A little new bone starting to show

[Steve Bartylla]

P.S. I'm actually disappointed in the one I'm going after's "jump" from 4.5 (I REALLY like him, just that he didn't make a good jump). He's less than 10" bigger than what he was last year (added a kicker off his left brow and just a smidge of tine length). Those clean 10s are the ones I have the most trouble trying to gauge the jump they'll make.

Here he was last year. Obviously, a dang good buck, but just didn't do much. As I wrote, the clean 10s are the ones that give me the most trouble guesstimating what they'll do. Some blow my socks off. Others just underwhelm with their "jumps" (though the buck isn't "underwhelming" by my definition, his "jump" sure was.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Holy Crap Steve, that is a nice buck as well! Do we each need help killing each others Deer? I have been known to trade hunts sometimes. ;)

I could see that in a year or two, when that property rebounds. Right now I just don't have the mature buck numbers on that ground. I went from having 13, 5.5+ bucks there last year at this time to having 4 right now (EDH & Blue Tongue laid waste to the population). Granted, the cams haven't been out long and it's likely I'll pick up 1 or 2 more, but it is both great and a little depressing how easy this ground is to inventory. In less than the 2 weeks worth of pics I've checked so far, I bet I already have 80+% of the bucks on cam.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Well, I deal with a little bit of a different animal, as those I work for generally place a very high premium on getting pics to track the progress/inventory the herd. So, part of how I design the ground is geared towards high reward/low impact cam locations (that generally also result in high odds/low impact stands).

The pics from this year were from two different clover plots, but both are setup the same. They're inlets into the woods and gradually widen as they connect to large fields. So, I have about 1/2 acre in the very back in clover, only to transition into 50- 100 yard deep corn, only to open up into massive soybean plantings. Both cams are placed just before the ATV trail along the corn dumps into the clover. As you can imagine, that setup makes for slam dunk cam location and tremendous stand sites, as almost all the deer walk the trail to get between the clover and beans. Very low impact, as well.

So, you design a bunch of setups like that and other stupid easy locations, and one gets the majority of deer real fast, all without ever having to step in the woods or even get marginally close to where deer are bedding.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

that's a lot of fun though, too, MO. I have a love hate relationship with working them for 5ish years and starting over on new ground (which is what I do with most of my long term gigs). I hate walking away when everything has hit its stride, but I love starting in on the new ground. There's an excitement (for me at least) in starting from scratch all over again. I suppose I get the best of both worlds as I generally get a new piece more years than not, but the other 3-4 are still in various phases of the 5 year plan.

 

[OkieKubota]

I find regular old Atwood's trace mineral blocks are good for inventorying your bucks... Here are a few from our land...

 

[OkieKubota]

 

[OkieKubota]

Couple new ones that showed up a few days ago on our clover...





And a little guy...

 

[Steve Bartylla]

You have some great bucks there, Okie. I used to use mineral a lot for inventory purposes, but they are now illegal in several of the states I work.

 

[shawnv]

Some nice looking bucks you all have! I have a good number of deer that have my interest for my kids to hunt but only one so far that has my immediate attention. Unfortunately I'm not at the liberty to share his pic for fear of attracting poachers.