4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
So I still have a couple open tags for bow hunting I can fill. I had intentions to fill at least one with a late season doe.
In the last few weeks we had gotten a lot of snow, and we have about 2-3 feet on the ground. The deer are having a tough go of getting around, and I see them in my driveway, and my path to my wood boiler, and wood yard where I store, split, and cut up logs. They have been bedding there as well, and trying to dig for food where I plowed, and cleared areas to work. I had already cut up , and split all of my logs I had in the wood yard, and I have plenty for this year, but I thought I would start cutting up more logs for next year, I have about 30 logs ready to go, but they are aout 100 yards away, on the opposite edge of a food plot. I figured I would take the tractor and loader out there to clear a path to the logs, and maybe scrape some snow off the food plot to help out the deer. As I drove out there on the tractor, I saw 5 deer that were bedding on the edge of the food plot. They hopped off a little ways, I wasnt paying much attention to them. Then after about 30 minutes of plowing with the loader I got to the log pile, I looked up, and they were all standing about 20 feet away watching me. I figured they didnt want to go too far in the deep snow, so I thought I would take the rear blade and scrape some snow off the plot, and the winter rye was still green, under 24"+ of snow, and the ground wasnt very frozen. I cleared a 75 foot path about 12 feet wide where they can at least dig down themselves to get to the rye. I wasnt even at the edge of the food plot leaving and they already walked back out into the food plot. I will probably toss out some bagged food for them to help them out until I can get into the woods safely and drop some trees for them to munch on the tree tops.
The problem is, these deer arent afraid, and they are desperate for food, so much so that they will walk into the food plot as I am still there. How can I hunt these deer and not feel bad? Hell I could sit on my back deck and throw a knife at them most of the time. I wanted to go back out bow hunting, but I just cant get myself to hunt them like this.
I thought about walking back to my furthest stand on a trail and hunting them, but I think all I would end up doing is watching them if they even went that far away from the plowed area. I will probably just have tag soup, and eat beef this year.
In the last few weeks we had gotten a lot of snow, and we have about 2-3 feet on the ground. The deer are having a tough go of getting around, and I see them in my driveway, and my path to my wood boiler, and wood yard where I store, split, and cut up logs. They have been bedding there as well, and trying to dig for food where I plowed, and cleared areas to work. I had already cut up , and split all of my logs I had in the wood yard, and I have plenty for this year, but I thought I would start cutting up more logs for next year, I have about 30 logs ready to go, but they are aout 100 yards away, on the opposite edge of a food plot. I figured I would take the tractor and loader out there to clear a path to the logs, and maybe scrape some snow off the food plot to help out the deer. As I drove out there on the tractor, I saw 5 deer that were bedding on the edge of the food plot. They hopped off a little ways, I wasnt paying much attention to them. Then after about 30 minutes of plowing with the loader I got to the log pile, I looked up, and they were all standing about 20 feet away watching me. I figured they didnt want to go too far in the deep snow, so I thought I would take the rear blade and scrape some snow off the plot, and the winter rye was still green, under 24"+ of snow, and the ground wasnt very frozen. I cleared a 75 foot path about 12 feet wide where they can at least dig down themselves to get to the rye. I wasnt even at the edge of the food plot leaving and they already walked back out into the food plot. I will probably toss out some bagged food for them to help them out until I can get into the woods safely and drop some trees for them to munch on the tree tops.
The problem is, these deer arent afraid, and they are desperate for food, so much so that they will walk into the food plot as I am still there. How can I hunt these deer and not feel bad? Hell I could sit on my back deck and throw a knife at them most of the time. I wanted to go back out bow hunting, but I just cant get myself to hunt them like this.
I thought about walking back to my furthest stand on a trail and hunting them, but I think all I would end up doing is watching them if they even went that far away from the plowed area. I will probably just have tag soup, and eat beef this year.