Nice Velvet Buck I Hope To See During Hunting Season

[SBruce]

Andy,

Yea, Perks is right! That's great, glad you can get out with your dad, especially in more than one State.......that's really cool.

I don't know how it is in WI, but here; I've seen big bucks (Muleys) bed down for the day well over 1/2 mile from where they're feeding at night. Maybe you will see him again during season!?

Do the big ones there go nocturnal once the velvet is gone? They seem to here. Seems like sometimes I see "the one" in August, and then all the sudden, he's nowhere to be found until November

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Our soybean fields over here in southern Michigan are deer magnets this time of the year too! I've watched over a dozen good bucks in one five acre field when they are so high you can barely see the backs of a mature buck. They will feed in them and look like cows with all that green hanging from their mouths, LOL! When the fields start turning yellow in the Fall they generally turn to other stuff, but then will be back in them eating the bean leavings after they're harvested until enough snow is on the ground that they can't get at them any more.

Shane---Are you seeing any good mulies around your ranch or immediate BLM area where I hunted last year near your place? Also, how are the antelope doing in your area? I see they cut the unit 7 tags by 60% this year, so the herd must have really dropped up there for some reason!

 

[SBruce]

TopGun,

Yea, I've seen a couple shooters. Neither were on this property, but they were on public land west of us.

Antelope numbers do seem to be way down here. Seems like it started last year. Last season, the antelope doe population was dramatically lower than the previous season. I don't know why, can only assume that they migrated to another area. We didn't have a hard winter or alot of snow (more snow than usual, but nothing "killer"). I never saw a bunch of dead ones laying around either.?

I do see alot of antelope west of here, along Hwy 59, and I heard that some other neighboring areas upped their tags this season.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

That's exactly what others have been saying about the general area where you live on up into unit 7. The area had a good population of goats and they have just upped and disappeared with no bad winters, etc.---very puzzling!

 

[SBruce]

Perhaps we had too many here for a few years in a row, and they simply over grazed their prefered foods.? I always felt that part of the reason we didn't get really big antelope here was that the doe population was so high. Don't have any proof of that, but it would seem logical.

This Northeastern Herd could migrate quite a ways every few years if they wanted to. No big rivers in this part of the state to stop a migration to somewhere else, maybe even 100 miles away.? Just a guess.

 

[Andy Backus]

Well - I got my wish and saw him again yesterday.



I had been in my archery tree stand about 10 minutes when I saw him about 300 yards across a marsh.

This trail cam picture is from 3 nights ago at the same stand. I think it's the same deer?

No scrapes or rubs yet anywhere on our property.

 

[Coyboy]

Andy, I think thats a different deer, does not apear to be as wide or have the tine length as the big velvet 8pt. Good luck another 2 weeks and we will see them turn on.

 

[Andy Backus]

I was thinking the same thing about the width Jim.