5 pines farm 2012 semi live

[Whip]

A good night indead!  
You're having a heck of a season Jim!

[coaster500]

Sounds like a perfect day.....  closer and closer  

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

only had time for a short hunt this am. Sat in the hale bale blind on the clover field. The triplets   ( all does) came in to the clover at 7 :20. so much fun to watch these three. The smallest is about a 50 lbs and is the most inquisitive of the three. The biggest maybe 70 lbs and is constantly on the alert. The other 2 take their cues from her. Twice she spooked at wind guts ran out of the field only to come . I cant see how she is the biggest since she seems too nervous to eat! The little one was suspicious of the blind today. The gusty wind may have been coming in the side window and blowing my stink out the front. They were definitely keeping an eye on it the whole time they fed. So much fun to watch them . Hoping to see adults tonight.

[goldflinger]

With all the encounters you are having, I expect it will all come together soon. Sounds like you had a great evening last night! Still enjoying the thread.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Yes I am seeing loads of deer and having a ton of fun. When the 4 wheeler broke I was rather bummed. Not that I drove it all over but we did use it to part way to upper bluff stands.  Its a lot of effort to walk up there every day, sometimes twice a day. Got the four wheeler back a week ago and it is still parked where I put it when I took it off the trailer. I am totally convinced the low impact hunting I am doing this year is paying big dividends in deer activity . Eventually I will hit what I am shooting at too! !

[Horne Shooter]

Great thread!  The long walks are probably good for your cardiovascular system and general heath anyhow.  Four wheeler breaking down probably a blessing in disguise!  Thanks for the great reports....

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Today a very good friend and professional colleague arrived to hunt the farm with me for a few days. A work mate was also in route but wouldn't arrive till
after dark. They are both using compounds so if they score I will only show you the score card being updated.

We headed up the hill early and I sent Dallas to the Bwana stand as the wind was mainly our of the West. I went to the corner stand down on the East end of field. It stayed windy as a strong storm slid past us just 50 miles to south.

At 5:30 I see the first of four does exit the woods 70 yards to the west of me and trot up the hill to the  food plot on my side of the ridge. They fed for about thirty minutes. The wind had dropped off almost entirely and I decided to do a little light rattle. The does threw their heads up and stared in my direction. Boy I sure got their attention! It just goes to show you how sound travels. I had hardly tickled those horns at all. No bucks appeared and I did not repeat the rattling for fear of scaring those does away from my friends stand just over the rise. The deer seemed to be working their way closer to his hiding spot in the big oak. Suddenly I see white flags running down the hill in my direction. Grabbing my bow i waited for them to arrive but they darted into the woods at about the same point they had exited them one hour earlier.

Soon it was time to go. I was standing at the base of my tree focused on packing up my gear, when I heard foot steps. Looking up just as a doe came head  on down my trail , she saw me as I saw her and she turned herself around in a single heartbeat and was gone the way she had come.

[Easykeeper]

Even with the action you are getting now, it's only going to get better over the next couple weeks.

Hope you get a chance at a big one...  

[coaster500]

[nick_the_tinkerer]

Thanks I really enjoyed it....

[lt-m-grow]

What a thread...thank you

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

ok so its been a long day!

We started the day with 25 degree F temps! I chose stands for my guests that they were both familiar with and suited each's shooting abilities. I chose to sit the stand where I saw those three big bucks oh so very long ago. The wind was out of NE and perfect for where I wanted to be. Every thirty minutes I'd do a light sparring session. Ever on the alert, I expected to see a deer , hopefully a buck at any minute. Except I didn't and after four hours I decided my feet were cold enough! I all ways hate to get out after a sit like this because Murphy's law usually  kicks in and a deer is coming just when you are leaving! But today that didn't occur and the only deer I saw all morning was one I jumped when I took a detour back to grab the SD card out of a camera! Both of my friends were absolutely ecstatic as they were both covered in deer all morning!

on a side note, the farmer that rents my 11 acres of flat ground got his corn out today.
   

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

So after a shooting the bull session around the wood stove and a shooting arrows session at the target butt, we discussed the wind and hourly forecast and again tried to determine which of the 27 available stands might be the correct ones to head off to.

I went to hunt a placed called Upper Apple Alley. Way up at the top of this narrow opening in the woods below the East side of Rattle Snake ridge sits a little hidden clover field.
   
this will be last season I have clover here. its time to turn it into something else for a season or two, but there is still quite a bit of good clover left. I was surprised to see how hard its been grazed!

The big old apple tree in the foreground did not bear fruit this season.  A ladder stand rests up in those Aspens at the top of the photo

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

.
a mowed path into the deer trail encourages deer to move through here.
 
here is the stand
 

[Whip]

Why do I have the feeling that you're still typing up the finish to today's story??  

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

the stand is just 12 yards off of the deer trail which becomes the mowed trail that dumps out on to the food plot. The wind almost all ways comes up hill here . This is more of an AM Spot but there is a trail that dumps onto the clover 25 yards to west of me and also the deer sometimes will come out to the clover from the south of me and mill around while feeding. I have several shooting lanes out to the clover and also directly down onto the main deer highway. The wind was ideal tonight. At 5 pm I look down towards that apple tree in the 2nd photo and two does have walked out and are grazing on the clover.  They feed for about 15 minutes before heading down towards the turnip field. Then at 6 pm A 10 point buck enters the clover at about the same spot the does did. He walks beneath the apple, gets his rack up into the lower branches and thrashes the tree a bit.  He grazed on the clover for just a minute or two before he followed the path of the does down the hill through the valley and on to the turnips . I was able to get out of there a hour later with out bumping any of them.  I believe this spot will get hunted a lot more the next coming week or two as I really am liking the set up. I think that it will be a morning stand exclusively since I think I am too far up the valley to catch them as they come down for the evening feed. We shall see if I am right soon I hope.

[steadman]

Thank you for the updates!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

rained out this am.  I played it smart and sat in the hay bale blind. AS the dark diminished I slowly began to make out two shapes laying in the clover about 40 yards out . Twin fawns had come into the clover sometime in the dark after I had got in the blind. As the light increased so did the rain along with bolts of lightening and loud thunder. The fawns lay out front of me for an hour. Getting up stretching and reversing direction and the laying back down. This was repeated several times over the next two hours. Finally at 9 am they decided they had some where else to go and after they had left the area I headed in for coffee and conversation.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Today we saw something that hasn't happened much of late. A good old fashion thunder and lightening storm. The rain seemed to stop around 1 pm and at 2 pm we decided to head out and give it a try. It was very warm and very humid. A complete 180 degree reversal from the weather we had been having for the last month! Hiking up to the ridge tops we wore nothing but out long underwear and rubber boots. Everything else went in the back pack! Good thing no one had a camera. God forbid those pictures would hit the internet.

I returned to the ladder stand where i had so much activity just a couple of nights ago. I had no sooner settled into the stand when the rain returned. After about 45 minutes I was ready to call it a day. I looked down to my right and a big fat doe was walking at a brisk walk on the trail 10 yards to my right. I stood up, grabbed my bow off the hanger. bent at the waist came to full draw. At that exact moment the rain doubled in its intensity and I let her walk. I just couldn't shoot and have a clear conscience. It was just raining too hard. As I let down her two fawns following her shied and that made her quicken her pace. It was then I noticed the 6 point buck who also with them. They all stopped and stood still trying to determine what spooked the fawns. The doe made a big loop around my tree to join up with her babies. The 6 point was exhibiting rutting behavior. He lowed his head, stretched his neck and began to trot chase the mom down the hill. Banks of fog would roll in and roll out adding to the drama of the day. 20 minutes later the rain had completely stopped but the fog continued to roll in and roll out. A 4 pointer suddenly appeared in the fog. Then a very nice 8 point appeared down below me on my right side. He never came closer than 40 yards. Visibility was poor and I do not know exactly how big he was and if he is a buck I have seen previously. The 4 point I recognized from the last time i hunted this spot. He treated me to an intimate look at scrape making . On the edges of the food plot are some smaller young oaks. Beneath them he would scrape away with one foot then the other all of the forest floor litter. Then he would stretch his neck up until he could grab a branch in his mouth and he would twist and turn his head pulling of the oak leaves off and stripping the branches with his mouth. He did this all within 15 yards of me. Twice he was facing me as he did it. It was so cool to be there and  see this so close and he never knew I was just above him in the big oak. My guests both saw deer. One had nine does go by on their way to the food plots but he had zero shot opportunities. Tomorrow the forecast is for more rain. I may get to sleep in !

[coaster500]

That was a great day and I think your choice to let the doe walk was a good one... you have plenty of time... get a video camera Jim..  would have been cool to see that buck make his scrape!