Newsletter #3

Deer, deer, and more deer

Even though we are all seeing less deer than we like due to standing corn, there are still some whitetails hitting the ground. It's said by many that Nov. 6-13 are the best days to be in the woods, I would have to agree, along with Oct. 31, also gun season, and bow opener, and Christmas break, and late season.......... Alright you guessed it! If its deer season, I'm in the woods and loving it! Some days we win and some days we don't, but today we celebrate the wins.




Catfish Craig LaDew put down this dandy buck with 13 nice candle sticks on his head.
Awesome deer, and a well deserving guy to get such a buck.

Rizen Acres is a privately funded conservation project on 20 acres in easter Mclean County than Mike Manley and i have been working on along with the land owner Keith. We have planted trees, food plots, warm season grasses, created deer cover and administered a Quality Deer Management plan that has been ongoing. We are seeing the fruits of our labor this year with better hunting, we have applied less pressure, hunting smarter not harder, and its paying off.

Keith took a couple Does for the freezer and had some bucks
just out of bow range

We have been following a buck we named lefty, he is a mature 6x4 (main fraim 9 with a sticker, making him stronger on his left side). We photographed lefty all summer long on our Cuddeback trail cam until the velvet dried on his rack. Lefty went to places unknown while shedding his velvet in early September, but made the fatal mistake of showing up 20 yards from my tree stand and decoy setup on Nov. 13


Here are a few shots of "Lefty"

Good Hunting, and GOD bless,
Matt Cheever - Flatlander Outdoors

Newsletter #2

Skunks, Scrapes, and Scapulas'


Skunked....is what I was in the month of October, 100+ hours in the the tree stand, sighting of 2 shooter bucks, no Doe's offered themselves for the Cheever family freezer, but i did have one rendezvous with a skunk... hate those things.... so yes it was a skunked month. Fortunatley not everyone had my luck. Buddies, Mike and Danny took some nice meat deer and trap line master Chad Schieler tracked his way into the lair of this mature whitetail buck. Chad took him stick and string style from the ground, CONGRATS to these fellows.


Scrapes....every year I try to refine my hunting or understanding of whitetail deer. Last year it was food plots and this year it's ground scrapes. In September I started making mock scrapes, I wathced 4 scrapes particulary, one man made with bottled deer urine, one deer made scrape with nothing at all, one deer made scrape with bottled buck urine, and one old deer scrape with man made urine (yes you heard that right, recycled H2O from yours truely). Rumor has it from the old timers that the later is the best medicine for bringing in big bucks.

My conclusion was and is the old timers know their stuff. The mock scrape with store bought pee was hit but not too often. The deer scrape refreshened with bottled pee was hit pretty well. The old deer scrape that had nothing in it, hasn't seen much action, and the winner is the old deer scrape that i have been "doctoring" on my own is getting hammered regularly. I tried to snap some quick photos but the camera battery was too weak......... more to come as the scrapes unfold through the season

Scapula.... is the large paddle like bone (I beam) that supports the weight of the front shoulders of a 300+ lb. live whitetail which i buried a broad head in on Nov. 5th. The deer of a lifetime was rattled in along with another wide mature 9 point that had a broken up rack. I experienced every exciting thing that can happen in the deer woods all in the firs hour of daylight on Thursday morning, I used buck and doe decoys, a drag line of scent, doe estrus, rattling horns, and grunting. The only thing i left at home was the kitchen sink. I had 2 mature bucks respond simutaniously to the calling/horns. Both squared off for a fight. The 250+ lber. went after the big 10 with a vengance, until he got close enough to see the enormous size of his opponent. The giant 10 will easily go 300+ lbs. live weight and score in the upper 140's, both had incredible spreads to their antlers of over 20" wide. The broken 9 was inferior to the big 10 and kept a satellite's distance.

I shot the big 10 in the shoulder only getting about 2" of penetration and a few drops of blood, due dilligance was done after 7 hours and then again the next day, but the big 10 lives today. It was the best and worst hunt of my life at the same time......... I know this sounds like a tall tale but i gladly have about 35 minutes of video to account for the wonderous day in the woods. Amazing footage is all i can say. Sadly i have lost another battle with the wiley whitetail. (bowhunters often get used to losing)

along with these two deer i rattled in 5 other bucks this weekend, some were tempting 120"ers but the thought of the giant looming kept me from releasing another arrow. That may change very soon........... more to come

these pics may be grainy, as they came from video footage, but i just had to share

the big slob 10, well over 3oolb. on the hoof

the broken 9 pointer

the fattest live deer i have ever seen


the slob buck and the broken buck squaring off



some of the bucks that i gave the green light to eat, sleep, and breed another day

And here are a couple pics of what a starving deer hunter look like (much like a Cubs fan a month into the season :) ......... disgruntled and trying to cover the stink :)

Good luck and GOD bless,
Matt Cheever

Newsletter #1

If you had 48 hours to hunt 125 acres far enough from home that you couldn't scout the area and had only an aerial map, what would your expectations be???

My hunting partner Mike Manley and i headed down to south central Illinois about 3 hours from our homes in Mclean County. The scenery was beautiful and the people were friendly, here's what we found.

Expectations

My expectations wer simple; first get to know the land owner, maybe even share Christ with him, not knowing his faith? See some beautiful country the way it was in the late 1800's (an era I often wish I lived), and yes deep down inside I wanted to shoot a big old, oak flat, hill country, giant buck that would make any hunter drool..................... hey, I am only human :)

Experiences

The fellowship was great, made new friends, had fun with and old friend. Saw some great sites, worked our butts off hanging stands and hiking. The land owner actually shared his own testimony about God in his life as a result of seeing how Mike and I lived ours in front of him. (Amen). Ate some of the best food i have ever had, stayed in a log cabin that would have made the settlers jealous.

Work

We had little time to explore, covered lots of rough terrain, and hung stands quickly...........

there was little pruning (wished i had my Stihl pole saw). As we had no way to carry a saw with all the other gear (ladder stands, climbing sticks, hang on stands, video cameras, camera mounts, bows, cold weather gear, rain gear, etc.) we were human pack mules in up and down country.

Good training for a Colorado elk hunt!

Results

No. 1 we have a friend for life, a man who's trust is earned and not taken lightly.

He said he was proud to have us in camp, and that we were true woodsmen (that meant alot to me). 2. WE were on deer most each time we sat (even though it's a big area there aren't as many deer per acre as we have at home). The crops were mostly standing and it's mid October (at time when deer movement is slow). Mike passed a buck, we were very close to getting some Does for the freezer and i encountered a 135" 10 point on the last morning, but he wouldn't commit to my location............. he was locked on a Doe !!! (yes already)

All in all a huge success, we picked stand placements that were spot on, in reality 2 more days and we wouldl ikely have brought home multiple deer, but the memories are just as good......
they last forever!

God bless,
Matt Cheever

"In the beginning"

the Flatlander Outdoors new blog space is much like the life of a Christian, it's under construction, but with a little help from GOD, it's hard telling how far it might go

new stories, articles and how to's coming soon
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