist pointed out was that the stagnant water will have more of the soils vitamins.
Saw 3 more bucks tonight. They were moving early tonight. First buck I saw was at 5:00. I will try and get some video uploaded tonight for you guys to see.
It's only a matter of time before one of those big boys moves a little too early! Keep it up, still looking forward to a picture of you and a buck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
