Last weekend at the land.

Okay, I'm still a week behind so these pictures are from last weekend when I was able to go down to the hunting property and check the cameras and do a little hog hunting. I ended up shooting 2 hogs and was cooking them in the smoker most of last week. It is WAY less work than butchering them the traditional way and the meat ends up pre-cooked and pretty tasty as well.

I was anxious to check the antler growth of the two mature bucks that I regularly see on my property and have been getting pretty excited. The one I call stickers was really coming on strong and had a great sticker (hence the name) coming off his left G2.

Here's a picture showing it - notice however that there is some blood at the base of the sticker - it looks like he injured it somehow. (Sorry the pictures are crooked, I just set this camera up at this location and hadn't realized it was off kilter)

Here's a picture from a few days later, the sticker is drooping down and it appears like it is barely attached.

And my last picture of him, it has now completely dropped off. :(

The buck I'm calling "Double Wide" has put on some decent growth, but I still don't think he is going to end up as wide as last year. I think he must be a very old buck and is actually on the decline.

I got some pictures of a new buck that I haven't had on camera yet this spring. He has a split G2 on his left side.

And I think I can confirm that July and August are a critical time for deer in my area. I went through 300lbs of protein pellets in the last 3 weeks and with only 3 feeding tubes the younger deer are actually camped out waiting their turn! I have another picture with 6 bucks in one picture.

I sure hope I am able to see some of these guys during hunting season this year!

I also set one of the cameras up as a true trail camera to try to get a better idea on where the deer are traveling to and from the feeders. Well, I still don't have that great of an idea on where the deer are traveling, but I have a pretty good idea what route the pigs are using!


I did get some pictures of some deer but only a few and I got pictures of pigs nearly every day.

I moved the camera to a new spot and am hoping to get more pictures of the deer travel patterns so hopefully I will have a better chance of seeing them during the day during hunting season. Even through the summer most of the pictures of the deer at the protein feeder are at night and the best hope of catching them during the daylight is to catch them on the move making their way toward the food source.

That's about it for this week. I spent this weekend helping some friends move and picking up another friend at the airport in Dallas and driving them to Abilene. Not much time for anything blog worthy!