buckmine

We moved from hunting the north country to my dads 120 acre farm 8 years ago. Our first year we didn't get a deer. The next two years produced little. Then I started growing pumpkins and experimenting with food plots-clover. I purchased an infrared camera 4 years ago. Does and fawns were the main attraction to my camera.

It has been 3 years since I shot my last deer which was a spike. I have gone to the practice of waiting for a bigger buck or doe out in the feilds. Unless we haven't gotten our required two deer for the year then I will give in.

Within the last 3 years my brother got his biggest 3 years ago and his son this year got the biggest deer since I have been hunting, a ten point non-typical. This year was unbelievable for the number of bucks I caught on camera, plus what I saw while bowhunting. This year we got three bucks, our neighbors to the east got 4, those who hunt north of us got two. This is all within 220 acres. Last year my brother videotaped a big 8 point within 20 yards. No one got it. On my camera I have a pic of a nice 8 and 10 point no one got.

To me this is incredible of seeing a huge difference between 8 years ago and now. Plus the farmer who rents are feilds is a lousy farmer and hasn't produced much for the deer to browse on. I wish my father would rent to a better farmer which I would hope would give me more chances at a bigger deer.

Cannot wait until next season......

Dan O.

It sounds great buckmine. How late in the season do the deer keep feeding on the pumpkins?

Dan O.

buckmine

Dan O. heres the story........

The ideal situation is that cold weather comes and stays in Minnesota at the beginning of November. The pumpkins freeze and I can help the deer along by cutting the pumkins with an axe. This year we have had a lot of freeze and thaws so the pumpkins have lost there shape. I also think the pumpkins lose there attractiveness to deer with the freeze/thaw because the meat of the pumkin loses its color which might lead to a decline in taste.
The ideal pumpkin is the smaller pie pumpkins. There meat tastes better and seems to retain its color. This was my first year with squash and I think the deer prefer the squash over the pumpkins. In fact I prefer the squash and have a hard time trying my small pie pumpkins.
Two years ago we had a lot of snow and my pile of pumpkins were covered with snow. They also froze to the ground and I never tried getting the pumpkins for the deer. I found out I didn't have to. The deer dug down and busted the frozen pumpkins themselves.

Forgot to answer your question...........As long as the pumpkins last. For the last three years I have been selling the pumpkins as a hobby. I usually have a pile of 40 to 80 pumpkins left after Oct 31.

Edited by - buckmine on 01/13/2003 10:52:23

farm hunter

Buckmine,

Its good to hear your program is working out in your favor. Measuring success is a difficult thing to do. As you've indicated, its not only measured in the size of the racks you may or may not harvest - but in the quality of your hunt.

In my own situation, this year appears on the outside to be a step backward for us as far as weight of deer harvested goes. The weight of the deer we harvested was down 10-15 % across the board for gender and age class, compared to last year. After 5 years of increased body weight in each class, the drop came as a suprise to us. However, a one year drop does not neccessarily indicate a trend, it could be we've leveled out somewhat - or the year was an anomoly. Time will tell.

But back to the quality of the hunt.......We saw more deer, passed up more bucks.......and hunted less pressured deer as a result of good food plots, and 3 previous seasons of our plan to increase the number of 2-1/2yr old bucks.