dogdoc

congrats on your new land. No doubt you will enjoy having your own place, todd

interesting. Does look like it could have been claws but probably a buck. Look forward to seeing trail cam pics.

Nope--I have had some tough meat from a very old buck but still tasted the same. However, I have never shot a buck after the first of December. Most of my kills have been November bucks. todd

Hey Stranger. Been a while.

yep, now it's really getting nostalgic. I got to know a lot of neat people and made some good friends out this place.

yes, very sad. This used to be the place to be!

wow--what a honor! Very cool project. todd

Oh man - getting a little nostalgic in here!

Kind of late to the party but still plenty of time before spring plantings. The only thing I plant now in the spring is Eagle soybeans. Discing in the spring just brings up more weeds. Even if you disc early and them early spring spray before discing you will still be struggling with weeds all summer long. Two options is plant and roundup ready forage such as eagle beans so you can spray glyphosate to kill all the competing weeds and still have a great stand of beans. The only downside is you have to have a plot large enough to support browsing pressure on the beans. The other option is to plant something that will out compete the weeds---buckwheat is the best plant to accomplish this. I have changed my process the last couple of years and it has worked out perfect. I plant my spring plots in the fall! Discing in the fall will still pop up some weeds but these will be warm season weeds and they will die with your first freeze. In the fall I plant a mix of rye, wheat, oats, daikon radishes, sunflowers, and red clover. The young tender sunflowers are my early attraction and will die with your first freeze. The cereal grains and radishes will get me through the winter. Very late winter/early spring the red clover will start taking off and by the time the rye and wheat become unpalatable the red clover will be there to provide forage all spring and summer. Not only are you providing a high protein forage for your deer but you will also be improving your soil. You can mow the plot when the cereal grains start to head out to release the clover or you can leave it standing to provide awesome fawning cover. I have found red clover to be highly palatable to the deer while it is fixing Nitrogen back in the soil. The clippings of the cereal grains will be adding organic matter back into your soil. If you get weeds then most of them will be annual or perennial grasses and they can be controlled with a spraying of clethodim and not harm your red clover. The following fall you just mow short and disc the clover back into the soil---again adding some great green manure back into the soil. I have been doing this for 3 years now and I don't even have to fertilize anymore. Just repeat this procedure every fall and you have a 12 month plot with less work and money saved! Trust me--it works!!! Less herbicide used, less fertilize used, healthier soil, and healthier deer! 75# of wheat and rye (can just use one or the other but I like to mix) 25# oats (will probably die after a few good hard freezes) 15# of sunflower (I just get the cheap sunflower seeds at walmart for feeding the birds) 5# of daikon radishes 12# of medium red clover (I use kenland) Mix all seeds together except the clover. After discing spread the larger seeds and lightly clover. After covering the large seeds then broadcast your clover and then drag or cultipack. Do not disc under the clover. Seeds too small and don't want them deeper than a 1/4" All rates are at pounds per acre. good luck todd

Happy New Years RT family! Hope all has a great '17. I'm glad to have '16 behind me. Struggles with my daughter's crohns disease and my shoulder replacement surgery. I'm really excited for January 20th to get here! todd

too cold for me. We are dipping below 10 this weekend. High in the 60's tomorrow and high of 20 on Saturday!

Is very gray in the face. Lots of bucks have loss a lot of weight during the rut. He may be doing a lot of traveling looking for one more doe since you have never had him on camera before. I'm going with an old deer.

That's great. They are the future of hunting! Good luck getting her out. Hope she likes it! todd

congrats William. Glad you were able to close the deal on this buck! I'm sure you got a lot of relief knowing that buck was still around and you were able to get him today! good job buddy todd

Way to go Carlee! Beautiful young lady behind an awesome buck. After my 16 year old daughter shot her buck we go back to get the truck and take some pics. Took her 10 minutes to get her hair all fixed for the pic! congrats todd

Me thinks you killed a really nice buck! congrats todd

dang, you guys are laying down the smack on some great bucks congrats todd

My little blonde hunting buddy skipped school Wednesday to go out with her old man for a perfect day hunt. Cold front came through last night dropping temps to the low 30's with a nice steady NNW breeze. Perfect wind for the BBJ plot. We wanted to get to the stand early to let things settle down. Legal shooting time is at 6:50 and we were in the tower stand with the little buddy heater going at 5:45. I think she fell asleep for most of the first hour while I played on my phone. Well first light came and the excitement of anticipation started dwindling by 9am as we had not seen a single deer. Our plans were to do an all day hunt because this was going to be our last rifle hunt of the year. This weekend she has all state tryouts with her viola. Noon came quickly and we started getting hungry so she opted to stay in the stand and I went to the local grill and grabbed us some grub. While I was getting food she was working on her makeup work for skipping school today. We had a greasy lunch and before too long she had finished her homework and asked if she could take another power nap. So being the great wonderful dad I am I said sure. She slept about 30 minutes then I started reading a book and she was on look out. By 3pm I could see the worry in her eyes as we still had not seen a deer. So at 3:30 I have my head in a book she quietly says "Daddy, here comes a deer". Sure enough through the thick cover pops out a doe. I look up and behind her staying the thick cover is a buck--a very wise old buck. He would not come out of the cover but through the binoculars we had already determined him to be a shooter. I told her to stay calm as this buck was locked down with the doe and wasn't going anywhere. After a a couple of minutes though I was nervous the doe was going to leave through the cover and take the buck with her. Hoping I wasn't messing up I grabbed the grunt tube and gave a semi-aggressive grunt. This old buck was having nothing to do with some other buck stealing his girl and out from the thick cover he came. He offered a perfect 100 yard broadside shot and Mollyann made the perfect shot. Double lung right behind the shoulder with the Tikka 25-06. The buck takes off with tail up wagging and we see him fall within 20 yards of the shot. Mollyann was screaming and jumping up and down in the tower stands. High fives, hugs, and tears. We hunted hard all last week. We estimated right around 64 hours in the stand together since opening day (Saturday before T-day). Sleeping in the travel trailer and eating canned stew and crackers for dinner. She passed several very young bucks holding out for a mature buck. This old bucks teeth were almost worn to the gum line. Only 2 lower incisors were left in his mouth. As you can tell he was an aggressive buck with several busted off tines. Can't tell from the pics but there are a total of 12 points (counting the busted tines). I bet on the way home she told me thank you at least 100 times. Well here are a few pics. todd

that would be a shooter in my book. Minimum 4.5 to me. Have any trail cams of him this time of year?

congrats on a beautiful buck Fly. Some gorgeous land you hunt.

awesome okie buck! congrats todd

awesome buck Rhino. Beautiful rack. todd

Beautiful buck doc! congrats todd

wow--what a beautiful buck. Lots of character. congrats todd

I was hunting a new tripod stand I put up late summer. It is between a doe bedding area on my land and a thick CRP area that is on the neighbors land. I did not hunt this stand early season just waiting on the early rut when bucks were cruising looking for early estrous does. The stand is in a natural funnel with a deep creed behind me which kind of forces the travel in front of the stand. So I waited till the wind was just perfect. I have to have a NW wind to hunt this and I thought it would never arrive. Finally had a cool front move in with a NNW breeze so I headed out for an afternoon hunt. I had a 3 day weekend and was going to spend the entire weekend out at my place. I climbed in the stand at 2pm and within 30 minutes I saw a small doe traveling through the trees. The trees are still full of leaves so visibility is very limited if the deer are in the trees. At 4:20 I hear crunching of leaves just inside the tree line and notice a doe walking through a major trail about 10 yards inside the trees. After the doe passes I hear something behind the doe and all I can see is a large bodied deer behind the doe with very dark stained tarsal glands. I knew it was a buck but didn't know if it was a shooter. There was no shot so I grabbed the grunt tube to see if I could turn him away from the doe. After a soft grunt he stopped for a few seconds then I heard him walking away toward the same path the doe took. I grabbed the tube again and gave a more aggressive grunt. I immediately heard him turn around and start walking my way. Leveled the crossbow where I thought he would enter the shooting lane. He popped out at a perfect 23 yard broadside shot. Place the crosshairs behind the shoulder and let the bolt fly. I saw the bolt enter perfect and he took off. Waited 30 minutes and found him 50 yards away. The Rage Hypodermic broadhead put him down quickly. A very cool non-typical buck that dressed out at 185#. God Bless America todd