Mr. "BIG" showed up! and the bear!

[Burt]

Hey guys,
Went to the cabin Sat morning, on the way saw a bear hit by a truck around exit 78 Windsor.
laying on its stomach looked to be about 200lbs. We pulled the deer cam and found some good picts. First is a head on shot of a tall 7pt. I have the same deer in velvet on camera. Next is a doe licking a very small fawn for this time of year. Must of been bred second rut. Third pict is a close-up of a buck and forth is the bear. You can see his nose to the right and if you follow it up you see the outline of his ear. Maybe I'll post a zoom. Last is the big boy! Nice tall 8pt by the looks of it. Doesn't seem to have very big browtines but boy are g2-4's big!
We're thinking of giving him a free pass this year to see if he grows bigger browtines.lol Check out his mouth he has a the "noplow" broadleaf in his mouth!
He is a biggen!

[kpkot]

Nice pics and nice plot burt. My plot this year was kind of a wash. It did grow, but I didn't put it in until late august. With all the rain this year as soon as i put it in we had the longest dry spell in 5 years. Just my luck.. o well. It was a learning experience for me as it was my first year putting in a plot. I will definatley do some things different next year. Primarly I will be putting down more lime! When did you plant your plot? I used secret spot and it did germinate but its not as thick as yours. Just a little bit of clover and grass mix it looks like.

I would guess and say the deer is 3 1/2. I was contemplating he was 2 1/2 but his tummy looks a little saggy and his rear hind quarter isn't very lanky. Anyone else have a guess?

[Burt]

Kpkot,
This is the second year for this food plot. Last year we put down secret spot (same as you) and it came up but wasn't very thick mostly grass. This year we planted no plow in an area 30' by 20' and put down 200lbs of hydo lime. Planted early August. Real happy with the product. I would guess that deer to be 3.5 yrs old.

[zemmer18]

Nice pics Burt and the plot looks great. I too dabbled with some small plot strips (3'wide x 25'long) and got mostly grass and very little clover there. Also raked a few areas out of the way in the woods and around the field edges and did some throw n grow. Well it grew, about an inch and a half clover and thats it. I wasn't expecting much so Im not disappointed.

However, I am disappointed that I haven't gotten squat on cam this year. I know it's early yet and last year I put my cam up this week so I hope to see more action. Not too far off now.

Oh and not to hijack your post Burt (srry I get long winded) Not good at guessing age but he has a stocky build so I would guess 3.5 as well. He has some nice mass to him as well. Would be hard holding off on him if he was around here, LOL.

[Burt]

Hey Zemm,
yea, he is a shooter for sure. We used a different seed this year and made sure 3 weeks prior to put down enough lime. It will be interesting to see how much action we get during daylight hours at the plot. If it there is action we will make a bigger one next year.
Your picts will come - hang in there.

[WNY_Whitetailer]

Nice pics Burt...I used some Secret Spot this year too...Spotty results for me. But, I did not have time to clear out competing vegetation so the seeds were on their own. Next year I will use some Roundup earlier in the year to clear out the competition and use lime as well...The plot you put down looks good...Maybe I will give that No Plow a try next season.

[Burt]

The no plow was good but...... when the broadleaf was all gone so were the deer. It was a mixture of broadleaf and grass. We are having the local farmer do a bigger plot for us and he said to put in clover. I am going to have him do a 3 acre plot of clover and we will try 3 other smaller plots. We are really pushing the food plots next year because there wont be any corn on our property just oats.