A few habitat pics I thought you might enjoy

[Native Hunter]

Good luck Native, look forward to your harvest pics. Your place is beautiful as always, any particular variety of chestnut?

Thanks Mozark. Other than a couple of Dunstans and one grafted tree all of my Chestnuts are just plain Chinese. I would estimate that I now have 25+ trees that are dropping chestnuts. The drop starts around mid September, and I only found 2 trees yesterday that had started. The latest ones will be finished just a few days before Halloween.

Just before the chestnuts finish, the sawtooth oaks start dropping and they go into early November. About that time the Allegheny Chinkapins start falling and they go into mid to late November. It’s a nutty world out there…..

 

[blueKYstream]

Native, I enjoy seeing all the fruits of your labor! It inspires me to keep going! This is the first year I got fruit from 2 of my apple trees and a couple pear trees. I managed to snag one of the pears, a Becton. After sitting a week, it was quite good...sweet but not too sweet. The skin was a bit gritty but that's ok. Let me know when you need some "management" bucks taken off your place Good luck to you this season!

 

[Native Hunter]

Native, I enjoy seeing all the fruits of your labor! It inspires me to keep going! This is the first year I got fruit from 2 of my apple trees and a couple pear trees. I managed to snag one of the pears, a Becton. After sitting a week, it was quite good...sweet but not too sweet. The skin was a bit gritty but that's ok. Let me know when you need some "management" bucks taken off your place Good luck to you this season!

Thanks, and good luck to you too!

 

[SWIFFY]

Looks amazing there Native! Glad youve made it past the worst of the storm damage and are on to thinking DEER!

Good luck with your big guy! Hes a good one. Im rootin for you!

 

[Mozark]

Thanks Mozark. Other than a couple of Dunstans and one grafted tree all of my Chestnuts are just plain Chinese. I would estimate that I now have 25+ trees that are dropping chestnuts. The drop starts around mid September, and I only found 2 trees yesterday that had started. The latest ones will be finished just a few days before Halloween.

Just before the chestnuts finish, the sawtooth oaks start dropping and they go into early November. About that time the Allegheny Chinkapins start falling and they go into mid to late November. It’s a nutty world out there…..

Thanks Native, a appreciate the drop sequence. This question may not have an easy answere, I apologize for that. Given an average year which is more productive, persimmons/chestnuts or apples/pears....based solely on how much food actually hits the dirt?

 

[Native Hunter]

Thanks Native, a appreciate the drop sequence. This question may not have an easy answere, I apologize for that. Given an average year which is more productive, persimmons/chestnuts or apples/pears....based solely on how much food actually hits the dirt?

All of them can be very productive, but apples and pears are more at the mercy of late freezes due to when they flower. Persimmons and chestnuts can have down years in fruit production, but they are not as likely to have a down year as apples and pears. Just a couple of degrees difference at flowering and fruit setting time can make the difference between great crops and poor crops (or complete failure).

Chestnuts - usually avoid late freezes but can still have up and down years. But keep in mind that typical chestnuts will usually be all dropped and eaten before the end of October. The Buck IV (and some others) are advertised as dropping in November. I've had two Buck IVs to die so have given up on them.

Persimmons - can cover a very long drop time and really put out a massive amount of fruit. With the right persimmons you can drop from September to February. Persimmons are less likely than any of the others to have a down year. I can only remember one year in the last 10 when it was a down year for persimmons, and even then, it was not a complete failure.

Apples and pears - I still manage to get good crops more than half of the time. This year I had a poor year (about 25% production) of apples at home but had a bumper crop at my farm 20 miles away. Pears were good at both places but were not very good on the lower ground in a frost pocket. Last year the apples were great at home but poor at the farm. It can just happen like that with apples, but I still love them.

Also, don't forget the chinkapins and sawtooths. They tend to be very reliable and add to the buffet.

The best plan is to have a lot of diversity and different species. That gives you the best chance of having lots of food for the deer. If one species is having a down year, it's likely that another species is having a good year. Best wishes.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Always enjoy your posts Native, good luck on the target buck! The pic of the Persimmons made my mouth water lol

 

[Mozark]

Thanks Native! There is so much rock here I will pretty much have to rely on trees for everything.

 

[Native Hunter]

If you read my recent post in the "Live from the stand thread" you will know that I had a close encounter with the deer below at my 20 acre place. I had him under 40 yards with the crossbow, but he was in standing corn. At times I could barely see the vitals, but I kept hesitating because I thought I would get a bigger hole to shoot through. But as fate would have it, he turned a different direction, and I lost the opportunity.

The very next day (last Saturday) they started picking the corn. I will give things a few days to settle down and see what is happening on the cameras. I hope he is still around. If so, I will try again with the crossbow about the middle of next week.

It's raining chestnuts now at my other place, and I picked up a few for myself today.

It's also raining persimmons. The ones in my hand are MIller, and the ones on the tree are Deer Magnet. Many native trees are also dropping.

I'm also enjoying lots of pears right now.

These are some of the late dropping sawtooths. As you can see, they are still very green.

That's about it for now guys. I have a bunch of non-hunting things pressing me to get done right now, but I do hope to make it out at least a couple more times with the crossbow before our two day muzzleloader season in mid-October. My son will be hunting with me on those days, and I hope we can have a pattern on a good one by then. My 100 acres place is crawling with deer right now, but all the bucks I'm seeing need another year. That may change when the crops bordering me are harvested, and I think that will be soon. Best wishes.

 

[SWIFFY]

Good luck Native! The farm looks great and so does that buck. I cant wait to see you sitting behind him!

 

[Troubles Trees]

Always impressed with your food sources Native! I hope I am close to where you are in 10+ years, seeing those Persimmons made my mouth water!! The Sawtooth's look like they should be a plant growing on the ocean floor, or really bad bed hair, not sure which way to go with that lol

As always you have an awesome target buck to chase this year and what a bruiser!

 

[Native Hunter]

Other than freezing to death the last couple of days, I'm having a great time during gun season this year. The big buck pictured above that I was hunting during early season is gone - possibly dead. Now I have my sights set on another one shown in the first two pictures below. I've had a glimpse or two of him, but he has been elusive since all of the hunting activity picked up on neighboring properties. Just before gun season, he was showing in daylight quite often, but now he is being more careful. It's going to take a hot doe to bring him out.

I've passed some other good bucks and had another bigger deer to show up in the last few days. Below are some of them:

This guy gave me a clear shot yesterday at 60 yards. He looks pretty good, but I think he is only 3, and seems to be a homebody. It would be great to see him next year:

This morning I passed a shot at what I believe to be the deer below. He is also a homebody. I would not be ashamed to take this deer, but I really have my heart set on the other one. That second picture is only 50 yards from the blind I was in.

This is one that just came in recently that I have no history on. I have not seen this deer in person yet. What would be great is if I could kill the other one and this one stay around.

This is a strange looking rut visitor that I had at 35 yards tailing a doe. He looks mature but I've never seen a mature deer around here with tines so short.

Here is another old looking rut visitor that I haven't seen in person yet. He looks ancient.

On a sadder note, the young double drop tine I was hoping would survive was killed about a mile from me. But, they say the guy who killed him is a good fellow, so I'm happy for him. I'm just going to keep hunting and having fun. If I don't get my target in the next few days, we will try again during late ML season.

 

[Native Hunter]

This morning I ended my season by taking a 10 point that I had only had two pictures of. However, I could tell he was a mature buck (at least 4.5) and would score well. The morning started out slowly with me only seeing does to my west that were meandering around in a long and narrow food plot that is mostly wheat. There are also a few crabapple trees at that location that keeps them hanging around. Honestly, it was pretty dull, because there was no chasing or any buck movement.

Later in the morning, I saw a young buck chase a doe out of my native grass field to the south into a picked corn field. That was approximately 350 yards from me. I kept watching that spot and in a few minutes I saw my buck below come around the corner of the corn and enter into the native grass. At that point, all I could tell was that he was a big deer. I didn't know which of the 10 points he was, but I figured he was one of the two I knew of. I kept watching my shooting lanes for what seemed like eternity and saw nothing. Then a nervous looking doe entered one of the lanes and came toward me. She came within 100 yards - stopped - and then turned around and ran back the way she came, but I never saw him. Suddenly he popped out in one of my lanes at 282 yards and briefly turned broadside. That was all I needed. The 300 mag roared and took out the top part of his heart. I don't know how he did it, but he still managed to run 60 yards. The blood trail was not incredible, but good enough for me to slowly track him down.

That's it for me this year folks. If my son wants to hunt late muzzleloader, I may go out with him, but I'm through hunting myself. Thanks for reading and take care.

 

[blueKYstream]

Congratulations on another great buck!

 

[BenAllgood]

Congrats Steve! I knew you wouldn't strike out, but I was getting a little anxious.

 

[Booner21]

Great deer!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tree Spud]

Congrats Steve, great buck!

 

[Mortenson]

Heck yeah! Way to go, Native Hunter! That boy will look good on the wall with the others.

 

[Bill]

Nice one!
You sure do consistently put them on the ground.

 

[Native Hunter]

Nice one!
You sure do consistently put them on the ground.

I'm trying to learn from watching you and your son.....!!!