Ohio Hills

[CAS_HNTR]

Starting "over" from my old QDMA thread.....I will generally keep the same history, but likely have abbreviated some for my own sanity!!


Here we go!!!!!


Since my last update quite a bit has changed, the property has grown from 62 ac as shown initially, to just above 80 ac with the purchase of the adjoining property to the SE. You can see the new borders here:

This added property has a 3 bed, 2 bath mobile home that we will call "home" during our time at the property. Unfortunatley, it has been "affectionately" named "Tool Time" (TT for short) Ranch due to the amount of work needed and already performed in the trailer! Where to start....

1) Fixed leaking windows, installed gutters, painted metal roof, and sealed gun shot holes (yes.....lost of shot gun BB holes in side of trailer)
2) Tore out ALL carpet/pad and ALL vinyl as it REEKED of wet dog
3) Rebuilt/framed rotten stud walls and subfloor from leaking windows (6 different areas!)
4) Reinsulated numerous areas and hung new drywall
5) Painted 100% of everything will Kilz as well as final color
6) Misc outside shrub removals thanks to the trusty "H"
7) Tore out and rebuilt tub surround in 1 bathroom (on docket this weekend actually!)

Needless to say, we have been doing alot of "non-hunting" related work!

We were able to get a good chunk of cutting/hinging done last winter to the NE, on the middle "finger", and a bunch of bigger tree felling to the SW as required by the CAUV contract....here is a rough idea of the trees cut (beech here) to the SW. We estimate we cut about 250 trees out of the SW 25 ac area...and only lost 1 saw! haha

In addition to the cutting, we prepped and planted 3 - 1/2ish ac plots of a rye, wheat, oats, clover, and turnip/radish mix.....Here are the locations/general shapes of the plots as well as a pic of the "ol'man" headed into action!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

While taking some pictures of some deer that went down this weekend (we'll get to that later), I noticed that I had some pics of the cutting we did last winter on the far NE side of the property.

Here is the before....

....during....

...and the final result at the end of the day!

Most trees cut were maples, with some sassafrass, aspen, and poplar mixed in. Clearly the cold isnt the best time to hinge, but it was a free weekend and with last years winter, we figured the extra treetop browse would be welcome!

Onto this weekend's festivities......Even though the deer didn't come from the property the thread is about, I wanted to share the update.

Last week I ended up taking Thursay and Friday off to get some hunting in as I really hadn't been out much at all. I had a really good sit Thursday and ended up seeing 3 shooters within an all-day sit. One of the shooters (a real nice 8) happened by at about 2:30 and I totally blew the shot at about 25 yards.....right through the loins! I tried tracking the thing, but no blood and no real hope of finding a dead deer. I was pretty devestated as I have had few good oportunites over the last several years and I had just blown what should be an easy shot to execute.

So, while licking my wounds my dad made it down to hunt Friday through Sunday. We headed out in the AM to a spot we had had some good encounters in the past with the conditions and time of year. My dad did a little rattling and this bruin came looking to fight. Made a good shot and he was a happy man!

We had a "fun" time dragging the deer out as is was about the size of a steer but we were both happy and looking forward to the rest of the weekend!
I hunted the Friday evening all all day Saturday with not much to show for it and was really starting to dwell on the blown shot on Thursday. I decided to go back to the same tree that I hunted on Thursday as I had seen 3 nice bucks in hopes I hadn't stunk it all up too bad. I got settled in well before daylight and caught a few quick Zs as I waited for the sun.

As the sun brightened, I heard what sounded to be the "ticking" of young bucks pushing each other around up on the hill. I listened for a bit and decided I better get ready in case. I watched up the hill and saw a rack moving through the brush....I could tell it was a shooter but wasn't sure as to the real size. In a few seconds the buck had made it to the SAME SPOT that I loin hit the deer on Thursday. I settled and let the arrow loose....I saw the arrow hit and knew it was over for the buck. He took off down the hill and eased up about 50 yards away....I watched him tumble and felt like doing a backflip out of the stand.

I had passed some nice bucks in the last 5 years waiting on a better one and ended up with tag soup.....FINALLY, redeption on the poor shot and on the 5 years of empty tags!

I gathered my stuff and eased down the bloodtrail when I saw this ahead....

....this buck had ground GROWTH...

....and I'm still grinning from ear to ear!!

Rough scored him at just under 160" with about 5" of "deductions"....not a fan of net scores. Anyways, the buck is my best ever (by ALOT) and will become my first mount.....I contemplating just skull mounting him, but I thought better of that when I looked him over on the way back home to skin him.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Got to planting last weekend on the list I had mentioned.....first thing I got into the ground were 8 of the better looking oaks (SWO and Burr) that I gret this summer. They were started pretty late so they were only about 12" tall. I planted them in the low spot in the field on the east field. You can see the tubed trees in this picture that was taken from the soon to be plum thicket looking south to the oaks

In the same area as the tubed oaks, I added about 10 less vigorous oaks and about 4 gallons of acorns from that I collected this fall....they were primarliy white and reds. The acorns are an experioment as I basically took a shovel...opened a "slit" and dropped 4-6 in each location. Who know what it will look like in a few years!

As I mentioned previosly, the tractor high spot on the north side of the east field will be a plum thicket and where the tractor sits (notice my supplies on the "tailgate") will be planted.

Most of the plums I recieved from The Wildlife Group were good looking plants with most having some branching.....since I was tubing them, I took them from was this......

...to this in their final location.

Once done, I had about 10 in this high spot at about 20' spacing......here is a "final view" looking north across the oaks (low spot) to the new plum thicket up top (kinda off in the distance).

I added some plums (12 more) to the field to the west of the one I previously described (fingers of the mitten) in a pattern that created a peninsula/point.....here is a final planting looking to the south from the edge of the sanctuary/hinge area.....

Here are some pics of the hinged trees along the edge of the sanctuary and edge of the old pasture....light edge feathering.....this is an area we won't be hunting but will be (hopefully) a good secure spot for deer.

(this one is not very focused...sorry)

For day I I ended up getting 23 chickasaw plums in the ground and tubed...........I ran out of time on Day 1 and was planting by myself, so on day 2 my dad helped and we were able to get 10 Sequin, 6 Alleghenny Cinkapins, and 4 Strawberry Bush in the ground.

The planting method for all of these is pretty opinion based and I decided that I would fence them with the 4' rabbit fence.......

Here are a couple pics of the final location/planting of the Sequin and AC....as you can see, we have been using PVC for stakes.....cheap and I think it will work well.

We planted them intermixed/on the edges of the Dunstan chestnuts (in tubes)....I know over time they will become too shaded, but I will plant more if needed as that wont be for years.

The last think we got to were the strawberry bush.....never really had my hads on these things before and I would say they are odd. They look green like greenbriars but are pretty soft and I could imaging that deer would hammer them because of it. For these, we split the 4' cage in half and made an enclosed cage for them......the tops of the plants were just a few inches under the cage, so I am a little nervious that its not tall enough......so I am hoping for lateral growth!

Here is a row of 4 we got in alond the plot to the north-west end of the property...

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Took a few hours today on my day off (and before the Buckeyes play!!) to work on my "table" to hold the Rootmaker cells/trays I have. Ended up needing something about the size of a sheet of plywood to be able to accommodate the 16 trays I want to use.

I built it of mainly 2x4s with 4' rabbit fence for the main "floor".....I still have to get all my lights wired up, but I am making progress!! Need to get it done pretty quick as my DCOs are getting radicals about 1/4-1/2" long!!

My "helper" with her "bammer"....;)

 

[CAS_HNTR]

great game by the bucks!

Love the tray holder you built! Pretty sharp!

Any doe harvests before season ends?

I haven't been out too much since I shot my buck in early November actually. I did spend some time planting as I have documented, but I just was super busy. Our gun season (shotgun) in Ohio is also something I avoid at all costs...which was just after thanksgiving.

I was able to get out last weekend for our muzzle season with a good friend.....we met in kindergarten and have been tearing through the woods for 25 years! Unfortunately, with wife, kids, work, and living 2 hrs apart keeps us from getting out much together.....last time was 8 or so years ago!

Anyways, we went out on a propery I have access to and got soaked! Poured all day!! Hard! On the plus side, he ended up shooting 2 does that rainy day......likely from the expert guide service! ;-)

Rainy day success!!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

You can see the upward growth in the previous picture....most of the oaks have been in the growing process for just about 3 weeks, so it has taken 2-3 weeks to get top growth on most.

Up close of a DCO...

Crabs are looking pretty good now....

And last but not least....my helpers!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

You can see a single bed in the lower center of the picture here. The deer were bedding in this area last year as well, but it's much more "deery" now.

This area we cut out to the far northeast side of the property.....the woods was WIDE open and full of "ground pine" (that's what we call it here.....not sure actual species)........anyways, the results of this hinge are much less dramatic. It actually looks almost the SAME as it did when we cut it 1 year ago. Not really sure what the deal it with this area and why growth is so slow.

It is good to see some "results" of the work and thought that has went into it. While walking we came across a bed DEEP into the cuts....this is what it looks like....

A closer look shows a lone bed tucked near a downed log under a small tree.....behind is an open field, in front is open(ish) woods...notice the tree rub on the arm size tree as well!

Plus.....not too far away and on the edge of a food plot (staging area) I found this rub......not bad!

I forgot to add some pictures of the area we had to cut this summer as part of a timber management contract.......most trees we cut were busted tops, or hollow, or just really poorly crowned. Here is a picture of a hollow beech and a look down the hillside over several cut trees. If you have never cut a 100+ foot tall tree in the middle of the woods.....lets just day its a challenge.....still have a few hung up!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Here is another before....

...and after....

I won't add a bunch more of the same "type" of picture, but will show some other shots of the general process. As I mentioned, we did some blocking, so the cuts were about knee to waist height in general.

As I mentioned, you can see the snow is starting to come a little more.....I wish the pictures could show the increase in wind speed....It was pretty crazy by the time we quit.

Gotta watch out for these ones!

How about this tree.....half rotten, bent like an "S", and still puts up a couple "trees"....that we cut!

Here are a couple of the larger ones we knocked down along the edge....

More hinging....

This was the last shot before we packed it up.....snow was sideways at this point.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Well.....looks like winter is really trying to hold on here in Ohio. We got another 4" of snow this weekend and from what I have heard it's been one of the snowiest and coldest Februarys on record!

I had originally planned to have tree orders shipped the last week of February, but no one is shipping due to the cold weather.....not like I would be able to plant them with 10" of snow and forzen ground anyways! Hah! Hope they come soon and hope for some warmer weather here soon.

In order to feed my obsession, I have been just playing Mr. Green Thumb in my basement with my trees. Everything looks pretty good....I did have some issues with that I would say was damping off due to excessive watering. I will try and be more careful with watching my kids water as well and being sure they really NEED water...not just watering when they seem "not wet".

I ended up replacing about 7 chinese chestnuts, 8-10 DCOs (which seem particularly picky), and a couple white oaks. On the plus side....some of my plants are now putting on a second flush.....

.....Chinkapin Oaks.....

....DCO....

....and Gabel Oaks.....

My Dunstan chestnuts are really putting on some vertical growth and have a more aggressive vertical growth rate when compared to the Chinese......several are close to 18", or 3 beer cans! Haha...

I even made time to plant my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc for my garden!

Overall, there is alot more green than there was a month ago! No real complanints....I do notice that I have to let some heat/moisture out in the evening as with that many plants and lights it gets warm and muggy to the point that mold grows on newly watered pots.....nothing a little fan time won't fix!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Last fall I ordered some trees from both MDC and WVDC and over the last week they have arrived! I actually wanted to plant the trees a few weeks ago, but the temperatures and snow have kept me from getting out much. We FINALLY got some nice weather.....50+....so we busted our butts to get some planting done as we will have about 700 evergreens to plant next weekend.

I ordered 25 hazelnuts from WVDC and 25 plum and 10 Concordia oaks from MDC.....I was happy with the quality of the trees from both sources, I would say that the WVDC had better packaging since they included a TON of water absorbing crystals and MDC had some damp soil, but not enough of it.

Anyways.....this was the first time ordering from state agencies and I was super shocked to see them shipped the way they are, but......guess it works! Ha!

Here is a pick of the trees as they arrived....they are in my "5 gal bucket pack"....custom design!

Here are our 4' Blue-X tubes getting ready to go into battle!

Everything loaded up on the "trusty steed" :p

First planting we placed was about 12 plums between the two small island of trees in an effort to connect them better in hopes of providing food and a visual barrier from a future bedding area in the ridge behind the planting. The planting has a shape a bit like an "L" due to the orientation of the existing trees.

We next moved to the interior of the property to plant a "finger" across the food plot. I really don't like how far you can see across this area and the finger will help to break up the sight-line. We planted about 20 hazelnuts, 6 Concordia oaks, and 9 plums....I will also be adding some more brushy shrubs as well as some DCOs.

Here is a before pic as we headed down....notice the WIDE open nature as well as the standing water....SUPER wet planting today!

Here is the after from closer up......Concordia oaks and plums are in tubes....hazelnuts are in snow fence cages.

This was the first time using snow fence to cage the plantings.....in the past I had always used galvanized welded wire. We really just wanted to try it out as it's about half the cost of the welded wire and if it is OK....may be the way to go.

My overall findings were that it works just OK. It is more difficult to work with due to the floppy nature of it. We also had to use 3 posts to make a triangular cage. Lastly, seems like it takes more zip-ties to get the stuff closed up and tight. I am still on the "fence" (pun intended ;) ) on the future plantings, but I will say that welded wire is better.....but, the snow fence is surely doable....time will tell how they both hold up.

Typical "triangular cage"..

We moved to the furthest south plot and planted another "finger" with the Concordia oaks, plums, and hazelnuts....again, MORE WATER!

My mom made it out in time for the "clean up effort" and my dad wrapped up the planting affair by seeding some clover into the south plot. We will be seeding all the plots within the next week to allow the frost to work it in.

Mom and Dad in Cleanup mode....

Clover going down...

That was all we planted for the day.....enough for me! As I mentioned, we will have about 700 evergreens to plant next weekend, so there will be another update.

Last task for today was more for "comfort" than anything.....no TV since my parents bought the property so we took a couple hours and installed a antenna and ran the coaxial cable to the TV.....good to go!

Until next time!!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

As I have mentioned previously, this weekend's agenda consisted primarily of planting evergreens throughout the property for screening. We ended up ordered from Itasca in MN and got some in plant bands and most were plugs. Total was 650 trees (all but 50 were plugs).We asked them to removed from the styro-blocks to save on shipping. They came in boxes with them wrapped in groups of 25. Only gripe I would have is that the tight wrapping caused some flattening of the plug which occasionally made it difficult to get in the hole. Still, savings in shipping is worth it.

We had planned on getting this done a couple weeks ago but due to the late Feb winter weather it had to be delayed. In addition, we were a bit shorthanded as my sister and brother-in-law had a scheduled vacation that now conflicted with the later planting weekend, plus my mother who wanted to help was under the weather. So....I had to call in some backups, primarily my wife and 2 young daughters! My wife is not an "outdoors" person at all, but did great.

We ended up planting about 350 on Saturday and the remainder Sunday....we didn't plant all day and didn't bust our butts too hard.....you could easily plant 5x what we planted in a weekend if you were "getting after it" and had all plugs.

Without further delay.....I will provide some summary pics.

A typical "bundle of 25"....Norway Spruce here...

Scotch pine got "winter burnt" this year, but we were told they would be fine.

Doesn't look like much, but this planting tool is a MUST for the plugs.
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w537/cschrader58/Mobile%20Uploads/20150321_150135_zpsvvnj87bn.jpg[/IMG

We spaced them at about 8 ft along each row and planted at least 2 rows (offset). A LONG piece of rope, that had been pre-marked with the correct spacing, was strung along the planting path to better space the trees over a long distance.

You can see the rope strung out here...
[IMG]http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w537/cschrader58/Mobile%20Uploads/20150321_154639_zpsbla433i4.jpg

And here is my wife and father working hard (kids picking dried "flowers" in the background)...

The kids helped some too!

After the planting was done, I headed back to take down a groundblind and took a quick look a food plot......clover is coming on!

Nothing like getting some time outdoors working till you're sore.....especially if you can do it with your family.....parents, spouse, and kids! Heck....I even got some good quality time on this ol'girl again! Haha

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Been busy with kids, soccer, and unsuccessfully trying to kill a turkey over the last few weeks and thus havent really dont anything but fiddle with my trees again that I am growing. That being said, I have FINALLY got all of my trees outside!

To be honest, I started some too early and then brought them outside too early because I had to transplant into 1 gal containers.....I'm not a pro and dont have room for them all inside. Turns out that I basically let them get sunburnt a couple days when it was really sunny. Then, we had a couple frosts. .....some they were moved in for.....others were more of a "crap....wasn't supposed to be that cold last night" moments!

Long story short, I was really POd that I may have killed a bunch of them and I 100% killed a couple little guys! Fortunately, they began to grow again after about 2 weeks of nothing!

Here is the set up. .....a bunch of 1 gal pots and a bunch of 18s still needing transplanted. There are a few more around the side too! I may have got carried away! Haha

Here are my sad dunstan chestnuts......

Some.promising new growth though!

Better looking persimmons.....

Overall, I am happy with my trees.......I will definitely do a few things differently though! Hah.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

I didn't take pictures of everything I checked but wanted to summarize my "findings" regarding stuff I planted last year and this past spring...

Chickasaw Plum (Wildlife Group) - Planted Late Fall
Lost about 5 of 20 of these.....some were poorly planted, but some just didn't wake up. The alive ones are generally growing well but some are just putting new growth from the roots. Results.....meh, plant MDC Plums next time!

Wild Plum (MDC) - Planted Spring
Lost maybe 1 of 25 with most nearly to the top of a 4' tube!

Allegheny Chink (Wildlife Group) - Planted Late Fall
Lost closer to 50% of these.....not sure why. Not real pleased with results here.

Hazelnut (WV Dept of Cons) - Planted Spring
Lost maybe 1 of 25 with most growing well

Concordia Oak (MDC) - Planted Spring
All look alive with several growing 1-1.5 ft, already out of tube

Misc Homegrown Oaks (SWO, Chink, Bur, ??) - Planted Late Fall
All are alive but not showing much vertical growth yet

Strawberry Bush (Wildlife Group) - Planted Late Fall
All are alive. Didn't really know what to expect with these and I am surprised at how "spindly" they grow....time will tell if they are worth it or if something more woody is best.

Homegrown Dunstan Chestnuts (from bigeight) - Planted Late Fall
100% survival over winter. All look good but wish they were growing less limbs and more vertical out of the top of the tree.....owell, they will straighten out eventually!

Headed down to the farm for some work on Saturday night after my daughter's dance recital.....she did well.....and for anyone that has young daughters, these dance moves now a'days.......jeeze o'man......I'll push her to stay with ballet, instead of hip hop! :eek:

Anyways, we didn't get down there till later in the evening, but had enough time to hang out my the "grage".....

..and roast some marshmallows with grandma and grandpa. We even did it the old fashion was with sassafras sticks.....plus we caught about 20 fireflies......good night! :)

After some pancakes and coffee, we fire the tractor up and headed out to work on a few fields.

I have been unable to come down the last few work sessions, but my father hasn't dropped the ball at all! He had killed some areas to plant with beans and some with crimson clover......we had to seed the clover still, he has done the rest!

Grandpa getting after the field to plant clover.....

We seeded the clover and my daughters helped me hand toss some giant sunflower seeds in there as well from a few we had in our yard last year. The area was disced, seeded, and then packed with our $100 packer (still can't believe that one)

While milling around, the girls found a new friend....this is "Buddy" the box turtle! lol

Here is the final product for the clover and light sunflower field.....

I dumped a trail camera looking over this area, so we will see what shows up. The treeline in the distance is the property line and the area we planted a bunch of spruce for screening. To help hasten the screening, we have prepped it for switchgrass to be planted this fall. The areas are seeded in clover now, but will be killed and switch going in as a barrier. \

All borders on the west side of the fields look like this now.....again, the ol'man did all this solo.

Headed up to one of the two bean plots that are planted....these are roundup ready ag beans (the cheapest they had).....alive and well!

My dad wanted to protect them.....this "fence" likely won't do anything, but ya never know!

By this time, the little feet were tired....so they hung out in the tractor "bed".....that's another hillbilly invention! Hey, this is SE Ohio after all!

I was hoping that some of the rasberries and blackberries may be ripe, but we have another couple weeks yet.....should get a bunch as they are everywhere....

Food plots look good still with a lot of stuff getting pretty mature and browning up....

Clover underneath looks real good still as well.....need cut sometime pretty soon to get some newer growth.

I looked at some of the trees planted and they all look good. Have a couple chestnuts, plums, and oaks out of the tubes....biggest surprise was it looks like my sequins may have nuts their first year at 18" tall? Seems odd as heck, but they were pretty fuzzy and had a bunch of critters all over their pollen.....we will see!

Until next time!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Walked over to the first soybean plot......looks pretty good overall with some browsing, but much thicker and greener that 2 weeks ago.

Here's a shot looking over the second soybean plot onto a fallow field....you can see a strip of "stuff" we left to connect to wooded parts of the property across the field. In the future there will be a larger plot on the other side of the larger treelined fence in the distance.

There is a TON of stuff growing in these fields....forbs, grassed, trees, etc.....this one caught my eye:Persimmon or black tupelo (black gum)??

And this Concordia oak was just too pretty not to take a picture of!

In general, all the plants are looking good.....we really need to get the clover plots mowed, but its just SO wet that I'm afraid to destroy everything trying to mow.....so I will wait a bit longer.

Back to the reason for the weekend.....making memories!

My 8 year old has just began getting into shooting and we shot the crap out of a little BB gun this weekend off the front porch at empty "pop" cans.....I can't tell you how much fun that little gun brought this weekend! No one could walk by and not pick it up and take a few shots! Hah!

I have a video of my daughter......she was pretty impressive to be honest!

All in all, a great weekend laughing and making memories with family!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Spent the weekend at "Tool Time Ranch" trying to get a couple projects done before it gets any closer to deer season....the MAJOR project was to tear off the old roof on the covered front porch (12 ft x 24 ft) and redo with metal and treated lumber. The old one was basically rotting and leaked BAD so it wasn't much of roof....moral of the story, if you take the time to build a roof, make sure the actual waterproof part is watertight!

Anyways, here are some shots as the work progressed....this gives you an idea of the condition from below prior to demo.

Mostly tore up.

Skip ahead a bit and new framing going up.

A whole bunch of screws later and a quite a bit of blood and sweat (no tears this time).....not too bad!

This picture makes it look like a hillybilly mess, but if the shoe fits!

Close look at the top right side of the roof....24-7 watchful eye!

And...I'd be PO'd if I didn't squeze sme time in for some hunting related activities. Since we haven't hunted it too much we haven't hung any stands.....until today, got 2 ladder stands and a hang on up! Plus a groundblind!

Stand 1 on south plot...near pine thicket area on east, should be good staging spot.

Stand 2 in tall aspens on west side of south plot..

..PLUS the blind to get the kiddos out in the woods!

All in close proximity of the clover we seeded last fall and mowed a few weeks ago....looks good!

Additionally......plums look good.

(Some) Dunstans look good.

Soybeans are only about 12" tall and being MOWED down....but OK still.

And even some PODS!

Small spot of clover in field had close to 900 pictures in a month...mostly does (and turkeys)....wearing it out!

How about grandma driving the kids and my sister back to the "lodge"!!

The camera checks were in general pretty uneventful.....LOTS of does and fawns, few coyotes, some small bucks....hope they start sneaking into the property about now!! HA! Until next time!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Not too much exciting as of late but I have been out a few times.....most of the time was spent watching these guys....

...scenery was pretty nice the other day though!

Heck I even got my wife and kids down for the weekend as my wife wanted to try and take Christmas card pics with the "old tractor"....not bad!!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Beyond the good looking rye, the time on the farm was pretty lack-luster from a deer hunting standpoint.....I did get to take part in some nice scenery...

...pass a couple small bucks and a few does......plus, I had time to dream about this guy coming out to play!

I did end up taking hitting up a property we have leased....after 3 days hunting a lot and not seeing much, I was ready for a change of pace.....had a doe come out and that was all the opportunity I needed....I wasn't going home empty handed! Haha!

This whole property looks a lot like this mess......so opportunities are FAST and you have to jump on it!

The deer came in from the thick stuff and ate some honeysuckle for a bit where I couldn't shoot.....it decided it wanted to head out and before I could blink, she had got to my last shooting lane at about 25 yards pretty hard quartering away. I took the shot and hit where I wanted but I was pretty shocked when I didn't get a pass through. I shoot a 70 lb Darton DS3800 with 450 grain arrows so they usually go through......I started to second guess my decision to buy these (damn) mechanical heads!

I picked up a few packs of NAP Killzone Low KE heads for $20 each a while back and at 1.75" cut, they aren't the biggest......but push harder than a lot of fixed heads I have shot in the past.

Either way, she didn't go to far and I was HAPPY!

I did find my arrow about half way along the blood trail......this is EXACTLY as I found it, not sure how it snapped in half AND wrapped around the limb?

Fast forward to the next day when I was looking at the skinned deer, I see why a pass through wasn't achieved. The entrance was a LONG one and busted through 3 ribs......

Exit broke 2 more ribs and shattered the lower part of the shoulder blade near the joint.....the broadhead just poked out of the skin on the exit.

And the head, still looks great!

So......maybe these mechanicals are as bad as I thought! These things seem pretty tough and cut a nice sized hole! Still am not sure how a hard bone hit on a bigger buck will work out thought.....may still stay with slick tricks for them boys!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Everything is looking good! My son is 4 and I don't think there is any way I could keep him occupied in a deer blind :D. I am going to give it a shot this spring during turkey season.

Really enjoy the pics! Is the pic of the squirrel with a cell phone or do you take a camera with you? I'm thinking about picking up a point and shoot with a decent zoom to take with me. I pass a whole lot more deer than I shoot.

Thanks......I take pictures with both my cell (crappier pics) and if the weather is nice and I have room, I will take our Canon SX50 HS,,,,it takes better pictures.....as seen here!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Little update......we have a ODNR Biologist coming out on Fed 12th to take a little tour and see what his thoughts are on the current status as well as out future plans. It will be interesting to see what he has to say......I hope he will agree with what the longterm goals are! If nothing else, a second opinion will be valuable.

Regarding near future plans.....we are really in the beginning stages of getting out "to-do list" started. Most of it consists of cutting some trees, marking invasive to be sprayed, and planting the trees that I either grew or we ordered. On the list to plant are:

1) 500 spruce plugs
2) 3 keiffer pears
3) 3 moonglo pears
4) 3 Arkansas Black Apples
5) 3 Enterprise Apples
6) 200 Michanthus Gigantie rhizones
7) 5-10 each of stuff I grew.....chestnuts, persimmon, bur oak, nuttall oak, swamp white oak, sawtooth oak, maybe some others too!

So.....it will be a bust spring!! HAHA!

On top of that, I will be spending quite a bit of time getting my little apiary started! The bees are coming early April, so I have been prepping my hive.....had a little help as usual! I still need to build a hive stand and get a few more pieces of equipment (bee suit is #1).....it's guaranteed to be a learning experience! Haha!

...and DONE!!

Beyond that, I am just keeping tabs on my "nut fridge" as I will be starting all my trees in a few more weeks.....some are ready to go already, but others are still trying to wake up! Looking forward to another year of the basement greenhouse!

Here is the prep work for the hive stand......fortunately only 4 holes needed to be dug! I got the luxury of doing that.....my dad was about tuckered out from cutting trees with the Stihl for a future fenceline!! Hah! Anyways.....as always it can't go smoothly as the post hole digger handle broke off halfway through hole 3! Minor delay, and a funny looking lopsided handle.....but it worked!!

Ready to rock and roll!

The ol'man getting the supports put together.....

I always struggle to describe the soil in SE Ohio to people, especially this time of year and through the spring. Here's an an example. I dug a 24" deep hole and it was so "clayey" that I had to scrape the soil off the post hole digger each time. I noticed there was some moisture in the hole after I finished....after the delay from the broken handle, I came back to about 18" of water in the hole! :rolleyes:

Needless to say, it was a little difficult to get the hole "solid" and I am pretty sure the sack of quickcrete was a waste of effort, but......here we go!! We will put the two long pipes on top of the end to supports to hold up the actual hives. I made it with 10 ft pipe, so I think I have room to add about 3 more hives if I end up liking it!

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Some winter pics......

Lasty.......I'll admit that he beat he this year! Maybe next year I will win!!