5 pines farm 2012 semi live

[cahaba]

Congrats Andy on a fine doe.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

We saw mostly does today  and are still waiting to see some real buck movement.  Spent part of the morning tweaking the spot where yet another shooter got his photo snapped this week, Hopefully the changes we have made will produce a good buck  
 

[Plumber]

this is great, keep it comeing, I am laying home with a bum knee just got surgery thursday.I will be huntin in 2 weeks.good luck guys

[tradtusker]

well I had a great first morning. I let a nice doe walk by early in the hopes of having a buck follow or at least not spook anything early. About 8:10am I saw a nice doe come out above me, i kept an eye on here and stood up and got ready. To the left I could see breath through the tree's and knew there was another deer back there. Then i caught a glint of sunlight off antler and knew It was a buck following, (at which point I started praying to the hunting gods to send the doe my way)  When he finally stepped out it was instantly "shooter"! I could not see him clearly but could see great mass and at least 10" G2s...he finally came to 30m and behind brush the whole time, never had a shot beside the fact it was to far for me. I had to watch him walk. What a way to start!

saw a few other does and then finally had 3 does coming my way, I watched for some time to make sure there was nothing following close behind and decided if one gave me a shot i would get my Doe tag filled. They milled around for a few minuets and the closest doe angled away slightly. I lent out and shooting this new VPA bow (which is fast) id not want to hit high. So I told my self "it shoots flat..aim low" I touched anchor and the arrow was gone. I did not even see it leave the bow, i did not see it hit, and could see no blood on the deer. BUT i heard it.

I watched as the 3 does ran full speed together they stopped at about 150, right now i was bringing up my Bino's and saw them scatter and what I thought was a doe sidestepping and crashing but by the time i had my bino's up i lost it. I sat and scanned for some time, Nothing. Gave it 20min and in thayt time found my arrow on the ground through my bino's...very red.
I got down looked at the arrow saw some blood and decided to head down and get Jim to share the spoor with me.

We had a coffee and headed out, on the track Jim took off like a Namibian,
 
the blood got better and better and pretty soon I tapped Jim on the shoulder and point to our left, there she lay.
 

[Whip]

Good shooing Andy!  Congratulations!

[AWPForester]

Congrats.  Things starting to heat up fellas.  God Bless

[Big Ed]

Way to go Andy!!!

[Horne Shooter]

Nice job Andy...Good shooting!

[Shaun]

Your a natural born killer Andy. Good to see you stateside and reaping the bounty. Good Hunting!

[maineac]

Great doe!  congrats!

[4runr]

Beautiful doe Andy. Congrats!!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

With light winds out of the north we chose to hunt the food plots on top. Andy went to the Bwana stand. I chose the Dallas stand on the south end over the great clover field. All the rain we have had recently has made it very lush once again. As I topped the rise just above the stand I busted a flock of hen turkeys that were feasting on crab apples. Some of the birds were actually up in the little trees branches. They looked ridiculous in this little tree!

The deer didn't start appearing till just before Dark. All told I saw 7 does and one small 8 point buck. I had a magnum sized doe at 20 yards feeding in the clover but she didn't get there until it was way to dark to pick a spot and i had no choice but to just sit and watch another walk away.

Still waiting for that shot to happen. Hopefully tomorrow will be my day.

[jcar315]

Congrats Andy!!

Keep after 'em!!!

[Shedrock]

Nice doe Andy, good shootin'!

[coaster500]

Great job Andy...  Jim put you in the ZONE  

Can't wait to see what's next!!!


 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Well its time to catch up!! We have been hunting hard!! but no arrows flew at deer today!! I started my day where I started the season. Cold, frigid morning. There was a circle or ice crystals around the moon last evening too! Hardly any wind . It wasn't long after first light when a deer came crashing sliding down the steep cliff above me. I grabbed the bow and hoped the deer would come my way when it landed on the logging road below. Some how it got on to the logging road and went the other way with out me hearing it. I waited and waited on that deer. But it was gone. I assume it was a doe. Over the course of the next four hours I saw 2 small bucks and three more does. The smaller of the 2 bucks came up to investigate the calls he had heard stopping just 15 yards below me. He found a little sapling and proceeded to give it hell. Fun to watch him tear into it. By 10:45 I was exhausted and headed in to see if Andy had had any luck.

[tradtusker]

Been great hunting. Jim was really my introduction to hunting whitetail im hooked now and really enjoying being out here hunting again.

This morning we left early and hunted the west edge of 5 pines, it was 26'f so naturally I was freezing my ass off, early on I hear a deer coming down the steep hill side. Buck...good buck! its a perfectly symmetrical 10 point. He is heading by about 60m above me and drops onto an old logging road, heading strait for Jim. he gets to the top of the hill and stops, and stands for about 15mins just scanning, in that time a small spike comes by about 20m below me, and the buck moves out of sight and all I could think was "heading strait for jim" by now im sitting back down and the next thing i know the buck is walking back and going to cross 25m in front of me    i get back up, get and arrow on and get set, Im going to get a shot. He stops right before my lane and im pep talking myself Im comfortable and im ready, just take 2 more steps.

 Next thing he lunges forward and trots about 15steps, stops and then slowly walks away up and over the bluff.      what the .... you have to be kidding me!  Im just left standing there and after getting over the shock just laugh and sit back down, just was not meant to be I guess.

This afternoon I sat above apple alley, one resident spike and a racoon at last light.

We'l be up and out rain or shine tomorrow.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

After butchering Andy's doe and grabbing a quick lunch of fried fresh venison and fried eggs we headed out again both of us expecting the bucks to break loose at any minute. I headed up to the squirrel's tail stand. Its just a short walk from the house on the lower reaches of the bluff above the turnips. I just love this spot. Heading up through the old pasture a doe jumps from beneath and apple tree just in front of me. It only went about 15 yards and stopped beneath a cedar. I knocked an arrow and tried To determine if it was an adult or not. Its really hard to be serious  about hunting when you are standing in just long john bottoms, tops and hiking boots. ( it was 50 now and I didn't want to get sweaty on the hike up)I must have looked awful silly and eventually the deer picked up on the foolish human a few steps away. Up the hill she went directly under the stand I was  heading to. Shaking my head I smiled, set my pack down and decided to get properly dressed to hunt. Then stalking the stand I got up and in with out alerting any further deer!

This stand faces down hill to the West and until the sun goes behind the western bluff it forces  you to stand looking to the north or to the south. I kept rotating directions when i would hear a noise that always turned out to be squirrels! Finally at about 10 minutes to 5 my back suggested I sit for a while. Seated with the sun beating down on me I closed my eyes. That's when I heard the distinctive, step, step step of a deer slowly walking behind me. I slowly looked over my shoulder and the first thing I see is RACK! less then 20 yards and more then 10 yards standing directly behind me is a great 8 point buck! He should have winded me all ready but I think he was on the trail of a doe as he acted like he did not want to bolt even though he knew i was some where  close! I was stuck sitting down, bow hanging up and a possible shooter buck at eye level up the ridge directly behind me! Finally his nose said to flee and he turned away from me and made one leap up hill. As soon as did that I stood , grabbed the bow and turned towards him. He caught that movement and ran up the trail about 45 yards and stopped when I grunted very loudly at him. But he had enough and off he bounded up the hill.  My timing couldn't have been worse. I consoled myself by saying that even if I had been ready. On my feet and bow in hand , he still would have been behind me and winded me and the result would have still been the same. Shoot, he wasn't that big anyway! I am going to keep telling myself that the rest of the night. That was the only deer I saw close all night.

[tradtusker]

fetching sunrise
 

Go and grow.
 

We'v had some of the doe I killed for Lunch today, we ate some of my elk from CO yesterday and had some venison from OK for supper, coffee is going down like a home sick mole as well around here.

Doe is cut up and in the freezer. The meat is Beautiful.

[coaster500]