Friday, December 16, 2011

SCORING BIG

Bitmore Outdoors, 

Here are a couple of pictures from my hunt on Tuesday night.  As you will remember it was a very rainy afternoon.  I had been hunting this guy throughout the fall, having seen him in August behind the house in a bean field.  I got several photos of him on my trail cam in October and Eddie had him come over 300 yards across my field to stop at 30 yards in a unshootable spot only to spook when a worker at my house spoke loudly on the phone 300 yards away.  I thought he had been shot when reports came of a buck matching the same description was wounded two farms to the east of me.  Later I saw that deer with a slight limp and thought it was him.  He looked exactly like him.  One week later I heard they had killed the wounded buck and my hopes tanked.  Two days before Thanksgiving I moved to an area seldom hunted in hopes of finding something I had not seen all season.  As soon as I got up in the stand I saw this 10 pointer, an exact twin of the one shot earlier.  I was able to grunt and bleat to him and have him close the distance from 70 to 13 yards directly down wind and behind a tree where he winded me and bolted to 30 yards where I proceeded to bounce an arrow off of three or four trees and almost fell out of my tree.  After that I didn't see him until the second Saturday of firearms season at 200 yards.  Monday night I had him at 45 yards and finally Tuesday with the rain hiding my scent, I moved in on him and was able to get a 20 yard shot as he moved thru a transition area before he got to the field.  I knew I was sitting very good when over 20 does and small bucks move past me and fed down wind at 50 to 75 yards.  Finally a chip shot after a wet wait and he was on the ground in sight of me.  I haven't taped him yet but know the other deer scored 148 and he is at least that big.   At this point I really don't care.   As I told you, targeting a single buck and hunting him through out the season, and finally scoring is reward enough for me.  It would have been a very successful season if I had not of shot him, but this is the best.  And to top it all off, my good friend, Casey Owing  came over to help me load him and wouldn't even let me gut him.  It doesn't get any 
better than that!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MIKE BOYLE FROM THE BITMORE OUTDOORS CREW ON A GREAT BUCK AND AN AWESOME STORY 


We would also like to thank Michael on sending us his photo of his  big Illinois 10 pointer that he took with a muzzelloader at 175 yards.  We cant wait to hear the full story on his hunt





















"IF YOUR NOT OUT HUNTING YOUR BEING OUT HUNTED"
 BITMORE OUTDOORS

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Resting Up

Head goose dog "TUBS" resting up dreaming of ducks and geese.


Hopefully with cold weather in the forecast and some consistent NW winds the geese and ducks will show up in large numbers. All the blinds are brushed decoys loaded up and guns cleaned. Good luck to everyone going out. Hunt safe and enjoy the quality time with friends and family. 



Follow the blog throughout the duck and goose season to see how the Bitmore Outdoors crews are doing. 


"TAKE EM"




"If your not out hunting your being out hunted"
 Bitmore Outdoors 

Friday, December 2, 2011

Dead doe down!!!!

We are advocates of the QDM philosophy and have been implementing those principles since we began managing our farms.  As a result we have seen a substantial improvement in our buck to doe ratio and a steady improvement in the quality of our bucks, does and fawns.  For example, this year we have harvested about 125 does and only 12 bucks.  The buck count includes a few button bucks that we have killed by accident and 7 mature bucks with at least 3 of them being 5 1/2 years or older.  The gross antler scores of those bucks is as follows 159, 156, 155, 149, 143, 130 and a management buck that grossed 100 inches.  We have been consistent in taking an average of 10 does for every mature buck that we harvest.  
 

We have found that a healthy doe harvest accomplishes several objectives.  


  • Most importantly a healthy doe harvest controls the deer population and helps reduce the crop damage.  We have found that if you are not doing this you will not have your farms very long.
  • Harvesting any deer is an accomplishment and provides hunter satisfaction and  quenches the thirst of a hunter while he awaits a mature buck
  • We have witnessed more intense rutting behavior as fewer does creates competition among the resident buck herd.
  • Fewer deer means healthier deer with more for each one to eat and reduced social stress on the deer herd
 Last but not least typically a doe is a little better eating then an old rutting buck and provide excellent table fare!!!  
As you can see our cold box after opening week of gun season is full of excellent venison.