This buck disappeared last year around the 5th of November. A neighbor's brother saw a buck the week before rifle season and described what sounded like Chippy and hope was beginning to be restored that he might still be alive.
Last year he was a healthy three year old who made a big jump from a scrubby two year old in 2009. He had chips on every point - hence the name. I picked up both sides of his two year old rack. This year he is 4.5 years old and looks like his G3s gained some good length and he added some good mass. He should score in that 130 range. He's not very wide - maybe 15", but his tine length really adds up. The only unfortunate part is that the photo I got of him on the 22nd is terribly foggy. I believe that was one of our warm days (49 degrees) and there must've been some condensation in the camera as the temperatures cooled off. I'm fairly confident that I'll get a good picture of him before the end of the second rut. I might abandon the idea of trying to get Mr. 140 on camera as he's probably already dead by poaching and will surface after muzzleloader season by someone claiming to have shot him with the muzzleloader when really he was shot in the end of October by spotlight. We'll see.
Anyway, here are the rest of the pictures.
Pegleg showed himself three times. I got a picture of a decent two year old and a couple youngsters. Oh, let's not forget Pete's dogs!
The Bushnell picked up a video of Pegleg and another buck cruising the field edge that I can't make out in the distance behind some trees. For some reason the Bushnell video mode is quite blurry. Way more blurry than the first camera I had before the bear swatted it. It's still under the 90 day warranty. I'd hate to miss the second rut, but I'd also hate to get a bunch of crappy videos. Hmm. I also picked up Pegleg on the camera by John's farm yard.
He's really been on the move in the late November. He'll really be a nice buck next year. Surprisingly, there's no sign of Whitey yet. I'm pretty sure he'll show his face soon. Who knows what I missed out on during the October 28th - November 17th. Lesson learned for next year. I may have missed Curly.
This year was full of lessons. We had an extremely dry summer/fall. It's been very interesting to see what happens when you combine a lack of water with a crop rotation that had more soybeans than ever! This summer the deer had a prime food source around every corner. I believe this spread the deer out and kept people (and my cameras) from seeing them very often.With the drought beginning in the end of June/early July, the mineral/salt licks were abandoned soon after. Why would a deer need salt to regulate it's water content if the deer's body doesn't have a water content? They may visit a salt lick once we have snow, but otherwise, those were left alone all year. We had no water in the ditches. None. The primary water sources became the river, creeks, and any hole way way back in the swamp. The drier it got, the further the deer moved into the swamp - at least on the north side of the road. We have a flowing well back in the cedars that I'm going to move my camera to this coming weekend. I think it will produce once everything's frozen solid as the spring doesn't freeze up ever. The drought also caused a lot of previously wet/inhabitable land to now become a safe haven for deer who don't mind the hike out to the middle of the grassy parts of the section. There are still deer that survived that will be great bucks for the hitlist next year. I just hope we have a mild winter, warm and dry spring, and an average amount of rainfall throughout the summer.
This year was full of lessons. We had an extremely dry summer/fall. It's been very interesting to see what happens when you combine a lack of water with a crop rotation that had more soybeans than ever! This summer the deer had a prime food source around every corner. I believe this spread the deer out and kept people (and my cameras) from seeing them very often.With the drought beginning in the end of June/early July, the mineral/salt licks were abandoned soon after. Why would a deer need salt to regulate it's water content if the deer's body doesn't have a water content? They may visit a salt lick once we have snow, but otherwise, those were left alone all year. We had no water in the ditches. None. The primary water sources became the river, creeks, and any hole way way back in the swamp. The drier it got, the further the deer moved into the swamp - at least on the north side of the road. We have a flowing well back in the cedars that I'm going to move my camera to this coming weekend. I think it will produce once everything's frozen solid as the spring doesn't freeze up ever. The drought also caused a lot of previously wet/inhabitable land to now become a safe haven for deer who don't mind the hike out to the middle of the grassy parts of the section. There are still deer that survived that will be great bucks for the hitlist next year. I just hope we have a mild winter, warm and dry spring, and an average amount of rainfall throughout the summer.
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