Rit’s Parcel
- Thread starter Rit
- Start date
Rit
5 year old buck +
I had mentioned this before but shooting a deer mid rut would seem pretty normal for most but not on my property. 6 years after purchasing the property and 3 growing seasons after starting habitat work I finally shot a mature buck outside of the early season. It’s not the size of the antlers that made this special. It was the age of the buck and time of day that I shot him.
Quite possiblly the manner in which I shot him as well. I had saw 3 mature deer including this buck the day before so my season was already made. November 8th we had terrible weather all night and into the early morning. I elected to stay in until the weather cleared. At 9:00 AM it stopped and I went out to an appropriate stand for the wind North of my house. 11:30 the wind shifted so I got down and moved stands. I had never moved stands mid hunt before. At 1:00 pm this guy walked past. He isn’t one of those giants that were killed in recent years but he was a mature deer on his feet during shooting hours on my rutless property. I call that progress. He is still a neat deer with good features. 20” wide rack, split brow, split right G3, and his left G2 goes almost straight back. I can’t say my property is fixed but it’s looking better. Post season scouting would reveal over 50 scrapes, countless rubs, and I saw all kinds of rut action. Chasing, fighting, and grunting were normal most November days afield.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Between being sick and extreme weather habitat work has been slow. Once the weather broke I did manage to find some type of crab. I’d love to move this out of the ditch into the destination field but I think it’s too big. I actually found 2 next to each other. Fruit appears to be rotting on the tree so it may not even be something of value.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Here is a section south of my house. It’s a hard edge of maturing trees. It runs about 400 yards to the destination field. Deer naturally follow it. I have a stand to the left of the big tree. It’s a nice spot and you see a lot of deer. They are slightly out of bow range at times. I decided to edge feather this entire section. It would push deer 20-30’ closer to the stand. A lot of these edge trees are browse species and are covered up in grape vines. Around here any grape vines in reach get stripped. The area the trees fell into holds a little water. I’ll go back in the spring and push all types of cuttings into the downed tree tops. This should transition into a great bow spot. There will be so much browse on this edge now. I also cut trails back into the woods between the trees. Deer naturally bed inside this edge. It will be great for both of us. My access to the stand will now be screened and the deer will feel more comfortable moving through here.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Pretty sure this is a callery pear. They are slowly spreading around my kill plot. They mke great camera trees. I cut a few off at 5’ this year to see how they respond. I started with 2 or so now there are about 10 total in six years. A few were starting to put on good height stealing sun from the plot.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Common sight in this travel corridor. It’s a small plot bordering a large destination field surrounded by thick brushy bedding and security cover. At its widest point it runs about 30 yards. A lot of edge and small limbs hang into the plot. It’s less than 3/4 of an acre but had around 20 scrapes around the edges this past fall.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Those areas look really good, Rit. All that thick crap around the plots has to hold deer. Gotta love all those scrapes !!
We have a couple spots like the first pic in post #67, but our clumps are multi-trunked crab apple trees in stead of autumn olive. Deer have paths worn 360 degrees around those clusters. We haven't had scrapes at them like you have though !!
We have a couple spots like the first pic in post #67, but our clumps are multi-trunked crab apple trees in stead of autumn olive. Deer have paths worn 360 degrees around those clusters. We haven't had scrapes at them like you have though !!
Rit
5 year old buck +
It has been a slow habitat season. I have had limited time to get into the woods. Usually December thru March are my most productive months. Between work, family, weather and sometimes all 3 the opportunities have been limited. Even though it was 28 degrees today and the weather channel would disagree it feels like Spring is almost here. Had a package waiting for me when I got home.
Rit
5 year old buck +
What a neat ideal. I may do that thanks.
Rit
5 year old buck +
This is one of my main trails/sidewalks. All the trees on the left of the trail are hinged perpendicular to the trail. This trail runs thru 2 bedding areas before it splits off to the kill plot. The 2nd photo shows how close it is to my house. I have a stand that hunts this trail really well on any North wind. The access is to the stand is 50 yards from my front door and with that North wind blows my scent back towards the house. Even though it’s close to my house I still saw three mature bucks from the stand overlooking it and quite a few more on camera. Almost every deer that filters through this thick area runs down this trail.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Few random photos of the trails and pockets in this bedding area. When there is foliage in here it is thick and nasty. I have more trails than pockets. I need a few more pockets. I have also been wanting to transplant cedars into here. The area already has a lot of Dogwood growing within so browse is decent. Quite a bit of golden rod popped up last year. I initially made this area to block off an area for stand access. Seemed like overnight after cutting it about 3 years ago the deer moved in. I couldn’t access the stand with out getting busted so I abandoned the stand. I now start hunting the downwind side at the end of October.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Full time job keeping them open.
