Dad's Dinosaur

It's been a little while since I've written although there's been plenty of miles put on my Muck Boots. I've walked all kinds of small woods that I've been curious about and have come up empty handed. Well, dad found one little antler a couple weeks ago in a woods that was near our last sighting of Curly in 2010. Dad picked up this little two year old antler that had been there quite a while. I'd say at least two years, probably more.

Then last week, mom answered back and got herself off the goose egg by coming across the little droptine side of a buck I got pictures of a couple times in July by the gravel pits. I can't decide if he was 2 or 3 in 2011, but either way it's a really cool little antler. Hopefully he keeps the droptine characteristic as he ages.

That was Sunday afternoon, the 25th. A neat addition to this story was that dad said he had walked through that exact area two weeks before (weekend of the 10th-11th) and would have seen that easily. So that buck shed after the 11th of March. This is been pretty common this year as we have set numerous records from warm temperatures to lack of snowfall, etc. This was probably the easiest winter on record for us and for the deer.
I made a few other trips in this time slot, but all came up fruitless:

Then yesterday, Friday the 30th, I went out to check out a new potential hunting area with a friend and afterwards drove up to the cabin and checked on a few things. I made sure there was at least some what of a trophy rock left near the gravel pits and out in the Tweeten woods. Then after school mom and dad joined me and we decided on walking through the cedar swamp where we've had decent luck in the years past. As we got going, we walked through the two slashes that are probably 30+ years old by now and got on to a fabulous trail. I started back-tracking it a ways and ran into dad and told him this was a pretty solid trail. He figured we should spend some more time around it and I didn't really pay much attention to it because I wanted to go west towards the thicker bedding area in the cedars. I met up with mom on the other side of the old slash that the cedar stump mineral site is in and we decided to just let dad find his way toward us. We took off walking west and it wasn't long and I heard my dad yell, "Hey Mitchell! Come and look at this." Since he rarely says stuff like that, I figured he either had no clue how far ahead of him I was, or it was something pretty interesting. I turned around and didn't bother to get mom's attention. Pretty soon I was jogging through the cedars, dodging low-hanging branches and leaping over potholes. As I got closer dad said, "I just thought you'd want to see this." I looked at his feet and there lay a beast of an antler - old as the hills (or so it seemed). We ooo'd and ahhh'd at it for a minute or two and took some pictures and then a video to watch dad pick it up:

This thing was a hawg! It had bases and mass that you dream about, along with an 8" brow tine that just makes you scratch your head! The entire G3 was missing - chewed off by those wretched porkys (sidenote: I need to carry that pistol). This shed, in it's weathered, devoured condition, still measured 63 0/8"! I hardly use exclamation points, so you know how significant this is. We had yet to find any antler from Minnesota Hill that broke the 60" mark. We knew they existed, obviously, but have never been able to locate one - until now. Had this antler not been chewed, I would bet that it would gross between 72" and 74" NT, maybe more. It's hard to get a good feel for the antler unless you really see it. Dad said he'd pay $50 to have it in it's prime mint condition, I would definitely pay more than that.
So the kicker to the story is that as I was on my way home, I was still thinking about any deer in the last 10 years that have been seen or shot with brows that big. The only one that kept coming to mind was a deer that was shot by a neighbor about 3 miles southwest with the bow in 2005. I remembered that I had a picture of it on my phone from a year or two ago and so when I got home, I pulled up the picture. BAM! No doubt. The split G2, the brow, a bunch of junk. No doubt this was the same deer. I couldn't wait to show dad. So this is the same neighbor who shot Inside CrabClaw in September of 2010 and when I was over there looking at his mount of ICC, he was telling me the story to this other "Big Brow Buck" we got to talking about sheds and he said that they rarely ever find sheds on their land, but he pulled one out that he had picked up and after looking at it, I looked back up at the mount and sure enough it was from the same buck. It had a big brow and was nice and heavy. It was definitely not from the previous year, but maybe two years before if not three. To connect dots in the stories of these bigger bucks is such a cool thing too me. I find it so interesting to see where and why these bucks live and die where they do. Fascinating.

We're starting to get a little more busy now with photography and I'm sure the woods will start to get more and more green with this nice weather we've been having, so there won't be too much more looking, but I have yet to really comb the heart of the tamarack swamp or north of the road between John's and Pete's. It's an enormous woods and to say "needle in a haystack" would be not so much of a challenge. After all, how big of a stack can one bale of hay make? Subdivide.

Whitewater Strikes Again! - #5 & #6

We took a trip down to Red Wing this last weekend to see our new niece - Hailey Jo. She's so precious and it was good to see Andrea and the family and spend some time helping out where we could. Donny and I took off down to Whitewater after they were done with Hailey's two week check up. We got down there around 11:15am and noticed two vehicles where we were going to park. We decided to haul up to the top of the bluff and walk our way down. There were a few fields in the bottoms that made it good a likely place for deer to feed while feeling quite safe. Right out of the truck we came across a carcass of a young buck, probably a yearling. After a little discussion, Donny brought up the new antler point restriction and that these people are shooting young bucks only to get up close, count the points and then leave it for fear of getting busted. It's sad. People who don't understand the purpose of the antler point restriction will likely never understand deer management. I am completely in favor of an antler point restriction. I'd like it to be statewide. More than that, I'd like to see Minnesota become and "earn-a-buck" state. This would mean when you purchase your tag (of any season) you need to kill a doe first before you are even given a buck tag. This would accomplish several things, but most importantly, it would create a better buck to doe ratio. That's a whole other blog post.
As we walked to the north towards the end of the top of the bluff, we started finding some decent trails and deer sign. It wasn't 25 minutes in and I walked right up to the first antler of the day - a fresh yearling 3 point. Boone (Donny's Beagle) walked right by it. I called him back to see if he'd pick it up. Nope.

We were optimistic. The terrain looked good and we had lots of time ahead of us. We walked out to the point of the bluff and decided we needed to go down and head east. We came across a bench of sorts, like an old cattle trail which was fairly steep and pretty icy. We figured we'd just make our way to the bottom and see if we could pick up on some better deer sign near a feeding area. On our way down we were talking about this and that and I made a comment the deer were using a 'shortcut' that was even steeper than what we were using and we laughed because these deer are capable of outrageous things. It wasn't 50 yards further when I looked back and below us a bit and spotted tines sticking through the grass.

 

At first glance it looked to be a real nice antler - probably a 3 or 4 year old buck, but as we closed the distance, it shrunk up. It was nice and heavy, but it was definitely from a 2 year old buck. It had also been laying there a year. The only reason I probably saw it was because of how white the antler tips were. Once again Boone followed us down, but had no interest in the antler. It was pretty funny having him along. He kept up the whole day, but took the nap of all naps when we got back home.

We celebrated and thought we were doing really well having found the first two within the first hour of being there - if that. As we made our way to the bottom and around the grassy fields and creek drainage, we started to get the feeling that people had been through those parts. There were lots of trails, lots of sign, and statistically there should have been an antler or two laying where we walked. We hiked up and through a big corn field and above it, which had some of the best sign. I came across a bone laying on a stump, which I couldn't identify. A little further I picked up a skull that at first glance resembled that of a northern or a muskie because of how light and hallow the bone was. It suddenly dawned on me that this kind of looks like a bird's skull. Maybe an eagle. It was big. It was the same size as Boone's head.

After doing some research when I got home, it turns out it was a pelvic girdle from a wild turkey. Shows how much I know. I walked through lots of gnarly thorns and some great bedding area, but no luck. I did come across a few boot prints in the mud, which tells me there were probably people out there a week before. We began working our way back across the south side of the ravine. We got into two more cornfields before we headed back up the bluff. As we huffed and puffed our way up the bluff, we found a couple unreal scrape sites. There was so much sign around the food sources, it's just too bad you can't leave a camera out there. There's huge deer and too many hunters to dare leave it more than a few days. At the top of the bluff we came back out to the same field that we started in, except on the opposite side. This field had definitely had deer feeding in it. There were lots of tracks and icy trails, so you know the deer were there this winter. We were both pretty tired, but looking back I wish we would've spent just a little more time on that north edge. There was great buck sign and although I'm sure the fields had been walked through, the woods probably had not.
It's simply a tough place to shed hunt because of the population of hunters that are interested in that area. There are two photo boards that attract people from all around. Enormous deer are posted on the boards showcasing what caliber of bucks are roaming the bluffs. Avid shed hunters spend every weekend out there - rain, snow, sleet, or hail - they're pounding the food sources and the easier accessed bedding areas. It's not easy to find a shed when you wait until the second weekend of March. I'd like to look again around mid-February. Spend a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday out there. Regardless, I picked up two more. So that makes 6 for the year. The new 'father of two' took the ride home to catch up on some well-earned sleep.

The End of the Camera Season

It's not very common to be able to leave cameras out year round up here, but this year was one of those rare years. I chose to take my cameras down even though temperatures are warming up into the 40s again. I figure that 95% of bucks have shed and the ones that haven't are probably not of any interest to me.

It won't be easy to find these bucks' antlers throughout the vast tamarack swamp, but it's a goal of mine to find at least one of PegLeg's, Chippy's, or Bullwinkle's. That's six antlers somewhere out there that are just laying in the moss. It's all about picking the right trails and spending lots of time out there. It's the type of mission that will need more than two people wandering the never-ending swamp. Besides the west side, there's really only one buck that I have my sights on finding and that's Pencil. He's been given no attention after Christmas, which is too bad. I really think we could have kept closer tabs on him and given ourselves more clues as to the whereabouts of his 4 year old antlers. He will be king of the SE part of Minnesota Hill next year. He probably won't break 130 as a 5 year old, but he'll definitely be a big deer that will be a trophy for any of us to take. If some of his pattern stays the same, he should be right in our laps come November. It would be nice to find at least one of his antlers this year. That would give us his set as a 2 year old, his right side as a 3 year old and hopefully both sides as a four year old. A neighbor up there has his 3 year old left side, so we could probably do some kind of swap or trade for the antlers.
As the camera season winds down, I realize that I was very focused on monitoring Bullwinkle was excited to track down Chippy after he disappeared in 2010. I think I should have kept one camera up over on Pencil and in the rare chance that Mr. 140 is still alive. With Scabby dead, it will be interesting to see what bucks will spend time out near the Tweeten woods this summer. Hopefully the State will plant something in those fields this year. Crop rotation determines everything by the end of June. I'm going to try to spread my cameras out a little further this year. Hopefully I can pick up another camera or two (even if they're cheap) in order to cover more hunches. We've gotten permission on a few great places that I've never really explored yet. I'll do a walk through on each and see if there's any potential.
The hitlist for 2012 will be down from years past. Here are the dominant bucks that will headline the list if they can be located next year: Bullwinkle, Chippy, Pencil, Whitey, Twigs, HighRise, and PegLeg. There are a few up and comers that will stay off the list - Black Nose, Wide 9, and the 8 by the hill. I'll be trying to get a camera or two over by the Dike again. I might even get one out in the Refuge again. We'll see. Bear season makes scouting the Refuge difficult. A lot of people like to bear hunt out there. I should get a stand out to the West Popple Island. That place could be dynamite. Here was a really neat thing I came across while pulling my cameras down. After examining it, it could only be from one thing/event: A mouse ran across the top of the snow and something swooped in and caught it. There were no more tracks beyond that point. It was really cool, I thought.

Steph and I are leaving for Red Wing tomorrow morning to see the newly arrived Hailey Jo DeMars. It will be a great time of hanging out with family and hopefully we can get out to Whitewater and scout around while looking for sheds. I have a few places I'd really like to explore out there.