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I haven't had time for hunting much in the last couple of years, but this is the time of year I'd get out and plant food plots and check cameras for deer hitting up the salt licks. Too hot to fish, for me, in late August.
It's noonish 8/25/17 and here's what this deer is doing now. It's on watchthedeer.com
http://www.gulfshorespierfishing.com...tid=6536&stc=1
If it's to hot to fish , I can't see it being cooler planting food plots , unless it's in a nice Bid John Deer with A/C , Then I'm feeling it.
You do know that if you need help getting rid of those free loading deer , I'll be glad to get you a hand , After the fishing thins out.:D
Some fine looking eats your fating up .
I tried Haywire's technique of "top-seeding" the ground with corn.
For better or worse, the corn never grows because deer and hogs keep eating it.
This is the time of year that deer need to retain water, so they're naturally drawn, during the heat of the summer, to salt licks. If you've got a creek somewhere nearby, it's a great place for drawing them in now, before the season starts.
I won't be able to do any real hunting until next season (2018), when I'll be officially retired.
I'll be getting ready cleaning out the freezer making deer jerky to bring this trip (like all trips) still need to get on the hanging cooler in the back of the overseas container.....dought if the 2 inside ground blinds get done for dry hunting for guest.....might elevate one of those .....darn part time job turned into full time......oh well double dipping ,the monies good
I bush hogged the past 2 days and the heat was bearable and the humidity was a lot lower than normal. The vegetation is lush and green for this time of year in my neck of the woods. Lots of activity at the mineral licks. I went to check a game cam the other day that had been up for a few weeks. I couldn't wait to get a glimpse at some of the furry critters that hang out at this one old stump. When I walked up I thought the camera had been stolen until I saw the little tree had fallen. Only had a few deer pictures but the stump is being chewed to high heaven. Almost finished cutting the last field and the tractor decided to go on strike on the back side of no where and had to walk out. Deer meat is getting almost as expensive as pompano and flounder fillet.
I know what you mean, Mark. My bush hog is on its last legs---has been welded back together so many times that the welds are startng to split. I have sprayed herbicide on my plots and will let them lay until I start disking in Oct. Right now, I need to mow all the places that are infested with Chinese lespedeza so that it will not make a heavy seed crop---I'd like to spray it, but that kills everything and I don't want that. A couple of weeks into football season, I'll start spraying cogon grass which has a year's jump on me due to my shoulder surgery. The high point of my day was when a four foot long grey rat snake crawled out of the grass just in time to miss being mowed. I wished him good hunting and many mice. Driving that tractor is out of the question between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00p.m. and it's hard to get started back in the afternoons. Earlier today, I walked out on the front porch and heard a bob white whistling---that's a sound I don't hear near enough anymore.
I just thankful we don't have to deal with Hurricane Harvey, but it will eventually be our turn again.
The last field gremlin gave me a visit last week too. Forty something acres cut with three to go and all hell breaks out on my first lap cutting close to the tree line. Shut the PTO off, raised the right wing of the 15' cutter and there it was, ten feet of skitter cable wrapped up. Went back to the barn, tried to pull the flywheel off but it was too tight so out came the cutting torch and crowbar. Crap like that happens when I'm up there by myself.
Sometimes by yourself can be dangerous if something bad happens and you need help or someone to call for help..... we aren't the young pups we once were.....our minds might think so ,but our bodies disagree.....at least mine
I got a landline put in the day after I had my mini stroke (TIA)at our property where the cell phones don't get reception except for the top of the hill.
I hear you Bill. When I'm doing tractor work by myself I say in the cab unless I need to stretch or take a wiz. Mike and I are two man show on 2700 acres and have learned to play it safe.
A tractor with a cab? What manner of sorcery is that? How can the bees, hornets, yelolow jackets, ticks, spiders, briars and thorns going to get you in a cab?Quote:
Originally Posted by john g
Not just one but two! A 90HP Kubota then a couple years ago we bought a new M135 when they came out. Got to have a lot of power when your pulling a 14' disc plow that weighs over 5000lbs. in Marengo county prairie soil.
I moved a stand from 1 county to another and helped a buddy put a new 1 up,the 1 of mine got put next to a river that has corn planted again this year. Shot 2 at 267 steps with my savage smokeless but hope to not need to shoot that far,a 2' bare dirt trail leads to the river less than 100y from it. I put a cable and lock on it and hope its remote enuf that nobody steals it,
Yeah, having a cab takes away the adventure and excitement of getting ready for the deer season. You ain't gonna have any thrilling stories to tell to your grandchillun---unless, maybe, you leave the cab door cracked open when you come home and a family of those big wood rats makes a home back behind the seat and don't come out until next time you're there and have the tractor in road gear headed for the first field, when they all try to escape at the same time. I can see it now---four big rats and John G swirling around in that cab like snow in a Christmas globe while the tractor takes unerring aim at the muddiest ditch within a half a mile.Quote:
Originally Posted by chillinfish
An active imagination is a wonderful thing---that incident doesn't have to happen now, it already has, in my mind. ---Shiny new, bright orange Kubota weaving from side to side while John is swatting at bounding rats that are going insane while he's trying to keep one hand on the wheel. He's already knocked his Costas off when he swung at the rat that landed on his head---and I can stop any time now, before the tractor runs off the two-track. Life is great before the morning meds kick in.
I spent yesterday clearing roads, brush, disking food plots,planting, setting cameras, and even managed 1 stand up, now just to get the other 5 up and im done except maintainence
Coming back home yesterday after bush hogging, thought I had it made. Then a big hard rock-like flying beetle whacked me between the bill of my cap and my glasses, just over my right eye. Nearly swelled shut this morning. Plans to plant this afternoon in hopes of rain by the end of the week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin E.
Sorry to hear about your beetle encounter! I hope you get your planting in before a good soaking rain.
I finally my big tract ready(950 acres) 10 plots, several long lanes, and 2.5 miles of main roads ready in the hill area of my hunting land. I still have 250 on the Pearl River that the tractor wont crawl through... I'd much rather chase a big swamp donkey instead of those malnourished looking hill deer. (yes I feed protein, year around forage, and supplements)
Has anyone had success in restoring rabbit and quail to their area? I trap yotes, coons, fox, bcats etc but the small game just doesn't take, even with sustained food in the area. I could honestly care less about deer hunting, if my rabbits, quail and fox squirrel were plentiful... Dove are easy- If you millet, they will come...
I put 3.5 acres in a soil conservation CRP program 10+ years ago; all along a creek. It was initially fescue, but now planted in trees and shrubs, with the shrubs primarily in the outer two rows along pasture. Also planted clover between some rows. Some areas were left to grow up in blackberries. I see rabbits fairly often now, where I never saw any before.
On the other side of the pasture there are a few brush piles from TSI work. Not a game animal, but I see chipmunks now while bow hunting. They were never around when I got the place.
Habitat work can be a multi year effort, but I think it is worth it. Here in Missouri, there is a whole division of the conservation department to aid private land owners. The site is MDC.MO.GOV. It may have information you find helpful.
Last time I checked deer meat was around $450/lb.... $300 in diesel, $1000 in gun(scope not included), ATV, tractor(damn bush hog parts), 1 ton of corn, half ton of protein, half ton of seed, half ton of fertilizer, gravel and clay for my roads, stand maint/repair, ice for my beer, bribes for the wife, er visits from yellow jackets. Its almost not worth hunting a deer...Quote:
Originally Posted by chillinfish
Thank you. I've made habitat/homes out of pallets and logs and briars for rabbit. and I try my best to do a couple dozen acres of row crops. I really miss seeing quail....
Mr. Cleland, you may well know this, but invasive fire ants are near the top of the problems that bobwhite face. Sure predation takes its toll as does habitat loss/destruction, but the evidence seems to point to fire ants as the leading cause of bobwhite declines throughout its historic range. It's not just the ants eating chicks/eggs, but they are wiping out the local insect populations which chicks desperately need to grow and thrive due to their high protein content. A long range plan that includes control/eradication of fire ant populations may help you attain your goals of having quail return. Some good reading on this can be found below:
http://texnat.tamu.edu/files/2010/09/page23.pdf
AONmagazine.com - Fire Ants Impact On Wildlife - Alabama Outdoor News
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Attwater_...fire_ants.html
Hope this is helpful and good luck with your efforts!
Quote:
Originally Posted by benhunts
Lordy, with all the trouble we have trying to control pine beetles, kudzu, cogan grass, popcorn trees, privet and Chinese lespedeza---I don't know how to even start on fire ants. I think there's some fly from South America that slows 'em down, but I don't know any details. The fire ants that really get me, literally, are the ones that don't really make a mound and just hang around until I sit down and get comfortable right by or right on them. When that happens, there is a good chance you will see me naked---which should have some detrimental effect on the ants, but it doesn't.
Saw a pic of a floating fire ant mat in TX that was around 4x8' and 2'' thick. No telling how many millions there were on that one. Bottom line, rats, roaches and ants will have their own little war once we are gone...
The survivor of which will be preyed upon by coyotes.
quail disappeared around here 20 years before the fire ants showed up.Quote:
Originally Posted by benhunts
Attachment 6546Attachment 6547
Already have my first customer to my mineral lick, had numerous does, some with fawns as well, now if they just stick around long enough for bow season to start
my main farm is 100 acres planted in corn/soy bean/ wheat/ rotated yearly or eoy by a guy we lease our land to for crops. the rest of the farm is 150 acres in swamp with deer plots/small fields/oak bottoms that I keep up for wildlife. I am aware ants are bad on the eggs/nests but i've never been able to actually kill a colony.. the little b@$t@rd$ seem to move 5ft over and build again...
Haywire.... where can I get those south american flies?(do they carry some zikkabola virus?)
Quail in our area have been decimated by a combination of factors. Coyotes didn't show up in NOALA until the late 70s and got their share. The old timers used to keep. 22 rifles in their trucks and would stop on the side of the road to pop a hawk on a fence post, which is seriously frowned upon now. The biggest factor has been the loss of habitat. There used to be dozens of small patchwork small acreage farms with a wide variety of cereal grains and lespedeza hay. Farmers would let their land lay fallow every few years and grow up in broadleaf weeds that formed a canopy above the birds that provided cover overhead and room to move around at ground level plus a wide variety of insects to eat in warm weather and hard seed to eat in cold weather. There were endless miles of fence rows that was grown up with good food and cover. . Harvesting equipment was less efficient and spilled a lot of grain and a lot of small field corners were left standing in the fall. Roundup herbicide became popular in the early 80s and the fence rows got sprayed. Now the small patchwork farms that had so much diversity are large fields that have very little benefit to quail. The CRP program in the 80s had farmers plant fescue which is pretty sad wildlife habitat. Chocolate covered fire ants may be as common as pulled pork some day.
I agree totally Mark. In the 70's growing up in Indiana we could go out in the late fall and winter and kill a few quail and rabbits without dogs just walking the fencerows. Driving on the gravel roads in the summer you would see many quail and countless rabbits. The fencerows are gone, fall tillage is the norm and the coyotes are thick. I rarely see a rabbit or a quail on the road these days. We also have no real fur market any longer and the coons are thick as well.
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Getting the freezer ready for the new season.....
Round one drying......3 dehydrator's full with what looks like 2 more+ in the tub to be done later today
