Wildlife 2022/2023 Deer Season
- Thread starter Wildlife
- Start date
Before I left for the day at noon, I placed my last piece of firewood inside the wood stove. I originally planned, to take down my ' Lone Wolf Alpha II tree-stand and start setting things up in preparation of the new '2023 Whitetail Deer Muzzleloader Season'.
As I took off from home, just down the road, I discovered a dead antlerless deer just off the road laying inside the county airport property. I called the airport folks to inform them about it and by the time I got home, I was happy to see that it was taken care of.
Not even a mile further down the road, I see two Halloween decorated pumpkins laying right along a picked beanfield. It appeared to me that someone just tossed them into the ditch, so I stopped the truck, jumped out and grabbed them, then placed them inside the bed of the pickup to take with me.
I arrived @theotherfarm at 1:00pm sharp. Then I spoke with the landowner regarding all the timber work that I've been doing and will continue doing for the remainder of this winter. I also shared with them my current deer harvests from their property and offered up some fresh venison, which they gladly accepted. I told them that I wish to continue to hunt throughout January for both deer and coyotes and they were thrilled to hear it.
So, within this video is a collection of photographs taken throughout my travels and showing what work I accomplished today. Basically, it's a slideshow of all of today's photos.
Then I drove over to the barn, parked and grabbed all the items that I intended to take out with me to the cornfield and woods. As I started off my hike, I noticed some fresh coyote scat, then tracks that lead me down the same path I take to get to my hunting setups.
Once I arrived in the cup area of the picked cornfield, I also noticed some more new deadfall trees that had to have recently fallen out into the farm field. I noted it, just more woodwork for me to clean up and take care of before the next growing season.
Then I noticed that the big deer scrape closest to the feed site had fresh tracks and antler scrapes in the dirt, and took a photo of it.
Once I reached the feed site, I began to clean up the area of all the debris and placed 100lbs. of fresh whole corn, and then carved up the two Halloween pumpkins for all hungry deer, wanting to get an accurate deer inventory.
I've used pumpkins in the past on this property over a decade ago, and they work great as deer attractant. Just be careful though because as soon as I finished smashing/carving a pumpkin up in the past, and before I got to climb up into my tree-stand, there was a good buck already at that spot, where I just finished up laying out those pumpkins. That has happened to me a couple of times over the years, utilizing fresh pumpkins as a deer attractant.
Afterwards, I hiked over to my tree-stand and packed up my Lone Wolf Alpha II with the five Lone Wolf climbing sticks, my Lifeline, my bow hanger, and whatever other tree straps that I was using. I placed everything inside my toboggan/sled, and then hiked over to my Barronett Pop-Up woodland Prowler 300 Tall blind. I stopped there just to make sure it was still zipped/closed up nice and tight, then continued to hike towards my pickup truck.
Along the way, I stopped at a location where I took 90 feet of rope, that I tied knots into every 18 inches for the entire length, that I used to repel down and climb, to and from the bottom of the deep ravine, which allowed me to truly sneak into my tree-stand during late evening hunts, and remain fully undetected by any deer. My tree-stand is within a couple of yards of the connecting ravine of the main one. I grabbed the rope off the tree and place it too inside my toboggan, then finished my hike to the truck.
After I loaded all my gear into the bed, I jumped into the cab, drove over the northside of the property, and began to cutdown a dead standing Ash Tree.
I grabbed enough firewood to get me through a few days.
I left the property headed for home, took a couple more photos before I arrived at my workshop. Then I proceeded to unload the pickup, split, stacked the larger chunks, and placed all of it inside the shop for the wood stove.
I will be hunting for a good size antlerless deer during the new up and coming muzzy season, hoping to close out my deer season with three Whitetail Deer harvests out of that county, which is the max bag limit.
If I become successful, it will be my third Ohio Slam of my hunting career where I harvested deer by way of bow archery, rifle shotgun and muzzleloader. I missed it last year, missing a good size doe in blustery wind conditions, so this year, I'm looking for some redemption.
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10:00PM, Tuesday, December 13, 2022: All Three Made It
All three of the most mature resident bucks that are left that survived the EHD outbreak have now survived all of gun week. I just received total confirmation of that and you can see it for yourself within this latest trail camera captures from this evening. 'Junior', 'Shybuc' and another good buck that sprouted this year with split brows, 10 points and no name yet.
All three of the most mature resident bucks that are left that survived the EHD outbreak have now survived all of gun week. I just received total confirmation of that and you can see it for yourself within this latest trail camera captures from this evening. 'Junior', 'Shybuc' and another good buck that sprouted this year with split brows, 10 points and no name yet.
12/16/22 6:30AM - Quick follow-up:
Every trail camera capture from 2016 onward within hyperlinks below, which are also available on my YouTube channel.
I never used a trail camera prior to 2015. In 2016, I started using trail cameras.
The only reason why I purchased the cheapest trail cameras on the market back then was to get a somewhat of an idea of what was in the area because I had no prior history nor experience of what kind of wildlife lived within the area.
My YouTube playlists will provide the best historical information regarding 'Junior's history. There are tons of footage of him running around with 'THUNDER' along with the others, such as 'SHYBUC' as well.
I did not put up any trail cameras around our place in 2019 because I wanted to see if trail cameras played any kind of a negative role towards deer behavior and/or effect deer movement and/or change movement patterns, which I determined afterwards that they do up to a certain level, but rather minimal in comparison of not using cameras at all IMO. So, that study helped me decide to continue using trail cameras and to purchase the better quality models for the future.
Another reason why I did not use any trail cameras at my place that year was because I had two of them stolen, which were at the time my most expensive cameras. That really upset me, so I decided not put up any for that year around our place and waited for the following year and installed cameras with better security deterrents. I also hunted a lot away from home that year anyways, like the control hunt that I participated in at Deer Creek.
Below are all the previous years of trail camera captures that are also listed on my YouTube channel. Enjoy!
Whitetail Deer 2016 Entire Year Playlist
Whitetail Deer 2017 Entire Year Playlist
Whitetail Deer 2018 Entire Year Playlist
Whitetail Deer 2020 Entire Year Playlist
Whitetail Deer 2021 Entire Year Playlist
This year's captures.
2022/23 TRAIL CAMERA CAPTURES
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Big_Holla
Senior Member
Do you find me funny, Chuck? or what I shared too be funny?
Denny, you never answered Trueroots question. Hence Chuck asking it again. You posted a bunch about him but never his actual age you thought he was.
Hey guys, it hasn't been easy, trust me. Losing this many deer is truly a hard pill to swallow. Let's carry on, shall we?
Big_Holla
Senior Member
OOOhhhhhh post #138.....sure must have missed that one. Took me a while looking back trying to figure out what I missed. Got it. Thought you were just not answering the question with Trueroot's quote, instead you were expanding with much more information on him.
7:30AM, Sunday, December 18, 2022: 'Jr' Dodges Bullets
Heard a burst of shots yesterday morning. Had me all f'd up for the day. Then a no show of 'Junior' until late, then once again this mornin. Just real glad that he's still with us.
I really need to get a few of those damn Kevlar vests!
Heard a burst of shots yesterday morning. Had me all f'd up for the day. Then a no show of 'Junior' until late, then once again this mornin. Just real glad that he's still with us.
I really need to get a few of those damn Kevlar vests!
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11:30AM, Sunday, December 18, 2022: 'Bonus Gun Weekend Noon Status Update:
Okay, no shots heard as of yet today, but that doesn't ease things for me knowing that I have at least two individuals in the area as of 5 minutes ago still.
IDK who they are, yet anyways, but I do appreciate them keeping me on my totes around here.
Attached one from the other farm with first daylight snow on the ground for this year, I think for this location.
@thefeedstation moments ago.
You can expect perhaps another report by EO.D.
Okay, no shots heard as of yet today, but that doesn't ease things for me knowing that I have at least two individuals in the area as of 5 minutes ago still.
IDK who they are, yet anyways, but I do appreciate them keeping me on my totes around here.
Attached one from the other farm with first daylight snow on the ground for this year, I think for this location.
@thefeedstation moments ago.
You can expect perhaps another report by EO.D.
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Nah, it hurts to loose them in ways you would not like, but I'm not naïve. I cannot control everything, but I try at times, according to the wife anyway
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