Here is a couple pics of the '180' draw. In all I would say this draw is maybe 150 yards long and 50 yards wide. It has CRP around the crop edges and thick nasty, buck brush in the middle. Really the only decent sized tress on on the very tip and where it meets the woods.


Panned back view, it is the draw to the east.



Close up view of it.

Double Main Beam survived gun seasons

So I had some other people gun hunting my property this year, we asked them not to shoot one deer because he was only a 2.5 and had a double main beam on his left side. I saw him a few times bow hunting and when I was filming Brent during the gun season. Those other guys were down there this last weekend for the final weekend of the muzzle-loader season and they passed him 2 times. Here are a few pics of him, can't wait to see what he will turn into next year or the year after!! We had a lot of really good bucks that we know have made it through the year, so next year should be really good, it will be interesting to watch some of them over the next year.

Up Close



Checking out the ladies

Food plots in Nov

Here is what our food plots looked like in Nov. We planted them in early Aug & didn't have any rain til mid-sep, still some of the seeds germinated and those plants grew really tall & big. The other stuff filled in nice when they finally got rain in mid-sep. There are 2 seed mixes in the plots. One mix was winter rye, white clover mix & winter peas (didn't grow at all) & the other mix was PT turnip & groundhog radish mix. In one plot we did just a big square with a small tail this plot was 2/3 rye mix and 1/3 brassica, the other was a small square and then a bunch of lanes that were about 100 yards long creating trails. This worked out well and we watched a buck one night go & check all the lanes to see if there were any deer in them, whereas the square plot when we saw deer to it they would walk up the edge and leave because they could see the whole thing. From now on when at all possible we will break up the plots so the deer have to move more, making killing them easier!! The deer have really eaten the winter rye down on that part and the clover is coming in strong but is really small yet, they will be hammering that in the spring/summer as it grows bigger.

View of square food plot, the right part is brassica's & left is the rye mix which they have hammered, it looks like it was mowed.

View from the stand of food plot with lanes, rt side is winter rye mix, left side it radish/turnip mix.


Big buck coming down one of the lanes checking for does


View down one of the lanes


Ground hog radish


Purple top turnip

Layout of kill

Here is the layout of the kill.

Close in food plot

Here are a couple pics from the video when I was close to killing him in the food plot.

Ross IL 9 Point

I was able to kill this buck on the morning of 11-11-11, it was the 4th encounter we had with him during the week and finally we were able to close the deal. He was a scrapper he had broke off one of his brow tines, G4 and the end of his main beam. Hopefully Brent runs into the buck he tangled with and can put some lead in him!! I also included a trail cam picture of him before he was all broke up.

Briana's doe & early Oct trl cams

So we took Brent's daughter out for the IL youth season again this year, last year she killed a 7 point about an hour into her first morning ever hunting. This year on opening morning she passed on a small 5 point and a doe. In the evening we sat on one of our food plots and she killed a doe. This doe came out about an hour before dark, but she kept waiting to see if a buck would show up. Although several more does showed up a buck never did, so with just enough camera light left she shot this big ole' doe. It was fun to be behind the camera catching it all!!



Here are a few pics of bucks we got on trl camera.






Here is 2 picks of a funky buck, his right side is a big fork with beam below it.

Trail cam Pics

So this last time we hung the camera down in IL didn't go so well either. We kind of rigged up the camera since the ground was so hard we couldn't get a steak into the ground deep enough to stay up. We tied the pole to a branch we cut down that was laying on the ground, as the branch settled the wind blew it cause the camera to point higher & higher up, by the end we weren't really getting any pictures because in order for the deer to trigger the sensor it was too far from the camera. Oh well. Here are a couple of pictures that show the little bit of growth in the food plot (not much since they haven't had any rain) and then a cool picture of a doe we are training to walk on her back legs.
One of the first pics where you see some growth.


Last picture of food plot growth, the left side it a turnip & radish mix, the right side is winter rye, winter peas & clover mix.
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Doe on back legs.

Few trail cam pictures

Here are a couple bucks we got on trail cams in early August. The location of the camera was not very good, so I think we are lucky to even get these. Now we have it on a food though so we should get tons of great pics and be able to watch the plot grow!!

Stands hung and food plots planted

So we just got done hanging all of our stands and planting our food plots. I'm so excited for this fall, we made a few tweaks from last year and added a few new great spots, the bucks are in trouble this year!!! We also planted our food plots, now they just need some rain down there.

Spring 'turkey' hunting

My turkey season starts in just over a week. The weather has been brutal for people who had this first week of the season so I'm hoping the weather is better for my season. I'm not all that excited to actually get out turkey hunting as much as I'm excited to just get out in the woods again and sit and be still. It seems like last fall was years ago, not just months ago and it seems like this fall is forever away. The reality is though the summer and really warm weather will come quickly. So when you are out this spring doing some turkey hunting and sitting in the woods, take some time to just relax, but also to think about all you can do to help prepare for next fall. It may mean after you sit for a couple hours in the morning taking a stroll through some areas you don't normally walk in or spending a few minutes trimming your shooting lanes on existing stand sites or moving a stand that wasn't quit in the right place. My point is not only is it good to be in the woods and relax, but also think about the 'little' things you can do now that will make 'giant' differences in the fall. The reality is, if you don't do them now, you probably won't when it is 100 degrees outside.

Food Plots

So I'm excited this next weekend I'm going down to IL to work on some food plot stuff and hang stands. I think I have a great plan for food plots on my lease. I plan to plant 2 different types of plots, a clover plot & a turnip plot. This weekend I will be working on the clover plot and then in August I will work on the turnip plot.

I'm excited because it has been a few years since I have played around with food plots & I've missed it. It is so much fun to plant things, see them come up & then watch deer & animals come into them like you planned. There is something about creating something out of tiny seeds that is so rewarding. It also reminds that in life, I need to be planting seeds and doing things to help me & others grow & to be more excited about this then seeing growth in my food plots.

So here is the mix of clover that I'm planting: 60% Alice White Clover, 30% Kopu II, & 30% Ladino clover. This should be a great mix to attract deer & provide nutrients for them year around. It should also give me a good chance of maybe killing a big buck in early Oct because there isn't any crops like this near me, everything else is all beans & corn, so this should be like a magnet for the deer Oct when it is still green & luscious. Then in November they will move over to my turnip plots so I think I have a great plan on how to attract deer all fall. I also think I got a great deal on this, I picked up enough to do 5 or 6 acres of food plots for about $80 shipped from Welter Seed, they have awesome stuff and great prices for your food plots check them out.
So My ? is do you do food plots & if so what do you plant.

Spring scouting

So here is the first ? I want to throw out & get your ideas about.

What are you looking for when you start to do your spring scouting?


There are 2 main things for me: 1- get the big picture of the piece of land, meaning I try to walk it all and see how it all connects and what are the little things that will effect deer movement
2- try to find the out-of-the-way/obscure places where big bucks may hang out during the fall. By walking all the ground I can find little nooks & crannies where a big buck may live. You can go into all those spots now and not worry about bumping the deer out like you would in the fall. Big bucks love those out of the way, small places where they can control everything. By finding them now you see ways to hunt by them without letting them know you are there till it too late. Last year I had this, I found a small little draw that was really thick & had lots of rubs. Then in Nov. I got trail cam pictures of that giant 9 coming from that direction shortly after dark. Although I was never able to get by it & hunt it with a bow (it is nearly impossible to bow hunt), but aided the guy gun hunting & he killed that giant 9 (green scored 182) out of that tiny little draw. My scouting & analyzing of that tiny draw no doubt aided in him killing that buck. If he would have tried to walk through there in the fall to check out that draw, he would have blown that deer out of there and probably never even saw him.

Shed hunting 2011

I went down there in March with my son & a friend for a day & half to do some shed hunting. It was tough because the weather wasn't great at all and we were trying to cover miles of land with 2 guys and a 4 year old. It was a fun time, but not all that fruitful when it came to finding sheds.

You can't beat walking around the woods this time of year, you can see all the sign from last fall and get a great feel for the big picture of things.

Here are the pictures of the 2 we found.

Info about 2011 season

At this point it looks like we have all 5 leases full for 2011. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the bucks we get this year.
Besides just the leases, we now also have a really nice old farm house to stay in this fall. It is like 6 bedrooms with 3 baths and very, very nice. It will create a deer camp atmosphere with the guys from the leases.
I was also able to sign a lease agreement for 5 years on the main 4 farms, so it is exciting to know we will be able to go down there for years to come!!

My plans for 2011 are to spend as much time as I can down there on my lease.
What are your plans for the fall of 2011??

Trail cam Pics

We put a trail camera out for one week over 1 scrape and here is what showed up, not bad!!

2010 Pics

Here are a few of the pictures of deer that were killed in 2010. We didn't hunt all the leases in 2010. There are a few bucks that were killed that I don't have pictures of on here.
This was Brent's daughter on her first ever morning hunting, it was only about an hour after daylight, can't beat that!!

2009 & earlier pics