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

Velvet City

Growing Pains

Hunting season is just around the corner and head gear is starting to take shape as we push into August. Send me pictures and I will get them posted.

Wierd Beard

Alex and friend shot this turkey on the last day of the spring season this year. The beard discoloration is supposedly caused by a malnutrition or high stress period of time. Possibly from this winter when we had bad weather and a lot of ice on the ground.

Shed Hunting

These are some pictures of sheds we found in Iowa a couple of weekends ago. The first one measured about a mid 150's class buck, hopefully he will put on 20 more inches this year. This is getting me to think about hunting season which is only 6 months away.




One of our friends down there also found some nice sheds and shot a good buck with his bow.




A farm down the road had a good year as well taking this nice buck. They also found the sheds off the 12 point in the motion picture.

Last One of the Season

Don's buck, 8 point no other info provided.

BBD Southern Style!

The gun opener in Iowa was a cold and wet one with temps in the high 20's, strong winds, and lots of freezing rain. There is a lot of clay on the property and they didn't know if they were going to be able to get out.

It must have been tough hunting in the rain and sleet, same weather we have had here only a day earlier in Iowa.

Things warmed up in a big way for one lucky hunter on the afternoon of the second day of the season. The new Ultimate Muzzleloader served its purpose making an extremely long shot (we'll confirm the range tomorrow, but its safe to say it was over 200 yds.) on a great buck.

12 points, 24.5" outside spread, 6" bases
183" Gross B&C Score.

Unbelievable we have trail camera pictures of almost every buck we have shot off out properties. These were taken in early November when Eric was bow hunting. When you get pictures like these it makes it easier to sit on the stand a little longer.

Thanksgiving Feast

Merle shot this awesome 12 point Friday morning after passing up many young bucks throughout bow season and early gun. This one has double brow times and double G2's & G3's on the left. Truly the type of bucks we are looking to harvest off the property.



Brian shot this 8 point Friday morning as well. It had an injured rear leg from something, possible hit by a car as there was some bruising under the skin.

Dale finally got a chance at this big 10 that we have several pictures of. About 20" wide with nice long tines, and almost perfectly symmetrical. Not quite as massive as Merle's or Nancy's so it will be interesting to see how old he is from the tooth analysis.