5 pines farm 2012 semi live

[Hopewell Tom]

Those 2 small 8 pointers bode well for the future.
Beautiful colors, nice days( a bit "unnicer" would help the hunting), friends to hunt with on your own land - You ARE making a life.

[jcar315]

[coaster500]

Jim you have really turned your place into something special!!

 

[Joeabowhunter]

That osage / cocobolo makes a nice combo on your new bow!  

Keep up the great thread.  Thanks.  

[Vig]

I like this thread, it reminds me of when I was stationed in Oklahoma and had access to a chunk of land loaded with deer and a loooong hunting season.  I hunted in Colorado this fall; one week, no shots, and I'm done for the year.  Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Vig

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Thanks kip! Its a lot of work but i love every bit of it!

Both Jay and I didn't have a lot of time to hunt this am. He had to leave to get home for work tomorrow and I have to leave this afternoon for one day of business meetings at my home office.  That's ok as we had an East wind this am.  Its a rare wind here and not too many stands are suitable for it.

We ended hunting opposite ends of the farm. He went as far north on the middle ridge as he could while I went south.

Up on my southern border across from the clover and deer crack field is a rocky weed field with an old pasture fence line. Due to the cows that once roamed here there are loads of wild apple trees. Along the fence a few actually produced apples this season. I chose to hunt there.
  This mowed trail allows for quiet walking

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

A deer trail has been widened with the bush hog and an opening created by taking out a 1/2 dozen cedars.
 

It didn't take the deer long to start to move through this opening the first year I created it. There is a line of young birch trees adjacent to where the ridge steeply turns downhill. beneath me is a jungle of invasive buck thorn, the absolute worst part of the farm from a timber point of view. the deer like to bed here when its hot as it faces to NW.

The stand is in an old cedar.

I took this picture looking at the stand from where a doe stood earlier in the morning.
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

The doe was checking for dropped apples and was standing in the upper right corner by the red leaves.  She had walked down the mowed trail along the fence and then jumped the fence about 25 yards in front of me.
 
She appeared shortly after it was light enough to shoot.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I had no shot at her and just enjoyed knowing she had no idea i was there. I usually hunt this spot in the evening and catch the deer as they come out of bed to go feed in the food plots so since you are facing directly East, you can't sit the stand for very long once the sun is over the bluff. The sun becomes a spot light and not only does it blind you it cooks you as well.

It felt good to carry the new bow along again today
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I headed down and took this shot of the turnip field . I recently mowed down the sunflowers since the birds had emptied them of seed. I think late season hunting this year will be the best ever, provided we get some decent snow .
 

I plan to be back in the woods Tuesday, hopefully by then the cooler temps will start to return

[4runr]

Sure is fun to follow along.

[Yellow Dog]

Jim, that new little beauty wouldn't be your new Bobcat would it? Thanks so much for taking us along on your little piece of heaven  

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Yellow Dog, it sure as heck is!

After a day in the concrete jungle is sure is a pleasure to be out in the moonlight.

 

As I sat in the big oak this AM and the full moon shone   down on me I couldn't help but think of the movie scene when Frodo and Sam see the wood elves in the moon light. It is just magical to be out .

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I chose the stand where I had the rattle snake encounter a few weeks ago. The wind was gently blowing out of North and I hoped to catch a deer on its way to bed coming from the corn field or perhaps my spring under the big Black Walnuts just a 100 yards below me.

As the sun light broke over the ridge and spread light on the neighbor's place i heard deer movement on  the hill behind me.
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

A deer or perhaps two were slowly working their way up the ridge behind me. My thinking was correct but they chose a path back behind me and I never did make eye contact with them.

Anubis was ready but will have to wait for another time.
 

I am excited about what the end of the week might mean for deer movement. A major cold front is to move in on Thursday.  I'll be out all this week  but don't expect the deer movement to improve much until then. Tonight we be up on the food plots up on top and hope for a close shot at a mature doe or perhaps one of the elusive bucks that I know are here.

[DayTripper]

Originally posted by LITTLEBIGMAN:

 

Aptly named bow.
I like your style!     Thank you for sharing.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great read along Jim Good luck Thursday!

[TxAg]

you have a great place there. thanks again for taking us along.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Well it was quite warm again today . 72 degrees when I headed up the hill at 4 pm. The wind was out of the East again which is unusual here. I chose the 20 footer stand as my scent should blow well down from where i hoped a buck would appear. The food plot in front of me is looking pretty sad, Boy we need rain. The  rape however is still quite green as you can see in this photo
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

at 5 pm I was  on my feet when I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer or two walking in the leaves.  Two fawns appeared upwind of me, they came out into the food plot. I expected them to head right towards the rape but they actually fed in the plot that is looking so poorly! Here they are at about 40 yards  from me.

 
I got to enjoy them for about 20 minutes until they finally walked over the ridge and into the adjacent food plots.