fly Posted April 6, 2015 Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 You all might remember my 152 inch 12 pointer hunt from last year. It was from a special draw public land area and I can't believe I got in again! It will be tougher as the hunt I got drawn for is October 8-14th which is usually during the October lull. As fate would have it I also got selected for a second special draw area. The second one is further north but still a good place to hunt. However, it is scheduled for December 7th - 13th. Looks like I'll be spending a significant amount of time in Kentucky hunting my friends farm during the rut this fall. We bulldozed some more trees last month and plan to put beans in. Looks like there will be a little over 2 acres of land available for food plots now. This fall is setting up to be another good year. I can't wait! When is John going to get the Deer contest Sign up going! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted April 6, 2015 Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) congrats on the draw Frank!..you must have a lucky horse shoe stuck somewhere... As for the comment on the contest, I believe you have become an "Official Moron"...j/k..lol Congrats on that status!..some of us have to work at things a little harder....ROFL!! Edited April 6, 2015 by Mathews XT Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 6, 2015 Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 Dang Frank! You're going to be a more of a road warrior than I am. :clown: Gotta love it! The dates you've drawn may not be the favorable dates you'd prefer but you never know what can happen. Good luck with your pre-hunt homework for those hunts...and the hunts too. I'm sure looking forward to this fall too. I'm in the process of going through cam cards from 5 cams we left out in MO that are all full. About 25,000 pics. Seeing some great looking survivors from last year. Some that never showed up on our cams before. Gotta get this done so I'll get a rest period from looking at cam cards before we crank them up again. Won't be long before we start putting out the cams in mid to late July. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 I'll be scouting the public area this September and may even place a camera. However, I placed one in January and after one week I caught a few nice survivors (at least through the hunting season). I left the camera there and checked the next week only to find someone stole my camera. I'm thinking it was a shed hunting low life. I had a security code set on it so at least the thief will have to work at getting some use out of it. We set some cameras out last week in KY so I'm looking forward to seeing what made it through the winter. The antler size isn't great in KY so we're hoping to promote the growth by placing a couple trophy rocks and adding more beans and clover. I'm happy to be the first member of this years moron club! LOL Maybe Martin, Al, and myself will make the same team???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 6, 2015 Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 The antler size isn't great here in MS either but we do get an occasional nice mature deer. Nothing even close to the numbers of them in the Midwest though. They are very much more of an exception to the norm down here in Dixie. If you're going to run a cam on public ground you may have to put it up in a tree angling down. Got a buddy that's done that before. The trick is obviously getting up in the tree to set it up, check cards, etc. If my memory is correct we were on a team together once several years ago...maybe more years than that. Would enjoy being a moron teammate of yours again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted April 6, 2015 Report Share Posted April 6, 2015 I'd be honored to be in such company Frank and Al!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 We were Al - I looked it up earlier this year and I think it was 2009. That was back when we had a lot more participants. Martin - the honor would be all mine! Maybe we can talk William into signing up this year. I don't remember seeing his name in the contest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 7, 2015 Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 Think the last time i signed up was maybe 2009 or 2010. Always seemed to end up on teams with poor participation. Congratulations on drawing the area. On the camera and hiding it, up high aiming down will keep it out of line of sight but can make for a pain checking it. Once used my tractor loader to climb up to put one of my cams up like that in an area i thought we had trespassers but i never did get any pics of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 7, 2015 Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 Doesn't seem like it's been 5 years Frank. The older I get, the more time flies. Would be my honor to join all of you on a team. We might not win but we'd set a record for the total post count on a team thread! Maybe we can coax William into playing again. BTW Frank...finished going through one of the cards left running in MO that had over 6,600 pics on it. 2 of our target bucks were moving during legal shooting hours on the December dates you have for next year. The best one...on 12/7 shortly after daylight. The other was caught shortly after daylight on 12/11. That cam was set on a scrape near the corner of one of our clover plots. Both bucks were caught coming out of the timber at that time...not going into it. Had several good buck fights caught at night there too. That's only one cam...still have to go through the other 4 cards. As expected...a lot of nocturnal movement. I'd have to check old pics for October daylight mature buck movement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 That's a lot of pictures to review Al. Mid October is about the worst time to hunt in my regular area, but the special draw area will likely be different. I will be putting the time in that's for certain and may use a climber to get a camera up in a tree. Mid December is generally decent as long as you have a good food plot to hunt near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 Reviewing pictures becomes a big chore during the preseason with 10 cams running...most on mineral licks. Most cards are full by the time we check them again but you get a great feel for what's out there...it's work. Mid October has been the same for us in NE Missouri. I didn't make a hunt in MO during that mid Oct. lull period but my buddy did with 2 of his sons. They mainly saw does & very young bucks but whacked several does. I went through all the saved pictures from this past season (2,370 pics). There were 5 times shooter class bucks were on their feet during legal shooting hours during the 10/8 to 10/14 dates. That's with 10 cams running. 2 of those times were near the end of legal shooting hours. The 2nd buck I killed this past season was on his feet one morning during the 1st hour of daylight on 10/12. The other 2 were mid morning during those dates...go figure. By far most of our daylight movement this past season prior to the rut was during the cooler days between 9/15 & 10/5. From the cams, the best period was during the 1st cool front of the season in Sept. We were there when the cool weather arrived & we both killed nice mature bucks. My buddy also missed a bigger one on his 1st afternoon hunt. Activity dropped off as it warmed up. From 10/5 to 10/22 by far most mature buck activity was at night. Daylight mature buck movement started picking up around 10/25. I bet that sounds familiar Frank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 While I don't have 10 cameras the two I do have tell a similar story. I only use my cameras for extended periods on the small chunk of private ground (40 acres) I hunt on. Slowly we are gaining more cameras for the 100 acres in KY. This will be the first year we have had cameras out all year but I suspect the same story will play out there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosierhunter Posted April 18, 2015 Report Share Posted April 18, 2015 Congrats on the draw! That area seems to hold some deer from your reports the last few years. It's a little bit of a tough draw, but it's doable. If the area isn't fouled up by then it could really surprise you! The more we have gotten into management and paying attention to minimal pressure the more activity we have year around. One of my farms had the dominant buck showing up during daylight from 10-14 to 10-24 nearly daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly Posted April 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2015 Thanks Hoosier - the special draw area opens one week before mine so the pressure will be minimal with only 5 hunters per week. In addition I hunt pretty far back and not too many hunters make it back there till it cools off in November. It's always the same every year - Each morning 10-50 deer head north to the tall grass bedding areas right at daylight. After an hour the show ends till about 2 hours before dark when they come out of the bedding to the fields. The usual problem is getting busted by the does before the bucks come. Playing the wind is a must and good concealment. Hunting in October should make concealment a lot easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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