River Ranch Project
- Thread starter Kurt
- Start date
Kurt
Active Member
Smoky Hill River. Still has pretty good flow going on. Need to kill a buck early and then hoping to duck hunt a bit there.
Kurt
Active Member
Got a little work done in August. Son and I sprayed a little over an acre with glyphosate to kill a patch for our throw and drag test. Then late August, daughter and I returned to spread seed and drag the test plot with the truck and a giant cedar. We also hacked and squirted a few more locusts. Pictures are from today and yesterday.
Did sit on the bluffs looking for my first KS whitetail buck but only managed to see groups of does moving in and out along river. Was good to also see a few flights of wood ducks. Time to stop working on stuff there this fall and get to having some fun chasing whitetails.
Double girdled and sprayed with diesel/triclopyr.
Views along the north while looking for a buck.
One or two more rains and we are good.
Kicking around ideas for spring projects, but its time now for hunting.
Did sit on the bluffs looking for my first KS whitetail buck but only managed to see groups of does moving in and out along river. Was good to also see a few flights of wood ducks. Time to stop working on stuff there this fall and get to having some fun chasing whitetails.
Double girdled and sprayed with diesel/triclopyr.
Views along the north while looking for a buck.
One or two more rains and we are good.
Kicking around ideas for spring projects, but its time now for hunting.
Kurt
Active Member
Muzzleloading season drew to a close with no shots fired. Few nocturnal bucks on trail cameras. Thinking this place may be much better once the surrounding crop fields are harvested. But I get to keep hunting and the more I hunt it, the more I learn. This trip saw wood ducks, bald eagles, bobcats, deer, and flushed the first covey of quail on my place. Simply not grazing it this year generated very tall prairie grass and I think that will pay off later this season.
Keep seeing new spots for stands. Guess I'll grab a few more ladders. This guy is number one on the hit list and only moves 2 hours after dark and 2 hours before daylight lol. Maybe a hot doe will be his undoing.
Keep seeing new spots for stands. Guess I'll grab a few more ladders. This guy is number one on the hit list and only moves 2 hours after dark and 2 hours before daylight lol. Maybe a hot doe will be his undoing.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Nice buck, and sometime during the first week in November he will move in daylight. That tall grass should pay big dividends once the crops are in.Muzzleloading season drew to a close with no shots fired. Few nocturnal bucks on trail cameras. Thinking this place may be much better once the surrounding crop fields are harvested. But I get to keep hunting and the more I hunt it, the more I learn. This trip saw wood ducks, bald eagles, bobcats, deer, and flushed the first covey of quail on my place. Simply not grazing it this year generated very tall prairie grass and I think that will pay off later this season.
Keep seeing new spots for stands. Guess I'll grab a few more ladders. This guy is number one on the hit list and only moves 2 hours after dark and 2 hours before daylight lol. Maybe a hot doe will be his undoing.
It takes 10 years to learn how to hunt a new property, you should be taking notes and accumulating daylight deer sightings, date, time, location, wind directions, etc. The compilation and analysis of that info will point you to a sure thing spot on a certain certain day of the season that the biggest buck on the property can be taken every year.
Kurt
Active Member
Just finished a 4 day hunt on the place. Saw 10-15 deer about every day. Lot of rut activity in the area and saw a number of good bucks chasing. Son punched his tag on one of our top 3 bucks and its a fine looking deer. Flushed more quail walking around deer hunting and had a great time. Making notes as we hunt on projects for next Feb and March. As was hoped, it has gotten good deer traffic in Nov.
Kurt
Active Member
Decided to let the remaining bucks walk this year. Gotta couple youngsters with good potential. Talked to neighbor south of me and he is passing all the young ones too. So hoping that either he or us can roll a good one next fall.
Here is a before pic of some of my cottonwoods. They are along the river bank in this photo. Got a few hundred cedars growing per acre here and plan is to open up this section to the river. Hoping I can get switchgrass to grow down there but the cedars are coming down. We worked this weekend on them and forgot to get a picture of the piles. Started at the cottonwood and working out from it. May be able to plant some swamp white oaks after the cedars, locusts and a few scraggly elms come down.
We decided we would shoot 2 quail only on the place. Have been seeing up to 20 in one covey. So we did a short walk and son and I each got one right off. Dog loved it lol. Now back to work on mowing fire strips and killing cedars. Will post some pics after next work trip or two.
Here is a before pic of some of my cottonwoods. They are along the river bank in this photo. Got a few hundred cedars growing per acre here and plan is to open up this section to the river. Hoping I can get switchgrass to grow down there but the cedars are coming down. We worked this weekend on them and forgot to get a picture of the piles. Started at the cottonwood and working out from it. May be able to plant some swamp white oaks after the cedars, locusts and a few scraggly elms come down.
We decided we would shoot 2 quail only on the place. Have been seeing up to 20 in one covey. So we did a short walk and son and I each got one right off. Dog loved it lol. Now back to work on mowing fire strips and killing cedars. Will post some pics after next work trip or two.
Kurt
Active Member
KSQ2, you know that did not make the news in CO. I was amazed by that. Son and I tried to hunt some public land north of Victoria and Hays. When we drove up there it was just a massive burn scar. Terribly sad to see. Thoughts and prayers are with those in KS who suffered this loss.
Talked to my neighbor. Our area had sustained 80 mph winds for 7 hours. You drop a spark on that ground and it would have burned to Hays and beyond.
I had 10 or 15 cedar stacks out in the field for quail habitat. Wind blew so hard that those piles just got wiped out. Will have to go drag them all back up again. Knocked down 2 of the 80 year old pines in the pine strip too. Time to start a new tree row in March.
Talked to my neighbor. Our area had sustained 80 mph winds for 7 hours. You drop a spark on that ground and it would have burned to Hays and beyond.
I had 10 or 15 cedar stacks out in the field for quail habitat. Wind blew so hard that those piles just got wiped out. Will have to go drag them all back up again. Knocked down 2 of the 80 year old pines in the pine strip too. Time to start a new tree row in March.
Kurt
Active Member
Got a couple days to work on the place. Native Hunter motivated me to get some mowing done. Purpose was twofold. I wanted to see if this won't help get a gobbler or two using the fields for strutting areas. And really want to do a controlled burn if county is allowing those in a few months. So cut a lot of burn strips in keeping my spring prevailing wind in mind.
The food plot has some green in it, has to be cereal rye, but I didn't do the mow part of throw and mow last fall. I did spray with gly but thinking I didn't get 100% kill. Anyway, its mowed now and I'll have to figure out what to do next there now. Didn't get my clover inoculant in time so have to sow that next trip.
This is the food plot. Hoping some turkeys may use those cottonwoods but the cedars remain a big issue. Been cutting in different parts of place.
This pic should be my primary turkey strutting ground. Hoping they get the memo.
Cool horizontal rub I found.
Next pics may show charred ground, or maybe not. Just depends on spring moisture.
The food plot has some green in it, has to be cereal rye, but I didn't do the mow part of throw and mow last fall. I did spray with gly but thinking I didn't get 100% kill. Anyway, its mowed now and I'll have to figure out what to do next there now. Didn't get my clover inoculant in time so have to sow that next trip.
This is the food plot. Hoping some turkeys may use those cottonwoods but the cedars remain a big issue. Been cutting in different parts of place.
This pic should be my primary turkey strutting ground. Hoping they get the memo.Cool horizontal rub I found.
Next pics may show charred ground, or maybe not. Just depends on spring moisture.
