Pinetag's Plot - 43 acres in Virginia

Sure looks like a Chestnut oak to me! I'm no expert but if I was planning to transplant it I'd wait until it went dormant, maybe December or January and dig a DEEP hole. Those little oaks have a serious tap root and you want the whole thing.
 
Well as eventful as my first sit on the new property was, today was equally as uneventful. I got skunked the whole day. Still feels good to be sitting on my own property though!

I pulled a card after getting out of the stand this morning and I think this little buck was the one I saw at first light last week. I said it was either a spike or a 4 ptr so either answer was right, depending on which side you were looking at. LOL
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Sure looks like a Chestnut oak to me! I'm no expert but if I was planning to transplant it I'd wait until it went dormant, maybe December or January and dig a DEEP hole. Those little oaks have a serious tap root and you want the whole thing.
Yea, I am definitely going to wait until it's dormant but I wasn't sure if it would be better to transplant in the middle of winter or wait until early spring?

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Plant it in the winter if your ground isn’t frozen. That will give it time to get aquatinted with the new home before spring green up.


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Finally got some bucks on camera. A few small guys that I've seen from the stand. This one was making his rounds on the property on 10/22 cause I saw him at 7:15 from a stand about 300 yards away from this camera in the opposite direction...
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And finally a decent one that seems consistent in the mornings so I just need a good wind to hunt that stand. Check out the dates and timestamps. He cruises through just before or right at first light most days...
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Thankfully I've got some fresh rye popping up after the first attempt got flooded out a few weeks back, so it's good to know that I'll be able to salvage a plot out of this.
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My neighbor just sent me this pic of a 13 pointer his grandson shot yesterday. They've got an even bigger one on camera and he also got a bear on video. Seems like they are pretty active right now so hopefully that holds true for my hunts on Wed and Thu of this week.
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So I finally decided to hunt the lower 20 this morning and it was a good call. Things started extremely slow as there were no deer sightings until 10:00 when a basket racked 8 came sloshing through chasing a doe. They circled a couple times and then were hanging out about 40 yards away when a little spike came in to check her out. A few minutes later a really nice buck came through but unfortunately he stayed about 50 yards out. I could tell he was big but I never had any clear openings to see him well. He looked like an 8 though. Both he and the smaller buck started posturing and I thought they were gonna square off but the spike saw his opportunity and went after the doe. Big boy wasn't having any of that and set off after him. The smaller 8 just slowly walked off alongside the river. A little bit later some does and fawns came feeding through on some Japanese honeysuckle and headed off along the creek.

I pulled the card from a camera i have about 20 yards from this stand (far right in the first pic) and got a pic of what looks to be a nice young buck (second pic). The third pic is of one of the fawns I saw this morning. I was hoping she got in front of the camera. It's cool to see them from the stand at the same time your camera snaps a photo.
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For the afternoon hunt, I saw a small buck work a couple scrapes along the tree line in my neighbor's pasture. Prior to this he harassed a doe for a few minutes but she was not too receptive. Hopefully the video will post...
https://flic.kr/p/QB5hTA

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I haven't posted an update in a couple weeks but I did have a chance to get out a few times. Sightings have consisted of mainly small does and small bucks and chasing has dropped off quite a bit. Unfortunately we've been having lots of rain and my food plot is struggling. It hasn't completely drowned but all of the moisture/standing water has certainly hindered growth quite a bit. Game camera pics are way down as well and mostly at night, which confirms my suspicion of not having enough cover and food. I will definitely be hinging and creating some food plots come Jan/Feb. I did capture a pretty cool looking photo one morning as I was getting ready to head to the stand.
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pinetag...You've got a lot done since purchasing your property. You'll probably feel the same as me come late January - the need to expand your food plots. I am always amazed at how much the deer use the food plots in winter and each year, try to expand certain plots. Enjoying your thread.
 
pinetag...You've got a lot done since purchasing your property. You'll probably feel the same as me come late January - the need to expand your food plots. I am always amazed at how much the deer use the food plots in winter and each year, try to expand certain plots. Enjoying your thread.
Thanks TC! Usually I'm a glass half full kind of guy but I certainly didn't get as much accomplished as I had planned out in my head (we never do though, right?) this year. I was still hanging stands in Oct, during bow season. I guess I should focus on the positive though and look forward to the progress I will make in the years to come. Creating/expanding the food plots is top of the list. Being almost entirely surrounded by cattle farms, large volumes of food are hard to come by. If I can get some decent plots going with both hard & soft mast trees mixed in, I think it will bring them in.

I should be able to squeeze in a few more hunts before the end of the season so I may still have some luck yet!

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I pulled a card after coming down this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see a couple more good bucks. This first one was passing by the "pasture stand" while I was 500 yards away in a different stand on the lower 20.
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Camera 1 is in a buck spot. It does seem very open for bucks though; what is the attraction that has them moving thru there? The 11-12 buck looks to have some good genes. I like him now but he is definitely on the way up. I'd consider taking one of the smaller bucks if he is the largest one on the property and pass on him. He is liable to really be something special next year. It is easy for me to say that because he is not walking by me.
 
Camera 1 is in a buck spot. It does seem very open for bucks though; what is the attraction that has them moving thru there? The 11-12 buck looks to have some good genes. I like him now but he is definitely on the way up. I'd consider taking one of the smaller bucks if he is the largest one on the property and pass on him. He is liable to really be something special next year. It is easy for me to say that because he is not walking by me.
To be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure since this is my first year on the place. It is open woods and the nearest bedding cover is a couple hundred yards to the S, near the creek. My guess is it a funnel of sorts. There is a ridge running along side the road that turns to go up between the cottage and the pasture. My property comes to a point directly across from a small tree line in the pasture on the other side of the road. It looks like this spot and one other (about a 1/4 mile to the North) are the safest road crossings within about a mile. The camera is located just N of the stand in the left side of this pic.
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