All taken after building our first pond. Best investment we ever made. A focal point for family and friends. Our two kids learned to swim and kayak there. My wife and I sat out on the dock last night. We are so lucky! Far better investment than a fancy car or a one time vacation, at least for us.
Sweet!! It amazes me how long some bucks can make it. With tremendous pressure, we had a split brow, drop tine buck that survived 8 years until last year. He was on the decline, so it was good he was harvested.
And this is one that makes me cry...Shot this deer with my bow on Nov 3rd 2011...Was a very slight quartering to shot and I hit a little far back...Was still several ribs in which should have been at least one lung and liver, but he didn't bleed...Looked and looked and even had a friend that has dogs trained to recover deer help...
And this is one that makes me cry...Shot this deer with my bow on Nov 3rd 2011...Was a very slight quartering to shot and I hit a little far back...Was still several ribs in which should have been at least one lung and liver, but he didn't bleed...Looked and looked and even had a friend that has dogs trained to recover deer help...
Had the same issue 2 seasons ago. Biggest buck of my life. Had him chasing a doe around my stand and got him to stop at 30 yds. Problem was the wind was blowing hard enough to make my tree sway quite a bit and I hit him about an inch too far back. Backed out for 5 hours, went back and had a decent blood trail at first, but then it petered out after about 1/2 mile. Never found him.
That was the last shot I took with a fixed blade broadhead. Had shot Muzzys for 20 years. Last year was my first year using mechanicals - Rage is the one I'm using. Took 5 deer last year, 2 bucks and 3 does. Farthest distance to blood trail was 60 yards. I'm convinced. The only issue I see with mechanicals is the infamous shoulder hit. I've had clean pass through the shoulder and body cavity and embedded the broadhead in the opposing shoulder blade with muzzys...I don't believe that will happen with the mechanical head.
Dale
"When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
I tried out some cams in 2010. All have their good and bad. Several trips to bass pro and cabellas before I settled on moultri m-100. First here is the cuddy. It took poor pics but had awesome shutter speed. All my pics came out with white specks on them. Lens was clean. Poor battery life also. It died and their customer service sucked. I waited on hold for 45 minutes and said heck with it and took it back.
Next I got a primos truth came which took awesome pics but clicked really loud. It spooked the deer.
Moultrie d55ir had poor range
Then got the moultrie m100. Great battery life and decent pics.
I have had issues with having to drop battery pack to reset with m100. I learned cabellas has much better return policy than bass pro.
Last edited by Jwwann; 09/24/1311:08 PM.
If you ain't gonna fart, why eat the beans? . RES,HBG,YP,HSB,SMB,CC,and FHM. .seasonal trout.
These pics are after pond was built on top of my food plot. All bucks disappeared and does took over. You can see pond in background. They have eaten a hole in ground where the trophy rocks go and made a trail to pond walking back and fourth. Most of these were a few years ago. You can get pretty good reviews of new cams here. I'm still using that m100 year around. http://chasingame.com/
Last edited by Jwwann; 09/24/1306:15 PM.
If you ain't gonna fart, why eat the beans? . RES,HBG,YP,HSB,SMB,CC,and FHM. .seasonal trout.
Nice deer! I only shoot does to manage the population and for friends that like the meat. I eat it because I kill them, not the other way around. I am out there waiting for the big one! Shot my last deer in 2012 out of a herd of 20 without a nice buck in the group. Did not see a buck worth shooting last year, but got a nice one in each of the previous 6 years, so I have had my share of good luck.
Hey guys. Sorry about the quality, I sent this to my phone and then to my e-mail at work. This buck has showed up recently at my cam 5 yards in front of my stand. I am pretty excited. Tuesday is the opener for us here in Indiana. Wish us luck!!!!!
It would be for my buck tag but I am a meat hunter primarily. My county has a 8 doe quota so I will have plenty of time in the tree stand. Good luck to all fellow hunters.
Actually, I might be crazy but I prefer to shoot yearlings. I personally think they taste a lot better and are easier to process for me in my garage. Dont get me wrong, dropping a big buck gets my blood boiling like the rest of you.
We're 8 too, and so are the surrounding counties. I'm a meat type of guy too, but won't refuse a big one if he walks by! I'm still seeing spotted fawns walking around. There's a single one by itself, and a set of twins by themselves. I haven't seen either momma for about 2 months. Neighboring farmer usually gets depredation permits, and I wonder if that is where the Mommas went....
I came here looking for answers and I found that website which I can't wait to read tomorrow, but now I'm just sad. I'll never get a buck like any of these pictures. I can't say never because I haven't found my retirement home yet, but it will be a really long time...
Can anyone suggest one that takes a broad range shot? I'm curious at getting one to over look my pond. I have a feeling I have some people partying on the property and this seems like a cheap/easy way to confirm.
Broad range will only work in the daytime. Night time you are limited by the illumination by the camera, which is about 30'-40'. Daytime use look at a Plotwatcher or some other time lapse camera.
I figured I would be limited here. I have an idea where the would enter the property at so I guess I could use a game camera in that area. I'm about to start looking on that website that was mentioned. I would have to find one that's real quiet if I'm trying to take pictures of people though. I'd hate to see the thing grow legs.
We use a cam called "Stealth cam". It will take video as well as still pictures.
My son and I have watched a lovely doe raise twins now three years in a row. The first two bucks are nice and ripe for the taking this year. The father of the six bucks in our hunting hole is a solid 12 point now and is very crafty with the cam. He didn't get this big from being stupid.
The beauty of the trail cam is time of day patterns and being able to know the animals we plan on taking. I would be so sad if another hunter was to take the doe. She has been throwing these twins it would be a shame to loose her.
The plotwatcher is very good at its intended use, to watch a spot for you so see if there is activity there during hunting hours before hunting it. I deploy three of them to keep watch over my fall plots. This way I can see how much activity is taking place and what is using it. I cannot hunt all of them every night and helps with the should I of hunted the other spot tonight. Of course it is hard to tell really how big is that buck 100 yards away but body size can tell you if he is mature or not. The other traditional trail cameras I use during the summer and early fall to inventory what is using my property, but I pull them when hunting season starts and deploy the plotwatchers.
Lassig, what do you use for batteries and what size thumb drive? I've got a very early model and with a 16gb drive it still only lasts 4 days before it's dead. I am taking a pic every 3 sec tho.....
Lassig, what do you use for batteries and what size thumb drive? I've got a very early model and with a 16gb drive it still only lasts 4 days before it's dead. I am taking a pic every 3 sec tho.....
We can drop in 32 gig in ours and she takes 6~ C size battery's. It can go for two weeks easy in Video mode. Automatically changes to night and infrared.