Doe #2

Took down doe #2 tonight, first and last deer to come close enough to shoot.  Double lunged her are about 20 yards.  

When Coyotes Attack

Check this out, I have a couple of coyote pictures on this field this year and now this. I didn't even notice the deer laying dead in the field half eaten until I looked at the pictures and thought she couldnt have made it far.

BBD - Big Brow Tine Buck

I Shot this 8 point last night at 7:00 aprox. 28 yard shot with my Bow. This is the 3rd time I have seen this buck this year. Cool thing is Dad saw him at 50 yards (fortunately upwind) walking towards my stand at 6:40. I watched him in the field for 10 minutes and then he started making his way towards me. I stopped him with a little grunt and pulled the trigger. Hit him good but turned out to be a little quartering towards me. I had to watch him bedded down 50 yards away from me looking injured but perfectly alive, he got up right before complete darkness and walked 20 yards and laid back down now looking really weak. We came back 1.5 hours later and he was getting stiff already so he died shortly after I left. Turns out I just nicked the heart, hit a small piece of a lung and the bottom of the liver. Stats are 18” wide, 6” & 7.25” brow tines and 9” & 8” G2’s, rough gross score of 130”. Live wight was 235 Lbs. dressed out at 195 Lbs. Forgot to say this is my 2nd buck with my bow, it been a long time waiting.

BDD - Big Does Down

Whacked a couple does this weekend, Eric shot one on Friday night and I shot one on Saturday morning. I figured I should get it out of the way and make sure everything was working good. It was a low 20 yard shot and I saw her fall over after a 30 yard run.

Also saw some smaller bucks that weren't quite big enough to shoot on our program. They presented some nice shots but I will have to keep waiting.

We caught some POACHERS!

This is what happens when people try to poach on our property and we catch them. Alex and a friend were duck hunting in the rainy weather when they noticed a couple of people walking out into the woods, after a few quick calls it was confirmed that it was not anyone that should be in our woods. They tracked them down and found one of the them sitting in Mitch's treestand, the other person took off running and was picked up on Tyler St. They had parked by a neighboring business where a bloody arrow was found in the back of their truck. With a little convincing from Alex and Brian they confessed to shooting a 8 point buck on Monday or Tuesday. Ivan Perez was called and they had their gear confiscated, licenses taken away, buck horns and meat will be confiscated and both will face some pretty serious fines and probably lose their hunting rights for some time. Here is their picture, one of them is from Zeeland he graduated a year before I did. The other guy is from Hudsonville, I did not get his name, he is the one that shot the buck and was sitting in the treestand. These guys are either really brave, really stupid or both, they had to cross a brand new fence that was finished in the last couple of weeks to get into the property.

Mr. Turkey

Gary shot a nice turkey on Monday morning, about a 8" beard. I heard it was Gary's first "wild" turkey that he has ever killed. Nice job Gary.

BBD on Opening Day!

Eric and I decided to try and cover some area on the big field and see if we could get lucky and catch a buck sneeking onto the field before they get pressured. This one came out early but we were winded by some does in the center of the field and they all ran back into the swamp. 45 minutes later he came out again and Eric made a good 30 yard shot as he was sneaking through the grass. We tracked him for quite a ways into the swamp and ended up finding him floating in the creek. Heavy 8 point, 19 1/4" wide, 10" G2's and 8" G3's. Gross score is 146.5 inches.

The Licking Branch

While it is a couple weeks early to start scraping activity with the big boys, the young bucks are trying to get a head start on some early does. I have seen several scrapes starting to get active in the last week or two. Here a young buck is working the branches above the scrape leaving his scent and checking who else has been there. I haven't done a lot of video with the motion cameras but I think it is pretty cool to see them like this.