2 weeks from tomorrow morning. Think I'm going to try a new plan this year. Probably go out opening weekend and try to put one in the freezer. If successful I will probably sit it out until Halloween weekend and then hit the rut hard. Two reasons for this. Work has taken an unexpected upswing in business, with 80% of the employees laid off this is causing havoc on scheduling. I will likely be working a lot of weekends leading up to "my time" and feel its best to cooperate now and rebel later on. I have taken off every weekend plus one of the first two weeks in November for the past 7 years. That won't change, so meed to build my leverage now. I will likely still have Sundays should I need them as double time is rarely being offered. Secondly, I'm starting to think I've been hunting too much in the early season. For 60-70 acres it's a rather concentrated area that gets hunted. Thinking if I can let it sit as close to the rut as possible my chances will go way up for putting another one on the wall. One thing that may change that thinking though is whether crops will be out or not. I'll try to put up a pic a bit later explaining my thinking. But found out last year my uncle has 5 acres that I didn't know about, neighbors gun hunt it but I can bow hunt in there. Kind of excited to try it though.
I've found its a hard balance between hunting when you have time, and hunting when it's the right time. I don't have any statistics behind this but I can tell you if you hold out in your "prime" spots until it's time, you will have more success. I have two spots that I will absolutely not sit in until early Nov, and have killed 4 bucks in 5 years, 3 of those were on the first sit of the year, the other was on the 2nd night. As far as knowing when the right time is, you will wake up one morning and know it's time to sit in that one spot. You always hear people say hunt when you can, but to me that only applies to areas you aren't familiar with, or haven't hunted much before. Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
My biggest problem is I go in early season with the mindset of putting meat in the freezer first chance. First sit I usually see something, sometimes akirt by just out of range and sometimes I wait for an opportunity on the mama and she escapes along with the young ones. Beforw I know it it's late October and I still haven't put one down, by that time I'm starting to see buck activity pick up so when a doe comes out, I keep waiting for him to appear and of course he never does. Now it's early November, still nothing in the freezer and I'm in buck only mode. I've overhunted a bit and got the does travel routes switched up and now I'm waiting on that cruiser buck. Granted most years it pays off anyway, but thinking I can make it so much easier by just starting later and hunting smarter rather than harder. 45 days from primetime, it's going to be gone before we know it. Make the most of it I say.
Here's what has me having a little excitement. I've loved hunting this property since I started back in 2007. I have seen 140-160" deer from stand nearly every year. It's a great low pressured honey hole so to speak My only wishes were that I could hunt some ag fields, especially during late harvest and early season. All of them are off limits on neighbors property. O can't remember why, but somehow it came up last year that he bought the 5 acres in the SW corner of the sat. image. He shares a private drive with the neighbor so between the 5 acres and the field is the little lane. Not too worried about that, won't be shooting into the field as it is not his property. My hope is a staging area of sorts. I might be completely off base with my thinking, but I finally have a makeshift field edge to utilize. 3 years ago, just out of the aerial image I seen the biggest buck I have ever seen outside of pictures or TV. Easily in the 180"+ range. Not expecting anything of the such, but he was in the valley of a cut bean field watching over his ladies. I tried for about 5 minutes to get a pic using my phone through binoculars but lost light. I know the borders don't match up on the images. Just a rough estimate on both. Hopefully they view finex saved them on my computer and emailed them to post with tapatalk
And the little angled offshoot looking borders, that is also new, didn't realize he had a narrow strip to the road
CLS, you are going to have a great season, I can feel it. I like the looks of the terrain on that property. I just finished prepping two rut hunting stands. Wont hunt them for about 6-7 weeks. I have two more to get done next week, and I wont hunt those for another 7-8 weeks. I got back to my hard scouting days this past off season, I hope it pays off.
You're due for that trophy of a lifetime, you definitely put in the work to do so. I hope we're both right Being that I am with crossbow this year, it is going to open up some deadly opportunities I believe. I am so ready for November 5th to get here.
Did some scouting with a friend that got drawn for the management hunt and he found a field that has had a bachelor group of bucks two nice ones 125-135. he came and hung a set shot one of the smaller ones a 7 point 4 days ago and now I'm in the set. he sat here last night they held true to the pattern let's hope they continue tonight!
Well shot a doe I film my hunts and watching the footage she dropped hard before my arrow got to her arrow stuck in her I think a bit high can't find blood will be back out to look in the morning
