J-birds place

[j-bird]

So I got my buck for the year yesterday evening. To be honest it's the smallest racked buck I have taken in years.... He was 200 lbs live weight and dressed out at 160 lbs. He wasn't exactly what I was after, but I didn't look him over real well before pulling the trigger either. He wasn't acting like most 2 year old bucks I have ever seen. He was grunting and scraping and the like as if he was much older. I saw a decent body and antlers and let him have it. In any case he will help fill the freezer....and maybe I left a bigger one for one of the kids?

 

[j-bird]

So the boy shot two deer the other day....a small doe....and a big dog. One was 120 lbs live weight the other just 80 lbs. Still cheaper than burger at the store (7% fat burger here runs $5.25+ a pound). We had the loins pulled and the rest ground into burger and for 2 deer it was $240. Thats...worked out to $4.60/pound just for the burger. I tried to tell junior that the locker charges the same price "per deer" - so we want to take in the big ones! Now if we get my daughter one over the holiday weekend we will all of had some success this year.

 

[j-bird]

well....a firearms season that opened like none other before.....ended with a fizzle.... It wasn't a total loss, but was certainly disappointing from a harvest perspective. We took 3 deer total, 1 buck, 2 doe and took a total of 400 lbs of live weight deer. We didn't see any monsters and we didn't even see any big does. I was able to hunt with my kids and that was great, but deer sightings where few and far between. Season is now closed for 5 days and Muzzleloader will open saturday for another 16 days. Maybe things will improve with colder temps, we may even try to hunt my folks place to reduce the pressure on mine. Already making the "to do list" for once the muzzleloader season closes.

 

[j-bird]

So the boy shot a buck over in Ripley county (my folks place) the other day....muzzleloader has a hint of piebald to it, which is a first for us. Buck was as wide as his ears and decent sized. Boy said the buck was grunting like a pig and that is what got the deer killed. He didn't hear the deer otherwise due to rain softening the leaves.

 

[Mortenson]

Nice hunting updates. You guys had pretty good success and are putting a lot of meat away. Your son's buck is unique. Is he going to tan some of that hide? Or all if he's not doing a shoulder mount?

 

[Troubles Trees]

Good Deer season J! Congrats to you and the family bud, very cool piebald features!

 

[j-bird]

Nice hunting updates. You guys had pretty good success and are putting a lot of meat away. Your son's buck is unique. Is he going to tan some of that hide? Or all if he's not doing a shoulder mount?

Deer is THE red meat in our household, so we go thru quite a bit. This dee we had the roasts and tenderloins pulled and the rest will be summer sausage. My boy has a co-worker that wants to smoke/slow cook the roast on one of them "green egg" things...so we will see how that turns out. I can't bring myself to grind up tenderloins. I really want to get my youngest daughter a deer yet if at all possible, so we all have a taste of success this year, but we will see.

No shoulder mount or hide. We didn't think the piebald portion was significant enough to make tanning a hide worth it. If it was more pronounced...maybe, but not in the cards this time.

 

[j-bird]

Good Deer season J! Congrats to you and the family bud, very cool piebald features!

Thank you. 2 of our 3 hunters have had success....I need to get my daughter on one yet....so hopefully we are not done yet. Our muzzleloader season runs until the 18th I think....so I am not sure if she will be home from college yet to catch the tail end of it or not.

 

[Bill]

Conrgrats to your son..
Is he still doing stunt jumps with that little car?

 

[j-bird]

Conrgrats to your son..
Is he still doing stunt jumps with that little car?

No - the car after the jump was driven across the county with only the first 3 gears.... that boy loves the rev limiter. Then it was ran in a "red-neck auto cross" where it was further thrashed. It finally over-heated there due to a radiator failure. Somewhere along the line the hood flew open and spider cracked the windshield....as my boy was driving it. So they tore the hood off of it. Then it was donated to the local fire department so they could use it for practice. The car would have been kept, but the auto cross changed their rules and meant more work would have to be put into it (hood, roll bar, windshield), so it was set on fire and cut and pulled into pieces by the jaws of life and the like by the local fire department. It lived a rough life! I am very fearful that he will find another one!!!

 

[j-bird]

So I swear someone gave the deer a calendar! We hunted for nice does all year and struggled to find what we was after. Now that the firearms seasons are over.....they are 75 yards or less from the front porch of the house! 6 of them.....like they own the place! I didn't see that many deer at one time while I was hunting all season!! I swear they do this just to taunt me!!!!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

J-Bird -
You're not alone with disappearing / re-appearing deer post season ........... or just after dark during the season!!! We put on drives all day long - see no deer - come back to cabin ......... deer in plots within 15 minutes. Tunnels underground?

Good you have some mommas around to give birth in the spring.

 

[356]

J-Bird -
You're not alone with disappearing / re-appearing deer post season ........... or just after dark during the season!!! We put on drives all day long - see no deer - come back to cabin ......... deer in plots within 15 minutes. Tunnels underground?

Good you have some mommas around to give birth in the spring.

So I swear someone gave the deer a calendar! We hunted for nice does all year and struggled to find what we was after. Now that the firearms seasons are over.....they are 75 yards or less from the front porch of the house! 6 of them.....like they own the place! I didn't see that many deer at one time while I was hunting all season!! I swear they do this just to taunt me!!!!

Here is a picture from the day after muzzleloading season ended at our place. I agree, someone is giving them a calendar.

So I swear someone gave the deer a calendar! We hunted for nice does all year and struggled to find what we was after. Now that the firearms seasons are over.....they are 75 yards or less from the front porch of the house! 6 of them.....like they own the place! I didn't see that many deer at one time while I was hunting all season!! I swear they do this just to taunt me!!!!

Not to rob your land tour thread, but his picture was taken the day after the final firearms season from the pinch point. Perfect wind that day for a stand 40 yards away. Yes, someone is giving them a camera to taunt us. Thanks for exposing this conspiracy.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^^ Isn't this usually the case?? I have to chuckle ........... they outsmart us more often than we think.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

J-Bird -
You're not alone with disappearing / re-appearing deer post season ........... or just after dark during the season!!! We put on drives all day long - see no deer - come back to cabin ......... deer in plots within 15 minutes. Tunnels underground?

Good you have some mommas around to give birth in the spring.

I used to say that they hid in groundhog holes...no idea how they got their huge antlers down them though...

 

[Buckhunter10]

The vanishing deer! The best magic trick of all time!! Lol!! I’m so happy I am not alone!

 

[j-bird]

The part that frustrated me was they came to me....like giving me a big FINGER!!! It is one thing when they are out in the woods or in a plot....I can take that. Oh, no....they come to the house!!!! They are like, "now that we know he can't shoot us....lets get everyone together and go to the mailbox, we know that will pi$$ him off!!"

 

[j-bird]

With lots of folks eyeing the planting season I see lots of posts about ...."what should I plant?" The biggest thing I have learned over my time doing this is that....there is no one right answer. You have to plant what works for you and what meets your needs, budget , and equipment needs.

I keep my plots small because I am in heavy ag country and as such food is NOT an issue. I do still try to make sure that the deer do have what they need however....and after the harvest is complete these plots do help narrow down the deer movement.

I plant small plots of soybeans. Some people claim that "it can't be done".....I assure you it can. Just maybe not in 99.9% of the country. Beans as cheaper than corn, easier to grow than corn, provide both a forage and grain so it covers a longer period of time it is of use to the deer as well. Beans also stay mostly above what little snow we do get here as well.

Here is some pics of my 1/4 acre bean plot. No fence, no hot-wire..... I still have beans in the pods as of this past weekend. And you can see there is some greens stuff in there as well.....mostly an overseeding of winter wheat, turnips and some clover......to help ad diversity AND carry over well into spring. If this does what it did last year....The greens will be knee high by the time I'm ready to re-plant. I plant RR ag beans for those that care....I get 2 or 3 5 gallon buckets of seed from a local farmer for free and plant them with my 2 row plate planter (you know...click, click, click...old school) I split 30" rows. The corn was mixed in just for some cover and to see what happened. It didn't do much....but I didn't expect it to.



Add some turnips for some more late season food. My deer are not particularly fond of them...but its there is they need it...and again...it's cheap and easy. That's me.....Mr,. Cheap and Easy!!!


Another thing I see people asking about is grasses for cover..... Again, I know I don't get the snow that many others do (18" avg/yr).....but this is very typical of my switchgrass here....and it's mid Feb! Many say "plant it and they will come" in regards to plots. In my case.....cover is king. And food without cover is worthless for hunting. The more I expand and improve my cover the more deer I see and the better the hunting gets. I can't justify turning 100 acres of field into grass (not at $250+/acre in rent), but I do where it makes more sense.

 

[Bill]

I was slacking off my food. Then the last two years my neighbor got all the sheds. I upped my game again.

 

[j-bird]

I was slacking off my food. Then the last two years my neighbor got all the sheds. I upped my game again.

I don't hold the bucks either way....I simply lack the cover needed to hold them. I find a small shed once in a while, but nothing to get excited over. Food is important, but food without cover just leads to night time activity. I would have to turn my 100 acres of tillable into grass/shrubs to have the cover to even consider holding a decent buck. I love deer hunting....but that would cut thousands of dollars out of the household income a year. We also don't have any conservation programs here to retire entire fields...they only cover the first 120 feet of the field edge. I am just working within what I have. I think some folks get a little to brain washed into thinking that with enough food that they too can draw and hold deer like they see on TV. In most cases I suspect that simply isn't true and folks end up disappointed. We need to remain realistic with what our limitations/expectations are. Most of the folks here get it. But many others are after a "magic bullet" and seem to drink way too much of the cool-aide.