Check out this first buck I recently spotted close to one of my hunting areas. A definite 10 pointer and still growing. The girth of the rack is incredibly huge (even beyond the normal velvet look)and will certainly be a record contender this year 180+ B&C. The shots were taken at about 500 yards so not the best pics, but good enough to get a feel for the nice buck. I saw this same deer last year walk right under my stand, but choose not to shoot because he still needed a little more size, but due to a good amount of rain the food has been good this year and the deer in the area really look good. The acorn trees are loaded this year after a year with minimum nuts last year. The berries have been plentiful, as well as many other natural deer food. The local orchard tress are drooping with apples on the limbs, which should present some good sightings and shooters this year for those stands. If this first buck siting is any sign, it should be a good season.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Record Buck Spotted
Saturday, October 3, 2009
October 3, 2009 - Today's Sightings
The start of the season last week was a bust...It rained here along with thunder and lightning. I got about 1 hour in the stand on saturday morning and about 1/2 hour in the evening on the first day. I saw two doe in the evening in the stand close the apple orchid. Both were nice.
October 3, Saturday morning - it is so windy here today, the deer were not moving. I did see one doe in the far eastern stand on my property, but she was moving very slow and was looking for a spot to bed down due to the wind. I'll try this evening in the orchard stand to see how things go.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Spetember 20, 2009 - Today's Sightings
Spent 2 hours in the woods today and saw 4 deer, 3 doe and 1 fawn. 2 of the does were on a trail where I have seen some large bucks crossing a ridge - a very well walked deer path. This ridge is popular for the deer due to the ability to see in many directions while bedding down.
I did sit in one of the new stand locations for about an hour and could hear limbs cracking off in the distance but nothing in visual range .
I did find some ginseng plants and picked a bunch of ripe seeds. One was the largest seed pod I have ever seen off a small 4 prong plant.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Missed a few weekend updates, but I kept notes on the 12 deer I seen over the past two weeks, and planning to venture away from my stands this week to cover some "new" areas.
I saw 11 deer all within 50 yards of my deer stand by the apple orchid. I think a I am seeing the same does and fawns since early August. They generally are in the same area around the same time.
I did venture over into the Mead paper company property last weekend and found some deer paths leading up to a soy bean field and jumped a doe. The deer paths are as worn as four-wheeler trails, and an excellent spot to hunt during the season. Most likely I will be tied to my property on opening day, as the Mead property gets overcrowded with a bunch of very load guys, ride in on four wheelers, and start clinking climbers....and never see a thing (wonder why). The lack of buck sightings is a little troubling, since I would have expected to see a few more, but my time in the woods hasn't been early or late, and they tend to straggle around closer to dark.
I've got two new stands to put up this weekend.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
August 23 - Sightings
I saw several deer on the property throughout the week and one today. The first one was a very nice mature doe spotted in the evening last Sunday after I posted. The location was a very nice knoll full of stickers the deer love to eat and bed and use this location as cross off of the ridge to the open fields. I saw a doe and
two fawns standing next to our garden early in the morning around 7:15 on 8/19. I nice sunny cool morning. Hiking today with my son (and unfortunately our two dogs) on the back steep side of the property, I came across a very nice mature doe. Between the dogs and my son, there was no way to creep through the woods, but I used the opportunity to look for any clear trails, scrapes, and rubs. I came across a very nice heavily used trail on the bottom side of our ridge the deer have been using to cross between ridges. The path leads from a known bedding location to the only easy path to the bottom of the ridge. The deer use the path down to cross to another ridge, and this new path gives me a new spot for a permanent stand.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
August 16 - Sightings
Today is a very hot and humid day in in Adams County, so I only spent about an hour in the woods and choose not to go down towards the bottom of the hill since going down means hiking back up the steep terrain.
Despite the short time in today, I did see 4 deer ...
all within 100 yards of each other next to our power line trail (behind our garden and pond) between 8:30 and 8:45. Two of the deer were small antlerless deer with a sligtly visible spots and the other 2 were well spotted smaller fawns. In between seeing both sets of deer, a jake turkey walked up to me (about 20 feet away) and begin rolling in the dirt and kicking dust on himself - to keep the mites and lice down I suppose. I've seen chickens do this, but it was the first time I had ever seen a turkey giving himself a "dust bath".
After seeing the 4 deer, I went and sat in the permanent stand next to the apple orchid for about 15 minutes, but the no-see-ums and mosquitoes were eating me up, so I didn't stay there too long and didn't see anything.
Temperature was about 75 degrees, clear sunny day.
I added an aerial map showing every sighting and coordinates at the bottom of this page.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
August 8 - Sightings
Today I went into the woods looking for signs of any early scraping or rubs or heavily traveled paths and to see if I could link up some food sources to these sites.
While walking around (quietly) I saw a total of 7 deer and 3 older large Tom turkeys....
The first deer was a doe with 2 spotted fawns, then a larger body very gray deer, but could not see the head to tell if it was doe or buck, and last I saw another doe with 2 spotted fawns in the same spot I saw them last weekend.
The first doe and fawns was seen at 10 am on the top of the ridge where I keep a climber hidden in the woods. They were feeding on the thorny stickers (not sure of the name) that are prevalent in this area. The deer saw me before I saw them and the mom let out a nice snort and hopped out of sight. I was camo'd out, but in shorts and my white legs are like beacons in the lush green woods. One of the fawns sat perfectly still and watched me for about 20 minutes, while the other two walked out of my sight.
I walked along the top of the ridge looking down trying to find the source of a bunch of limb cracking when three very nice large Toms coming up to the top of the ridge about 30 yards spotted me. They let a bunch of warning clucks and went in the same direction as the earlier does. It was about 10:30 when I spotted the Toms.
I then headed down the a recently cut power line trail heading towards a permanent stand owned by a friend of mine, which is placed in the woods next to a deer magnet apple orchid. The powerline trail is loaded with deer tracks and fresh green cover starting to fill in. I decided to circle into the stand and peek towards a deer bedding area when I saw the large gray bodied deer running away from me towards my stand. I tried to be quite and circle around to see if I could see the deer again and identify better, but never saw it again. As I walked towards my permanent stand next to the orchid a doe with two fawns that were bedded down jumped up and ran to the back towards the powerline trail (towards where I saw the other set of doe and fawns). I saw the doe and fawn around 11 am.
I didn't really identify any new stand locations on the top of the ridge and powerline, but found a nice tree close to a thick field where the deer go to bed down after eating in a local soybean field. The conditions today was sunny and about 75 degrees (and humid).
Next weekend I plan to head to a lower spot on the bottom of the ridge where there is a single crossing spot between the ridges and the deer travel frequently. I also plan to pick up some salt blocks and feed corn to get my stands traveled and scented by the deer before the season starts.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Purpose of this Blog site
I set up this blog to capture information about the deer, turkey, and grouse sightings in my area of Adams County Ohio to share with others interested in hunting and learning more about the wildlife in this area.
I've spent hundreds of hours in the woods over many seasons, and observe more wildlife than most of our state wildlife officers. I find when I talk to to our local and state wildlife officers about specific details of animal populations, food sources, habitat issues, poaching,...they have no clue. I want to use this site to capture as much information about the game animals I hunt, size, date, weather conditions, and location.
I own 70 acres of heavily wooded and open field land and am surrounded by 10,000+ acres of public hunting areas owned by Mead paper company up on Peach Mountain (highest point in Adams County). I have several permanent deer stands located on well identified deer trials and occasionally use a climber to get better positions on roaming bucks. I can literally walk out my back door and take 10 steps and be in the woods loaded with grouse, woodcocks, bear, bobcats, and some of the largest deer in the US. We recently had a buck that was second to the world record whitetail taken by one of the Amish members of our community.
I would be interested in hearing from others who hunt in this area or would like more information about hunting in Adams County.
Today's Deer Sightings:
Today in my south side deer stand, I saw 4 deer. 1 doe approximately 200lbs with two spotted fawns about 70lbs each and a loaner doe of about 130lbs. All four came from an adjacent apple orchid between 11:30 and 12:00am and were heading to thick brushy field area to bed down for the day. The weather conditions were around 70 degrees, cloudy overcast, with 5-10 mile northest winds. I was downwind of the deer.
