Speed Scouting for Deer Season

 Fall is here everyone!  It's gotten a little chilly down here in central NC, especially after Sally came through and brought so much rain.  Either way, for those of you who see my social media posts, you know I've had quite the last few months!  Graduating college, starting a new full time job, and welcoming a new daughter!  

That doesn't leave a lot of time to scout for the upcoming deer season to pinpoint new spots.  If you're pretty familiar with the property, then great, head start!  You may not need to find out where deer hang out on the property, as you may have that down.  But, there may be new bucks in the area or some new patterns individuals may have.  So, keep your cameras going!

If you're unfamiliar with the area you're hunting, like trying out public land, then you need to get started quick!  Hunting apps like HuntStand or OnXMaps are really useful here to get a grip on an aerial view to identify possible pinch points and routes to and from food/bedding.  On the ground, if you find an oak ridge, or a flat spot between two slopes where there's an oak stand, great!  Or, maybe is a lower area between to slopes where deer may travel from bedding to food.  Look for natural barriers that may attract deer movement.  

If you're hunting a smaller property, like so many suburban hunters, deer are likely in the thick stuff.  Deer love the thicker sanctuaries because quite frankly, they don't have many other places to go.  And that's also where people are less common.  Bottom areas where there is a creek with woods and some thicker undergrowth is a good place to start when trying to find deer, as often those sites aren't buildable and therefore are left alone. Where law allows, you can possibly attract deer and hold them on a smaller property with some corn feeding or even a mineral site.  Quite possibly a small food plot can be planted and if well managed, you're in the gold.  But that's more of a long term thing, we're talking speed scouting!

Again, you're speed scouting, trying to narrow down quickly where deer are and aren't.  Not only scan for landmarks and land/food qualities, but be on the lookout for any rubs, scrapes, or beds in the area.  It's amazing how often you will stumble onto stuff like that.  When you see something of note, mark down that spot!  If you do so, patterns may start to emerge on the map that you may not have noticed otherwise.

Lucky 7's

Well, spoiler alert, one isn't so lucky.  However, I couldn't help but realize the crazy coincidence of this story.  I had been watching a buck on this one property, whom I considered naming Lucky 7, but hadn't decided on it yet.  He was a nice 7 point, very active in the area I was looking to hunt.

I decided to see if I could pattern this buck.  He wasn't the biggest one on the property, there were two massive 8 points on the property too.  But this guy showed up the most so I thought I could give this one a shot.  I hunted in October during my college fall break in what seemed to be a secluded buck haunt, no luck.  That and the fact that with no treestand this time, the tree root I sat on gave me a lot of discomfort so I wasn't out as long as I'd like to have been.  I would hunt soon after, no luck, I saw three does but they decided to turn around before they would get in bow range.
November 17th was my little brother's 7th birthday.  After a lunch celebration, I decided with some prodding from my wife, to hunt some that evening, even though I'd be getting out later than I'd prefer.  I set up near a field, but didn't see anything after a while, so I decided to still hunt some.  I had gone about 60 yards, and stopped near a tree.  Light was starting to fade when I hear the familiar crunching sounds of a deer walking.  It was to my right, and the way I was facing I knew I'd have to shift my whole body in order to possibly get a shot.  Not only that, but there was an old fence that was between myself and the deer, so I'd have to stand up as well to make sure the bullet cleared the fence.  So I've got some things to work out here.  I notice the antlers now, it's the seven point.  Keep in mind, I had thought of naming him, never officially did.  I waited till he was behind a big tree to shift myself to face him.  He stopped and looked, hearing the leaves rustle from my movements.  Now came my biggest challenge, having to quickly stand up, look through the scope, aim, fire, before he realizes what's happening.  And deer are usually pretty quick at realizing danger.  He clears the tree, he's now full broadside some 20 yards from me, I jump up and aim, place my crosshairs on his shoulder, and fire.  It all happened so fast, but surprisingly, so slow.  He took off running, crashing just out of sight.
I decided to track him down with the help of my siblings, birthday boy included.  They enjoyed it very much.  It was an easy tracking job, the hard part was getting him out of the woods.  But they helped me with that even.  Be it helping drag the deer or lighting the way for us to walk with flashlights.

My siblings who came out and helped

Birthday boy!

A seven point, on my brother's seventh birthday, on November seven-teenth, how's that for ya?  Yeah  I get it's not a perfect 777, but it's close enough!  He ran out of luck before I could even name him Lucky 7.  But, maybe that is a fitting name.  He may have run out of luck, but I think I had some on my side that day.

Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14

Last year I decided to buy a new game camera because the ones I have are wearing out.  After shopping around a little at Dicks, and with the help of a sales associate, I decided to buy the WGI Mirage 14.  In brief, I am very pleased with this camera.

Excuse my cell phone being reflected by camera

User Interface

The camera is very simple to operate, you use up, down, and enter keys to make selections.  And you see what you select on the screen.  Normally at the top of the screen the camera will show many pictures have been taken and the time, but with no SD card inserted when the above image was taken, nothing was shown.
You can set it to take pictures day and night, or just day or night.  You can select the quality of the pictures, the higher quality, the fewer pictures that can be stored on the SD card.  The tradeoff is better quality pictures allow you to pick out details of individual animals and just better viewing quality.  However, if you were just planning on leaving your camera out for weeks at a time without checking it, say in the spring and summer at a food plot, then for just scouting and deer census, lower quality/more volume of pictures might be more useful.
On top of that, you can adjust camera light exposure, how sensitive the motion sensor is, and how often it takes a pic, even set it for (soundless) video.  The customization of the camera is one of the big selling points for me.

Performance

The performance is very good in my opinion.  It is a 14 MP camera with less than a 1/2 second trigger speed with an illumination range of 75 feet, and an invisible flash (specs from WGI website).  I've already shown some pictures taken by this camera on the blog, but here's a few more just to show.

The video is bright (and sped up!), yes.  I don't know whether it's the camera's fault or my own.  Facing the camera angling down toward the ground might have caused the light to reflect back towards the camera, making it really bright.  I'll have to experiment more to find out.  However, having the capability of video is always a nice feature.

 

This owl seemed to like this perch

And this fox likes the mineral block

So, theres a little taste of the camera.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new game camera.  Right now it's about $70, but you might be able to find it cheaper.  Until next time!

A Prince of the Forest, Part 1

There are bucks that have pep and are fun to watch, but are too small to shoot.  There are good bucks that you see, but not shoot.  There are bucks that love a certain area, a certain time of day, have unique antlers, all sorts of things can set a buck apart.  This buck, he liked a certain time of day and had unique antlers.  A nice bodied 8 point with a curved main beam, long G2s and 3s, and loved the night.  His name is Prince, named after Bambi's father, the Great Prince of the Forest.  I thought it fit, whether or not it was an original name.  Here are some pics of him:

Sorry for the blurry pic!

Pic from my new Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14

I had a problem.  As you can see, all these pics were taken at night, and not just that, but well before (or after) shooting light.  The earliest he ever came out is 6:50 pm, just 20 minutes after I had left my stand that evening.  The latest in the morning?  5:55 am, too early to shoot.  He wasn't coming out when and where I want him to.  So I had to figure out where he was in the daytime, which can be a challenge if you don't exactly know where to start.  So, I set another camera out in the woods to hopefully catch him in the day time, meanwhile, my other camera kept getting pics of him at night.  

With the whitetail rut coming up I knew and heard the best time to get him would be the next three weeks or so (about mid to late November).  I knew a doe group was in the area, not to mention all the other does that liked to hang out by themselves, so I would have plenty of chances to see rut action.  All I could do at this point was be where does were and patiently wait for him to show.  

SCO Update with Pictures!

It's November y'all!  Time for the whitetail rut to start, not to mention all the other small game seasons kicking in!  I thought I'd give you guys an update on what I've been up to recently.

My deer hunting is business as usual.  I haven't gotten anything yet, but believe me I will post when I do!  The last 3 times I've been out in the stand, I've seen 13 deer and haven't gotten a shot.  I take that back, I could have shot.  However the deer was much to small, must have been a yearling at most.

Secondly, I bought a Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14 game camera.  14 MP, shoots video, adjustable light exposure and picture/video quality, stylish little camera.  I have it out in the woods at the moment so I'll try to do a product review once I see what the camera can do.

And, here are a couple pictures!

This group regularly visits the area

And a squirrel for you

Until next time!

Summer Pictures

Been a while since I've done one of these!  I honestly haven't had my camera out very much this year, so I don't have a ton of pictures, but heres a few I have gotten recently:

Most of the coyotes in my area have been trapped by neighbors, but looks like at least one got away...

I saw these bucks hanging out with each other, or another deer, a lot.  During the summer, it is interesting to note that while bucks are normally solitary animals (with the exception of the rut), during the summer they will group up together in "bachelor groups".  Sometimes these groups will contain up to 4 or 5 animals (possibly more!)

Ooh, nice little 8 point

And I believe this is him again

I know it's a very short post, but I hope you enjoy the pictures!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

November Pictures

I've been out twice this month, once was more of a scouting walk in a property that I was somewhat unfamiliar with.  Both times I've seen deer.  I've shot one already with my bow, but it was a behind where I wanted the arrow to go (my fault).  I tried to trail the doe the next morning, but no blood trail or anything.  And I mean nothing...at...all to help me find that deer.  I was disappointed, but still reported a harvest.  But anyway, enough of that, here are some pictures I recently got on my camera.

I'm thinking that this was a button buck, just by looking at the head.

I'm almost positive this a doe I call "Missy" she comes by often.

This is Missy's fawn, she has the biggest fawns I've ever seen.

I'm making a very good educated guess on the last two pictures.  Missy and her fawns come by often, probably more often than any other deer at my camera.  Missy is also the biggest deer I've seen this year and her fawns are like their mom, big (no offence Missy) and healthy.  The cool thing is I can track whether or not a doe it Missy is on her left side there is a black spot on her shoulder.  And she has the big fawns, as you can probably see.

That's all for now!  Keep hunting as the rut heats up!

Recent Camera pics...and one of the cutest so far

I've put the camera back out.  I've gotten a good bit of pictures too, mostly at night, since it's close to a driveway.  But I'll share some of the day pictures:

The doe in the above picture is the mother of the fawn.

 As I was scrolling through pictures this morning, not expecting anything but does (which I got, except the fawn!). I was about to bounce off my seat because that's the first picture I've gotten of a fawn with his/her mother (most of her :).  It's also one of the few pictures of fawns I've gotten and the best one.  Just want to see the bucks now!

Get ready!  It's only a few weeks away!  But keep things in focus, God, school, work, and family come first! Till next time!