wtnhunt

Hopefully won't be any bad weather, very warm and humid here. Sun coming out now is really probably not too good. Pulled something in my low back last Thursday(Thanksgiving day) when I lifted my 7 year old son over a fence and ended up not hunting like I wanted to since. Hoping to get a little time in a stand, but dunno, will depend on the weather. Saturday afternoon our 13 year old and 17 year old daughters are both marching in a local Christmas parade, will be Nicole's last and Allison's first, so we will be there for that. I need to kill a decent buck for meat in the freezer and for a cape for Catrina's deer. We had one on trail cam pics show up last week I thought would be perfect but no sign of him since. Supposed to be a cold front coming in Sunday/Monday, really hoping to get a good sit in Sunday afternoon if things work out.

All you have to do here is drag and drop Lewis. You should see a paperclip below the text box. Just click where it says choose files and drag your pics from your computer or phone to the box.

Man Al, you have had a great season. That MS buck sure looks bigger with that mass. Good luck on the double drop buck.

Good deal. Congratulations to Emma and to you too Tim. Yeah, agree with the above, looks very heavy for a 1.5 year old.

Congratulations on the doe Jerry. Been a strange season here. Not seeing anywhere near the numbers of deer we normally would see, have seen only one fawn for 3 groups of 2-3 does, afraid between predation and liberal limits our numbers are continuing to head in the wrong direction. No deer in the freezer yet here, wife killed a mature buck with muzzleloader, but unfortunately I did not find him until 4 days later. We do have a lot of season left yet though with our gun season having just opened last weekend.

lol. Welcome back Luke.

Everyone have a Happy and safe Thanksgiving. Wife and I celebrated our silver(25 years) anniversary yesterday. As it stands right now, we have just our kids and son in law coming for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Wife is working today and also has to work Friday, so home with my kids. My old smoker went dead on me not too long back and have not replaced it yet, this is the first time I can remember in a looooong time that I am not smoking a turkey, bought a precooked hickory smoked turkey instead for this year. Guess I will be cooking tomorrow at some point. Plan to hunt some, maybe get Allison or Will out in a stand, there is a decent 7 around that I won't shoot but would be happy to see Allison, our youngest daughter(13) shoot him.

Nice 8 pointer Tim. Congratulations. I would have whacked the yotes and kept hunting. Good luck with your daughter and the crossbow.

Lynn gives some good advice, I would check with others in your area before planting a greens or brassicas mix though. I had always heard how deer would hammer purple tops and any pretty well and type of greens. I tried them a couple times and also tried other mixes with brassicas. Deer here do not seem to prefer them over other sources and will walk right through them to eat grass, I watched deer too many times to count walk through great looking plots to eat just plain old grass. I have tried a few times planting deer specific mixes and while the deer did eat some of the tops immediately following our first hard freeze, they did not touch them after that. With one of my plantings we had about a half acre of turnips that rotted in the ground and stunk, not the results I hoped for at all. Pretty well the same results here for brassicas mixes that had sugar beets. From all I have heard northern deer will really hit them hard and will even dig up turnips and eat them, it is hit and miss for southern areas. I am in west Central TN, about 45-50 miles to the west KY border as a crow flies. With regards to the clover, it does make a difference if you do it right. A well fertilized and properly limed clover plot will be a preferred source for deer over a pasture or hay ground that is not maintained quite the same. Best advice I could give would be to ask someone in your area how the deer do on brassicas before planting them.

We had strongly felt this particular deer we got hundreds of trail cam pics of this year was one that we passed on last year. He had a big body last year and we thought he was mature, but three of us hunting on our farm all passed the deer due to his antlers being splintered and with hopes he might grow a normal rack this year. Only thing that did not make sense was that his goofed up rack was goofy on his right side last year and this year on the left, always thought the antlers would continue with irregularities on the same side from one year to the next. We had clues such as a notch in his left ear that we assumed was from fighting that were on the late season 17 pics that were also on this buck this year. The white/grey face is not something we see too often either and would seem unlikely a buck we knew made it though left the area and another one with similar features moved in. We had noticed at one point the buck had a golf ball sized spot on his jaw on the right side about mid jaw. We assumed that was from fighting. It was not until I pulled the jawbone yesterday before taking the head to the taxidermist that I noticed the third molar on the right was broken in half, about midway in the jaw. Did not think a lot about it until talking with the taxidermist and he mentioned that was interesting that tooth was abscessed and right away thought about the deer's jaw. No doubt in my mind this was the same deer.

Don't feel too bad Mike. Things here have not been up to what we normally would expect either. Usually our muzzleloader season produces and while Catrina did kill the top buck on our property, we are just not seeing many deer and not seeing any good bucks at all. Good to see you check in though, hope things are improving for you.

Depending on your deer density and on other available food sources, that strip that is roughly a half acre may not be big enough for a bean plot. Here there is so much other ground around in crops that where I plant beans in the summer I am usually not hit by overbrowsing. Hard to say whether that would be the case there. Usually where there are fair to good deer densities you look for a minimum of an acre for a bean plot. For a clover plot you could get away with the smaller plots and that would probably be what I would lean towards for that strip. Here in west TN with weed competition clovers will do better planted in the fall than they do in the spring. I would put all of that strip in one planting and look for another spot for another plot if it were me. Also, with a fall clover planting you can add a grain for a nurse crop, I prefer wintergrazer rye grain to go with clover. The deer will hit the rye too.

Congratulations again Al. Great season for you and great deer, both yours and your buddies.

Talked with the taxidermist last night and he said he probably has one but if he doesn't he is sure he can find one. Also said he could probably replicate the markings on the deer from pics, or at least he will try.? This deer's main beam on the right measures 23.5. Best base measurement I could get was greater than 6.5 on the same side, I need to go back with a piece of wire instead of using a seamstress tape. His inside spread from center to the right side was better than 10 inches basing from a plane across his nose to center between bases. If he was matched up would probably be better than 20 inches inside. Everything about him said mature deer, I was really hoping to get a weight on him. We thought he would go over 200 lbs last year and think this year he was probably even heavier. And yeah the yotes seem to come from nowhere, dunno why the heartworms don't kill them. We start hearing them often around the time before our archery season opens. Pic below is of him with one we think was a 2.5 year old, body size comparison. He really was that much taller/longer/bigger, makes guessing body size a little deceiving in pics when he was standing alone. I plan to go back sometime maybe this weekend and see if I can make any determinations by the shoulders and ribs as to where she may have hit him. She was aiming a little ways back from the near shoulder, said she had it pictured in her mind with the angle that the bullet should have exited just slightly in front of the far side leg. I don't think she got an exit at all. Maybe the bullet is lodged in the far side shoulder, would explain the limited blood.

Yeah ma nature seems confused, sure the animals are too. Was below freezing all day here yesterday and the mix started well before the forecasters anticipated. First year I was here, in TN in 92, we had 6+ inches of snow on the ground for Thanksgiving or the day before, I was out working in it. Don't recall having any significant measurable snow this early since. Schools called early here yesterday, the geniuses who make the decisions always wait til the last minute, gave 45 minutes of notice and had all 3 schools closing at 1:30, we have one kid in each of the 3 schools. Common sense would say to stagger the pick up times, but common sense is uh..... Was a huge traffic nightmare. We have good schools, but they always are one of if not the last school system in this part of the world to make their calls, we did however know last night that the kids were out for today. We ended up with about 2.5 inches of snow over the ice. With a 26 last I checked low for tonight I suspect they will be out again tomorrow but doubt we know until in the morning. Our rifle opens this weekend. Doubt I see a deer I will kill this year, but who knows with the big old mean buck out of the way maybe something special will come along. Gonna be back up near 60 for highs, sure the deer are confused. I want to get out this afternoon while there is still some of this white stuff on the ground, but doubt my wife gets home in time. Looks like the second year in a row of no muzzleloader deer for me, kinda bummed. Our 7 year old son has finally decided he wants to go hunting with me, may try to get him out for an afternoon sit since temps are gonna be decent. Our oldest daughter and her husband both have shown interest in hunting this season, but dunno. I need to see my son in law show some competency with the rifle he is gonna hunt with before I send him off. Sunday after church plan to meet with the taxidermist to take Catrina's deer in, he said he might have a cape that will work. For the most part of the weekend I suspect I will either be in a stand or at the house with kids while someone else is out hunting.

Soybeans for annuals, period. Deer seem to do very well on beans, and will continue eating the stubble well on into winter. If you have a local supplier eagle RR beans are great, if not the shipping is too much to justify and would look at other options. Been using hoosier pride roundup resistant beans here that are sold at rural king. Have had pretty good luck with them. For perennial would go with a mix of clovers. All a matter of preference really, my favorite clover mix is from pennington. Their clover blend in my experience does very well. Good luck, and stick around and post some pics next spring/summer.

Been a strange season. Beans still in all around us, and really just been unusual. Even with talking to some other local hunters that typically do well just not seeing the deer they expect, I went several times with not seeing a single buck and not honestly seeing all that many does either. Have not even heard any close shots which is highly unusual. For the month of October for the most part we had pics of only one buck and we had plenty of pics of him but all at night. I was pretty sure this was the buck we passed on several times last season that had splintered his antlers early on. We had a couple hundred pics of him last year and saw him too many times to count. He even walked in view of our house during daylight on a couple of occasions during the rifle season letting me know he must be bedding nearby. We thought he was 4.5 last year. We believe this area was his area and he did not tolerate other bucks as we saw his aggressive dominant behavior. I pulled cards the week before last and noticed his activity was getting close to legal shooting time and also noticed he had a group of 3 does in several frames and in some frames on a scrapeline he was tracking that group. Told my wife, Catrina, mid week last week any time now he is gonna slip up and move during daylight. So Thursday she got off work early and was in the stand sometime after 3. I figured she might see him at last light. I get home with my kids at 3:30 and get my 7 year old son to go outside with me to help me put a new fuel pump on my truck. We had been outside for a few minutes when we heard the shot, at around 3:40 with temps in the 50's. So I get my son and go back to the house to get my phone and go to text my wife as I hear another shot. Few minutes later she texts me "it was him, first shot low don't know about the second". Unfortunately she was unable to see the deer or the direction he went when she shot due to the cloud of smoke, this would prove to cause major issues with trying to figure out just which direction he went. The shot was from her accura mr loaded with 100 grains of triple 7 and pushing a 240 grain hornady American whitetail(interlock), and the shot was at about 140-150 yards. She had a hard away angle on the second shot and raised to the second dot on her inline xr scope. The buck was following a doe. She said she knew immediately for sure when the buck stepped out that this was the same buck as the one we had seen several times last year, by his stance, size, and body language. After getting the kids settled I head back to start helping her look and I get a text to wait that the doe had circled back around. So I took my time and walked back after she told me the doe finally walked off. We searched for blood all over the area she thought he was standing and found none. So went in the brush and started searching primary trails and after looking a good while finally found some blood on a good trail. Blood looked indicative of a good hit but there just was not much of it. One of us had to leave to get our 13 year old daughter from her color guard practice, so I sent Catrina and I came back to the house and got lights and kept looking. By this time it was getting dark pretty quick and I was not sure which direction the little bit of blood I found was leading. I found more blood, but still was not sure if I was following the right direction. Impossible to pick a single track with all the fresh fallen leaves and churned up ground. By the time my wife got back I took a quick break to eat and then we went back to looking and had been looking for just a few minutes when we heard some yotes start howling. I said we should probably go to where they are, but still was not sure at that point which way the deer went. I knew that the old channel in that direction was very tough to follow even in daylight due to loggers having pushed a load of tree tops down that way when they cut the neighbors woods, it is swampy and thick and just not easy ground to cover, much less in the dark. We had heard splashing in the opposite direction when we first started looking 2 hours earlier and she said the doe had looked really hard that way so we thought her deer might have went that way. I ended up finally finding the trail of blood that lead to the spot where the deer had entered the brush. Our oldest daughter had gotten here to help watch our 7 year old, my wife's light was going dead, but I still had a good charge on the battery I had and told Catrina we should get a pistol and try to get to where the yotes were. By this time my wife was really down and she was cold, our oldest daughter who is 16 weeks pregnant wanted to go with me to look some more. Think by this time I had been looking close to 3 hours and told my wife I would take our daughter and see if she might see some blood I was missing. It started raining on us and we called it quits. I should have gone by myself and followed my gut, wanted to follow the channel but decided I would wait until morning knowing there would be no blood to find with the rain. So Friday morning I took off looking after my wife took the kids to school. She caught up to me a little after 8 and we spent about 3.5 hours looking, having gone to where I thought the yotes had been about 14 hours earlier. My wife had walked within less than 5 yards from where I would end up finding what was left of the carcass and head from her deer yesterday morning. I hunted Saturday afternoon and saw several bucks, with one right at last light being what I was sure would be a shooter. That pretty well confirmed to me that this buck was dead and I decided I was not going to give up on finding him. Further I pulled cards on cams and where he was so regular the last pic of him was on the 7th. I had looked on Monday for about 3.5 hours but looked in the other direction towards where we heard the splashing. It was when I was about to turn and walk back yesterday morning after having looked for about a 1.5 hours that I saw a couple buzzards circling. I watched them and tried to pinpoint where they were circling and I knew that was the area I thought we had looked but thought I would look again that maybe we somehow overlooked him. As I got closer there was a black vulture on the ground that would not leave and I knew at that point the deer was there somewhere. I had to back track a bit to cross the channel and as I got closer the buzzard hopped up on a tree directly above the remains of the deer. I really don't know how he was missed on Friday morning with seeing how little was left, I doubt there would have been anything to salvage Friday morning. I think he was a 5.5 year old and plan to check his teeth at some point. Heaviest mass of any deer I have seen here. He has 10 points over an inch long. Interestingly he had the opposite side matched and intact last year prior to splintering his antlers. Not much left of his cape 4 days later, but the pattern of the white on the face matches pics we had of this buck in the prior season in the second pic below. The 2017 season, he is on the left in the first pic 2018 season Not the outcome we were hoping for, but at least we know where he is. Pics really don't do this deer justice, he had very nice mass for a TN deer, the jump in mass from last year to this year is pretty impressive and shows there is potential for TN deer to have mass if they are allowed to get some age. Hope to get a good mount with as close a cape as possible and recreate some pics with the hunter. The deer probably went no more than 350 yards.

How much can a decent taxidermist do with a cape to match up to pics? Is it possible to airbrush in white on the forehead of a cape to match up to pics? Would you expect to pay more for extra work like this and if so how much would be normal?

Well would have been hunting a ghost, recovered the old buck's head this morning, will let the hunter tell her story if she wishes to, if not I will post some pics and my part in it all. Unfortunately gonna have to find a cape. Don't know how we overlooked the deer Friday morning, one of us had been within just a few yards of him. I was about to call it quits this morning when I saw a few buzzards circling. Pinpointed their location and as I got closer one buzzard on the ground would not leave and I knew what that meant. Sadly we had heard the yotes exactly at this location less than 2 hours after the shot, about 200 yards away from where we lost blood and in a nasty thick slough. I had said I wanted to take my pistol and fresh batteries and go back to where the yotes were but the girls said no, not at night. I thought we looked close in the area Friday morning, but the deer was somehow overlooked. Popped one Sunday morning after I got back from hunting. I hate freaking yotes!!! Good luck on that buck Jerry.

Not the end to this we hoped for but an end none the less. Story to come soon.......

Really probably best you didn't have a rifle since you didn't have permission there.

Usually cut roasts into steaks here. Been quite a long time since I have done a roast, but have done a few in the crock pot similar. Thanks for sharing.

Sounds about how my luck tends to go.

A day late, but Thank you to all our veterans. Kids had their veterans day programs at schools today.

First kill this season, sure there will be more. Mature female close to 40 lbs in my pasture at 9:45 am yesterday. No more pups from this one. About 45 minutes later went to putting my bed back on my truck and a dozen or so black vultures were already on it.