Forgot to mention, my name is Ben Franson & I am the Community Manager here at bowhunting.com/ bowhunt or die. I work in the office alongside Todd & JZ and hunt Northern IL + West/Central IL. Have 4 farms I will be bouncing between, and deploying 8 more cameras between 2 farms on Saturday. Was chasing a 192 last year on one of these pieces - they grow them big in Fulton County, IL
Franson, those are some big bucks. Nobody laugh to hard at my little guys. if you do laugh do it behind my back so I don’t feel too bad
One of the newer bucks that made his way onto my home farm - I think he's 4 IF he is the buck I think he was last year. Have many better pics + vids. but they aren't on my STC.
Had fun working up on my farm today. Only dumb move was I forgot batteries. Had enough to get one camera up and running, will have to go back up next week. My sunflower/sorghum/millet/chufa plots look great, should be a good turkey, dove , and pheasant plot. Clover got taken over, my mower broke down and it's a bit of a mess. Today I sprayed out two plots and broadcast in a fall plot mix getting in a bit late for my taste but it is what it is. Should still do ok. Hung a couple of lick ropes and freshed up the scrapes, good day overall. Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
How far from home is the farm, not having batteries would sting.... I'm heading down to some properties this afternoon (3 HRs) and thinking about stopping to get something for scrapes... Any reccomendations?
Oh it's only a half hour so it ain't bad. Lol. As for scrapes I do nothing but hoe up the ground and then pee in it, lol. If I am doing a lick, I like the HODAG hemp rope kits that come with a liquid. Sometimes I'll pour a little of that into the scrape also. Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
Finally saw a couple bucks on the camera. Two big Eights and a Six. They seem to be hanging out down the mountain next to my father in law's spot, but I'll be sitting in between a couple corn and bean fields, so hopefully they make their way up the mountain!
So, we are hunting big bucks? I'll be honest, all this talk about "Spikes" was starting to worry me. When I'm hunting South Dakota, the rule I set for myself is "4 points on one side". I rarely see deer in the Black Hills which go over 125 inches. I usually let small bucks walk... until the last day, last second of the season. I am trying to line up at least one out of state doe hunt. I normally have tags in several states. This year has been a bust. I have a Colorado bear tag and a South Dakota deer tag. Bow hunting is the blood that flows through my veins. Not drawing licenses is killing me. My saving grace, I will be hunting in Hungary this year during the week of Thanksgiving for Central European Mouflon, Red Deer, and hopefully a fox. The European Mouflon is the last game species I need to complete SCI's World Hunting Award. The mouflon will be my 179 big game species taken with archery equipment.
Yesterday evening I was hunting with my granddaughter. She really wants to get a deer with her bow. We had a really cool encounter.
That is a cool encounter, and I am glad you had the opportunity to share it with your granddaughter. Our Colorado deer and elk archery season starts Tuesday. I will hit the mountains next weekend with a few friends mainly to help pack whatever they get out. I have just a bear tag. If I am lucky enough, someone will provide a carcass to hunt over. My deer season in South Dakota starts in October. Back in the 1990s, I set a goal to successfully hunt a representative deer in all 50 states. I am 26 deer into that goal. With the lack of tags, I hope to pursue deer in the Northeast (New England states) or the Southeast (Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina). I might sneak up to North Dakota...for a long weekend. Here's a map of what I have left to hunt. Red=been there, green=still need to hunt, and grey=need to go back. I arrowed a nice mature mule deer in the southeast corner of New Mexico, but hogs devoured and carted it off before I could get my hands on him. I shot the deer at day's end and had to wait for better light the following morning. I found a giant blood soaked, upturned, spot on the ground where I assumed the deer died. A good blood trail stopped right at that position. Pig poo, pig tracks, and deer hair were everywhere around the spot...but no deer.
