Hunting Land Update

Good thing I got my working sessions up north in before I went overseas.  Now that we are well into the hot weather season it would be much less fun.

Some things have not worked out.  I've written on several occasions on The Bean Project, whereby I'd take pounds of surplus Navy, Black and Pinto beans and turn them into huge feed lots for the plumpification of next year's venison harvest.

The results were underwhelming.  I planted hundreds of them in shallow scrapes and just tossed handfuls off into open areas.  Most just vanished.  Although in one area where we had turned the soil over well last year they are fighting it out with the thistles....

Also, I had plans to put in a rudimentary "facility".  Well, an outhouse if you must know.  As mostly guy users there is no problem with stepping outside and watering the nearest tree, but on infrequent occasions more dedicated facilities could be useful.  Staying over night in the one humble structure already on the site could make those evening and sunrise hunts much easier.

Alas, there are pesky rules and regulations on such matters.  Specifications.  Soil inspections.  Fees to pay.  A permit.  Sigh.

Such are the puny efforts of man.  Or at least of this man.  But nature continues on without much notice of said efforts.  It was a mild winter and game populations seem to be robust.  A couple of recent trail cam pictures....

Awww....

And, oh my....

Back to The Land

No, haven't gone full organic hippy farmer or anything.  The Land is the unimaginative designation for the hunting property up north.  Which is also a huge Keep Busy project.  There will always be things to do.  Clear lanes near the established stands.  Plant tasty deer treats.  My son's family tapped maple trees and boiled down lots of syrup.  There's fire wood to cut.  A rickety garage structure that needs attention.  We should probably build an outhouse for occasional use.  My years of digging up old 19th century privies will at last have a practical use.

With robotics entering Rest Up phase its time to get to work.  There is a narrow window where some of these tasks are easier.  You really don't want to be doing heavy outdoor tasks in hot weather and with a cloud of mosquitos trying to carry you off.

Hank loves these work sessions.  He is the Happiest Dog in Wisconsin when he's up there.  Off leash, so many smells, so very many sticks....  He carried this one around for quite a while, clunking me in the back of the legs multiple times.

He's is not the only single minded life form to be out on a warm mid April day....

That little villain is a "deer tick".  Ixodes Scapularis if you prefer.  Yep, the ones that carry Lyme disease and various other cooties.  Hank is at least helpful there.  He gets a monthly dose of medication that ensures that tick bite him and die.  Wish they had that for humans.  I just have to take a shower immediately on return to civilization, and put all garments I had on right in the washing machine. I still find a few ingenious ones lurking around.  

The Private Life of Beans

When I was gifted 30 pounds of dried beans for Christmas, my expectations were modest.  "Cool beans", I obviously said.  And hoped that perhaps they'd be of some use in our hunting land feed plots.  Deer will eat dried beans, tender green shoots, etc.  

So the basic plan was to just plant some in areas we turn over with the neighbor's tractor.  But it seems I had set my expectations too low.

Catching up from previous postings, I:

- Planted about 10 of each variety.  50%-70% survived my indifferent care

- Transplanted one of each...except for one variety where two were intertwined.

And the darn things kept growing.  This is a picture from March 11th.

They were supposed to be bush style beans, but weirdly turned into vine types and proceeded to climb 3 feet up the window blinds.  Had I known this in advance I would have added some stakes.  And perhaps set them up somewhere else.

But its nice to have a bit of greenery in late winter.  Sometimes I remember to water them.  Usually its when I finish a cup of coffee and use the empty cup to fetch their ration.  Caffeine traces might have something to do with their vigorous growth.

But something else is happening.  

I know very little about the sex life of plants.  I actually don't care to know more.  But I vaguely recall that in the whole "Birds and Bees" scenario there should be, you know, bees.  Or some other way to pollinate flowers.  Oh yes, there are flowers.  All three varieties of beans, with various small yellow and blue blossoms.

And there are beans.  Yes, I am officially a bean farmer now.  

This is unexpected.  Oh, we are only talking three that have reached the stage where actual beans should be forthcoming.  Several more adorable little mini pods may or may not develop.  But this shows a degree of resilience that I had not expected.

So how did this come to pass?  Well, some plants are rather ambiguous is such matters.  Male and female parts on the same plant?  I guess.  Pinto and Navy bean hybrids?  Sure, why not.  Heck, the hops that I planted years ago on the back fence just up and changed, one section of the hop producing female plants just throwing some sort of biochemical switch and converting to male hops.  The latter btw are not productive of anything useful to a home brewer.  And, to be frank, the female plants were plenty productive before this transition.  Probably there were bees involved.  Birds can't be entirely ruled out.

So now what?

It appears that free, dried beans can turn into deer pleasing snacks with a fair degree of success.  Oh, and with potting soil and an absence of rodents, turkeys and such to nip them in the bud.  Or in the pre-bud stage.  But it encourages me to try the mass approach.  Every week blast another 10 or 20 pounds of dried beans off into patches of recently cleared land.  See what happens.  Most will get eaten right away.  Some as soon as they dare show their tender little sprouts.  But evidently beans are scrappers, they'll give it their best try.  So I hope to be looking out across waving fields of tasty to deer plants.  At which point I'll tip my bean planter's hat and say "You guys/gals just do your own thing out there.  You be you."

A More Reasonable Deer Stand Upgrade

Because the box stands on our hunting land were designed for an 8 foot tall guy who never sat down, the sight lines were difficult.  Last year despite sitting on a fairly tall bar stool, a buck snuck up right underneath me.  That annoyed me a bit.  So in early spring it's time for the first trip back.

Hauling in some cargo by sled

Setting up my new platform.  Notice the red brackets.  Surplus robot parts.

Enjoying the view.

No, I mean really enjoying it.

Deer Stand Over Preparedness

Seen when driving past a place that makes big cement things.

The sign says it is an "Almost Indestructible Hunting Blind"  Here's what it is made of:

I'd call it solid concrete but I'm pretty sure it also has reinforcing Rebar in it.  It also rests on solid blocks of concrete.  I mean, you won't get this up onto the wooden poles that most blinds use.   

I suppose if you have a great hunting spot, and nothing is ever going to change, then this might be for you.  Sure would be low maintenance.  Which does not mean put it up and do no more work.  On our land we've noticed that logged over areas turn into solid walls of trees that you can't see or shoot through, just by leaving them alone for a few years.

Nature.  It's all about adaptation to better succeed in whatever the environment may be.  Perhaps if we see this sort of deer stand catch on we'll soon have this AI generated scenario become real!

(closest I could get Skynet to give me a white tail deer with a grenade launcher)

Beans

In an era of TLDR I guess I won't try to explain the how and why regards getting 50 pounds of dried beans for Christmas.  Just accept this.  So, how will these work in our Hunting Land feed plots?

This is just one of a dozen or so bags.

There is a lot of information out there regards planting traditional stuff like clover and soybeans for the dining pleasure of deer, but Pintos, Navy and Black beans, not so much.  So this will be an experiment.

First step is to make sure they will grow........

And......here's the view about 9 days later!

Navy beans were the early leaders with Pintos catching up.  Germination rates are 90% even with my indifferent care.  Black beans are lagging a bit.

The matter of what to plant for deer feed lots is an arcane topic, one in which there are many strong opinions.  Sects and cults abound.  Soybeans, corn, peas.  What's the role for pumpkins?  Are you looking to just feed them or to keep them around and happily munching right up to hunting season?  

In the end it comes down to what the deer vote for.  Oh, and how much time, effort and thought you want to put into the project.  As this is primarily a learning experienced - with the secondary end goal of meat in the freezer - we'll likely have a bit of fun with it.  Different plots with game cams to keep the All Seeing Eye on things.   

Now, I could see how kind hearted people might look askance at this project.  I mean, it is a bit like having The DeScuzzi Brothers start a delightful neighborhood Ristorante with all you can eat fare and very low prices....then having Mafia assassins turn up one beautiful fall day.  But unlike The DeScuzzis, we have standards.  We won't be putting out big piles of food in front of our stands just before hunting season.  Likely what we plant and nurture will help the deer population* out to the extent that we may spare as many critters as we harvest.  Spring can be a hungry time for new fawns and their moms.  And that fall binge eating sometimes takes them far afield and across dangerous roads.

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* Oh, and planting all manner of edible stuff will greatly endear us to the other wild life, the ones we are not planning on putting into the freezer.  I spent a lot of time watching squirrels dance around our prototype food plots last year.  They will be Most Pleased, as will bear,  turkey and who knows what else.

Christmas Comes Early and Oddly

Sometimes the complexities of sharing your kids and grandkids with other tribes means that the Trad Christmas schedule won't work.  This was one of those years, so we got everyone together a bit early.  The grands are either old enough to know that Santa does not get 'er done in one night, and/or have grown up in a world where Amazon can supply anything at anytime.  So it was for most of the world still a regular kinda day.

We watched a grandkid play hockey.

We got together for presents.  The theme this year was "Hand Made or Hand Me Down".  This of course is us being environmentally conscious, NOT us trying to get the kids junk out of the attic and given back to them.  Among the hand made stuff was this clever game called "Smoorsh".  Not sure of the spelling, this was just invented last week.  It involved taking squiggly aspen trees cleared off our hunting land, cutting them up into various highly irregular sizes and angles, then stacking them as drawn randomly from a bag.  The youngest person in attendance - over on the left - had a particularly aggressive style.  Grab, Slam Down, Admire.

Not only a remarkably tall and serpentine tower, but he was actively eating Christmas cookies with the other hand.

I got some nice hand made stuff from the grands too.  Knit garments for Bill the Taxidermy Squirrel, and a wall mount for the silly little antlers from the spike buck I got this year.  Hey, it was a nice sized deer despite the.....teeny antlers.  

Of course there were also dogs.  This one is rather a bad influence on Hank.

She's brazen about Occupying human spaces.

And this is one ferocious rabbit chaser.  So after a bit, when things had settled down, I let the dogs out.  I did take the precaution of peering out into the yard first, making sure the gates were closed.  Oh, how well we remember the Great Dog Escape of 2022

(Only my wife and I remember the Great Dog Downfall of 1993 where our then elderly mutt walked right into the Christmas tree and knocked it over).

But I did not see the rabbit.

Out the dogs went, in hot pursuit.  The great huntress dog pursued it back and forth before the bunny zipped under the thankfully locked gate.  Hank on the other hand yipped and ran to the door, clearly shaken.  I figured, well he's a big creampuff, guess that bunny told him off.  Only then did a guest notice that The Hankster had a big laceration on his side.  Guess he ran into a projecting bit of metal on the fence, although a comedic Monty Python rabbit is an outside possibility.

So its off to the after hours vet for sedation, sutures and a very drunk and confused dog returning after the grands were in bed.  Not ideal, but would have been worse on actual Christmas....

The Deer....they Mock Me Still........

Deer hunting 2025 has been a complicated affair.  Compound and cross bow hunting.  Youth hunt for my grand son.  Between myself, my three sons and one involved grand we've likely been hunting on 20 different spots.

Lots of work, but it has paid off.

So on the last day of Wisconsin gun hunting season my son and grandson were going off to help a friend get a deer.  They left at 6am, when the world was dark.   Ten minutes after they departed Hank the Dog went insane.  There was a deer, or more than one, in the front yard!  

When the sun came up the tale was told.  I'd only glimpsed one, but....

Those spots where the snow is melted were bed downs for two deer.  In town.  One of them about six feet from my front door.  The sheer audacity is both awe and ire inspiring.

Evidently they'd been mooching around, eating out of the bird feeder, checking out the garden area.  When the hunters were present they just stepped around the corner...directly under the window where I was making coffee.

What is the appropriate response to this degree of Insolence?

Rifle Season Review - Deer vs Modern-ish Tech

Crossbows go back to ancient times.  Normal bows, to the stone age.  So deer have had time to adapt.  Humans, those shaggy bad smelling critters, were just one more predator.  At a time when there were all manner of other toothy, hungry things out there we probably did not rank high on their list.

Of course things have changed.  Oh, I still see the occasional bear, wolf or coyote "up north".  But the main things deer need to worry about are cars - just in the last century or so - and the handiwork of Paul Mauser.

People have been hunting Wisconsin deer with firearms for a while now.  The Ojibway were very motivated to trade beaver pelts for muskets going back to the 1600's.  But the availability was low, and the range not much more than a skilled archer.  

Paul Mauser was one of many talented guys who put their effort into making dangerous things in the 1800s.  His innovations were built into the standard rifles and ammunition for the Kaiser's army, and are still the basis for most non fancy deer hunting guns today.  Here's what I use.  Sorry if Google/Facebook etc get unhappy with any sort of fire arm photo! *

This is actually a rather long prolog to a rather short story.

 

Sunrise on opening day of rifle season found me in a box stand on our hunting land.  Basically tree houses built on 15 foot stilts they were constructed by the previous owner.  Who, from the geometry of the window arrangement, must have been about six foot 8 and preferred to stand up the entire time!  Even with a yard sale bar stool to sit on there are areas you just can't see.  There was a beautiful sunrise.

The orange flag is for the edification of the next door neighbor who was hunting some distance off in that direction.  Anyway, after sitting there craning my neck in various ways for 90 minutes I needed a bit of a stretch.  Standing up I saw a buck had approached to within ten paces of the stand right on the trail shown.  A most incurious chap he was still there after I quietly stepped back, took off the safety, lined up a shot......

Expired deer pictures all look the same.  Suffice to say it was a serious task dragging him from the dense underbrush he ran off into.  I had to actually get one of my sons who was hunting elsewhere on the property to come help me.  Even with two of us it was necessary to take breaks getting Bucky back to home base.

And so that's hunting 2025, unless other branches of the family need logistical help or my unfilled doe tag.

Addendum.  A friend hunting on the same spots I've spent so much time on got a nice buck the second day of rifle season.  As a herd management strategy this is ideal, if accidental.  With the mild weather there are  a lot more bucks up and wandering than in most gun seasons.  But they've presumably already taken care of "next year's crop of fawns" business.  So they are less important than the now pregnant does.  And if a year from now there is a mis match?  More does than bucks?  Well, they are not big on either monogamy or faithfulness that lasts more than a half hour or so!

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* Weirdly the United States had to pay the Mauser company a substantial amount of money post WWI for the patent on the "spitzer" ammunition Paul Mauser had invented.  True, it was a complicated legal case and settled out of court, but rather remarkable...paying your defeated enemy for the ammo used to defeat him!

 

Crossbow Hunting - In Review....

How smart are deer?

Exactly as smart as they think they need to be in a given situation.  They have eyes, ears and noses so much more sensitive to ours that if they stayed on full sensory alert all the time we'd never see one.  Of course that's not realistic.  But they can and do dial the filters up and down.

Bow hunting requires you to be fairly close to your target.  I actually will only take a shot that I'm sure will be a good one, as the idea of a wounded deer limping off to die somewhere far away distresses me.  Even though coyotes gotta eat too....

With a cross bow that range is.....  Well at the start of the season I would have said 30 yards.  But one consequence of spending a lot of time out trying to fool a deer is that in the "in between" times that divide up morning and evening "sits" I've been practicing.  I am pretty confident now at 40 yards.  I'd do 45 if the deer was standing still and a big enough target.

North American deer have had a long time to get used to bow hunting.  People have been launching arrows at them for something like 16,000 years, although its likely the Wisconsin deer were left alone until about 10,000 years ago.  

There are plenty of deer in the woods in the fall of 2025.  I see some most days.  That's good.  Also, that's bad.  Often I've been carefully watching one deer while another sneaks up from an unexpected direction, does that curious head bobbing up and down to get a better view, then calls for the general retreat with white tails flipping me off as they disappear into the woods.

I've tried various things.  Being quiet for instance.  Now I am admittedly older, creakier and wheezier than I used to be, but I still do my best.  Deer also have a phenomenal sense of smell.  So I wash all my hunting garb with scent blocker, store it all in a Rubber Maid tub partly full of leaves, spritz on a product that supposedly takes care of any lingering human odors.  Why, I even skip my morning coffee, as I've heard that is a red flag for them.  Nothing.  Incidentally, there is a wide array of scent stealth concoctions.  I hope in a coffee deficient state I never accidently spray on the cinnamon stuff that attracts Wild Hogs! 

I've decided that the two biggest factors in my to date non success are: 1) The deer are not where I can conveniently hide.  And 2) They are really good at seeing anything that was not there yesterday!

Regards the first point, the land we got as a deer hunting preserve is work in progress.  We saw lots of critters there in the spring and summer.  But in the fall they seem to have wandered over to the next door property where everything was logged off a few years ago.  Mmmmm, nice tender buds and shoots.  So the very stealthy box stands that came with the place are mostly looking out over quiet woods and paths.

Of course it is possible to set up elsewhere.  My son uses a climber stand that can shuffle you right up any tree trunk.  This is especially handy in an area we like that is National Park Service and does not allow any overnight stands.  My son seems skeptical that his near 70 year old father should be using such a thing, and I suppose he's got a point.

Other than that it is various forms of ground blinds.  And I think the deer are onto that trick.

Well, its been an enjoyable fall out in the woods, and I have learned quite a bit about deer generally, and about our new hunting land specifically.  In the off season we'll be doing things to improve the deer habitat.  And isn't that why people have cabins, land and so forth?  To go out there and do lots of jobs?

Next up is rifle season.  If the local herbivores have had 10,000 years to figure out humans with bows they've only had about 200 to start figuring out fire arms.  Lets see how they fare with an effective range of 100 yards plus!

Deer Hunting 2025 - Symphony of the Seventies....

Perhaps you thought my last hunting related post was a bit hard on the "gals".  Does are really quite excellent creatures.  Highly devoted to their children and generally sensible.  It's just during that one week of hormonal insanity that they are, well, floozies.  But what about the bucks? Am I letting them off too easy?

Nah.  They are plenty foolish in their own ways.

In general you want to sit and wait in total silence for deer to mosey past.  But for bucks, you can try to fool 'em.  You can for instance clack together some antlers.  This suggests to them that other bucks are duking it out somewhere in the area they plan to claim for their own little harem.  They sometimes come over to take issue with this.  Allow me to demonstrate:

Alas, this is a bit hit and miss.  Early in the mating season they are very territorial.  My son lured his large, albeit distracted, buck in this way.  Shortly after my virtuoso performance seen above a buck did appear in front of me.  For about ten seconds, running fast, and at the upper limits of my accurate range with a crossbow.  I clacked and clacked but he never reappeared.

You can also make sounds allegedly similar to bucks grunting.  Same general theory.  My grandkids gave me this device.  I think its legit.  But the little stinkers may have simply handed me the equivalent of a Whoopie Cushion to make flatulent noises.  I'd not put it past 'em, and if so, well played.....

I don't think this device - for the grandkids I dubbed it the "Buck Tooter" did anything.  Oh, and there's also a little noisemaker said to mimic a doe saying something like "Hey there, sailor!"

As I've mentioned before, bow hunting this year has been frustrating, but also a learning experience.  I've put in lots of time.  I've seen deer.  I'm learning quite a lot about the acreage that we bought specifically to develop as hunting land.  But despite those exciting moments when a deer is oh, so close to stepping into the right spot, there's a lot of time just sitting.  My brain goes to odd places when idle.  I started wondering if the three musical instruments above could be used to compose, well not a song, but a little melody.  Something inspired by the rather racy stuff that was on the radio back in the 1970's.  Thinking Marvin Gaye and "Let's Get it On", although that particular song lacks any clacky parts.....

Here's my final word on "Bucky" the insolent 6 pointer who keeps turning up near my cabin base.  You may notice a bit of white stuff in some of the above images.  Yes, snow.  So when Hank and I were out for walkies he was very excited and distracted.  So much so that he did not notice Bucky standing in the driveway of our next door neighbor's cabin.  Sigh.  Apart from the inconvenience of three or four laws I could have just stayed in bed until 9, rolled over, pointed a rifle out the bedroom window and bagged him - a la Groucho Marx - in my pajamas.

Hank remained oblivious.  This was perhaps my last outing with medieval weaponry.  I've been in rifle range of about a dozen deer over the last few months, so eventually they shall Pay for their Insolence.  I think.....

 

Party Week for the Deer

Deer live mostly boring lives.  They munch on stuff.  They drop little piles.  For the ones who are not dumb enough to jump in front of cars there are few major predators left.  They really only have complicated lives for two weeks out of 52.  Rifle hunting season, of course, and approximately the first week of November.

Bucks and Does don't interact much the rest of the year.  Our trail cams over the spring and summer show sweet little families of moms and fawns.  And loosely organized gangs of bucks.  The latter just seem to hang out together.  Critter Bros.

But one week out of the year the deer go hormonally insane.  They run around, chasing each other, heedless of danger or consequences.  For instance:

Yesterday coming up to hunt I saw a six point buck loitering around the four way stop near our cabin.  Broad daylight.  Today I saw him again, same spot, 10 am.  Hah, I figured, I'll just set up there.  Sitting around for a fair bit of time...nuthin.  Gave up, walked out and started putting stuff in my car.  And saw a doe run across the road with Bucky in hot pursuit.  Heading right where I had been.  Here's what he was seein'

This by the way is the first AI generated image I've ever used.  The parameters are: show me a cartoon deer with lots of cheap makeup.  I specifically said not to use anything under copyright by a gigantic media and theme park corporation.  I don't wanna cross the Doom Mouse and his lawyers.  Even if the mother of a certain beloved character was a round hoofed floozy.

Well its been a bit frustrating but I remind myself that this is just the second year I've bow hunted, and my success last year may have been a fluke.  The learning goes on.
 

Oh, Deer!

A good three generation hunt.  My son actually got this nice buck, but there was a fair bit of tracking in the dark and hauling out of the woods to do.  My grandson is the best tracker in the family, while I take pride in having a durable back well suiting to dragging deer, including this really big one, out of the dense underbrush.

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I had of course planned a "below the fold" addendum called "Oh Deer Me!", but the critters have thus far outsmarted me.   Grumble, grumble.....

Deer Hunting Third Report - Avoiding Boredom

The deer are not cooperating.  Various theories are in circulation.  The venerable Moon Deer Theory that posits a full moon changes their activity.  The Acorn Cycle Theory, which notes a multi year cycle whereby that tasty treat has a bumper year in 2025.  So they could be camped under Oak Trees, lolling about.  The upshot - no pun intended - is that we trying multiple sites trying to figure them out.

I set up a ground blind back at the spot where I got my first deer back in 2020.  Golf Course Corner has converging trails where they go on and off the abandoned course.  Basically a big green deer feeder that covers many acres.

For a ground blind you need to be wily.  This is where my Grandpa skills, specifically Hide and Seek and Blanket Fort building pay off.

Behold, the Blanket Fort of Doom.

Camo fabric wrapped around some trees and posts.  Then festooned with the dead ferns that grow everywhere in this section.  Not bad I'd say, the point is to break up your outline.  Deer's eyes are like using your photo editor with the Contrast function dialed way, way up.  Of course I'll be sitting in there and my head and shoulders will be visible.  So.....

Sometimes I think this is all just goofing around, avoiding boredom.  Forts, dress up costumes, all sorts of Grandpa activities.

On this particular night I decided to leave the crossbow at home.  Deer have a degree of memory from one day to the next.  So I figured it would take a while for them to not be interested in this new patch of brush.  By the way, every trip there I'll add a few more handfuls of dried ferns.  Maybe I'll put some on the hat too!

So you'd assume that a gigantic buck would have stopped 20 yards off and viewed me with disdain.  Well, nope.  But for the first time sitting out I actually did see some deer in the distance, far out of bow or even rifle range.  Dancing about safely on private property.  Alas.

More boredom relief.  For ground blind hunting you should have a bow rest to stabilize your shooting.  I have an entire basement workshop full of robotics surplus.

Here's my fancy robotics bow rest.  It's one leg of a damaged camera tripod bolted to a section of 80/20 aluminum extrusion that we use for prototyping.  With a spike attached to the bottom to plant it in the dirt.

Should work until said dirt is frozen solid.  Chilly days are coming, but probably have a few weeks yet before that.

The Great Idea - And the Fatal Flaw

I was back for another round of the great Clean Up/Clean Out of my parents house.  It's not for the faint of heart.  I was often dreaming of being off in the woods, watching the trail for a deer to turn up, breathing that fresh North Country air.......   And I had an idea.

Without exception, everything you find in a project like this comes in multiples.  Bottles of an over the counter pain med or vitamin?  Dozens.  Walking canes?  I think I came across eight of them.  And I got an idea.  Not a good idea, nay, it was a Great Idea.

One area we favor for bow hunting is a special type of public land.  Because it is along a river you can hunt there, but not put up any stands or blinds that stay overnight.  So, its pack everything in, and pack it out.  Quietly.

For me that is a fold up blind, my trusty folding chair, my crossbow of course, and ideally a rest for same.  I'm a good shot out to 30 yards with a rest.  The problem is that the one I like to use is a bit big and klunky.  So....why not just modify one of these walking canes?  Lightweight, adjustable, and there were so many that I just took four or five home for experiments!

Here's my first version.  Simple is best.  Just use hose clamps to attach a spike to the bottom.  This lets you just stick it into the ground at the proper spot.

And the crossbow rests very nicely in the original hand grip.

So, what did I forget?  What is the fatal flaw?

I'd forgotten that when I came home with these things that Hank the Dog immediately stopped his happy pup celebrations and started sniffing them with intense interest.  I won't trouble your day with the long list of odors that could be grabbing his attention, but rest assured, any deer within a couple of miles would notice!

I had him check out the final product just to be sure.  Yep....sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff.....

Well, maybe if I cut off the foam hand grip and bury it in a pile of leaves and bark for a couple of weeks, then spray it with anti scent stuff...........

Second Hunt - 2025

I've been dutiful in getting out to hunt this fall.  Sometimes at the cost of aches, pains and not enough sleep.

Here's the crossbow ready, well still needs to be cocked and loaded with an arrow, for action.  And the blue tub???

Unless you are a hunter you likely have no concept of how much of an advantage deer have.  Sight, smell, hearing courtesy of those big bat like ears....they have every opportunity to detect our presence.

Odor control is a big consideration. Hank the Dog has been banned from the hunting land for about the last month.  And as for other smells, well, there are all sorts of scent blockers and laundry soaps.  Also sprays, I think toothpastes, etc.

But once you have your camo garb all de-scented, how to keep it that way?

Pack it into a tub full of leaves!

I won't bore you with the many photos of me peering out of a blind or stand looking at, perhaps, a few frisky squirrels.  So far no deer has wandered into what I would consider reasonable crossbow range.

The other evening we had a three generation hunt.  I sat in a ground blind with my grandson.  His eyes and ears are better than mine.  A lot better!

Excellent camo and a fairly good job of being quiet were not rewarded.  This time.

My son was hunting on the other side of a river that was less than knee deep.  But when he got a deer just before dark we had a problem.  The deer was evidently not that bothered by an arrow stuck into it from about 3 yards range, and ran off into the night.  The next morning we spent a long time tracking it.  Two observations:  The sumac and maple leaves were actively turning red as we scanned the ground for drops of blood.  And, we figure the deer swigged some sort of video game Potion of Healing, because after a quarter mile or so the drops ceased entirely and the deer was Gone.

We'll try again this weekend.

Deer Hunt 2025 - First Report

I got out hunting a few times earlier this week.  A spell of ridiculously hot weather finally broke, with the usual cold rains.  So my first session was cold and unproductive.  Next morning I did a walk through of an area that I've hunted before.  Great bounding herds of fat and happy deer!  Of course when I spent some time there the next sunrise there was....nothing.

This season I'm hunting multiple spots in two different areas.  Here's some views of pretty, but unproductive landscapes....

A ground blind.  Yesterday six deer had gone prancing right past this spot.

The view from one of our enclosed box stands.  Nice and dry.  Good enough light to read a ponderous historical novel....

And just for variety the view from a high up tree stand.  More woods to survey, but still no deer.  Although to be fair I did have a little excitement when a juvenile black bear went running through at a clip that suggested Goldilocks was eating his porridge. 

Weather and other obligations make the next expedition tbd.

Oh, one more thing.  As the modern age now reaches into the back woods I have to turn off all sound on my phone.  Wouldn't want to get a spam call when a big buck was just strolling into range.  When I got back from the woods I decided, hey, lets just leave it on silent mode.  I don't need to pay that much attention to the distractions of modern technology.

Woodsy Wednesday

This is about the time I started bow hunting last season.  But I've not been out yet.  It has been unseasonably warm and I've been unreasonably busy.  But we have the trail cams out, and have been watching the deer.  Perhaps they've decided to watch us too......

Hope to have a more detailed report next "Woodsy Wednesday".

Fall Smorgasbord

Adhering mostly to my three times a week schedule; it seems likely that for a stretch we'll have one each of Robots, Hunting and The Great Clean Up/Clear Out.  Of course the number of people out there who find all three interesting is perhaps low, but fwiw this is my Life these days.  So lets have a quick sampler.

Robots:

Here's what the middle school crew is going to build.  It is designed to pick up and launch a volleyball.  There are suspicions that the FIRST game for the high school team might have that sort of game element, so its a chance to try stuff out.  If you can make something work with a short time frame and a labor force of squirrels, you've accomplished much.

I have not been out hunting yet.  Too busy and its been warm.  Best to wait, there will be more leaves down in a week or so, and the cooler weather makes the logistics of getting the deer processed much easier.  But from our trail cams, it appears somebody in our area is impatient.....

Probably should have taken a bit more time lining up that shot.  Bucky does not seem too bothered by this, so it may be "only a flesh wound".

Much could be said about digging through the Junk of Generations at my parents house.  Maybe this will suffice for today.

We Watch Deer. Deer Watch Us.

Trail cam photo from a week or so back.  Since starting deer hunting five years ago our number of functional trail cams has gone from three down to one.  Temperature swings, ant infestations.  Just cheap Chinese electronics.  

We'll be up doing some hunting prep in the days ahead.  So some functional cameras would help.  I took Hank to one of "his stores", dog and guy friendly places.  He was creeped out by the giant inflatable black cat lawn decoration.  Halloween too damn early, I was creeped a bit myself.  But here he is helping me pick out a couple of low cost 'cams.  

This is about the maximum of his Brave Hunter mode.  Chipmunks frighten him and he thinks skunks want to be his friend.