5 Pines Farm Whitetails 2014

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

It was a mild morning with a breeze out of the ESE. I chose Joel's stand as it would be perfect for this wind.

It's just a 5 minute walk from the Yurt down the gravel road and then up the fire break on the field of big blue stem prairie grass. The stand sits just inside the woods edge on a 90 degree corner where the atv access point is to an old logging road. I drew in the road ( in red). The white lines are major deer trails that go by.
 

Wind direction is the Red arrow

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

As you can see there is a real hub of trails. A perfect spot for a self bow hunter as the longest shot distance 15 yards down to the logging road. The rest of the shots are 10 to 12 yards max! My kind of yardage!

I own just 23 acres on this side of the road. It's a steep bluff face that was last logged about 40 years ago. The deer use old logging roads that go up and down  to move thru the really steep spots. They also travel the contours as they move thru my land.

The rotting old tops of logged oaks mixed with the new growth makes for a great bedding area.

I have just 2 stands in here and hunt them exclusively in the am. The wind almost always travels up hill and if you try to hunt in the afternoons you just scare everything out as you walk in.

Picture of stand.
 

looking down upon logging road from the stand.
 

standing at corner and looking down the logging (red) road.
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Some day I will kill a big buck here.

Today at 8 45 I looked over my right shoulder up at the trail that runs past ( behind me) the tree stand about 12 yards up hill. The foliage is so thick here all I could see was the deer's legs as it was walking towards me. Then I got enough of a glimpse of it's head to determine it was an adult doe. It stopped 25 yards from me and I couldn't see it. I was already standing and holding my bow when I saw it. So I stayed stone still. It stood there forever and then turned up hill and walked away. Rats! I don't think it winded me but it sensed something and wasn't coming any further .

Close but no cigars this am!

[huntnmuleys]

keep it coming!!!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

weathered out this pm High 70's and 30 mph winds!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I heard the winds were stout at the farm this evening. My little brother saw nothing and became sea sick.

Good luck in the AM Jim. They should be moving.

[Gen273]

Jim,

I love this thread!

[Sockrsblur]

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

1st here is a pond update. We finished it!
 

then we got a storm last night . Mostly wind but we did get 0.25 inches of rain.  It's working!
 

looking forward to the next 1 incher!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

outing # 7 The Homestead stand.

Getting to this stand requires driving the ATV about 3.5 miles. The red line is the dirt road which turns to tar at the sharp left turn. Then its part way up a logging road I own and let the adjacent neighbors use to access their parcels.
 

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I've been told there once was an home here. I have not yet found any old foundations but its clear that there was once an apple orchard. There are 2 rows of giant apple trees here. Clearly some one planted them in the rows.

To keep my self scent free from the 4 wheeler , all my hunting clothes goes in a scent lock bag. My rubber boots go in a plastic grocery bag. I wear a mechanics onesy over my underwear and slip on shoes. I leave the yurt extra early and only drive far enough up the logging road so that the 4 wheeler is not seen by any one. I then get dressed there.

On the way there this morning I drag raced a 110 inch 8 pointer on the straight away before you get to the tarred hi-way. I spotted him loping along in front of me along side the standing corn in the ditch. I put the pedal to floor to catch up to him. We ran shoulder to fender for about 50 yards when he dived into the corn. The cheater!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I put this stand up last April when we were working on invasive species back here. At the time I was really happy with the visibility. Ha! couldn't see 15 yards today!

I leave this bluff face alone for most of the season as a sanctuary for the deer. Deer need a safe place to go when the shooting starts. This is one of two designated  sanctuaries on the farm .

On each side of me here the neighbors hunt with their shot guns hard.

I went here today because it was really windy this am and I thought the deer would head to a place to be out of the wind. Plus the apples are starting to hit the ground and since this is a new spot this year and I wanted to see what the wind would do on this hillside.

The stand is in a 3 trunk cedar  surrounded on four sides by crab apple trees.
 

views from the stand
 
 .

the heaviest trail goes by the stand at about 7 yards

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

The gusty wind was swirling all morning. Not sure if this spot is going to work from a wind stand point. But I hope so , as it is loaded with deer sign.

A storm front pushed in and it started to thunder. I prefer not to have my carbon arrows next to me in a lightening storm so I got down early.  I did hear one deer walking past me while I was on stand but never saw it.

On the way back to the ATV  there were deer  tracks on top of my boot tracks.

I will go back to this spot next week some time and trim just a couple of the higher cedar limbs that are preventing me from seeing very far. Then I'll let it rest for a while and try it again. I want to hunt in it once for three or fours hours while there are still apples on the trees.

Here are some more photos of the spot.

main trail past the tree
 
 trail I made to get in quietly
 
 looking down hill towards another old retention pond that still holds a little water
 
deer sign
 
 

[Sockrsblur]

Love that spot... those heavy trails gets the blood pumping lol

[Biathlonman]

Thank you sir, with a new baby and two other small children I'm going to have to live this season through your posts.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Couldn't hunt tonight, but we did have our dinner guests  down at the target butt for a bit.

Even had them shooting flu flus at throwing discs, what fun .

 
yoga woman does archery
 
ace car mechanic does archery too
 
 
ouch!
 

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Good Fun Jim!  Looks like your Pond will Pan Out.  Hope you are back at it in the morning!

[Hopewell Tom]

String "bite" - OUCH!

[Big Ed]

Everything looks great!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Outing #8. We really don't have a good name for this spot , so we call what it is . Ladder by Bill's.

Early last week I sat for a short hunt near my neighbor on the north end. On that same food plot is an old ladder stand for when the wind is out of the N or the NW.
This morning the wind was gusty and North Westerly.
 

I have numerous set ups all over the farm for this wind. But a trad friend is coming to hunt with me this afternoon and I wanted to leave the others unhunted so he would have a good choice of spots to sit.

I hope he bought the extra doe tag for this unit!

The weather has really been weird. Yesterday was hot and muggy and very still. It just poured at dark. My nephew was hunting last evening ( compound ) and got soaked coming  in at dark.

Very windy all night. The yurt's walls shook violently several times!  Today it was windy and much colder!
 
The gusty wind brought in a little rain at around 7 am.  A read tail hawk was keeping me company . He was sitting in his own tree stand on the other side of the food plot. He would scream and then soar in a circle over the plot landing back in the same tree several times before he left the plot to me.

But I saw no deer this morning.  Here are pictures of the spot from this vantage point.
 
old Box Elder screens the stand.
 

the trail crossing in front on me.
 
 the old ladder ( hey it was free)
 
the hills are taking on some color.
 

hope we have some luck tonight