Monthly Archives: October 2011

October 14, 2011

Groceries almost a goner … Need restocking.

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If it weren’t for the excursion zones, I’m not sure I’d have believed it. Seeing our five small food plots look like a field of dirt with a few scraggly green plants, I most likely would have cussed Mother Nature for not allowing all the seeds we sowed to grow this Fall.

Excursion zone shows the amount of browse taking place in one plot.


We have a new lease so we weren’t really sure what to expect once we started prepping and planting the plots. Clearly, the deer in our area are looking for more browse or our plot mix is just that tasty. Then again, it could most certainly be both too.

And the amount of browse at another plot


Curious what others think? Is the over-browsing of the plots a good indicator that we need more food sources in our area? The oak trees in our area are just now starting to drop a larger number of acorns. For our particular lease, there are not many crops within a range area of the deer on our land. The closest thing is a mature hayfield that borders our land. Any mast crops are miles away.

I’m anxious to see what these fields do the remainder of the fall – and whether or not there will be anything left to eat before late season rolls around (the time I really expected these to be “hot” spots).

Several deer eating from the first plot

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October 9, 2011

When Deer Attack …

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Among the several reasons I share for hunting deer, I can honestly say “self defense” has never been one of them.

After an unusual deer:human encounter last week in Preston, Idaho, I think protecting citizens from deer is a fine enough reason to hunt.

The screen shot shows the corn field where a struggle with a muley took place (image borrowed from localnews8.com)

AHT reader Jason Shell sent along the following story.

According to LocalNews8 in Idaho Falls, jogger Sue Panter was attacked by a shady mule deer as she ran alongside a corn field. She knew right away that something was unusual about the animal as it walked parallel with her as she made her way down the roadway. Could you imagine the fear?

Thankfully, for Panter, Michael Vaughan and his 17-year old daughter Alexis were able to play the roles of hero to make sure the buck didn’t kill Panter in the freak accident. And according the report, it was Alexis who should most be credited with going to combat against the muley.

The story is well worth reading. Click here for the written and video stories. Perhaps a rut-crazed young buck? Idaho officials are in search of the deer to try and figure that out.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in 2011, General Tales

October 6, 2011

An Hour-long Minute

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Our trip to North Dakota was terrific. Nate Faulkner, 12, made sure his first hunting trip was a success. More on that to come in upcoming video and general blog entries over the next few days.

Check out a video we created while hunting a field pot hole (they’re famous in North Dakota). We put a small handheld camera on a tripod at the end of the pot hole and recorded the first hour of our hunt. I’ve sped the playback in this video to show the first hour of the morning (including the first 20 minutes prior to legal shooting) in just a shade more than a minute.

Even though the camera was a couple hundred yards from the reeds we were standing among, there are two spots near the end where you see a couple of birds being taken. This is a spot we hunted on opening day with much heavier bird traffic. On this day, it was a little slower. But, you still can see a few ducks zooming through the frame throughout the video.

The last shot is a single, made on a drake pintail, by Nate! If you miss it the first time, it’s worth playing back. The exuberant chant afterwards is his proud father, Richard. Turn up the speakers and watch in full screen!

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