It’s been a while since I have mentioned much regarding my hunting and how things are shaping up with Moe. With the different approach I am taking this season (not hunting much in mid-October) there comes an inherent “worry” as to what is happening in the woods. Thankfully, I have developed a good grasp of trail cameras over the years and how best to use them on our farm. Last nights camera check was perhaps the single most informative check of the past eight years. There are currently six cameras on our farm and Moe showed up on four of those six in the time frame from last Tuesday when I hung the cameras, to early Monday morning. Of those four cameras, I expected him to be on three of them. Only one of the cameras I hung with expectations of capturing him failed to do so, but he managed to walk in front of one camera that I figured was a long shot. All in all, he is showing me exactly what I had hoped and I believe that my opportunity to kill this buck is coming in the next couple of weeks. Here is a look at what he showed me this week…
I headed to the farm last Tuesday (10/4) around 5PM to use the rainy conditions as cover for a camera check that takes me close to an hour at times depending on how much moving I do with the cams. I made sure to shower, smoke up, wash my boots in the creek, and don my rubber gloves for the check and it really paid off this time around. At 5:15PM, I made a move with the Hippie Ridge cam in an effort to capture him leaving the sanctuary on the trail I suspect he is using most often. At 7:23PM that evening, he cam down the natural edge created by the thicket and the open woods that runs along the N edge of the ridge. Not 10 minutes later, he walked directly passed the camera and disappeared out Hippie Ridge. During my camera check yesterday, I swapped the BEC for a SpyPoint and created a mock scrape at this location. It’s no chip shot from my stand at 55 yards, but it is well within my visual range from the stand…
After disappearing out Hippie Ridge, both Moe and I headed for a new cam that sits east of my second stand on the ridge roughly 65 yards. I hung this cam based on what I saw him do last year and it appears he is right on schedule. I pulled away from this cam at roughly 5:35PM that night and later that morning after spending the night in the bottom in front of the other BEC, he walks past this camera at 3:45AM headed back to bed in the sanctuary…
[video]http://youtu.be/y3G9E0OS1Yg[/video]
He would then again walk past this camera to bed around 5AM on Thursday (10/6) morning. Later that evening, he and Captain Jack would pass this camera at 9:23PM on their way to feed in the bottom. This is the exact pattern I witnessed nearly nightly during the last week of October last season and it the sole season I hung the other stand where I did on this ridge. I left this camera at this location last night, and also hung a BEC over the scrape/rub line/oak tree that sits 40 yards from my stand. I expect to get him on this cam as well…
[video]http://youtu.be/vVKvwPfHfLY[/video]
The surprise cam from his visits to a funnel on the N ridge of our farm, a place Deuce frequented quite often. Both visits were preceded by a stop in the bottom and an exit towards the food plot that sits in the bottom directly below this oak flat. The acorns are sparse, but they a there. The good news is that he did not walk past this camera, but rather exited in the direction of the bottom where he would again show up on the camera down there within an hour of making his appearance here…
The 100% expected pics cam from the BEC in the bottom where I have inventoried deer for the past three seasons. Moe loved this area last year and it seems to still be a favored location of his. Just above this camera is a shelf where he had a rub/scrape line last year. There is a subtle trail that leaves the ridge above where my stands are located, and meanders down the hill to this shelf. I hung another BEC on this shelf last night and opened up his preferred scrape from last season. If his pattern rings true, he will pass my SpyPoint 4 camera, walk down and hit the BEC 2 location, then drop to BEC 3 here in the bottom. He could very well hit BEC 1 and SpyPoint 3 in the process, a loop that would be exactly what I have been anticipating. The next check has the potential to seal his fate…
He made five separate visits to this location in the night of 10/9 and 10/10 alone. He is here nightly and has been as early as 8:05PM the night of 10/4 when he left the sanctuary at 7:23PM. I have two stands on the opposite side of the creek bottom from this camera 100 yards either direction from it. One is a decoy/observation set and the other is a killing/observation set. I expect to get my chance on the ridge, but either of these sets could offer me a chance. In addition to those two, there is a third on the same side of the creek that covers the shelf above and a hidden trail that cuts across the drainage ditch separation the sanctuary with the huntable hillside above this camera. It’s not my first choice for places to kill him, but I know he’s been within range of this stand several times in the past week…
The amount of weight this deer has put on in the past few months in unbelievable…
These two are close to being enemies after a long summer of hanging out together…
As you can see, things are progressing. No doubt I have the ability to screw this up, but for the time being I am very upbeat about what is going on with my hunting and the new approach this season. I’ll be in the woods this weekend sparingly, with next weekend marking the start of my feverish hunting. In the mean time, I’ll let the cameras work their magic!!!
I headed to the farm last Tuesday (10/4) around 5PM to use the rainy conditions as cover for a camera check that takes me close to an hour at times depending on how much moving I do with the cams. I made sure to shower, smoke up, wash my boots in the creek, and don my rubber gloves for the check and it really paid off this time around. At 5:15PM, I made a move with the Hippie Ridge cam in an effort to capture him leaving the sanctuary on the trail I suspect he is using most often. At 7:23PM that evening, he cam down the natural edge created by the thicket and the open woods that runs along the N edge of the ridge. Not 10 minutes later, he walked directly passed the camera and disappeared out Hippie Ridge. During my camera check yesterday, I swapped the BEC for a SpyPoint and created a mock scrape at this location. It’s no chip shot from my stand at 55 yards, but it is well within my visual range from the stand…
After disappearing out Hippie Ridge, both Moe and I headed for a new cam that sits east of my second stand on the ridge roughly 65 yards. I hung this cam based on what I saw him do last year and it appears he is right on schedule. I pulled away from this cam at roughly 5:35PM that night and later that morning after spending the night in the bottom in front of the other BEC, he walks past this camera at 3:45AM headed back to bed in the sanctuary…
[video]http://youtu.be/y3G9E0OS1Yg[/video]
He would then again walk past this camera to bed around 5AM on Thursday (10/6) morning. Later that evening, he and Captain Jack would pass this camera at 9:23PM on their way to feed in the bottom. This is the exact pattern I witnessed nearly nightly during the last week of October last season and it the sole season I hung the other stand where I did on this ridge. I left this camera at this location last night, and also hung a BEC over the scrape/rub line/oak tree that sits 40 yards from my stand. I expect to get him on this cam as well…
[video]http://youtu.be/vVKvwPfHfLY[/video]
The surprise cam from his visits to a funnel on the N ridge of our farm, a place Deuce frequented quite often. Both visits were preceded by a stop in the bottom and an exit towards the food plot that sits in the bottom directly below this oak flat. The acorns are sparse, but they a there. The good news is that he did not walk past this camera, but rather exited in the direction of the bottom where he would again show up on the camera down there within an hour of making his appearance here…
The 100% expected pics cam from the BEC in the bottom where I have inventoried deer for the past three seasons. Moe loved this area last year and it seems to still be a favored location of his. Just above this camera is a shelf where he had a rub/scrape line last year. There is a subtle trail that leaves the ridge above where my stands are located, and meanders down the hill to this shelf. I hung another BEC on this shelf last night and opened up his preferred scrape from last season. If his pattern rings true, he will pass my SpyPoint 4 camera, walk down and hit the BEC 2 location, then drop to BEC 3 here in the bottom. He could very well hit BEC 1 and SpyPoint 3 in the process, a loop that would be exactly what I have been anticipating. The next check has the potential to seal his fate…
He made five separate visits to this location in the night of 10/9 and 10/10 alone. He is here nightly and has been as early as 8:05PM the night of 10/4 when he left the sanctuary at 7:23PM. I have two stands on the opposite side of the creek bottom from this camera 100 yards either direction from it. One is a decoy/observation set and the other is a killing/observation set. I expect to get my chance on the ridge, but either of these sets could offer me a chance. In addition to those two, there is a third on the same side of the creek that covers the shelf above and a hidden trail that cuts across the drainage ditch separation the sanctuary with the huntable hillside above this camera. It’s not my first choice for places to kill him, but I know he’s been within range of this stand several times in the past week…
The amount of weight this deer has put on in the past few months in unbelievable…
These two are close to being enemies after a long summer of hanging out together…
As you can see, things are progressing. No doubt I have the ability to screw this up, but for the time being I am very upbeat about what is going on with my hunting and the new approach this season. I’ll be in the woods this weekend sparingly, with next weekend marking the start of my feverish hunting. In the mean time, I’ll let the cameras work their magic!!!