Let The Games Begin...

Last year during hunting season I saw the best crop of younger bucks I can ever recall. They were not jaw droppers by any means, but they still had potential to make some jumps this year.
Now, to be fair, our hunting property generally doesn't hold mature bucks. It never has. They come around for the ladies; we make it that way, and are fine with keeping it that way. After a few months of getting quite a few mature does on camera I was satisfied with the typical ‘wait and see’ approach. That is until I checked my trail camera a few weekends ago… 

A Ghost from Seasons Past

My Dad noticed that we had some new crabapple trees producing fruit for the first time in a long time, so I went and checked it out. After seeing some quality buck mud, I popped up a cam. Much to my surprise, a ghost decided to make an appearance. The buck I call Beefy (Beefaroni).

He showed up last year along a pine tree scrape that my brother put a camera over. We were instantly impressed with not only his antler size, but body size. He looked more like a beef cow, hence the nickname Beefy.

From my estimation I would say he is a 5.5 year old buck, which around our parts is like being a 40 year old playing for a Community College football team! If a buck makes 3.5 around our parts it is above the curve.

After checking the camera again this weekend and looking at some fresh tracks in plowed fields (thanks to the recent rain), I know where he is coming and going from; but I have only one way to close the distance on him.
I believe he is living about ½ a mile west of our property in either a long timber cut or a homestead grove. Regardless, that is not Swanson territory. My only option would be to intercept him along his route by hoping he slips up and crosses the open field in shooting light, and skirts by cover. With that said, I still think it is going to take a hot doe to pull him out of his night to night pattern. I feel that all I can try and do is be at the right place at the right time with this buck!

A New Hope

Another shooter buck that has been appearing regular on my cams is this very nice 12 pointer that I nicknamed ‘Twelf’. I would say he is around 3.5 and I would be tickled to take him with bow or rifle. The best part about this deer, besides matching split G2’s, is that he has already started showing up during shooting light! I am also very confident that he stays in our woods. Based on the times he is appearing for photo shoots, he would have to be in our woods or extremely close by in a CRP slough. So keeping my expectations moderate, I would say he provides me the best opportunity to fill my bow tag.

What Does That Cloud Look Like to You?

I came across a very interesting topic today; a discussion based on deer movement and clouds. It was a blog post from Outdoor Life, and a follow-up to a wind direction and wind speed article. I thought it was worth a link:
http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big-buck-zone/2011/09/whitetail-tips-how-cloud-cover-affects-deer-movement

What I found very interesting was the preceding post on how wind and barometric pressure relate to deer movement. 29 is the barometric pressure number that I, along with most hunters, are familiar with. Rising and falling from this number is thought to spur deer up on their feet during daylight hours.
"The stronger the wind speed, the quicker barometric pressure will rise and after it subsides is the time to be out. After checking more than 100 Pope and Young records of 170+ bucks against weather conditions 8-12 hours before harvest, I found that a tremendous amount were taken after a wind of at least 30 mph had dropped to 10 mph.".
Now, I would really like to know what 'tremendous' equates to, but it is still something to file away.

As a general rule I try and get out before a front rolls through assuming deer will be on their feet and moving. But, what I really like about this article is that is actually throws some time frames out to use as an additional gauge. I also like the concept of clockwise wind changes.
Anyone have thoughts or journal entries that back this information up??

~Swany

Snow White, But There is No Dwarfs...

This was way too cool not to share. Nature is an amazing thing indeed.
http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=8852&et_mid=517084&rid=3447483

The thing I find very interesting is that I had always heard Albino bucks really didn't, or couldn't grow tremendous racks. But this guys is a beast!

So in Native American lore, Albino animals were considered sacred and would not be killed. What would you do???

North Dakota Game and Fish Impresses

During spring Turkey season I happened across a few unlucky turkeys that fell victim to their slots in the food chain. As I was looking at the carcasses one of the birds was sporting some extra accessories: a North Dakota Game and Fish band! I was pretty excited since, through all my adventures, I have never taken a banded bird.

Through email I was able to get in touch with Stan Kohn, the Upland Game Management Supervisor for the NDGF. He responded to me with the following information on the bird that I found:

"Turkey with band number 6582 was part of a flock of 34 birds that were trapped from private land south of Center, Oliver County, on 12 Dec. 2010.  A landowner was having some depredation problems with turkeys and we decided to remove some birds from his property.  This bird was sexed/aged as a juvenile male and banded with band number 6582.  All thirty four birds, including this juv. male, were transported to the Little Heart Bottoms on 12 Dec. and released.  We have had one other bird from this group reported as dead, probably from predation.  We have had several observations of banded birds from this group still on the Little Heart Bottoms so it doesn’t look like the birds have traveled too far from their release site.

Thanks much for reporting the band.  It helps us track the status of this group of birds."

So I wanted to take a minute today to say thanks to Stan and the NDGF. I may not have gotten my bird this year but I still took home a trophy!