Congrats dogg...somehow I thought you were already married! Good luck when you decide to hunt again!
Foodplotting In The Mountains...The Sequel
- Thread starter dogghr
- Start date
Gator
Well-Known Member
What no rut honeymoon?
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Heck no, I see what happens to those bucks chasing that stuff. They get kilt.
weekender21
Well-Known Member
I'm east bound and down 10-17 November, good weather or bad!
buckvelvet
Active Member
Big D you give God the glory for things in life and even in the down times you realize he never left you.
Glad to hear its on the up swing for you. Its time for you to deliver the goods in the deer woods after the honeymoon, lol....
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Glad to hear its on the up swing for you. Its time for you to deliver the goods in the deer woods after the honeymoon, lol....
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
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dogghr
Well-Known Member
Found this tube 100 yds from its tree. And chewed up. Guess my young bear doesn’t care for my Silky dogwood placements. Not sure how he didn’t break tree or steak. I swear mature predators are never a problem but when you get one of these young things working the pecking order it can get aggravating.
Here was my walk to work last week. Bucks were running around like crazy and the doe were laying tight. Missed a nice 8 over it’s back clean dangit and then let the recurve do its stuff on a small doe at 10 yds. First of the season. Son missed one of our target bucks tonight shooting low after sitting in rain all day. He and I should average our shots. Lol.
I love it when the decision involves which road to take..... back out w the stick and string Fri w cold and snow. Good luck all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Here was my walk to work last week. Bucks were running around like crazy and the doe were laying tight. Missed a nice 8 over it’s back clean dangit and then let the recurve do its stuff on a small doe at 10 yds. First of the season. Son missed one of our target bucks tonight shooting low after sitting in rain all day. He and I should average our shots. Lol.
I love it when the decision involves which road to take..... back out w the stick and string Fri w cold and snow. Good luck all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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weekender21
Well-Known Member
Congrats on the buck!....I mean doe!
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Did I miss the post about a buck being killed?
Triple C
Well-Known Member
dogghr...Was reading about your chilly morning sit facing the 4K mountain in the "Live from the Tree" section and got a chuckle out of your comment about waiting on the pepperoni roll in your pocket. We do a good bit of biz in your great state and one of our key accounts is located in Charleston. His office manager prepares home made pepperoni rolls each time I visit. Only place I've ever heard of them or eaten them is in WV. Dang good!!! Hope that bedded doe left in time for your to partake!
dogghr
Well-Known Member
That was my fat fingers trying to work on the phone , not sure what I was thinking. Idid correction.
Yea supposedly they were developed here and were a good meal to carry in lunch pail down into the mines long ago. That and moonshine I guess our specialties. Funny, ESPN just did an article on their website about WVU and their tailgating and pepperoni rolls and moonshine. Prob bit of exaceration but always we share our stuff for sure. I've been in some of the legal 'shine stores that have opened in TN and not sure their recipes, I know of better.
Sometime when you fly into Charleston give me a heads up and I'll buy you some steak and crapcakes at a homeowned resturatant down there. That's my old stomping grounds and I'm down there visiting family all the time. Good luck on your season.
FL Plotter
Well-Known Member
Such a pretty place you've got. Congrats on your marriage. I had to kiss quite a few frogs before I found my wife but we've been together for 13 years now and are planning our retirement in the country 6 years from now.
Wanna hear God laugh, tell him your plans!
Wanna hear God laugh, tell him your plans!
Triple C
Well-Known Member
I will make it a point to give you a heads up on my next trip to Charleston. Speaking of moonshine...Here's an interesting observation. I know guys that won't drink out of the same cup from someone else. But find an old mason jar of moonshine and pass it around and the same guy will gladly have a sip after the previous guy with a big ol chew or dip just finished sipping out of it. I've picked up a couple of those supposedly TN legal moonshine jars that are now available all over the Gatlinburg area, peeled the labels off and posed it as a jar of local moonshine from some hidden holler in N GA and listen to guys say...man that's good stuff. Something about drinking out of a clear mason jar gets em every time...including me!
dogghr
Well-Known Member
I post this nearly every year, lost a good friend in the crash that killed 75 football players, staff, fans, and crew and demolished a program that took many years to recover. Watch the movie "We Are Marshall" its good one especially during football season. There are more important things than deer in life at times. Peace.
"In the middle of Huntington, West Virginia there's a river. Next to this river there is a steel mill.
And next to the steel mill there is a school. In the middle of the school, there is a fountain.
Each year on the exact same day, at the exact same hour, the water to this fountain is turned off.
And in this moment once every year, through out the town, through out the school, time stands still."
"In the middle of Huntington, West Virginia there's a river. Next to this river there is a steel mill.
And next to the steel mill there is a school. In the middle of the school, there is a fountain.
Each year on the exact same day, at the exact same hour, the water to this fountain is turned off.
And in this moment once every year, through out the town, through out the school, time stands still."
dogghr
Well-Known Member
A few updates and ramblings of this past season.
I hunted only w recurve n bow season this year for the first time in a while. Rains and snows also led to great conditions for still hunting. While not as effective it is my fav way to hunt and I can’t describe the thrill of stalking to within yards of a buck w only a stickbow in hand.
My fav stalk was along my Random Cluster #5 where I got within 20 yds if a nice 8 and his doe. Being greedy I tried for another 5 yds but of course the doe fig out I didn’t look so much like a limb from the tree I was squeezed against. I drew on the 8 as she stomped but he just would not turn enough for a good shot.
The next best was the heavy snow of below. A quite cold day. I spent an hour/ 100 yds sneaking to shadows, trees, and brush mainly along the steep slopes of Cluster #3&4. Again working to within yds if a 9pt and his 6 does. No good shot but a big smile on my face. Have to choose your battles.
I think the only reason a buck rubs a tree is to tell you should’ve been here yesterday.
Beginning of my stalk following a lone track near my sanctuary and into this thicket. It was quite.
I was pleased to end the season w a doe and small 8 taken w the recurve. The Hellraiser solid 3 blades were great. Love them.
A few pics of how hinges respond differently. Some sprout at base, others along side of stump, and others at top. And some do nothing. It does put food on the ground for winter months and creates improved edges. Larger trees I jst do felling cut and drop, smaller ones I hinge. Be careful they can do funny things. I don’t find use within my Random Clusters so much but deer work the edges well following the pattern I’ve made on the downwind side of my plots. They literally hop along the line of RCs from bottom of my farm to the back ridge. An alternative to typical logging.
The clusters require maintenance every couple years as the weather beats down the trees and new growth gets too big. Mature acorn producing oaks surrounded by ground level edge of browse.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hunted only w recurve n bow season this year for the first time in a while. Rains and snows also led to great conditions for still hunting. While not as effective it is my fav way to hunt and I can’t describe the thrill of stalking to within yards of a buck w only a stickbow in hand.
My fav stalk was along my Random Cluster #5 where I got within 20 yds if a nice 8 and his doe. Being greedy I tried for another 5 yds but of course the doe fig out I didn’t look so much like a limb from the tree I was squeezed against. I drew on the 8 as she stomped but he just would not turn enough for a good shot.
The next best was the heavy snow of below. A quite cold day. I spent an hour/ 100 yds sneaking to shadows, trees, and brush mainly along the steep slopes of Cluster #3&4. Again working to within yds if a 9pt and his 6 does. No good shot but a big smile on my face. Have to choose your battles.
I think the only reason a buck rubs a tree is to tell you should’ve been here yesterday.
Beginning of my stalk following a lone track near my sanctuary and into this thicket. It was quite.
I was pleased to end the season w a doe and small 8 taken w the recurve. The Hellraiser solid 3 blades were great. Love them.
A few pics of how hinges respond differently. Some sprout at base, others along side of stump, and others at top. And some do nothing. It does put food on the ground for winter months and creates improved edges. Larger trees I jst do felling cut and drop, smaller ones I hinge. Be careful they can do funny things. I don’t find use within my Random Clusters so much but deer work the edges well following the pattern I’ve made on the downwind side of my plots. They literally hop along the line of RCs from bottom of my farm to the back ridge. An alternative to typical logging.
The clusters require maintenance every couple years as the weather beats down the trees and new growth gets too big. Mature acorn producing oaks surrounded by ground level edge of browse.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Finally to show just a few good pics and hope they show how I enjoy my time afield. Here is a scrape I made for this camera couple days before. In a thicket next to a conifer bedding area along that edge of conifer/decidous, on a side ridge. Received action till Jan when I finally moved the camera. Scraped leaves from 4 ft circle, bent down pine branch, peed in scrape. Deer do the rest and you get pics without deer paying camera no mind. I've done them a dozen different ways and this works better than any. Usually have 3-4 50 yds apart before season starts, this one was a late one.
Side note, I've gone in to new country in the dark and set up along some combination of edges of flora and topography and had immediate luck with bucks. Edge combinations Trump most other stand sites any time. Deer love it.
Snows and rains have been nonstop since March. Luckily hard mast was heavy and deer went into winter very healthy. Hard hunting with them scattered everywhere and deer didn't haven't to work to find food. Both this 10 and the broken 8 were passed couple times this year. Kinda tough when limited yardage with recurve when they are in range, but took chances for next year of them blowing up. I have a stand just to the left where this pic was taken.
My Random Cluster #5 butts where these guys stand on an east west side ridge. This point was never a great producer till I worked this hinge cut area this past year. This season, I had deer by me each sit and they were all working the Cluster edge just as I had hoped. Beds were all along the ridge. Two scrapes just to the right of this pic. Browse, security, and edge is what they give, and the deer love them. All the while saving my mature oak trees that drop literally tons of prime food acorns for the deer. I just don't know why I would want to place chainsaw to these deer honey holes. It takes a long time to grow a 75 yo tree, like 75 years!!!
But its much more than just a random hinge cut. It sits on a east-west side hill point paralleling the main ridge, has steep drops to each side, edges against an open understory, while also edges against a conifer stand to back of this picture. When you do the Random Clusters, for them to work properly, they need be along the downwind typical route of scent checking bucks, and hopefully tied in to natural edge of flora and topography. Redundant I am, but I'm trying to make a point.
As I bring this thread to a close in the very near future, I want to entice you in some ways to not be frustrated by how your land performs, or what deer you may or may not have taken, but as I'm always harping, look beneath your feet, watch how nature does her planting, embrace the unseen microcosms as well as the easier to see organisms, watch the soil change color with the inputs by man or nature, see if the deer really care if its a magazine quality mono-culture food plot, and just go have fun. Feel the dirt with your hands, look thru a microscope the micro community that lives there, dissect the organs of the animal, count the rings on the tree investigating why each has been affected to show such. Absorb to the deepest extent all that the soils and plants and animals teach.
Be intoxicated but what the plants and animals, even the ones you don't like, can teach you. What does the weed that grows so well in drought know that you don't? Why does the oak produce how and when it does? Has man changed the pattern? Has he manipulated plants and animals to suit his purpose only to become frustrated that his actions, which goes against natures scheme of things, doesn't perform as he expected? Will he leave a land and animal kingdom that can be self sufficient when he passes on? In his final days, will he look back at the hunts he enjoyed whether animal was taken or not, with the shared passion of friends and family who were there at those times? When he took that deer will he remember the spread of the antler and points it had, or will it be more the feel of his fingers as they stroked the thick winter coat as the heat slowly left the body of the animal that just gave its life to you? Will you think of how your own earthly life will one day be no more than the fleeting last expiration of air as that same heat disappears from your now lifeless form? Will your life have left something important for those remaining behind? Will your life have meaning?
Deep thots for someone who is simply trying to take a deer and spend time in the wilds of nature. I hope you take time to turn everything off and sit on that stump with just your thots for a few minutes or an hour.
Enjoy your time with these things, but make sure you have the 3 Fs well taken care. And perhaps, just perhaps, you might think the crazy mountain man wasn't so crazy after all. Peace.
“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”----Aldo Leopold
Side note, I've gone in to new country in the dark and set up along some combination of edges of flora and topography and had immediate luck with bucks. Edge combinations Trump most other stand sites any time. Deer love it.
Snows and rains have been nonstop since March. Luckily hard mast was heavy and deer went into winter very healthy. Hard hunting with them scattered everywhere and deer didn't haven't to work to find food. Both this 10 and the broken 8 were passed couple times this year. Kinda tough when limited yardage with recurve when they are in range, but took chances for next year of them blowing up. I have a stand just to the left where this pic was taken.
My Random Cluster #5 butts where these guys stand on an east west side ridge. This point was never a great producer till I worked this hinge cut area this past year. This season, I had deer by me each sit and they were all working the Cluster edge just as I had hoped. Beds were all along the ridge. Two scrapes just to the right of this pic. Browse, security, and edge is what they give, and the deer love them. All the while saving my mature oak trees that drop literally tons of prime food acorns for the deer. I just don't know why I would want to place chainsaw to these deer honey holes. It takes a long time to grow a 75 yo tree, like 75 years!!!
But its much more than just a random hinge cut. It sits on a east-west side hill point paralleling the main ridge, has steep drops to each side, edges against an open understory, while also edges against a conifer stand to back of this picture. When you do the Random Clusters, for them to work properly, they need be along the downwind typical route of scent checking bucks, and hopefully tied in to natural edge of flora and topography. Redundant I am, but I'm trying to make a point.
As I bring this thread to a close in the very near future, I want to entice you in some ways to not be frustrated by how your land performs, or what deer you may or may not have taken, but as I'm always harping, look beneath your feet, watch how nature does her planting, embrace the unseen microcosms as well as the easier to see organisms, watch the soil change color with the inputs by man or nature, see if the deer really care if its a magazine quality mono-culture food plot, and just go have fun. Feel the dirt with your hands, look thru a microscope the micro community that lives there, dissect the organs of the animal, count the rings on the tree investigating why each has been affected to show such. Absorb to the deepest extent all that the soils and plants and animals teach.
Be intoxicated but what the plants and animals, even the ones you don't like, can teach you. What does the weed that grows so well in drought know that you don't? Why does the oak produce how and when it does? Has man changed the pattern? Has he manipulated plants and animals to suit his purpose only to become frustrated that his actions, which goes against natures scheme of things, doesn't perform as he expected? Will he leave a land and animal kingdom that can be self sufficient when he passes on? In his final days, will he look back at the hunts he enjoyed whether animal was taken or not, with the shared passion of friends and family who were there at those times? When he took that deer will he remember the spread of the antler and points it had, or will it be more the feel of his fingers as they stroked the thick winter coat as the heat slowly left the body of the animal that just gave its life to you? Will you think of how your own earthly life will one day be no more than the fleeting last expiration of air as that same heat disappears from your now lifeless form? Will your life have left something important for those remaining behind? Will your life have meaning?
Deep thots for someone who is simply trying to take a deer and spend time in the wilds of nature. I hope you take time to turn everything off and sit on that stump with just your thots for a few minutes or an hour.
Enjoy your time with these things, but make sure you have the 3 Fs well taken care. And perhaps, just perhaps, you might think the crazy mountain man wasn't so crazy after all. Peace.
“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”----Aldo Leopold
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
You thought I wouldn't read that part about bringing the thread to a close in the near future. Surely, surely you jest. Too many of us get our inspiration for what you call ramblings of an old mountain man. I will pretend I didn't read it and now you can forget it.
The last picture is beautiful. There is just something about deer in a snow that brings out something inside me that I like.
Carry on Ole Mountain Man.....
The last picture is beautiful. There is just something about deer in a snow that brings out something inside me that I like.
Carry on Ole Mountain Man.....
weekender21
Well-Known Member
Awesome pics as usually. What's the new property thread gonna be called? Think we could organize a property tour at your place some time? Sure would be awesome to learn!
dogghr
Well-Known Member
You guys are nice or delusional, maybe both. In reality this thread is now 9 years old beginning on the old forum. I'm quite sure i've shown my clover pics from every angle possible and my hug the earth sermons are pretty repetitive. I started the original thread because at that time, all the land threads were mid west flat land talking of central plot placement and such. That just don't work in the hills as they dictate much of what we do. Also at that time there was an undercurrent of grouchy judgemental members that some how had lost the true enjoyment of hunting. This forum is nothing like that and their are so many great new properties being shown that this one needs to slide to the side. I've enjoyed it and have learned and hopefully taught some of those things of thinking outside the box.What they ^^ said. I’d hate to see this thread end.
Always enjoy your pictures and your ramblings.
Not sure a lot to see compared to some other properties but as I mentioned before, I'd like to have a meeting of the minds one weekend this summer before fall plantings and those that wish can come hang out for couple days. My daughter with baby in progress has tweaked that some, but I still hope to pull it off. You or anyone more than welcome at any time for a visit. From experience, always fun to see other peoples work in progress. When you back to the mainland permanatly?
