December Pictures

It's been a while since I've posted any pictures!  Well here are a couple from this month.

Nice young buck isn't he?

Small spike

I don't have very many from this month, so, I'll share more when I get more, but for now, that's all folks!

An Early December Evening

     The doe stared in my direction.  She had seen something, something in the field moved.  I was on my belly crawling across a field to get a shot at a doe, when things got crazy and a smaller doe headed in my direction.  To make matters all the more interesting, there were 5 more deer feeding nearby, making any other movement than crawling nearly impossible.
      I was hunting a double field that evening of December 5th.  Why do I call it double?  It's two fields separated by a thin line of trees, with enough branches in the way to only give me one or two shooting windows into the back field.  My hopes for this hunt and the other hunts I've had there is that the deer would come to the field directly in front of me, giving an easier shot (which has happened once, when I wasn't there and only observing from 100 yards away).  I had been there the night before, seeing 6 deer all at once and never getting a shot.  That wasn't the first time something like that had happened.  I've always seen at least 3 deer there at once (it has become apparent to me that I'm dealing with a doe group).  Tired of not getting a shot while having plenty of deer in front of me, I decided that that was the night I would shoot at something.
     I set up around 4:20 p.m. in such a position so that I could crawl into the field easily, if needed.  Not long into my hunt, I had 3 deer in the field.  Then that number increased as not one, not two, but three does jumped a fence to join the does already in the field.  After watching them feed for a few minutes, with the deer appearing to be slowly moving away to my right, I decided it was time to move.
     My crawl started well, only having to stop for short instances when a doe in the back field looked in my direction.  Just as it seemed I would get a shot at a good doe, the smaller doe mentioned above entered the field I was in.  Trying to sneak up on a deer in a field is not an easy task by any means, never mind the fact that there are SIX deer that could look at any moment and spot me.  While she fed/stared at me, I turned around and head to a tree that was on my left since the does had changed directions. I made it to the tree, which I was able to hide behind and look for a shooting window, which I found.  Once the deer passed into it, I aimed for the biggest doe.  BANG!!!  The shot missed.  All the does scattered from the field, though two doe fawns were reluctant to leave and wanted to see what shot at them.  After they eventually left, I went home empty handed, but willing to come back for a second chance.

4 Years of Snow Camp Outdoors!

It just hit me today as I was thinking about my hunting past, on November 28th, 2015, Snow Camp Outdoors has been up for 4 years!  This year, while I didn't post an overwhelming amount, I saw one post get used by the RMEF for their youth newsletter!  One of my favorite posts was one I did very recently, when I wrote about Mom's first hunt with me!

One Special Evening

This evening was one where God again made things fall into place.  I was able to harvest my third deer of the season, a small doe (who looks even smaller because of picture angle).  The shot, my longest ever made, was 100 yards (it's NC woods okay!) with my .30-30 Winchester 94.

And while getting a deer is a blessing, this is not the main reason that this night was special.  It was that this was the first hunt my mom had ever done with me.  She was mostly there to observe, but it made no difference to me whether she's shooting or not.  She was there with me, and that's all that mattered.  

She apparently came at the right time too.  We had been in the stand for around 30 minutes and we saw a doe feeding off the opposite side of the field we were next too.  We watched her for five minutes, and she went away.  Only a couple minutes later, 3 more does came into the field, this time closer to us.  While they did not present a shot from the stand, I was able to climb down and shoot while she watched the action from above.  She's now experienced the thrill of the hunt, and I hope she'll come back for more.

Trail Camera- a Good Buy For Anytime

Hello!  This will be short and sweet.  I wanted to say that one of the camera's I have recommended in the past, the Axe 2 by Wildgame Innovations, has apparently been phased out, at least in name.  I think the WI Red 4 is the next generation of the Axe 2.  Both are about the same price, and both should do very well for a budget camera.  See you later!

Know Your Distance

Hello all!  A couple weeks ago I was out hunting in the evening.  I was set up close to where I had seen deer feed under some oaks.  Around 6 p.m. , a buck came up towards me.  After waiting a few minutes to make sure he wouldn't see my movements, I pulled back my bow for a shot and settled the 20 yard pin right behind his shoulder.  The distance from me to the buck was longer than I thought, because the shot went right under his belly.  He came back, and gave me another shot.  I misjudged again...twice...but I got very close on the thirty yard shot.  Anyway, the point of the story is: know how to estimate yardages correctly. Now I know where to aim when I go back to that spot, I just wish I would have the first time.

How do you learn to estimate yardages correctly?  Practice at varying ranges.  Get good at it.  If you have a life size deer (elk, bear, coyote) target, all the better, because you can see what that animal looks like at 17, 24, 32 etc. yards.  When you see that in the wild and remember what it looked like in target practice it helps a lot.  For example, I see a deer come out in front of me, and it looks about as big as the target I have at home when I shoot from 28 yards, I aim for 28.

The Early Season

Deer season is upon us!  I'm going to go over some tips and some of my gameplan for the next few weeks.

• In the early season, deer are usually still in their summer patters.  Therefore: funnels, early season food sources/plots, even well used deer trails, are all good places to start.  If you've managed to pattern a deer, use that knowledge to your advantage.  Is there a deer coming through a funnel at a consistent time?  Be there before it gets there, and you have a good chance of getting it.
• Calling can works well.  Try fawn bleats, doe bleat/grunts, and buck grunts.

As for my gameplan?  Hunt a funnel (in evening) and a couple specific food sources/mineral sites (morning and or evening), and transition to acorns in about a week or so.  I have a video I plan to post on Youtube about my early season experiences as soon as I get it finished!  That's all for now!   

Of Missy and Fawns, Part 3

Hello!  So, last time I posted about Missy, it was mostly about her in the month of November.  But the title is "Of Missy and Fawns."  So I thought I'd do a little of the fawns as well, along with Missy.

Anyway, the season comes on, and I am now pretty well acquainted with the fawns.  I begin to notice that Missy didn't have two doe fawns, but one is a buck.  As you can see here:

Knowing his momma, he should be a nice deer in a couple years.  After the season, if I remember right, we were all inside about 5:30pm and dad notices that three deer are outside in our yard.  Missy and fawns (and possibly another doe, I couldn't tell if it was the buck fawn or another doe with her). Here are a couple pictures my dad took:

And a good old black and white

As time passes, I kept my camera out very little during the spring in the main area Missy was visiting, keeping my main attention on a funnel cam.  But, I wanted to see the new fawns, so I thought I'd put my camera back out there once more:

I'll make an educated guess on who this is :)

Unfortunatley, my camera I have posted at the main mineral site Missy visits only likes to get pictures of me when I check the camera, so I don't have any more pictures at the moment.  My other cam is watching a funnel for me that has some nice bucks passing through it often, and I hope to get one come archery season!

Of Missy and Fawns- Part 2

Well, now let's see the other part of Missy's story.  I told you guys I'd pickup the story starting in November of last year.  I left off in September, so why November, when October is in the middle? Well, I was on vacation half of that month and I didn't have my camera's out.  So here we go:

I read in a book called "Whitetails: From Ground to Gun" by Craig and Neil Dougherty where they were talking about shooting does, and the subject of sweet momma does came up.  After reading about how they've seen does come as regular visitor to the backyard and bringing up their fawns well, and how they have never been able to pull the trigger on one.  After reading that, I pretty much told myself that I might never be able to pull the trigger on Missy.  I did once, and luckily missed, because I would have regretted it if I got her.  I'm not doing that again.

About midway through November, hunting season in full swing, I was heading out to an area on another side of the property I hunt.  It was about 4:30 pm, and I pretty much knew what time deer would appear where I was going. I had to pass my feeder and didn't think much about it, as I didn't have any pictures of deer coming around that time. Sure enough; Missy, her two fawns, and another doe were already there:

Here are deer at my feeder, at a time I never recorded before.

And I pass near them and I see tail's flashing, are you kidding me?!?

A week and a half later I didn't get up to hunt the stand in front of that feeder because I was to tired.  AKA, I just wanted to sleep in.  I hardly ever want to wake up at 5:30 AM or earlier, no matter the season.  I woke up an hour later and looked outside, and guess what...

You can't see it in the picture, but the other doe is there as well

I could see them from my bedroom window.  I thought to myself "AHHH!!  Four deer are out there and you could've possibly got one!!"  After that, I told myself I WAS going to go out there the next morning.  Though I had warm hunting clothes on and multiple layers, I froze that morning (cold breeze on a 29 degree morning in a treestand with no wind break, fun right?).  20 minutes into it, my hands were ice.  15 minutes after that, I'm getting pretty cold myself.  But, around 7 o'clock, an hour into my sit, I found out that my hunt would not disappoint.  No, it was not Missy, but I had prayed a few minutes before for a deer, and lo and behold, a few minutes later, I get my first buck!

Adrenaline rush is the explanation for how I was able to spend the rest of the day in a t-shirt outside while getting the meat off the deer. Not to mention the fire dad had going on outside, I did the work near the fire, it felt great!

But back to Missy, she came back that night, possibly knowing that the annoying teenage buck Joe wasn't coming back or wasn't at their evening meeting.  I'll never know.

I told you she was a sweet momma!  Believe me now?  :)

That's November for you, and that's all for now!

Of Missy and Fawns- Part 1

I was looking over some of my past posts and I saw a couple with a doe I call "Missy."  I only mentioned her a little bit in each, and I called her "by-now-famous."  Well, she's not if you don't know her!  Many of you will think I'm crazy that I'm writing about a post about one particular deer, but hear me out.

So, last year around this time, I had gotten some pictures of this one doe, the biggest on the property as I'd seen.  After getting tired of calling her "the big doe" I just called her "Missy", a name that I had no particular reason for choosing, it just came to mind.

After I had gotten multiple pictures of her, I realized that she had two fawns with her as well.  Like their momma, nice and healthy.  So now, I was even more interested in watching Missy and her fawns.  And that's what I did, I watched them grow.

I was able to track her because of the dark spot on her shoulder

Sometimes Missy and her fawns would come multiple times a night. Anyway, not long after this 8/30 picture, I had a personal encounter with the fawns.  I was going down to put more corn in the feeder, and I got a surprise, the fawns were there.  I was able to get within 20 feet of them. They ran away, but I knew they wouldn't go far and that they'd be back, and sure enough:

Fawns eating

I "scare" the fawns away

Ta'da!  They're back!

As the time went on, I kept getting more pictures of them.  I even got one of her nursing a fawn.

Apparently Missy doesn't mind sharing with a raccoon.

I think this is the best trail cam picture I've ever gotten.

I think that's it for now, next I'll share about November 2014 till now!

Why do I hunt?

I've been asked before about why I hunt and I give them the short answer "for meat." But, there's more to it than that. The definition for hunting is: "the activity of hunting wild animals or game, especially for meat or sport (Oxford Dictionaries)."  That is true, but only in part, I see it as much more.  It's being out in God's country and reconnecting with nature and our past.  It's the joy and excitement of seeing that giant elk or the smallest of fawns.  It's the fact that you get to know and respect the animals better than many that you know.
It's the camaraderie of family and friends.  The sharing of stories and the passing on of knowledge.  It's a part of you, it's in you. You cannot wait for the next fall to arrive so you can get back out there.
It's the indescribable feeling as you walk up to an animal, and you realize that God let you take this animal to nourish your own.  And the feeling of what a blessing it is to be able to hunt.  You realize that after all the disappointments, all the missed shots, all the times it just didn't work, don't matter anymore.
That is what hunting is.  It's the whole experience.  That's why I hunt.

Summer Fun

During the summer, it's useful to put out some camera's along with some time in the woods looking for sign and all.  If your lucky, you might even see a fawn.  By now though, most fawns are able to go with their mother wherever she goes.  But here are some things to do during the summer:

• Swimming: Swimming is a great way to have fun and exercise as well!
• Fish: Everyone knows how great fishing is, need I say more?
• Scouting: It's a cliche, but it's always useful.  The cool thing about this time of year is you get to see what time and where those fawns are out with their mom and how big those bucks antlers are getting! I've been lazy so far and I want more pictures of Missy and her new fawns!
• Management: Predator management anyone?  Not to mention habitat and deer herd management (seeing what bucks are there, which to target/take, how many does to take, if any.  And so on).  But not just deer.  Out west, it's elk (or pronghorn!) management!  If your up north, that could include moose as well!

There are many more things I could mention, such as: treestand placement/maintenance, target shooting, bow tuning, sighting in a scope, setting up mineral sites, trail cameras, and more!

With all this mentioned, have fun!

Hunting Website

Hi guys!  I just wanted to quickly let everyone know of a website I've known of for a while and honestly haven't thought to share it.  Anyway, the site is Hungry for Hunting and his new website is devinbrewer.com (they both have good content in them). I've been on his newsletter list for a while now and he's got great content.  I'm in a video series where he's going over how he learned to deer hunt and how he eventually learned to succeed year after year.  It's more than walking up on a deer or "hiking with a gun" as he calls it, but you should scout, plan wisely, and hunt smart, being ready to adapt as things change.  Hope you guys will check it out, and I'll see you next time!

More pictures, but new stuff!

I wonder if you guys were wondering when I would post coyote pictures, and I haven't, because I don't have any.  Well, that's not true anymore.  I have some now.

These were all taken in one place, as you can see.  Now I'm starting to think, "Hey Coyotes!  These are my deer, leave them alone!"  Now for some predator management.... 'cause I want my fawns to make it!

Budget Trail Camera's

There are many trail camera's on the market.  Price ranges from $50-$600 or more for some Bushnell and Reconyx camera's.  The camera's I have are more on the cheap side $50-$80.  I have a Wildgame Innovations Axe 2, and a Stealth Cam.  They are both decent camera's for the price.

• The Wildgame: Has a little easier setting, as it has a screen that you select settings.  The Axe 2 takes better pictures, as far as moving deer goes, and better pictures in general.  It also has a location setting on it so you know where the picture was taken (example: you have two food plots, you could say "FOOD1" for one spot and "FOOD2" for the next one, as it gives 4 letter spaces and 4 number spaces for postion).  
• Stealth Cam: It has "quick settings" which includes video, and picture settings.   It also has a custom setting. It does not have a location setting as the one above.

I like both, but if I had to pick one, it would be the Wildgame Axe 2.  But both are good for getting into trail camera's.

BOOYAH Pad Crusher Jr.

Note: I forgot about this post as I was in the middle of writing it last summer but forgot, so, might as well finish it!

I spent the weekend with at my Aunt and Uncles as my parents were away for a couple days. They have a pond in their backyard, which is awesome!!  It has brim, bass, and catfish.  Not to mention annoying turtles.  But while we were there, we visited the local Bass Pro Shops.  I got a Primos Still Cottontail Predator Call, which I will test this summer.  I also purchased a BOOYAH Pad Crusher Jr., which is the main focus of this article.  The Pad Crusher Jr. did what it was supposed to do, act like a frog swimming on water.  It's only a couple dollars, and worth every penny.  I almost caught a bass in the limited time I fished with it, and the reason it didn't bite, I don't know.  Well, that is, except the bass was two feet away and I could see the thing looking at my lure.  But if something follows something like that, it's interested.  I'm definitely trying it again!

I can't wait to use it next time I fish!

Something New On Camera!

Since nothing is really going on right now, (except if your into turkey hunting or spring bass fishing, things are heating up) I thought I'd share some more pictures.  There's something new this time!

We now observe the wild little brother in natural habitat!

I'm gonna say that this is our by-now-famous Missy and fawns

Funny thing is, the place where I put the camera is right down the driveway.  I got multiple pictures, but just thought I'd show a couple.  My little brother, whom you see pictured, thought that it wouldn't take pictures of him because it was a deer camera.  I told him it's a motion detection system, and he said "but, I thought it was just a deer camera to take pictures of deer!"  Nope.

New Camera, New Stuff

Hello everyone!  I got a new camera on Black Friday last year.  Haven't used it till now.  It takes moderate pictures, but it has a cool video feature.  Here are a couple I got of a Missy and a buck last night:

And the one with Missy:

As you can see, the buck was skiddish around the camera, but Missy and her fawns are fine.  That's probably because they grew up seeing it all summer, fall, and winter!

After Deer Season

The deer season is over here, as it is in just about all of the US.  I enjoyed it, took my first buck, and had some deer jerky (it was awesome!).  What do you do now?  Well, here are a few things:

• Take Down Treestands: You don't need to leave them up 24/7, 365 days a year.  The straps and different metal clamps and such may need replacing.
• Start Mineral Licks: Mineral lick now will give deer a head start in nutrition needs to begin the new year.  It also allows for you to get pictures of deer a little easier, so you can see who survived.
• Frost Seed: In a couple weeks, you should be able to do that.  In February, the frost/defrost cycle will start, which will allow seeds to penetrate the soil.  Clover, Chicory, and other small seeds work best, along with some cereal grain seeds.
• Plant Wildlife Plants: I'm looking at American Beutyberry, a plant that most wildlife will eat and enjoy it's fruit and leaves.  I may eventually do chestnuts.  That is just an example.
• Play Around With Trail Camera's: Like I said, see who survived and where they hang out this time of year, as they will be in their winter patterns.
• Go Small Game Hunting:  Why not?  It's a fun thing for kids because you will succeed almost every time when you hunt squirrel.  But it's hunting nonetheless, and it's fun!