Entertaining Afternoon

[Rhino]

Friday afternoon I hit the road for our camp to put out trial cams and kick back & relax watching deer in some of our alyce clover fields before dark.

Got to the 1st summer plot to set up the 1st cam at 5:00 & ran 3 does off. One had a very young fawn that laid down in a small area of nutsedge in the field maybe 4" tall ~20' from the tree I was going to set my trail cam on. Obviously the fawn wasn't hidden at all but thought it was at 1st. Sorry, didn't have a regular camera with me. About half way through setting the cam it decided it needed a better hidding spot so it got up and stumbled another 5' for the edge of the field and laid down again. Hidden better now but still in view. This fawn couldn't have been more than a few days old. Remember our mean breeding date where I hunt here in MS is ~Jan. 1st. I never tried to get closer and quietly eased out of there after setting the cam to go set the other cams.

After setting up the cams I headed to a big alyce clover field (~3 acres) to watch some deer munch down on groceries. By now it was ~7:00. As I quietly eased up to a regular viewing spot in my Polaris Ranger EV, I see a 2.5 year old buck looking toward me through a hole in the brush. Stopped there till he settled down & went back to feeding. Eventually I eased up to where I could see ~1/2 the field. 11 deer munching down on groceries but no mature bucks out there yet. The dang buck decided to come check me out. Around the 30 yard line he decided I wasn't supposed to be there and blew out, clearing the field. Oh well...off to the next one. Checked 2 more fields before dark and saw another 17 deer and a few hen turkeys. Only other bucks were 1.5 year olds. Entertaining afternoon and sure put the urge in me to start getting prepared for the coming season. BTW...got 3 stands ready to hunt for bow season before I hit the road for home.

[Casey]

Sounds like you had a adventurous afternoon in the woods. Glad to know your almost ready for bow season. It'll be here before you know it.

[Rhino]

I'm not almost ready from the point of getting all my stands set, lanes cleared, etc...lots of work left to do with the rest of them. I also have some scouting work to do with running trail cams on 16 alyce clover plots and 20 salt licks around our place. Boot leather scouting work is mostly completed with the exception of glassing oaks during the 2nd half of August.

Got a good start though with a couple of stands on funnels, which also have a few honey locust trees that are loaded down with beans within the funnel. These particular honey locust trees traditionally drop in early October but only produce a mast crop every other year or 2. Got lucky with them producing this year. Most of the honey locust trees didn't produce a mast crop this year down here. The other stand is on a trail system leading to/from an alyce clover field.

Good chance I'll be spending at least one late afternoon most weekends from now till Oct. glassing deer in a few other summer plot fields when the wind is right. Might enjoy the view with an adult beverage or two.

[rhine16]

Sounds like a fun evening Al!

[redkneck]

Sounds great Al! I gotta get to the camp and stay the weekend here pretty quick. Besides stands to work on, there's a lot of grass to cut around the camphouse and skinnin shed. We didn't plant any summer patches this year, just pouring out a good bit of protein pellets in covered feeders.