Well some much for Mother Nature cooperating with the weather for the food plots. I was starting to think that we we going to need to hire Noah to help with the re-planting as we have had nothing but rain and cool weather for the past week to ten days. The sun has finally decided to shine on the preserve for the first time since Sunday and if we can only get out of the fifties for a day or two we still might be able to get something to grow! I have checked a lot of the seeds and they are sprouted under the surface and I am hoping that they will start to pop thru sometime in the next couple of days. The up side to all of the weather is that the apple crop seems to be very good and I am sure that they will all make it thru at this point.
The bucks continue to add to their antlers and they are all quite visible now even from a distance. With the sunshining now I hope to be able to add some new photos by the end of the week. I have had the trail cameras out for a little over a week now and they have taken over three hundred photos. All of them to this point have been low quality because of the rain. We have yet to see any fawns and I am still seeing several does that look to be getting really close. The longer they can wait the better as the cool weather would also be rough on a new born fawn.
May 19, 2010
Noah?
May 11, 2010
Late Frost
Four Year Old
Sonya has seen one doe that looked like she had had her fawns but we have not seen any new borns yet. I think that they will have to become a little active before we will actually be able to see them as the cover in the preserve has already become very thick. We did see a nice group of bucks this week that was mainly two-four year olds and the antlers are really starting to develop now. I was able to get a few quick pictures last week and they should be added to our 2010 photo gallery very soon. I have put out a couple of trail cameras on food plots and once I get some decent pictures I will also add them to the new gallery.
May 5, 2010
The Table is Set
The spring food plots have been completed. We are hoping for a bit of help from mother nature and it should make for some great food plots this year. We tried some new seed this year and have planted about two acres of the Whitetail Institutes Power Plant. The Power Plant is made up of forage beans, cowpeas, sunflower and sorgum. Since I can never plant a straight food plot product alone I customized it by adding a small amount of chuffa and also by overplanting corn on about one third of the ground. My intention is to have the corn add cover to the food plots as well as add a growing aid to the forage beans. The only question is whether or not it is to early to plant beans in NE Ohio. With a little luck and mother natures help it should turn out great. Most of the mast trees have matured beyond the frost stage and there are several trees now starting the apples for this fall. This will add to the late September and early October hunts as the apples are always a big drawing to the deer once they begin to fall.
The deer are all adding weight now and everyone looks to be good and healthy going into the late spring. The bucks are all well into the antlers now and you can easily pick out this falls trophy bucks already. The biggest difference is the mass at the base of the antlers right now. I have seen several 4-5 year old bucks that are bigger than your wrist at the base and this should make a great foundation for the big racks to come. All of the does are getting closer and we expect to have some of the older doe drop within the next week to ten days. It is a very exciting time here at Oak Ridge between the antlers and the fawns.
April 27, 2010
Spring
Ralphie
The bucks are all showing the antlers from a distance now and I was able to see a couple that are starting brow tines and actually one that has started to come around on the main beam. It should not be to much longer until they all show us some main frame development. They are still in the process of losing their winter hair and look a bit ragged right now but that will continue to change as the warmer weather finds its way back to Ohio.
We have found a few grouse in the preserve and there is one that seems intent on becoming quite friendly. I have been able to get a few photos of him and he is always fun to watch as I move throughout the evening chores.
April 13, 2010
April Showers
April has been great here at the preserve. The temps are well above average for this time of year and the plants are all showing the effects. I hope that one of our late season frost doesn’t decide to wipe out this years apples and mast. If we continue on the current path with the weather we should have everything flowered out and beyond the danger of frost within a week. I have been busy with the food plots and currently have all of the clover/chicory plots completed and will be moving to the soybeans and corn once the ground has warmed up. I can not remember a year when the ground has dried out this early. I have the plowing completed on everything and if it was early May I would have already planted all of the food plots.
The bucks are all showing antler growth now and in a couple of weeks we should be able to start seeing some actual frames. Currently the antlers are about 3-4 inches above the hairline and while you can see the actual bases forming it is still a lot of guess work on who’s leading the pack. I have seen two bucks in particular that show real promise for this year and several others that will also be fun to watch for this summer. All of the bucks have joined up into bachelor groups and I normally see five to seven together. I hope that this means they will all be trying to out do the others with their headgear!
March 30, 2010
Cycle starts again!
We are finally getting some much needed spring time weather here at the Preserve. Mother nature must have figured that we needed a good old fashion winter this year and she did a great job of providing it for us. Now with the temps getting into the 50-60’s we are starting to show greener pastures and the trees and shrubs are starting to bud. I guess now would be the time to frost seed the clover and grasses but I have never had much luck with that type of seeding. I have started another food plot expansion and it looks like I should have added another acre plus to the truck stand before I am finished. What a great time of year to be outside working!
I had several visitors while working this last week and the mix of bucks and does was about even. There were a couple of the mature bucks that actually had velvet showing on the antlers. It is always a good sign to be able to see anything by this time of year. I would guess that in the next few weeks they should all be showing something. The doe were also showing the effects of having there fawns inside. There is still about two months of growing left for these new additions but you can clearly see that they are carrying.
I will try to keep our photo gallery current as we move into the new cycle and hopefully by July I will have new fawn and buck pitures for everyone to view.
March 24, 2010
Christmas Buck 2009
Our hunters arrived on schedule from Georgia on Sunday December 27th. We do not like to hunt on Sundays as it gives us time to complete our weekly chores and also affords us time to get acquainted with our hunters before the hunt begins. Dan and his father Captain Dan are from south Georgia and they do not get much snow down on the gulf coast. Their arrival was timed perfectly with the Christmas snow. By the time we went to bed there was about two inches of fresh snow on the deck. It is hard to describe how much better a deer hunt can be with a fresh snow until you have actually witnessed it.
When we awoke on the first morning, Dan and I quickly made plans to walk to the Shadow Hunter Stand for the morning hunt. This stand is enclosed with a heater and it overlooks one of our clover plots and is situated along the south ridge of the “sanctuary”. My hopes were that the deer would be hitting the clover early before heading into the sanctuary hollow to bed down. The walk out in the darkness was very exciting for someone that had not experienced a good Ashtabula County lake effect snow. The flakes were coming down about two inches an hour and the temperatures were somewhere in the single digits.
After settling into the stand, we began discussing what type of buck Dan was interested in taking. His number one goal was a “typical look” with something over the 160” class. Dan is a very experienced hunter and has taken many mature south Georgia bucks with the largest scoring somewhere around 130”. Our goals were set and the snowy hunt was underway.
Our first deer came into the food plot sometime around 7:00 AM. A mature doe and two fawns fed for about fifteen minutes. I told Dan that I had seen this doe often in the food plots behind the lodge and that normally she had three fawns with her. They continued to feed but kept checking on the approach of another deer. As the fourth deer approached, it turned out to be a yearling buck that had broken off everything on his right side from fighting. This yearling was intent on checking the doe fawns and he managed to push all of them out of the food plot and into the surrounding brush. With the movement of these deer so early and with the buck showing signs of the secondary rut, I knew that we had made a good choice on location.
Well one thing I have since learned is that you don’t want to start bragging about your guide skills to early in the hunt. Once the four deer had moved out of sight it left us sitting alone for about three hours. You can only point out the beautiful snow covered surrounding so long and I know that Dan was starting to second guess my decision to stay in this stand. I will only open windows on one or two sides of the stand at a time so that approaching deer can not silhouette you through the back windows. I had just cracked the back windows to help improve our view when I spotted a doe running directly toward us.
I told Dan that there was a doe coming in fast and to be ready for what I hoped would be a buck chasing her. It is amazing how quickly your hunts can change and in a matter of seconds she was standing within ten feet of our stand. There was not one buck but five mature bucks chasing her. The doe bedded down in the brush and it allowed us to watch five bucks for an hour and a half. What an exciting ninety minutes! We figured that there was one 150” buck, one 160” buck, two 180” bucks, and one really big buck that should go over 200“.
The 200” buck was running the show as he would chase one buck out of sight and then return to guard his girlfriend. This went on several times and at one point the actually caught the 150” off guard and threw him about four feet in the air. At this point the 150” buck limped off carrying his right back leg and there was a steady stream of blood dripping from his tail and running down his leg. All of this action and never once was there a shooting opportunity but at least the guide had reclaimed some of his validity.
The doe finally decided that she was rested enough for another run and we were once again left sitting alone. After waiting to see if they would return and discussing the mornings events, we decided to check in with Captain Dan and eat lunch.
Well I think that was probably the longest lunch that Dan has ever eaten. Once we had finished, he was ready to see if we could go get a chance at that big buck. We knew our only hope was to locate the hot doe and that she could be anywhere. We decided to still hunt as it was snowing even harder now and while it would make our sight harder it should help us to get in closer if we located the deer. We were able to move through the fresh snow without making any noise and the visibility was only about sixty to seventy yards.
Our plan was to move back past the Shadow Hunter Stand and from there slowly work in the direction that we had last seen the bucks. As we approached the food plot I spotted a deer standing just off the path. After using the binoculars I had determined that there were two bucks and both of them had been with the doe earlier. They had unfortunately already seen us and were not there long as they showed us their tails as they quickly disappeared. Not wanting to move until we were certain that the other bucks were not in the area we scanned for several minutes and saw nothing. Just as we started to move Dan spotted another deer. We could not tell anything other than that it was a buck. He was in probably the thickest cover we have and he was not moving. Our decision was to try and circle him down wind and see if we could move into a better vantage point.
After we had moved about twenty yards one step at a time I spotted the doe bedded down in a brush pile about two thirds of the way to the buck. I told Dan that as long as we could get by her the buck wasn’t going anywhere. Once we could get a good look at the buck, we realized it was the big buck. Now we had to get into a shooting lane and have him stay with us long enough to get the shot. As it turned out he was more concerned with protecting his girlfriend than running and with hindsight I’m not sure that he could make us out clearly enough to know what we were in the snowstorm. The buck started to move and it was in our direction! He had his ears laid back tight against his head and he was stiff legging it in our direction. With everything in place, including me with a camcorder, we stood motionless to figure out his intensions. His approach took him around a brush pile at about fifty yards out, which with the snow made it look like 100 yards plus, and this turned him broadside to us. As he stopped to survey for the doe, Dan made a great shot. Dan had borrowed my 300 Winchester magnum for the hunt and it proved to be the right gun as it dropped the buck instantly.
Dan and I couldn’t believe what had just happened! As we approached the buck he seemed to get even bigger than he had looked that morning in the brush. His spread and mass made him look huge laying there in the snow. Dan had finally broken the 130” barrier and he had done it in grand style. The buck scored 203 1/8” with a 22” inside spread. The mass totaled 38 7/8” and is as close to 40” as we have gotten here at Oak Ridge.
The snow continued to fall and we enjoyed the rest of our hunting time each day sizing up the bucks that remained in the preserve. What a great time we had with Dan and Captain Dan during their stay. We look forward to hunting with them again and enjoyed the chance to share a great memorable hunt.
March 15, 2010
Ides of March
The Ides of March are upon us now. Along with the mud and hopefully early spring. We have been finding shed antlers the past several weeks and I believe that we are up to twelve now with only one complete set. The last several I found had the beginnings of mice markings and it would indicate that they should be found in the near future if you do not want damage. We have had several great days for early March and it has really started our food plots off in the right direction. I can not remember a time when everything was greening up so early. It has me anxious to start reseeding the clover and chikory plots but I still think it is a bit early.
The show schedule we had planned for 2010 has came to an end this past week. I would like to thank everyone that stopped by our booth and visited. The Dixie Deer Classic was a great show and I would recommend that if you ever have a chance to attend this show you do. We also set up and attended the Northern Ohio Chapter of SCI annual fund raiser this last week. It is in my opinion one of the premier hunting organizations in the US and they do a great job of defending our rights as hunters.
February 26, 2010
Closing Ceremonies
We may not be near the winter olympics but mother nature has decided that we needed closing ceremonies for February here in NE Ohio. The snow levels are somewhere between zero and four feet. The wind has done a great job of piling it in just selected areas and it is normally where we would prefer not to have it. (in front of the door, the driveway,…)
The bucks in the preserve have finally decided to let us have some of their antlers and we have been finding them over the past two weeks. Sonya found the first three and was good at making sure that I knew it. We have several singles but have not found any sets at this point. There are some great looking sheds and it should make for a great start to next season’s trophy bucks. I was lucky enough to find one shed from a buck that I already had last year’s set. You can clearly see that they are from the same buck and some of the tines are even a little shorter from the second set but the mass has increased greatly in a year’s time. I will bring some of these sheds with me to the Dixie Deer Classic next week so if you at the show stop by and I’ll show them off.
I have had a request to share some of our hunting stories on the blog and I will be adding one in the near future as a trial run under the “Tales of the Hunt” section. I will warn you though that I am not a great writer and would appreciate comments on whether or not to continue my efforts on adding additional stories.
February 10, 2010
February Drags On
Well I guess the ground hog has been right so far. The weather in NE Ohio has been every bit winter since the shadow was cast a week ago. The preserve has been a winter wonderland the last few days with new snowfall totals somewhere around 8-10″. The deer have all herded up and there are bachelor groups of 6-8 mature bucks and also groups of does. All of the mature bucks that I have seen this week are still sporting their antlers. I am ready to start hunting for the sheds but they aren’t giving them up yet.
I have started a mini clearcut this week inside the preserve. The goal is to cut approximately 2 acres to allow for regeneration and to provide a diverse habitat. I would like to do this on about 6-8 acres total over the next four years. The extra cover that is provided in these areas for all species is excellent and the browse that is created supplies a great source of nutrition. I will try to post some of our prject pictures in the “photo gallery” once the snow quits falling.