Feeding all of 55009

Feels like we are feeding the entire zip code with the amount of food we are going through on a weekly basis. Hope all of your off-season adventures are going well.

The Feeder is $$$

Well we were anticipating a few deer coming to the feeder. We got our wish, and now we are spending close to $40 a week to keep the herd happy. I am attaching a few more pics and some new visitors showed up as well.

Feeding Frenzy

Just a quick update from the 009 boys. Bob and I have talked about this for at least 3 years now and it finally came to fruition the other day. We sat down and built two deer feeders. We needed to keep the bucks and does on the property through the brutal Minnesota winter. For those of you in Minnesota or Wisconsin, it has been a rough winter so far. We built two feeders with roofs on them to keep the food dry. It only took two days before they found it and did they ever. I am attaching some pictures of the deer and the damage they can do to AntlerMax, Molasses soaked alfafa, and corn. They put a hurting on 150 lbs of food in just over a week. This might become an expensive endeavor. Hope all is well and the shed hunting is going good for those of you that don't have snow on the ground.

10-28-07 The Shot

Well, It has taken two months, but the video is finally here. Thanks to my hockey team mate Dave Brechon (#5) for his technological expertise. He was able to take the series of video clips and put together this video for your viewing pleasure. I shot this 10 pointer on October 28, 2007 on my property in SE Minnesota. He has a 17" spread and green scored 131." He field dressed at 205 lbs. I would guess he is a 3 1/2 year old buck. I made this shot at about 18 yards as he was trying to demonstrate his dominance over my smaller buck decoy. (you can see it in the foreground) After the shot you can see the buck run downhill and crash through some brush and fall within site about 50 yards away. This, along with all the video that was taken this year was shot by myself utilizing the "Dakota Bow Camera" which mounts on the stabilizer of my Matthews Switchback bow. Please post your comments and let me know what you think of this video and our blog. Any suggestions on how to improve this site are welcome. Thanks for taking the time to view our site. We have already started our supplemental feeding (2 feed stations which hold over 100 lbs of food) to help support the herd through the winter. We are eagerly awaiting Spring so we are able to begin planting our food plots. We hope you will be back to visit our site and follow our 2008 hunting season.

Saturday, November 10, 2007 AM

November 10, 2007 All Day, 23 degrees at sunrise, Wind from N/ NW at 5-10 MPH. Sunrise 7:03 am (Hunting opener 6:33 am) Due to the Badger football game (Badgers upset Michigan), I was only able to hunt until 8:00 am. Therefore, I decided to sneak into the twin towers for a brief AM hunt. Lon went to the ladder stand just north of the two barns on the north side of the road. I got into the stand at about 5:45 am. Just after I got in and was settled, I did some light calling with my grunt tube. Immediately, I received a response from the NW of me. Just at first light a small buck (six pointer) came around the corner and came in to the decoy. He stopped to smell it and put on quite a show. Unfortunately, it was still pretty dark so I was only able to capture some video that is attached but it is pretty dark. At 6:50 two toms flew down from the north across the road and landed about 100 yards to the east of me. They ended up feeding to the north and back across the road and joined up with 6 other toms and 1 hen (Total of 9). That was it. Lon didn’t see a deer. Totals for today: 1 deer, 1 buck.

Friday, November 9, 2007

November 9, 2007 All Day, 28 degrees at sunrise, High of 45 degrees, Wind from N/ NW most of the day at about 5-10 MPH. Sunrise 7:02 am (Hunting opener 6:32 am) Sunset 4:51 pm (Hunting close 5:21 pm) I went to the Rock outcrop bow stand and Lon went to his gun stand. I decided that I was going to sit all day, which was awesome, but I should have changed my location for the afternoon. Lon went to his gun stand for the morning hunting and stayed until 9:45 and didn’t see a deer. At first light at about 6:30 I heard something to the NE and I saw a nice buck coming through about 50 yards away. I was reaching for my grunt because I thought he was veering off and the buck ended up spooking off to the SE. I am not sure how big his rack was, but he appeared to be a mature deer. At 8:50 am, a basket racked 8 pointer appeared to the NW of me. He ended up spending the better part of 15 minutes trying to figure out way a plastic decoy doesn’t move and doesn’t smell like a deer. (See attached video) All I can say is that he was very entertaining. While he was looking at the decoy, two does (may have been 3) were down in the valley to the NE. I think these same deer circled up from the NW and ended up near the stand about 15 minutes later. They saw the decoy and split up quickly to the NE and NW. At 9:40 two does came off the switch back to the east of me and ended up coming down to the main trail and went south. At 10:00, two nubbin bucks came from the south on the trail and worked their way north until they were under my stand. I have never seen this before, but one of the nubbin’s actually mounted the other nubbin. (take a look at the video). I guess they are all about free love and experimenting. At 11:20, a different nubbin cam through from the north. It circled my stand for about 10 minutes and kept mewing and bleating. I was really cool. At 1:45 pm, I had another nubbin and a doe worked from the south to the north on the main trail right under my stand. That was the last deer that I saw. I can say that the afternoon was pretty disappointing. Lon ended up going back to his gun stand and got in at 2:30 p.m. He did see a decent buck that had 4 on the right and 1 on the left. He did say that it had a bow wound on his right side that was high up above the lungs. If it had given him a shot, he would have taken it, but it was out of range. Totals: 14 deer, 12 Does/Nubbins (4 nubbins) and 2 bucks. Lon 1 deer, 1 buck.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

November 8, 2007 PM; 43 degrees, Wind from N/NE 5-10. It was mostly sunny today. Sunset was at 4:53 pm (hunting close 5:23 pm) I got out of my meeting in the Twin Cities and high tailed it over to Wisconsin. Lon had already left and gone to his gun stand. He didn’t end up seeing anything tonight. Because I got here so late, I showered quickly and went to the twin towers. By the time I had gotten dressed and walked across the field it was about 3:55 pm. I hadn’t even gotten settled in and I heard something to the west of me. I looked over my shoulder and an 8 pointer had snuck I behind me. He never saw the decoy, but sensed something wasn’t right and he ran back to the SW. He stood back there and looked in my direction, but my grunts didn’t solicit a response. He ended up walking off to the SW. At about 5:00 pm, two does entered the field about 150 yards to the NE of me. They casually fed until dark. Totals for tonight; 3 deer, 1 buck

November 4, 2007

November 4, 2007, AM Temp 43 degrees, Wind N/NE 10-15 mph, mostly sunny, Sunrise 6:46 am (hunting open 6:16 am). Finally, Daylight savings ended. Now we can get up earlier and hunt a little later. I decided to go to the Rock outcrop bow stand. I got in about 5:50 and at about 6:20 two does came running down the trail behind me (about 10 feet away) to the north. They ran right by the buck decoy that was about 15 yards to the NW (upwind) side of me. I was hoping there would be something chasing them, but no such luck. At 6:30 am, a doe and two fawns appeared on the trail about 50 yards to the south. Instead of walking up the trail towards me, they ended up going west up the hill and fed back to the south on the logging road. At 6:50, I looked over my shoulder, and this small eight pointer was walking towards me down the trail. He got directly behind me at about 5 yards, when he spotted the decoy. He immediately circled to the west and tried to get downwind of this intruder. He walked directly under my stand and was absolutely mesmerized by the decoy. Got some of the video attached. I watched him for 5 minutes as he tried to figure out why this deer was not moving except for the tail (I have a piece of plastic grocery bag tied on as a tail). After a few enjoyable minutes he decided to take off to the NW. As he turned to leave, I gave him a soft grunt, and he came right back into the shooting lane. Too funny. I stayed until 9:15, but that was it. Totals: 6 deer, 5 does/fawns, 1 Buck.