Deer hunting...The work behind it...And my love for it!

[Cody Gruchow]

While on a walk yesterday out on the property i hunt in the metro. I came to think about how much work is really involved in deer hunting. I personally wouldnt call it work because i enjoy every minute of it. I would call it a big part of my life and who i am. Im a deer hunting fanatic, i live and breath deer hunting and im proud to say it. The moment the season closes im out watching deer, and monitoring the herd. Trying my best to get a accurate count and try to figure out the Buck/Doe ratio. The doe ratio around here has skyrocketed and it makes it difficult to find the mature bucks.
        Anyways, how to grow bigger bucks and manage them is always on my mind. I have tryed many different methods and many different food plots and mineral licks. But aside from all that if the genetics arent there then its unlikey that you will grow trophy deer. Then there are deer during the offseason usually when your shed hunting that you see, or find there shed that you have never seen before, and shows excellent potential. I make it my personal goal to find out everything about that deer, now its possible that he was just passing threw, or was drawn there from neighboring propertys because of our abundance of corn still in our pheasant hunting feilds.
        By May i am planting my summer plots, usually just clover in some areas,i use imperial food plot mix and i have put out the mineral blocks and licks, i also crush up some mineral blocks and stuff them in big socks and pour water over them, the deer will eat around the ground and underneath the hanging socks, they also will suck on the socks. I think they like these more than anything because they lick on the blocks so much, sometimes till there tongues bleed.
        Then Early june comes and the Bucks have already started there antler growth and are very predictable. Food and shelter is all they care about. This is a great time to really figure out what you have on the property, because the bucks are in there bachelor groups out in the open. i try my best during these times and get out every morning and every evening to watch the deers behavior and write down what time they get to the feild and how long they stayed, what trail they took, in and out of the feild.
        Mid july the bucks are starting to show how they will look and how big there racks will get when the season comes. Still in there summer patterns, i start to focus on the watering holes in the evenings, as the days get hotter.
        By mid to the end of august the bucks have the antlers grown to just about full potential and are starting to break away from there bachelor groups, they still are pretty predicatable but I start to take notice in some change, the bigger deer start coming out later, not staying as long, keeping there distance from the rest of the deer in the herd. This is when my blood starts to boil in anticipation of the up coming season. I usually pick out a few bucks if nothing really catch's my eye. If one certain buck catch's my eye i hunt that pacific deer. Makes it kore of a challenge and helps restrain yourself from harvesting any other younger bucks that still need to grow. I am scouting and moving stands around according to the movements. I start looking closely at the trail camera photos, maybe making up some names for some of the bucks.
       September rolls around and the big deer vanish from the feilds, some turn nocturnal. they are starting to shed there velvet and spar with each other. I still focus on funnels to and from food sources from bedding areas.

THEN ITS TIME TO HUNT AND HOPE ALL YOUR WORK AND PREPERATIONS PAYED OFF

[Cody Gruchow]

some trail pictures i took yesterday

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[Randy Kaar]

Looks to be a nice area for deer.

randy

[MTCOMMER]

I second what Randy said, Nice place.
Looks very similar to our land up North.  Heavy trail = good hunting :)  [In THEORY]
I havent been up to check the trails, but I would assume they are the same as they have been the last few years.  Ill be up there Turkey Hunting in April, so it will be intestesting to see if the movement has changed.

[Cody Gruchow]

its in the metro. i found a shed on saturday, pictures in the shed hunting topic. i found alot of big tracks which is good. but i dont think ive ever seen that much deer poop before, i mean i couldnt even walk on the trails because thats all that was there.

[22lex]

its in the metro. i found a shed on saturday, pictures in the shed hunting topic. i found alot of big tracks which is good. but i dont think ive ever seen that much deer poop before, i mean i couldnt even walk on the trails because thats all that was there.

With all that crap you must have a great winter yard for them to hole up in the crappy times of the year! I stopped at one of my hunting areas before the snow thawed and there wasn't a track to be found. Seems like where they find food/shelter/water they will stay put for most of the winter. Sounds like you got one of them spots Cody!

[deadeye]

Cody is right about some of the work and preperations that can be done all year long.  Last week I made my first scouting/checking treck of 2010.  While I didn't find any sheds, I did see some nice trails (very easy to see when the leaves are pounded in the surface mud) and a few deer.  I also checked some food plots to see how they survived the winter.  With this info I will start planning what (if any) food plots need work this spring/summer. This was just the first of many activites I will undertake prior to this years hunting. 

[jkjkoda]

your not alone in your addiction!!! I to have it bad always thinking planning and scanning fields for deer.Been dying to try to find time to go shed hunting with work and family its been really tough. I live in cities we rent 600 acres  north of Osakis. Great land owner open to about anything he shot guns the land we bow and muzzzel load .

[Cody Gruchow]

  :happy1:osakis is a awesome place. my buddys and i go up to clitherall a few times a summer and fish the area. 

well im going to wait a few more weeks then try this new plot mix, in a smaller area to see how well it works. its borderline to early for me anyways, i just have to wait for all this water to start to go away.

[Randy Kaar]

It will be a while for us to see the property, Gonna flood I think. We will have some work
to do when we get there.

randy