Rhino Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 That is...to start getting ready for this deer season. Business has hampered my preseason preparation plans this summer. We made our 1st trip since May to Missouri recently. I spent all of last week there getting some preseason chores done...or started. Priority chores were some general work around the camp/lodge and the lake. Besides that we put the tractor to work & cut all our clover plots...20 of them. A few areas within our clover plots didn't do well at all so those got sprayed so we can disc them & plant them in fall foliage during out next trip. For the most part though our clover looked good. We did manage to make time to get ~12 stands ready to hunt. Still have a bunch of stands left to prepare during our next trip. We added mineral to our 14 mineral licks & set out 8 cams...7 on mineral licks & 1 on a clover plot. Hope to have some mature buck pics soon. We also bought 4 Blind Turtle blinds. Set 1 up and assembled the others so they are ready to set up on the next trip. If you've never heard of them, google them up. About 3 or 4 weeks ago a tornado moved through the area. From the looks of the damage to the timber there had to be more than 1...probably 2. Can't see how it could be one with the major timber damage being ~3/4 mile apart in lines that have no way of matching up. Thank goodness...no damage at or around the camp. One stand we prepared on the NE corner of a corn field had a lot of tree damage around it and a couple of big limbs broken & hanging down around the stand. Nightmare making shooting lanes through it but on the bright side, there's more cover around the stand now. Another tree we had picked out to set a stand was completely torn down. Oh well...at least a stand wasn't in it. The worst area of devastation was by the stand my buddy killed his 158" 10 point in 2012. It's positioned in a great funnel. What a mess...didn't even look like the same spot. It appears the tornado touched down briefly between the stand & a corn field. It took the top out of the huge tree the stand is in but left the stand & stick undamaged. The top of that tree was nowhere to be found. Several more trees were damaged or down near or around it. Then there was ~50 yard area of no damage at all before the tornado appeared to touch down again. From that point on through our timber going W to the neighbor's WRP field, it was total devastation! A swath of damage ~50 to 60 yards wide & ~200 yards long to the WRP field where NOTHING was left standing. Got real lucky there! On the bright side...it makes that funnel even better now and created a great bedding area relatively close to the stand. My buddy & I took 2 late afternoon glassing trips to bean fields. Saw a group of 7 bucks during the 1st late afternoon trip. One is a definite mature shooter. Tall main frame 10 point ~20" wide with a kicker off his right G2 about 5" long that goes out ~2" then curls straight up. Very cool buck! Another main frame 10 point ~18" wide was out there in the group. He didn't have the tine length of the of big one but was also obviously mature. The other 5 were younger bucks. One I think is a 3.5 year old 8 point, has great potential with his tall tines but due to his age lacks mass & he's only ~15" wide. Our 2nd late afternoon scouting trip a another bean field area yielded sightings of just does & young bucks. Plan to head back around the end of the 2nd week of this month for another week or so of preseason work...and some more scouting. Anyone else getting ready or checking out what will be around this fall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zizzer59 Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 I'm gonna be out wednesday putting in a couple small plots and hanging some cameras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted August 1, 2014 Report Share Posted August 1, 2014 Crazy how tornadoes can hop Al. Glad the camp and no stands were damaged. Sure you will have some pics to share with us after your next trip. Always fun to see what starts showing up this time of the year on cams. Got a lot to do here yet to be ready here. Need to kill some wasps in and around some stands, know our blinds have some large nests. About 3 weeks or so i will look at hanging my hang on stands and look at spots for my climbers. Some limbs will need trimmed. I still need to get my other cameras out. Been running a couple and have 2 bucks that look interesting we have gotten pics of, hope to see more show up. Most the crops around us should be coming out in September to early October, right in line with our archery season. Always have deer pushed around then. Don't really have very high expectations for this year though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosierhunter Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 The work never ends buddy! I've been busy this week. We added 6 new plots for a total of 14 now. I've got 19 cameras out but I haven't checked 5 of them. The main farm is still way down with no shooters to speak of yet but I haven't checked 4 of those cameras. One farm is a spoils of riches for mature deer. I have a bachelor group of 12 bucks with 5 being 4.5 and older. Stand work will start this week and hopefully be wrapped up before the velvet falls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted August 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 The work never ends buddy! Yep...we have 2 new plots we will plant in buck forage oats & turnips. They are part of 2 fields we share cropped last year that were planted in winter wheat. They'll be planted in beans next year. We haven't even started on the pier for the lake yet. That will probably be a morning chore during the early part of bow season. From my notes, we have 38 more stands (including ground blinds) left to get ready this year from the stand positions we already decided on. Most are spots where we just loosened up stands last year so they're a lot easier and quicker to do than new stand positions. Should be very little trimming on those...thank goodness. No telling how many new stand positions we'll add this year but can't be too many. Starting to reach a limit on how many we can annually handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smha6784 Posted August 2, 2014 Report Share Posted August 2, 2014 We got ate up by tornadoes 2 years ago almost seemed to have sucked up all deer and sent them to Oz with dorthy. We had 3 in one year. That year and we had 1 this spring. Our lease isnt that big but the tornadoes always seem to rip rite thru it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUDRUNNER Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 Man, I have got so much to do before the season opens. Now that the kids are active in sports my spring and summer are packed solid. I have to mow my clover plots, move 3 stands, put up 2 new stands, trim lanes and trails, and my cameras out. It's amazing what a tornado will do to the woods. One farm that I hunt a few times a year got hit a few years ago. I didn't even realize it until I went out to get in my stand and couldn't find it lol. I thought I was lost so sat on a log until the sun came up and realized what had happened. With all of the trees down it has actually made that place very hard to hunt. Glad to hear your camp wasn't hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 My trail cams were set out about 3 weeks ago. A few days ago I checked and have several nice 8 pointers walking around. These pics are from a trial cam mounted on the tree my tree stand hangs from. These bucks are 18 yards away from my stand that sits about 16 feet above them. I'm guessing them to be in the 130 class. Nothing giant, but a lot better start compared to last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 That first one sure would have my attention Frank. Still a bit of time left to grow too. Hope he keeps coming by your tree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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