5 pines farm 2012 semi live

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

got good snow to come home to. When i get back i should be able to pick out the best spots with ease
 

 

[ron w]

That photo with the Yurt would be my Christmas card for this year!!! Just Beautiful......  

[Hopewell Tom]

Man, those snow scenes are Deer Hunting Heaven!
That'll ramp up the excitement factor, I'm betting.
Good Luck!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

wonderful to be in the woods again this am
   
I'd forgotten how much more effort not to mention time it takes to get up the bluff when you have snow to move through. I'd intended to hunt the email stand but by the time I was going past the Ivy stand it was all ready orange in the East.

The wind was good for Andy's stand so up it I climbed. About an hour after first light I saw legs moving through the cedars down below me. Never did see the deer and have no idea where it went. But it was fun to be on alert for the rest of the sit.
30 minutes later I heard a deer cracking acorns in  its jaws and looked over my left shoulder to see a small doe nosing around for mast. It was downwind of me and in a moment it figured out where I was. Then another stood that I had not noticed and they both trotted away to East.

duty called and I left the stand at 9 am. Bumped a big doe and her fawn as I came down off the ridge. Looking forward to more hunting in the snow this afternoon.

[ti-guy]

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I saw plenty of deer this afternoon. Except I was sitting on one hillside above the turnips waiting for the deer to come down and they all came down the opposite side! I watched 7 deer in single file head down the bluff opposite of me tonight! They spent about an hour feeding in the turnip plot.

Two bucks were actually sparring in the food for quite awhile too!

The snow really makes them visible from a distance. But it makes me very visible going in to my stand too! Plus we have had two days in a row now of low 40 degree temps. The snow has become wet and soft and will freeze tonight. Try walking quietly in that!  Its going to be tough to get to a spot with out scaring everything away that's for sure.

I think my best bet to still kill another deer this year is to go to stand around noon and then spend the rest of the day there.

[maineac]

Keep at it.  Nice to read about the hunt, since season are done here.  I will be living vicariosly through you.

[coaster500]

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Well I "tried" to hunt this am. I say tried because the with the snow melting and refreezing every  deer in the valley heard me walking this am!!

It was a beautiful morning though.
 
I jumped a big doe near here yesterday and the last time in the afternoon i tried this spot I jumped 2 does that were bedded nearly right under it.
 
the trail that goes by here is getting used fairly heavy. Heck even the scrape near by has been partially cleaned off

I think today will be the last am I try to hunt until we get more snow. Its just pointless to make so much noise.

i will be out in the afternoons .So hopefully I'll more good stuff to post from those sits.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

here are some of the deer i watched walk out into the turnips last night. I knew from the behavior that the majority of them were bucks. Look like all 7 were
 

this will be a good one next season
 

[Greg Szalewski]

Looks like turnips are the go to food plot for the post rut/gun hunt. early season food plots like soy beens are cute but I think the turnips are more bennificial in the longer run.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

In the baseball movie with Kevin Costner there was a saying "If you build it they will come" Well in tonight's story the saying is "if you plant it they will come" People may call me a liar, but even I was amazed at the number if deer I saw tonight!

I climbed the ridge early and with a wind out of SE I got up in the big oak that holds the Bwana stand. We have lost a lot of snow cover the last three days but the amount of track in the food plots up top was nothing short of amazing!

the first of how many I don't actually know!
 
Shortly after 3 pm i looked to my right to the East and three smallish does appeared at the end of the food plot.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Then I looked to my left to the West and could see 4 more sky lined just over the crest in that plot. I heard another down below me and I spent the next 20 minutes focused on a doe browsing her way up the  hill. A snort to my left and 5 big does that had come over the crest from the other food plot wind me at the edge of the rape and spin and run away.

I figured the jig was up after their loud snorts and blowing out of there and I was tempted to get down even though there was at least 30 good minutes yet to go. I had just decided to stick it out when I spot 2 bucks to my right on the far end and a doe with two fawns coming up from below me . This doe I have seen many times and once again she comes out into the field way too far for me to shoot. She is feeding when I hear deer running into the food plot from my left. 7 does and fawns coming running in. They are directly downwind, smell me and turn and run right back out. They stop 40 yards out and turn around and start walking back! They get to the edge of the rape field ( now a field of stalks ) and just mill around. They know I am close but don't pick me up in the tree. its getting late but the little snow that is left is helping a lot. One of the bucks who was on the end of the plot is now walking around going from doe to doe but he is small and the does just ignore him. Finally one of the big does ( 2 were the magnums I have seen before) snorts and spins and pulls several of the deer out with her. It is way past time to get down , so I do a few really loud grunts and send the rest of running.

I turn on my headlamp to see my way down the tree and 2 little ones I didn't see wheel out and away.What an amazing evening to say the least!

[Whip]

And???
Snow cover sure adds a new element of anticipation.  I'm waiting!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

what really amazed me was how much those deer wanted to be in the rape field even after getting a smell of me. they would spook turn around and come right back!! too bad all the food directly below the stand is gone and the deer end up in the outer edges of the plot. So I have to figure out which trail on which bluff they are coming out on top on and if I dont have a stand on it I need to get one there soon
. The food isn't going to last forever with a herd of this size hitting it.

[coaster500]

Nice 8...  Wait for 13..  Can u say toad!!

Looks like you're seeing lots of action !!


   

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

after a night and morning of rain our winter wonderland has turned to slop. It felt like late March or even early April as i headed once more up the hills
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

the logging road at the top of the ridge that goes to the upper food plots is almost totally void of snow
 
I wanted to hunt near where I did last night. When Andy Ivy was here we hung a stand along the mowed trail on the opposite side from where I sat last night.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I slowly approached the stand in the fog I made out shapes in the food plot just above the stand.
a big flock of hens were feeding and took off when I made one two many moves trying to take their picture!
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

In what little snow was left there was quite a heavy deer trail along the edge of the woods in the mowed trail
 
its about 30 yards slightly up hill to the edge of the food plot. If I had been thinking more about hunting rather than plowing when I made this food plot is would have been further down the hill closer to the stand. I guess you learn from your mistakes and for now I just had to hope a deer would come long  in the mowed trail. or in the grass half way between me and the edge of the food.