I’m really concerned about the little buck having hemorrhagic disease. a.tramp https://wildlifedepartment.com/media/insect.htm
This is exactly what I'm looking for. As for the mounting rings, do they sell universal ones or do I have to find some specific to my model of scope? Are much do they usually run? $20, $50? $100?
Beautiful morning, mid 40s. Slept in a bit. Wind now blowing a gale, and I am pretty sure there on more deer on Mars than on our property right now. Observation at other locales this week has been feeding pattern from 12-2pm, possibly as a by product of warmish weather? IDK. Still, hunting beats the hell outta work.
Our gun season ended a little over a week ago. Between me, my brother, and two others, we saw exactly 0 deer while in the 2 weekends we hunted. The first weekend, it was 33 degrees and pouring rain with a shitload of corn still standing. The second nicer, though. I'm baffled, because I was set up where 5 well worn trails intersected. There were also 6 fresh scrapes within about 100 yards of my stand. Still didn't see a damn thing.
I want to try a deer outfitter once in my life and am looking at Whitetail Heaven outfitters in Kentucky. They have over 200k free range acres and have some monster bucks. Also land in Ohio and Illinois. Thoughts on anything like this? Price is all inclusive as to what you shoot (or don't shoot I guess), but I just want to try another state other than SC.
I’d love to do something like that. I’ve been hunting the same woods my entire life, one weekend every couple years I’ll go with a friend somewhere but I’d love to go to another ‘big buck’ state
I'm not a fan of big open fields or mountainous terrain, but Kentucky has the rolling hills with swamps that I love to sit. Also North Georgia for that matter
Now that I think about it’s kind of sad, my entire deer hunting life has been within like a one hour stretch right off the same hwy (61) between LA & MS.
The Legend of Ole Mudbutt part III If you are looking for pics of me or my family with the monster buck, you can stop reading. If you are wanting me to say that we tagged the buck, you can stop reading. So Sunday late morning as we are skinning and quartering my dad's and my bucks, we start talking about how a buck this big could go unnoticed for so long. Mind you, my dad knows all the farmers surrounding and several of them have access to various parts of the property throughout the year and not a whisper. Keep in mind that my dad spends 100+ hours a year filling feeders, checkings stands for repair and clearing any trees or branches that pop up in shooting lanes and clearings. We developed a working theory, the buck has been on the land all along and never leaves. On the far west side of our property is a section of CRP. If you are not familiar with crp, it is a section of land you set aside for 10-15 years and do absolutely nothing with. It is let go to native grasses and can not be farmed, tilled, planted or even mowed. Just wild in order to prevent erosion, improve water and/or improve wildlife. This sectiin was put to crp due to access. On the west side of it is the neighbors feedlot, can not get to it through there. On the north and south side, neighbor's wheat fields. Could ask for an easement through there crop but this portion of land is right in the middle of the section and relations with this particular neighbor are already bad. On the east side, creeks and many of them. At one time, there were low water crossings dug out to get access but due to errosion and flooding, those are gone and you have to cut into 15' tall banks to dig more. When my mom and dad inherited my grandpas farm 20 years ago, they left the existing contracts in place which was a bad idea in hindsight. The farmer running cattle knew that my dad would not be driving out to check on things every morning while drinking his coffee as my grandpa did as my dad lived in Texas at the time. He over grazed the shit out of every square inch of the 300 acres. You could see from one side to another on what had my entire life been densely wooded and brushed creek bottom. My dad talked to him about it, he said he would correct it and it never changed. After about 10 years, finally my dad kicked him off the property due to the errosion and flooding that were taking place. That meant having no access to the back portion of the property without cutting new crossings, which was not cost effective at all considering the small amount of unaccesible land. Enter the CRP. So, we decide Ole Mudbutt beds in the CRP and enters the creek in the vicinity of my stand and unless you happen to have your glass out looking in a spot in the wooded creek bottom, you ain't going to see him. We figured that there would be very little chance to see him Sunday night as 5 of the 6 deer harvested that weekend all came from the wooded area east of the CRP but if our theory was true, he might just still be there. So my dad made plans to leave early to make the trek and deal with the nasty creek banks. He needed to find and mark a spot in the light that he could easily cross again in the dark. There is still an old leaning ladder stand on the edge of that crp field he always wants me to sit in but I have not due to the reasons already mentioned. Oh, and it is 20' up a fucking tree with no safety harness system in place and I don't want to die falling out of a tree. As i am driving back to Dallas on Sunday night, I get the text around 4:15 from my dad that sure enough, he is in the CRP. My dad calls me that night and is beside himself that he had Ole Mudbutt within 10 yds of his stand for 15 minutes and he couldn't even shoot him. I asked him why he shot the buck in the morning when I told him he was out there and he said "I thought you were making the entire story up to keep your nephews focused on the hunt." I couldn't stop laughing. On the plus side, he did say he was kind of glad as it was amazing to watch that buck do its thing close up. My dad has hunted this land since he was 16 and started dating my mom. He was a butcher at a local processer during college. He got his degree in wildlife biology and spent many many hours in the field in preparation for what he thought was going to be a career as a warden or ranger. I mention that all to say that when he said this is the biggest buck he has seen in his entire life and it isn't even really close," that means something. He is guessing it would easily hit 290lbs field dressed. Holy shit at even the thought of extracting that buck from that point of the property. He also said that this buck is really old. That more than likely explains the rack which I felt was undersized for a deer that big. I have never seen a deer make it long enough that his antlers start going the other direction in terms of growth. That also meant that there was absolutely no way he was shooting it and dropping it on my brother's or nephew's tag. He did not raise us that way and when he was presented with the buck of lifetime, he held true. So what this means. My dad and brother are headed back next weekend for closing weekend. My brother hopes to sit in the back stand and at least get the opportunity to see Ole Mudbutt. That is if my nephew drops a doe and my brother can go out solo. They are really working hard at my youngest nephew getting his first deer. Hopefully I get the chance to see Ole Mudbutt again. We are pretty confident that he stays put. I am planning on getting some cameras up this summer now. It would be great to get a shot at him next season although at this point, I am only about 50% on whether I would even pull the trigger or not.
Drove 7 hours to Monroe, LA to visit family for Thanksgiving. Got a stomach bug and didnt get to go out to my cousin's buddy's badass blind. They all limited out within an hour. I really needed that in my life
Great story, thanks for sharing. I had a similar experience with a buck a few years ago. My family has a farm and we were taking camera surveys of deer each year. I think we started in 2006. The first year we had a handful of pics from bucks we felt were 3-4 years old or older. One of these bucks had a very distinctive rack. Lots of points and very short tine length. We nicknamed him web. Edit: Fuck, I had typed a much longer response but was lost it while trying to attach photos. I’ll retype it later.
Here is the oldest photos of him from around 2006. I can’t remember the exact year but have it marked in the photo album. We estimated he was 4.5 or older at that time.
Anyways, the rest of my post that got lost was basically just saying how differently individual deer behave. Our property is high fenced and some of the bucks will be caught on camera on opposite ends of the property in consecutive days, while other bucks (like web) will stay in a small 100 acre home range all their life and rarely leave. It’s bucks that stay put in a small pocket of land that doesn’t get hunted that can get huge or live a really long life. We’ve had several bucks get really big because it seems that they lived their entire life close by our house and barn (an area that nobody hunts because it’s so close to people nobody thinks it’s a good spot).
I don’t think it had to do with the leg. 2012 was the first time we had a pic of him with an injured leg. If you look at the first pic I posted his legs look fine.
I love hearing the hunting stories. Someone should make a podcast of just re-telling hunting stories.
Found this roast recipe about a month ago and it has been a weekly occasion since then. Made it today with a venison roast for the 1st time and holy shit, was incredible. So if you guys have any game roasts in your freezer, substitute it in this recipe and see what happens.
You are such an -Asshole- sometimes man. Side note, I have made it a handful of times doing steps 1-4 in a pan and then transferring to the slow cooker to cook while I am at work, still delicious. INGREDIENTS 3 pound boneless beef chuck roast Kosher salt and ground black pepper 3 tablespoons canola oil 4 tablespoons butter 2 medium red onions, cut into quarters 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces 3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces 1 rutabaga, peeled and cut into 12 to 16 pieces, about a pound 8 cremini mushrooms, halved 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces 1 head garlic, top cut off to expose cloves ¾ cup tomato paste 2 bay leaves 3 sprigs rosemary 1 ½ cups red wine, preferably cabernet 4 cups beef broth PREPARATION Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Season meat generously with salt and pepper. On the stove top, heat oil in a large Dutch oven, or other heavy roasting pan with a lid, over medium-high heat. Sear the meat until a dark crust forms, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove meat to a plate. Reduce heat to medium and add butter to the pan. Melt the butter and add the whole head of garlic and vegetables, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pot, until the vegetables start to color, 8 to 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until it darkens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add bay leaves, rosemary and wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to a thick gravy consistency, 5 to 7 minutes. Return meat to the pot. Add broth, then cover the pot and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours 20 minutes. Let roast sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. Remove meat to a cutting board to slice. Discard bay leaves and rosemary stems. Squeeze any garlic cloves remaining in their skins into the stew and discard the skins. Serve slices of meat in shallow bowls along with the vegetables and a generous amount of cooking liquid ladled over top.
Crazy how smart some of them are. The biggest buck killed at our camp I hunted back in MS was taken probably 300 yards from all the hunting lodges. 3,500 acres to hunt and a 170 class deer was hanging out the back windows.
I do something similar, but instead of that pussy canola oil, I sear my roast in bacon grease like a real American.
Supposed to go turkey hunting in spring season. Using a bow, which is supposedly very challenging, so my expectations aren't all that high. Anyone in here ever been/go? Starting to research turkey calls and all that other fun shit.
You recommend using a box/scratch call? Wasn't sure if I should get a mouth call to keep both hands free. I know their vision is a bit insane so I'd be afraid of using a hand call, then drawing the bow and it being enough movement to spook one.
Definitely unless you're really good with a mouth call. I personally am not. Also, if you're in a blind, get black shoot thru mesh and don't worry about movement
Makes sense. Appreciate it. Where at in FL do you go, by the way? Not going to ask for details, but just curious. Definitely part of the plan.
If you're familiar with calling ducks or geese, you should be able to figure out a mouth call by the time your season rolls around. A diaphragm call for turkeys is completely different from a duck or goose call, but having the ear-to-mouth coordination to be able to mimic bird sounds and knowing how to manipulate your tongue and mouth to make those sounds is the biggest thing. It took me about 6 months of diligent practice to be comfortable using a mouth call in the field. Start out with yelps and clucks. Once you get that down, you can work on cutting and purrs. If you're not comfortable with trying a mouth call, I'd recommend getting a pot/slate call. They're easy to learn, you can make a wider array of sounds on them than you can on a box call and they sound more realistic, and you can control the volume a lot easier than you can with a box call. Of course, a box call is nice when you want to broadcast a loud series of yelps to try to locate a gobbler, but it's not necessary. If you're using a bow, I'd highly, highly, highly recommend using a ground blind. Shoot through windows are nice, but they're not necessary as long as you keep the windows behind you closed so they don't silhouette you. As for decoys, there's a time and a place for them and it all depends on the time of year that you're hunting. If you're hunting later in the season when the Toms are already henned up, there's not much use for a decoy. The only shot you're going to get is if you set up along their path and ambush them. The best strategy is to scout and find their roosts. If you can find that, try to find a frequently used route that they use and then set up along that route. Some days they'll fly down and go left, some days they'll fly down and go right. You just have to hope you zig when they zig and zag when they zag.
What do you prefer to hunt out of and reasons why? I typically go for the ladder stands unless my son (8 years old) is with me and depending on the property I choose to hunt we are always in a blind or shooting house. Not gonna lie, I kind of like him going with me. I know I am going to use the buddy heater if he is there. I have one property about 20 minutes down the road from my house that me and my brother in law hunt. One blind and two ladder stands. The other property is my mom and dad's farm about 1.5 hours from me. Two blinds, one shooting house, one ladder stand and a Guide Gear Comfort Hang on Tree Stand. Picture below. Depending on if he hunts with me or not also determines the caliber I use. By myself I always take my 30-06. If he is with me and I will help him shoot, we always take the .243.
I’m hunting a tripod from academy as I type this post, but it’s not my preferred stand.it just happens to be in the location I wanted to hunt this afternoon. We made 5 stands this year that I really like. A few years back I bought 5 chairs that you strap to trees and used old pallets and the same green screen as in the pic above. These ground blinds are probably my favorites to hunt. I’ve had bucks pass 5-10’ right in front of me without noticing me. Pretty fun. This is one of the ground blind seats we use https://m.llbean.com/product.html?s...=A&llbdrd=https://www.google.com/&csp=a#66657
I don’t deer hunt with a gun much anymore, but if I were going with a gun I’d definitely prefer a shooting house over all.
It’s also nice to have a couple shooting house type stands for crappy weather situations. I hunted in one of our shooting houses this morning while it rained for 5 hours.
I prefer gun hunting less and less as I get older. Bow hunting is just so much more enjoyable and challenging to me.