DrDirtNap
Active Member
You know habitat work is a continuous project. It never ends. And I oftentimes find myself doubting of the effort is really worth it. Seems though that everytime I start to doubt my investment in time, sweat and money something good happens that makes me a believer again.
I put all my cropland in CRP, mostly a NWSG program nine years ago and mostly I’ve regretted it. Managing NWSG has been challenging for me. It requires maintenance in my part of the world or you might end up with a giant sweetgum patch. Anyway, I’ve changed my mind and I’m seeing the benefits now. I’m seeing more and more deer use the NWSG as a bedding area and this year based my trail cam pics my target buck was using my CRP as his bedding area. I started getting pictures of this buck in July. Had this huge droptine on his right side. Really special. I knew I had some young pretty decent 8 pt bucks last year but I’d never had one on camera with a droptine. I named him Clubby because that droptine to me just looked like a club hanging off his right main beam. I started putting out several cameras to determine “Clubby’s” pattern. It didn’t appear like he was roaming too far from the CRP. He was leaving the CRP late in the evening and going to a nice lush Durana clover plot just before or right after dusk. Hunting him seemed simple enough but I didn’t want to believe it was that simple and decided to hunt a few other stands near the clover field first. After two unsuccessful hunts I decided to go straight to the clover field. I set-up on the edge of the field using some small pines, privet and honeysuckle as a natural blind. As evening neared, several does poured out into the clover field. I enjoyed watching them graze and chase each other around. They finally exited into the CRP in the general direction I expected Clubby to come from. It was beginning to get dark fast when I caught movement down the edge of the pines in the fire lane. I pulled up my binoculars and sure enough it was him. He was coming straight towards me. By the time he turned broadside for a shot he was only 35 yards away. I took the shot and he only ran about 30 yards before falling over in the middle of the clover field. I think this may be my biggest buck yet. A buck of this size in North MS is truly exceptional and a droptine like that is almost never heard of. Needless to say the Therapy Acre habitat work will continue!
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I put all my cropland in CRP, mostly a NWSG program nine years ago and mostly I’ve regretted it. Managing NWSG has been challenging for me. It requires maintenance in my part of the world or you might end up with a giant sweetgum patch. Anyway, I’ve changed my mind and I’m seeing the benefits now. I’m seeing more and more deer use the NWSG as a bedding area and this year based my trail cam pics my target buck was using my CRP as his bedding area. I started getting pictures of this buck in July. Had this huge droptine on his right side. Really special. I knew I had some young pretty decent 8 pt bucks last year but I’d never had one on camera with a droptine. I named him Clubby because that droptine to me just looked like a club hanging off his right main beam. I started putting out several cameras to determine “Clubby’s” pattern. It didn’t appear like he was roaming too far from the CRP. He was leaving the CRP late in the evening and going to a nice lush Durana clover plot just before or right after dusk. Hunting him seemed simple enough but I didn’t want to believe it was that simple and decided to hunt a few other stands near the clover field first. After two unsuccessful hunts I decided to go straight to the clover field. I set-up on the edge of the field using some small pines, privet and honeysuckle as a natural blind. As evening neared, several does poured out into the clover field. I enjoyed watching them graze and chase each other around. They finally exited into the CRP in the general direction I expected Clubby to come from. It was beginning to get dark fast when I caught movement down the edge of the pines in the fire lane. I pulled up my binoculars and sure enough it was him. He was coming straight towards me. By the time he turned broadside for a shot he was only 35 yards away. I took the shot and he only ran about 30 yards before falling over in the middle of the clover field. I think this may be my biggest buck yet. A buck of this size in North MS is truly exceptional and a droptine like that is almost never heard of. Needless to say the Therapy Acre habitat work will continue!
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