I got this journal idea from FRITZ and thought it would be a great opportunity to share my triumphs and failures from summer scouting, food plots, and hanging my stands leading into the IL 2011 season to hopefully harvesting a deer or three. So follow me as I continue my quest to kill something other than my pride. The property I hunt on is 60 acres in the Shoal Creek bottoms east of STL, MO. This will be my 2nd year of hunting it and supposedly I’m the only one who’s had permission to hunt it in over 15 years. This property is a thick mess of trees and bushes in the middle of fields and wetlands. The problem I had last year was the deer go everywhere as this ground is mostly flat, and the deer are everywhere. So this year I decided to plant some kill plots at different known funnels. These funnels are about 100 yards from the main bean field. I wasn’t able to plant anything this spring, due to the crazy floods of 2011 in IL. I wasn’t able to plant anything until mid July. (I know this isn’t the time to plant, but I was eager to get these deer into rhythm, prior to the beginning of bow season.) I started by spraying round up and killing off all vegetation in my small chosen areas; next, I went back down and discovered that one area was still too muddy to till up. So I bought a bag of “Throw and Grow” and through it out over the semi muddy ground. The pics below are from the "Throw N Grow" plot. View attachment 7826 below is this plot after a month passed. View attachment 7835 In my 2nd kill plot I was able to till up the ground and here I planted loose leaf lettuce, spinach, and turnips (end of July) then it rained over an inch. This time, l am pretty sure the actual goods are growing. View attachment 7824 I'll try and stop by this week to get some better pictures of both plots. here is my journey on my main kill plot with a tiller and rake. View attachment 7832 a week passed. View attachment 7834 and another week. View attachment 7833 and so on. View attachment 7831 a doe and Fawn checking things out. View attachment 7836
Well three weeks ago I made my final camera and plot check. This is how the plot is (not) turning out. Unfortunately, on my way to the woods I stopped to pick up more radishes from the local Wally World and they were out. I had to settle for loose leaf lettuce, cabbage, mustard, and spinach. All of which, I tossed out over the loose dirt. Lucky for me we got 2 inch’s of rain why we were heading back to my SUV. I haven’t been back since, but I hope something start growing there.
Now it 3:00 PM on Friday the 30th of September, and I am officially off work. So hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more updates as my 2011 officially starts at 6:23 AM.
Well September 30th I began loading my SUV with all of my gear. I ran through my checklist to ensure that everything I needed was available. Afterwards, I lay down to get some sleep about 9:30 PM at 2: AM me little (16 month) guy woke me up crying in his crib. I went in his room and held him for a little while then put him back to sleep and jumped in the shower. I put on my base layer and then some Addis pants (washed in scent eliminator) over the base layers. At 2:45 I’m in the SUV on my way to the woods. I arrive at 3:20 AM and begin dressing for today’s hunt. The first time is always the longest. I get all of my gear on then realize I forgot to put my scent away deodorant on. I quickly remove some clothing and apply the deodorant. Next I am rushing to get everything in my bag. It’s already 4:00 AM the time I was hoping to be in the stand. So a rush across the west bean field and enter my woods. My stand location for this morning’s hunt is located on the other end of my 60 acres of timber. It’s on top of a hill face a corn field and pasture on the east of the property. To the north of me is a hot bedding area. My knowledge of the deer and woods tells me that they (mature bucks) will hit this bed well before first light. So my intensions were to get set up 2 hours ahead of the light. I arrived at my stand around 4:30 am, and as soon as I hung my bow on the arm the sound of trigs cracking around me caught my attention. I sat very still for what seemed like an eternity. Nervously watching the time and trying to scan the darkness of morning for any sign of what’s making this noise. My watch is telling me it now 5:45 and the sky is starting to show life. I just realized that I don’t have an arrow knocked or my release handy. I nervously and slowly knock an arrow and begin searching my bag for my release. I found my back up release and am in content with it for now. Something just made a loud racket near the fence. I heard a dead branch break. I scan the area again and could see something white in the darkness. It’s “Ghost” the bone is glowing in the dark; however, I cannot make out the body yet. I believe this might be Ghost, but I can' tell from this picture. This is a picture from last season. hince the name "Ghost". I hold on to my release and bow. The release is a Velcro strap, so I can’t take the chance on strapping it to my hand, so I app to hold it tightly. Now its 6:05 and I can start seeing thing clearly. The buck has moved to my north and is moving in the thick bedding area. I can make out that he’s an absolute beastly buck. I’m set up perfect with a Northern wind. Meanwhile, I noticed movement out at the edge of the corn and pasture. It’s a small herd of deer. 2 does and 2 bucks. The smaller of the two buck is a little 4 pointer and he is grazing at 20 yard in front of me. The 2 does are at the fence and the other buck is about 40 yards in the first row of corn. He looks decent but not a brute like the buck north of me standing at 40 yards. Several moments pass and the herd begins crossing the fence right in front of me but slightly left at the entrance of the thick bedding area. I’m on my phone updating BH.com of my day thus far when the smaller buck stops’s at 5 yard and looks straight up at me. I then noticed that the other buck is a lot bigger then I originally gave him credit for. He is easily a 125 or 130 class. His G2’s are ridiculously tall. At this point there is nothing I can do since my bow is hanging behind me and the small buck knows I am up there. On the other hand, I have my #1 target buck 30 yards north of them laying down now. I can’t make out his body, but every time he moves his head all I see is bone. I decide not to risk spooking him and just remain motionless for the remained of the herds visit. Soon after, they disappeared behind me heading down the hill into the thick bottoms of my 60 acres. About 9:15 I hear tractors starting and the noise is getting loader. “Ghost” has now gotten up and moved further north. I can no longer make out any sign of him. I give it another half an hour and decide to get down and head home for lunch. I had a feeling that he was moving that direction from last year’s scouting; however, I haven’t a tree to place a stand in north of the bedding area, except for on the property line. So I’ll have to re think this bucks patterns and try a different approach. Later on in the day I decide to head back and quietly get back to the same stand. This time I brought my pruners to remove a few small branches that would give me a shot at the fence crossing the herd used this morning. After making pruning was complete a settled down for the evening at around 4:00 PM. Moments later I hear turkeys chirping south east of my stand. Shortly after I see one then another and another until I have 4 large toms grazing out in front of me. I nervously wait until then get to a clearing and I put my range finder on the closest Tom. The range finder reads 22 yards, so I set my 20 yard pin on his vitals and release my arrow. It land at the Toms feet. Puzzled I grab my range finder again and aim it at that same location and it now reads 34 yards. I decide to give it another shot the turkeys are still out in front. So this time I take two reading off the rangefinder at 35 feet, so I lunch another arrow at a different Tom and I hear it hit something. However, after 20 minutes the turkey is still grazing. WTF? Eventually the turkey head back south and leave me puzzled as to why that turkey wasn’t dead. Then around 5:35 PM I could make out two fawns playing in the pasture out front. They were probably 60 yards out and running in circles. I never made mom out, but around 6 I hear movement behind me and slowly turn my head to catch sight of an 18 month doe at 20 yards. I had to fold in my bow hanger and prepare for the shot. She came right into my lane and I took aim. As soon as I released my arrow it went over her shoulder. She darted out of sight but started moving towards me, but this time to my right. She appeared again at less than 10 yards. I already had another arrow knocked and ready. This time I put the arrow right where I was aiming and she took off. I hear a couple of crashes and then it went silent. I went to look at my watch for the time and noticed that I only had my leather band to watch? I looked down and saw it on the ground behind my stand. That explains why I missed the first shot. My string hit my watch. Oh well! I decide to get down and pick up my failed arrows from earlier. I first retrieve my 2nd shot at the turkey I thought I hit and discover there was a corn stock that my arrow hit in front of the turkey. Next a grabbed my 1st arrow. Lastly, I retrieve my arrow from the 1st shot at the doe. I then look for blood at the 2nd shot and boy did I find blood. The Rage 2 blade had delivered its promise to me. It looked as if someone had buckets of blood and splashed it all over the place. I couldn’t find the arrow and at that close it should have been sticking straight up out of the ground. Needless to say I didn’t have any trouble locating her. She only went about 50 yards and went down. But I could never find that arrow. I’ll continue the search during daylight hours. I’m a SR. Network Engineer and with this job I’m required to be on-call every so often. It just happens that I’m on call the next couple of weeks. So this works out well for me. I need something to keep me away from this stand for a while. I want this area to rest for awhile to keep the deer at ease. So my next hunt won’t be until Oct 22nd. I’ll most likely hunt all day long during this sit. Hopefully I’ll be able to encounter “Ghost” during this all day hunt. Best of luck to everyone else, and stay tuned.
Here is a photo from in the stand I hunted opening day. The trees are where my property ends and deer have a heavy trail on my side of the line parallel. No one hunts on property unless they are set up in my woods. I'm set up about 15 yards to the line. But I don't intend on shooting anything on the neighbor’s property, as all the deer cross the fence here. I have very limited visibility in this spot, but I didn't want to make too many changes as the mature buck’s bed feet, yard to the left of this picture. This same neighbor set up a stand on the fence facing my property last year for gun season. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen this year.
On Saturday my buddy went down to the property to hunt his stand. He didn't see anything other than an owl. he stated that the rub's are now starting to show up along out path's. It was 85 Saturday, so I wasn't surprised that he didn't see anything. He also walked up to my stand and reported that the corn has been cut and disc over already. I believe winter wheat will be planted. Nice!
Well its 2:40 AM and I am still working. I’ve only been up since 12:00 AM regardless I can sleep in to get caught up on sleep, so Instead, I may head down to hang another set up on the property. I had a neighbor set up on the fence line facing my property last year, but only 90 yards from my small hang on. he probably didn't see. I heard a gunshot, from that direction, last year on opening day for shotgun and that’s when I discovered the stand. Needless to say, I am hoping by hanging a stand there, that I may, prevent this ace from hunting my property again. Especially, when it’s that close to my "Ghost” sightings. Plus I was hoping to hunt it as well. Lol Hopefully, I’ll take the little guy to daycare and then head that way around 7:45.
, I made it to the property this morning around 9:30 AM. I parked the SUV and started walking on the edge of the beans towards the entrance of the property. As I started approaching the woods I looked ahead and saw a doe walking across the path into the field. I stood there watching her for about 15 minutes and decided that I've already killed my doe for the year and continued on. I was able to get 20 yards from her before she saw me. Ninja skills of course. She trotted off into the woods and I went on my way. As I got closer to the woods were she was standing I started seeing rubs and deer droppings everwhere. I bet I counted 30 different piles and clumps of pooh in a row. The farms have cut out all of the crops on the other side of the property, so it seems that for now all the deer have moved to this side. Well grabbed my climber and went towards the far end of the property to place it up near my Buck stand. when I got close I started seeing rubs everywhere. hince the name Buck Stand. I looked for a good tree to hang my climber and then there it was. A neighbor had put his ladder stand on the property line again. So I simply hung my climber right in front of his stand. I also had a roll of the Tinks No Tresspassing tape and taped every tree in that area. I believe this guy only hunts shot gun season, but I don't care. he facing my woods and I am pissed. This is my buck area and I can't stand for someone moving in on it. I hung a new camera up facing the rubs in hopes of chaptering what buck this is. Next I went on to my hill stand and did some more triming to allow me to see further down the hill. I also hung a camera up there at the fence crossing. I would have liked to hanged one other camera, but the batteries were dead and the memory was full. I can't wait to check that out. this camera i pulled from my failed food plot. how ever, it seems that some of my veggies are making a come back. Ok
Well its Monday the 17th of October. I am no longer on call, well at least I'm not this week. I started workind around 4 AM when I got a work call. so I have 3 hours extra today, and I am contemplating on what to do with it. We are expecting rain this afternoon, so I am considering leaving around 1 and heading down to the property to check my cameras out for any daytime activity. However, Thursday is calling for lows in the 32 range and 55 for high. this will be the coldest day yet. I am considering taking a much needed vacation day and sitting all day. Either way I will be hunting all day Saturday the 22nd, so I don't want to bother my grounds anymore then needed. I just want to check my cameras to see where I might have the best luck on Saturday. What to do?
October 18th came like any other work day. However, I wasn’t feeling energized to go to work. After dropping the little man off at Day Care I began my 45 minute commute to work. However, not too far into my rainy drive I began to wonder about my upcoming weekend of hunting. I have sat for nearly 3 weeks and was concerned about where I would hunt with the best chances of see a mature buck. So far this year I have had any encounters with any sizable bucks on any of my 5 trail cameras. I said to myself, Self, today would be a perfect day to go check my cameras and perhaps venture into the 20 acers of our property that we’ve never scouted. This portion of my timber is so thick that it almost impossible to wonder in there undetected. So I decided to hope the fence and wonder along the property line, going south, looking for signs of deer traffic going into my property. I reached a point were there was a small creek bed and the fence had changed styles. I decided that this is close enough to the boundary line. I was looking for a crossing in the fence when I look out across the neighboring property and saw Corn on the hill. This was still green corn too. I thought perhaps that is someone’s food plot or just a small field of corn planted very late in the season. Well I continued my search for a crossing back onto my property when I found a slot in between the fence that was removed. It was very clear that deer are using this open as there was hardly any vegetation on the ground here. I crossed back onto my property and continued to follow this trail. It is very thick and very hard to see past 15 feet. However, I continued on my way and soon things started opening up a little. At the beginning of the opening the trail I was following split into three different directions. One heading south the other heading east and then I looked up the north trail. The northern trail I discovered this after about 10 yards. Followed by this one only 5 yards further north. (I think he's a biggen!) Then at 15 yards I found this. (Yes, definitly a biggen!) Well I know no one has hunted this because coming from neighboring properties you must crawl through some of the thick stuff, as I did. I decided that this is a big one making these rubs, and it has not been disturbed (by humans) yet. So I quickly scanned the forest for possible stand locations. One tree was a mature Oak/Hickory tree with plenty of cover (leaves); however it sat over 40 yards from the trail split and was only 4 yards off the trail and the last rub. I would only have one shot opertunity and it would be directly under my stand. The other opinion was a semi Dead tree. It was 20 yard off the rub line and 20 +/- yards off the east bound trail. I decided not to waist anymore time scanning the area. Because I needed to get to the shed and grab my emergency hang on stand and climbing sticks. I decided the best way to get out into and out of that area would be to make my own path heading North until I hit one of our (man made) trails. I was lucky enough that I had some of the tack markers in my bag of goodies. So I slowly and carefully made my way north through the thick stuff. My pruning tool was my life line for this short journey. I was able to find and old logging road only after 70 yards. I followed it to the base of the only hill on my property. There I made a couple of cuts and I was on my trail again. So off to the house to grab my stand and back I found my way back without issues carrying my stand and my sticks. After a short while I had everything up and started making some small branches/Twiggs removal (Shooting lane). Next I made a medium size scrape on the path a couple of feet from the rubs. I placed one of the daytime only activators in a tree up above and placed my camera on a close by tree. Somewhere on my return trip I misplaced my scent blocker spray (Crap). I grabbed a hand full of grass and started rubbing it on my camera. Perhaps this will cover my human scent???? Anyways, I got everything finished up there and left. My plan is to hunt here on Saturday all day long. I plenty of pics with doe’s walking around all times of the day, without fawns. I am hoping that’s a good sign. But never the less, I hope this is a good stand location? I am pleased that no one has been in there for many years.
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to update from the stand yesterday, but I was in the big buck territory, with no service at all. However, I had a run in with a new hit list buck and just about shot him when Ghost popped out of no where and literally stepped on the outer buck while be was bedding. Ghost is most likely a 170" he was broadside at 35 yards. I didn't have time to pull my bow back before he walked out of distance and started making short work of a 4"+ tree. They both bedded down about 60 YDS from me out of sight. I thinker God for this encounter. I almost shot this other great buck, but when I saw Ghost, there's no doubts that I made possibly the best decision of my life, by waiting.g for a better ( closer) shot. I would have destroyed this perfect bedding area. Needless to say no one will be able to hunt this stand unless I take them there. It is so hard to find it, because of the thickness. I had carved a small path no where close to the main trail. These are picks of the almost buck that bedded infront of me, not Ghost.. What do you think he will score?
Well I didn't do a very good job of keeping this post updated, as I've been on the road a lot and not in the office. However, I'll try and update everyone on my season thus far. I've only hunted 6 times this year. I don't like to over hunt areas I hunt so I try and limit my visits to at least 1 sit a week. This method has proven to be very helpful for seeing more deer during my sits. Oct 22nd I sat all day in a new set up and had an amazing encounter with two large shooter bucks. fast forward to last Saturday Nov 12th my hunting buddy had the same encounter on the hill stand. the bigger of the two bucks was a giant 10 pointer. the smaller was a very nice 8 (so he thought). This past weekend was IL shotgun season. I took off Friday 18th. to try my luck at putting down on of these two bucks. I would rather shoot them with my bow as it would have more meaning to me, but I wanted to harvest them not someone else. I met my older brother at a closed bar around 4:30 AM. he followed me down to the property. we got ready and we headed into the woods. I took him to my 2 Man stand where I planted the failed food plot. (Not failed anymore) then I made me way to my Black Ops stand where I had several scrapes and the encounter with the 2 hawgs. I was undecided on hunting this location again, so I wanted to check the trail camera and make my mind up with the images captured. Nothing! So my mind was set, and I was heading to the hill stand. I arrived at the base of the hill and hung a buck urine wick. then again half way of the hill on a natural trail then I hung several doe in estrus and dominant buck wick up wind of my stand. I finally got into the stand at 5:40. soon the floor in the woods would come alive. I know that these bucks would be active today and soon they would make an appearance behind my stand, so I stood up at about 6:20 to look behind my stand and there he was. one of the bucks but I was sure which one, because of the thickness of the woods and lack of light. He stopped at my sent wick and I rested my gun on the bow arm that was screwed into the tree. I waited for the perfect shot at 35 yards and pulled the trigger. he ran I knew i missed him, so I grabbed my grunt call and made a couple of unfriendly sounds. he stopped in his track and came back up the hill this time he was standing broadside at 50 directly in front of my. with no support of the bow arm to steady my gun I place the bead behind his shoulder and aimed at this top of his back. (gun shoots low). I pulled the trigger again and watched has he leaped into the air and hit the ground then I could hear him crashing all the way down the hill. Perfect, I thought. It was a good hit. I waited for about 30 minutes, while I was texting my brother about my shots, and got down to look for blood at the first shot taken. I found nothing there, so I headed over to the 2nd shot and I found this. His liver was all over the place. I said to myself, "Self you've got yourself a dead deer, but he is probably still alive. So, I headed back to the stand to gather my things and wait it out. About an hour after my discovery I hear my brother shoot. Then again, and again. I texted him "???". he replied "Buck, but my Red Dot scope wouldn't turn on." So I decided that I'll head down to his stand and help him look for blood, while I was waiting for my final hour to get over with. He missed completely. no blood at all. I was able to find the buck’s tracks and we followed them for awhile but no sign of injury. so, we gather our things and went after my buck. it was 9:30 AM when we start following the massive blood trail. he went deep into cover and died just in front of my Black Ops stand. 150 YRDS. I knew as soon as I saw him that he was the smaller buck from this summer’s trail camera. Needless to say I was happy to have harvested him, but disappointed at the same time, because I knew he would have made a great 1st buck for one of the hunters out here. Oh Well. On another note, the trail camera pictures gave him no credit what so ever. however, he was a young buck probably 3 years and he weighed 170 lbs. I'll be giving him the old Euro mount. My season isn't over yet, so stay tuned for I have a very large 10 pointer to take down yet. we have no pics of him, but you can tell these two are related. Them have the style/shaped rack, but the 10 is twice as large. this ten is "Ghost".
