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!