Trail Cam Tuesday: May 8, 2012

What would Moultrie Week be without a Trail Cam Tuesday? I couldn't let you guys down, so here is a few great shots from the past week or so on Foggy Mountain. From the pictures you might think I'm pulling a few out from this winter, but if you remember a post last week about an interesting opening morning, you'll know these pictures were from that 24 hours period. Yet again, as I said yesterday, without Moultrie this segment would have never made it off the ground. Thank you to Moultrie and their great customer service for helping me with any and all issues.


So I wasn't able to take a turkey on opening day, it was suppose to be a slow day with the weather. It didn't help that I was only able to hunt until 7:45 AM  or so and even at that I was still a little late. Of course, when I check the trail cam, it was only half an hour after I left that this long beard walked in.

A snowy long beard.

A cautious doe and yearly walking in during a snowy late April day.

A beautiful gobbler fanning out his wings.

A slightly blurry shot of a sow and her yearling making an appearance for the first time this year.

Trail Cam Tuesday - May 1, 2012

Normally this time of year you'd expect to being seeing trail cam shots of turkeys. As much as I wish this was the case, it is not. They seem to be a little camera shy this year than last. But no worries, if I can't get some great shots, I'll at least get some funny ones. This collage of pictures isn't anything new to people that have deer and raccoons frequenting the same area, but it is still really funny. The raccoons seems to be infringing on these does turf a little to much and then the deer react.

And of course what would a Trail Cam Tuesday be without a bear sighting...

Trail Cam Tuesday - Nov. 29, 2011

I've always wanted to get a second trail camera to experiment with, but not until lately when Moultrie ran a special was I able to make this possible. One thing I have always wanted to try was during hunting season and luckily this past week I was able to try it. Around this part of West Virginia gut piles don't last long, but rarely do you get to see much more than a coon running from them. Everyone knows that there has to be more than coons that eat it, but I wanted to know what else would show up. I finally have an answer, well at least one example of this. Thanks to the buck that I harvested last Monday I was able to put my new trail camera over this gut pile and get some great pictures for everyone.

Like I said, I knew there would be some coons, but there where up to seven in one picture.

I had an idea that a bear would show up, but there was only
one bear that showed up for a short period of time.

This one took me by surprise, I never thought I'd be able to get a capture like this, a Red Tailed Hawk.

And the last one, I've got captures of gray foxes, but never a red fox.
Not only did I finally get a red fox, I got a mature adult.

Trail Cam Tuesday - Nov. 15, 2011

This past weekend was a little trying in the aspect that one minute that it felt like the rut hadn't even started and then the next that it was in full swing, but I got a some interesting pictures this past week that say that it's here and in full swing. I got a set of pictures of these two bucks sparing for nearly ten minutes. Then after this there is a does scent checking a licking branch and scrape (not pictured).

Also we are starting to get some pictures of a few bucks that we've never seen before. This isn't the best picture, but this buck looks to have an interesting rack.

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Any one have the need for a new coonskin hat? I know where you can find a few coons at.

This bear isn't as cute as the rest, this is one big bear! From what we can tell from the picture and the one encounter someone had with him, we are estimating him to be at around 300 pounds give or take.

Trail Cam Tuesday - Nov. 8, 2011

Click to Enlarge

Considering last week's TCT left a lot to the imagination this weeks made up for it. I didn't manage to get any pictures of that buck, but my buddy, James, did get a great looking one on the next property. This buck is looking to be a non-typical 13 point. I apologize for the quality, but this is a great looking deer. This wasn't the end of the surprises for this week, after having just a few does and small bucks on camera for the majority of last week, I got a great surprise on Friday evening/night. This was after I moved my camera around to get a better angle on the bucks entering my food plot. 

Shortly after getting out of my tree stand this guy shows up...

I believe this is Slick,  a buck we have been watching for three years now...

 Normally this time of year Slick goes completely nocturnal and also starts cruising. He uses our property as a home base, but normally only frequents the area of this trail cam once a week if that. Much to my surprise, I got another set of great picture of him around three hours later...

And as always it wouldn't be a TCT without having a bear picture or two. After looking at this pictures a few times I think I might be agreeing with Cassie. She said she has money on the fact that this bear is pregnant due to its size and rounded belly. I'll let you guys be the judge.

A Bear of an Adventure

Between hunting, school and projects I've neglected my blog, but I'm going to get everyone caught back up here on last weekend on Foggy Mountain. As I had mention in this week's TCT post, if you follow me on Twitter you have an idea how I spent last weekend. After a slow start to the day Jay and I decided to do an evening hunt in the same location. Everything was going good, a crisp cool evening and I could hear the deer moving all around me, but as the evening was drawing to an end I figured it would be another uneventful evening. As always I had my cell phone on silent, but for some reason I took it out to see that Jay was calling me as the last little bit of the sun was slipping behind the mountain. I answered it, his first words were a very shaky, drawn out "I shot," then he repeated with more vigor in his voice "I just shot a bear." Here's what transpired.

As you can see the shot looked a little low, after we watched it back a the vehicles we decided to leave it over night and pick up the trail and track it the next day. This was a long night for Jay, at least from what he said.


The next morning a small group of us (Jay, Skippie, James, and myself) assembled to try and find the bear. It started out promising. We found the blood trail immediately and within 50 to 60 yards we found Jay's broken arrow (see right) with a lot of blood and some meat still sticking to it.


After only finding a third of the arrow and the great coloration in the blood we thought the would be an easy tracking job. Well we were right about the track job. It was easy for a while, the Rage 2-Blade that Jay uses sure gave use a nice, red trail to walk stumble down a hillside for the first 500 yards. The next 300 yards were a little more difficult, we started having to actually look but still wasn't to hard. After that it wasn't the best, more of a guess and check for blood for the next 200 yards or so and after that we didn't get to see much of anything. Everyone hates to wound an animal and Jay was no different, but after looking for 3+ hours and completely losing the blood trail in a thicket there wasn't much more we could do.

L to R: Jay, Skippie, and James heading down the hillside looking for the bear. 

Trail Cam Tuesday - October 25, 2011

I mentioned in last weeks TCT, the deer acitvity had gotten slow with the logging and the lack of pre-rut behavior. That really changed this past weekend, the chase is on, and it is heavy. Not only was it great seeing the bucks starting to cruise, but there was some added excitement (if you follow me on Twitter you have a little clue). I will fully explain the story later on this week in a detailed weekend recap. Back to the pictures, I didn't get a massive amount but what I got was quality.

This first picture you will have to enlarge to get what the arrows are pointing at.A little clue not to long ago Cassie asked me if bears and deer get along.... I have a little more of a clue/evidence now.

Ok, if you couldn't tell from the previous picture what it was, here's a better shot. They my not get along well together, but the buck did stick around long enough to get it's picture taken.

Trail Cam Tuesday - The Delayed Edition 10/19/11

Sorry for the delay, but sometimes we gotta celebrate the important things. It's been another slow week on Foggy Mountain and the pictures can prove it. With the property next to ours being timbered and the rut still a week or two away there hasn't been much showing. But with the logging coming to an end soon (hopefully) and the pre-rut and rut kicking in I should start having some better pictures and hopefully a few more deer on the ground.

Bigfoot? No, just me getting ready to drag my deer out.

With the Rut not far away, there's nothing more I like to see than does.
Well I would like to see some bucks, but they'll show soon enough.

It wouldn't be a TCT without including a picture of a bear. Haha.

Trail Cam Tuesday - September 20, 2011

Is it already Tuesday again? Man, right when I thought I was going to be getting back on track I got hit with another wave of homework, quizzes and exams. No worries I braved it pretty well, well at least I think I did. It is now ten days and counting until season starts and I can't wait! I finally made it out to check the trail cams and although there was nothing spectacular, I wasn't disappointed either. Now on to see what everyone else thinks of these pictures.

Not the best picture quality, but looks like a shooter to me.

I know I've put a thousand of these style of bear pictures up,
but there's something amazing about them every time. Obviously, she has cubs close...

It might be hard to see, but I believe I see some blood on those antlers!

If you look in the back it's the buck from the previous picture and
what looks like his brother in the foreground. 

Trail Cam Tuesday - September 6, 2011

It seems like the only thing that I am getting to anymore is Trail Cam Tuesday, this isn't by choice, but that will be soon to changing! I'm not going to drag on about school and life, but we all know it happens. Starting this week I am going to go back to my regular posting schedule.

This is some of the great footage that I got from last week, don't pay attention to the time and date on Jay's camera, it severely screwed up, but the problem has been corrected. Here are a few great shot of some bears,  a coyote, and a great looking buck.

Trail Cam Saturday? - 8/6/2011

I had mentioned on Tuesday that I would do a catch up post on all the pictures that were taken over the last few weeks. This idea would have worked if the deer didn't get shy, really while we were at the beach the day time temperature was in the mid 90's and even reached into the 100's a few times. Although we mainly got pictures of bears and does, I'll give you a few interesting shots of a doe and fawns and sower with cub. Since everyone loves to see big racks this time of year, I'll throw in a bonus picture from another property that Jay frequently hunts.

Yes, it was that hot!

Mom, wait!

Not sure how I feel about cubs and sow running up the tree my tree stand is in.

Which one would you pick?

Trail Cam Tuesday - August 2, 2011

This being my first post since being back in West Virginia, what would be more fitting than making it a TCT. As I am still trying to get adjusted to being back from vacation and not having a job for the first time since I was in my early teens or some might look at it as I should be preparing to head back to college, I am going to do a brief post today. I will do a second TCT post this week once I collect and view all the pictures from the past two weeks, but for now I'm going to leave you with a few candid pictures.

I hope everyone enjoyed last week's edition and introduction of FMM Flickr. There will be many more pictures  added to it this week as well as all the extras from my adventures from this point forward. The pictures can be found here or on a soon-to-be icon on the right side bar.

Sit back, relax, and we'll make you a star trophy. 

A little up close and personal for me.

What looks to be a promising buck.

I might not have gotten my spring gobbler, but there's still a fall season waiting for me.

Trail Cam Tuesday - July , 2011

Just because Foggy went Salty doesn't mean you won't get you weekly dose of TCT. This weeks is one of the most interesting pictures I have gotten recently. There are many reasons I keep my Glock strapped to my side while in the woods, but this time of the year there are a few more than normal.. Bears are a big reason this time of year, the newborn cubs are out running around learning their new surroundings. This could make for a dangerous encounter if anyone was to get between Moma and her cubs. The other activity that take place at this time of year, is the female bear without cubs come into estrous and then mating ensues, this is something I would not prefer to get in between either. After the last round of pictures, we believe we actually caught this act or attempted act on film, judge for yourself.

Look how discolored and the lack of hair the male bear has on his back from 

scratching his back on trees to marking his territory. 

Bears mating?

Below is a little bonus, I have marked with arrows the cub that is 

running up and down the tree while Moma is watching.

Trail Cam Tuesday - June 28, 2011

Everyone should be excited for this week's Trail Cam Tuesday as this should be the debut of my new Moultrie M-80. Well... You're not going to get any pictures from it, you're going to get a short video, after some minor adjustments were made this weekend, the camera should be a little more spot on and will allow for better pictures and videos. The pictures for this weeks edition are taken on Jay's Moultrie I-65.

After looking at that, I thought was a close call with my camera, but I think they got a little closer to Jay's...

Come to find out, it was just a mama inspecting everything before her cubs could come out to play..

Mama "jawing" at something out of the camera's view.
** Notice Camera Angle**

Trying to scare off what ever was there, she stood to insert her dominance. If you noticed the difference
 in the camera angle, it was due to the cubs being treed in the tree the camera was on.