Recreating a Deer Woods

Deadeye said:

I thought maybe that was what it was. I'll keep an eye out for one now!

I remember that days when I was a kid that all my cousins and I would go to our Camp, which was an old 1-car garage that was given to one of my cousins and my dad took a chainsaw and cut it right down the middle and set it on his Log Truck and hauled to a spot in our woods and we set it back up. Lots of memories made out of that place. We used to do Man Deer Drives after opening day where we would all gather and then split into 2 groups of Standers and Watchers.
Having those memories and hearing my SIL telling me that it was hard to believe some of the stories I tell of those days motivated me to start our Camp. Seeing reports like yours on here makes me want it even more. Great reward on your work.

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Thank you Dead Eye and it sounds like the old garage made a great camp for your extended families and friends; Regrettably, though the hunting is better than those days the institution known as deer camp is becoming less and less in numbers and participation. Our camp also originated from humble beginnings like your old garage and it stayed that way for many, many years. Ours was in Stacyville, Maine. Dad wanted to expand the camp sleeping capacity so when an old logging camp building became for sale Dad bought it for the asking price of $100 and hired a local logger to move it for him. The logger cut two trees with permission from the lumber company and slid them under the camp, attached the two Tree "trailer" to the camp and looped choke chains around the log ends and skidded it up the road, across a bridge over swift brook and into our camp yard and there it sat. It served it's purpose well strictly a bunk house to the main camp(wouldn't the permit people have a fit over that these days?). We had the greatest camp guests ever; on their arrival most guests had to knock on the door by kicking on it to get our attention because their arms were always chock full of food and liquid refreshments. I expect and hope your camp evolves into a great deer camp and the the deer camp tradition lives on there. I think that these days where we hunt less and shoot more that a version of the deer camp lifestyle is more important to us and our sport than ever.

You're right Jeremy, deer dressing over 200 pounds is large for anywhere in New York and most other states as well. This was not the largest deer ever taken on the property though. The largest was 217 1/2 weighed on a balance scale and then verified close enough at the local deer processor. It is posted as post # 25 on page 2 of this thread. The interesting thing about that deer is that it was taken before we knew about or did any kind of habitat management. The natural cover then was so thick that one could run and leap into it only to bounce back out of it.

The next largest deer taken on the property was 213 lbs and is pictured on post 15, page 1 of this thread. This was weighed with our Cabella's spring scale which is always kept inside and only used to weigh a deer or two a year and it compares to other scales that others own. To put it though how rare that over 200 lbs is in perspective, I saw once where the local bar tournament was won with a 183 lb deer and there were over 130 entries that year. This property simply produces extra heavy deer most years; I credit it to the property having extra deep soil that produces deer food superior to much of the surrounding area. In the year with the 183 lb deer winning the weight contest it was simply a down year weight wise everywhere; still though this property produced it. This deer taken this year is however hands down the oldest buck we have ever taken here, the highest scoring buck we have ever taken here and is on the short list of heaviest deer taken on this property. I don't expect it to be a normal happening but certainly we will strive to make happen again now and then.

I'm glad you had an exciting still hunt on your property. It is all about the thrills of the hunt and sneaking close to deer unnoticed is something few get to experience. And absolutely on a different day maybe next week or even last week there would have been a buck with that doe.

You guys are killing me with these past hunting camp stories. Making me sad. Great stuff. We may have to start such a thread when season is over and we have some time. Congrats on that buck, pretty cool late birthday present from the deer gods.

Dave...Congrats on 2 fine bucks and perhaps even more, the memories made with an old friend. 200 libs of field dressed buck is a lot of buck and a testament to the quality of habitat and hard work you've put in on your property. I'm not sure anyone on here matches your enthusiasm in working and improving their property as you have demonstrated in such detail over the years. I'm so glad I clicked on to the Property Tour section this morning and found this. And, I don't want to rush time but I must say that I do look forward to the day when I can somewhat mimic you by spending as much time as I choose in an attempt to be a better steward of our land and wildlife.

This past weekend my wife and I spent a few days in Gatlinburg to celebrate her birthday an get away for a few days. It took me away from the peak of the chasing phase on our place. However, with the convenience of txt messaging and instant pics, I was able to keep up with my 2 sons and grandson as they watched multiple deer from the stand over the weekend. All got a pass. Brooks had 2 shooters within bow range and text'd me that he may should have taken one of them but...and here's the best part, said he decided to hold off since a dear friend of mine that comes down every year to hunt will be here on Wednesday of this week and has yet to connect on a good buck. Friends are special and the bonds that are formed around a hunting camp are hard to explain. Your story says it all.

Again...congrats to the old geezers for getting it done! And...love the blue pool.

Triple C said:

Dave...Congrats on 2 fine bucks and perhaps even more, the memories made with an old friend. 200 libs of field dressed buck is a lot of buck and a testament to the quality of habitat and hard work you've put in on your property. I'm not sure anyone on here matches your enthusiasm in working and improving their property as you have demonstrated in such detail over the years. I'm so glad I clicked on to the Property Tour section this morning and found this. And, I don't want to rush time but I must say that I do look forward to the day when I can somewhat mimic you by spending as much time as I choose in an attempt to be a better steward of our land and wildlife.

This past weekend my wife and I spent a few days in Gatlinburg to celebrate her birthday an get away for a few days. It took me away from the peak of the chasing phase on our place. However, with the convenience of txt messaging and instant pics, I was able to keep up with my 2 sons and grandsons as they watched multiple deer from the stand over the weekend. All got a pass. Brooks had 2 shooters within bow range and text'd me that he may should have taken one of them but...and here's the best part, said he decided to hold off since a dear friend of mine that comes down every year to hunt will be here on Wednesday of this week and has yet to connect on a good buck. Friends are special and the bonds that are formed around a hunting camp are hard to explain. Your story says it all.

Again...congrats to the old geezers for getting it done! And...love the blue pool.

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Thanks for following tripleC. Wow! Marrying a woman whose birthday hits during the chase phase is true love for sure! Congratulations on sharing the weekend with your wife; they are all very important to us and many of us could take lessons from you in showing how much you care. What a wonderful move on Brooks part to save the deer for your friend coming up to your deer camp; I'm sure you have set that example for Brooks in the past and now he has set that example for the grandsons. That is education that can only be passed on at deer camp; that stuff is just not taught in any school I have ever heard of. As you said deer camps make special bonds between people and I might add that it makes special bonds between people that sometimes have just about nothing else in common. Hope you all have a great hunt this week coming and I'll be watching your thread for an update.

With my rifle buck tag used up I am just snooping along our property boundaries now and then with a couple of doe tags that I will likely fill when the day is right. And I will be relocating some of the cameras in search of possible future years rut trail stands. Wife Ann still has her buck tag so I keep the phone handy for when she shoots one and could use assistance.

I love that pic on page 2. I think I need to reed your whole thread again. The buck on page two was 2016, amazing how time flies and how fast you have transformed your property to hold and draw big bucks.

What were the scores on this years bucks?

Chummer said:

I love that pic on page 2. I think I need to reed your whole thread again. The buck on page two was 2016, amazing how time flies and how fast you have transformed your property to hold and draw big bucks.

What were the scores on this years bucks?

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The property transformation really wasn't "fast". We did start at the bottom however with a property so shot out that seeing any deer was a very unusual event no matter how hard one hunted. The property was quickly transformed to seeing thirty deer a sit and killing lots of 2 1/2's just by planting food plots and arresting a few trespassers. And the attitude of law enforcement to vigorously enforce even the trespass laws certainly detoured many trespassers who would have killed many spikes and forkies on us.We were happy with the 2 1/2's and probably we killed too many 2 1/2's ourselves and postponed the era of 3 1/2's.

I think the advancement of cameras into digital was another turning point as it helped hold some of the trespassers at bay along with a couple of neighbors switching gears as they also wanted to shoot older deer. Discouraging the road/drive by shooters also had a positive impact on deer survival. A property can be vastly improved from the bottom stages all alone but the neighborhood also has input as to how any property will transform. And that combined with information sharing about five years ago with the deer forums and everybody on the forum sharing ideas and helping each other including us regular hunters/land managers and the pro hunter/land managers like Don Higgins, Steve Bartylla, Lickcreek, and others who each gave us unlimited information and direction to help us realize our property dreams. The pros helped us a lot but a lot of new ideas and inspiration also came from the synergy generated from within our forum communities of us "regular" hunter/land managers(Steve Bartylla tells me there is nothing close to regular "normal" hunter/land managers on the forum).

So the transformation did have spikes but it was anything but quick. The part you are referring to Jeremy since 2016 was definitely a major spike/leap in better land management and thus in more properties producing better and better deer. And it could be viewed as quick if you only looked at those few years.

As to buck scores, they are something we have minimum experience with. The first buck, though it was a solid 3 1/2 based on body shape we did not score it and did not expect it would have even hit 120. The second buck we thought to be a solid 5 1/2 and maybe more based on body shape and we scored it at 149.56 gross green score. I don't think we made any huge mistakes in figuring it but expect it could be a point or two lower than what we came up with. And there is always the possibility we are way off! I'll probably have it scored by a local well known and experienced scorer to see exactly what it should be. We simply don't normally shoot deer that are scored; high scoring deer are very rare here as you know. Also as you know big buck contests here are not run on score;most are run on dressed weight.

And as to how time flies, BELIEVE ME, "you ain't seen nothing yet"; time goes faster and faster with the more birthdays one has at least up to age 70 that I have experience with. Maybe some older hunters on here can chime in and tell us if it goes even faster at 80, 90, or 100 birthdays.

I'm looking forward to chasing whitetails with you and telling great stories about them this coming weekend and we will definitely eat some venison meals. Of course I've only doe tags left but you and Anne get to hunt the big boys. Speaking of Anne, she had a 3 1/2 around her today at twenty-five yards for over twenty minutes. She said the antlers just weren't large enough. The body looked like a 185 lb dressed and she is rethinking that decision now.

Congrats on another great buck! You should be set for a long winter lol.


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I love how you turn one of my simple statements into a page of history and knowledge. Do you have a writing background? I think your property transformation could be a book. I have read some books by the people you mention and I think your writting and story is better. I would love to see the mid west guys accomplish what you have done in one of the harshest environment a whitetail faces. Your place is built on a pile of rocks. One of my lasting memory of your place is the rocks everywhere, like a million basketballs fell out of the sky. Never seen anything like it. These bucks prove you have it dialed in. Are you still in contact with Steve B? I bet he would be pumped about those deer.

Wow some great bucks the both of them!! Skips buck is a real nice buck - congratulations to him and to both on a successful hunt for old buddies! Nice stickering of hardwood behind Skip too!!

Your buck was a real bully of a buck I bet!! My kind of buck with that mass - love it!!! and 205 - great job!!!! doesn't happen around me very often!! Congratulations on such a fine kill!! Enjoyed your stories !!

Chummer said:

I love how you turn one of my simple statements into a page of history and knowledge. Do you have a writing background? I think your property transformation could be a book. I have read some books by the people you mention and I think your writing and story is better. I would love to see the mid west guys accomplish what you have done in one of the harshest environment a whitetail faces. Your place is built on a pile of rocks. One of my lasting memory of your place is the rocks everywhere, like a million basketballs fell out of the sky. Never seen anything like it. These bucks prove you have it dialed in. Are you still in contact with Steve B? I bet he would be pumped about those deer.

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Thanks for the writing compliment Chummer. I have written technical manuals back in the early days of computers but honestly the small amount of any writing skills I have came from my wife; she really has the knack to start every story from the beginning, lay out the groundwork and then go chronologically from there.

Yes I keep up with Steve but not often enough. Steve is very happy to see how this property has progressed and he is not one bit surprised about it. He expected that the combination of the plan he made for this property and hard work by Anne and myself would yield the results being achieved. Steve is really reaching the highest pinnacles of deer land management and has been hired to manage a couple of extremely large parcels of super deer land in the midwest. He is still learning and adding to the vast amount of deer knowledge he already has and happily for all of us he is still sharing that knowledge with everyone as well. Here is Steve's newer facebook page. He had to switch to this page that allowed for over 5,000 "friends". He posts on it almost everyday except during his extra hectic days like the chase phase for example.
https://www.facebook.com/stevebartyllaoutdoors

Rocks;I love my rocks. Will do some posts on them this winter when we run out of hot deer talk. For now, we needed a few rocks this summer for a cottage project so we hired our excavator (monkeypawearthworks) to carve out a short path off of our driveway to loosen a few rocks so they could go on vacation at the cottages. Coincidentally the carved out path is located to possibly steer deer as well.
I have always thought that one of the reasons for the deer growing so large on this property more than some in the heavier nearby AG area is that due to there being so many rocks making the land not-tillable, much of the soil here is undisturbed, untouched by heavy equipment and basically as it was when the glaciers left plus with all of the organic matter added since then, just a theory of course.

Is the thought the rocks rolled down the hill by glacier to your area. I have a lot of rocks but nothing like your place.

That is a good question. The rocks likely did not roll down the hill because at the bottom of the hill at sea level there are few rocks here in some spots and mostly rock in others. Here is a link that talks about "erratic" rocks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_erratic
I have no clue as to whether these are glacial erratics that floated in on ice or not but the link does provide some insight to rock movement and placement. It would be a great cocktail hour question if you ever run into a rock type scientist at one of them mixed couples cocktail parties you get involved in at times. For me I will never use 1/4 of the rocks here so no more are needed but still it would be interesting to understand where they all came from, or were they created here? Next time I drive by the Soil and Water people I'll swing in there and see if they have the lowdown on this subject.

“Over 75,000 years ago, the Laurentide Continental Glacier covered most of Canada and some of the northern regions of the United States. When this glacier started to recede 20,000 years ago, rainwater and melted ice began seeping into the porous bedrock. The water would freeze and expand, causing the rocks to crack. This process is known as mechanical weathering. The downward slope of the region combined with the melting permafrost underneath resulted in the movement of the rocks downward, or mass wasting, to create boulder fields”

I really have no clue. LOL. All I know is I wouldn’t want to have been standing anywhere in the northeast some 50,000 years ago

Chummer, Be sure to bring some big bullets for this weekends hunting.
And we need to set the alarm for 9 am to be sure get out there in time!

Is that pic from Iowa? Pie is in oven, soup is done, clothes are cleaned. Just need to snow blow and I will be on my way!

Holy backstraps Batman!!!!!

Had a wonderful and memorable hunt this morning with Chummer. It was a rare east wind and we managed to get to one of our east wind sit spots on time this Sunday morning despite a night of "lightly" celebrating Chummer's Saturday doe harvest. Not a shot was fired at this sit but despite it being only 22 degrees we were both warm and comfortable as the wind started out very calm.. And we saw deer after deer after deer go by in very thick cover and pretty close with one event where two bucks were chasing the does back and forth. One buck may have been a shooter but he didn't give us a good enough look at him to tell for sure. The squirrels were very active keeping us on attention with their noise but boy did they shut up and disappear when a fisher cat came thru. The woods were silent for maybe twenty minutes after that. It was just one of them sits where we sat completely unnoticed despite our very close proximity to the deer and we felt like the big boy would show up at any minute. He didn't show up but we had a great time anticipating it.

That was a weekend of great hunts despite the weather. We needed two sets of eyes to see all those deer going by. Four bucks plus chasing equals a great weekend in my book, bonus doe puts it over the top. You didn’t even mention the meals, one of which I am trying tomorrow. Thank you again and hopefully Anne closes the deal on one of those big boys still around. Your place is truly awesome, can’t wait to see what all that regrowth does in the next couple years. You have created a deer paradise in a spot one does not belong. This early winter is going to test the herd but I think your land is prepared.