Creating my "Over the Top" Deer Blind

[Tororider]

Eddie, I will suggest making sure you triple check references for anyone that you would have come trap on your property and probably get some agreement in writing, all things I am sure you would do anyways.

My guess is that you could trap as many hogs as you want and still have plenty to hunt year round. From my understanding of the population in Texas, it is prolific. Either hunting them yourselves or having someone else do it for you may help your long term prospects of deer hunting.

On another note, whatever did you decide about raising turkeys? Too much work? I am sure I missed it somewhere else.

 

[EddieWalker]

On the turkeys, I met with some local biologist and professors that are working on restocking turkeys in the area. From what they told me, and what they've tried, I reallized that I would just be wasting my time and money trying to get anything going here. They wonder too far, and unless caught in the wild and released here, are just coyote bait. You just can't raise birds and expect them to survive in the wild. While I'm sure it's not impossible, it's not something that I'm going to put allot of time into.

They are also working with groups of landowners by gaining access to large blocks of land. After they get several thousand acres into the program, they start releasing birds. In the last three to five years, they tried a new method for doing this, and the results have been very good. Before, the birds would just slowly decline in numbers. Now they are increasing in al their study areas. One of these study areas is just ten miles away from me.

I hunted a ranch in CA that was about that far away from the same thing. They stared letting birds go, and for the first couple years, all you knew about it was what come up from talking to the game wardens of biologists. Nobody that I know of actually saw any birds. Then one year, we saw a few of them. Heck, we didn't even know what they were at first. Then the next year, we saw quite a few of them. Different groups all spread out. The year after that, we started hunting them. They were just about everywhere!!!

In my little dream world, I'm hopeful that something similar might happen here. The government is doing their thing and working on getting the turkey population back up to huntable numbers. With everything they are doing, it's just a matter of time until it happens.

Eddie

 

[ToadHill]

Maybe you should change the name to "My Over the Top" Hog blind.

 

[Tororider]

Hopefully it works out for you. Do you have a large coyote population around you? I would assume that the coyotes really don't bother the hogs much?

I have heard we have some turkeys around our property, but I have never seen any, so I am not sure if it is just a small population or they were just passing through. I have thought about hatching some coturnix quail and releasing them on our property just to see what would happen. I figure it would be fun for my kids, they reach breeding age very quickly and the eggs are cheap. I may do that this spring since my oldest son has been on me to hatch out some more chickens and if I were to do the quail I have a place to release them and don't have to worry about housing and feeding them. We will see.

 

[EddieWalker]

The reason I named it Fort Peyton is because of it's intended use of making it into a playground. Eventually, I'll pull the windows, add bars and call it the prison for the kids to play in. What is now my food plot, will be surrounded with an 8ft deer fence for my pet elk. Both are long term goals, and both are things that I want to do right now, but if I did, it would interfere with my tree clearing and road building.

Even though the deer hunting is terrible, and I've only seen one doe from it, I still enjoy sitting out there and reading a book. When the kids are with their dad, Steph will join me in the blind. We've spent several days sitting in it all day long. She's probably the only person that I could do this with. I'm sort of a loner and enjoy not being around people. My personal record is six days without seeing anohter human. That was on a backpack hunting trip into a Wilderness Area. Anyway, we've had some very nice days just sitting there, reading our own books, listening to our Ipods and watching for animals. She has 15/20 vision, which is allot better then normal. She sees things faster then anybody I've ever met. While I'm looking too, it's rare that I'll spot something before she does.

The heater is just barely enough to heat it, but it's enough to make it barable on really cold days. Of course, I'm always opening the windows, so I'm not really expectng it to be toasty warm in there!!! LOL

Eddie

 

[lakngulf]

Dan Moultrie was on a radio show a few weeks back talking about issues in field dressing feral hogs. I did not get the whole story but the main thing was to wear gloves, which is common sense anyway.

Fortunately, we do not have that many yet in central Alabama, although there are major problems south of us. We have the deer and turkey, around my house at the lake and at the old farm place where I hunt. My green fields of wheat, rye and turnips are healthy but clipped to the ground. Strangely enough, the only deer I have take (a big doe) was grazing in the area of the pasture where I mowed as a passage way from one side of the field to the other.

 

[Western]

Strangely enough, the only deer I have take (a big doe) was grazing in the area of the pasture where I mowed as a passage way from one side of the field to the other.

When the deer slow their grazing in my plots, I will usually shred the top off. It seems they prefer the young tender growth over the older coarse growth. This can kill some type of plantings I guess but it works great on oats and wheat.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks. I'm gonna mow tomorrow!!!! It sure can't hurt anything.

Eddie

 

[Steve C]

I might be confused. Did you miss the part where I got the parts and got it up and running again? I'm under the impression that you were offering a suggest to repair or replace the fan if it broke again.


Eddie

yes Eddie I did miss that part....my bad
The electric fan on my motor home is about 30 inches in diameter and it does move a lot of air. It is a pusher style with the engine in the back, but it is only blowing through a 4 core one ton diesel ford truck radiator (replaced it 3 times) and the transmission cooler for the alison transmision.

It is handling only 160 hp of heat rejection and is aided buy the vacuum created behind the 12 foot tall box going down the road.

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's a video clip that my wife took of me running it after I fixed the fan.

YouTube - Case 1550 Dozer - Sunshine on a full load.

Eddie