Recreating a Deer Woods

That is a very in-depth report, thank you. Guys I work with down here have seen a big up tick in action the last couple days. The only reason I am going for such a short hunt is the East wind. It is the perfect wind to hunt the ridge below the big “plot” in the middle of the property. It has turned into a briar patch but there is a lot of sign around it. I will give you an update when I get back, hoping the rain holds off till 9.

Chummer said:

That is a very in-depth report, thank you. Guys I work with down here have seen a big up tick in action the last couple days. The only reason I am going for such a short hunt is the East wind. It is the perfect wind to hunt the ridge below the big “plot” in the middle of the property. It has turned into a briar patch but there is a lot of sign around it. I will give you an update when I get back, hoping the rain holds off till 9.

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Good luck Jeremy; being the first hunt of the year it could be awesome! We also have a lot of brier regrowth and the deer are hitting some sections of it like they were food plots. Bring a rain coat and stay till 10 just in case!

I made it to 10 with no rain. Had a great hunt. Saw seven deer, pretty sure all were does. I had a scrape and rub 10 yards from my stand. I had two button bucks eating briars within 20 yards for close to a hour. I could tell the deer have not seen any pressure yet this year. I think I created what amounts to a 50 acre briar patch. It has been a while since I saw 7 deer and I was only on a third of the property. High hopes for next weekend.

In the farm lands of St Lawrence County, on the Canadian border, I have seen no sign of rutting behavior. No rubs. The only scrape that seems to get any action is the mock scrape that I freshened with a driper. I have had three watches where I have seen doe with nothing following.

On a good note, I have at least seven 8 pointers on camera. Another one was taken by the neighboring farmer, and at least one was lost in some high fence from a now out-of -business “shooting preserve”. Seems like a good crop of 2 1/2 year olds, and a good crop of doe. I believe the elimination of nearly all doe hunting in this zone has helped the herd rebound. I’m looking forward to an active November.

Good luck to all.

Rusty

Nearly half the deer I have seen this year at both places are fawns. That is very strange for my area. Last winter claimed most of last years fawns so hopefully this bumper crop can make it through the winter and the population can grow again.
Dave, do you see mostly twins at your place? I would gues I am about 33% twins over the years.

rusty1034 said:

In the farm lands of St Lawrence County, on the Canadian border, I have seen no sign of rutting behavior. No rubs. The only scrape that seems to get any action is the mock scrape that I freshened with a driper. I have had three watches where I have seen doe with nothing following.

On a good note, I have at least seven 8 pointers on camera. Another one was taken by the neighboring farmer, and at least one was lost in some high fence from a now out-of -business “shooting preserve”. Seems like a good crop of 2 1/2 year olds, and a good crop of doe. I believe the elimination of nearly all doe hunting in this zone has helped the herd rebound. I’m looking forward to an active November.

Good luck to all.

Rusty

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Seven eights on camera is great Rusty. That is a huge change; will make for a lot more action hunting come rut time. It is amazing how quickly the deer can bounce back when the weather is suitable for life existence and the does are not taken. It is great that your area is bouncing back. With your food plots and especially with your in the woods browse growth you are getting from your cutting your specific property is probably far ahead of the norm for your area.

I think the reason we are seeing rubs already while not all properties are is that in years past we have had years on and off with multiple 3 1/2 and up living here and in those years there was lots of rubbing so when I see the early rubs that are not seen everywhere it is probably because there are those normal rub areas from the good years of the past to check for early rubs. And because we have a few deer again 3 1/2 and up the rubs had started already in those traditional spots. Some are so faint that they would not be noticed otherwise while others are true sign-posts as some one has named them, the kind you take pictures of that I get to mean and is camera confirmed that one or two older deer have been there. Had we not known where the early rub spots are from those years in the past we likely would not have been noticing any yet.

As to the early ground scrapes there must have been an early doe in heat in the area that got them worked up; It was just that one day of ground scraping about 8 days ago and as of the card pull yesterday no new ground scrapes had appeared.

The camera pull yesterday which covered the last three days was very unexciting compared to the previous week; I may have been over doing the camera checking. And I did do some hunting as I just couldn't resist even though it was obvious they would be low odds hunts and they were but still they were exciting and it was great to be on watch. Will take a stroll this evening to see what is going on along the property lines. Very, very SOON and things will change.

And except for one doe being chased by a buck across a field in the moonlight a couple of weeks or more ago we have not seen chasing yet either.

Chummer said:

Nearly half the deer I have seen this year at both places are fawns. That is very strange for my area. Last winter claimed most of last years fawns so hopefully this bumper crop can make it through the winter and the population can grow again.
Dave, do you see mostly twins at your place? I would guess I am about 33% twins over the years.

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Definitely Jeremy we see mostly twins this time of year with a small and more or less equal amount of singles and triples but definitely mostly twins viewed this time of year are normal here. It would be super to have an easy winter or a few easy winters in a row especially on the Hill. This area is probably about two years ahead of the Hill in population regrowth. We have taken two does so far and will likely be taking a few more after the rut as there are enough deer now.

Hope you are seeing some action this week despite the weather. I am gearing up for a Saturday all day sit with rain and a 15mph wind in my face. I am liking my chances if I can get behind the deer with out bumping them.

The weather was really quite conducive to hunting here this week but the older deer here are just not on the go yet. Scrapes as of yesterday had not been re-freshened yet. My last picture pull was 10-27 and except for one eight that looks very promising for next year who moved during daylight every day like clock work that I would just as soon leave for next year there really hasn't been any ready for the taking. Each day an older buck is caught on camera in daylight but nothing is repeated yet. My hunting buddy comes up tomorrow so hunting will start the day after regardless of anything; tomorrow we will catch up on life and celebrate our 58th season of deer hunting. Before that we hunted pheasant, squirrel, woodcock and even a meadow lark or two together. We didn't hunt together every one of those years since but did for most of them.

Today I have been gathering all of the gear for the big hunt, knives, knives and more knives, grunt calls and doe bleats accumulated from years and years worth of buying the latest and the best sounding ones, synthetic antlers and real ones for "rattlin" them in, a couple of the latest buck decoys, my favorite and trusted compasses, a comfortable ground cushion, ground cloths, blankets to cover my legs, two weeks worth of nuts snacks that could hold us for the day if we decide to stick it out, an open sighted gun for still hunting in case it rains every single day, a long range gun for when we sit in the rednecks, (heaters have already been placed in the rednecks just in case), binoculars in each of my two packs-the day long pack and the 1/2 day pack, and of course paper towels to wash up after dressing a deer and them old band aids that have been packed since our teen years "just in case" and most importantly a bullet for each gun in each pack just in case I forget to put bullets in my pocket as I head out in the morning.

Skip brings the food for our two week adventure; always there is enough food leftover to carry us through Christmas! Luckily we have the cottages for extra refrigerators to hold it all; we have two refrigerators at our barn but two is not enough. A third one is needed to hold it all. Likely we will have a true hunting camp dinner one day next week as we have for many of our hunting years where we invite every hunter we run into.We have not done that in a while but we are not getting any younger so expect we will resume that tradition this fall. Will let you know the date in case you are free.

Things should be beginning to hop pretty well by Saturday; hope you have a great day of deer movement then.

Chainsaw I really enjoyed reading all the crap you get together. I thot I had collected and use a lot but I think you win. My fav grunt/bleat call is from early 90s and I’m not sure what I’ll use if it breaks. I guess one of the other many I own. And my buddy brings food in barrels like yours and would just as soon eat as hunt. We’ve never missed a meal. Good luck and enjoy your friend. Those are awesome.


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Dave, no such thing as too many knives or flashlights!

Why would I suspect your prepping would be any different than how you approach managing your property. Sounds like a great time. I have temporarily lost outings with my hunting buddies as we all have kids up in the 8-14 range. I see that continuing for the next few years as we run them from event to event. I know down the road we will fall back into our hunting rituals. Good luck this week!

dogghr said:

Chainsaw I really enjoyed reading all the crap you get together. I thot I had collected and use a lot but I think you win. My fav grunt/bleat call is from early 90s and I’m not sure what I’ll use if it breaks. I guess one of the other many I own. And my buddy brings food in barrels like yours and would just as soon eat as hunt. We’ve never missed a meal. Good luck and enjoy your friend. Those are awesome.


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The world has changed Dogghr. Today we have about fifty pounds of scent lok in every size and design imaginable; The stuff helps us be invisible or at least I perceive it to be so. And then I have recently bought all the old stuff again of course in sizes that fit my advanced shape, the green plaid Beans jacket and the wool pants and of course the genuine Effinger crusher in red, green and brown. And the original Beans boots were a must have as well with the rubber bottoms and leather top. And while I'm not a mucks fan I did get a new pair of woodland boots(the first pair got ripped by briers in three outings), they said not their problem. The old Lacrosse made it twenty years without briers ripping them, maybe a fluke! Others have had good luck with the Mucks so I'll give them a second chance but!. The best "new" deal of the season though is I patched an old pair of Lacrosse boots that have seen HUNDREDS of miles already. A barbed wire fence had violated them. I called Lacrosse and they sent me a patch kit absolutely free.

Anyhow remember when we used to just take the gun off the wall, throw some shells in it, put on our hunting hat and go hunting; It wasn't so bad then was it? And you made me laugh telling about never missing a meal with your hunting buddy bringing barrels of food; everybody is different and that is what makes deer camp so special.

And the funny thing now with all of the cameras that actually work and all of the other gadgets at our disposal if we want it only takes a couple of days to take a wonderful eight point whereas it used to be a major event but it is common place now; Of course we all know it is very special to be able to do so none the less.

I wonder if I have the same grunt call as you!

good luck at camp with your buddy - cannot get those hunts back - and no way to get a new old friend either - 58 years - you need to celebrate that!!

Dave...your thread is one of many that I never tire of catching up on. Your passion for the outdoors and stewardship of your land and wildlife is motivation for all of us. My guess is that your annual adventure with your hunting buddy becomes more precious with each passing year. Looking forward to updates from your time spent afield in the coming weeks. Best of luck!

Wow, that’s a lot of gear! Good luck to you guys and I look forward to the buck pole pictures!

Good luck Dave.

G

Okay Dave, I just smoked a back strap and wanted to post it for you while it is fresh in my mind. This was done on a camp chef pellet grill and was a one year old back strap. I had to take plates away so some was left for my youngest when she gets home. It was that good!
Salt back strap heavily and pepper.
Wrap back strap in bacon
Smoke on 225 for 45 minutes
Take bacon off but leave on grill
Turn grill up to 350 for 20 minutes
Meat was cooked perfect and bacon ended up crispy.
Previously I thought I took bacon off grill. That was wrong, finish it with the meat.





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Mouth watering. Venison is best either low and slow, or hot and quick. Gonna try this on the Tragaer. Yum.


Rusty

That looks terrific Jeremy; thank you for the detailed instruction. We shall attempt to duplicate it.