Recreating a Deer Woods

Chummer said:

I had does with fawns walking around all weekend with no bucks looking for them. I had 4-5 bucks on camera in the last couple nights but all in the middle of the night.

Click to expand...

Any day now Jeremy. It won't be long now.

Thanks Rusty. Good eye, the long beams were one of the 3 1/2 year old indicators for this particular deer here. That alone wouldn't define it but it adds to other indicators like body shape and size. There were two cameras just in the woods on each side of the field so hopefully one of them caught this buck alive and the much larger one as well. One or both of them had shredded a cedar tree over the last couple of days. We'll check the cams next time we are going thru those woods for anything.

Bad luck on the 3 x 5 Tom. It is super that you are seeing the mature bucks so consistently so early. Except for the short early daytime activity here our thousands of trail cam pics from 2018 had most of the mature daytime movement after Nov. 14.

Thanks Okie. Yes Skip hit the jackpot having the young doe in heat so early. Imagine his excitement when only half of the does left the plot (plots max length is 130 yards) at the shot and then within four minutes a second and much larger buck charges in and breeds the doe only forty yards in front of the stand. I've have only known Skip to ever miss once so even though his buck left the field he was pretty confident that he would find it in short order and he did. Still it must have been tempting to nail that second buck not knowing for sure. I can always count him to do the right thing and of course he did.

Thanks George and Farmhunter, Skip appreciates the congrats and remarks that it is amazing how many nice people there are out in the hunting world.

While I'm typing this, this very second, two large does and two young of the year (edit-make that three young of the year) calmly walked by my window at about twelve feet away! It's a good reminder that more great buck hunting is yet to come. Good luck tomorrow everyone!

Congrats to you and Skip. You have it dialed in now.

Love it when hard work and sacrifice pays off.
Well done!

CTM1 said:

Love it when hard work and sacrifice pays off.
Well done!

Click to expand...

Thanks CTM1, There were a lot of hours put in over the years but it could just be the intensive logging along with keeping trespassers out that has really made the difference here.

We are behind on most things and are still setting cameras out as we hunt different spots; We have 29 cams out so far with only 13 more to go so late yes but we are catching up on some things. Except for cameras we might walk by when hunting they will not be checked until after the hunting season closes in mid December.

Click to expand...

I've done this with a couple cameras before -its like opening presents on Christmas morning. A couple times I saw bucks none of knew or saw at all.


We brought some deer meat all the way up to Millers in Lowville this year to try the Bratwurst - have you done that before=?

farmhunter said:

I've done this with a couple cameras before -its like opening presents on Christmas morning. A couple times I saw bucks none of knew or saw at all.


We brought some deer meat all the way up to Millers in Lowville this year to try the Bratwurst - have you done that before=?

Click to expand...

I took some venison to Miller’s earlier this year. I got slim jims and hot dogs. I think both are very good. I intend on bringing the grinding meat from our DMAP doe there after deer season is finished.


Rusty

I like that idea Rusty. Did not know Millers would do that.

Did a short cam pull this morning of two cams that I hunted near. Cams were put out on Tuesday and while they didn't catch much they were in line with what we have experienced the last few days. Three spikes, one 6 point and one 2 1/2 year old eight were photographed at deep in the woods trails during daylight while two in the 3 1/2 years old and up bracket were photographed during darkness.

Dave, both of those bucks look 41/2 or older.

Thanks Tom, I agree. I'm stumbling getting used to aging deer over 3 1/2. Definitely though both are 4 1/2 and one could be 5 1/2. In recreating our deer woods deer have responded well and have grown much older than what is normal for the area.
Here is a pic of the deer Skip watched breed the doe minutes after he shot his buck.



Shooting deer was always sort of easy; growing deer to this age was the hard part. Now that we have grown them to this age shooting them is not so easily doable anymore. We did get lucky with a few but these type deer are definitely a lot harder to meet up with. And pictures pulled today have blown a hole in my belief that mature deer here don't start moving until Nov. 14, at least this year.


Now we just have to learn how to consistently set up in the right spots at the right times for these big boys. It is a problem but we'll work on it!

Love that tongue sticking out. How did you pick that particular spot to put a camera. I can’t see any features in that picture that would persuade you to put one there but obviously in the right spot

Chainsaw said:

Thanks Tom, I agree. I'm stumbling getting used to aging deer over 3 1/2. Definitely though both are 4 1/2 and one could be 5 1/2. In recreating our deer woods deer have responded well and have grown much older than what is normal for the area.
Here is a pic of the deer Skip watched breed the doe minutes after he shot his buck.

View attachment 17504

Shooting deer was always sort of easy; growing deer to this age was the hard part. Now that we have grown them to this age shooting them is not so easily doable anymore. We did get lucky with a few but these type deer are definitely a lot harder to meet up with. And pictures pulled today have blown a hole in my belief that mature deer here don't start moving until Nov. 14, at least this year.
View attachment 17507

Now we just have to learn how to consistently set up in the right spots at the right times for these big boys. It is a problem but we'll work on it!

Click to expand...

Something to remember about deer is not to use the terms “never” or “always”... our peak daytime mature buck movement is usually the last week of October and first few days of November...usually. I usually see another uptick around the 16th but anytime between October 23rd and December 2nd we might see a big deer anywhere...

Buckly said:

Love that tongue sticking out. How did you pick that particular spot to put a camera. I can’t see any features in that picture that would persuade you to put one there but obviously in the right spot

Click to expand...

Good observation Buckly. What doesn't show in the picture is that it is a high dry spot that all animals seem to follow here. I tend to put the cams in the high crossing spots as well as the low crossing spots but seldom in the middle ground spots. Also not shown in the pic is super high briars almost impenetrable on each side of the high dry spot.

Absolutely Okie! Always and never seldom applies. Still though the mature deer here tend to consistently show up during the day around Nov. 14 thru Thanksgiving. This is not counting the very short late October daytime movement period where mature deer are often seen early and late in the day in very open areas. AND AND AND as close as across the street the story could be different. The growth on this property is soooooo different than the surrounding properties.

Chainsaw said:

Thanks Tom, I agree. I'm stumbling getting used to aging deer over 3 1/2. Definitely though both are 4 1/2 and one could be 5 1/2. In recreating our deer woods deer have responded well and have grown much older than what is normal for the area.
Here is a pic of the deer Skip watched breed the doe minutes after he shot his buck.

View attachment 17504

Shooting deer was always sort of easy; growing deer to this age was the hard part. Now that we have grown them to this age shooting them is not so easily doable anymore. We did get lucky with a few but these type deer are definitely a lot harder to meet up with. And pictures pulled today have blown a hole in my belief that mature deer here don't start moving until Nov. 14, at least this year.
View attachment 17507

Now we just have to learn how to consistently set up in the right spots at the right times for these big boys. It is a problem but we'll work on it!

Click to expand...

Those are some heavy bodied bucks Dave. I’ve never seen one in person, but those have to be in the 200 lb + range. They’re huge.



Rusty

They are huge Rusty. When sitting on the ground looking up at them there is absolutely no hesitation about whether or not to shoot. All of those pictured will certainly flirt with the 200 number; hopefully we'll get a chance to find out about one or two of them for sure while they are still near peak weight.

Good luck today everyone.

Holy bucks Batman. Can you tell them to look at the camera. I made a quick trip up today as we popped up in the 20”+ zone on the weather this morning. Closed everything up in case I can’t get back in the driveway. Weather does not look good for next few days. I will be hunting southern zone opener next weekend with a couple doe tags. My lovely wife planned a get away for herself during the rut, I don’t know how this happened. I will be playing kid taxi after noon on Saturday and Sunday. I am hunting a new property so I will need to be quick. Good luck with those big boys this week.

Great to see those extra year class bucks. I think too that 2019 was a better than average antler growing year. Seemed that way to me.
cannot help but notice the Facebook Deer Pages buck pics are bigger and more than ever too, passing the young ones seems to be gaining strength in NY!

farmhunter said:

Great to see those extra year class bucks. I think too that 2019 was a better than average antler growing year. Seemed that way to me.
cannot help but notice the Facebook Deer Pages buck pics are bigger and more than ever too, passing the young ones seems to be gaining strength in NY!

Click to expand...

Farmhunter it is gaining strength but for it to really work for the whole area cross tagging has to stop.Once a guy gets good at killing 2 1/2 to 3 1/2, armed with tags he can and does do a lot of damage and one person alone can prevent the deer from moving into the next age group for a large area. Really for people with our experience we ARE going to shoot a deer if we want to. And since we shoot only one does it really matter if it is 1 1/2 or 3 1/2 as regards getting deer to an older age? It is the use of others tags that enables a person to hold the buck age down. It is the most difficult thing to stop because seemingly everyone considers it to be completely acceptable behavior; heck even guys who wouldn't even swear tell me with a wink their wife got a beauty the other day. Still the buck age is improving beyond what was thought possible here and that is a super thing!
Here we don't have the many "young" 3 1/2's that Okie has running around yet but still this deer whether 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 is something that even seven years ago was very, very scarce. Note we don't set our clocks back so time is really 2:51PM here and the temperature was around twenty-six. The Browning cameras do a lot well but the temperature recording for the Brownings I have is more often wrong in a big way.



Cameras are getting action but swirling winds are favoring the deer. Other than very late afternoon with a longer shot it would have been difficult to have even shot a doe the last three days.

Had an unusual event a week and a half ago. A blow came thru the lake area with winds in excess of 100 MPH for two hours, 1 am to 3 am. And the day before and after it blew from thirty to fifty-ish. One window shattered in our cottage and the wind going thru the cottage structure created enough pressure to blow out two more windows but these blew out from inside to out! No big deal-just another job to do before next spring, covered them with plywood to not interrupt hunting too much. Back to the point, when I put my five and ten foot high Redneck tower blinds in I was very worried that they could blow over because we do get strong winds from time to time say up to 70 MPH that doesn't even make the news. After talking with the Redneck team extra precautions were taken just to be on the safe side. I'm happy to report that the Rednecks withstood the 100 MPH winds were still standing tall when the winds subsided and with zero damage. That was a very good thing!!!! Wish the cottage was built as good as the Rednecks.

And I'm not affiliated with Redneck in any way--just a satisfied customer that likes to give credit to great product innovators/producers.