J-birds place

[j-bird]

I was able to get out the evening of the 10th. Went up north to the area where my hanging vine is.....no deer.

Got out again tonight.....SW area.....I did see 3 deer. A doe and her two fawns. Got real close on two different occasions. Just not what I am looking for at the moment.

So I have roughly 12 hours on stand and sighting while actual hunting is 1 doe and 2 fawns.... I am going to try to document my hunts in an effort to gather data....this may get boring for you guys!

I also got a follow up visit from the CO about my poaching incident and just some other follow-up. At least they are trying. I know the officer from other activities and if you don't have some sort of casual knowledge of your local conservation officer I highly recommend at least meeting them. They can be a great help in addressing other issues when they arise.

 

[j-bird]

Interesting hunt this am. We have light rain moving in so I hoped that would get the deer moving and I decided to hunt along the standing corn field. I figured the cover and food should be harboring something!

Just after first light I heard some activity in the corn. Wind was from the S-SE and I was up on the ridge north of the south bottom corn field. I saw antlers and he came my way. it was a nice buck....not a monster but he would have been the biggest I had taken with my bow. There just wasn't enough time and light to get the job done. He had no idea I was there.....I will be back. I think he would make P&Y but I'm certain he isn't 150". I really wasn't expecting a deer to be in archery range in this stand but he was 20 to 25 yards.

Later in the morning I had a doe come in along the edge of the corn. She feed for a good 1/2 hour or so. I was hoping she would draw some attention, but that never happened. May have been a button buck to be honest. I was more interested in seeing if that deer brought in other than the deer it'self.....because I knew it was too far and I wasn't shooting that one any way,

About an hour after that deer wandered off a little yearling buck come pushing his way thru the CRP weeds between me and the corn.

So that is an additional 3 deer in a 3 or 4 hour hunt. I wish I would have gotten a better look at the buck, but it happened quick and again light was not great.....he looked to be a solid 8 pointer in the 120 ~ 135 club. Like I said...not a monster, but he would have been my biggest with my bow......maybe next time.

 

[j-bird]

Looking forward to this weekend and the next couple weeks. Saturday starts our general firearms season so I will be hunting with my kids, either my youngest for her first deer or my boy just for old times sake. The forecast is looking interesting in a few places as well.
Friday morning I have off for vacation (green circle #1) it will still be archery season, but the low temp and the higher barometric pressure tend to create situations I like. Green circle #2 is an evening hunt where it looks like it will rain decent all day and then taper off around dark. I have had luck under this condition as well as the rain keeps the deer bedded all day and then as it lets up the deer are on their feet. Circle #3 is another low temp/high pressure situation that I hope to take advantage of.....I'm on vacation from Friday the 17th until December 4th! Last I checked I also have 10 to 15 acres of corn standing as well as a neighbors bean field still standing....which I tend to use to my advantage as much as possible as well!

 

[Bill]

Pick my son up at the Airport Friday evening. Can't wait!
Deep fried turkey bites for thanksgiving again..

 

[j-bird]

November 17 - Evening hunt. I hunted overlooking the south bottom standing corn field again.

Had a little buck walk thru, but was too far with a bow and not what I am after.

November 18th (firearms opener) - weather was crap....warm with a high near 60 and significant winds....gusts in excess of 30mph....mostly from the south.

The morning hunt I took my youngest to our North corner plot/shooting house. Forecast was for rain this morning....

The view this morning......

We saw 2 deer....does. They came from the access trail in the north woods and came around the shooting house and to the low spot in the field and into the neighbors. No shots, but helped add some excitement to the hunt.

 

[j-bird]

Nov 18th PM hunt - The rain came....it POURED! The wind didn't subside either. We contemplated not even going..... But the shooting house was available and I knew if the rain would stop and the wind would die down the deer would move.

These homemade shooting houses have been worth all the headache time and time again when it comes to gun hunting in tougher conditions. I need to consider adding another one or maybe even two.

Headed out with my oldest (my only son Tom). We have killed more deer in this shooting house while screwing around. Just like old times....pic didn't turn out so well because of poor light in the blind. Emma was at home in bed - she went shopping with her sisters all afternoon and was wiped!

The view....again the wind was howling and the rain was coming down in buckets.

Didn't get any pics, but about 5:30 the rain stopped and the wind slowed, but not a lot. We saw a buck come out of the SW woodlot and then 2 does got bumped out where the buck went back into the woods. The deer headed to the finger of woods on the neighbors. The buck was certainly interested in the second buck. Tom said he saw a buck dogging a doe in this area when he hunted this same location in the morning. I don;t know the size of the buck - I can just make out antlers at 150 yards or so with the naked eye.

Tomorrow morning the forecast is calling for the rain and wind to be past and it's supposed to be right around freezing at daybreak.....it should be interesting.

 

[Bill]

Good day here with my son too. I'm always less stressed when I'm just a conscientious observer. :)

 

[KDdid]

Yikes, what crappy weather for the gun opener. 2.89” of rain Saturday, setting a local (Fort Wayne) record for a single day in November. Dry, but gusty this morning. Spotted two does total for my efforts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[j-bird]

more hunting with not much to report.

Nov 19th morning hunt. It was cold and fairly windy. Took my daughter to the north shooting house. Did have a bit of excitement. It happened fast. We where screwing around and sure enough I see a nice buck coming right at us. He is at a fast paced walk, but isn't sticking around. I tell Emma to get ready and she is a bundle of nerves. No time for a video or a pic.....I'm trying my best to give her a shot. I told her I would stop the deer and if he turned (he was only presenting a quartering towards shot) to shoot. I mouth bleated at him and he stopped at 30 yards and turned away to give us the shot we needed. I looked back at Emma and she was struggling to find him still in the scope. He quickly turned and trotted off. The window was VERY brief. I am glad she chose the high road as many folks would have forced the issue. She was down about it....but she was pumped over the entire experience. That was the only deer we saw that morning.

Emma went shopping with her sisters so Tom and I tried our luck looking over the standing corn in the south bottom field. We took a position witha view on the slope and simply sat on the ground.....didn't see a deer, but that is hunting.

I was able to hunt on my own this evening (nov 20th). I went to a stand we had not hunted from thus far.....one we call 2-man. It's a 2 person stand that overlooks my south bottom plot area. Didn't see a deer..... No point in a selfie....you have seen this ugly mug enough!

Running total of deer seen vs hours on stand.....33 hours on stand roughly with 13 deer seen.

Have a hunt scheduled in the am with a buddy of mine. He is a deer hunter and had hunted a property for 10 years and then out of the blue he was told he couldn't hunt there any more. He thinks the family hunters on that far fear him shooting a buck they have seen. I told him something was funny because if the real issue was him they would have said something last year or before the season started....instead they waited until the middle of the hunting season.......that just isn't right. So to get him back in the saddle so to speak he is coming out in the am. I have outlined the rules and am not sure how much he will be out, but I wasn't going to have him miss out on deer season because some other folks are too concerned about a deer to put a deer before a friendship like that. Funny how folks can show their true colors under some funny circumstances.....

 

[Bill]

I have outlined the rules and am not sure how much he will be out,

Hopefully he gets it and follows them. I have some family and friends who "didn't" make it this year. Just got tired of dead and wounded deer that were not with in the rules. I'm sure rather than being thankful for 10'years of a free pass they are upset to no longer be here.

Two sides to everything. :)

 

[ghilliehunter]

Jbird- great pics, stories and memories. That's why we do what we do.

 

[j-bird]

Hopefully he gets it and follows them. I have some family and friends who "didn't" make it this year. Just got tired of dead and wounded deer that were not with in the rules. I'm sure rather than being thankful for 10'years of a free pass they are upset to no longer be here.

Two sides to everything. :)

Roger is a good guy who got screwed over due to antler worship. I took him out this morning and I have absolutely no doubt he will not be an issue. I have known him for a few years and is one of those guys who carries his own weight. If I wasn't comfortable with him...I wouldn't have extended the invite.

 

[j-bird]

Well we went out today so here is the report.

This morning was cold - we had a high in only the mid 30's and the wind was real light as well. Emma wanted to go back to the north shooting house in an effort to see the buck she had to pass on the other day.

Somebody got a little cold, but over all held it together until about 10am. Our little buddy heaters come in handy.

We didn't see the buck she wanted but we did see deer. I set up the decoy in an effort to distract the target buck IF he showed up. Keep in mind this is private property - and I did add the orange ribbon to help keep folks from shooting at it. It just an old 3D archery target with a thin plastic bag as a tail to add some movement.

I also learned a neat trick (I'm sure many of you are aware of this). I was able to use my bino's and my cell phone camera together to get a great "zoom" function going. It's awkward and I'm not real good at it yet, but it should help me get better pics.

We had what I now think to be a button buck show up.....it was by itself and went into the woods and chased some other does. The actual pic of the deer and the decoy I used my bino trick......not sure why one has the ring and the other doesn't.

This deer was watching 6 other does coming across the neighbors standing bean field. They had run a test path to see if the beans where ready and the does followed it like a path. They entered the woods at the corner and then where chased back to where they came from by the presumed button buck.

So we added 7 deer in 3 hours to our count and my buddy hunted from the south shooting house for 5 hours (7 until noon) and saw 5 does as well (all across the creek).

I hunted the evening solo and didn't see a dang thing. added another 3 hour hunt, but no deer. This is right off of an area we call "doe point".....it was more of an observation location. I also learned that the standing corn is coming out saturday.....so I need to find a way to use it to my advantage while it lasts.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Great pix J-Bird !!. Good looking land you're on there. Tell your daughter we've all been there. Sometimes all we get is a few seconds & we don't get a shot - for lots of reasons. Those kinds of events just get us jacked to get out there again !! Good luck to you & your hunting crew.

 

[j-bird]

Ok - more hunting.....still no deer down!
Yesterday morning Emma and I hunted the north shooting house again. We saw 3 deer way off down by the road but that was all. We did have the "hunter on stand buffet" going however!

Tom hunted "doe point" area that morning as well....saw 2 doe. No afternoon hunts as we have family Thanksgiving....the deer get a break!
This morning Tom hunted near "doe point" and saw 3 does and a distant buck. Emma, Roger and I all didn't hunt.....Turkey comma I guess!

This evening I hunted the "north basin". I didn't see anything. This was my first hunt from this stand and I had high hopes, but nothing.....nothing at all.

The one neighbor with the standing beans was out running the combine and the neighbor kid to the north decided to run his dirt bike! Their property so they can do what they want, but man it's hard for deer hunting!

 

[j-bird]

Today's hunting update - November 25th

am hunt.....Emma didn't go so I went up north to my ladder stand.....didn't see a deer, but it was a pretty morning.

Roger went to the southwest and didn't see a deer and Tom went to 2 man and saw a button buck and 2 does.

The south bottom filed was being harvested today. We had plans to use the combine as a "driver" but they got started before we where ready. Once they got started we tried to cover every escape route, but we only saw 2 deer as we where headed to our post and the deer had no plans on sticking around and asking questions. I guess you could say we saw one BIG DEERE.....I think it's a 9600.....chewed thru 10 to 15 acres of corn in less than 2 hours!!!!

This evenings hunt went better, but still no deer down.

Tom went to the north shooting house and saw 6. 2 close and 4 does further away. Roger hunted in the southwest woodlot and didn't see anything. Emma and I went to 2-man. We saw a button buck that Emma chose to pass on and 2 does came in too late for Emma to feel comfortable to shoot. Pics are of the button buck.....it was too dark for pics of the does.

 

[j-bird]

Got out again today....no deer but had some interesting things happen.

This morning I did my part to save a few fawns. I had a pair of yotes come in and I smashed the first one! I got a shot at the second, but a 30/30 isn't really a distance gun. It shut my deer hunt down early, but it was worth it.


This evening I was in a stand near a creek and heard some splashing.....I turned around and there was a mink just doing his thing as well as a muskrat. The mink was rather entertaining for a good 1/2 hour or so. Mink isn't really game you hunt with a 30/30! Last time we had a mink my son skinned it in the house and hit the scent gland after I warned him SEVERAL TIMES. His mother WAS NOT HAPPY!

 

[Bill]

I've shot yotes and continued to hunt. You're right the sit is pretty much over. Every deer that smells that thing will freak out!

Cool mink. I don't have running water to hunt near but once did. Best thing I saw was otters playing in the creek. At the time I had no clue how bad they were on pond fish or maybe I would have zapped one but didn't.

 

[j-bird]

I've shot yotes and continued to hunt. You're right the sit is pretty much over. Every deer that smells that thing will freak out!

Cool mink. I don't have running water to hunt near but once did. Best thing I saw was otters playing in the creek. At the time I had no clue how bad they were on pond fish or maybe I would have zapped one but didn't.

The creek on my place has provided all sorts of interesting distractions. I have seen mink and muskrats, to coons and wood ducks, herons and kingfishers. A different branch of the same creek even had beavers that caused some issues with the neighbors at one time. I have even seen two young bucks have a teen-age shoving contest in the shallow water before. Something about moving water that just seems to draw wildlife. It can be a wonderful distraction while on stand.

 

[Bill]

Agreed. Running water can make things harder to hear. But there is something about sitting next to it. I'm feeling very itchy to get back into a duck boat on the salt marsh this winter.