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Wildlife 2020/2021 Deer Season

Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Some great candidates Denny! Congratulations on the amount of 1st's during last years season. Goes to show that every year is a new year and those 1st's help keep the fire burning inside.

Had a chance to see how that Simmons TC doe yet?

Appreciate it, thank you!

I should've gone over that post one more time due to the fact it needed some more edits, but I think I got my main point across. I did edit the final version of it though on my YouTube channel.

Just to add here however, it was also my first year using mechanical broad-heads on my arrows and taking wild game with them. Within that video, you will get to see the devastation they do on a couple of those that I harvested, especially the portion of my tracking a blood trail. The brands that I used was NAP, Rage & G5 Dead Meat, and I have to say that I prefer either the NAP, or the Rage over the G5s. I'll be using Rage 100g exclusively this season because I got one heck of deal on them back in March.

With regards to the two Simmons TCs that I recently purchased, configured and hung; I haven't pulled any SD cards as of yet from within the field. They've only been up a little over a week now, but I will get to them hopefully soon. I think they are really nice cameras though for the money. You can easily configure them to take photos or videos. You can expect me to follow up here relatively soon regarding their performance as soon as we get some daytime rain. I try to stay away from those setups as much as possible due to the fact that I got so many more deer in the area this year, at least twice as many, which is a good thing. The wet conditions minimizes my scent being left behind when I go to grab those cards, which I'm sure you already know my reasoning, but others may not perhaps. You'll here from me soon about them, you can bet on it.

Thanks for asking and have a great day!
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Tuesday - August 4, 2020:

Going forward after today, I will not be posting anymore of my YouTube trail camera capture videos unless there is something rather significant to share, however if you are still interested and want to see more of the same regarding my TC captures at the bait station, they will be posted on my YouTube channel within the '2020 Whitetail Deer playlist'.

The following are the very latest TC updates.

I did manage to pull the SD cards today from a couple of my other TCs that are located much further out into the woods, including one of my latest installments, the very affordable ‘Simmons’ TC. We finally got some afternoon rain which allowed me to get to those TCs.

I will continue to share most everything else that is related to this deer season regarding further preparations, and once the season opens, you can expect me to share my times afield hunting.
------------------------------------------------

The following are the descriptions associated to each YouTube video on my channel.

THUNDER & SHYBUC fed for a little bit during the early hours of the third.

SHYBUC had a short stare down with a super fat Raccoon while THUNDER ate underneath the large corn feeder pretty much for the first time, only because the corn that is usually around the salt-lick block was pretty much gone by the time he showed up. I had to lay down another 50lb. bag of whole corn for them just so those bigger deer do not knock over the large feeder.

As you will see, the last photograph within this video shows THUNDER taking off in a big hurry. I do not know if he simply got hung up underneath the feeder or something else scared him off. Either way, he is good to go for the next time he shows up. There is plenty of corn all around the salt-lick now.


Dedicated to the wife.

Mother Doe & fawn feeding mid-afternoon. The young fawn gets to stretch out his or her legs a bit in between moments of eating and eventually discovers one of the trail cameras as you will see.


THUNDER & SHYBUC showed up right at dusk to get in another feeding in for the third of August.

It appears that they did not stay long after another brief heavy rain that we received. As you will get to see, my trail camera that is configured to take video clips ran out of battery life, so I really do not know when exactly they left the area.


Due to the fact we finally received some daytime rain this afternoon, I hiked through the woods to a couple of my other trail cameras that I have setup near some deer trails and swapped out the SD cards, and I also managed to make it to one of my hunting setups, where I hung a pine licking branch a little over a week ago, also during the day rain.

What you will get to see within this video is the pine licking branch with images taken by my latest and very affordable Simmons trail camera. The video starts off with those images captured from that camera. I never used that brand before and for only $25/unit, I am satisfied with it at this point. I do expect that area to pick up in deer activity as the season draws closer. The other images are a couple of my older trail cameras, and they too provide me all the information that I need currently. I will end up moving those trail cameras to a different location sometime over next month or so.


Until next time, everyone take care!
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Tuesday - August 11, 2020:

This video below encapsulates everyday THUNDER has showed up at the bait station ever since when he first arrived back in 2019 with antlers.

I am certain that I have several other images of him without antlers during the months of February, March and much of May.

I created this video with the first video clips of him from last year when he first made his presence known, which was back on October 31, 2019, during the Halloween Holiday, then the following are still images of him with his new set of antlers of this year at the bait station, all in consecutive order by date and timestamp.

On that Halloween night of 2019, we had a server thunderstorm in the area and THUNDER was at the feeder, just before that storm hit. That is where I got the idea for his name.

THUNDER also showed up two other times that I know of in 2019, once in November and once in December. I never did see him while afield hunting though, so he must have a fairly decent hiding spot.

I believe he decided to make himself at home right near our home towards the end of January of 2020.

Back in 2015, when we first moved to this location, which was also during the month of October, I attempted to raise another local buck back then that looked much like THUNDER at the time. I fed him too, all winter long and during the Spring months, right up until the day he was struck by a pickup truck right in front of our home early June 2016. I was fortunate enough that the state police officer that arrived at the accident scene offered me a legal receipt so I could have him preserved, which I did.

It was a sad situation no doubt at the time and I pretty much gave up maintaining the bait station afterwards for a couple of years, right after that unfaithful day.

In 2019, I decided I would give it another go when I purchased a ‘Hunter’ programmable corn dispensing feeder that was on sale at our local outdoor supply store.

I put that corn feeder up during the 2019/2020 hunting season and I really did not do the greatest job maintaining it until sometime in February of 2020. I also hung two of my cheapest trail cameras to cover that corn feeder when I first installed it.

It was not until I was somewhat certain in late May that I was actually seeing THUNDER again, showing up at the corn feeder. So, I told myself that I would do my best to maintain that area, hoping that I can give it another go to hopefully raise another good buck and try to keep him glued to the area.

Since I started hunting once again back in 2016, I have been trying to do some sort of quality deer management of the local deer herd on the property. It has been a rather difficult job to accomplish, especially when you have other people that hunt the same property and they generally have the ‘brown-n-down’ mindset’ when they hunt, and we also get poachers every year as well.

Anyhow, over the last 76 days, THUNDER has showed up at the bait station during 58 of those days, ever since I first captured him on a trail camera with a fresh set of antler growth back on May 27th. I was not certain it was him back then, not until I was able to identify him confidently and positively in late June.

Out of those 18 days he did not show up over the last 76, six of those days we had heavy rain & fog, one of those days was during our Independence Holiday weekend celebration and then others where during our family reunion where I had many out of town family guest/members show up that stayed with us for about 2-3 days. Sunday July 27th was the formal family reunion gathering, however on the 26th I did a lot of yard work in preparation for the family reunion and some of those family members from out of town started showing up on that day as well in their RVs. By the 29th, the last of our family guest/members left for their own home state. As you can imagine, we had a lot of outside activities happening during that time, which I am sure that kept the deer at bay. That is why I believe there were three consecutive days in row where THUNDER was absent at the bait station. Most of the local deer pretty much live within 150 yards of our home the majority of the time.

Since the beginning of August, THUNDER quickly settled back into his regular eating routine. I started capturing him regularly on the tail cameras once again, nearly every day, sometimes twice a day and he always eats a lot of whole corn each & every time.

The following days where THUNDER did not show up at the bait station and potential reasons why:
  • 06/10/20 Heavy Fog
  • 06/15/20
  • 06/17/20 Heavy Rain
  • 06/19/20 Heavy Rain
  • 06/27/20
  • 07/02/20 Independence Day celebration
  • 07/07/20
  • 07/11/20
  • 07/14/20 Heavy Rain
  • 07/16/20 Heavy Fog
  • 07/20/20 Heavy Rain
  • 07/23/20
  • 07/25/20
  • 07/27/20 Family Reunion
  • 07/28/20 Family Reunion
  • 07/29/20 Family Reunion
  • 07/31/20 Heavy Rain
  • 08/04/20 Heavy Rain
I thought this post would be a good update to share with everyone. The video is just over 22 minutes long and the music is quite appropriate for gearing up for the new deer season.

Basically, it is a timeline of THUNDER’s antler growth and I am giving it another go to hopefully raise another quality buck within our immediate area.

It may be a pipe-dream of mine, but I would certainly love to see him make it another two more years before I make any attempt to hunt him.


I will try to keep you all posted on my latest project over the years regarding THUNDER.

Until next time, everyone take care!
 

Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Thursday - August 13, 2020:

I have been getting a lot of daytime deer activity at the bait station this week. I’d say that my ‘Prime-Time’ calendar has been right on par so far me this year. I’ve been using one ever since 2016. It’s just another tool within my ‘tool-bag’.

Anyways, I know I said I wouldn’t share anymore of my bait station YouTube videos here anymore, but this one I just couldn’t pass up as a reference to my ‘Prime-Time’ calendar that I do take in account when I decide to hunt and/or fish.

THUNDER showed up three times yesterday, all during the daylight hours, twice in the morning and once mid-afternoon. There are other YouTube playlist videos of him over the recent days are on my channel if anyone is interested @ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX-1JMYXAH9MTePLtSv8LoDXLgPvUmkaj

One of the music selections for this video is one of my favs.

Hope you all enjoy.

Take care!


20200813_122839.jpg
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Great footage. Have you noticed how the deer approaches verses the wind direction?

Appricate it, thanks!

Any wind coming from the East, South or West are ideal for me and not so much for him, but since there has been no human pressure towards him as of yet, I would say the wind direction does not seem to matter much at this time. He knows where I am at without a doubt much of the time when I am home. I know where and what direction he typically comes from. I also know where he goes much of the time afterwards. For the most part, he stays fairly close though and I am certain that he has me patterned much like I have him.

The following YouTube video is also from the same day, but earlier during the morning hours where he seemed to be on alert, most likely because I was walking out the door during his second brief visit and perhaps interrupted his breakfast. If you watch the video, you will see the wind direction from the mist in the air. It is quite obvious within those short video clips of the YouTube video just below, which was coming from the W-NW at that time.


In both of those early morning visits, he did not stay long at all and I can only speculate that he either heard me walk out the door first thing that morning and/or got a big whiff of me since I was approximately within 75 yards of him at the time. The video that I posted previously is when he obviously made up for his morning loss of corn intake.
 

triple_duece

Ragin Cajun.
9,126
159
So I’m sure mature bucks like to approach areas w the wind in their face or quartering into the wind. I say this cause most people hunt, w the wind in their face. That puts the buck approaching from behind you in a lot of scenarios.

It’s is my belief, that this statement is true in most cases. Yes during the rut all bets are off. I like to face down wind. This gives me an advantage. By facing down wind I can spot a buck coming and possibly make a shot before getting winded. If something comes from my back I have plenty of time to get the shot.

I very rarely get a buck blowing at me, rather they will stop, turn around and head back the direction he came from. You will never know he was there if this happens.

Now knowing exactly his travel route, you would want the wind quartering on the good side so the buck has the wind in his face but your wind won’t cross his nose.

Anything coming from upwind can be shot as he passes your tree before entering your scent cone.

Just food for thought as there are no absolutes with patterning deer. What is your opinion?
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
So I’m sure mature bucks like to approach areas w the wind in their face or quartering into the wind. I say this cause most people hunt, w the wind in their face. That puts the buck approaching from behind you in a lot of scenarios.

It’s is my belief, that this statement is true in most cases. Yes during the rut all bets are off. I like to face down wind. This gives me an advantage. By facing down wind I can spot a buck coming and possibly make a shot before getting winded. If something comes from my back I have plenty of time to get the shot.

I very rarely get a buck blowing at me, rather they will stop, turn around and head back the direction he came from. You will never know he was there if this happens.

Now knowing exactly his travel route, you would want the wind quartering on the good side so the buck has the wind in his face but your wind won’t cross his nose.

Anything coming from upwind can be shot as he passes your tree before entering your scent cone.

Just food for thought as there are no absolutes with patterning deer. What is your opinion?

That has been much of my experience for the most part as well.

My hunting approach does factor in other things also, such as weather forecasts/conditions/fronts, foretasted wind direction for going in, during and even leaving whatever setup I decide to hunt, solar/moon phase/prime-times, barometric pressures, any previous scouting observations and information such as deer signs, deer runs, rubs lines, scrapes, natural deer food like acorns, saplings, honeysuckles, locus seed pods, so on and so forth.

Sometimes, it's all about the luck 'TOO'.

I have been able to target a specific deer of the past quite successfully and harvested them without utilizing any trail camera intel. Other harvests were simply pure luck, meaning that I was not completely familiar with any specific deer in mind other than, I just knew they would be some quality bucks cruising by sooner or later, and not just during the rut either. I used to focus exclusively during the pre-rut times, and in a way, I still do. I look for those early deer signs while hiking the woods. Besides, it is my most favorite time to be in the woods personally, mid October to mid November, or before the real cold weather hits.

I have been rather fortunate to hunt on those days where I thought most all those previously mentioned factors mentioned leaned more towards my advantage and perhaps increased my odds just enough to encountering a more mature deer within those given hunting properties of my past.

I'm sure you are aware of pretty much everything that I'm talking about. The biggest issue I run into these days is mainly human pressure, which completely changes the game in my opinion. I never really had to hunt in my past with the level of human pressure that I dealt with in recent years.

The county that I hunt is well known by Wildlife Officers to have the worst numbers regarding wildlife game offensives within the state. I was told that a couple of times by them. Between trespassers and just simply uncouth individuals roaming the area, it really can make it more difficult to capitalize on any type of a trophy buck no doubt about it.

That is why I'll be focusing more on other properties this season, including some public property.

Again, I agree with you. Wind is most likely what I pay most attention to when and/or where I decide to hunt. Thanks for sharing!

BTW, I do NOT use any scent away, sprays, smoke or ozone type products neither. All my hunting clothes are washed with pure natural nature ingredients that my wife makes for me every year. Natural laundry detergent, shampoo and body soaps. It is better than anything else I have ever used for hunting hands down. In fact, I just asked her if she has plenty of it made up for me to get through the entire season and according her, I am good to go :)
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Friday - September 4, 2020:

Still getting plenty of deer activity of all kinds at the bait station everyday. Today was the first buck that showed up without any velvet on his antlers.

Even though he’s still quite young yet, the obvious exciting takeaway for me is that we’re getting close to some much desired time in the stand, oh fuck yeah!

 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Thursday - September 10, 2020:

20200910_135327.jpg


Some rather great news and some status updates regarding hunting preparations:

First, what I consider to be fantastic news!

My youngest brother, who spent most of his life as an active combat member of US Marine (25yrs) and most of it overseas, now a disabled vet, will soon be visiting all the way from out of California

It will be the very first time as brothers hunting deer together. I have no real words how that makes me feel.

In other ‘Wildlife’ news.
  • New Glasses
  • More Deer
  • No More Velvet
  • Raccoons, Where They Go
  • Venison Jerky
  • Hunting Setups
  • Bows & Arrows.
New Glasses:

Over a month ago I went for my annual basic eye exam. My prescription has not changed since my last checkup, which is good, however the eyeglass technology has significantly changed and improved since my last pair of eyeglasses purchased.

Apparently, there is new technology recently developed that improved the making of eyeglasses that offers a better and more precise, concise and consistent eye focus, much better overall eyeglass vision, especially as you rotate your eyes rather than your head, using more of your peripheral vision.

With my new glasses today, my vision is more intact and more focused as I rotate my eyes side to side, which is absolutely awesome if you have to wear eyeglasses all the time, such as do I nowadays.

My new eyeglasses pretty much allow me to shoot my compound bow much like I did when I was a much younger man with perfect 20/20 vision and no eyeglasses. I am utterly amazed that I nearly have perfect vision once again with the only exception of low light type conditions. I can see better still without my glasses in those type of conditions.

So, I have been practicing for nearly a month now utilizing my new eyeglasses with minimal issues, however I still do prefer not to wear them in the extreme low light type of conditions. During those situations, I fully understand that my tolerance levels and/or criteria factors and/or capabilities are greatly reduced, which has me considering giving up altogether the first & last 30 minute of legal hunt times. I will make a final decision on that later this year.

More Deer:

I have more local deer today than ever before and I base that assessment mainly on the trail camera data gathered over the last four years. I have observed more pairs of twin fawns within the local herd than ever before as well. I cannot help the feeling that perhaps my coyote hunting adventures over the past couple of years might have something to do with that, but I digress. The following is a very brief TC capture of many that I have like it of a Doe with multiple fawns in our area.

Video description - I have plenty more video footage throughout that morning, however I felt that this particular moment was worth sharing where you will get to see the two young fawns persistently attempt to get their mother's belly just so they could feed and eventually, both became successful simultaneously.


No More Velvet:

As you might have seen in my previous post, ‘1st HARD HORN’ video, and since then, all the velvet has disappeared on all the bucks that I have captured locally on TCs, absolutely no more velvet to be seen.

Raccoons, Where They Go:

A rather funny thing has happened, and I do not know why. The number of Raccoons showing up at the bait station lately has dramatically decreased to virtually none, which is rather strange. I have no real explanation as to what is causing that to happening. Perhaps someone here can explain what might be happening because I have no clue as to why they are not showing up anymore. The only thing I can think of, is perhaps they found a better food source, IRDK.

Venison Jerky:

Been making plenty of venison jerky in preparation of long hours afield hunting away from home, preferable on public land. I will be hiking in blind mostly at various public lands throughout the state. Those hunts will be during weekdays mainly throughout the month of October. I will be relying specifically on my outdoor experience, my bow & arrows, a hydro backpack filled with all the hunting essentials, such as, satellite GPS, rangefinder, binoculars, grunt call/doe-can, flashlights, knife, EMS kit, and other type miscellaneous items. I am completely looking forward to these types of hunts.

Hunting Setups:

All six of my local tree-stand setups are ready to be hunted out of, fully safety checked and equipped with ‘Lifelines’ & Handlines. All shooting lanes are cleared, Mock Scrapes are made up and Licking Branches have been placed along with TCs hanging right above them.

Bows & Arrows:

Both my primary and backup Mathews compound bows are tuned, tested and ready to go. My arrows are set as well.

I have three different manufactured broad-heads I will have at my disposal this season, which are;
  • NAP Thunderhead Fixed 3-Blade Broad-head 125 Grain 1-5/8“ Cut
  • Rage Chisel Tip 2-Blade Broad-head with Shock Collar 100 Grain 2” Cut
  • Muzzy HB TI Hybrid Broad-head 100 Grain 2-5/8” Cut
I have killed deer with the first two, which I believe the good old NAP Thunderhead still outperforms the two mechanical broad-heads I have used since last season. Still, they have a better recovery distance rate than both the Rage and/or NAP Killzone according to my deer harvest experience in 2019/20, despite most all my shots were perfect from the same bow, utilizing the same manufactured arrow & size and pretty much from the same shot angle and distance.

Without question, the Rage and NAP Killzone do leave one heck of a blood trail to follow though, just a longer one than the Thunderhead.

I have used the ‘NAP Thunderhead Fixed 3-Blade Broad-head 125 Grain 1-5/8“ Cut’ all my bow hunting career. Last year I decided to test and/or try out a couple different type of mechanical broad-heads.

At this point, I would still rather use the NAP Thunderheads over the anything else. The following broad-head brands I no longer consider as an option for me anymore, are;
  • NAP Killzone 2” Cut-On-Contact Broad-head 125 Grain
  • G5 Dead Meat 3 Blade 1 ½ “Cut 125 Grain
If interested in what happened when I used a NAP Killzone, mechanical broad-head, you can check out what I documented by clicking on this hyperlink;

Wildlife 2019/2020 Deer Season
.
I still have the 'G5 Dead Meats', however I doubt that I will ever use them simply because from my experience in carrying them inside Mathews bow quiver during last season, I learned quickly that they tend to grab easily and/or get caught up and/or opened up by un-coupling from within their shock collar too easily while pulling them out of my bow quiver. Perhaps some of that was my fault by sinking them too far down into the foam of the bow quiver, but still, I did not have that kind of problem with any of the other broad-heads I have used.
______________________________________

Well, that is my update thus far. I wish everyone good luck this new hunting season and may you all make it back home safely after every hunting adventure.

Until next time ‘TOO’ville, take care!
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Monday - September 14, 2020:

20200913_073450.jpg


A special family gathering took place over the weekend regarding my youngest brother that I previously mentioned within my last post regarding a future deer hunt together.

First, a little back drop that should help put things into prospective hopefully and give a little bit of context.

So, my youngest brother recently decided that he had enough of California, living 10+ years in San Clemente. He basically could NOT take it anymore out there and wanted to make a big move in his life.

He recently rented out his gorgeous home that is literally five minutes away from the beach shores of the Pacific Ocean just prior to President Trump declaring a ‘National Emergency’ and bought a brand-new RV.

Shortly thereafter, him and his wife started traveling throughout the NW Rocky Mountain region area taking more of a roundabout way towards the east coast to get to his daughter’s new home, which is in Annapolis, Maryland.

He fully intends on buying a new home at some point located somewhere in Florida, preferable where he can continue his fishing charter business that he momentarily shutdown back in California due to the state CV-19 lock-down mandates, which is pretty much putting him out of business.

(As kids, we grew up on big water right on the north shores of the largest finger lake in N.Y. so, fishing flows through our blood veins, which was a way of life for us back in the day, making a living at it much of the time as fishing guides year around.)

Well, once his military career was finished, he soon got back into fishing again in a big way out in California and became a rising star in the fishing community/industry. A successful owner & operator of his own fishing character business right along the mid-southern portion of the Pacific west coast area.

Both him and his wife basically got tired of all the ridiculous progressive California laws & rules and decided to pack it all in after being faithful Californians/citizens for many years. They placed most of their big ticket items up in long term storage, moved completely out there beautiful home, then started driving their newly purchased RV out of the state pretty much at the beginning the U.S. economy shutdown/collapse, once again, supposedly caused by the CV-19 pandemic, and they simply wanted to move someplace else within the country that is not nearly as liberal.

So, he loaded up his new RV and set out across the country all the while keeping daily close tabs monitoring the real estate market, looking for any potential areas of interests and move there permanently. So far, he has come across a few good leads of potential opportunities and made a couple of offers.

Both my brother and his wife have been on the road now just over last five months, stopping for brief stays at scenic rural country areas and/or National Parks and/or friends and/or family members along the way.

Last Saturday afternoon was our turn when they finally reached our place.

They ended up spending the entire weekend with the wife & I as we hosted them with plenty of home-cooked foods grown from our garden, harvested wild game, homemade baked breads and of course, plenty of high proof & quality alcohol while participating in some rather fun outdoor activities.

Saturday evening, I barbecued what I had left in venison back-straps, which I had stashed away for such a special occasion, while the wife cooked up some fresh corn on the comb and red skin potatoes. We ate like kings that night.

(Left to right clockwise: my brother, sister-in-law, my wire & me)
signal-2020-09-14-094925.jpg


After dinner, I lit up a patiently waiting stack of seasoned wood in the fire pit, sipped on some high-quality whisky & beer, swapped all kinds of outrageous and funny stories as we went down memory lane. Tons of laughs all throughout the night which caused some sore facial & stomach muscles the next day, and oh yeah, our wives originally thought they knew us men, but after that night, they were horribly mistaken and obviously learned a whole lot more in who they truly married let me tell ya, but I digress.

signal-2020-09-14-094922.jpg


Anyhow, the following day (Sunday mid-morning), after slowly recuperating from a mild hangover, that is when I broke out the bows & arrows. I completely surprised my brother with a compound bow that I wanted to give him since he did not have one. I did not want him to go out of his way and spend a small fortune on a brand-new hunting setup so, I gave him one of mine.

Since my youngest brother really expressed an interest to hunt deer with me this year, I gave him one of my older Mathews SoloCam compound bows (one of three that I have), completely outfitted, tuned and ready for bow hunting, along with a few other accessories that will help get him up to speed quickly by the time he makes his way back in a couple of months.

(The setup I gave to my brother which comprises of a Mathews SoloCam compound bow, 3 arrow quiver, rest, sight, field points, NAP Thunderhead broad-heads, True-ball Release, Nikon Pro-Staff Rangefinder, Rattle-bag, compound bow carrying bag and some additional bow accessories and parts.)
20200913_140050.jpg


He was absolutely stunned when I laid out that archery package and immediately wanted to pay me for it, which I absolutely refused. I simply asked him to practice as often as he could between now and when it comes time to go get himself his very first Ohio Whitetail come November.

(To put more things into perspective here - Both my younger brothers have always been extremely competitive in just about everything in life and of course, all the while when we were young kids, both of them feverishly wanted to beat their older brother (me) right up to the point that they practically killed themselves in trying to do so. Of course, I never gave into them nor ever offered them the pleasure of them beating me in anything, no matter what we did together competitively because that’s not what older brothers did back in the day by any stretch to the imagination, period.

Nowadays, you can say that I have had a little change of heart so to speak. No matter which brother of mine brings it up or suggests it, and it happens nearly every time either one of us or all get together. One or both will always want to have some sort of competition and it has been that way forever, just to see if whomever can beat the other and rub it in. It’s predictable and rather funny each time it happens when we get together. Obviously, as the adage goes, ‘boys will be boys’ no matter what.)

Of course my brother immediately wanted to have a bow shooting competition right off the bat and so, we did that for the rest of the afternoon right after I grilled up some venison cheeseburgers, wife’s homemade baked burger buns and some of our garden homemade spicy salsa & chips along with more alcohol to wash it all down with for lunch.

(He's a pro already :LOL:)
20200913_125815.jpg


The rest of the afternoon and right up until we got hungry for dinner we shot our bows, including my sister in law that shot now my brothers newly owned compound bow for the very first time ever shooting any kind of a compound bow, and amazing enough, her very first shot from 15 yards away was a perfect heart shot. Unbelievable, a complete natural!

20200913_153706.jpg

20200913_155124.jpg


So, after all the bow shooting, I pulled out all the stops and fried up a huge pile of Ohio freshwater caught fish along with some of the wife’s homemade coleslaw from the garden, more homemade baked buns for fish sandwiches and some fried kale within peanut oil & some diced garlic for our Sunday dinner. Once again, we all ate like kings and continued drinking even more alcohol throughout the rest of the day and night.

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After dinner, we piled around the fire pit once again for another bonfire, some more hysterical stories right up until about midnight or so, and then we packed it all in for the night.

My brother needed to hit the road first thing this morning to continue forward with his originally itinerary headed to his daughter’s new home in Maryland

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All in all, and after all said and done, I feel extremely blessed, grateful and still, slightly hungover from having a fantastic and a much needed fun time weekend with my youngest brother, his wife and my wife during some rather unusual times of today's world. I completely look forward, as so does my brother to our first deer hunt ever together this coming fall. I CAN NOT WAIT!

So, I hope some of you enjoyed what I cared to share here on 'TOO'ville within my journal. I consider most of what took place over this weekend as hunting preparation 2020. I fully intend on getting my youngest brother on some deer come this fall. Hopefully, he’ll be able to pull it off and get to take home to his own family perhaps Ohio bone and some good venison. If so, it’ll be a hunting season that I surely will not ever forget.

Appreciate those that took the time to read, thanks!

Until next time, take care!
 
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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
I appreciate the kind comments @Cogz , thank you very much!
________________________________________________________

Meant to add the following internet links to my last post, but I forgot, which are my brother's fishing charter Instagram page & website.

If you are interested in seeing some spectacular west coast ocean fish and some of his happy clients (many of which are former military - wounded warriors), then feel welcome to check them out. He also has a Facebook account, but I don't know what that is right off hand because I don't do FB.

Anyhow, here are those links;.
I also attached a few very recent photographs that he just texted me yesterday after he left our place of a couple his fish that he caught while traveling across the country, hitting a couple of streams & rivers. During one of those fishing excursions, he had a bear encounter just yards away from him that freaked his sh@t a bit. The last attachment was when they reached WV yesterday afternoon and stopped for lunch. He texted me showing off some of the left over Sunday fried fish dinner that I cooked and they reheated it. Obviously, they both loved it.

He's a proud former Marine that truly loves our country. I am very proud of him with all of his accomplishments and that's putting it mildly.
 

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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Saturday - September 26, 2020:

2020 Open’n’Day Whitetail Deer Harvest

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Yesterday, during the late part of the afternoon, I went and hung my Lone Wolf Alpha II tree stand with five LW sticks into a tree where I was fairly confident I was going to see at least one of the two targeted Does this morning. I completed hanging my tree-stand roughly around 4:00 p.m., then after that, I pulled the SD cards out of my TCs that are located near the bait station.

According to yesterday morning’s TC intel capture, I discovered that there were over fifteen antlerless deer feeding at the bait station and/or fighting over the corn pile from about 5:00 a.m. thru 10:30 a.m., at least half of them were adult does.

Last night, I did my final pre-deer season opener ritual preparations before hitting the sack, such as charged my TactaCam camera (although, I forget to check the camera date & time), installed the TactaCam camera bow holder onto my Mathews ‘NoCam’ compound bow, installed three brand new Muzzy hybrid mechanical broadheads onto three different arrows, inserted brand new Lumenoks into the end of all five of my quivered arrows, placed those five newly broad-headed arrows into my bow quiver by order of which I intend to use them throughout the season. Three 100g Muzzys – 1,2 & 3, one 100g Rage – 4, and one 125g NAP Thunderhead as my number 5 anchor. Then I attached a brand new Monkey-tail string silencer onto the bow string, bees-waxed the entire bow string, placed brand new batteries into my rheostat ‘Blue-Burst-Lights’ for the HHA three pin bow sight & dial, retorqued all Allen screws on the bow, doublecheck everything I wanted to take with me inside of my hunting pack, laid out what hunting clothes I wanted to wear and hung them up in my hunting closet.

Then I went straight to bed afterwards, which was somewhere around 10:30 p.m., of course right after I set the alarm clock for 3:15 a.m. because I knew I had to get to my tree much earlier than normal based on TC intel of those hungry deer the day before. I think I got settled in a little after 5:30 a.m.

Anyways, sure enough, just like clockwork, I hear the early morning deer coming, showing up all around me, exceedingly early still actually in the morning hours, in the dark, approximately 6:00 a.m.

No doubt, I could hear them all around me, including the ones right in front of me already at the feeder area munching down corn. I could not see them, but I certainly could hear them crunching on the corn, gobbling it down like there was no tomorrow.

So, I waited patiently for some sort of daylight. When it was just light enough for me to see where I could make a well-placed shot onto one of the targeted Does of the group, at approximately 20 yards away, I went ahead and released. I was setup right above and behind her somewhat with a slight quartering away type of shot opportunity. I managed to place that arrow right into the upper midsection, well angled, down through both lungs and straight into the heart, obviously towards the front portion of her.

Of course, right after I let that arrow fly, her and all the other deer took off like lightening in all different directions. I watched the stuck Doe head South all by herself, right along the main creek bank with my lit ‘Lumenok’ just barely sticking out of her, and then I heard the crash a moment afterwards. She did not make it even 35 yards from the point of impact from what I would estimate.

Right after that, I pulled out my phone from within my hunting pack to confirm the time, which it stated 7:10 a.m.

Then I immediately started to pack everything up, lowered my bow to the ground, threw my hunting pack over my shoulders, climbed down off the tree, and casually walked straight back to my workshop without my stand, it still being left in the tree.

Once I got back to my workshop; the shop clock showed 7:25 a.m.

I then proceeded to put away all of my hunting gear back into my hunting closet, changed out of my hunting clothes and rehung those as well. Changed into some regular work clothes, sat down, poured a nice fresh hot cup of coffee, and signed into ‘TOO’ to catch up on all the missed posts from much earlier this morning.

After about 30 minutes of that, approximately 8:00 a.m., I set out to recovery the deer that I shot. I only took with me my cellphone, hunting license, deer tag, a pen, a pair of gutting gloves, my ‘Havalon’ knife and a pull rope, and that was it.

It took me all about two minutes to locate her once I reached the creek bottom. She left an easy blood trail to follow. She piled up right against the West creek bank and fell over on top of the stuck arrow, which broke in half inside of her. It appeared that when she crashed into the bank, the arrow broke. I use carbon fiber arrows and it happens when I don’t get a full pass through, which is very seldom.

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I then drugged her away from the creek bank and towards the creek water, approximately 10 yards away, took a quick field photograph, posted it within the LIVE from the stand 2020-21 thread, and immediately called the ‘Deer Check-in’ line. After successfully filling out my deer tag, I field dressed her.

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Somehow, I managed to get her field dressed and dragged out of the creek bottom and all the way to my backyard without getting any blood on any part of my clothes or boots, which is darndest thing ever.

Asked the wife to take a deer harvest photograph of me with the deer just before I hung her up from the old cabin roof joist so I could skin her out and begin the processing because I certainly knew it was going to warm real quick.

During the next few hours or better, I cut, carved, cleaned, and packaged up all that wonderful fresh venison, placed all of it into vacuum sealed freezer lock baggies, and then I hauled it all to our deep freezer just before the real warmer temperatures started to settle in.

After all of that fun stuff, I finished cleaning everything else that I used to do the processing by hand washing all the tools (bone saws), knives, metal bowels, meat grinder, vacuum sealer and the stainless steel cutting top table with our outside hot/cold filtered tap-water. Then I took whatever that needed to go through our dishwasher into the house, gave them to the wife and kindly asked her if she would take care of them for me, which she was happy to help out, thank goodness!

Trust me, by that time, I was drenched in sweat and freaking thirsty as all get out.

I just finished taking down Lone Wolf Alpha II tree-stand and right after this post, I intend to sharpen back up the Muzzy HB Ti Hybrid Broadhead that did its job honorably this morning.

Since the broadhead buried through the top of the deer and stopped at the bottom of the heart, I believe the broadhead is worth reusing again. I spun tested it, which it doesn't appear to be bent throughout. The very tip of it is just slightly bent from the initial rib bone impact, which can be filed down or straightened out, and one of the blades, if not both will need to be sharpened up just a little bit, then I do believe it’ll be just fine to reuse again. It’s the first time I’ve ever used this type/Muzzy brand of mechanical broadhead, and I have to say it held up well considering the large upper heavy rib bone it initially hit, which it did manage to brake cleanly and completely.

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So, in conclusion, I DO NOT intend to do another deer hunt for approximately a week or two. I have way too many things I have to get done around my home and start prepping for the cooler winter months, along with the tons of leaf work I have ahead of me, acres of it actually, all kinds of leaves all over the place that I intend to get rid of.

I want to thank all those that have already commented kindly on my opening day deer season harvest success and I hope some of you will enjoy this more thorough back story behind it all.

Totally looking forward to my next deer hunting adventure for sure.

Thank you very much everyone, much appreciated!

Take care!
 
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