- Joined
- Jul 28, 2020
- Messages
- 4,106
About 12 years ago I gained access to a property in Madison County via some family. Just 26 acres, mix of overgrown fields and woods, abandoned cars, and surrounded by other farm houses.
Needless to say I was not "impressed". Too many hunting shows and not enough real knowledge about deer habitat and behavior I guess.
The property itself hadn't been hunted in over 5 years - the family member that hunted had been in the Air Force. I wish I had the deer knowledge now that I did then.
That summer I put out 2 trail cams over corn and then left it alone for about a month.
When I checked the cameras, I was astounded. 5 fully mature bucks in total in one group. One 145" 10 point. A double main beam buck. One VERY old buck that probably wouldn't have scored 100" but had incredible mass. And two really nice mainframe 8 points with some extra junk.
I thought this was going to be the best fall in the history of deer hunting.
In reality, I never saw any of those bucks. The 10pt was killed about a mile away that fall.
After that summer and some fall hunting pressure, I never saw any of those bucks again. And to date, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that group of bucks on that property. Amazing how much a little bit of pressure affects mature bucks.
Now - I'm not complaining. Over the years I have consistently taken shooters off that property. But looking back on what a unique situation that was.
Somewhere I still have those pics. My computer was hit by a ransomware attack 2 years ago so I lost quick access to them, but I think I've got them on some USB drives somewhere, or possibly an external HD. If I can find them, I'll post them.
Needless to say I was not "impressed". Too many hunting shows and not enough real knowledge about deer habitat and behavior I guess.
The property itself hadn't been hunted in over 5 years - the family member that hunted had been in the Air Force. I wish I had the deer knowledge now that I did then.
That summer I put out 2 trail cams over corn and then left it alone for about a month.
When I checked the cameras, I was astounded. 5 fully mature bucks in total in one group. One 145" 10 point. A double main beam buck. One VERY old buck that probably wouldn't have scored 100" but had incredible mass. And two really nice mainframe 8 points with some extra junk.
I thought this was going to be the best fall in the history of deer hunting.
In reality, I never saw any of those bucks. The 10pt was killed about a mile away that fall.
After that summer and some fall hunting pressure, I never saw any of those bucks again. And to date, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that group of bucks on that property. Amazing how much a little bit of pressure affects mature bucks.
Now - I'm not complaining. Over the years I have consistently taken shooters off that property. But looking back on what a unique situation that was.
Somewhere I still have those pics. My computer was hit by a ransomware attack 2 years ago so I lost quick access to them, but I think I've got them on some USB drives somewhere, or possibly an external HD. If I can find them, I'll post them.