The Front 12

[Bowsnbucks]

I hope you're feeling better Pat !! Lousy way to spend a July 4th weekend - Covid.
Those black birch - are they the product of some logging?? They look young. Or do you have a number of mature black birch that are seeding the younger ones?? We got an outburst of young BB on our north slope after we logged that area. The deer seemed to like the thickness they provided. Trails & rubs all around in those young BB at our place.

 

[SD51555]

How did you arrive at a 24,000/ac lime recommendation? That's quite the shot of lime. Did you blend your limes, or just put on one type?

 

[PatinPA]

I hope you're feeling better Pat !! Lousy way to spend a July 4th weekend - Covid.
Those black birch - are they the product of some logging?? They look young. Or do you have a number of mature black birch that are seeding the younger ones?? We got an outburst of young BB on our north slope after we logged that area. The deer seemed to like the thickness they provided. Trails & rubs all around in those young BB at our place.

Yes, had the hemlocks timbered off. There are a few mature black birch and it's coming back predominantly in black birch. There are a few young oaks and pines here and there but they get drowned out for the most part. The BB makes pretty good cover this time of the year but the leaves fall off early in the fall and it quickly loses it's value for cover. And thanks. I feel much better now but that weekend sucked.

 

[PatinPA]

How did you arrive at a 24,000/ac lime recommendation? That's quite the shot of lime. Did you blend your limes, or just put on one type?

Soil test recommendation. I forget what it was exactly but the pH was very low, around 4.5. I don't have the equipment to spread that so I've been putting down about 300 lbs on each plot every year. I have two small kill plots that are roughly 1/20th of an acre. My main plot is about 1/4 acre. Typically spread pelletized lime. Couldn't get any last year so I put down Ag lime. What a freaking mess that is to hand spread.

 

[SD51555]

Soil test recommendation. I forget what it was exactly but the pH was very low, around 4.5. I don't have the equipment to spread that so I've been putting down about 300 lbs on each plot every year. I have two small kill plots that are roughly 1/20th of an acre. My main plot is about 1/4 acre. Typically spread pelletized lime. Couldn't get any last year so I put down Ag lime. What a freaking mess that is to hand spread.

I was bucket and hand spreading some ag lime over the weekend. I picked up some calcitic at the Fleet Farm. I couldn't help notice how easy it was the spread the calcitic ag lime, and that was across two different brands. When I tried to hand spread dolomitic ag lime by hand, my fingers were beat to hell with all sorts of rock embedded under my fingernails.

 

[PatinPA]

Finally got some nice ones on camera. Skirting the edge of my property. That brush to the right is piled up to push them closer to the stand I have about 30 yards to the left of this pic. It's a nice bottleneck where the creek elbows just to the right of this pic and there is about a 30 ft. drop to the creek. This is one of my favorite stands. The only problem is my property line runs right along here so I'm at the mercy of what the neighbors do. In fact, I just noticed this weekend that they put a camp site along the creek about 100 yards from here. The buck are headed in that direction though so I guess it doesn't bother them too much. There is a lot of human activity around here so intrusions aren't that big of a deal to them

 

[PatinPA]

I thought these buck looked familiar so I checked last years pics and I'd say they're probably the same buck. Which is a first for me to have the same buck back for another year. At least that I can tell or know of. Tough to tell a yearling spike to a 2nd year deer.

 

[PatinPA]

Wish I had a cool story to go with this but it's he literally walked up and I shot him, haha. Sometimes you just get lucky. Morning started off fast. I bumped deer walking to stand which is fairly normal since I have terrible access. Saw a bunch of doe and 2 small 4 points right after daylight. I was actually pretty bummed going in to the day. Checked trail cameras yesterday and had none of the big boys at all last week. Usually if I see a bunch of small buck it means a big one is not there. At 8 AM saw a deer down in front of me where I've seen a lot of the buck come from. Saw antlers right away but I thought it was 6 point that just showed up on trail camera. Finally he stepped out and I saw that he was a shooter. Then he disappeared and I thought he went back the way he came. I looked and looked, kept fogging up my scope so I had the gun in one hand and binoculars in the other. Finally I saw him moving to my left, thought he was going to go right to my dad but he turned and cut up the hill between us. Still couldn't shoot through all the brush. Finally he stepped out broadside at 40 yards and he was directly between my dad and I so I had to painstakingly let him walk behind a bunch of hemlocks and out into the food plot. Fortunately he walked straight through and started up the bank. He was about 70 yds quartering away. He dropped at the shot. My biggest buck ever and will be the first one to go to the taxidermist. This is also the first buck that I've seen a second year. He's in the photos above. Although I don't think he got a whole lot bigger than last year.

We are terrible picture takers. Never do them justice.

 

[omicron1792]

Wish I had a cool story to go with this but it's he literally walked up and I shot him, haha. Sometimes you just get lucky. Morning started off fast. I bumped deer walking to stand which is fairly normal since I have terrible access. Saw a bunch of doe and 2 small 4 points right after daylight. I was actually pretty bummed going in to the day. Checked trail cameras yesterday and had none of the big boys at all last week. Usually if I see a bunch of small buck it means a big one is not there. At 8 AM saw a deer down in front of me where I've seen a lot of the buck come from. Saw antlers right away but I thought it was 6 point that just showed up on trail camera. Finally he stepped out and I saw that he was a shooter. Then he disappeared and I thought he went back the way he came. I looked and looked, kept fogging up my scope so I had the gun in one hand and binoculars in the other. Finally I saw him moving to my left, thought he was going to go right to my dad but he turned and cut up the hill between us. Still couldn't shoot through all the brush. Finally he stepped out broadside at 40 yards and he was directly between my dad and I so I had to painstakingly let him walk behind a bunch of hemlocks and out into the food plot. Fortunately he walked straight through and started up the bank. He was about 70 yds quartering away. He dropped at the shot. My biggest buck ever and will be the first one to go to the taxidermist. This is also the first buck that I've seen a second year. He's in the photos above. Although I don't think he got a whole lot bigger than last year.
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We are terrible picture takers. Never do them justice.
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Great job and congrats! Love when hard work and planning pays off.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Great job Pat! Congrats on an awesome PA buck! (Yes I am not hiding my wee bit of jealousy well…)

 

[fishin coyote]

Well done Pat.

 

[Bill]

Nice congratulations!
I love the old pump gun.

 

[Mortenson]

Congratulations on getting a big boy. I think the pictures look great. Be sure to post a pic when the mount is complete.

 

[Someday isle]

Congratulations - and you’re underselling yourself. I think that’s a great story to tell!

 

[PatinPA]

Nice congratulations!
I love the old pump gun.

300 Savage. My grandfather and dad thought we should all have the same gun in case we ever needed to share ammo. My dad told me when he was a kid all he would do was walk around and jump deer and shoot at them with open sights. He said he routinely shot a box of shells in a day and never got anything.

 

[buckdeer1]

Great buck stick the tongue in and wipe off blood from there it's pretty hard to screw up pictures.Congrats

 

[ng270]

Great buck Pat! Congrats!!

 

[Troubles Trees]

Congrats Pat, great buck bud! I have found that getting the camera closer to eye level and putting sky in the upper half the picture enhances the look, as opposed to standing over the deer/person and pointing the camera down. Best to take a lot of pictures from a lot of angles and sorting out the good ones later is beneficial.

Great job on a nice looking buck!

 

[buckdeer1]

We always get down to same level

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Way to go, Pat!! He's def. a keeper. Spread about 16" to 18" I'm guessing?? Pretty symmetrical too. I'm happy that you got him at your place after doing habitat work. Enjoy that venison and please post some pics when he's mounted!! Now it's Dad's turn!! Best of luck to him.