My Land Tour...The Big Woods

[H20fwler]

Thought I would show where we spend a lot of time in the fall at the farm....the stands. We have tried to place them so we have good opportunity to play the wind and have good travel lanes.

This one we call the Buck Stand, it is on the south side of the woods about fifteen yards into the woods. There are three shag bark hickories growing close together that at one time must have been used for a wood stand, there are old boards laying around at the base from years ago..so I guess it's been a good spot for a long time. It is the shortest stand we use at about 18', I'm thinking of adding a rail to it next year.
There are some huge old white oaks out front to the left that really put the acorns down on good years and turkeys like to roost in them. Deer also bed just to the north east of this stand, it is a good buck stand because that is about all we see out of it, my youngest son killed his out of it this year.

View from the stand;

A panoramic view;

My favorite stand to hunt we call the Middle Stand it is on the northern side of the woods about twenty yards in from the edge of the pasture, it is set up where about six different trails cross and is around 20' tall. Very comfortable stand to hunt out of has a nice wide platform and the seat folds up, very good view of a lot of the pasture and one end of the back pond. It is very rare to sit in this stand and not see deer..very close, deer distance measured in feet instead of yards. We have killed a lot of deer out of this stand.

Normal view from this stand;

The last stand is a really good gun hunting stand we call the Back Stand, it is 25' and you can see a lot of area from it. It is high up in a big white oak in a row of big white oaks that on a good year really drop some acorns.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Hunted Friday evening in a slight drizzle saw a bunch of big fox squirrels, could hear what sounded like a deer breaking branches off to my left somewhere in the woods.

This is the view right now of what I can see of the back pond, it's fun later on as leaves start to come off when ducks start using it more giving me something to watch.

And it is always nice to grab an apple or pear from the orchard for a stand snack as I pass through.

With about a half hour of shooting time left my buddy is texting me about his fruit trees and he is sending me pics of scrapes and his chestnut trees...I just finish texting back and am starting to put phone back in the pocket of my rain coat when I hear a soft "crunch, crunch, crunch"... I look down to my right and twenty yards from me a nice shooter buck is sneaking along nose to the ground!
He is about to enter a shooting lane so I drop the phone in the noisy rain coat pocket like a dumbass. Buck freezes...I cant see his head good but he is on alert..instead of sitting still I reach for my bow, the buck whirls around runs thirty yards stops and blows very loud. I cant think of anything better to do at this time so I figured I would mouth grunt at him once. He didn't like that at all starts bounding towards the back of the woods..blows crazy loud three more times then stands back there stomping.

I so messed that completely up!

Know the feeling all to well. Ha

 

[H20fwler]

Know the feeling all to well. Ha

I'm pretty good at being able to spook a deer not being still or quiet enough!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

H20 - Your stands are clearly in all the wrong spots !!! There's nothing like time in a good tree stand. You just never know what to expect.

 

[H20fwler]

Pulled the cards last week, I've got a couple that I would love to see up close!

One I though was neat at the orchard with the full moon in the back ground.

All kinds of doe&yearling pics along with assorted basket racks too, not one turkey pic this round.

And a couple weeks ago we had our family pics done out at the farm...it was almost a circus getting a time that worked out for everyone and trying to get pics right with three dogs!

I am so ready for grandkids in future pics!!!!!!

And kudos to my wife of thirty one years for helping make it all possible!

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Great update and it's a blessing when you have all the family involved with the farm too!
Tell that boy Merle sends congrats on a good shot and buck!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[H20fwler]

Great update and it's a blessing when you have all the family involved with the farm too!
Tell that boy Merle sends congrats on a good shot and buck!

Thanks Merle, I sure will!

Hope your bunny season is going well, we are going to give them a little scare Thursday morning.

 

[Mortenson]

Jeesh you have some great deer on your farms! Nice updates. Chris's comment was, "look at those cute dogs. I'd sure like to go fishing there."

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving morning pic.

 

[H20fwler]

Jeesh you have some great deer on your farms! Nice updates. Chris's comment was, "look at those cute dogs. I'd sure like to go fishing there."

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving morning pic.

Thanks, if you all ever get over this way we can sure put the fear in the fish! Right now it's mostly crappies and channel cats but we will be adding some bass in the spring. Hopefully we can find a few bunnies in the orchard brush piles to get the boys some shooting and a pheasant to get the dog some work.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Great family pix H20 !! Great places to hang out with the gang there. Super looking bucks on the cams too. Great mixture of habitat - deer, ducks, small game, fish all have a good home. Even the dogs must love ripping around on those acres.

Grandkids ...…………… sounds like someone's ready to wear "Pop-Pop" as the new name !!!!! They'll have a place to romp around, build forts, fish, & hunt ready & waiting for them. Doesn't get any better !!!

 

[H20fwler]

Great family pix H20 !! Great places to hang out with the gang there. Super looking bucks on the cams too. Great mixture of habitat - deer, ducks, small game, fish all have a good home. Even the dogs must love ripping around on those acres.

Grandkids ...…………… sounds like someone's ready to wear "Pop-Pop" as the new name !!!!! They'll have a place to romp around, build forts, fish, & hunt ready & waiting for them. Doesn't get any better !!!

Thanks Bows.
That is how I plan on spending my retirement in a few years ...spoiling grandkids rotten.
I can't wait to get out there with grandkids, I've got an army of pre-diabetic Boone&Crocket fox squirrels that need taught manners by some sharp eyed young shooters and a couple dozen big old bullfrogs that are getting out of hand needing to take a garlic butter swim in a hot skillet.

 

[H20fwler]

Had the boys out yesterday morning for a quick hunt before the big Thanksgiving day meal yesterday. I seeded a few roosters in the orchard and pasture Wednesday to work the dog and have a little extra fun.
Plan was to start at first good light shoot a few bunnies find the pheasants and go home and enjoys some of little Mama's excellent cooking.......well both the boys went out Wednesday night being Thanksgiving eve. I start trying to get them stirred up a little before seven and both were slow getting around, it was 27 degrees out with more wind than I would have liked.
Around 9:30 we finally got to the farm with one geeked up German Shorthair Pointer, myself and two boys with a touch of a hangover.
We started kicking brush piles but weren't finding any bunnies, at the back of the orchard Darcy pointed up a rooster that held for about five seconds then flushed with the wind as pretty as any rooster has ever flushed. It got toppled by multiple gunfire dropping deader than a stone about forty yards out...Darcy shot right out picked it up and brought it right to me like she had been doing it forever. Before this she had been finding and pointing really good but her retrieving had been iffy at best...not anymore!
About halfway through our "hunt" the oldest son calls a time out...says his morning Gatorade isn't sitting quite right then proceeds to start ralphing followed by a nice dry-heave session...the youngest boy and I laughed till our stomachs hurt.
Darcy had a couple great points but I gave the pheasants to much of a head start setting them free the day before...they acted almost like wild birds not wanting to hold in the wind and a couple making impressive runs. While pushing the shrub strips the dog lined out like she was chasing a fast running bird, because she was! When they hit the end of the strips three hundred yards away two roosters flushed! I never even thought to put a blocker down there on released birds.
Darcy gave it her A game, me an A-...the boys C game at best. We never did see a rabbit and I didn't want to hunt the woods or get to close to it with deer gun starting next Monday. I did manage to get a couple pics before my phone battery died in the cold.

And I did spot a couple 2nd gen Dunstans in the shrub strips from nuts off our trees planted last spring.

 

[Mortenson]

LMAO! Great recap.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Post #111 - I like how you think, H20 !!!

Sounds like Darcy is getting her groove on. Good things to come.

Young sons and Ralph ………….. tough lessons learned. Don't we all go through that ??

 

[H20fwler]

Post #111 - I like how you think, H20 !!!

Sounds like Darcy is getting her groove on. Good things to come.

Young sons and Ralph ………….. tough lessons learned. Don't we all go through that ??

We sure do!
Hunting Thanksgiving morning has been a tradition in our family for at least four generations that I know of. When I was a little kid I used to go out with my Grandfather Dad Uncle’s and cousins while my Grandmother worked on the big meal. There were wild pheasants back then and we always ran beagles.
Over thirty years ago I was “that guy” nursing a hangover like that!

 

[buckdeer1]

Great looking place,the only thing I saw missing was safe climb ropes,I can't imagine climbing stands that high or even half that high without them.Think about it look at the family photo.I was luckey a few years ago,it just cost me some pain,surgery and about 10K out of pocket but I know guys that left widows.

 

[H20fwler]

Great looking place,the only thing I saw missing was safe climb ropes,I can't imagine climbing stands that high or even half that high without them.Think about it look at the family photo.I was luckey a few years ago,it just cost me some pain,surgery and about 10K out of pocket but I know guys that left widows.

Good advice buckdeer1.
I’ve got a tie off on my really tall one that I wear a good TreeSpider harness in. Admittedly I don’t wear anything in any of the others, besides straps I have them all chained to the trees and that may give me a little bit of a false sense of security.

On the stand topic, I kick myself for not putting a couple pop up blinds up late summer in the back corners of the woods. The trails look like deer highways back there and they would have been great for snowy/rainy very cold days.....next year for sure!
A nice shooting house is definitely on my bucket project list to put up some day.

 

[buckdeer1]

I used to use chains on some but if I forgot to loosen after season they seemed to grow into tree or snap.With those tall stands you may have to build your own out of climbing rope and a prussic knot.I use my bale blind and redneck gillie for those nasty days so I know what you mean

 

[H20fwler]

First deer gun this past week, hunted Monday through Saturday saw LOTS of deer. Most of the week it was either a cold rain or snowing, on way back to the truck mid day Monday I had a real "iffy" buck jump up from it's bed in pasture right along orchard and run past me at thirty yards...kind of kicking myself a little for not rolling it.
Passed on a couple small baskets, I had more adult does within twenty yards relaxed than all of bow season combined, now and then they would look up and stomp or just dead stare at me with those big black eyes but eventually decide all was well. I was dressed warm and kept very still, saw all kinds of wildlife lots of cool birds. Heard a couple of rooster pheasants left over from Thanksgiving morning cackle late in the day a couple times and that was neat...next good snow I'll take Darcy out and round them up.
Thursday mid morning had a yote come sneaking down center of woods around sixty yards away, I picked a spot that was clear ahead of it and was ready!

 

[H20fwler]

Bee's are ready for winter, hives wrapped and wind protection up.

While deer hunting this past weekend I heard a rooster cackling again at dusk so this morning I took Darcy out to see if we could find one.
Wind was ten mph out of west so I hunted her into it and she was fun to watch and work with. I also like that we have enough pheasant cover and food that they were able to survive after being released the day before Thanksgiving.