The Quail Shed Messenger

This year has been so out of the norm, with one of the rainiest Springs ever, and now cool Summer days. While it’s hard to complain about not burning up, it is playing havoc with the soybean crop. And, if things don’t change very soon, we will see the latest harvest most folks can remember.

Mother always told me that when God gives you lemons, make lemonade. So, we have taken advantage of the weather, and used the cooler mornings to get a few stands up in some of the traditional funnel areas. There is still a lot of that work left to do, but its mighty nice to be out there now. And, you don’t feel totally washed out by 10 AM when the temps are so low.  The forecast is calling for mornings in the low 50s shortly. So, we are going to be ready!

In conversations with our hunters, I always state that the number one thing we need to produce big buck sightings is cold weather. This trend might just mean that we roll into November with frosty mornings, and daytime highs in the 40s! And, from a hunter’s point of view, it don’t get no better than that! On those days, the big bucks will roll! So, get your fleece ready, and go buy some disposable handwarmers. This could be a season to remember!

I want to thank my wifey for all of the hard work she has done to get the website up to date. As a reward, I plan to let her drive the Green Meanie, our Japanese mini truck, and take her fishing! She might even help me scout a little! The woman is multi-talented!

Last week, I spotted some great bucks coming out of the corn, and into the soybeans right before dark. Now, there’s nothing new bout that, except that the beans are so short you can see the whole deer. And, that doesn’t exactly make them want to hang around close to the roads, or even in the back of the fields for long, once they see a vehicle stop!

My efforts with trail cameras over the past few weeks have been far less than sucessful, because most of the bucks have been in the corn since before I put them out. I had many pics of does, and lots of spotted fawns, so I can tell you for sure that we had a great rut last fall!

The remedy to this is going to take some exztra work. I will try to put some cameras out in the bean fields on posts. That is going to be a short term deal, because I cannot leave them out there and in the way of the farmers. So, it will be in for a few days, and then out again!

I realize that all of you who are reading this are waiting for me to tell what I saw, so… There is no doubt in my mind now that our management plan is coming together. Protecting 2.5 year old bucks means a steady increase in 3.5 and older deer, and those made up the majority of what I spotted. They looked to average around 135 – 150… But, there were also some 4.5s, and a couple that I only got a glimpse of that were 5.5, or older. Those magnums were well into the 150 range, and a good bit higher. I need binoculars that take pictures, because I never seem to have a videocamera handy when I spot them…  That will be cured shortly!

The bucks are within two weeks of velvet shed now, and not far from bachelor group break ups. That’s when we start trying to establish patterns that we think will hold for a while! Look for more updates soon…

This thing can do a lot more, and a lot easier than the way I was trying to get info out to you in the past.

But, it’s also going to take me a while to get used to it, and learn everything about how it works! I can assure that I am much more comfortable figuring out what our big bucks are doing…