Vote for Dave - The OL 25's People of the Year

VOLUNTEER WATERFOWL BANDER AND DUCK BOX TENDER

Michigan native Dave Brower works for the state's Department of Natural Resources, but he's not a scientist. He's a volunteer with a passion for banding ducks, which he learned from a friend who worked with the DNR. For more than 15 years, Brower has devoted his time and resources to maintaining his 190 duck boxes, determined to band as many hens as possible.

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They maintain probably 25 boxes throughout our river bottom every year and have had tremendous success. They have had ducks coming back to the same boxes for over 3 years in a row, flying down to the southern states in the fall and returning in the spring.

89 and Still Counting!

Grandpa D has been braggin to me all fall about this 8 point he has seen at Reed City and how he was going to shoot it. Well he shot it on opening night, it was about a 60 yard shot and the buck went about 30 yards. A very nice 8 pt with a 16” outside spread. Not bad for an 89 year old!!

I owe Dan for this one, He called and said he saw a good buck chasing a doe in the swamp and saw it go towards the east and said I should head that way to cut it off. Didn't see the buck Dan saw but this one came from the south. I was standing behind a tree and the deer came within 6 feet until he saw me peek my head around the tree. He took off and at about 50 yds stopped and looked back and that was it. 8 point 19" wide.

2 for 1 Special - #3 & #4

Saturday morning was a nice cool morning for hunting, light breeze and slightly overcast.  I took a while for some does to come within range but once they did I let an arrow fly.  Both were about 12 yard shots standing in the same spot.  

#4 has pushed me past the 3 I shot with my bow last year, my record is still 3 in one hunt which I am trying to beat.

A look at browse from my tree stand.  The doe by the cherry tree growth is #4.  With the lack of acorns this year it is putting some additional stress on our regeneration growth from logging.

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.

Youth Hunt Success

HERE IS A PICTURE OF BRIANAS BUCK SHOT LAST NIGHT ON THE EAST END OF THE BIG FIELD ON THE CLOVER FIELD (THANKS UNCLE MERLE FOR LETTING US USE YOUR BLIND) 11 POINT, DRESSED OUT AT 170 POUNDS SHOT AT 7:25 PM THANKS STEVE FOR THE PICTURE.  Brian

More Bucks

Looks like this one is still in velvet. Maybe he is a late bloomer or it is possible that some bucks never lose their velvet.

This looks like a really young buck but he is showing some great potential, he is starting to develop some really interesting character in his head gear.

September Rain

How many deer are too many deer? These are a couple different pictures of the browsing pressure that our property is under during the summer months when there is the most amount of forage available for consumption. The recent rain has sure helped everything green up and germinate.

Need a lawnmower, this is off the "Big Field" where we have about 25 acres of food planted, there was probably about 6 inhes of growth inside the fence. We have about 4 acres of clover, 5 acres of clover/chicory mix, 5 acres of sorghum, 5 acres of beans/turnips and 5 acres of turnips. we tryed planting some corn as a screen around the edges of the field and a strip down the middle but it obviously didnt work out. You can see what is left of the few protected stalks that the deer haven't devoured. On another note the turnips are coming up really well, even in the area we planted in the beans because they were getting eaten down so hard.

It isnt always the obvious that gets noticed, looking at these young maple trees you would think they were intended to grow without leaves near the ground.  But that is not the case, that is a typical browse line in an over populated forest that can not support that number of current wildlife calling it home.  This winter we will need to go through and hinge cut these trees to get the forage near the ground.

I havent had cameras out this early in September before, it sure is fun getting pictures of these bucks coming out of velvet. Supposedly they eat the stuff and it is thought to be high in nutrients.

This buck looks decent with good brow tines but his G2 & 3's are a little lacking. His body is starting to fill out and look muscular which is a good sign. Hopefully we will get another angle of him to see how wide he is.

This buck is also decent but could use another year or two of growing to reach maturity.  

Warm Season Success - We Love Grass

These are pictures of some of the better areas of WSNG that came in. This is a 2 year old planting just to the south of the Grainery. The grass averages about head height to a foot or two over my head. That equates to about 6-8 feet of new cover in less than 2 years time with 2 summers of minimal rainfall and extremely sandy soils where most other plants would struggle to survive.



What we had before was your typical pasture/brome grass that would be about 2 feet high. This type of grass is not a tough grass and gets easily flattend by the first early snowfall. Our new grass should hold up well to snow and provide tremendous cover for deer, turkeys and all other types of wildlife.



It is hard to show height and thickness of the grass, I strongly recommend taking a walk through it sometime and experience it four yourself. There are a good number of wildflowers coming up and 4 types of grasses that we planted.



This is a picture of a 4-wheeler from about 20 yds. away when i am slightly crouched down. You can easily see how something can hide in this grass and let a predator pass within yards without being seen.

And the Velvet comes off!

Looks like the summer groups will be breaking up pretty soon, the velvet is off this buck already. That means October is not far away and the testosterone is going to start building.

September heat - when will it rain.....

Looks like a decent 7 point, once the velvet comes off he will probably be pretty thin, another year will look good on him.



We finally have some beans in Iowa that are turning out good. While some of the new food plots will need some more work I think this is going to provide some excellent late season food once all of the crops come down around our farm.

Bucks