5 pines farm 2016 updated 1/2017 page 29

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

After my friends all departed I packed my bag and headed back up to decoy. I placed the decoy just off of the scrapes on the East side of plot. We still had the same N wind.

I was really encouraged when at 4 pm another forky answered my calling and gave me the perfect shot sequences.

At first he was afraid to walk out in to the plot and he came and stood right under me.
 
he stood under me looking at the decoy. Finally he put his nose to the ground and jumps a foot high when he smelled where I had stood 1/2 hour before.

But the holding power of the decoy was too much and he slowly walked back and out into the field.  For some reason my video on my phone wouldn't work so I took these still photos

at this point I had all ready passed one shot opportunity.
 
 Here he had walked past, turned around and walked back.
 
at most he is 10 yards from me.
 

now if I can just get a big one to do this!! The day wore on and no other deer were even spotted. But this was just another classic example as to what a decoy can do. It was also interesting that he wasn't freaked out by the size of the antler on the decoy.

This morning we had sort of a gusty wind, I headed just across the road hoping to catch a buck cruising the contours. At 8 am I spot a 2.5 year  8 point on the contour above me about 50 yards. He dropped down on to the logging road above. When I grunted at him,he stopped for just a few seconds and then headed off his nose to the ground. That was the only deer I saw.

[DanielB89]

I can tell its starting to heat up there.  I hope I get to experience some of this this year.  Sad to say, but i've never seen many bucks chasing does.

I bet its puts a fire inside to see a buck chase a doe all around!  

I feel that something good is a bout to happen for you!

[Dry Creek]

Stay after them Jim!!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

hunts 61 and 62

Incredibly windy yesterday afternoon. at 1pm 4 bucks chased a doe across my driveway. With the wind I had no idea where to go. So I headed to the nearest contour trail and hoped it would die down near dark. Several times I was tempted to get down just from a safety aspect. But I hung in there till dark, but saw no deer.

This morning it was the exact opposite. No wind what ever and heavy ground fog. I decided to try the popup blind I put up 2 weeks ago. The day after I put this up, I did move it 15 yards. It was just too close to the trail originally.
 
what I consider the lowest contour trail passes above the popup about 45 yards up hill.

Last Saturday when I sat where I did last night, the two bucks I rattled in had been on this trail.

 
The Montana whitetail decoy looks good in the fog.
 
my shooting lane view.
 

I like part of this set up. Any deer traveling the woods edge contour crosses the mowed trail above me. Hopefully my calling and then the decoy will pull a good buck down the mowed trail and past the hidden popup 12 yards off of the mowed trail.

 

I may have left the blind too early today. There was no deer movement that I could see, sense is more like it. Visibility is so diminished in the blind!  At 9 am I thought I heard a distant grunt up some where behind me. I grunted back and heard nothing. So I rattled one last time and waited 1/2 hour. It is supposed to get to 70 F today and it was all ready in the high 50's. At 9 30, I stepped from the blind and as I was taking the decoy down I heard a buck give a single buck roar some where above me . I would say it was within a 100 yards. I had no ideas other than to sneak out and not spook it. When I got back to house my Jayne told me that at 8 30, a really big buck crossed the driveway 50 yards from the house and had been headed in the direction of the bluff behind me.

[Warden609]

[Keefer]

Jim I am waiting to see that decoy get a spanking by a dandy soon!          

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Good luck Jim, I fly out in the morning and wont be checking in as frequently.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Safe Journeys Charlie!

hunts 63 and 64.

Sometimes hunts that start out crappy end amazingly!

Yesterday afternoon we had temps just shy of 70 F and westerly winds of 15 mpr gusting to 25!

So I decided water might be the key to a successful sit. But I knew hiking up that a westerly wind would not work at either water hole!

So I headed to the little twisted timber stand that I tried to hunt last week.
 
what made this a crappy start was the hot tempts, the wind, I forgot my rattle antlers, forgot my smart phone, forgot a decent hat        UUFFTA!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

So the first deer appeared in the food plot early. I am slightly downhill from the plot and therefore early in the afternoon if I look to the West I am starring into the setting sun.! I turned my base ball cap around so the visor wouldn't interfere with the bow string. As soon as I did that I couldn't see the deer due to the sun!! To make matters worse , the wind swirled and instantly the doe was gone!   :mad:  

I almost hit the road for home! But, as the sun started to set , the wind became more constant and it started to cool off. my attitude  was completely renewed.

I looked again to the west and with sun gone I could see three deer  moving my way with the wind at their backs.

1st was  a doe , followed closely by a six point. They rounded the corner and went right past the front of the stand headed to the other end of the food plot. The 3rd deer was an 8 point. Medium sized. He stopped at the corner and nosed the ground where I had put my pack down and got dressed to hunt. Then he walked towards me and stopped at 10 yards watching in the direction the other 2 deer had gone. After a few minutes he turned to my right and headed onto the mowed trail. There are a series of scrapes along this trail. He went to the first one and freshened it both with urine and with scraping it with his hooves. He worked the over hanging branches . All within 25 yards of me! Then he walked off in the direction of the other scrapes.

About 10 minutes later when he was far enough away not to hear me. I gave two short deep and not overly loud grunts.

Almost instantly I hear a deer coming from the other end of the food plot. I expected it to me the little 6 point that went by 30 minutes earlier.

But instead a tank of a buck was walking to me his entire body puffed up , ears back and dragging his feet. One whole side of his rack was gone broken off just above the base. I was thrilled to have this buck at 8 yards. His intact antler carried 4 large points and extended out well beyond his  ear.

it's a rotten shame I had no camera in my pocket. Here is a photo from the stand 4 weeks ago. I placed the star where he stood looking for the other buck!
 
As he stood there, I thought seriously about shooting him!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

As he walked off I regretted letting him go for about 1 minute. It was so exciting to see him so amped up at that distance.

As I left the tree, I decided to break 2 branches off and open up my shooting window if I hunt here again. I made quite a bit of noise. When I had gone about 40 yards, I could see a very big deer in the clover field 100 yards to the north. He was standing there looking my way. I got down on all fours and dug out the bino's from my pack. IT WAS SHORT BROWS!!!! the big 10 I want so badly to kill.  There were no regrets anymore on a passed shot!!


This morning I hunted again over Derek the Decoy.
     
It was not quite light enough to shoot when I heard grunting and leaf shuffling behind me. A spike walked by . He never came into the food plot and never saw Derek. 5 minutes later I hear more grunts from the other side of the plot. In walked the forky I decoyed here the other night. The guy has guts!! He walked by the decoy keeping his eyes on him and went right over to the big scrape. He scraped the leaves and worked the over head branches. What guts!! Then he  just walked off.

One hour later I rattled in about a 130 class 10 point. When he saw Derek, he ducked down and snuck off. He wanted no trouble from the big guy!  

I headed back to camp. Old lodge skins returned to camp last night. He spilled some blood this am.
     
one less fawn eater.

[pitbull]

Awesome, keep at it!    

[Horne Shooter]

Getting close to prime time!

[Huntrdfk]

Great hunts  Jim, and love that a coyote was killed,  hate those things!

David

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

hunts 65 and 66

If there was ever a nicer night to decoy than last night I have not seen it. Wind perfect. temps a little cooler. Bucks seemed to be moving.

I went to the stand with the hairy decoy where that little buck ran back and forth 2 nights ago.

SKUNKED!  didn't even see a deer walking home.

This am I took it easy and hunted just above the house. 5 minute walk at most.
   
It was incredibly still and I was concerned about the downward thermal. at 8 am I rattled and instantly saw the blur of a deer running away below me in the tall prairie.

10 minutes later I hear a loud grunt/bleat below me followed by a 2nd louder one.

 The 2nd sounded a little further away . I thought a buck must be walking the edge of the woods and prairie but in the direction away from me.

So I grunted back and waited. Nothing. Waited a bit longer and rattled. Nothing. Waited 30 minutes and did a few Estrus Bleats. Nothing. Waited 30 minutes and rattled. ZERO. Finally at 10 I left as I had a few business calls scheduled for 10:30.

at 11 am old lodge skins comes walking in. He says that he hated to tell me this, but he went by my stand at 10:35 and there was MR short Brows with 2 does standing on the logging road just under my stand!!!            :confused:        

[wapiti792]

Dang Jim! He is your nemesis...

That is what makes it great though! Enjoying the thread as always. I have 16 of the next 18 days off here in IL. I am going to decoy and film. I have my eye on a couple and like you will have a couple visitors (friends Monty and Jack) here for a week. Hope to find them one too!

Keep after it! It's prime time    

[Whip]

It's just a matter of time now until MR short brows has an up close encounter with you. Make the most of it when it happens!
 
I'm picking up my buddy Tippit at the airport this morning and then we had to Iowa tomorrow for 9 days in the Land Of The Giants.  This is it!  I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

hey Mike and Whip best of luck to you all.  Whip you are going to be in big buck heaven!!

hunts 67 and 68.

So once again with temps well above the norm, I headed to the big pond. But the NNW wind was fickle and I moved another few hundred yards up hill to the corner stand where I last encountered the dogs.
 
The curve in the field has always helped pull deer past this stand. I killed my heaviest buck here in Nov 2012.

The wind was perfect. The evening wore on without much of anything happening. With just a few minutes of shooting light left 2 does come flying over the crest of the hill right at me and past and down the bluff. I got ready for what I hoped would be a bruiser buck on their tail. But nothing showed , or nothing that I could see anyway. Then just as dark I here foot steps below. A spike buck rounds the corner on the mowed trail and walks into the food plot. Easy shot had he been just a bit bigger.  

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Last night around 9 pm I stepped out of the yurt to grab a few sticks of fire wood. The yurt sits along a tall prairie I planted 6 years ago. It is very think and shoulder height tall. As soon as I closed the door I could thrashing in the tall grass followed by loud grunts and then antlers smacking.

Old lodge skins and I stood on the deck and listened as the two bucks went back and forth in the prairie for 20 minutes. We couldn't see them but the deepness of their voices and the noise they were making a mere 50 yards away made us both think they were good ones!

So today I pulled an all day sit. My feet never left the platform 20 feet up from dark to dark.
I went up and over the bluff down to the little water hole.
 
The wind was supposedly out of the South. But down here I had it from all over through out the day. Since deer can come from any direction I didn't let it bother me.

[pitbull]

And?    

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Having spent 5 full days sun up to sun down in a blind antelope hunting sure helps get a guy ready for all day deer hunts.

Today I was rewarded with a close 2nd to my best day ever in that I saw 7 different bucks.

During the first 90 minutes of the day I saw one 8 pt cruising up above me and I called in 2 bucks 15 minutes apart from one another. One was a great 8.  He had Dark horns and was very heavy. But he appeared from no where on the opposite side of the water hole and may have seen me moving in the tree. He left with out coming to my side of the pond. He was followed by a good 10 point who came with in 40 yards of me looking and looking for the bucks he had heard fighting.

The next 5 hours were very slow. The warm temps are really effecting the deer movement. I saw one fawn and it winded me. I saw one doe running through the woods above me.

I rattled at 4 pm. I am so deep down in this hole that the sun goes behind the bluff at 4 pm. At 4.15 I spot a rack pushing its way through the black berry tangles about 60 yards away. A really good 10 walks out starts attacking the nearest tree. After about 10 minutes he is walking towards the scrapes right in front of my stand. But at the last second he turns onto the trail that runs parallel to mine. He goes by me at 25 yards. while the distance was doable, I never cleared any shooting lanes to the distant trail! After he went by me I threw a few grunts at him . He just kept on walking. I wheeze and snort wheezed at him. He stopped and looked back. But from the wag in his tail I knew he was not interested in a fight.  Off he walked.

60 minutes later a 6 point and a forky arrived at the water hole at the same time but from different directions.  The 6 point caught me moving when I tried getting my smart phone out of my pocket. I became a rock statue for next 15 minutes while he stared holes in me. Finally he relaxed . The little guy assisted me by going over to him and tried to engage a sparring session. They both walked down and drank together. The video is after the 6 point left.
  https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/30147086263/in/dateposted-public/  
Tomorrow the regular gun season starts here. The deer are not even breeding yet and the gun hunters will kill thousands of good bucks over the next two weeks. Makes no biological sense to me but you can't argue with the MN deer hunters assoc. Their membership refuses to even discuss asking the DNR to set the dates back. bucks should be breeding not hanging in trees in Nov.

So I will be hunting a contour trail that I think may also be an escape trail as well. Hoping to do another all dayer!