NO NAME TIGERS!!! Name or not, they will be at the top come the end of the world series.

I went out Wed. morning and tried sitting on the ground. Man that sucks!! I had no place to sit, legs kept falling asleep, could not see far at all. I will most likely just move a stand the next time. I made so much noise and would never been able to get to a shooting position with out stiring up the entire 100 acres. Wow there is a lot of rubs in this area I hunted this morning, starting to see some scrapes too.

I have not been able to dress up in quite a few years, but we do go all out with the yard crap and lights. This year may be the first time I send my kids out on there own and get to hand out candy.

I have two tickets to both MI races in June and Augest if anyone would be interested, I think the sticker on them are about 75 a piece. Keep it in mind, I would give up one race to you guys, but only one!!!

I am going to try to hit my hot rut stand in the morning. Good luck to all of you.
Mark

Things are definitely heating up.

Last night, I went back to that corner where I saw all the deer on Monday and climbed a different tree - one that had some cover at around 25'. I strapped up the gloves and made a mock scrape in the corner with this Jackie's Deer Lure stuff that I bought. I was tied off at 5:00.

5:10 - Doe walks into the far end of the field, maybe 100 yards out.
5:30 - Button Buck comes out beneath me, he feeds around until he finds my scrape and starts eating the dirt. He chokes on it at least three times, but continues to sniff, lick and eat it anyway.
5:45 - Fawn doe comes into the field and starts woofing on corn. The two fawns bleat at each other endlessly - no sign of mom.
6:15 - I spy a large doe feeding in some grass off the far field edge - maybe 150 yards away.
6:30 - A huge commotion erupts in this bottom, maybe 80 yards away. I hear grrrrr, grrrrrr, grrrrr, the sound of limbs busting, feet thumping. Seconds later, a large doe comes up the bank, alone and walks right under my stand. Maybe a minute passes and I hear GRRRRRR, GRRRRRRRRRR, really close. Here he comes. I catch some movement up under the leaf canopy, and see a flash of yellow antler. I draw. This is a big deer. Finger on the trigger. He stops in the thicket and thrashes a tree, then bolts into the wide open field, right into my sight window . . . 4x4, but a lot smaller than I envisioned. Decision time... My heart says no, but my finger says yes... Maybe 14" max, a carbon copy of my buck from last year,with a little better spread. He catches wind of my scrape and heads straight over to it, broadside. He paws it a few times. He's stretched out, quartering away. I let itdown. Not the one I'm looking for.

For the remainder of the evening, I watched this buck skirt this doe all over the place. She really didn't want anything to do with him, and he just kept lingering 10-40 yards off of her and grunting endlessly. I've never heard a deer grunt that much.If he didn't grunt 75 times within earshot, he didn't grunt once. He was acting like he was theKing of the Mountain.

I just sat there hoping, wishing that one of the big boys would hear or see this little display and come over to intervene, but no such luck. They got about 150 yards out at dark and I was able to slip out undetected.

I wish I had a video of that button buck eating the dirt. It was classic. He was taking pretty good-sized mouthfulls of it, then gagging himself. Probably four times before he'd finally had enough.

I havea fewquestions:
[ol][*]Is it possible that this doe is starting to come into estrus, and that's what was driving him wild? If so, then why no dominant buck following? My guess is that she's in the early stages of coming into estrus, and that the big boys will wait until she is actually fertile to pursue (maybe a week or so from now). Maybe this youngster is just picking up hints of fertility, and is jumping the gun, so to speak?[*]What does it mean when deer are really vocal? I've never heard such vocal deer in my life. They (the does) seem to bleat and grunt (softly) almost constantly. ...and that buck, he never shut up.[*]Could this be the buck that's tearing up all the trees on this corner? His rack is big enough that he could be the one making the big rubs, and his territorial, aggressive demeanor leads me to believe that he just might be the culprit. I thought I was hunting a big buck, but now I'm not so sure that this little 4x4 isn't the buck that's making all this sign. [/ol]

I've got almost all of my remaining evening hunts planned, and I'll be back in there next week one night. If I see him again at that point, he will notreceive a second chance, he will go directly to my car, he will not pass go, he will not collect $200.

Dave & Mark - I think a friendly wager may be in order. Either way, I'm pulling for the Cards tonight.

Morning fellas,

Quick, it sounds like you had a great evening on the stand last night. As far as the vocalization goes, I recall a couple times in the early season when younger bucks came by me just grunting and making noise like he was homesick. Almost laughable. With Does and fawns here, they talk all the time. I listen to deer grunt almost everytime I have them near me. Soft subtle social grunting. The only time I personally have witnessed the big boys grunting a lot is during the rut. I believe the big boys tend to talk when they mean it. Younger bucks like young boys..tend to talk alot for no purpose and especially if there is a hint of a doe getting ready to come into estrus.

It is very possible that a doe in your area is early...they don't all come in during the traditional time...year in and year out here I see signs of a doe in estrus in Oct..whether I actually see it or find an area where bucks have been chasing a doeall over the mountainside in the snow...I won't be surprised a bit to start seeing it now..bucks are running scrape lines here..checking already..especially the impatient youngin's.

Troy - I'm thinking that these two fawns are orphans. No sign of mom, and I've seen them a couple times now, and they're really small. They just seem to roam around feeding playing with each other and bleating. It's not out of the ordinary to hear these deer socialize, but it seems like these two fawns really chat it up.

And that buck, my goodness, he never stopped. He would get downwind of that doe, and just huff and huff the breeze, then circle behind her and grunt continuously, and good grief was he loud. They were 100+ yards out, and I could still hear him grunting away out there, plain as day, and that's over all the background noise. Just a fool in love I guess.

That mock scrape piqued his curiosity, and he hung out there at least twice. He even did me a favor and put some fresh preorbital glandon my licking branch, so I'm hoping that one of the big boys might get wind of that and take offense. There's a healthy population of resident does, so it's only a matter of time before they start spending a little more daylight time on their feet. Starting Saturday the Estrus scents come out.

I've only used that mock scrape powder twice, and both times I've had it stop bucks in their tracks to paw it up and sniff (and onefawn who insisted on eating it). So, I guess that's a success. It's called "Jackie's Deer Lures Mock Scrape Powder" - huge 2-poundjugs of it for $6.00 online. Definitely a bargain if you're looking for something to toy with.

Man, what I wouldn't give forthe clocks to "Fall Back" one week later.The clock is ticking on my '06 season.

I may attempt to hunt tonight, but the weather is looking bad. It could be a soaker.

Fran,
Sounds like a heck of a night. Wish that bugger was a biggin instead of the youngster you watched. With that much action in the area there very well still could be a big one around. And as far as the vocals go, I'm not expert, about the only thing I can offer is that I think some bicks are just more vocal than others based on a personality deal. I've watched bucks during the seek period where some would soft grunt continualy and others would sparsely or not at all, yet they all acted very similar as far as scrape checing etc.

As for my hunt....dead. Nothing moving at all and I was really thinking I'd see something. It was a real nice night.
Packing and picking up the rental this evening, dinner at a local brew pub that has the best seasonal beer on tap, pumpkin spice beer. It's like drinking a dessert. Then off tomorrow morning for Martinsville. A nascar race is about the only thing I'd take a weekend out of my bowhunting for.

Good luck this weekend guys, hope to read some stories when I get back monday.

I have been hitting it good this week, but have been skunked every hunt. The only deer I have seen this season on stand with out my daughter has been the 6 I have entered. I am glad I got that buck. I am going to hit another part of the property in the morning. Looks active, hopefully I see something!!!!

Good luck guys.

Okay, I'm steamed. Last night, it was supposed to pour, but not until around 5:30, the wind was whipping, so I decided to use the 1.5 hours of daylight before the rain to head out to the farm and scout the areas that I had hunted earlier this season, and check my stands to see if they're ready yet (I hung two lock-ons in late rut hotspots).

So, I head to stand #1, I see a well-defined scrapeline and some new rubscoming out below it, as predicted. Perfect. Istrapped up the rubber gloves and madea mock scrape amidst the line, and used an antler to make a foreign rub. It's most likely night work, so I'm trying to coax him out a little earlier next week.

I head across a bottom and find another scrapeline that heads around the hill toward Stand #2. I get closer, seeing more and more rubs, some really big ones. As I make my way to the corner of the field, this little oak flat is torn apart, maybe 75 rubs total out along the field, a few smallish scrapes. Really heating up. So I walk out to my stand and notice that it's sitting a little crooked. Upon a closer inspection, somebody tried to steal it. They ripped the seat off and stole that, they stole all of my ratchet straps (except one that they couldn't get off, so they used a knife and cut it), and stole every one of my steps. The only thing that saved my stand was the Gorilla Cable Lock that they couldn't get through. I'll have to bring my climber out and retrieve/inspect it closer (I can't get up there because the steps are gone), but I can see the bare steel showing on the cable, so they evidently tried to cut it.

Now, I use a special tool to install my steps, and I BURY them into the bark, so whoever stole them was either really strong, or had to use a hammer to pound them out.

The real kicker is that this is in plain view of the farm house.

I was totally fuming, and I know the motive. Greed. Somebody is angry because my treestand was in a good spot, and they wanted the deer for themselves. In some sick, twisted way, they feel that they're more entitled to it than I am. Nevermind the fact that I was out there all summer watching those deer, studying their patterns, sweating my ass off hanging stands in the sweltering heat while this scumball was drinking beer and shooting pool at the local brewhole. No, instead they just trespass in there and think they own the place and every deer living inside, then they proceed to vandalize and steal everything that isn't tied down.

The farm is owned by an elderly woman whose husband passed away a good while back. She's super nice, and would let any decent person hunt, as long as they asked. It really burns me up that these pigs are doing this kind of stuff on her property. I'm only out of a dozen steps and some old ratchet straps, but it's the principle of the matter.

So to make a long story short, as I was heading out, I got poured on, but was fortunate enough to run into her son and son-in-law who had just stopped by to visit her. After talking to them about it, I got permission to post the entire farm and run out any derelict that I see in there from now on. Apparently, they've had trouble in the past with people doing this sort of stuff. This is the same place where I had the game commission at last year when I found aheadless poached buck.

I don't know what it is about a whitetail deer that can drive otherwise honest, hard-working men completely mad and turn him into a hardened criminal.

I also found two twelve-gauge shell casings laying about twenty-yards from the stand, so I would presume that they also shot my stand, but I can't get up there to check. I kept the shells.

Now here's where I need advice. There's a guy who owns an adjacent parcel of land, and on his back corner (maybe 500 yards from my stand), he has a huge bait site (very illegal), and he leaves his climber hang right on the tree, and leaves it cable-locked (coincidentally, the using the same Gorilla cable that I do). This is in plain view of the ATV trail. I went down one Saturday morninglast year and confronted him about the poached buck and asked him if he knew anything about it, he said no. Seemed like a decent guy. So, last night, I went down there again, hoping to catch him in his tree and ask him if he knew anything about the vandalism/theft of my stand. He wasn't there, but his stand was, as usual (an older Lone Wolf). No signs of anyone trying to cut his cable lock, no signs of anyone trying to rip his stand off.

I just find it odd that a thief would go out of his way to vandalize/steal my old, piece of crap lock-on stand in plain view of a farm house when there is a much nicer, climbingstand hanging only 500 yards away in an isolated area where nobody would ever catch you.

So, what would you guys do? I have the precise latitude and longitude coordinates of his stand/bait site. Should I call the game commission and have him busted for hunting over bait, or should I just let it go and handle it on my own? I can't be sure that he's the guy who stole/vandalized my stuff, but I'm putting 2+2 together, and he looks like a very likely suspect.

Your input will be greatly appreciated. I don't like being a tattletale, and I'm not like that at all. You make your own bed, and if you want to poach deer over a bait hole, that's fine. I've known about that guy for a long time and never mentioned anything about it, even when I had the WCO out there investigating the poaching. BUT, the illegal activity in these woods has gone too far, and something's gotta stop. By ratting out this guy, even if he's not the guy who has my stuff, he might turn around and squeal on other guys who are out there poaching or he might even have some info on the pigs that stole my gear.

I really hate hunting around here. People are just such lowlife scum. I usually get my deer early so I don't have to deal with it, but this year I'm waiting for something bigger, so as the rut approaches, the stakes are continually raised.

Dave - How about those Cards? They had you sweatin', I know it! My goodness, I about jumped through the ceiling when Wainright through that nasty hook and the homeplate umpire hammered out the strike 3 call on Beltran. What a pitch. Beltran was frozen in a moment that he'll relive for the rest of his playing days. You couldn't have asked for a better game, and it was only fitting that Molina had the big fly.

By the way, sorry about the novels - I type fast and I've had a lot on my mind.

Sorry to hear about the stand Fran, it sounds like you are in a very promising area, hope it works out for you. If you get a buck amidst all that BS, you have earned it IMO.

That was one of the best games I have watched in a long time. Molina goes yard, Chavez made the catch of a lifetime( I had to applaud that even though it cost us 2 runs) both pitchers brought their A game, a classic game 7. I couldn't believe Fox after the game..."Lets look back on the year the Mets had, and if they hadn't lost Pedro, Hernandez".....Blah blah blah....they lost, Fox takes it in the rear on the ratings, boo hoo, go cry in your beer off the air, we got a pennant to celebrate!!

Fran,

Well all things considered you are actually much better off now than you were. Sorry to hear bout your stand being trashed, but at least now you have permission to post this place and kick anyone off that you see fit. That right there will up your odds in this area greatly.

As for the baiting neighbor. I like you agree, that if he's a poacher, illegally baiting it probably burns his arse to see you hunting only 500 yards from his bait pile. It wouldnt suprise me if he's messing around your stand.

You need a no flash trail camera set up near your stand to catch whom ever it is thats vandalizing. With your stand in plain view of the farm, I bet he slipped in right after dark and trashed it. Just a thought anyway. Get solid proof of whos sneaking in there trashing stuff. I'd post that place and hunt it a lot now that you have that card to play. Let the vandal know your going to be around alot. Make it obvious. Buy a set of rapid rails or use a climber of course...either or.. I set fixed stands all over and just use my rapid rails to get up to them...

How big is this farm? Can you set up between the bedding and neighbors bait pile? I would love to see an arial of this spot.

Really your in much better shape for the future securing that property. Best of luck, put a natural food plot in there next spring to give that baiter some competition...Deer preferfresh clover, alfalfa or oatsover bait anyway. I deal with a couple neighbors here that feed that damned corn yearly...which is totally illegal...the big bucks here go to the alfalfa instead...I see it year in and out..

As for turning the guy in right now..If you know hes got a bait pile..thats up to you. I'd try catching him in the act of vandalizing your stands... Bet if its him...hes doing it after dark..

Troy

Hi Fran,
I am sorry to hear about your stand being vandalized! It really takes the wind out of your sails when you can't feel comfortable about leaving your stand in a particular area.I have had one stand stolen over the years and one set of steps.Two separate ocaissions.It still irks me to this day that someone could be lowlife enough to steal someone else's equipment.