2014 Sidehill Archery Buck

If I'm seeing your pic correctly of him the day before you shot him, it looks like he's working the same shrub as in your scrape-cam pix. BABY that bush !!! Probably be a hot location for a few years. Maybe it's just the over-hanging limb being handy & reachable?? In my area I've seen the same scrape locations used for several years. I make note of where I see busy, oft-used scrapes and check those same spots the following year. Many repeaters.
 
ye
If I'm seeing your pic correctly of him the day before you shot him, it looks like he's working the same shrub as in your scrape-cam pix. BABY that bush !!! Probably be a hot location for a few years. Maybe it's just the over-hanging limb being handy & reachable?? In my area I've seen the same scrape locations used for several years. I make note of where I see busy, oft-used scrapes and check those same spots the following year. Many repeaters.
yep...its the same scrape set up. ever since i started the food plot in this location (2009) that AO bush has had scrapes under it...there are actually 3 separate scrapes under those branches...but one of them is the main event. the main scrape which he is on in that pic is about 3-4ft around and that branch is now missing a few smaller branches. The first year i had the plot in this location the deer started the scrape there. Then every year after that i have "started" it up each year any time from mid july to september. the plot is L shaped with the "short end" of the L actually being the largest rectangular chunk of the plot and the "long end" of the L being a long and narrow finger of the plot used to get enough square footage to maximize production and not have everything completely eaten by gun season. That AO is in the "pinch" where the two legs of the L meet and there are trails that enter the plot on either side of the shrub.

here is a panoramic shot from my tree. the yellow line is the path the buck took the morning i shot him. he came in from the left and used the trail i made by hingecutting to enter the plot. where the yellow line stops is about where i shot him. the red circle toward the upper right is the AO scrape. My camera is on a T-post driven into the ground on the edge of the tall golden rod below it. the long leg of the L heads off to the right between the AO scrape and the camera.


here's a better close up of that spot. you can see the main scraped up area under the AO and the cam on the post fairly easily in this pic.
 
Awesome buck and a good read
 
Nice pix, Phil. The foreground looks to be brassica. What's the green stuff in the narrow strips? Rye, WW? I know you prob. mentioned it on another thread - my memory is as short as other things............. I like the goldenrod & weedy stuff around the plot. Probably gives them some sense of security on approaching the plot. It's a nice set-up.
 
Nice pix, Phil. The foreground looks to be brassica. What's the green stuff in the narrow strips? Rye, WW? I know you prob. mentioned it on another thread - my memory is as short as other things............. I like the goldenrod & weedy stuff around the plot. Probably gives them some sense of security on approaching the plot. It's a nice set-up.

Thanks BnB...i have a lot of work into tailoring this set up....especially since 95% of it is done by hand! I have killed two bucks in as many years from the same tree with my bow. I'd like to keep that streak going...lol. This is a small lot at just under 10 acres. I can't really promote bedding cover as that would make getting in and out undetected very difficult. The property just uphill of me has a big thicket in an old pasture field grown up with golden rod and some clumps of pines..the does bed on that property. That property does not see any hunting pressure as far as I have ever observed. The property to my south has much the same type of habitat directly bordering me....and the does bed there as well. That property will see occassional gun pressure but not much. The owner only allows a few family members to hunt and they are very much fair weather hunters...plus its the farthest extent of their property and they don't roam much. My lot is essentially sandwiched between two established doe bedding areas along the edges of their broadly defined transitions up over the hill to the larger ag and hay fields. My philosophy has been to give the does a good, secure, little food source to hit before heading off to the primary food sources in the afternoon/evenings, a place to top off the tanks before heading back to bed in the mornings, and a place to take in an occassional mid morning/day snack close to bedding. I know i cant hold a buck or bucks on my land and they tend not to bed too awful close to my land...so I find it better to keep the does regularly coming to my land during shooting hours so that once the bucks really start cruising and checking does they will be coming by my plot. then as the chasing really starts the bucks will be there as well.

The plot is in strips of brassica mix (PTT, DER, GHFR) and a modified version of LC's Rye Mix (WR, Oats, Medium Red Clover, Crimson Clover and a dash of leftover DER). The strip size and placement will be modified slightly this summer. The part of the plot to the far left beyond the waterhole was an expansion area this spring. It used to be all golden rod and some japanese barberry...and it had lots of junk from when my grandfather owned the property. he was a bit of a tinkerer and had accumulated a lot of junk, scrap, parts etc...what he called "inventory". I spent 2 days removing all of the junk, installing the waterhole and killing all the barberry etc. I seeded this whole plot to crimson clover last spring. Then in july i mowed and sprayed the strips into the crimson that would become the brassica planting. I seeded the whole expansion area to brassicas because i like how they dominate...helping me reduce weed competition for this years plantings. then in first week of september i mowed and sprayed the remaining crimson strips and planted the rye mix. I will be extending the lateral strips into the expansion area this coming planting season, when I will then even out the widths of current strips...right now they aren't very even. by evening them out i will get approximately 8,000 sq ft of each planting every year.

In the spring i will seed the brassica strips to crimson and med red clover and i will let the rye mix go since it has a good helping of clovers in it. Then i will mow and spray the rye/clover strips for the brassica mix plantings in early/mid july. Then i will mow/spray the crimson strips (this years brassicas) for planting the rye mix again.

The tall golden rod provides good "cover" around the plot. I will be planting/transplanting some spruce and pines into the golden rod areas about 30-50 yds off of the plot edges to gain additional cover/screening around the plot area. Once the snow flattens the golden rod out...its pretty open in the areas around the plot.
 
Congrats Phil! Dandy buck and great story to go with it! Looks like that little shaver is going to be a chip off the old block, full time hunting buddy just a few years out. Too fun!
 
Congrats Phil! Dandy buck and great story to go with it! Looks like that little shaver is going to be a chip off the old block, full time hunting buddy just a few years out. Too fun!
Thanks whip! he certainly likes deer already!
 
Great buck, and a great read. Love that panorama pic. Lots of hard work there that looks to have paid off in spades. Congrats!
 
Top