We set the first one up in an area where we had found a large shed antler this past spring. We were really excited about this area we had found, it looked great. We struggled putting the rest of the stand together, it took us at least 2 hours. When we finally got it set up and climbed up into it I was extremely disappointed to see that there was another tower blind and feeder about 350 yards away. I knew before we set it up that the stand was there, but I did not realize how close it actually was I thought that it was at least 800 to 1,000 yards away.
We decided after much discussion that we needed to take down the new stand and move it to another location. We decided to put it in an area where we set up a pop up ground blind last December and had seen many good bucks. We set the stand on the edge of a dry creek bed looking into a flat area of mesquite trees. There is a major trail with a lot of sign about 20 yards in front of the stand. I am really anxious to hunt this stand. It is set up in an area that reminds me a lot of another stand where I have killed my 2 biggest bucks. The best way I can describe these two areas is an "alley". The area that we are hunting is a flat spot , with probably a 15 foot gradual increase in elevation on either side of it. It has been my experience that the deer prefer to travel an area like this because the elevation increase on both sides provides them natural cover.
The two pictures here are of the bucks I mentioned above. They were both taken at my favorite stand that I call "Buck Alley". The picture above is a 14 point buck that I took last season (2007) , The picture below is of a 9 point buck that I took in December of 2005. Both were taken with my Bowtech Defender and Easton Axis arrow tipped with a 100 grain Wasp mechanical broadhead.
Both are Pope & Young class bucks.After getting the first stand set up we were off to look for a site to set up the second tripod. We drove around and looked at many potential sites.
After a couple of hours I decided to go and check out an area that really is not hunted, but I have always liked the looks of it. There is a protein feeder close to this area and I have seen some good bucks in the general vicinity. We picked a spot that was just the opposite of the other stand site. This area is up on a ridge with a little steeper drop off on both sides, probably about a 20 to 25 foot change in elevation. There is good cover on both sides of this ridge for the deer to move through. We saw some good sign, so I am also excited about the possibilities of this stand.
This stand did not take us near as long to set up, I guess we learned from our struggles with the first tripod. We were finished in about 30 minutes. I am a little worried about the wind with this stand location. I wanted to set it up facing north to take advantage of the south wind that is prevalent here in Texas, but there was not a good way to do this. The stand is basically facing north east, but I think that with careful planning and the placement of the feeder it will work.
The rest of the evening was spent filling up a couple of feeders, and setting up some game cameras. I should mention that we saw a lot of deer throughout the day. We did not really see any big bucks, but we were not looking that hard.
After the long day of work we were worn out. We decided to call it quits and head to the house. We cooked some rib eyes and baked potatoes and drank some Miller Lite (Please keep in mind that the phrase "some Miller Lite" is a a very loose interpretation).
After dinner we watched a new hunting video that I bought. It is by Full Moon Production. Full Moon Productions was started by Anthony Dixon who is one of the co-host of the BowCast podcast that I listen to. This video was there newest release titled "Proof". The guys are pretty hard core. They mostly hunt muleys in the high alpine out west. In this video they also hunt muleys in Alberta and take a couple of monsters. They also show some antelope hunting. All of there hunting is done with archery equipment and all of it is spot and stalk. This video really focuses on how they practice. These guys are all incredible archers. They shoot animals at some insane distances. They have their own 3D course set up in the mountains in Utah, and they will shoot 6" balloons off of the 3D target at ranges all the way out to 100 yards. These guys are pretty controversial with allot of bow hunters. Many people question their ethics as far as the long range shooting goes, but I think that if you watch this video with an open mind, you will see that they are very skilled and have put a lot of time and effort into practicing making these shots. They also are very technical when it comes to their equipment to make sure that their arrows are delivering enough kinetic energy at the distances that they shoot in order to cleanly harvest the animal. Check this video out if you get a chance, it is not your average hunting video.
Sunday we woke up and went back to work. We bought a new feeder and set it up at the second stand location. We filled it and the others feeders that we did not fill the day before. We also put timers and batteries in all of the feeders and tested them to make sure they were working correctly.
Throughout the weekend we had a good time filming filler footage for our upcoming movie that we have been working on for the past 3 years. On Saturday we filmed a snake and then we filmed Tyler picking up the snake. That will make for a good bonus feature on the DVD. I have been poking him for screaming like a little girl when the snake struck at him, but I would have done the same. We got some good footage of a storm blowing in on Sunday, and several other things that I can not tell you about, I don't want to spoil the movie.
We left Brady at about 6:00 and got home at around 9:30. I was pretty tired, but Tyler wasn't because he slept the entire way home (as usual). We are planning on going down next weekend (Labor Day) to finish up some work that we did not get done and to do a little dove hunting on Monday. My wife and daughter are going to go as well, so I am sure it will be a lot of fun.
One other thing that I forgot to mention is that I got attacked by the tics. I am going to be researching what the best tic repellent is and I will definitely be wearing it next weekend.
I am out!!!!
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