5 Pines Farm Whitetails 2014

[Jayrod]

Beautiful  Jim good idea on the vinyl !

[Wannabe1]

Oh ya, that's looking great!

[Chuck Janssen]

The equipment operator did a ecelent job!! Looking very good.

[elkken]

            Have a great season

[DarkTimber]

Good luck Jim.  I was up in your neck of the woods today and it sure felt like bow hunting weather this morning. Looking forward to following along this season.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

I am anxious to be hunting. While I have an important engagement tomorrow that can't be missed, I will be thinking about hunting while I'm there.

Here is a Google Earth Flyover of the farm showing all of my stand locations.


Unfortunately the contours of the ridges don't show up in these saved images. So to give you an idea of the steepness of the ridges let's use #4, 5, & 6 as examples. ( I switched to numbers on Google earth as the names were too long and covered too much detail). I have also drawn in the actual logging roads that are 4 wheeler accessible

Stand #4 AKA rattlesnake ridge, is 600 feet above stands #5 & #6, but only about 300 actual yards away.

All of my stands have names to help me keep track of what is going on and also to help direct my friends as to where they should sit. They are named for some one who killed a deer there, or a unique aspect of the stand, or something that happened at the spot. Some stands may only get hunted once or twice a year. I keep a daily spread sheet to record when a stand was hunted and what happened on that hunt. This helps me from over hunting a spot and the results are fun to look at year end.

In bluff country the winds can be really tricky. So some times one stand won't work but another on the other side of the ridge 50 yards distant does. If I get to a spot and the wind is wrong, I then have multiple options to go to.

The deer are really hitting the food plot right behind the house. I would really like to get one of the really big does that call the farm home.


If your season begins tomorrow, good shooting!

[Henry Hammer]

Nice looking doe Jim, are the bigger ones dry this year? I have a couple pics of "big" does with no fawns this year but all the younger does are with fawns. Harsh winter possibly have something to do with it? I dunno but I do love following along on your hunts. Thank you for doing this!! Henry

[Keefer]

Wow I see 28 stand locations Jim....The satilite images show 29 on the property..Did you forget to flag one?


The one next to the Yurt   :D   See I'm paying attention already this year...

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Not sure what you lookin at Keefer?

As of last night the little bucks were still in velvet. I watched this guy or his twin play with a buck fawn for about 30 minutes on the hayed hill side above the house last evening while I shot some arrows..


Not hunting this am was tough. My brain still made me get up well before dawn. It was 30 F this am .I think that is the coldest opener I can ever recall.

I watched several deer in the food plot behind the house. There was a cold fog in the valley and it was hard to see the deer as they drifted in and out of focus.After several cups of coffee I went out and dinked around at the yurt. When the sun was high enough to put a little warmth in the valley I shot a few more arrows.

I am shooting a static tip recurve osage self bow made for my by Brad Merkel back in 2006. The bow is 52 lbs at 26 inches. It's a little heavy form but I am shooting it well. I have not killed a deer with it and its high time I do.



it has big curls and water buff horn on the tips


Boa on the backside


Still shooting Carbons out of it though.

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

Here is the score card as this season gets under way . hopefully there will plenty more hash marks on the board by 12.31.

[steadman]

Good luck this year Jim! One day I hope I can get up there. I'd love to see it in person  

[LIBowhunter]

Really enjoy every aspect of this thread! Thanks for sharing I am envious!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Good luck Jim. Hope you are in a stand tomorrow.

[Tim]

Looking forward to tagging along!

[Sockrsblur]

     

[Hopewell Tom]

Will you be using that basket quiver to hunt with?

[T-Bowhunter]

[Green]

Following your success again this year.  Best of luck to you and your guests!

[LITTLEBIGMAN]

outing #1 Hay bale blind

We made our escape from the concrete and steel jungle of Minneapolis around noon. It is about a 3 hour drive home and I pushed just as hard as I dare.

At the end of the 10 acres of tillable land which I rent to neighbor is a small green field I planted in June. The hay bale sits just a few feet past where the corn ends. ( Red line is edge of corn)
 
 
 

[Greg Szalewski]

That is a nice looking bow. Brad sure has talent for making those. Good luck with it.