My Land Tour...The Big Woods
- Thread starter H20fwler
- Start date
Can honestly say I never heard of anyone building flying squirrel house.But then we don't have any in SC Kansas or I would probably build some.Only 1 more weekend of ducks and it's pretty slow then I will get my wood duck houses cleaned out.When will you start expecting them to be looking at yours?Are you still duck hunting?
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Yesterday was our last day of duck season here. I opted to bunny hunt most of the day with a couple friends, one of my buddies has a beagle that sure tries hard and I love the way she sounds. We probably started over twenty bunnies and ended up shooting five. The Little Woods was loaded she would be running one and bump up another...every place we hit had at least a couple, we had a blast.
Goose season is in until early February and I've got one field they are hitting pretty good so the boys and I will chase them a little more this season yet.
Wood ducks start showing up here house hunting in late March.
I get most of my pollinator seeds from American Meadows, they price pretty good in bulk. I do pick up odd and end seeds from random places as I see them and want to give them a try, put in a pretty big patch of Fennel and Dill for swallowtails last spring.
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H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Coon hunted a couple times last week and thinned a few out, we took eighteen over to a guy that would take them whole and got $20 for all of them.
While we were bunny hunting the other day I snapped a few pics while waiting for the dog to circle one around.
Some of the pines we planted as a road screen, the south end ones look pretty good with the best being 7' the worst 3' and beat up. Just to wet in the middle for them going to try some ROD to try and screen it. Without protection the pines and spruce get hammered started fencing what I could two years ago.
The spruce on the orchard end of road screen
Some of the ROD in the shrub strips, some are 4'+, some are a couple feet if the deer get after them hard where it's more open.
Youngest son and dog found a nice dead head
While we were bunny hunting the other day I snapped a few pics while waiting for the dog to circle one around.
Some of the pines we planted as a road screen, the south end ones look pretty good with the best being 7' the worst 3' and beat up. Just to wet in the middle for them going to try some ROD to try and screen it. Without protection the pines and spruce get hammered started fencing what I could two years ago.
The spruce on the orchard end of road screen
Some of the ROD in the shrub strips, some are 4'+, some are a couple feet if the deer get after them hard where it's more open.
Youngest son and dog found a nice dead head
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
While bunny hunting a couple weeks ago I noticed two small trees that had vines growing around them that could maybe someday turn into a walking sticks/staffs if everything goes right. So this past Saturday I grabbed some flagging tape and went out to mark them so I can keep an eye on them. I ended finding eleven with potential from a little bigger than my thumb size to two inches thick so hopefully out of those we end up with a couple.
And a couple hundred yards from the farm at the bridge on the river I saw this;
First time I have ever seen otter sign in our county! They are protected in this part of the state right now but other parts East side and southern they have restricted trapping seasons.
For now it is pretty cool that there are some around...don't know how cool I will think it is if they clean the bass out of the pond but for now very interesting to see.
And a couple hundred yards from the farm at the bridge on the river I saw this;
First time I have ever seen otter sign in our county! They are protected in this part of the state right now but other parts East side and southern they have restricted trapping seasons.
For now it is pretty cool that there are some around...don't know how cool I will think it is if they clean the bass out of the pond but for now very interesting to see.
Merle Hawggard
5 year old buck +
Otter are fun to watch, but they can clean out a small pond I'd bet.
I've left the ones that have found our pond alone for now.
How has your bunny season going?
I've been running the pups every chance I get this year.
Brought two of my grandsons along and they go to bed with rabbit hunting videos now.
Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk
I've left the ones that have found our pond alone for now.
How has your bunny season going?
I've been running the pups every chance I get this year.
Brought two of my grandsons along and they go to bed with rabbit hunting videos now.
Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Otter are fun to watch, but they can clean out a small pond I'd bet.
I've left the ones that have found our pond alone for now.
How has your bunny season going?
I've been running the pups every chance I get this year.
Brought two of my grandsons along and they go to bed with rabbit hunting videos now.
Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk
Bunny season has gone really well this year, it has been an up cycle year for them here. We shoot more of them when we just walk them up but it is a lot more fun behind a beagle. One of my buddies has a pretty good female that has one of the funniest barks I've ever heard...like she is mad at them!
She isn't very fast so you really have to look for the bunnies because normally they are coming along slow way ahead of her. By the end of the day the tip of her tail is good and bloody and we have all the rabbits we want, I am so looking forward to grandchildren to chase bunnies with.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Nice bare skull buck head!! That'll make a nice mount.
Those pheasant hunt pics (of Dec. 23 and 28) with the pups and that old piece of farm equipment are worthy of magazine covers!!
$20 for the coons?? Was that $20 a piece or for the lot?? Just curious. I used to trap coons when they were $38 - $40 for large prime coon. That was back in 1974 to 1980.
Otters now at your place too?? What DON'T you have there??!! I was catching up on this thread going back to summer, and all your planted stuff looks great. Lots of pollinators, bird life, waterfowl and small game critters ............ plus a couple "fair-sized" deer.
It must be true suffering when you head to the farms with family & pups .....................
Those pheasant hunt pics (of Dec. 23 and 28) with the pups and that old piece of farm equipment are worthy of magazine covers!!
$20 for the coons?? Was that $20 a piece or for the lot?? Just curious. I used to trap coons when they were $38 - $40 for large prime coon. That was back in 1974 to 1980.
Otters now at your place too?? What DON'T you have there??!! I was catching up on this thread going back to summer, and all your planted stuff looks great. Lots of pollinators, bird life, waterfowl and small game critters ............ plus a couple "fair-sized" deer.
It must be true suffering when you head to the farms with family & pups .....................
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I may take you up on that some time! If your ever down this way in late fall shoot me a PM would love to give you a tour of the place and get those young guns of yours on some bunnies.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Nice bare skull buck head!! That'll make a nice mount.
Those pheasant hunt pics (of Dec. 23 and 28) with the pups and that old piece of farm equipment are worthy of magazine covers!!
$20 for the coons?? Was that $20 a piece or for the lot?? Just curious. I used to trap coons when they were $38 - $40 for large prime coon. That was back in 1974 to 1980.
Otters now at your place too?? What DON'T you have there??!! I was catching up on this thread going back to summer, and all your planted stuff looks great. Lots of pollinators, bird life, waterfowl and small game critters ............ plus a couple "fair-sized" deer.
Thanks,
It was $20 for the whole lot. I used to trap them in the 70's and 80's when they were worth something too, we were talking about that in the woods one night while waiting on the dog to tree. We agreed that in the old days if we would have gotten them as easy as we do know we would have had the world by the tail.
It has been interesting and a great learning experience for us so far seeing all the different wildlife around the place, seems like we see new things all the time out there it is constantly changing.
Knehrke
5 year old buck +
Those vines in your picture scare me a bit...the only vines I see up here that circle trees like that are oriental bittersweet, a horrible invasive that eventually girdles everything it touches. Do they get bright orange berries? That's my cue. Well, that and all the malformed trees that are slowly strangled to death.
I hope it's something else. Just an FYI in case.
I hope it's something else. Just an FYI in case.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
If Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift would start wearing fur the market would change overnight. To many pussies in "Hollywood".
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I can remember mid 80's fur being $35-40 for a large coon.
Hell, a buddy, and myself hunted about 4 nights a week. I bought a decent truck with the hides we got that year. I think we each took home $3500 for the season, then on top of that, we each sold our dogs. He got $5000 for his, I got $3000 for mine. Not bad for them being litter mates, and being 1.5 yo. We each paid $250 when we got the pups, trained them for a year. Sadly, they were the best coon dogs we ever had. Kinda regretted selling them, but that was a lot of money for a high schooler.
Hell, a buddy, and myself hunted about 4 nights a week. I bought a decent truck with the hides we got that year. I think we each took home $3500 for the season, then on top of that, we each sold our dogs. He got $5000 for his, I got $3000 for mine. Not bad for them being litter mates, and being 1.5 yo. We each paid $250 when we got the pups, trained them for a year. Sadly, they were the best coon dogs we ever had. Kinda regretted selling them, but that was a lot of money for a high schooler.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I can’t really say if they have orange berries or not. Until recently I hardly even paid attention to viney looking stuff at all except for poison ivy if it was on the same tree a stand was.
The woods on this farm is around fifteen acres and from mid may until bow season we don’t even normally go in it leaving it for wildlife to feel safe.
I did notice that when I would find a vine wrapped tree the other day there seemed to be two or three in close proximity. There didn’t seem to be very many vines at all overall on anything in the woods.
Now that I have the trees marked I can keep an eye on them and maybe get a pic of vines when they are leafed out and watch for any berries. I do appreciate the heads up, I try to keep invasives in check on this property if I can.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Agree 100%
I think Taylor Swift might even be a big anti fur advocate.
It’s a shame that politics have killed the fur market crushing a once thriving industry of a renewable resource that provided so much activity for so many in the outdoors.
I think China and Russia used to be two of the biggest buyers of fur.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Those were the days for high school age guys!! Coons & muskrats were where we made our money, with a few red fox in the mix. Coons were easy to lure into a trap - they eat just about anything!! Rats were bringing $7.50 to $9 for prime large muskrats back then. Back when real fur-trimmed parkas were popular, we sold a batch of opposum fur (cheap trim) and they paid for our gas checking traps!! I skinned and fleshed all our hides and put them on stretchers for top dollar.
With fur prices being high back then, you didn't hear of much rabies around in all kinds of animals like you do today.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
I can remember guys paying crazy high amounts for top end coon dogs back when I was in school. Certain dogs would almost reach legendary status they were such good hunters.
It seemed about every farm kid I knew trapped some when I was young. I used to run my trap line early before school and then again as soon as I got home, wasn’t uncommon to pull a muskrat out of a trap in morning then again in the evening out of same set. Fox were our big game animals to catch we didn’t have any coyotes around then.
I think through junior high and high school I averaged over $1000 each year running a nice loop of traps in the creek and woods a mile or so behind our house.
Kids these days are missing out on a great adventure and a lot of fun because the low fur prices.
Running a trap line and seeing and hearing a good dog work is something every boy should experience.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Trapping around a creek, you could get pretty much anything. Coon, cats, mink, beaver, fox, muskrats, it was an adventure, and some of my best memories.
