Went out coyote hunting yesterday!

Well I went out coyote hunting in my back yard yesterday afternoon. We have 14 acres of timber out back and I was successful in calling a nice coyote in to about 60 yards. It had a beautiful color to it - a nice grey and red coat. Although I didn't get a shot off due to all the limbs, it was just neat to be out in God's creation and see such an awesome animal respond to the call I was using. I think I'll try back out there again towards the end of the week with a different call and see if we can't get one to come in for a clear shot. 

Pictured is a well done mountI picked up the other day.  Has a stuffed partridge in its mouth.  Very Cool!

Managing Your Property For Whitetail Deer (and other wildlife). Part 1

     Property management can be a complex issue.  Each property is unique and each property owner has a different budget and different goals in mind.  Over the course of the next few months, I'll be outlining some property management strategies to enhance your hunting ground.  Many of these strategies are relatively cheap to employ, and most can be accomplished by one or two people.  Now that late season archery is drawing to a close, it'll soon be time to get back in the woods and make a few upgrades to your property for next fall/winter.
    

    Management Tip #1  Dealing with Wild Grape Vines

    Keeping wild grape vines under control is one simple way to improve your woodlot. Although wild grapes can be a source of food for some wild animals, they can (and will) kill trees. Trees, unlike food plots, take decades to become a mature, so it’s very important to protect them.

    Cutting grapevines is a fairly simple process. Smaller vines (2-3 inches in diameter) can be cut with a machete. You can pick one up at most hardware or garden stores for less than $15. Swinging the machete like a hammer, slice through the grapevine at a 45 degree angle – once at knee height and once more at head height. Be careful when using the machete -it doesn’t know the difference between grapevine and toes.

    Another option for larger vines is using a chainsaw. Working as a lumberjack for several years, I've cut my fair share of wild grape vines. Even the smallest gas chainsaw will be sufficient for wild grape vine. Cutting larger vines is easier, as they are usually somewhat stationary. Small vines will move around and sometimes “bounce” off the chain, making this task a bit more tricky. Be very careful when using a chainsaw. It can make the task go quicker if you’re comfortable with one, but cutting grapevines is not a task for the novice.  Be sure to look closely at the path each grapevine takes.  Vines will often "swing" from treetop to treetop, so the source of the vine could be 20 yards from the base of the tree.

    Since grapevines will provide food for wildlife, I wouldn’t necessarily eradicate them from my property. Cutting the grapevines as described above will save your trees for at least another two or three years.  At which point, you will have to spend another spare weekend cutting them back.  If your property is completely overrun by grapevine, you can consider using herbicides to help you keep ahead of the regrowth.

    One last thing to consider when cutting grapevines on your property: don’t try to pull the vines down from the tree after you cut them from the roots. Since these vines are fully capable of choking out and killing the biggest tree in the woods, dead branches will often accompany the vines if pulled down.

Crazy Buck Fight Pics from Ohio!

Check these Crazy Buck Fight pictures out.....They were sent to my email said to be found somewhere in Ohio. Shame they went out that way all would have been nice deer to arrow or gun down and to wall mount for that matter. 

 Look at the thickness of that rack would have made an awesome trophy!

What a waste of some big bucks!

Late Season Strategies

    Forty three does and six bucks-all in one afternoon of hunting.  No, it wasn't on a Texas ranch or around bait piles up in Canada.  This is late season archery in central Illinois!  They've been running all over the country side for the past month; first with the rut, then with shotgun seasons.  Now that most hunters are out of the woods and the peak of the rut is past, deer are finally able to catch their breath and recoup some of the energy they've spent.  Add to this a cold snap, and the deer around here are in winter survival mode. 
   

   After hunting light faded Sunday, I hopped in my van and drove around the "block" (back country roads), only to count up all the does and bucks I mentioned above.  Two of the bucks were very nice shooters.  A snow covered backdrop coupled with a bright moon made the deer easy to pick out.  Only a few of the deer were on my hunting property-at the other end from where I was hunting, but I couldn't help but think this time of the year may be the easiest of all to kill a deer-as long as you know what food the deer are after. 

   

    Scouting food sources is really easy this time of year- just as I did yesterday, hop in the car and cruise around back roads right after the sun goes down.   This time of year, deer are more concentrated and gather in larger groups, they tend to gravitate toward fewer food sources (because there are fewer good food sources available this time of year), and their survival mode mentality makes them quite predictable.  Although I guessed wrong when I went hunting last Sunday, I now know the preferred food sources of these deer.

 
   My only regret is that I don't have any late season food plots on this hunting property.  Instead of only having a handful deer on my hunting property last Sunday evening, I could easily attract more than a dozen if I had some winter wheat or brassicus planted.  Not only that, but if my property had the most nutritious, tastiest food available, then I'd have a much better chance of luring one of the two shooter bucks close enough for a shot.  The formula is quite simple: the dominant buck in the area will have his choice of the available food.  If I had the best food on the block, there is a good chance that a dominant buck would be hanging around.
  
   There should be some excellent late season bow hunting coming up in central Illinois over the next few weeks.  The cold isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and the forecast calls for additional snow.  Get out there and find the preferred food sources, and you'll likely get a chance at a deer.  That's my plan anyway.