Damn. Two months between posts in here. Guess that shows where my heads at...
So things at my honey hole have really taken a hit in the last 7-8 years, and even moreso in just the last year. When mom and dad bought the property where they built the house, dad called in the "shoestring" as it was 150' wide at the front and 99' wide at the back, but 1,500' deep. Over the years he has traded survey work for smaller parcels that tie in to and in places, it's now 500' wide and it totals 11 acres. However all the surrounding parcels are essentially the same: long and skinny. Both adjacent neighbors hunt, which has really altered the deer movement from what it was in the old days. The neighbor to the south is a nice guy who has lived there before we moved in, but he's a real goober and hunts like a goober. (He actually owns my first bow and still hunts with it.) He has no clue how to hunt the wind or minimize pressure. Thankfully he only hunts a handful of times each year. The new neighbors to the north are the ones that really cramp my style as they can cut deer off from a bed to feed pattern. Unfortunately, I know the family all too well and it's not a great past. I expected them to be smart about their hunting tactics as I thought they were more educated than our southern neighbor. After sharing the woods with them this fall and being forced to listen to repetitive grunting and rattling, I've changed my mind about their hunting "prowess".
Hunting 11 acres that's less that's the width of the effective range of a muzzleloader poses some challenges. Thankfully there is still one factor that makes this spot good: The farm to the west is 62 acres of CRP and swamp bottom that is essentially "no hunting". All 3 bucks on my wall undoubtedly spent a fair amount of time on that piece of ground and to this day, it still harbors some good bucks despite the "shrinkage" within the neighborhood. Once our new neighbors to the north settled in and decided to post up right on the property line, I knew my old haunts would become useless in a matter of a season or two and as anticipated, that's what happened. A couple of weeks ago I took a quick walk down a drainage that connects some decent bedding to the property to the west and noticed far more sign along this path than ever before. It's very apparent the deer are using the topography and lack of pressure on our place to travel to and from. I hung a camera and wouldn't you know it, 3 targets for my wife and 2 moving during daylight the week after gun season. The first is a new buck that'll make a fine kill for her...
[video=youtube;5s5b0gI5fQ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5b0gI5fQ4&feature=youtu.be[/video]