The Hunt
We went hunting in the second week of the season to avoid complications of travel during Thanksgiving. The use of the RV instead of trying to build a cabin work out well. We were able to stay a full week in comfort. Over the week, we used 30lbs of propane for cooking and heat, We brought 125 gallons of water and used about 85 gallons for waste, shower, and cleaning. We ate mostly canned soup with some freeze dried meals from Mountain House. We mainly drank bottled water even though the water transported in the tote is probably safe it just doesn't sound tasty. We ran the gas generator in the afternoon till evening to recharge all the batteries and play movies for dinner. The generator runs at about 83 decibels but due to topography and trees it is hard to hear more than 100 yards away. We used about 5 gallons of gas every 12 hours. We brought 25 gallons of gas and only used 15 by the end of the week.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and able to go hunting that evening. The weather was cool during the day reaching 60F most days and dropping to below freezing at night. We didn't see any deer until Monday morning at sunrise on the food plot. The deer never broke heavy cover which was probably because they noticed the blind we were sitting in. We were sitting about 40 yards from where they entered the food plot. This is the second time they noticed the blind even though we tried concealing it with vegetation. I don't think we will use them again. They didn't run off in alarm but they retreated from the plot without eating. The thick tree cover prevents us from being father away.
The next few days we concentrated in the west part of the property. However, we never saw the deer again. We looked at the pictures from the game cameras to see what they were doing. The deer had been in the food plot every morning at sunrise since it started growing including after Monday. The deer had changed their previous year patterns and were coming from the hills in the east down to the food plot. Rarely did they venture to the west. In fact, they would often take their fill in the food plot then return to the hills in the east. The bucks stayed further away from the food plots. They came from the hills but there was no pictures of them in the food plot. We didn't see some of the big ones from the previous year meaning they were probably harvested.
It seems our blind on Monday and us living a quarter mile to the north running the generator didn't scare them away. In fact, they returned to the food plot the next couple of days. After Wednesday they we no where on the property even at night.
We later reviewed the previous years of pictures and the deer always leave the area during the second week of the season and are rarely seen again until late spring. Our presence or absence doesn't seem to affect their patterns. The deer have even stayed in the area while we used heavy equipment.
The main difference is the deer no longer go to the west side of the property in any significance compared to before where they were almost solely appearing there. We even had a corn feeder in the west which were occasionally visited by a young buck in the middle of the night. This is why we didn't see any deer in the first part of the week since we were in the west and they had already left the area by the time we returned to the food plot.
I think the lesson here is that the new food plot as a good food source in our area. In that way our improvements are a success. After Wednesday, we spent using stalking methods. This gave us a chance to find the deer and explore areas we have never been too. The main creek running through the center of the property abruptly starts at the base of hills that raise up 100-200 feet. The land to the south rises quickly while the north is a more gentle slope. Their main travel seems to be a bench that goes off to the east and sits between the creek bottom and the steep hill on the south.
Our improvements were so effective that we found a large battery on one of the trails. We moved the cameras off the roads so we don't know when they were there.
I think this year we need to make further improvements.
- Expand the current food plot in the east to about 2 acres
- Create a new food plot in the west
- Create two ponds in the east and west
- Clear travel corridors.
- Build a shed
The first problem is there is very little natural food in the area. The entire region is covered with thick tree cover which means there is almost no grass. The large hardwoods were harvested 30 years ago and conifers now dominate. The major source of food we found was acorns with the exception of random feeders and food plots sprinkled through the area. Our food plot is just under an acre but it seems that it is too small to support all the hungry deer during the winter. We need larger food sources to keep the deer in on our property longer.
The land is located on top of a complex of hills which raise an average of 400 ft compared to the surrounding low lands. This means there is no natural bodies of water in the area aside from creeks which are mostly wet for short periods after rain. The closest body of water we found via exploration or Google Maps is almost two miles to the north and north east. Thus, I think we need to widen and deepen some of the creeks so they will hold water beyond the rain.
Travel anywhere in the property is difficult. The easiest travel is the logging road that cuts through the center. However, cameras there in the past show the deer do not regularly travel on the road. They prefer minor trails, creeks, and clearings that weave through the property. In fact, with a food source the east the deer stopped traveling to west completely. So it appears they were only going in the area in search of food which is no longer worth it. It was difficult for us to walk to the west as creeks would become impassable and trails would suddenly end.
This means another week of renting a bull dozer. In addition, we will probably rent a skid steer to shadow the dozer to clear the downed trees. Right now, we plan for sometime in June.
At some point we need to build a shed. First, it would help work out logistics of the ultimate goal of building a cabin. Second, it would provide a place for batteries, solar panels, and much needed storage. I don't like running the generator while we are there trying to hunt. To replace the generator we will need a battery bank and a combination of wind and solar to keep them charged. However, a generator will always be needed during the summer to power the air conditioner.
