"Whitetail Hollow" - 90 Acres NE Oklahoma.

[OkieKubota]

Been a weird year for me...Had a bunch of great bucks on cam earlier in the year. Lots of deer on plots and feeders and it stays like that till about mid October when red oaks really started dropping and then the deer started drying up. I hunted the entire 9 day muzzleloader season with 5 of those days being solid pouring rain. I jumped one buck in the rain while going out for an evening hunt not 70 yards from our house but from the stand or blind I only saw 2 really small bucks all week. Muzzleloader ended on the 1st and since then it has been incessant hot south winds. Our property up here on the hollow is not good for any type of south wind so I have been doing other things...The wife and I bought a totes for the bulldozer from a local excavation guy at a very good price so I was working on getting it ready to do work...
It has a 7.8 Ford inline 6 Diesel engine with a 10 speed trans.

Got my all aluminum GTO engine to short block stage. 535 ci...

Since I gave up the deer lease this year I brought our camper home and realized how the years down there had not been kind...the slide out leaked and ruined and took out some of the floor so decided to get rid of the slide out and just make it a regular camper we could use again so been working on this since last Friday...had a good friend helping me out with it...

Got it finished this afternoon...now just gotta clean it real good inside and out and be ready to camp some next year with wife and some friends...maybe even haul it up to South Dakota for a couple weeks.

Tonight rain is supposed to move in and as soon as the rain stops temps are supposed to drop over 10 degrees in one hour about 1:00 tomorrow and wind is switching to NW so I am going hunting tomorrow. The deer I was targeting hasn’t been on cam since 2nd week in October and an awful lot of shooting has gone on in these woods around here (bow season) but I still have faith he is out there somewhere and will be back. Lots of history with him...


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[dogghr]

Camper remake looks cool.
Alloy block coming along for sure. You been busy. Have a friend who drags a blown corvette for years. Jst blew his block this past wk at a southern race while finishing second overall. He had bad crash in a race 6 yrs ago nearly killing him. Btw he is 75 yo. Hard to get that speed addiction out of your blood.
Good luck on deer. Southern slopes of my farm do not do well in this warm weather for hunting. Cool off next wk and I get free finally.


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[George]

sweet rig. 80 degrees here today. I was roosting up there yesterday running the saw.

G

 

[jteeen]

It's been strange at our place also. I didnt see anything except a spike. The does are already in a huge herd which is weird for this early.

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[OkieKubota]

Yesterday was a brushhogging day...decided to use the big truck since my Ram was tied to our travel trailer...

Yesterday evening when I got done I switched attachments and cleared my trails for silent access.

My new woods plot couldn’t stay ahead of the deer but it still holds some green...wheat, rye and clover mainly...

The little landing strip plot is showing green as well...wheat and clover...

The main plot is solid clover this year.

I utilized that trail to my furthest stand this morning since I had a great wind for it. First time I haven’t spooked deer on the way in with my silent access. I had a doe come by alone at 8 am going S to N. At 9 this doe came from N going S. She was obviously in estrus because she peed in a scrape I made and bounced around a lot. She was mostly carrying her tail at half mast. I watched and watched but no bucks came...

I had another doe come by at 9:20 alone and then another lone doe at 10:10....saw no bucks at all...


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[pinetag]

Okie...You have inspired me with your lawn raked trail pics over the last couple seasons, so i am going to concentrate hard on my entry/exit for next year. Last season I cleared a couple trails as they got within bow shot of the stands, but this year I didn't get around to it. I think it had a negative impact! I spooked deer a few times as I neared stands and I'm not wanting to let that happen again. Thanks again for the inspirational pics!

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[massey]

I ALWAYS walk slowly and don’t worry too much about noise when getting to stand. And I ALWAYS use a turkey call. I’ve walked right up to bedded deer doing this.
Was hunting the edge of a thicket that adjoins an old growth beech/oak stand last year. Did my turkey impersonation going in, got on stand and soon had two deer stand up out of their beds less than 20 yards away.


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[OkieKubota]

I ALWAYS walk slowly and don’t worry too much about noise when getting to stand. And I ALWAYS use a turkey call. I’ve walked right up to bedded deer doing this.
Was hunting the edge of a thicket that adjoins an old growth beech/oak stand last year. Did my turkey impersonation going in, got on stand and soon had two deer stand up out of their beds less than 20 yards away.


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I don’t have much issue walking in during the afternoon but in the mornings 1 hour before a hint of light deer pay a lot of attention to those leaves...I don’t know how many deer I have spooked walking that 1/2 mile through solid woods over the years but it is substantial...sometimes the deer that spooked would stand out there and blow for a substantial amount of time. I had 1 that blew for 45 minutes once and then walked off before it got light enough for me to see it. I have also had bucks hear me walking in the leaves before daylight and come to me, I guess out of curiosity and that’s not good either. I want to be as silent as possible in the dark of morning...

The turkey call in the afternoons would be useful...

 

[massey]

Try some soft yelps in the morning. It just calms the deer down. I don’t think they think about what time of day it is. They just seem to relax when they hear leaves rustling and turkey sounds. But you can’t go fast at human pace. A sound of a man walking is as distinctive to them as a buck grunt is to you.
Or better yet, rake your trails. wish I could do that!! Since I can’t I’ll stick with the turkey call.

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[OkieKubota]

Try some soft yelps in the morning. It just calms the deer down. I don’t think they think about what time of day it is. They just seem to relax when they hear leaves rustling and turkey sounds. But you can’t go fast at human pace. A sound of a man walking is as distinctive to them as a buck grunt is to you.
Or better yet, rake your trails. wish I could do that!! Since I can’t I’ll stick with the turkey call.

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Whatever works for you...I won’t laugh at you about it. Raked trails work well for me...

 

[massey]

Wasn’t laughing at you. I wish I had the ability to do that. Too dangerous in my mountains. I have used a leaf blower for similar reason but they just seem to cover back up within a day, hence the turkey call.


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[OkieKubota]

Wasn’t laughing at you. I wish I had the ability to do that. Too dangerous in my mountains. I have used a leaf blower for similar reason but they just seem to cover back up within a day, hence the turkey call.


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I am going over today to put up 2 more ladder stands. I will drive the tractor and will touch up the trail as I go. Done it for years now with much success. This year my main issue is additional hunters/poachers added to land perimeter and the least amount of mature bucks since we have owned the place.

 

[OkieKubota]

Yesterday I put up another stand in an area at the North end of our place...from this stand I can cover a small clover plot that I have been trying to let go back wild for about 5 years now and a nice flat of woods next to a very deep hollow that seems to be a good rut area. It’s the patch of woods I killed the first deer I ever took on our property which was a big 9 point with a lot of mass and dressed 150 (Big for our area)...

Today we had a really strong south wind and our place is poor at best for that wind so no hunting this morning...Midday I decided to head over to our other place down county to check it out for some hunting opps during our general rifle season beginning this weekend. I didn’t get any pictures but lots of rubs showing up and a neighbor stopped along the road when I was opening the gate and said he saw a nice buck crossing the road into our place the day before. It’s 30 acres with a good mix of big woods and old pasture surrounded by the same. The East is Big woods for miles and our place is the first spot it opens up and we have a lot of edge and bedding.

I took a rifle along I haven’t shot in a long time to take by my cousins to shoot since he has a rifle range and his place is near our other place. I normally hunt with a 30-30 but I have a bunch of ammo for a Remington BDL 30-06 I have and our place over there I could get a 200 yard shot pretty easily. My cousin told me his brother and both of their sons were going to be down to hunt their 90 acres and I should drop by for lunch and to visit. Looking forward to it because I see all of them very little. Gonna get together after the morning hunt to tell lies...lol...


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[catscratch]

Those raked trails... how long does it take for them to get covered back up with blowing leafs?

That aluminum block is a thing of beauty!

 

[Triple C]

Okie - In the pic above with the broadhead showing, it appears to be a 90 gr 4-blade Muzzy. If it is, I used that head for many years when I was flinging arrows with the compound bow. Loved Muzzy broadheads back in the day. These days I'm trying my best to arrow a buck with a Zwickey No Mercy single bevel head. 0 for 2 so far but still stepping up to the plate and gonna keep swinging.

 

[OkieKubota]

Those raked trails... how long does it take for them to get covered back up with blowing leafs?

That aluminum block is a thing of beauty!

I took these today...had 40 mph wind yesterday and 30 the day before...the secret is to wait until after leaf drop. The hangers on usually hang all winter and the leaves don’t blow around much in the woods. Still very silent walking....

Looking forward to that aluminum making noise!


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[OkieKubota]

Okie - In the pic above with the broadhead showing, it appears to be a 90 gr 4-blade Muzzy. If it is, I used that head for many years when I was flinging arrows with the compound bow. Loved Muzzy broadheads back in the day. These days I'm trying my best to arrow a buck with a Zwickey No Mercy single bevel head. 0 for 2 so far but still stepping up to the plate and gonna keep swinging.

It is a 4 blade 100 grain slick trick...I like them because they fly with field point accuracy and have great blood trails! Good luck to you on the Zwickeys!


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[catscratch]

Another question for ya Okie; Do deer use those trails more or less than their normal trails?

I've got a section of wooded bluff that has several trails running lengthwise through it. I've been wondering if a person raked one of those trails... would the deer use it more than the other trails? I traditionally try to stay out and leave it untouched in there but if I could direct movement some it would be a good thing. I figure if you use the trails for entry that the deer must not gravitate towards them or else you would be bumping deer in the dark more.

I took these today...had 40 mph wind yesterday and 30 the day before...the secret is to wait until after leaf drop. The hangers on usually hang all winter and the leaves don’t blow around much in the woods. Still very silent walking....

Looking forward to that aluminum making noise!


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[OkieKubota]

Another question for ya Okie; Do deer use those trails more or less than their normal trails?

I've got a section of wooded bluff that has several trails running lengthwise through it. I've been wondering if a person raked one of those trails... would the deer use it more than the other trails? I traditionally try to stay out and leave it untouched in there but if I could direct movement some it would be a good thing. I figure if you use the trails for entry that the deer must not gravitate towards them or else you would be bumping deer in the dark more.

The tracks in them would suggest they are being used a lot but they haven’t made them their main trail. Usually what happens is they will use a section of the raked trail in an area where it crosses or there is a parallel deer trail and they will walk along it for 40-50 feet and then take another deer trail off of it. Also deer in one area may act totally different than they do in other areas. Our property is horrible for access seeing as it runs S to N and the west side is huge hollows and a neighbors house midway back and right next to the fence and the east side is a wet weather creek that runs into and out of the property and has lots of finger ridges dropping down into that pretty deep bottom And is very hard to walk up and over all of them through all the flint rock so...the center of the property is the access to most all of my stands...naturally that means I bump a lot of deer and is why I have to be as silent as possible while working my way through to a stand. Not ideal but I still have a lot of success...I thought of using the dozer to cut all the finger ridges down in a sort of road along our east side but most all of those finger ridges have deer trails coming down them and don’t want to mess that up. I am finding it doesn’t take a lot to totally change the deer dynamic of travel...

 

[catscratch]

Thanks for the reply Okie! Gives me some things to think about...