Sucessful hunt with Before and After

[SuperChuck]

Well, I managed to go hunting today. It was an active evening for me, I saw 5 gobblers, ripped up 3-5 deer walking in and saw at least 3 bucks.. 2 of which are now in the cooler..

The larger buck of the two, I actually have on Game Camera a few nights ago....

Here are the BEFORE pictures

YES, there is another buck in the background, he's about the same size as the one in the foreground..

Notice the crooked browtines....


Now, Here are the AFTER pictures....

Notice the crooked browtines.

I actually had a smaller buck on the ground when this one could not resist the "Bleat in Heat" can I kept using every 10 minutes.. he was approximately 25 yards from me when he walked out..

This buck was already laid out in the foodplot, only 50 yards from where the larger buck came out..

All in all, I saw at least 3 legal bucks, the smaller buck was actually head butted and one-sided fought by another equal sized buck that decided it was time to win a fight (against a dead opponent)

It was a great evening in the woods....

SC

 

[HHB Guns]

Congrats. I have been hunting morning and night since fri morning and only seen does. were you using grunt or wheeze or rattle bag or just the bleat call? How man times were you bleating each time? Did some coyote hunting mid day but didnt see anything. Was hoping to get a kill on the .17HMR suppressed. Maybe next time.

 

[SuperChuck]

Used the bleat as much as a confidence call as anything else.. no other calls.. I'll use it immediately after setting up in th estand, so if anything noticed the sound of me walking in, it will calm things a bit more.

Once hunting, I use it anywhere from 10-15 minutes bleated twice and let things alone.. Watched the larger buck cross a line in front of me before I could shoot-did see he was a shooter, just no time to aim and fire... so I may have bleated more often in my excitement (every 10 mins) to pique his curiousity. He was over on another foodplot lane, that I could not see, so hoped his curiousity would draw him my way..

To top it all off, the treestand is walking distance from my parents house, I parked in the yard and walked to the stand - my mom heard some of the shots over the television. I was the only high-powered rifle shots fired this evening within earshot (3-4 miles) so my choice of stands was especially lucky.

The foodplots I mentioned planting a few weeks ago are coming up, and with the frost, the turnips, rape and daikon radishes are converting the starches to sugar, and the deer are hammering the foodplots now. they are ignoring the oats and eating the greens.

Tomorrow, I'll be sitting on foodplots with 3 different lanes, and visibility over 800 yards (8-point or better for me tomorrow) Its where my personal best 8 point was killed years ago...

Considering the action this evening, I have a feeling I won't be bored.. The moon's rising after sunset, so the deer seem to be getting more active just before dark.

If you want a change of scenery Henry, let me know, youre welcome to visit. The game camera proves I didn't break up the breed...LOL

You might want to use the 308 instead of the 458. If you're comfortable with 400 yards, my brother has taken 3-4 from one stand at that distance. normally, we start new visitors out in the "kiddie pool" - legal bucks allowed.... which is where I just killed those two deer... you never know

SC

 

[Clicker]

Congrats SC I know it makes for a great hunt when you have that much activity. What rifle did you use?
I've been stuck doing home & car chores for weeks now, just no time to hunt but that will change soon!

 

[SuperChuck]

That was my 25-06 Savage FP heavy barreled.

I have not had a chance to sight in the 300 Blackout Micro Rifle, and it would have been a good match to where I was-it handles faster than my long barrled 25-06.. I have the Blackout scoped, It gets sighted in today hopefully.

I'll also be checking out the 25-06, it appears to be shooting a couple inches higher than expected at 100 yards.

 

[SuperChuck]

Today's setup

Here's a View from the "Condo" Treestand.. 3 lanes of foodplots.. oats, rape, purple top turnips and daikon radishes...

10-12 turkeys, about 10 deer, most came out too late to field judge, but some were obviously does and yearlings, etc...

They are wearing the greens out...



Out front, 800+ yard view

Right Side View.. 250+ yards.

Left Side View.. 200+ yards

 

[HHB Guns]

ok Chuck you have my interest!!! I have 3 lanes 100-164 yards long. We would only plant about 15 ft wide and 60-100 yards long. Can you give me an idea how much this will set me back? Is it too late to plant this year? Your going to cause me to go broke. I already have about 2K invested since just Oct. Break it to me gently.

 

[SuperChuck]

We've had our first frosts, so its technically too late. Last 2 weeks of september are normally ideal, first two weeks of october close to the deadline. You want it warm enough at night that the seeds get a good jumpstart before the chill slows down the growth rates... PLUS, the deer will leave the greens (brassicas) alone until cold/frosty nights, after that, they "sweeten" and all of a sudden get REALLY popular.. They will eat the tops out of the turnips and in hard months, of Jan/feb dig up the turnips and eat the roots.

overall, we plant close to 6-10 acres. plow and cut in any grass, etc... let it get good and crumbly.

If its new ground, you'll want to lime it... lime is much cheaper than fertilizer but it makes fertilizer more effective.. Basically sets the pH of the soil in a condition that allows more nutrient uptake. First years lime lasts about 2 years, freshen up every other year.. small spaces you can use bagged lime, larger plots, you can hire a truck to spread it for you.


Topdress with fertilizer (approx 150-300 lbs/acre, based on Cert) and then drill in the oats.. About 50-100 lbs to the acre for heavy oats.

After the drilling is completed, use a VERY adjustable spreader - one that uses a narrow gap, or a shoulderslung hand spreader, to broadcast the fine seeds..

Dwarf Essex Rape, Purple top Turninps and Daikon Radish have seeds about the size of a sesame seed. rule of thumb is never plant a seed 8x deeper than its diameter.. So you have to be careful - you want your soil still fluffy after drilling, if its cloddy, your seed will go too deeply into the cracks. Use the chains on the grain drill to level and pulverize the final clods to prepare the seedbed for the small diameter seeds.

These seeds go about 5-10 lbs / acre at max, especially with the oats present too.. I mix portions of all seeds into a small drum bottom or bucket and try to predict what should go in alocation, and instead of broadcasting heavily, I broadcast lightly and cross my pattern multiple times to make it spread evenly.

After the topsown seeds, you keep your fingers crossed for a light, but steady rain to mash the seeds into the soil softly, so they germinate. You can use a cultipacker to press the seeds into the soil or a lawn roller, and this serves two purposes, it merges the seed into the soil, and allows better soil contact, which hastens germination.

Rough guess, I'm thinking we spend close to $75/acre on raw materials, not counting fuel... I'll try and turn it into real world numbers.. In all honesty, an effective foodplot is a longterm "investment" that can be measured in TONs of forage per acre..

After its all said and done you get this.....

Right before springtime, you can re-topdress with high nitrogen fertilizer and jump start your oats, (if any are left) if they head out, it becomes a very good turkey attractant.

ok Chuck you have my interest!!! I have 3 lanes 100-164 yards long. We would only plant about 15 ft wide and 60-100 yards long. Can you give me an idea how much this will set me back? Is it too late to plant this year? Your going to cause me to go broke. I already have about 2K invested since just Oct. Break it to me gently.

 

[SuperChuck]

You might be able to get by with a rye seed this time of year, it will not be as productive as earlier planted plots, but you might get some green, enough for grazing, before christmas....

You can broadcast it into your bushhogged lanes, it falls under the grass matt, as the grass dies off, the rye emerges, the dying grass protects the rye partially until it emerges at the same height... might buy you some time... any turkeys in the area find the exposed seed, and you will become REALLY popular... LOL


SC

 

[SuperChuck]

Wishful thinking

Well, at the stand I killed the 2 smaller deer, THIS showed up since Saturday........

 

[Clicker]

Man that's a nice buck!
What do you think SC I'd guess he is at least 4 years old huh?

 

[Enjay]

What other things would you consider planting?
My dad and his hunting buddy used to put out squash and pumpkin seeds, berry bush seeds, cherry tomato seeds and strawberry plant culls they'd get from u-pick type places. I think they based their choices more on what they observed the deer browsing on in the garden than anything else though

 

[SuperChuck]

Yeah Clicker, I'd think he's in that range, not past 5... It would be great if he was a 3, but I have a feeling that his barrel chest and staring ot thicken up around the middle he's right there around 4-5... He really doesn't seem so much swayback to my eye, so he's right there in his prime.

Considering he's been rutting hard for the last 3-4 weeks, he's still in mighty fine shape, solid with just a bit of loose skin.. Base on relative sizes to other deer in other pictures, he's up in the 170-180 lb range easily.. maybe pushing 190. The buck I killed from the earlier pictures was around 150 lbs...

If we don't get him this year, I hope he has a few more good up years with those genes to pass on. We have one more in his class on other cameras.. It'd make one of us proud to manage to get one of those two..

We've actually had a gene in our area where some bucks with this style rack-high, long tined- have a 9th and 10th kicker point straight back off of the G2 tines.. now THOSE are the ghost bucks....

Man that's a nice buck!
What do you think SC I'd guess he is at least 4 years old huh?

 

[SuperChuck]

Enjay,

For this time of year, winter/frost tolerant plants so mostly greens(brasicas), and wheat/rye/oats... there is a variety of winter peas that do good, but they are fairly expensive, and are not as browse tolerant as some of the summer legumes.

Summertime

The old standby, but expensive is crowder, cow, iron and clay or purple-hull peas - peas are more graze tolerant and if they ever get a good start, can last longer than soybeans.
Soybeans are great, but if they find them too soon, and you don't get rain, you only get a few days of grazing before all you have is green stubble. Sourghum works, but for a VERY limited time, once they know its ripened, they fall in on the field, (along with 50% of all the bird species that ever ate seeds) and finish the field in 5-7 days... 60 days to maturity for 5-7 days of heavy activity, if you plan around it, you can make it work. Sourghum appears to be a very attractive foodstuff, while it lasts.

Wannamaker seeds has a good selection of locally successful seed varieties, and I enjoy perusing their blends, and recommendations.. Every 3-5 years, a new item is stested sucessfully and I give it a try..

In this area, my biggest goal would be to get reliable stands of clover, ladino or giant new zealand have worked out ok, my last plot managed to survive 3 seasons in a partially shaded sweet spot.. Eventually the deer pack our clay soil so much on those plots, it feels like concrete. This last spring drought finally took its toll on my clover plot, and I'll be re-establishing it next year, hopefully. Clover is tempermental, especially in the soils I have to work with locally. The pH in some areas will basically prevent germination, so the seeds that are coated in a fine layer of limestone and innoculant seem to fare better getting the jump-start... Crimson clover grows locally, you can see it in the winter and spring alongside the highways, for some reason, it is not as paletable as the white clovers I have tried.. Even though its more regionally tolerant, I liked the results with the other clovers better.

I'd love to get good results with a chicory or a southern-tolerant alfalfa variant.. both of those have deep root systems, and have multi-year lifecycles,..

Garden plants definitely work, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, peanuts, watermelon vines, its hard to keep deer away from them, but those plants are also large seeds, with a high per/acre expense. You get too far into the hybrids, etc, and they are priced by the seed...

The seed count/lb and the $/lb factor comes into play, and its easier for me to buy 100 lbs of iron and clay peas, PLUS certain plants, the legumes family, actually fix nitrogen to the soil... pair these seeds with a plant that likes nitrogen and you make a symbiotic plot, one crop provides nitrogen for the other. Saves fertilizer costs.

Peas were sown into the center ailse of corn crops, so that as the peas grew, they supplied nitrogen to the corn plants... the corn protected the peas and provided structure for the runners, the peas sweetened the soil for the corn, and increased yield. You'd pick your crop of corn and peas, and set the cows into the field to recycle the remnants... nothing went to waste... Same practices can work in foodplots..


SC

What other things would you consider planting?
My dad and his hunting buddy used to put out squash and pumpkin seeds, berry bush seeds, cherry tomato seeds and strawberry plant culls they'd get from u-pick type places. I think they based their choices more on what they observed the deer browsing on in the garden than anything else though

 

[Enjay]

I know nothing about sorghum but would succession planting extend the season? Plant the seeds about a week apart and that way you'll have something ready with more coming behind it.

Seeds certainly are expensive. My dad used to scrounge seeds from any and all sources. I remember he saved seeds from the fruits and veggies we bought at the store, he picked up pumpkins and squashes from the pumpkin patches in the area, he'd buy bags of popcorn on sale, dried beans from the store, asked the neighborhood gardeners to save seeds from their garden, etc. I don't think he really cared much if the seeds were hybrids or not because we weren't going to eat them. One year he planted a bunch of cherry tomato plants specifically to keep the seed from them and we kept getting in trouble for snitching them.

He also planted corn, beans and squash together, the corn supported the beans, the beans fixed the nitrogen, and the squash spread out and smothered the weeds. He'd leave that standing for the deer for winter fodder. In the early spring they used to turn the sows out onto the food plot to clean it up and till it, if you have the capability that might be a solution to your hard packed ground. They'd usually take the sows up to the farm in the summer and leave the electric fence up until the plants are starting to produce. I had occasion to talk to the guy who owned the plot a few years ago, Ed said that his grandsons hunt it now and there's still cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, and raspberry brambles all over the plot. Of course, their plot never looked as nice as yours, it tends to be a willy nilly tangle but the wildlife don't seem to mind.