Watching The Young Guys

Guys,
My wife and I sat last night in hopes of getting a hog or 2 but had no luck. What I also wanted to see was how the deer were doing on my foodplots. About 7:45 the first little buck came out followed 10 min's later at the opposite end of the plot, a doe. It was comical to watch the 2 of them at opposite ends of the field. He saw her, ears went forward, tail was flicking and just waiting to see her reaction. She did as all young ladies do,(sorry girls) played hard to get. He would take a few steps and watch her and she never moved. Finally he went a running for her. Funny as hell. I had several of the better bucks from last yr I believe come out right at dark and the one I have game pic's of with the notch in his left ear, but it was too dark to get any pic's and I did not to spook them. Enjoy folks, Not many as it is hard to keep focused without a tripod when using auto focus.  LOL


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Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

second shot.

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Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

The 2 youngun's. My wife and I had these 2 in front of us at 20 yds and never knew we were there. Or at least I hope they did not.  LOL

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Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

Great pictures. Your plots are doing great, nice to see it all come together to put meat on the table.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Their table that is. I'm not shooting anything off of here this yr unless it is huge. Don't care about no dam books, just want quality, healthy animals. No bs messing with genetics, no messing with buying breeder bucks, all mother nature at her best, naturally. Good foodplots for them to feel at home in, high in protein and good for them to help sustain them through hard times. I am doing just as Keith Warren said on his show today, "preserving genetics" and for me it is naturally, not enhanced. To me and this is my opinion, that these guys that claim this, are not preserving genetics, they are preserving their own pocket books. LIke I said just my opinion. Thanks for the comments guys.
 
By the way, if anything decent gets shot this yr, it will be of my wifes choice, on her own.  It will be her first yr in the stand and anything she deems a trophy in her eyes is good enough for me. Ma nature and I can grow more.

Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

A good friend of mine was here at the house last night for Syndnee's birthday. While we were all setting on the deck my wife ask what a noise was. After listening for a while I heard a doe blowing. She was in the back yard blowing because of Syd's cat. I guess that's what I get for marrying a city girl.

my family is my life
Willie

Nice plots Gary, they are really getting some use from the looks of the pics. Just getting crops in around here, too much rain after the winter. Couldn't get in the fields. Went for a short ride Saturday and saw first buck of the spring, just getting his antlers started. Should start seeing lot's of them little spotted fellas soon.
I totally agree with you on the genetics, feed them good and they grow big and healthy. No food plots here, just good old soy beans, corn, alfalfa, wheat and hay. The deer do just fine and can pretty well eat what they want, just stay out of mommas garden. Use feeders now and then to get pics of what's out there, I might not get to see otherwise. Don't
Steve Albers

Thanks Steve. My plots are doing better than I expected. I also have a 30acre natural pasture for them to get into. They ate in the plots for an hr Fri night then went to the grasses in the pasture and back to the plots that night. It was good to see the hard work being used. It also gave me time to watch them traveling to and from, so I know where I'm gonna hang more stands for the season.  We can use feeders down here, but I do not really hunt over them. I would rather hunt the trails leading to and from them and the foodplots. They are alot less weiry in their natural surrondings. I do however have stands 25-30 yds from a couple of them for my wife to sit in.  LOL

Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

I called my Dad to see what plots he has planted.  He told me that with all the rain, the guy who he allows to plant wheat has not even been able to cut yet.  The wheat is up to the bottom of his truck windows.  After that is all harvested the guy is planting soybeans.  16 acres of soybeans to grow big racks!!!

Love playing that string music and sending a Muzzy flying!

Beans are good when they are green. The deer hate them and won't touch them after they turn. Not sure why either. You could broadcast some clover in after he plants the beans for a little more greenage for you.

Gary Scheel
NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member

Long about Dec. they will turn back on to the beans. At least they do in Wis.. I've seen fields that the farmers couldn't harvest for whatever reason full of hundreds of deer. They turn on like right now too. It's like someone flipped a switch. I guess they need the protien. If you can talk him into leaving a little chunk in the corner you might have a good late season spot. Ya gotta keep aneye on it though.

The "broadcast clover" idea might not werk out too well ... depends a lot upon whut herbicides the farmer has used on the field ... not sayin' it's a waste of time for definitely ... but clover (and most other leguminous plants) can be rapped perty hard by ag chemicals that don't really affect other plants ... merely sayin' ... you could give it a try in a small area, and see how the clover does ... as I recall, the seed is kinda spendy, and I'd hate to see y'all buy a couple hundred pounds and have it all be a fruitless effort ...

You could check with the farmer on his weed control program, and then talk to the county agent to see whut might werk ...

OTOH, if you buy the seed (if it'll grow thru his chemical application), he might be willing to toss it into the seeder when he goes into the field ... or not ...

Merely sayin' it's not always an easy/simple answer ...

As for the "leave a little corner" thought ... most farmers I know are in it for the money, and even if he's willing, he might want to be compensated for it ... I have no idea whut 'beans are worth now, or @ harvest time, but with a SEWAG, say they're $5/bushel and his yield is 80 bu/a ... that's $400, if he leaves an acre standing ... (mebbe this amount is NBD to some folks, but I'd be reluctant to spend it, merely becuz harvested crops are a huge attraction to wildlife, for whut wuz spilled in the process ... )

In my experience (as a lifelong farmer, but never for soybeans), no combine is perfect, I don't care whut color it is ... there's usually some loss out the back during the operation, and particularly where the combine turns around @ the end of a field (several times) ... when the machine is running empty, that's when it tends to throw over (out) some of the crop ...

Those turnaround areas (we call 'em "headland" ... ) are the prime places for critters to find whut they want on the ground ... tho they'll look over the entire field, if they think there's more munchies there ...

As to deer in 'beans ... yeah, I've seen bunches of 'em in harvested beans, even if they hafta dig thru snow ... and they tend to return even after you might think they've picked the field clean ...

Merely tryin' to help ... and rememberin' some of the ways to predict/guess where wildlife will hang out, if there's free food on the ground ...

All of life is six-to-five against, just enough to keep you interested. (Damon Runyan)

Gravity makes all the important decisions ... (John R. Powers)

NRA, REMF, PF, NAHC-L, NAFC-L, KC, NPPA

Lota good points there Mr. "O", especially the one about the herbicides and clover. From what I've seen, clover is pretty touchy stuff, we have a couple of clover fields around the area, but those fields don't get rotated as much as teh rest of the crops, they pretty well reseed themselves when harvested and keep going with only a little boost here and there.
One thing about it deer love the stuff.
Steve Albers

Great pic's, thanks for sharing............

Old Cowboys never die, they just keep riding the Range.