wtnhunt

Looks like a nice property Frank. Congratulations and best of luck with it. Only thing more rewarding when it comes to hunting than taking deer off the property you own is seeing the rewards of your work pay off for your kids. All but given up on adding to our existing property. Been looking some at trying to find another farm here, one of these days maybe will find the right one to fit our needs that we can afford.

Very interesting. Hope doctor Bastian is correct with his findings and is able to find a cure. Seems like something other leading researchers in medical fields concerning dementia related diseases would be jumping in on.

Good luck catching your trespassers Joe. Wife has to work this weekend. If she gets home early enough tomorrow, need to check the beaver situation in the bottom. Pulled my traps, those older rotten rats know my traps are there, tripping the traps with limbs then building the traps into their dam. Have cleared their dam several times this past week. Did manage to shoot one Wednesday afternoon, and then popped another one yesterday morning.

So disgusted with politicians, they forget who put them there. Pelosi and Schumer are nothing but hypocritical traders. Sad their constituents continue to allow them to "represent" them.

Nope, never seen that exact sticker before. Saw one yesterday here at the elementary school in the pick up line for my second grade son that had never seen before, had what basically equated to an f bomb. Had an AR standing on the barrel with the mag and stock to the right then the letters uck "gun control". Agree with the basic sentiment, but all wrong in the approach, and glad my kid couldn't see it. My 7 year old son loves to read and surely would have read it out loud and asked what that meant.

Yeah in a smaller contained area that would probably help, unfortunately this situation here is so widespread that it would be impossible to eliminate it and even in doing so there are still lasting potential. Presently the cwd zone covers 7 west TN counties, potentially covering an area of about 100 miles by 30-50 miles. From all I have been able to learn about the disease, the prions that cause cwd may last in the soil indefinitely, as in for several years and be able to infect other deer as they encounter that contaminated soil.

In 1992 parents bought this farm, was 80+/- acres then. I helped my parents with the place whenever I could. Wife and I bought into the farm in 94, parents sold off the house and 18.34 acres surveyed out with the house. We paid off the land and then took a loan and put a double wide on the property and have lived on our farm since January 95. Took a new loan and built our log home in 2009, will have that paid off soon. So we have been here on our property for a little while. Some of the new folks that have bought land around us have TRIED to make claims and the lines are not definitive. Not really sure at this point what we own in total land, should have been about 61 acres, but maps out about 7 or so acres less if looking at the lines the tax assessor has drawn out. Lines and our deed don't exactly match either. The deed for the farm beside us does not close on its lines, and he thinks he has more than what he bought. With hopes of avoiding issues we tried to buy the farm next to us when our neighbor passed away a few years back but missed out on getting our offer in by less than 24 hours. We had sole permission on that place until he passed but left it as a kind of sanctuary area. That farm was timbered out, they took a lot of mature oaks off it, has become a mess. Our border on our longest side is about 3/4 of a mile and winds around with an old river channel. The river dumps into the MS. Along the channel we have some bottom ground that is currently submerged. The other part along the channel is hills and gulleys. Most the edges along the channel is wooded, a mix of hardwoods. Have a LOT of mature oaks on the property. Our house sits about half way back on the property and what is front of the house is pasture, don't hunt that. Most of our hunting is done behind the house and to the west of the house over the bottom. Have one stand that is along the channel that used to always produce or at least produced great opportunities that unfortunately the ground in front of has been put under water by sand that has washed into the channel. Deer movement there has been dramatically altered, badly need to get a trackhoe in and clean out the channel and fill back in where water has cut a new channel deeper into our property. Put in food plots regularly and will be putting in beans this summer. There are ag crops in around us varying in size from small to a hundred acres or more. Pressure here used to be crazy, but has not been as bad in recent years. TN has made changes to the buck limits to help. Still get a fair amount of pressure, but nothing near as bad as it was when the property behind us was leased out. With the current status of CWD and the unknowns as to how far it is in the state, not sure what kind of changes we will see for the upcoming season and how liberal the limits might get.

With looking at how many cases and how large the area of positive animals, I am gonna guess it has been here a while, just had been missed being identified until a few months ago. Maybe the state will become stricter at enforcing or even come down with stricter regs on baiting to help slow spreading of the disease to more of the herd.

Have a daddy daughter dance tomorrow night with my 13 year old, Allison. Want to take Will, 7 year old son, to see the lego movie 2 some time over the weekend.

I would disagree on trail cams, at least on normal trail cams that require the hunter to go into his hunting area and recover his cards. I would agree with you however on the trail cams that give instant email or cell phone delivery. Been waaaay too many times we have been able to use trail cameras to discover a buck that we never knew was around outside of season, helps motivate staying after one. Reality is most the trail cam pics we get of mature bucks during season show NO pattern and often times are active around our cameras outside legal hunting hours. Just another scouting tool imo.

Watched it, some interesting faces. One of the best was that of burnie when Trump said this country would never be a socialist state.

Agreed. Been one to not use gloves while processing. Not sure how well that will go, but will try to keep some sort of gloves on hand. We process in our kitchen as well, and according to what I have read, it is no good using your kitchen utensils that you use for other purposes. Had always used the same cutting board and fillet knives I use for cutting other meats, suppose I will have to start keeping those separated. Also read that a 50% solution of bleach was suggested for disinfecting knives and other utensils, dunno that I want to expose my stainless knives to that corrosive a mix, had been using dawn dish soap and vinegar in the past. I know that some places who do beef and pork and are usda approved also take deer, this will surely be a cause for concern, and would have to think there would be some sort of regulations to prevent possible contamination to other meats. Even if they do a deer separately, they would have to clean everything after each deer they do, doubtful that that would take place. Process our own, but yes this should be a concern for everyone using deer processors who take mass amounts of animals. Way too many people we know using local processors have claimed they don't know who's deer they are getting nor do they know how that animal was taken care of post kill. Have also read that this will impact hunters for the hungry as well. We had a couple families we donate meat to that I think are now afraid to take any venison.

Thank you to all those who took the time to read and replied. We know the 8 pt she did not shoot made it through and has been pretty regular, hopefully that will pay off for her or one of us for next year. He has an interesting "bump" on the bottom side of his right main beam below the g3 that may be identifiable next year. Had a couple others that have been coming around we never saw that also made it through. Looking forward to next season in the stand with Allison and Will.

Would seem MS and TN would have been working on this together or at the very least TN should have acted as though it was already here in the counties closest to the MS state line. Looks like Benton co MS was one of the higher concentration areas https://www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/chronic-wasting-disease/cwd-map/. Likely the reason for the explosion of cases in Fayette and Hardeman TN. Seems pretty likely that infected deer may have crossed state line into those counties and found their way to mineral sites or feeders/bait piles, which is illegal in TN during season but not out of season. Why Tn had not already implemented their cwd plan in those areas prior to this season is beyond me. I mean looking at the Mississippi map, there were some just about straddling the line. Oh well, not in a cwd zone yet. My primary mineral site has been in use for probably 20 years, about the only way I see deer stopping coming to it will be to fill it in.

Actually looks like the highest concentration of confirmed cases came from close to the MS line, may have made it's way here across the state line. Will have to look later but think we went from none to over 90. Seems likely to me with as many positive confirmed it has been here a while.

Opted to get up off my rear during the half and take care of some things, knew it was not something I wanted to sit through. Actually thought the game was a good game, nice to see defensive well played games, especially when the offenses are expected to be high scorers. Think the mvp going to Edelman was the right choice as well, I said he should get it if the pats won before the 4th quarter even started.

Just think of the gifts we would give to Mexico that would go along with the transaction. They would get Feinstein, Pelosi, Kamala Harris, and the new governor that thinks it is ok to give illegals "free" healthcare.

Not something any hunter wants to hear about their state, looks like it has been here for a good while https://www.tn.gov/twra/hunting/cwd.html . Been watching the states site closely for the past 5 weeks or so. With confirmed cases in the counties below us, afraid it is just a matter of time before it is confirmed in our county as well. The response from our game commission has already put out that there is to be no more "feeding" in those counties, no minerals either. Guessing we will see some reg changes for future seasons and guessing mineral sites are gonna be a thing of the past here as well. We did have one "sickly" looking doe Allison and I watched the afternoon she killed her buck. Deer was grinding her teeth in a weird sideways motion eating soybeans, kinda figured she may have been an older doe, but maybe not? What kind of impact have you seen in your state from cwd?

I wanted one Dave, to view our property in real time as it sits. And seeing where the deer were coming from off our property would be a definite plus. There are no accurate maps that would give the same perspective, but I definitely see where you are coming from. Unfortunately we are to close to a small county airport and it would be a headache to even be able to use it. Using a drone like a dog in a deer drive would seem a bit over the top, but could see it happening in places where drives are legal. Yeah, lines could be blurry there for sure, some could make a seemingly legitimate rationale for their use. Personally I don't think driving deer would be for me, not legal here. With that being said, if by chance a stray or wild dog or coyote pushed a buck of a lifetime to me while I was sitting in my stand hunting for that deer, would I take the shot? Me, yes I probably would, because it was not my influence that pushed the deer, different imo than using a drive situation. Some older members here may remember the controversy back 15 or so years ago about the robotic controlled guns that were being proposed and maybe even actually used to kill deer in Texas I believe. That was nothing more than a video game taking a live animal, disgusting in my opinion. I would liken that to your drone kill example, would be nothing more than a video game. Bottom line, I see no problem using a drone to get a better picture as a scouting tool, I think however a line is crossed when you put controls of a firearm in any kind of tech situation.

Buckwheat is in the mix we used to plant for the 4h plot project. I don't know that I ever saw deer eat the buckwheat, but would guess they would. As far as it being a good cover, I would have to look back. I have used rye grain with clover with great results, and the lespedeza in the mix we planted always did well.

Cooking a shoulder and a couple whole chickens on the smoker tomorrow. Guessing the girls will go to volunteer tomorrow at the riding academy, dunno though. Gonna warm up some tomorrow, so will likely get the girls to help me paint the parts to their bunny hutch so we can get it all put together. Depending on how early the girls are gonna take off, may get out early tomorrow morning to try and call for yotes. Will have to check traps at some point. Probably watch most of the game Sunday.

Had not even thought of that, but that makes sense for sure. It was overcast and pretty dim so maybe seeing the muzzle flash and the rush of adrenaline combined to over-exaggerate the flash. Thanks for the replies.

Cooler weather does get them on their feet in most places. Interestingly enough read an article recently that suggested in the south that below freezing temps may make them hunker down. I can say that is not accurate here in west Tennessee. Most of the bucks I have killed over the past 10 years have been when the temps have been below freezing. If you have any beans around where you hunt, that is where I would be. Bucks this time of year are hitting food sources pretty hard.

Yep cooold weather in the forecast here for the next several days as well. Might build a new bunny hutch if it is not too cold outside and if I make if to Lowe's for materials. Possible I can cut outside and build it in the basement. Likely I will get a couple calling sets in for yotes Saturday and maybe Sunday. Check traps, check the two cams I have still out. Need to pull three stands but may wait for warmer weather.

Missing an important one the liberals don't want to talk about. Remember obama's "hot mic" comments. Still wonder just exactly what he meant with saying he would have "more flexibility".