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Brock/Mason 2018-2019

brock ratcliff

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Ugh...guessing he’s close enough to trespass following a wounded deer too. Hope he doesn’t bugger everything up.
I stopped by one neighbors house to see if they had shot one. The lady I spoke with said no one has been hunting. Beats me. Whomever it was didn’t even hit the right end of the poor thing. I hope they learn a lesson or just quit.
 

brock ratcliff

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Saw two antlerless and two small bucks tonight. We were nearly blown out of the stands but survived. I did hear two trees fall in the closest wood lot.
 
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"J"

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Saw two antlerless and two small bucks tonight. We were nearly blown out of the stands but survived. I did hear two trees fall in the closest wood lot.

Yeah, Giles commented he hoped you and Mason were ok after that wind went through...
 
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brock ratcliff

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Yeah it blew over. I got down to snatch it and saw two does step out. They came by at 20 yards while looking at my crashed plastic deer.
 
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brock ratcliff

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What a difference two years makes.
C56D4FFE-72F9-49EB-BE72-00EC86AEA582.jpeg
BC57A657-4DDA-4349-95D4-3E475967DD01.jpeg
 

brock ratcliff

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He put some weight on and gained some mass Brock.
Yes he did. Given the chance, I’ll shoot him. I think I’d shoot any of the three I posted previously. Even the one with the split G2 at this point. I’ve got one side of him when he was 1 1/2, pics at 2 1/2, another antler from 3 1/2.... he’s old enough to know he will never be a giant, might as well have both sides at 4.5. 😁
I saw four antlerless again this morning, and another coyote. Slow start to this point.
 

brock ratcliff

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I'm baffled, honestly. By this time of season, usually I'm neck deep in deer. I am not. I'm sure they are around but they sure aren't on their feet where I am. The deer I've seen the last three days have hardly moved, covered very little ground, and I haven't seen that many. I think I've only seen two small bucks. Weird. I'll be sleeping in the next few days due to the forcasted rain.

Tonight I saw a doe and fawn shortly after settling in to the creek stand. I saw them intermittently until just before dark when they moved off to a bean field to feed. I saw a couple others in another field while checking a trail cam. SLOW and boring.
 

brock ratcliff

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These freaking deer are not acting right. My "honey hole" is a money spot, the hub of the wheel if there ever was one. Anytime deer are moving any distance at all, I will see them. I've hunted it a good bit the last few days. It has been an absolute disappointment. I've seen a few deer, but nothing at all as I expected. Tonight we tried out the new blind for the first time. It's 200 yards north of my favorite stand and essentially views the same general area. We saw absolutely nothing, which is an extreme rarity on this farm. Mason and I went through all kinds of theories, none of which made sense. I don't for a minute think all the deer died since mid-October. I don't think a poacher could have killed them all. Aliens didn't likely get 'em. All I can come up with is that they simply do not have a calendar. Whatever it is the puts deer in the mood to not move is in full effect. The deer I watched over the last few days have not covered much ground. They are just milling about close to their beds, no real desire to go anywhere. So with that in mind we crawled out of the blind a little early to drive around and check a preferred bedding area. Sure as anything, we saw ten antlerless feeding in a field probably less than 100 yards from where they had spent the day bedded. This farm is low lying ground and full of water right now. The area I wanted to check is some of the higher ground.... seeing all those does and not a buck with 'em tells me it just isn't happening yet, and for whatever reason, they are not moving very dang far right now. It's a weird thing, but I've seen it happen there before. Pretty sure eventually I won't be able to keep track of the number of deer I see on a given sit in the near future... I hope.
 
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hickslawns

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As you've described this spot to me in the past, it sounds similar to some of our land up here. This year has been the first year I believe the acorn crop has truly affected deer movement. They choose acorns over anything else in the hills (so I hear). Around here it has never been acorns over corn and beans. This year I believe acorns prevailed. You suppose they are just being gluttons for acorns? Not moving because. . .they simply don't need to.
 

brock ratcliff

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No. I tested that theory the other night. I hunted the stand I killed my buck from last year. There are huge white oak acorns, reds and blacks too. The ground is littered with acorns. In years past, the burr oaks would be gobbled up as soon as they hit the ground. Not this year. Weird. Most of the corn is harvested. However, there is an unusual variation this year. A lot of the corn fell before harvest, likely due to a wet summer. A lot of cobs on the ground after harvest. The landowner still ran well over 200/acre this year, but they lost a lot of corn. I’ve never seen so much left laying. That could explain some lack of movement. There must be a pile of deer on that end of the farm and it is where I hunted most often before getting access to the fence row stand. I’ve killed dozens of deer in there over the years, I know where I’ll be hanging a stand Saturday morning. It’s also where Lathe killed that stud 10 last season. I’m just amazed by the lack of traveling deer. I’ll hunt that end until they start moving again. Nothing beats the fun of hunting the fence.
 
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