Trail Camera Reveals the Antlers are Dropping

I've had one of my homemade trail cameras out in an area that I am going to refer to as my "Official Camera Test Site" for the last week and I thought I would drop in today and swap out the memory card. It had taken over 100 pictures and the batteries were still going strong. I had lots of good deer pics, and only one picture was of a buck that still had his headgear. These pictures are all from my basic 3.2 megapixel model.

The Only Buck Still "Carrying"

The Curious One

"Whoa! What's That?"

A Really Beautiful Deer

Curiosity Killed the Cat

"I'm Perplexed"

A Buck That Has Dropped His Antlers (with a nice background)

A Couple Bucks Without Their Headgear

A Really Good Picture Showing a Buck That Just Recently Dropped His Antlers

A Close Up With Better Detail (Isn't that amazing!?!?)

Another Buck Without His Antlers (For some reason this one looks like he is really old to me.)

I thought these were some really cool pictures. I'd love for you to leave me a comment and let me know which one you like the best.

If you are interested in purchasing one of my homemade trail cameras feel free to send me an email or leave me your email address in the comment box so that I can get back in touch with you on a price quote. They would make a great gift for that special hunter in your life!

Some Impressive Sheds!

Earlier this week, my friend Justin Berndt made an amazing find! While walking through the woods he happened to stumble across a matching set of antlers that were lying on the ground within four feet of each other. But these weren't your standard, run-of-the-mill antlers. These were BIG!
Justin asked me to put a tape measure to the massive set of antlers to see just how big they were. Since they were not on a skull it was difficult to determine what the inside spread measurement would be, but I conservatively estimated the spread at 17 4/8". After all the measurements were calculated I unofficially scored the antlers at 162 6/8" gross! It is pretty rare to find one antler of this caliber, and to find a matching set is like finding a hidden treasure!

Saturday morning Justin and I decided to go out and do a little shed hunting. Even though I think we were still a little early to find many of this year's sheds, we still managed to find eight that looked like they were from last year.

Justin found five antlers (three of which were non-typical) and I found these three (one of which was non-typical). As you can tell, there must be some freaky genetics among this deer herd.
I had a lot of fun this morning just being able to get outside and explore at my own pace. The weather was great, and it turned out to be a really great day in the woods!

Coyotes in the Snow

A couple of the guys at work checked a trail camera today and it had taken some really neat pictures of some coyotes. We got about 9" of snow in our area last Thursday, and it seems to me that snow makes just about any picture prettier - even a picture of a coyote!




I have done quite a bit of predator hunting in my time, and let me tell ya, there is nothing quite like the rush you get when you call in a coyote and he is trotting in straight toward you at about 30 yards with no intentions of stopping! Knowing that they are in hunt-mode and looking for you adds an interesting twist to it. Calling coyotes is lots of fun, and I have found that this time of year is the best time to hunt them. I use a jackrabbit-in-distress call and have had up to four of them come in at once.

Coyotes are very abundant in our area. I hear them howling almost every time I deer hunt, and I see them pretty regularly as well. What is the coyote population like in your area?

January Trail Camera Pictures

The following pictures were all taken by my homemade trail cameras during January. I didn't get any pictures of big bucks this time, but these shots were my favorite ones from the batch.









I've got plans to build a couple more of these cameras over the next few months. Stay tuned for more shots from the field.

Teen from Loving turns terrible year into Stock Show victory

This story doesn't have anything to do with hunting, but I thought I would share it anyway. Loving, Texas, which is the town this girl is from, is just a few miles from where I do most of my hunting. I participated in stock shows when I was in high school, and I understand how much time and effort (and money) goes into raising these animals. I can't imagine having to deal with the life-threatening health issues she has endured at the same time.

Make sure you scroll down and pause the music at the bottom before you play the video.

The link to the full story is here.

And by the way, her steer sold this morning for an all-time Fort Worth Stock Show record of $210,000! Congratulations to Rikki!