Thanks Guys. You gotta somehow find the positives... it's too easy to get down when you're hunting hard & not seeing deer. The past two seasons I've tried to change my attitude on things, learn something each time out, and have fun at the end of the day. Sure you have to hunt hard, hunt smart, and you want to be successful, but I think you also have to keep a certain perspective on things. At least that's what I'm trying to do.
I hear birds calling our names.
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Longdraw
Junior Member
I'm ready boys... I'm ready. Work is gonna be crazy this week but this weekend I hope to make some feathers fly!!!
Oh yeah. Timber's about to lose his mind if I don't get him on some birds.
Oh yeah. Timber's about to lose his mind if I don't get him on some birds.
Good luck man. Sure wish we had some decent waterfowling down here. I'm itching to let the Benelli bark!!!
Longdraw
Junior Member
Just some pictures and notes from nearly a full day spent outdoors with family and friends.
We hunted for geese in the morning, but with bright, sunny, bluebird skies it was difficult to find any birds that wanted to come and play. We saw a few ducks, and a fair amount of Canada geese that waited until a few hours after sunrise to get up and spread their wings, but nothing fell from the skies.
The rest of the local wildlife was on the move however, with several deer being watched from our layout blinds tucked in amongst the cut corn stubble...
After the deer moved through, a curious coyote kept coming out of the standing corn, cutting across a bean stubble field, and hunted along the fence row. The coyote did this about 3 times before Troy decided that the lack of birds in the sky meant that now was the opportune time for him to make his first coyote kill. With the wind in our favor, he stalked down the edge of the corn, and laid prone in the weeds for a good 20 minutes, laying in wait for the coyote to make one more last approach through the open field.
Well, after waiting it out on the frost covered floor, he had enough and returned to the layout blinds. As we stood around watching empty skies and sipping on steaming coffee filled thermos lids, guess who popped out into the field again? Not 30 yards from Troy's ambush spot. Yep, the coyote... Figures.
Later in the afternoon, my son was in tow as I wanted to head out to the M2 Farm and get a ground blind set up along one of the heavily used trails that cuts through the center of the property. We got to the farm, gathered our gear and headed out for the afternoon. It would be his first deer hunt.
The action was slow. Actually non-existent would probably be the best way to describe things, but we had a good time despite not seeing any deer. Well, I never saw any deer. My son on the other hand claims that he saw a few deer, but they were way off in the woods and out of sight every time I leaned forward in my chair to look. Oh well, deer or no deer, we had a good afternoon together.
We hunted for geese in the morning, but with bright, sunny, bluebird skies it was difficult to find any birds that wanted to come and play. We saw a few ducks, and a fair amount of Canada geese that waited until a few hours after sunrise to get up and spread their wings, but nothing fell from the skies.
The rest of the local wildlife was on the move however, with several deer being watched from our layout blinds tucked in amongst the cut corn stubble...
After the deer moved through, a curious coyote kept coming out of the standing corn, cutting across a bean stubble field, and hunted along the fence row. The coyote did this about 3 times before Troy decided that the lack of birds in the sky meant that now was the opportune time for him to make his first coyote kill. With the wind in our favor, he stalked down the edge of the corn, and laid prone in the weeds for a good 20 minutes, laying in wait for the coyote to make one more last approach through the open field.
Well, after waiting it out on the frost covered floor, he had enough and returned to the layout blinds. As we stood around watching empty skies and sipping on steaming coffee filled thermos lids, guess who popped out into the field again? Not 30 yards from Troy's ambush spot. Yep, the coyote... Figures.
Later in the afternoon, my son was in tow as I wanted to head out to the M2 Farm and get a ground blind set up along one of the heavily used trails that cuts through the center of the property. We got to the farm, gathered our gear and headed out for the afternoon. It would be his first deer hunt.
The action was slow. Actually non-existent would probably be the best way to describe things, but we had a good time despite not seeing any deer. Well, I never saw any deer. My son on the other hand claims that he saw a few deer, but they were way off in the woods and out of sight every time I leaned forward in my chair to look. Oh well, deer or no deer, we had a good afternoon together.
Awesome stuff Sean! Great pictures as usual and great commentary. Gotta love the pictures of you and your son! My son always seems to see deer too. . . even when nobody else sees them? Hmmmm. . .
Huckleberry Finn
Senior Member
- 15,973
- 135
Hahaha, I remember unintentionally doing this to my dad many times when I sat with him...good memories brought back right there. In fact, during my week long Thanksgiving hunt we were talking and he asked how many deer I had seen when I was coming in the door. "None, dad. Actually, well could have been three, I've sat there long enough that I'm making invisible deer show up" He just laughed
Hortontoter
Senior Member
The extra weekend of gun season came & went without firing a shot, let along seeing a deer. Well, I can say that I did see a flicker of what appeared to be a whitetail's white tail off in the distance, through the gray brush, as the minutes of legal shooting light ticked away on the clock. The subtle flicker that a deer will make to signal everything is alright is what it looked like, but I was never able to clearly see a body attached to the flickering white. Granted, I hunted Sunday afternoon, which by then I didn't expect deer to be just roaming the woods in a care free manner like they do in say June, but I always try to keep an optimistic outlook when I'm heading out.
The weather conditions on Sunday: The low for the day was 34, with the afternoon high reaching 39 degrees. The light snow from Saturday was still present on the scattered logs laying throughout the woods, but it was already melted away just about anywhere else. Winds were mostly out of the west between 5 to 13 mph, but there were times that they blew from the south, and times that they blew from the north. Overall pressure was at 30.20 with fairly clear, bright blue skies.
With my expectations positive, yet realistic, I headed up to the "G" farm which I haven't hunted since the last day of the regular shot gun season. The overall plan was simply to get another ground blind set up, hang a trail camera back out, and if the stars all aligned, shoot a deer. Although as I drove around the perimeter of the farm, I could tell yet again that somebody else had likely done a deer drive through the property, so the percentage chance of accomplishing the third objective was probably a low one. Muddy tire tracks, and boot prints were again present at the north & south end pull offs.
I walked along the bottom edge of the woods, cutting in at roughly the half way point, following a drainage through the timber for roughly 80 yards to the predetermined area that I would set up the ground blind. The area has quite a few heavily used trails that intersect here, along with edge habitat that changes from thick under growth with select cut tree top remains, vines, and briars that intermix with slightly rolling terrain in the open woods.
The damp forest floor made it a somewhat quiet job to clear off the area where the blind would sit, as well as for dragging over branches and such to try and brush things in. The small saplings that I clipped off at their bases while creating a few shooting lanes were all carried back the the blind and stuck in the ground in an attempt to help conceal the new house in the neighborhood.
The intersection of trails, plenty of fresh sign, tracks, and transition habitat looked like a good spot to set things up for the afternoon, and to leave the ground blind in for the rest of the archery season. With the blind situated on the top of a small knoll, there is a 15 yard shot directly to the heavily used trail to the south.
This trail intersects another trail that runs north to south, that is located 20 yards to the west of the blind.
Another slightly used trail branches off of this trail, and dog legs behind the blind at 10 yards before angling back to the north west toward the more open section of timber.
We'll see if things pan out over the next month and a half, and if the deer can settle back down after the past few weeks of gun hunting and deer drives that have taken place. If anything, I'll have a comfortable place to take my son out for a few more bow hunts & checks of the trail camera.
The weather conditions on Sunday: The low for the day was 34, with the afternoon high reaching 39 degrees. The light snow from Saturday was still present on the scattered logs laying throughout the woods, but it was already melted away just about anywhere else. Winds were mostly out of the west between 5 to 13 mph, but there were times that they blew from the south, and times that they blew from the north. Overall pressure was at 30.20 with fairly clear, bright blue skies.
With my expectations positive, yet realistic, I headed up to the "G" farm which I haven't hunted since the last day of the regular shot gun season. The overall plan was simply to get another ground blind set up, hang a trail camera back out, and if the stars all aligned, shoot a deer. Although as I drove around the perimeter of the farm, I could tell yet again that somebody else had likely done a deer drive through the property, so the percentage chance of accomplishing the third objective was probably a low one. Muddy tire tracks, and boot prints were again present at the north & south end pull offs.
I walked along the bottom edge of the woods, cutting in at roughly the half way point, following a drainage through the timber for roughly 80 yards to the predetermined area that I would set up the ground blind. The area has quite a few heavily used trails that intersect here, along with edge habitat that changes from thick under growth with select cut tree top remains, vines, and briars that intermix with slightly rolling terrain in the open woods.
The damp forest floor made it a somewhat quiet job to clear off the area where the blind would sit, as well as for dragging over branches and such to try and brush things in. The small saplings that I clipped off at their bases while creating a few shooting lanes were all carried back the the blind and stuck in the ground in an attempt to help conceal the new house in the neighborhood.
The intersection of trails, plenty of fresh sign, tracks, and transition habitat looked like a good spot to set things up for the afternoon, and to leave the ground blind in for the rest of the archery season. With the blind situated on the top of a small knoll, there is a 15 yard shot directly to the heavily used trail to the south.
This trail intersects another trail that runs north to south, that is located 20 yards to the west of the blind.
Another slightly used trail branches off of this trail, and dog legs behind the blind at 10 yards before angling back to the north west toward the more open section of timber.
We'll see if things pan out over the next month and a half, and if the deer can settle back down after the past few weeks of gun hunting and deer drives that have taken place. If anything, I'll have a comfortable place to take my son out for a few more bow hunts & checks of the trail camera.
Thanks. I was worried that being on top of the rise it would be sky lined, but after stepping back and looking at it from different angles, it blends in really well. I'll probably add some more brush to it, but hopefully I can kill a deer from it with one of my little ones tagging along. That's really the goal now.