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Whitetail Planning

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Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 07 26, 2022 •  [Post 1]

Me and my boy got 3 food plots planted today. 1 with clover and 2 with turnips. A little late in the season but better late than never! It started raining as soon as we got it in the ground. We will be back in Minnesota during the youth season in October and again for rifle opening in November. Let's go turnips!!!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Tigger » 07 26, 2022 •  [Post 2]

We got a lot of rain in west central MN today. My plots are all looking good except one. that one got eaten by dumb deer.
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Re: Whitetail Planning - treestand

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 07 29, 2022 •  [Post 3]

We built a stand today. Almost stepped on a fawn on the way out. Baby was 10' away and eventually the doe showed herself. Pretty cool!!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 01, 2022 •  [Post 4]

Hope everyone is doing well!

Driving 1,200 miles to Northern Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday. I get to hunt Monday - Wednesday and then I'm picking up my 13 year old son at the airport Wednesday night.

He will be 1st gun on Thursday - Saturday. Minnesota law says he must be within voice and visual distance to me at age 13. "Sight and sound" rule. Hopefully we can bring 2 deer home to make up for the lack of elk. Rifle is dialed in at 100 yds.

Going duck hunting tomorrow morning. There are about 23 ducks in Colorado and I have shot 4 of them.
PEACE!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Tigger » 11 02, 2022 •  [Post 5]

We will be out in full force on Saturday. The weather has been super nice (60s) lately, but.....but....a cool down coming for the weekend. I just started seeing bucks moving on my trail cameras. Best of luck to you and your son and be cautious when using tree stands!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby 7mmfan » 11 02, 2022 •  [Post 6]

Good luck guys. Love the anticipation, and sounds like the weather will be turning in your favor.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 02, 2022 •  [Post 7]

You know, i think you might be wasting your time with all that food plot nonsense. I dont do any of that, and look at this monster buck behind my house today.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 02, 2022 •  [Post 8]

Not sure you could even make a hat rack? They might slide right off!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 03, 2022 •  [Post 9]

Thegreatwapiti wrote:Not sure you could even make a hat rack? They might slide right off!


I get the feeling that youre just jealous of my world class whitetail property. Its okay, totally understandable. Heres another monster.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 09, 2022 •  [Post 10]

Filled my tag between rain storms this morning. Not a giant but definitely venison! Heading to the butcher now. Picking my boy up at the airport tonight. Now we can just focus on him for 3 days!!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Swede » 11 09, 2022 •  [Post 11]

Congratulations Greatwapiti. It sure looks like a keeper to me. I saw a decent buck today when I went out for my morning hike. Where was he when the hunting season was still open?
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby 7mmfan » 11 09, 2022 •  [Post 12]

Well done. That's one animal I have never killed, a whitetail. I hear they are among the top for table fare. One of these days...
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 09, 2022 •  [Post 13]

7mmfan wrote:Well done. That's one animal I have never killed, a whitetail. I hear they are among the top for table fare. One of these days...


If you ever want to get a nice whitetail buck in washington, i suggest you get a delorean and a flux capacitor. Getting worse and worse every year. If you cant pull off the time travel thing, get started in 2023. I think the herd has reached a point it wont ever be able to recover from. Dont know why i even bought a deer tag this year. Probably wont next year. Not just being a drama queen, it really has gotten very bad. At least in the ne corner.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Tigger » 11 10, 2022 •  [Post 14]

that is surprising to me. Whitetails are some of the most adaptable critters out there and seem to be thriving in most places. Why do you think that is happening?

My son shot a doe. We have all passed does and small bucks. Mr Big has yet to make an appearance, although I had a pretty good one at 100 yards in the willows. Just couldnt tell what he was exactly and had no real good shot. We will probably add a 2-3 does to the pot and if a big one shows, he goes in too!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 10, 2022 •  [Post 15]

Tigger wrote:that is surprising to me. Whitetails are some of the most adaptable critters out there and seem to be thriving in most places. Why do you think that is happening?



We have periodic outbreaks of blue tongue which can knock down a lot of deer. Excessive numbers of predators, lions wolves bears, yotes, which make it hard for the population to cone back, and we allow baiting, any buck rifle hunts during the rut where young bucks are sitting ducks, lot of stuff going against the deer.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 10, 2022 •  [Post 16]

I always get blue tongue after a slurpee.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Tigger » 11 10, 2022 •  [Post 17]

I totally understand the predator issue. Just north of me, the wolves can just decimate a population of deer. We have never had EHD (thank goodness) so that doesn't affect our deer. We did get a pretty good winter kill last year. I remember all of your cougar videos (to be clear, I mean the mountain lion type)! We rarely have a cat around here.

I watched a group of does last night. They sure live a paranoid life. Eat for 30 seconds then head up and look. Pretty soon one of them jumps at their own shadow and the whole group panics.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 10, 2022 •  [Post 18]

Ill tell you what, it was a cold day in the whitetail woods! 7°f this morning. 19° now. Pretty nasty for early november. Ill be dressing warmer tomorrow, and sticking some of those chemical foot warmer pads inside my outer sweater.
Saw a small 4x4, a spike, and several does today. Hiked up a gated non motorized logging road near my house and sat a likely looking spot. Lion tracks all over the road, but they looked to be a couple days old unfortunately. Also a set of wolf tracks that looked very fresh. Then on my hike out there were more wolf tracks that werent there this morning. Also on the hike out, a huge owl flew up into the top of a big fir tree that was downhill of me. He made some very strange noises, that i would consider quite un-owl-like, then started into the hoo hoo hoooo hoo, then back and forth. Pretty neat. That was the highlight of my day. Dont know why, but i really dig owls. Cool critters. Always makes me happy when i see them.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 11, 2022 •  [Post 19]

SUPER PROUD DAD!!! My 13-year old boy filled his tag this morning! First BUCK of his life!! Legal shooting time was 6:41AM and he shot him at 6:48AM.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Tigger » 11 11, 2022 •  [Post 20]

DANG! No "like" button here either!

Owls. Saw 2 get in a fight once from my tree stand. Let's just say I wasn't about to put my fingers in there to break it up.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby 7mmfan » 11 11, 2022 •  [Post 21]

Thegreatwapiti wrote:SUPER PROUD DAD!!! My 13-year old boy filled his tag this morning! First BUCK of his life!! Legal shooting time was 6:41AM and he shot him at 6:48AM.


Thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up!
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Swede » 11 11, 2022 •  [Post 22]

Congratulations to son and dad on a fine buck. The memory of that first buck will last a lifetime.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Lefty » 11 15, 2022 •  [Post 23]

Good stuff, really good stuff.

Way too many people don't realize that hunting is often way more than killing game., or exotic trophy animals.

A long ago friend and hunter built a heated deer stand for my nephew. Now he has 4 heated deer stands for kids to come out and enjoy hunting on his ranch. I dont think hes shot a deer in 10 years
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 16, 2022 •  [Post 24]

We definitely put our time in.

This hunt started in June of 2021 when my 12 year old boy and I drove 1,200 miles from south of Denver to my family's farm in Northern Minnesota. The first step was to build a stand that both of us could fit in. Unlike Swede, I don't love being 16' in the air. I also don't like portable stands (especially for 2 people) so whenever possible, I build semi-permanent stands on our private land. Before leaving for Minnesota, I purchased a battery powered ratchet driver and a bag full of 3" and 6" lag bolts. The goal was to build something we could rely on. We would end up spending 11 days around the farm that summer just fishing, riding atv's, helping with the farm chores, and just letting my kid be a kid.

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We ended up hunting that spot a couple of times during 2021 but had no luck. We did notice that there were many branches hanging in the middle of the shooting lanes and that even if we saw a deer, it would have been to tough to make a shot.

Fast forward to July of this year, when me and my now 13 year old head back to the family farm. This year, we spent 9 days playing in the woods. We had 2 major goals; first, we wanted to plant some turnips and clover in 3 fields (1 of those fields could be seen by our new stand).... and secondly, we wanted to cut those branches which blocked our view.

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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 11 16, 2022 •  [Post 25]

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When we finally returned last week, I drove the 1200 miles and hunted a few days early. The goal for me was to get one deer hanging up by the time my boy arrived on Wednesday night....mission accomplished! I shot a medium sized doe on Wednesday morning and had her to the butcher shop by noon.

My boy was in school that week but we called him in absent and pulled him from school on Thursday and Friday. His plane landed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night at 9pm and we finally arrived at the family farm at 1am. It was pouring rain at 6am so I decided to let my boy sleep in. As a quick aside, my dad would have NEVER let me sleep in. ........ "dammit Todd, we are here to hunt, not to sleep."... I digress.

We hunted all afternoon and evening on Thursday and actually saw a big doe crossing through the woods. This was probably a blessing because my boy had a chance to get his gun up, look through his scope, and get rid of the jitters. No shot presented itself and the evening ended. The next morning the alarm went off at 5am. He got out of bed like a trooper, put on his gear and we left for the woods at 5:45am.

This would be the first time we would visit the stand we had built in 2021 and the location where we had cut branches and opened shooting lanes just 3 months earlier. We climbed up in the stand and get the gun loaded by flashlight. My boy was confident with his gun because we had gone to the shooting range in mid-October. We sat in the dark and in silence for about 20 minutes when I looked into the field and saw movement. It was dark, 25 minutes before sunrise but 5 minutes into legal shooting hours. I told him I see a deer and he just snapped into action. Grabbed his gun, turned around, and began to look into his scope right as the deer walked behind a tree. He said "I don't see it" quickly followed by "oh there it is" and BOOM...he squeezed off. The woods went silent and I saw the deer go down. He didn't ask permission, he knew what to do! I instructed him to put his gun on safe and then I gave him the most special hug ever. My boy did it!!!

At this point, we didn't even know it was a buck. We waited about 10 minutes and then climbed down. When we realized it was a buck, we both lost our minds....so happy! When we got up to the animal we saw that he was laying dead, right next to a rub and right in the corner of the field we had worked so hard to access. The pin drop is where the rub was and the X is where the deer died.

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The planning and time going into this trip was worth every penny. 3 driving round-trips from Colorado to Minnesota (over 7,000 miles), 2 round trip plane tickets. Tools, lumber, and equipment. Multiple hotel stays. Out of state licenses, and on and on and on. The best hunt ever is when I shoot a deer and my boy shoots a bigger deer!

Total costs for 100 pounds of venison......several thousand dollars.

Having your son choose this as his Screensaver on his phone. PRICELESS
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby wawhitey » 11 17, 2022 •  [Post 26]

Couple days of whitetail season left, but i think im done. Could have taken another young 4x4 today but im starting to just feel sorry for the damn deer. Lots of lion tracks, and the whole mountain is pounded with wolf tracks. The deer, or whats left of them, are facing constant danger from all sides. Last thing they need is some jerk shooting them that doesnt even need the meat. After wading through a few miles of wolf track filled snow this morning i got to the spot i wanted to watch. Was watching a few does below me and sure enough, the wolves started howling just over the little ridge a few hundred yards away. Never heard so many wolves howling at once in my life. Im just going to spend the next few days doing other things besides bothering the deer, then start some serious lion hunting tuesday morning.
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Re: Whitetail Planning

Postby Thegreatwapiti » 12 28, 2022 •  [Post 27]

I drove 960 miles over 13 hours today. I returned home with 30lbs of hamburger, 50 pounds of steak, chops, and roasts, and 25lbs of trim! The final step in a 2+ year process. This is what makes it all worth while! There is something special about biting into meat you (and your son) harvested. I don't need to go to the grocery store, I just need to go to the freezer!!
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