Food plot pictures cont'd:
Clover/corn food plot Day 254 February 5, 2014
The weather has gotten a little more seasonal since last week. Still raining a little, lots of fog in the mornings, high in the low 70's. The bucks are rutting big time. Seems like every body except me has killed a good deer last week. Several evenings last week, bucks were chasing does in the pines or in the rye patch, too dark to see antlers but with the binoculars you can still see 'em going with their heads down , around and around.
Friday evening the rutting activity was really intense, so I left my rifle and binoculars in the shooting house and knew I would be there before daylight on Saturday. Kinda' slow at 1st, a little button buck fed up to the feeder and was standing under it watching something when it went off! He ran down a pine row and stopped about 50 yards from the feeder. He was still looking at something. Finally spotted another deer and it was a legal buck. He was probably close to 175 yards away in the planted pines and he was trailing. I gave 3 grunts on my tube and he disappeared. Saw him about 10 minutes later and grunted again, he disappeared again. A few minutes later I spotted him coming at a fast walk around the road on the east side of the food plot. He had his head up and was really looking, never stopping. I didn't want to shoot at him while he was moving, so I made a little noise with my mouth, (like the big boys on TV) he stopped and I put one through his lungs. He took off running and he hit some thick stuff and water and disappeared. I listened but couldn't hear him, my being old and about half deaf don't help much.
Climbed down and went back to the house to get my helper, Flossie. As we were nearing the spot she had her nose in the air, winding, when I stopped the cart and told her to go, she took off went in the thick junk and came right back to the road and started to back trail. I hollered at her and back she came, back in the water and thick junk and she just stopped. Peering through the junk I could see the deer, he had run and hit an old fence line that used to divide the pastures back when we had cows. Got to looking around and there was a blood trail that a blind man could follow. He was a cow horn spike with little brow tines, call him a 4 point, nothing close to the 4 big 8 points that were on some camera phones the following morning at church!
The deer are still feeding on the rye that is doing well on the higher/dryer side of the food plot. Monday evening I went to the plot and a little before 5pm I spotted a deer walking through the pines, it was a buck. He went directly to the feeder and stayed around it for 20 minutes, then here he comes out into the rye and feeds across the full width of the plot. He was a 6 point. I called my wife and asked if we need more meat and she said unless he's a big one don't shoot him. He walked right passed the shooting house and the last time I saw him he was heading toward our house. (OK, were heading to Atlanta for a grandson's b'day later in the week and just finished processing the deer from the 22nd, still got another one in the cooler to do next week.) Most of my buddies are reporting the bucks are really doing their thing this season. Maybe a big one will come by before it's over!
Pictures this time show blood trail and the dog and her little buck.
Treefarmer
More meat for the freezer.
Clover/corn food plot Day 262
Checked my camera yesterday around 11am and jumped a bunch of deer that were at the feeder, tails going everywhere! No pictures of them or the 6 pt last week, only 12 pictures, new SDHC card, so I changed the batteries, they were showing 79%. Don't know squat about what they do, thought fresh batteries might help it? Last season a tech from Moultrie said they should be changed when they get to 50%? Still have several days left of rifle season, then a week of ML. Went this afternoon, nothing moving, full moon tomorrow. Hadn't been since last Tuesday evening when the 6 point showed up. We spent 5 nights near Atlanta and left Monday morning before all the fun started, again. Have one venison ham left to process, then it will be sausage time if I don't kill another this season. Sorry no picture this time, but this evening the frogs were calling and anything that walk close by you could have heard them wading in the water!
Treefarmer
Clover/corn food plot Day 268
The season is almost over, haven't killed a big buck yet. However we did get a few pictures of some good ones a while back. Don't get me wrong, we are thankful for the two we did kill on this plot!
The food plot has been very disappointing this year, too dry, then too wet and then it has continued to be wet for the past 7 months or so. I don't put any store in the political issue of climate change that's being brought up again by Kerry, but I do believe in weather cycles. When we bought this place over 40 years ago, this food plot acreage still had watermelon beds on it. Watermelons don't do well in standing water. We used it as pasture and also planted pines on part of it. For the last 10 years we have planted it as a food plot with pretty good results till this season. Dry spring killed the clover, wet summer didn't help the corn and rye grain just doesn't do well with wet feet!
Depending on the season, the location of the food plot may have to change. There is some high land over on the east side with 30 year old pines that can probably be utilized. Further from the house and I would have to build a new shooting house. And the fact that I'm getting older, the next shooting house may not be quite so tall. Several of my "older" friends have hunted on the ground this season.
The deer have quit moving or must have moved to another location according to the lack of sign crossing our roads and the lack of pictures on the camera. Mentioned camera problem last time, changed the batteries even though they read 79% and it then took pictures at all times of the day and night. No pictures of them ganged up under the feeder but about a dozen shots of deer or squirrels. The last deer picture was Monday morning, so it tells me the deer are doing something different at our place. Sat Tuesday morning for a couple of hours and had hawk put on quite a show for about a half hour. Afternoon hunts produced the same, no deer moving. Last week was the full moon, that made have had something to do with movement, but they still have to eat. After this week, I'll probably hunt the lease property for the last week of M/L season, lot shorter shooting distance at that stand. Several pictures this week of the plot and what it looks like in the water and what I would have preferred it to look like.
Treefarmer
