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.

The Antler Coat Rack

Over the last few years, I've collected a fair amount of antlers. Some where given to me, some where found while shed hunting, and some where found still attached the skull (whether road kill or wolf-kill). Regardless, there've been more than a few times that I've been asked what I plan to do with them. Part of my just wants to keep them out of fascination. Another part of me is ignorant as to how to take on an "antler project". Well this Christmas, I set out on my first attempt at making something out of them.
We desperately needed a coat rack as we were pilling our jackets on the backs of chairs and throughout the living room. I had a set of nice dark Muley antlers that came off a roadkill buck in Saskatchewan. The skull plate was already broken, so there really wasn't much a person could do with the antlers anyway.
I started by looking online for a place to find a nice board to mount the antlers on. I wanted something with character and color. I started looking through walnut and some other woods, but settle on Eastern Red or Aromatic Cedar. There were several companies that were selling slabs that were huge (intended for bar counter tops and mantle pieces, etc) and not too many that were selling smaller pieces like I was wanting. Finally, I found a perfect piece, bought it for 27.99 or so on eBay and it came in the mail just a few days later. I kept all this a secret from Steph so she would have an 'unknown' Christmas present.

I opened it up and was pleasantly surprised at the color and the smell. Cedar smells soooo good. The piece was about 44" long and about 9" wide at its widest.

The first step was to get a few coats of varnish on it. I used a satin finish, clear varnish and applied three coats to each side of the board. Here's coat number 1:

Coat #2:

Coat #3

After it was varnished to my liking, we took the antlers and the board over to my grandpas where we used a ban saw to get the angles of the bases as close as we could. This was a tricky process, because there was no way to be 100% accurate in getting the cut perfect, because you had to hold the antler above the board, draw pencil lines and then hopefully replicate that angle on the ban saw. Once we had it as close as possible, we set the cut antler on the board and marked the base attachment point and the G2 attachment point with a pencil.

After we had the anchor points marked, we were able to take the rough cuts of the antler over to the belt sander to make sure that antler laid perfectly flat.

Once we had them both cut, marked to the board, and sitting nice and flat, we took the board and the antlers home to start drilling.

We knew the bases would need two screws and the G2s would need one. The more spots where the beam touches the board, the more secure you can make it with additional anchor points. We started by marking Xs with a pencil inside the place we marked earlier where the base of the antler will sit and where we wanted the anchor point drilled for the G2. We first started with a regular drill bit that fit the shaft of the screw threads. We made our drill holes all the way through.

Then we made a second drill with a router bit in order to put washers in so the screw heads would have a place to catch.

Once we had all the holes drilled in the board, we switched back to the smaller bit and I held the antler in place while dad slowly drilled a small pilot hole into the actual antler through our previously drilled hole. We got our screws and washers put together and screwed them in with some epoxy on the threads of the screws to ensure a good hold. We sucked them up really tight so there would be absolutely no 'play' in the antler.

The finished product was very good, considering it was our first time attempting anything like it. We decided to use keyhole cuts on the bad that were spaced at 16" so to fit the studs on any given wall. Since the board was not cut or shaped to a perfect 90 degrees, it was a little difficult to figure out how to get the keyholes cut so to make the coat rack sit level when both the top and bottom have slopes to them. We did our best and it looks really nice and is getting plenty of use! Merry Christmas, Steph!

Still Holding?

I went for a short walk yesterday and checked my four Cuddebacks that are still out. The two impressive two year olds (considering the area) and a yearling were all still holding both sides of their rack on February 8th.

I did get one picture of a buck that has shed both sides as of February 11th. But this could easily go to show that with no stress, no snow, and plenty of food, these deer can hang on later than usual. The deer that has shed has some white hair near his hooves so I looked to see if I could identify him.

Looking through all the pictures of the bucks that have been frequenting the bean field, it is either PegLeg, or another buck completely. The only picture of PegLeg I have that shows his feet, they're really wet and a little muddy and would be hard to discern any unique markings. This photo was snapped as the deer was exiting the field and could have easily dropped out in the field. His pedicles look pretty open. Let's hope he dropped back in the woods and just entered the field somewhere else off camera. The only bum deal out of this situation is the 1" of snow we got that wasn't forecasted. It's perfectly covered up all the most recent sign. If buck could have held on from the 8th to the 16th, then we're still in business. Then the most recent sign on top of this 1" is where the antlers will be. Stay tuned.

Eyes Of The Eagle - Antlers #3 & 4

After going out on a few more walks since finding Twigs right side, I had about 45 minutes on Tuesday, Valentine's Day, to go look right where the camera was set up where Twigs and the yearling were coming in. I figured that if that yearling kept coming around, his antlers could easily be laying right there. I didn't plan on going for a walk, so I didn't even put boots on. As I approached the camera site, it sure looked like the deer had been digging around for any last kernels of corn. I scanned the area looking for these smaller antlers and didn't see any. I walked a little ways down a trail or two and came back to the camera site. I figured I better bend over and look really closely where there was some corn under a crooked willow tree. Once I finally got down low, I suddenly saw tiny little antler tips jutting out of the leaves. I'm talking small. Before I did anything else, I took a nice still photo of the antler and looked around again for the other side before I recorded a video. Nothing. So I came back to the antler and took a video of me pulling it out.

Stud Yearling's Left Side from Mitch Haaby on Vimeo.

As soon as I stopped recording, I looked one last glance a little deeper under (and almost behind) the willow branch and caught a glimpse of something that looked like an antler. Sure enough, less than 12" away from the first one, was the second one, burried under leaves.

Stud's Right Side - 2-14-12 from Mitch Haaby on Vimeo.

The crazy part is that in the original still shot up top, and in the first video, if you look really closely, you can make out just a little section of the mainbeam of the second antler!

So I accomplished exactly what I had hoped to by cruising out there yesterday and I also was successful utilizing a low branch as an antler trap. This is going to be the lesson for 2013. Antler traps work. If they're non restrictive and the deer are coming in regularly, they are going to only increase your odds of finding antlers without logging countless miles hiking the ominous cattail swamps.
On Sunday I went for a walk with mom up into the swamp east of the standing beans. It was really interesting to get on some good trails and find that they just kept going east and north and east. I got all the way out to where the treeline opens up because of the horrendous swampy conditions. 50 year old trees grow to about 10 feet tall. It looks like something from a scene from the Lord of the Rings - The Dead Marshes. Anyway, the deer have been bedding out there. So, I marked my route and will be heading back out there at some point. There were so many trails that it's hard to choose which ones to take. The biggest positive right now is that most bucks held on to at least the 25th or 29th of January and we got that last 2" of snow on the 31st of January. Whatever sheds are out there, should be on top of the snow.
Friday before that, dad and I went for a walk in the -30 windchill weather near the S curves north of Grygla. There was lots of deer traffic, but unfortunately, there was a lot of human traffic too. I'd like to revisit the area when the snow leaves and hike further west into the swamp. After that day, the temperatures have really warmed up. Sunday was about a high of 25. Monday and Tuesday were both 36 degrees, which had a "Real Feel" of over 40! It's been ideal conditions to pick up sheds. Too bad were weren't on the trail of some really big bucks this year. There are a handful of places I'd like to check before we get snow, but I'm sure there won't be time for all of them. Regardless, I've got 4 antlers so far.

Pay Dirt! - Twigs' Right Side

I knew the weather was supposed to get cold so I took advantage of the mild temperatures and very little snow we have and tried to take one more walk in search of Twigs' antlers. I went mostly north the first time, and dad and I went mostly south the second time. We quickly learned where the deer were not spending much time. So my conclusion was to walk east of the camera set up. My first stretch took me way out to the east I was on a large buck track for quite a ways until that buck track turned into melted timberwolf tracks. Those took me out to the ditch grade a half mile east. I walked the ditch grade south a ways to see if any deer had been coming from farther east than the section I was anticipating. There was only one track that crossed the ditch that I could see. I turned and headed back west until I came across some sign of life. It was another big buck track. I followed it backwards to see where it came from (hoping it would lead me to a bedding area). I lost it once or twice, but it took from into some really tall cane grass. Inside the cane grass there were some smaller openings with shorter weeds and I finally came across the first deer beds in that whole section. I walked around them briefly and made a note to myself to come back to them the next time I came out and spend some more time there. From there I pretty much made a B line towards the truck and all of a sudden I ran perpendicular to a decent deer trail. I looked to my left down the deer trail, but before I headed that direction, I glanced back to my right and I had to do a double take because the stick I saw looked like a browtine. Sure enough there it lay - half hidden under some golden grass was Twig's right side! After my eyes adjusted, I could plainly see how chocolate brown it was and in fairly good shape. I hadn't seen his antlers since the 24th of October and they very easily could've been busted up. He did have a small chip on the very tip of his brow and an angled chip on his G3. Still very good.

Twigs' Right Side - 2-6-12 from Mitch Haaby on Vimeo.
I took it  over to mom and dad's and we measured it up at 55 4/8". I actually thought it would be closer to 60 than that, but it was fairly normal for a four year old. 21" mainbeam, 8 5/8" G2, 7 6/8" G3 and good mass. Hopefully I can get out one or two more times before we get any snow. I'm sure Bullwinkle and Chippy's antlers are on the ground by now too. Can't find em' laying on the couch.

January Came And Went

Today, February 1st, was 38 degrees! We've had some unreal weather this winter. Hardly any snow and our overnight lows are above our historical average HIGHs! I spent last week in Chicago for my last of four Covenant Orientation classes. I managed to find one little forkhorn about 50 yards or less from where I found the nice 63" 6 point last year. I pushed a bunch of deer around and eventually found some bucks, but  I also encountered some fairly fresh human tracks that were obviously looking around. Not walking a pet. There were at least 6 bucks that were shed and I found two that hadn't - a yearling 3 point and a nice 3 year old 9 point.
Right before I left town I got a picture that let me know Bullwinkle was holding on to both sides as of the 15th of January.

I'm guessing he's shed by now, but I'll have to either find those antlers or get a picture that tells me otherwise. I also was able to check my camera I set out in an attempt to get pics of Twigs and/or HighRise. I got Twigs, but he already shed both sides as of the 26th/27th of January. I should've had that camera up earlier. There's also a young buck that's been coming in with both sides on. He's either an awesome yearling or an average to weak 2 year old.

For the most part, people are reporting later shed dropping because of the warm weather or lack of stress on the deer. It's crazy to be able to go out looking during the peak time of shedding because there's usually a foot or two of snow to contend with. At this point, we'll have barely any by mid February. It'll be a treat if we can pick up Twigs' sheds. They're going to really push 60" each. I'm going to guess 59" and 58". We'll have to see.
I checked the cameras near the standing beans and learned that at least five bucks haven't shed yet as of the 25th and 29th. The most interesting picture is of a buck that had kind of disappeared or at least stayed somewhere way south. It's a really nice two year old I call Black Nose. As a yearling last year, he had 6 or 7 points and had a really black muzzle. This year he's a nice clean 8 and should be a dandy 125-130" 8 next year. Here are the five bucks that strolled through. The first one is a broken up two year old that was hanging around Pencil in the summer and early fall. The second is Chippy. The third is Black Nose. The fourth is a twerp. The fifth is the wide 2 year old 9 (Dad wants to call him Contender 2)

Another interesting thing was that I moved this camera in from about a quarter mile north and set it up 20 yards from another camera! This camera had 27 or so images and the one that used to be hot had only 2. What does that tell me? A) Deer are unpredictable. B) There's a good chance they get used to and/or annoyed of being flashed in the face. C) There's simply not enough snow to corral them to using fewer trails. They're walking anywhere they want still (which makes looking for sheds a bit tougher.