Frank's outdoors...

My buddy Mark found the old fella back and still alive after the crossbow shot on his shoulder last season on opening day archery.  He appears to be no worse for wear and still in the area.  Oh yeah, and his rack has grown!

Started the cameras and the feed.  Got lots of good pics of some east Texas bucks moving which is good.  Got a few piglets in there as well... Enjoy.

Well, this past weekend was the last weekend of bow season in Texas, and still nothing on the ground, which is only slightly disappointing.  I saw LOTS of activity and had deer within 10yds several times.  In fact, sunrise was at 7:30am and I was heading to the stand at 6:15am and although it was pitch black I was snorted at by several deer.   Later on in the morning, I again got snorted at by a herd of deer (all does that I could tell, but there were 7 or 8 of them) that I didn't see coming when I went to scratch a mosquito that had me in the jugular!  Oh well, was exciting, and didn't like that stand location, so I moved it when the morning hunt was over. Hunt done, stand moved, decided to retrieve my cameras and head to camp.  I was relieved to see several good bucks starting to frequent my area as they must've found the does noted earlier, and the rut is coming on here soon. Next weekend is rifle season, so maybe one will stop by! ...

My buddy Mark's camera has been capturing some solid action of the same bucks I have been seeing.  Take a look at these pictures of this bad boy giving the camera some up close and personal views.  This bruiser better watch out come opening day!  The bucks still seem to be running in bachelor groups as evidenced by the first photo.  On my cameras, I have pictures of 6-10 does...  so hopefully in a few weeks when the first rut starts, they'll get moving all over again.

I got on my lease real close to the start of last season.  As I sat in my tripod one morning and looked over my barren field, I started making plans for the NEXT season on how I would prepare the field.  The challenge lay before me in acquiring/coordinating getting the work done.  I don't live near my lease, and don't have any equipment.  So basically, borrowing, renting, etc. was going to be the course of action.  As with everything else, life takes over and the season was upon us before I knew it.  I still had been planning but the execution and coordination was becoming the bigger challenge.  Throw in the fact that we hadn't had ANY rain for months and it was looking like it was going to be another barren field... Well, I blogged in the past about how it all came to be... the purchase of the drag harrow, and laying the seed in the first rain in months, etc. etc. etc.  Well, I turned my game camera towards the plot the week leading up to my ta...

Was looking at some pics of this buck from the game camera prior to him breaking off a few of his tines.  Pretty cool to see how it has changed.

After sitting in the stand and hunting hard since the season opened, I finally got a nice deer on the ground. He made me earn it for sure! The Details: I was in the stand by 5:45am, with sunrise at 7:15am.  It was a half moon, but overcast with slight fog so I had moderate visibility.  It was still dark around 6:40am.  As usual, my eyes are playing tricks on me with the fog and waiting for the sunrise, and I see something flicker behind the feeder (about 100yds away).  I grabbed my binoculars and there he was rubbing his antlers in the brush back behind the feeder.  I watched him for a minute or so, then grabbed my rifle when he started to walk towards me to the food plot.  He was starting to head to the left (where there is a game trail that heads back into the woods).  I put the cross hairs on him and landed a perfect hit behind the shoulder with him right at the edge of the food plot.  I was shocked and thrilled!  6:45am, 30 min to ...

My buddy Mark sat in the stand this morning at our lease.  He has a blind that is less than half mile from my back loop blind.  Around 8:10am a doe walked out and started acting skittish.  A few seconds later this bruiser walks out and gave Mark about 5 seconds to pull the trigger.  He pulled wasn't sure if he hit the deer at all.  He waited a few minutes to begin looking for blood and tracking.  No blood.  There is a trail that leads away from the feeder toward a creek bottom, so he thought that potentially the deer may have headed there for cover.  Sure enough, he was piled up 30-40 yds down that trail! Nice shot, Mark!  I am jealous that you now have meat in your freezer!  UPDATE:  I think I got a picture of this boy a few days before Mark took him.  Take a look:

So I went out the day after Thanksgiving, and took my daughter on her first hunt.  We were really just there to sit and watch deer, we didn't even take a rifle.  I wanted her to experience sitting in the blind, see what comes out, enjoy the serenity of being quiet in the woods, and enjoying my time her!  For a 6 yr old, she did very well.  We were only going to sit for about an hour and a half, and that was just the right amount of time.  She started to get a little bored, so I let her play a game on my phone.  As it turns out, we didn't have anything come visit the field that evening other than an owl and quite a few doves.  Either way, she asked a lot of good questions, and was actively looking for action.  Although, as with any youngster, the question "So, when are the deer going to come?" made me laugh... as I ask myself that a lot!  :) Also while there, I noticed how well the food plot is coming in!  Lots of greenery, and than...

Got some interesting pics of a nice buck running some does...

Alright, we are 4 weeks from opening day of rifle season here in Texas, and I have everything ready.  I went out to the lease on Sunday afternoon during the first major rain in over 6 months!  Finally got my Polaris "muddy". On Friday, my buddy Mark and his friend Gary took a tractor and brush hog and cut down my field at a finishing cut length, which looked fantastic.  On Sunday, when I got there I took my new harrow, dragged it over the field with the needles down to really scratch the wet, muddy dirt/sand mixture.  It was a lot muddier than I thought.  I believed it was primarily sand, but the amount of soil is quite surprising and a pleasant one at that.  After that it was seeding time.  I used the Whitetail Institute - Imperial Whitetail Extreme seed and that covered half of my field.  The other half I covered with Evolved Harvest Throw & Grow .  Both of these I picked up at Gander Mountain.  Now it was time to fertilize....

Below are some pictures of a couple bucks I have on camera... Nice buck 8 or 10 pt Spike, similar to other spikes we've seen on this property Another real nice buck And the coyotes...