Boonerville, Josh oh, and holt, on the same team. Great. I call a redraw! Jjk. Good luck guys looks like a good team Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I hope so too! For the contests' sake i hope he is the first buck i kill...he is 30 inches bigger than anything else I have on camera.
That's awesome! My cams have been super slow so far, but I'm not sweating it. Things seem to be improving a little with every check. My biggest target bucks didn't show up until the acorns started dropping last season... but I'm on public land that's highly unpredictable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hunt a CRP farm like that. In the summer I can't buy a mature buck picture. Nothing but does, fawns, and yearlings. then Oct 15 the property inhales a half dozen mature bucks overnight and they stay there until March...its weird. The 200 incher i was after last year didn't show up until Oct 21st. i know he survived because i have pics of him in late February. If he shows back up then I will have 2 giants to go after...which i am not sure if that will make it easier or harder to decide what/where to hunt. It should be exciting either way! I'm taking my rutcation Oct 28-Nov 12th.
Dude, that sounds like heaven. It's crazy that you guys are allowed to kill 3 bucks!! I have October 27 - November 26 off. If I punch my tag early (and buckeye does also), a road trip to Indiana is likely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good luck Jordan on your target bucks, sounds like you have should have some amazing hunts if all goes well. I am taking a bit of a different approach this year by not putting out too many cameras which causes us to check them too often. So much temptation to do so. We have actually saw some great deer that we have never gotten on camera before nor have seen from the stand even though they are +5 year old deer. We know they are in the area so we are trying to leave them as undisturbed as possible so we don't blow the big boys out of their area and wait until hunting season and decrease the pressure on them this year. I'm interested to see how the new strategy works.
Welcome guys good to see ya. Jordan I'm glad to be on your team, can't wait to see the giant you put down this year. I got some great news that's not deer related! This morning my wife and I just had are 2nd daughter! Everything went great and both mom and baby are very healthy.
Good luck to you too! I can't imagine where i would be without my trail cameras. They give me so much information. Without my cameras i would not know that many of the deer on my farms exist. It also helps me tremendously with identifying and aging shooter vs non shooters before hand, so when i see a buck it isn't a decision I have to make at the spur of the moment. For example, just today i was looking through last years pics and found a buck I have pics of this year that I originally thought was 3. My pics told me he is 4 this year. And based on where i have his pictures last year, this year, and found his shed in February, i know he is only using about 40 acres of a 460 acre farm. I have zero pics of him anywhere else but in one 40 acre section. That helps me tremendously if i decide to target that deer. I put all of my cameras where i can access them easily without educating deer. Obviously there is intrusion, but I personally feel the trade off is worth it because of the information i get.
I totally understand about the trail cams and being addicted to them and the info they provide. Hunting where I do is normally a one way in and out proposition for the deer and humans. Very steep mountainous terrain with 85 - 90% big woods which isn't conducive to multiple travel ways and what I have found over the years is that if I cut a new trail to a stand or camera then within one or two days the deer are using it. Tough to go undetected and I get the feeling that most of the mature deer start feeling pressured during preseason scouting and as the season progresses so changing things a little and going a bit old school.
So Josh have you been running camera's on public this year? Getting any pics of your buck from last year yet?
Yezzir! Between buckeye & I, we have a total of 10 cams out. They haven't shown us much yet though... we've had better luck driving and glassing the very few fields that are in the area (All private. I don't have access to them). There's been a few that should go between 130-140, but the true big boys are still safely tucked away on the surrounding private stuff. It's tough hunting here, being all big woods and some very unforgiving terrain.. but I live for these kinds of challenges!! Lol There's a well established pattern to it all though... Once the velvet sheds and the acorns start dropping, the transition to fall home ranges and travel patterns begins. This is when I start seeing what I'm looking for. I know from running 3 cams year-round that the two biggest bucks in the area are still alive. They should both be 160-170" this year. Just haven't gotten them on cam yet. Fingers crossed that they don't throw me a curveball this year! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
And also, Holt, CONGRATS on the new baby girl!!!! What an awesome blessing they are!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks Josh! Should be going home today. The other great thing is the wife is staying home for 3 months, so she can watch the kids and hopefully I can still hunt just as much as normal. I was on Buckeyes team last year and got to follow along on your guys adventure last year. Long forward to what you guys do this year! Also once everyone starts hunting there private land, hopefully it should push some of those bucks deep into public.
Guys, it really hammered home after seeing Booner's semi-live thread- I just wanted to throw out there that if you have the opportunity do not be afraid to skulk around and through CRP this season. In my areas, CRP is where it's at pre-rut and rut. How many times are you driving around doing whatever in the middle of the day, and you see a mature buck locked on to a doe out in the middle of CRP; or 2 bruisers mixing it up? I see it all the time. CRP is where I spot/stalked my buck last season. He wasn't a monster by any means, but he was a 3.5 year old which on Michigan public land is about as good as you could hope for. 2 days prior to my kill, my hunting partner (my cousin) saw a 160ish 12 point cruising on the other side of the same CRP field. 2 seasons ago an old guy in our camp killed a nice 6-7yo 150-ish 9 point coming into the woods from the same CRP. We usually see 2-3 very nice public land bucks there every season. It's to the point where I bought an Ameristep throwdown blind just to stick in my pack. If I don't have any action under my stand by 10a I plan on getting down into the CRP in the choke points with it and play the wind. http://www.ameristep.com/2017-new-products/throwdown.html
That's an awesome idea dnoodles! Best of luck up there. I've heard horror stories of how bad Michigan's public lands get hammered. I'm a firm believer in thinking outside the box when it comes to hunting highly pressured areas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
What's up dnoodles! Good to be on the same team again! I'm going to have to fight for a good buck this year, they sold the farm I was hunting last year. But I may have a secret weapon up my sleeve still this year, but it still in the works. I was able to locate a great buck this year, just trying to find a way to get access to hunt him. My other property I have a couple nice bucks showing up, also with some trespassers. So I will see how that goes. When I get home this week I will post up some pics and videos I got so far.
If given the choice I would rather hunt a crp farm with patches of trees or a couple draws than a timber farm any day of the week. Both my leases are crp farms with thin timbered draws running through them. My biggest property is open cow pasture with ponds surrounded by crp. My home farm is mostly ag with grassy terraces, crp, and very little timber. The only big timber spot I hunt is public land.
