Deer Season 2026 Prep Work Plus Tractor Update

 In my journey as a hunter, it looks like I will finally be able to establish a more permanent hunting setup starting in the 2026 to 2027 season. In previous seasons, I had to rely on portable ground blinds or just not having anything at all such as taking a folding chair or sitting at the base of a tree (I actually like this option). A few stands exist on the Little Farm but they were there from previous hunters with at least one having been there so long the tree is swallowing up the blind. My previous setups worked well enough but I have been wanting to put up a stand that isn't tied to a tree. 

The stand I chose is the Game Winner 10 foot tripod. At the time of purchase, they were on sale for $199. I've used just a handful of stands and towers before. During the 2025 deer season, I used one of these and found it to be decent. I am very uncomfortable with heights and many stands and towers haven't been great. This one was just fine; enough so that I scooped up one once the sale started.

The kit was very well packaged and weighed about 100 pounds. It was small enough to fit in the back of our little SUV.  The box fit along with all the tools I needed for the day with plenty of room to spare for gas cans, a tractor wheel and a target stand. If you have at least a mid-sized truck with a 5ft bed, you'll be fine. Small trucks like the Maverick and Santa Cruz will need to angle the kit or lay down the tailgate. Larger SUV's like a Tahoe will eat up the box without issues as long as one rear seat is out and you have the captain's chairs for the middle row. That's how I did it when we picked it up from Academy.

I laid all the parts out then put all the hardware into one of the halves. As it were, they have all the nuts, bolts and washers individually packaged into bags with the Step number printed on it. Those bags correspond to the steps in the instructions book. Generally, the instructions were easy to follow but after baking in the 92 degree heat of mid-September, I started getting a little tired. 

Ultimately, it took about 3 hours to get the stand vertical. I ended up building the seat part later on which took about 30 minutes. While not terrible, I do wish that I had brought a drill with a socket adapter which would have saved some time. That and a canopy for shade plus WAY more water than I did.

I was able to climb up and prune a tree branch back to clear out the view and take a good panoramic image. All in all, I'm very excited to use this stand. It'll be nice to not have to worry about the wind blowing over my blind or other issues I've run into before but the most exciting thing will be not getting winded. It happens every year. I have become very familiar with the sound of a doe snorting at me. The typical shots are expected to be around 50 yards.

Once the stand was up, I turned my focus to maintenance. Weeds are a, literally, huge problem. I have a lot to learn about agriculture, especially weed management. It's amazing how much knowledge you lose in a generation or two. Thankfully, I was able to mow the worse half of the field the day I put up the stand. We have Bradford pears that have huge spikes when they are saplings that destroy my front tubes. The 2026 year alone we ate through 3 inner tubes on the fronts. It cost a lot more than just a days efforts to mow.

 

That same day, I took a recently foam-filled wheel out. The process was completed by a local shop who did it while we were on vacation. About $154 later and we had a solid tire that now weighs 122 pounds. I only did the one wheel as the tire is fairly new on it and it was the one that got a puncture. I left the opposite side alone for now but I suspect that I will find a flat tire next time I go out. 

The amount of Bradford pears in the wildflower field was terrible. I know the opposite side took a hit but I don't know if it will have survived. We've also had punctures on the rear which ended up being a $300+ repair. If the opposite side did take a hit, I will try to order a new tire and have that same shop do the same thing.

Once done, we will have added about 200 pounds to the front of the tractor but that's just ballast. That's a good thing as now I don't have to add a bracket to the front to add weight to counter the brush hog.

This is about as done as I can be for this year. Between the new job and a toddler, I just haven't been able to easily dedicate time to driving out like I used to when we first got the property. The best thing is to move out there. We have a floor plan and are sorting out the cost and logistics of building it but these interest rates are brutal.

Regardless, I am very excited to get our for deer season 2026. Rifle season opens 17 OCT and runs until 10 JAN. That should be enough time for me to confirm and adjust zero on the What Would Stoner Do AR-15 300 Blackout Hunter build and the Barnes VOR-TX 120 grain load I am trying this year.

In other news, our second baby is expected to arrive early NOV so those first two weeks will need to be the main times I get out. I might be able to run out in DEC and JAN.

You can find the Game Winner XLR Tripod at Academy Sports. No, I don't get any kickbacks and I'm not sponsored.

https://www.academy.com/p/game-winner-xlr-tripod

Massey Ferguson 135 - Making Repairs

 Our Massey Ferguson 135 is worn out but with some effort and new parts, I think we will have a great maintenance machine to fight the grass with. The engine runs fine enough but would stop running after about 10 to 15 minutes from fuel starvation. The 3 point hitch will lift but its rough and slow and feels shaky. It also had an engine oil leak somewhere that in some cases will launch blobs of hot oil out of the right side with the correct hill angle. I was hoping that all I needed was a new valve cover gasket and a replacement gas tank. As a result, I got it in my head I can once again pretend to be handy and work on a machine myself. 

Thankfully, we were able to order most of the parts needed from Steiner tractor parts. A full gasket set for the cylinder head region, a new gas tank and replacement fuel sender unit. I don't need to know how much fuel there is in the tank but it does come with the gasket. The kit wasn't too expensive. 

I waited for cooler weather so the grass to stop growing to begin working on this. Just in case I ruin something, I have time to fix it. It turns out, working on the Massey was a great decision. The first thing that needed to come out was the gas tank. 

The inside is just as bad as the outside.

The inside of the original tank is extremely rusty and forced the previous owner to put a filter in place. Otherwise, the rust would get into the carb and engine. The filter would never truly be full of fuel causing air to bleed into the system causing a vapor lock in the hard line. Removing the filter was necessary but only until the tank was replaced or lined. I chose to replace it. 

Being that the engine is under the gas tank, I took the opportunity to replace the valve cover gasket. It's a good thing I did. It was bad. First, there was a rubber gasket instead of a cork gasket. Second, it looks like someone attempted to use something like RTV in addition for some reason. I had to remove that. 

No wonder there was a leak.

When I removed the cover I was immediately greeted with stuff that I know doesn't belong in an engine. I was shocked but I guess I shouldn't have been. I'm not sure as to what happened or even what the stuff is, but the case pressure clearly was attempting to push some sort of organic tree nut matter out under the gasket. I took the time to remove the RTV from the head and pick out anything that looked like it didn't belong from the valve area. 

I have no idea what this is but I'm glad it's out.

It took some working but I got the new cork gasket lined up and pressed into place. With the valve cover back on, I took a chance and rigged up a fuel system to see if I could test the gasket. I figured that there wasn't much sense in putting everything back together only to have to take it apart later. Once I had everything back together. 

That's some fine redneck engineering there.

The engine ran just fine with the makeshift fuel system and the gasket didn't leak so I took to putting the whole thing back together. It took some doing but once I was done, I got the tractor to run without much issue. I replaced the section of fuel line that had the filter with a new section of filter-free rubber line. No more filter. Just straight line into the carb. I let the tractor run at various engine speeds to make sure there weren't more issues.

I did find that the sediment bowl was leaking gas. It took a few attempts at troubleshooting that and just needed tightening down. The concern was that the hardline wasn't a part I could just order and making a new one had me worried. I would get the leak to stop then go back a little bit later to check. When I open the valve, gas would leak again. The connector seemly never stopped tightening and I was worried about stripping the threads. I'm great at doing that. I'm continuing to tune small stuff like the fuel line which I may end up just making a new one. I have a link for a replacement bowl assembly if needed. Edit: The sediment bowl had actually wallered out and I wasn't going to be able to block the hole. I could have used some sort of epoxy or similar but Tractor Supply had a replacement and that worked just fine.

All in all, the decision to replace these parts was good. The tractor shouldn't give me fueling issues like it was. We shall see if this MF 135 runs fine over the summer but I already have a few things I want to work on next. 

After seeing everything that wasn't supposed to be in the valve area, I've hunted down a replacement oil filter and will replace the oil.

Most of the gauges aren't working. I would like to replace the fuel gauge and the tachometer. If I can get those two running, then the instruments should be good for now. The oil pressure and temp gauges are working well enough but I don't know if they are accurate. 

The next big thing I need to look at is the hydraulics. The hitch shudders when picking up the brush hog. It could be a few things but I'm thinking the pump is a good place to start.  

Additionally, I would like to add a slip clutch and replace the drivelink. I've broken enough shear bolts already doing land reclamation and that part could really save me in the long run. Plus, the current link doesn't actually stay on the output shaft. The pin is stuck open. Super safe.

Thanks for reading. Check back for more details!