April 14th, 2008
By Arthur

I wasn’t quite sure if Spring was ever going to get here.  I know that it officially arrived a few weeks back, but here in Michigan it has been awfully hard to tell that fact.  Crazy weather, snow in April, and it still being a bit chilly made it feel more like Winter then Spring and now suddenly this week that is all changing.

The wife, my cousin from South Carolina, and myself all went out to the property that the wife and I can hunt to check the trail cam I put up about a week and a half ago and low and behold we actually had the quarry we were looking for on cam…….a turkey.

Granted that it was only one turkey, but hey that is better than nothing.  It is hard to tell in the picture, but I think that it is a jake.  I don’t see any evidence of a beard, but that red head is giving him up as a male of the species.  Since I haven’t shot my first turkey yet I will be the first to tell you that a jake is not safe anywhere near me.  I just have to get the first one under my belt and then I can be picky after that.

We also walked around the back side of the property, and as we did this at 2 in the afternoon, there was a gobbler on a property adjacent to us gobbling his head off.  He couldn’t of been 100yds away, but the property is so thick we wouldn’t be able to see him unless he was right on top of us. 

 After hearing that commotion I decided to drive around to the backside of the property and this is what we witnessed in a field.  The wife was steady and quick enough to take a picture, but you’ll have to forgive the quality.  She did an excellent job with the picture, but our older camera is not made to zoom that far.  It is evidence that they are in the area though and I am pumped for next Monday.

So I am starting to believe that Spring is really here and I can’t wait to get back in the woods next week.  It has been a long, nasty winter and I am soooo ready to hit the woods.

Popularity: 32% [?]

April 01st, 2008
By Arthur

On Saturday this past weekend I finally got to do something I have been dreaming of for quite a few weeks now.  I finally got to head outdoors, do some scouting, and put up the trail cam.  It was a beautiful day and one I had been dying to have finally arrive.

The wife and I went and walked the property for a good hour or so.  We checked quite a few different spots out and got a good feel of where the turkey’s are spending part of their time.  This one particular area, in fact the spot where I put the trail cam, has very obvious turkey sign and a ton of it.  At first I honestly thought my eyes were deceiving me, but after closer inspection, we did determine that all of it was in fact turkey sign.  The wife and I were pretty excited and she helped me pick a good spot to put the cam up so that maybe we would have a chance at capturing some red heads.  I know they roost close by, so hopefully we’ll get a few on the cam.  We could possibly get some deer on cam from that area as well.

We did do some deer scouting too, and I just basically solidified what I knew about the property.  The areas that held deer last year are still holding deer at this time of year.  It is just a matter of finding the right spot and keeping on eye on the deer activity throughout the year.  I also have to get to the other side of the property and get that area scouted pretty soon as well.  Jeff and I found a very nice little buck sanctuary last year that we want to investigate further.

We also found a nice little scrape back in an area where one of my stands was last year.  I knew it was there, but it appeared to get much bigger than the last time I remembered it.  I don’t think this area is a huge “hot” spot, but it is definitely put in the memory bank for when I might need it.

All in all it was an awesome day, I had a great time hanging out with the wife, and I can’t wait to go back out in a week or so and check for pictures. 

It was also the very first scouting trip for the little one.  Very cool!

Popularity: 30% [?]

December 07th, 2007
By Arthur

My brother has had his trail camera out for the last couple of weeks. Well low and behold in a little over two days he had 83 pictures. Needless to say both of us were pretty happy about that.

In a post awhile back I made reference to the fact that this particular cam is definitely on the cheap side, but pretty much does its job with at least showing us if there are deer there or not and at what time of day they came through in general, i.e, light, dark, etc. It definitely does that, but this latest picture that Jeff got honestly made me laugh out loud.

The picture is a self portrait of a buck who walked over and got up-close-and-personal with the camera. Keep in mind this camera has only a .6 megapixel resolution so the quality of the pictures are not the greatest. Plus this particular picture was taken at night which even compounds the effect. So take a look for yourself and appreciate the picture. It definitely is one of a kind! Good stuff!

Popularity: 36% [?]

November 13th, 2007
By Arthur

The middle of last week Jeff found a pretty good spot back in this swamp on the property we hunt.  He had seen a number of bucks moving through, but we wanted to narrow down what trails they were using.  What better way to find out then to put up the trailcam.

I set the cam up a good 30 yards from where the stands were located thinking that there would be no way it would pick us up in them.  Wrong!!  The Mrs. and I decided to hunt together one night (we had stands setup back to back on this tree so my brother could hunt side by side with his son and step-son when need be), and climbed into the stands and even though we didn’t know it, we got our picture taken.  I thought it was kind of cool so I figured I would post it on here!

The only other worthwhile picture we’ve gotten so far is this picture of a furry little animal.  I am leaning towards a Mink since I had saw one not far from here earlier in the year.  The characteristics of the body, I think back up my claim, but without seeing the head it’s hard to tell.  My vote is that it is a Mink though.

Just thought I would share these two pictures!  Fun stuff!

Popularity: 27% [?]

October 30th, 2007
By Arthur

I know that isn’t the most professional sounding title to a post and it probably will not help me in search rankings what-so-ever, but at this point I don’t care.  It is the only way I can describe my feelings tonight. 

Jeff and I had a very good night hunting, for not killing any deer, and then we brought the trail cam in to check and see what was on it and boy did we get the best pictures of all time.  I would like to introduce you to BIG DADDY!  Look at this guy.  I almost wet my pants when I saw these pictures.

The cam was setup on a spot not 15yrds away from where my wife’s stand is located.  Jeff sat that spot tonight and is pretty sure this is the buck he couldn’t get a shot at.  There is some discrepancy though because we also got this buck on cam as well.  He is not as big as the other buck, but still a shooter from where I come from.

These are the kinds of pictures that will make you sit all day in your stand.  We had at least 4 different bucks on camera from this spot if not more.  Some were hard to tell  if they were the same buck or not so their could be more than that.

It definitely looks like the deer are on the move although we did have multiple shots with more than one buck together in the same spot so apparently the chasing hasn’t quite kicked in around here yet.  I think in a week things are going to get really good.  I am so waiting for that new moon, and I will be waiting patiently in my stand for one of these ‘ole boys to show up.

Will my vacation ever get here?  Man, this is so cool!!!!

Popularity: 48% [?]