SilverFox
Well-Known Member
We have a 160 acre farm I hunt in SC. 72 acres of it are field. Another 8 or so are pond. The rest is old cutover and swamp... more swamp that cutover. The North border is a running water swamp that turns and makes up the East border as well. The South border is Interstate. There is a hedgerow that makes up the West boarder that has an open field that runs to the highway beyond it... No one hunts it as it really would be hard to hunt since the front at the road is houses and the normal wind blows our scent out across that property... and the right of way for the 160 we have runs the middle of it.
My hunting partner has hunted ducks on this property for around 25 years... He's never deer hunted it but a few guys did years ago. We took over total access to it this year since he wanted me to kinda teach him how to deer hunt so he can take his grandson.
We have been running cameras on this property all season long... got into it late since he didn't make up his mind until a week or two before season opened... So we have been running cameras since maybe the 2nd week of Sept. Didn't put up stands until the 3rd and 4th week of Sept... and only 2 stands then. I'm running 4 cameras... pretty much one on each side. So far I'm seeing 2 to 3 bucks for each doe on camera. When I say we have bucks out the butt I'm not joking. I can count about 20 bucks on this property off the top of my head... had 3 new ones show up in the last week on top of those 20. I can only say for sure I've seen 9 does and yearling. Maybe 11 since there is a old doe and a yearling doe that may be be 2 sets as they are all over the field and seems a little odd for them to travel that much in one night but who knows. I've not seen over 4 does at one time... and then only seen them 2 times. I've seen one group of 3... and then the regular group of 2 that may actually be 2 groups of 2.
We had/have a very serious coyote problem. I killed one back in the summer with the FoxPro. Didn't realize how bad it was until we started running cameras. I've killed 5 more in the last 2 weeks and missed another one... may have got him later but who knows. I've seen 1 bob cat... I'm assuming it's only 1 but its been on camera 3 times in 2 different spots. I saw him crossing the field one morning at first light but season isn't open here.
The vast majority of the bucks are nothing to brag about. There's one really good buck for that area that I call crab claw which is an 8. There's a buck that is really dark and is a 9 that I call the swamp buck. He's no trophy but he appears to be young. Then there's a double handful of other 6, 7 and 8 points. A couple 4s and 5s. 3 what look like cowhorns or 3 points and another 2 spikes. The 3 new deer I saw are all 8 points. One is a real good deer. I mistakenly shot one this morning but he wasn't on camera anyway. I thought it was the crab claw buck. He came out at 350 yards and I took him at 321 yards. I told him it would hard for me to pass up the crab claw.... but it appears we need to thin the herd. I know people get bent out of shape about cull bucks but some of these bucks appear to be culls. Messed up racks. One appears to have an antler coming out of the side of his head.
I don't know why the new bucks would show up since there appears to be so few does. I would guess the coyotes have a big part in so few does... but I figured they would get more bucks than does since a buck would probably fight them when a doe would run. Who knows.
The field was planted in peanuts... now harvested, and will be planted in wheat as a cover crop in the next week. Next year will probably be cotton they say.
If you were going to try and "manage" this property, where would you start? I've told him I wouldn't shoot any does... we are both members of a club as well where it's over run with does so meat won't be an issue. Would you leave the crab claw buck? I've passed on (2) 8 points this year already. I really love a crab claw buck... :drool:
My hunting partner has hunted ducks on this property for around 25 years... He's never deer hunted it but a few guys did years ago. We took over total access to it this year since he wanted me to kinda teach him how to deer hunt so he can take his grandson.
We have been running cameras on this property all season long... got into it late since he didn't make up his mind until a week or two before season opened... So we have been running cameras since maybe the 2nd week of Sept. Didn't put up stands until the 3rd and 4th week of Sept... and only 2 stands then. I'm running 4 cameras... pretty much one on each side. So far I'm seeing 2 to 3 bucks for each doe on camera. When I say we have bucks out the butt I'm not joking. I can count about 20 bucks on this property off the top of my head... had 3 new ones show up in the last week on top of those 20. I can only say for sure I've seen 9 does and yearling. Maybe 11 since there is a old doe and a yearling doe that may be be 2 sets as they are all over the field and seems a little odd for them to travel that much in one night but who knows. I've not seen over 4 does at one time... and then only seen them 2 times. I've seen one group of 3... and then the regular group of 2 that may actually be 2 groups of 2.
We had/have a very serious coyote problem. I killed one back in the summer with the FoxPro. Didn't realize how bad it was until we started running cameras. I've killed 5 more in the last 2 weeks and missed another one... may have got him later but who knows. I've seen 1 bob cat... I'm assuming it's only 1 but its been on camera 3 times in 2 different spots. I saw him crossing the field one morning at first light but season isn't open here.
The vast majority of the bucks are nothing to brag about. There's one really good buck for that area that I call crab claw which is an 8. There's a buck that is really dark and is a 9 that I call the swamp buck. He's no trophy but he appears to be young. Then there's a double handful of other 6, 7 and 8 points. A couple 4s and 5s. 3 what look like cowhorns or 3 points and another 2 spikes. The 3 new deer I saw are all 8 points. One is a real good deer. I mistakenly shot one this morning but he wasn't on camera anyway. I thought it was the crab claw buck. He came out at 350 yards and I took him at 321 yards. I told him it would hard for me to pass up the crab claw.... but it appears we need to thin the herd. I know people get bent out of shape about cull bucks but some of these bucks appear to be culls. Messed up racks. One appears to have an antler coming out of the side of his head.
I don't know why the new bucks would show up since there appears to be so few does. I would guess the coyotes have a big part in so few does... but I figured they would get more bucks than does since a buck would probably fight them when a doe would run. Who knows.
The field was planted in peanuts... now harvested, and will be planted in wheat as a cover crop in the next week. Next year will probably be cotton they say.
If you were going to try and "manage" this property, where would you start? I've told him I wouldn't shoot any does... we are both members of a club as well where it's over run with does so meat won't be an issue. Would you leave the crab claw buck? I've passed on (2) 8 points this year already. I really love a crab claw buck... :drool:
