Phil's 2013/2014 Hunting Journal

ChuckC said:

I have the regular Google Earth and it still shows the land from about 2 years ago. Do you have the Pro version??

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No sir. I simply make a polygon on each field and fill in the center 50% in either green or yellow for corn or beans. Wheat fields already picked I make brown. Next year I can go in and change the colors of the fields according to what is planted.

Today's update:
Did NOT want to be messing on anymore properties but my buddy and I haven't had much time to work together. Either I was working ground and he was planting or he was mowing one day while I was spraying another. Never had a chance since late July to do anything with stands. Today we got some done. We only worked the eastern property line which butts against the neighbor who is always out on his tractor or cutting wood, etc. We didn't feel our presence on the fence row/property line would be any different than the neighbor out in his yard working daily. Hung one stand, trimmed out and replaced ratchet straps on another and trimmed lanes on a third. That puts us in pretty good shape for easy in/out observation stands. Could be killing stands during gun season but mainly observation stands with a chance at an early season doe. The other time these could be very productive would be during the pre-rut. This fence row gets littered with scrapes in late October. Probably mainly overnight, but you never know.

Shame on me for not shooting my broadheads until today. A big thank you goes out to Milo for ensuring my bow was tuned so well! They shot true. Getting ready to sharpen them now and hit the hay.

Between my buddy and I we have 20-30 stands hung. Guess where I am hunting tomorrow? From my climber. hahahahaha

Have my spot picked out. Guys have been working cleaning up the powerline on this property I am hunting. They have altered the deer movement. I did some scouting via quad last week. Picked out two trees which would work with my climber and they should put me within 20yds of where I feel I have the best shot at a buck. Plan on being in the tree plenty early. Best of luck to anyone else heading out.

I went out yesterday with my adapted plan since the guys have been in there clearing power lines AND there appears to be a crew in there working on clearing the river on a river project as well. Talk about frustrating at the start of the season!

I implemented my adjusted game plan and used a climber despite having 20+ stands hung on 4 different properties. lol

Sweated my butt off, made too much noise, but got settled in. A bit before 8am a buck parade began. 3 basket racks, one younger deer bigger than a basket but not real big, an old man buck who appears to be on his way downhill, and one of my potential shooters. Naturally, the potential shooter is the only one who never gave me a good look or shot opportunity. I am still on the fence with him. Would like to study his rack and body a bit and then decide. I am leaning towards him being too young with too much potential to shoot this year. Later I had 2 button bucks mosey through as well. 5 of the 8 deer went directly under my climber. Thank you Scent Smoker for doing your job! Highlight to the hunt was watching the old man and young buck playfully spar for probably 15 minutes or so at 30-35yds before entering the woods and sparring some more roughly 60yds away.

Morning hunt: Climber stand on property west, 530am-10am, 8 deer seen, moon directly overhead at 829am with majority of activity just before 8am to 830am.
Evening hunt: Northernmost hang on observation stand on property east 530pm-8pm. No deer seen? Weird. This property is a producer generally.

Here are some links to video I shot.

[video=youtube_share;10PZ4dNCyuA]http://youtu.be/10PZ4dNCyuA[/video]

Total time on stand for season: 8hrs
Deer seen: 8
Shot opportunities: 5
Shooters seen: 1 maybe

Here is another video from yesterday. Might need to turn up your volume but you can hear some of the sparring.

[video=youtube_share;573HgG9SkVA]http://youtu.be/573HgG9SkVA[/video]

One more.

[video=youtube_share;-Dtii77IM3Y]http://youtu.be/-Dtii77IM3Y[/video]

Here is one of the bucks which was sparring. He is also the one I took the 5sec video clip of walking thru. Not sure why I didn't film longer but I am thinking more deer were moving in and I wanted to be sure to have a shot opportunity if needed. Anyone have a guess on age? He seriously dwarfed all the other deer. He is a burger factory even if his antlers are lacking.

finelyshedded said:

That was some great videoing Phil! The sparring was some great footage. Thanks for sharing that buddy and good luck this season!

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Thanks Ric. Pretty cool to watch and listen to. I would say they were going at it for 5minutes, then went down another 50-100yds and I listed for another 5 min or so. Came back to this spot and went at it again, then entered the woods, walked directly underneath me, and sparred again for roughly 5 min. They really just started sparring every time they stopped.

You think a buck on his way downhill would behave in this way? Doesn't seem like they would want to be bothered with a 2.5yr old sparring? Maybe this buck isn't as old as I think. Maybe he is just "big boned" with a small rack? lmao

CJD3 said:

Good thread Phil! You need a Gorilla arm cause sooner or later your going to have a shoot opp!

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Sad thing is I have a very nice Muddy camera arm and Monfrotto fluid head for the camera. Went in halves with a buddy. We haven't used them yet. It is a tough juggle for sure but in the end I would rather have the deer in my hands than video footage of him blowing out as he picked me off trying to film. lol