Frank's outdoors...

So the black powder season started on Monday (1/3/2012) in Texas.  Pretty much you get one shot during the sit in the stand.  I went out on Monday evening, and had a pretty exciting sit.  I have my Thompson Center Pro Hunter that I got for Christmas last year.  Around 5:15pm, 3 does shot out from right beside my blind and went every which way in front of me.  Not sure if they caught my scent or heard me move from inside, but they blew out from beside me.  After a bit of snorting, they re-entered the field from all sides, and there were 5 in total.  I saw a doe (or yearling) that had an injured front hoof, and was waiting for an opportunity to take her. Unfortunately, it never presented a shot opportunity.  I had MANY other shots I could have taken, and in hindsight I probably should have.  Either way, it was an exciting evening hunt, with lots of deer activity on my food plot. After the hunt, I gathered my SD card from the camera, and ...

I have been feeding all year round.  I was feeding twice a day during the rifle season last year, and switched to just a morning drop for the rest of the year.  In the next couple of weeks, sometime in early October, I'll change the timers on to add the second (evening) feed session, but for now I just have the feeders running at daybreak.  From the looks of the pictures on the camera, the deer are looking much better than before, and there are even a few fawns in the pics. 2 does and a fawn Doe and a fawn On my other camera is a big black hog.  This one is different from the hog that has the white patches on it.  Looks like an evening hunt is in order to take care of this bad boy... Big Texas Boar I am not sure this pig is as big as the black/white one, but he is a haus and needs to be cleaned out.

Alright, so we pulled the pictures from the camera that is keeping an eye on our hog pen.  This particular pig is all AROUND the trap, but has yet to enter as far as the camera has shown.  We know that the coons are in there picking on the corn, but the boar remains on the outside. Bacon - rear view Bacon - side view Dang 'coons. How do we get this booger in the pen?!?!  We are open to ideas here.  We (my buddy Mark and I) are thinking of making the pen significantly larger and changing the gate and its closing mechanism.  Given the drought, I am thinking a trough of water might be a catalyst...

In an effort to improve our chances of catching a hog in our trap, I picked up a jug of Pig Liquor to pour on the corn/ground inside the trap.  My buddy Mark has a game camera watching the trap now, and all of the pics show the pigs all AROUND the trap, but certainly not in it. We have had the trap setup now for over 2 months, and not a thing in it.  Our property is not riddled with pigs, but there are some whoppers on camera as I have posted before. This Pig Liquor bait has a rather sweet aroma but I hope it will attract the pigs into the pen.  I poured it over the corn, the ground, and slung some onto the tree.  WE have tried quite a few things, including souring the corn, and broadcasting it up and down the trail.  Again, seeing activity, but nothing in the pen other than raccoons and a deer.  I am going to get some pictures from the game cam and post them here. Picture of Pig Liquor, looks like blood on ground/tree

In anticipation of the upcoming deer season, I have already started getting the itch.  I look forward to watching the animals as much as I enjoy the hunt.  My partner and I have been out on the lease several times in the past few weeks clearing trails and even setup a hog trap.  I even put a camera out on one of my feeders to see what the action was like out there given we are in a significant drought in Texas right now.  Last night, I went to the lease to check the hog trap, and pick up the pictures from my camera.  As I looked at the pictures, I noticed the ribs were visible on the doe in the pictures. Big Wild Boar Skinny whitetail doe during TX drought   I started thinking about how that would impact the antlers on the bucks, if there wasn't much water and not enough food for them to eat.  After that, I started thinking about "who cares" much like Othmar Vohringer in his post Whitetail Deer Passion: Antler Addiction .  I thought th...

Went to the lease last night to clear some trails, install a solar panel for my feeder, and setup a new hog trap. We even put a little hanging feeder over the pen.  It was very hot, but we got a lot done and the preparation for the season is really making progress.   Got home after working for multiple hours on the lease and found this little tick completely full on my back!  He was RIGHT in the middle of my back...  little jerk.   Just need to head out there with a tractor to get the trails mowed down as well as my main field...  late August?

Spent all day at the lease today prepping it for the season. Rented a walk behind brush cutter, brought a pruner, saws, machetes, etc.  We cleared about an acre or so and it made a huge difference.  After all was cleared, I spread a 25 lb bag of " Plant Easy Deer Food Plot Seed " from Outside Pride Then we toured the rest of the property and put out another small feeder that I have running once a day... it only holds 1 bag of corn, but it is sitting in a real sweet spot with a narrow shooting lane.   More hogs on the feeder, this time a group of 4.