Daver
PMA Member
As a father of two boys I very much look forward to the opportunities to hunt with and in general, spend time with, my two boys. As they have gotten older, one is 17 and the other 20, the times together are both rarer and sweeter though when they happen. Despite severe drought conditions in the area where our farm is we did get some decent foodplots in this year and caught a couple rains in September that appear to have provided just enough moisture to prevent a total food plot crop failure this year.
This weekend all three of us were able to go together for the first time in 2 years and with the cold front and cool temps we were pretty sure we would have some good hunting, even this early in the season. Mark, the youngest, hunted Saturday AM since he was chomping at the bit but I told him to stay out of our best areas so we were hunting unpressured deer that evening. He saw a couple of does in the morning while John and I wisely slept in. (Age and wisdom have yet to catch up to Mark! :grin
Dbltree(Paul) was by our place for a visit in the midday in preparation for some upcoming field work he will be doing at my place. (While we were walking through the CRP he got a text from an IW member's brother that bagged a huge buck, hopefully that appears here on the harvest page.) Paul also commented that he had received several field reports from various hunters this week that indicated that water sources were a key, especially since it is so dry everywhere. Mark was already going to hunt one of our best stands, that just happens to be right next to a secluded pond, so when he heard that his expectations went even higher! And as it turns out, that advice from Paul was prophetic! :way:
We all headed to our stands at about 3:30P and it wasn't long before we were all seeing deer. The texts were flying back and forth! Here is my first "customer" of 2012.
The plot I was sitting next to was originally planted to beans this spring, which failed, then beans again, which failed again, then milo, some of which did produce, but it was spotty. So I interseeded GHFR in early August and although there are none visible in the foreground, there are a fair amount of them out there. So the plot was viable and at one point there were 8 does in it. :way:
One of does got a little curious and I could see her follow my path into the stand until she was right below me, sniffing the tree steps.
I didn't feel like shooting a doe this night, but if I had a bowling ball I could have brained her! :grin: In between texts from both boys, who were also seeing deer, I was watching Mrs. Deer sniff those steps for more than 5 minutes when I heard a noise in the woods behind me...
Tada! Mr. Buck appears! He was only 8 yards away and about 30"-50" smaller than I preferred, so he lived for another day too.
One more plot, to my left now, to show the now yellowing milo and another doe in range. There were deer all around me for most of the evening and at this point the sun is still high in the sky, probably a little after 5:00P. Another text...this one from Mark..."Shot splits, just like the one in your office". Well how about that!
There were then multiple texts back and forth concerning the shot, he thought it was good, etc. Mark thought he heard him crash just out of sight, so I had him wait for 30 minutes and then look for him. My next text was, "Found him, went less than 100 yards, no blood". Followed by this one...
My next text back to him..."HOLY CRAP!"
Since there was still plenty of daylight and John and I were still on stand with many deer all around, I told Mark to sneak back to the truck and wait for us, which he did. Actually, he went on to the cabin and by the time I came out to meet him he had already assembled all of trail cam pics we had of "Splits" this summer, which were considerable. Although we did not know it at the time, since Mark pulled the cam on the way out of the timber after his hunt, this buck had gotten a little careless lately and was a frequent "daywalker" in the days leading up to his demise.
I passed approximately a dozen does and the buck pictured earlier and John missed a doe before we came out. We then went and picked up Mark's buck and came back to the building site for pics, etc.
Needless to say, Mark was a little excited...
(I hope those aren't gang signs or anything.)
John and Mark in a shot.
Mark all by himself.
And then my favorite shot...
All in all, a great weekend. The deer were really moving Saturday evening, all of us saw plenty of deer and all were different deer too.
This weekend all three of us were able to go together for the first time in 2 years and with the cold front and cool temps we were pretty sure we would have some good hunting, even this early in the season. Mark, the youngest, hunted Saturday AM since he was chomping at the bit but I told him to stay out of our best areas so we were hunting unpressured deer that evening. He saw a couple of does in the morning while John and I wisely slept in. (Age and wisdom have yet to catch up to Mark! :grin
Dbltree(Paul) was by our place for a visit in the midday in preparation for some upcoming field work he will be doing at my place. (While we were walking through the CRP he got a text from an IW member's brother that bagged a huge buck, hopefully that appears here on the harvest page.) Paul also commented that he had received several field reports from various hunters this week that indicated that water sources were a key, especially since it is so dry everywhere. Mark was already going to hunt one of our best stands, that just happens to be right next to a secluded pond, so when he heard that his expectations went even higher! And as it turns out, that advice from Paul was prophetic! :way:
We all headed to our stands at about 3:30P and it wasn't long before we were all seeing deer. The texts were flying back and forth!
Here is my first "customer" of 2012.
The plot I was sitting next to was originally planted to beans this spring, which failed, then beans again, which failed again, then milo, some of which did produce, but it was spotty. So I interseeded GHFR in early August and although there are none visible in the foreground, there are a fair amount of them out there. So the plot was viable and at one point there were 8 does in it. :way:
One of does got a little curious and I could see her follow my path into the stand until she was right below me, sniffing the tree steps.
I didn't feel like shooting a doe this night, but if I had a bowling ball I could have brained her! :grin: In between texts from both boys, who were also seeing deer, I was watching Mrs. Deer sniff those steps for more than 5 minutes when I heard a noise in the woods behind me...
Tada! Mr. Buck appears! He was only 8 yards away and about 30"-50" smaller than I preferred, so he lived for another day too.
One more plot, to my left now, to show the now yellowing milo and another doe in range. There were deer all around me for most of the evening and at this point the sun is still high in the sky, probably a little after 5:00P. Another text...this one from Mark..."Shot splits, just like the one in your office". Well how about that!
There were then multiple texts back and forth concerning the shot, he thought it was good, etc. Mark thought he heard him crash just out of sight, so I had him wait for 30 minutes and then look for him. My next text was, "Found him, went less than 100 yards, no blood". Followed by this one...
My next text back to him..."HOLY CRAP!"
Since there was still plenty of daylight and John and I were still on stand with many deer all around, I told Mark to sneak back to the truck and wait for us, which he did. Actually, he went on to the cabin and by the time I came out to meet him he had already assembled all of trail cam pics we had of "Splits" this summer, which were considerable. Although we did not know it at the time, since Mark pulled the cam on the way out of the timber after his hunt, this buck had gotten a little careless lately and was a frequent "daywalker" in the days leading up to his demise.
I passed approximately a dozen does and the buck pictured earlier and John missed a doe before we came out. We then went and picked up Mark's buck and came back to the building site for pics, etc.
Needless to say, Mark was a little excited...
(I hope those aren't gang signs or anything.
)
John and Mark in a shot.
Mark all by himself.
And then my favorite shot...
All in all, a great weekend. The deer were really moving Saturday evening, all of us saw plenty of deer and all were different deer too.
