![Can trail cams reveal peak-activity windows in your area from one year to the next? Rut Report fan Keith Davis emailed me this graph yesterday. Keith generated the graphic by going through trail-cam pics from last fall, then recording the number of daytime vs. night photos and charting them.
Keith says, “I didn’t realize until I looked at the pics that Nov. 13th–14th were the days I should have been in the woods. Another interesting thing is that the action absolutely died on the 16th. I literally didn't get another buck on camera before the [gun] opener in Wisconsin, on the 21st. This year I plan to be in the woods Nov. 10th–14th and hope history repeats itself.”
Keith’s chart strikes me as an excellent way to analyze rut behavior and look for patterns that might repeat themselves; and, of course, there are a few software programs that make analyzing trail-camera data a little easier. Do you use last year's photos to make plans for this year's season? —Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016](https://res.cloudinary.com/fin-field/image/fetch/c_fit,f_auto,h_500,w_650/https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/s720x720/14480741_10154509720213686_3519231355370407834_o.png)
My girlfriend Cayce Dockstader last Saturday afternoon smoked this big dude!!!
Field & Stream Magazine
He will be the first generation of raised hunters in my family. The time we spend in the outdoors together is priceless and we will cherish the memories we've made forever. Not to mention the life lasting lessions learned during theses times for the both of us. I am proud to raise a respectful a hunter. #noviceOutdoorsmen #raisedhunting #firstgeneration #learningtogether #fatherandson
Shot him with my bow Oct.8th in upstate N.Y. area 4T dressed out 267 and looking at 18.5 of Skull but has to dry. Looking good for a pope and young score and N.Y. Big Buck Club recolonization. We will see
You can only tag your first archery deer once, and Pennsylvania bowhunter Matthew Bardsley did just that with this great spike buck on opening day of the Keystone State's archery season. —Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016
This looks like a pic straight out of Field & Stream magazine! Taken at Spirit Lake in Aitkin, MN.
Early October can be a frustrating for many hunters. Food sources are changing. Leaf-drop has many bucks switching from one cover type to another. This is when keeping trail cams running can reveal a good buck that hasn't been visible until now. This great 10-pointer showed up in an area where my cams hadn't captured a nice buck for the last two months. —Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016
Len Kahle, founder of Hunting Western Massachusetts is eager for the archery opener this month. "Despite a major drought this year, the deer herd seems to be in great shape. Here in Franklin County, we started seeing rubs and scrape lines on Oct 7th. Acorns are spotty, but overall it's a decent crop with some areas having an abundance of big acorns. Grapes are far better than other years, and the deer are all over them." --Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016
Tip: Put a nylon hair band or piece of bungee cord around your knife handle and sheath to help prevent the knife from accidental loss.
BOOM.
Whelp. That just totally scared the pants off Romano. Personal-best pike on fly for the man. - JC
https://www.facebook.com/thecakespecialists/posts/10154112014773655
This Grooms cake turned out amazing! Super proud of myself, everything is edible besides having wire inside the antlers. The skull is rice crispie treats covered in fondant and antlers are all fondant!
This is a picture of my son Ashton from his hunt the other day. To beautiful not to share...
The Long Island Buckskinner // By David E. Petzal During the 1980s and 1990s there was a group of us who got together in South Carolina to hunt deer. It was a strange, polyglot bunch that involved a knife maker, a barber, an oilman, a couple of writers, and other odd individuals who drifted in and out. We would gather for three days to get up very early, sit for three hours at a time in treestands, listening to the mosquitoes whining in the dark, and occasionally shoot the small, wary deer that wandered out of the brush into the soybean and grass patches. The oddest of the bunch was a lawyer from Long Island. He was a good lawyer, because he had made a lot of money, but fate had not been kind to him. He was severely diabetic, small, frail, and cursed with abominable eyesight. He was also a buckskinner. When it came time to hunt, he would show up not in ratty camo like the rest of us wore, but in the most beautiful beaded, fringed, porcupine-quilled deerskins I’ve ever seen. Hanging from his belt would be a knife by Daniel Winkler, and a possibles bag and powder horn that were works of art. I don’t remember who made his Kentucky rifle, but it must have cost as much as a car. He never shot a deer. His medical problems made it impossible to sit still for as long as needed, and his eyesight made aiming down a flintlock barrel almost impossible. Periodically, he would get hold of a case of beer, which he was not supposed to have, and drink himself into a sweaty, waxen-faced stupor, which brought him right up to the edge of the grave. At the time, I thought it was pathetic that this least able of outdoorsmen should dress up like Jim Bridger, but I’ve come to see that these hunts were his one chance to escape the prison of his body. By dressing in buckskins, he was able to forget for a little while what nature had done to him. I wish he had shot a deer. I hope I would have had the class to clap him on the back and say, “Ya got him, pilgrim!” + Read more stories from deer camp: fieldandstre.am/DeerCamp Illustration by Steve Sanford
Can trail cams reveal peak-activity windows in your area from one year to the next? Rut Report fan Keith Davis emailed me this graph yesterday. Keith generated the graphic by going through trail-cam pics from last fall, then recording the number of daytime vs. night photos and charting them. Keith says, “I didn’t realize until I looked at the pics that Nov. 13th–14th were the days I should have been in the woods. Another interesting thing is that the action absolutely died on the 16th. I literally didn't get another buck on camera before the [gun] opener in Wisconsin, on the 21st. This year I plan to be in the woods Nov. 10th–14th and hope history repeats itself.” Keith’s chart strikes me as an excellent way to analyze rut behavior and look for patterns that might repeat themselves; and, of course, there are a few software programs that make analyzing trail-camera data a little easier. Do you use last year's photos to make plans for this year's season? —Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016
USA Anglers Helping The VETS Project --- Join us - Together we can do this - Sponsor by team Tasun - God Bless You all. https://nationalprostaff.com/b259-tasunlureretriever
Wisconsin bowhunter Scott Smolen is no stranger to mature whitetails. He used an intimate knowledge of this big 8-point, gleaned from personal observation and more than 100 trail cam pics, to fill his tag during the first week of Wisconsin's archery season. In a neat twist, one of Scott's trail cams captured not only the buck running off after he made a 12-yard shot with his recurve, but the lighted nock of Scott's arrow sticking in the foreground. —Scott Bestul, whitetails editor #RutReporters2016
