October Bowhunts at Long Ridge

It is a wonderful time of year at Long Ridge! The dry summer, and humid weeks we suffered are long passed, and nights now are generally below freezing. Days at 50/60 are pleasant, and as you walk across the field edges you get that 'fall smell'. The foliage is mostly gone by but below are a few images from the last few days. In the sunlight, it is bright, and cheery up on this ridge!

I have been out with bow six times since my last post, and have seen nine deer. Nothing exceptional, but I did take a shot at a large four pointer. Young perhaps, but very large of body. It was an exceptionally cold evening and I had a puffy camouflage jacket on, which caught my string. I missed by a mile, and he jumped straight up into the air, and then continued grazing at 45 yards away. I have been bow hunting for several generations and know better! Shame on me for being careless... this is he, below on camera at another location. This is just before he attacked my camera, attached to an apple tree. He didn't hurt the camera, but flipped it upside down, so the next picture of the coyote you see the titles on top, and upside down! He is a spunky one! In all I have had nine deer close enough to shoot, but have passed them all up except for a miss you will see below. In any case, mostly does, which are great for eating and management purposes, but do not begin to attract me until a bit later in the season...

Here are a couple of turkeys sayig hello at the same camera on the apple tree!

Below, though not very clear is the only creature I saw on one of my afternoon stands. He entertained me (it doesn't take much in the woods) for hours...

Below is the scene from my twenty foot tall ladder stand at the Far Ridge.  The farthest edge of the green is about forty yards, by design. The light rock spot is 18 yards, and I gauge off these two marks when shooting deer. This has been a very lucrative stand over the years.

The grapes as shown here, are all over our property...All the conservation rags and biologists say they are great for wildlife, but I must say, I have never seen any bird or mammal eat them. They end up all dead and shriveled in the dead of winter and then just fall off. As wild as they are however, they do make wonderful grape jelly, which is what we use them for.

This is the fall scene at LRDC. All the wood is in, the foliage is bright, and the call of the woods literally screams at you.

Last evening, I watched several does graze below me for an hour before they meandered off for acorns. I could have shot them a hundred times. But it is still early, and I have not lost my patience yet. Things are still calm in the woods. No LRDC hunters showed for the archery hunt weekend, so the deer here are still quite unaware. As I climbed down from my stand I just had to take this picture of a fall moon just coming up. It was particulary striking, because there was a flock of Canadas way, way high up, not low enough to see, but I could hear them winging south. Neat!

Above we have a (probably the same one that did my camera) frisky four pointer sparring with an eight pointer. Luckily the eight pointer does not seem to take this little guy seriously! Looks like just good fun. Then below this, you see the eight pointer I am aiming for. I have no daylight pictures of him, and he may never show in aiming light. But I can hope, and plan, and adjust tactics to try to make it happen. After all that is what it is all about. And if, at the end of the season he wins? Bonus! A ten pointer to stalk next year!

Here is another picture of this handsome brute! He'll weigh in dressed at about 175/180 is my guess.

So that is it for the last few weeks people! I did get an email form an unknown reader who asked me to post more often. That would be nice, but honestly, I cannot. This blog is about hunting, deer camp, and the methods and equipment and management practices we use. I simply cannot fill and post blogs with plug ins from other sites, trivia etc. Can't do it. I am
going to continue to post as often as I have new info, pictures, hunting experiences and time. I am not one to sit down to the computer every day, so I miss a lot of posts from folks I follow. Those of you who post daily, just amaze me!. In any case, all that we post here, is real time, our experience, our equipment, our hunts, and remember, the whole idea behind this blog was to encourage others to start a deer camp. Even your living room is a great place to start! To the reader in Ohio, go back to my first several blogs to see how easy it is to get one started! You'll never regret it, and your worries about leased land will end!

Jack

Jackzeller@myfairpoint.net