My success came very late in the hunt this year and it was probably the hardest I have ever worked for a buck. We hunt as a group and we share our meat with the hunters that are present on the day of the kill. What this means is opening day we have a large group of hunters and we shoot lots of deer. The later it gets in the season the less hunters there are and the deer are harder to find because of the pressure.
We had a good opening day and managed to kill nine deer, seven of which were bucks but later it became harder and harder.
I kept finding sign but the deer were only moving middle of the day and middle of the night and I found it impossible to push them out of the cover. They were moving around me like fog in the bush but would not be pushed. So we sat and we waited... I finally got a shot at a nice fat fork horn that was running from cover to cover but I missed... I'm saying it was the scope! I shelved that gun and went back to the Browning for confidence reasons!
Late in the first week the deer had settled into a nocturnal pattern and Tony smacked another small buck sneaking into the food plot right at sundown on Thursday night.
Early in the second week Lucas came out for a night shift and shot another buck right in the same stand as his father Tony had... very cool. This stand is right on the edge of the water and it became obvious that the immature deer were hunkered in the swamp tight because of the rutting activity.
Wednesday of the second week the one landowner plowed a corn field so Big Tony and I went for a walk to see what was what. Bingo... found a big set of buck tracks over a single set of doe prints in the plowed field from the night before. I had a Buck tending a Doe, I had a direction and a time and that was all I needed.
The next day it snowed and we set up on the top bush to try to intercept the breeding pair.... nothing moved early and Tony and Heather had to leave by 9:00AM so we headed back to the house for coffee. I knew that I only had a short window of opportunity on this buck so I immediately went back out when they left and set up to watch the bucks bedroom.
I made a hasty ground blind on the far side of the hydro line from the hardwood where I believed the buck to be tending the doe. The wind was perpendicular to the run way out of the bush so I used the high ground for my blind to help diffuse my scent. I put out scent wicks at 30 yards in a 180 degree circle and freshened them with doe in heat. I sat down on my cushion in the snow and waited.
From 10:00 o'clock until 1:30 in the afternoon I tried to stay awake and see through the blowing snow, at one point it was snowing so hard I could not see my own boots in front of me. Then the snow lessened and the wind shifted and blew over my back and down into the hardwood. As I briefly considered moving I thought I heard a footfall.
You know that feeling you get... the little hairs on your neck stand up... your mouth goes dry... your vision becomes crystal clear. Out of the snow a buck appeared walking diagonally across the hydro cut in the long grass. He had his head down and was hound-dogging, searching for the doe he could smell. The distance was inside 125 yards but he was quartering to me so I waited.
As he moved across in front of me I slowly shouldered the slug-gun, released the safety and pushed open the lens covers. I saw my window clearly now, he would be broadside at about 90 yards and the grass was short... he stepped into my scope, I held low behind his shoulder and waited for the near leg to move forward.
The shot sounded like it came from somewhere else... I felt no recoil and the buck shuddered with the impact... he started to run... I stood, moved and fired again... he stumbled. I moved and shot a third time just as he reached the edge of the trees. At the final shot his head dropped and his momentum took his rear end up and over his head in a complete somersault.
I dropped a slug into the action and the bolt rang shut like a bell, signaling the end of the buck that lay still a few yards away.
After realizing that the buck was not moving I looked around and saw that I had moved about 20 yards away from my blind while shooting! I saw from the tracks that I had taken six running steps down the hill while shooting the three shots, I'm lucky I didn't fall on my face.
I went over and checked the buck, he was "DRT" upside down and had his antlers burried in the ground. I managed to free him and drag him out into the open... definitely not the big one I was hoping for but a nice heavy 2 1/2 with an eight point rack. He had one hole a little high in the lungs, another slug hole was perfect heart and lungs and one that just touched the inside of the front leg and entered the brisket a liitle forward.
I managed to drag him around in a circle to do some gutting when I felt a funny tingle in my chest, then it turned into a buzzing feeling right over my heart. Geezuz! I thought for a second it could be the big one, there are worse ways to go I guess.Then I realized that it was my cell phone in my inside chest pocket, it was set to "vibrate". Tony calling to see what time we were setting up for the night shoot! "Hey Tony Guess what! Wahtcha doin right now? Wanna come give me a hand?"
The next day was cold and snowing and we only had Heathers tag left, she could not hunt in the morning so we waited for the night shift. Tony and I decided that the big buck would still be tending does in the hardwood so we would circle it late in the afternoon and wait.
It was a family affair with Tony, Lucas and Heather all lining up on the escape routes on the rail fence down wind. I was going high to where I had shot the night before and half hour before dark I was going to do a push through the hardwood. I felt that Lucas had the best shot and was confident in his ability, he had killed two deer during the archery season and two more during the gun-hunt which made a veteran out of this 15 year old hunter! Tony was on the far run where they would be flat out running if Lucas did not score. And Heather would be watching the corner if they were pushed in front of me through the heavy cover.
I decided to sit in my blind to wait the two hours until it was time to push the bush. I heard the radio click once to indicate Tony was set and a little while later I could see Luke in his Orange set up at about 300 yards on the rail fence. I knew that Heather would be hunkered in over on the corner. With only three shooters and a dogger I felt that we had a 50/50 chance if the Buck was still in his bedroom and it was the second last day and I knew that time was short.
As I waited I replayed the last evenings events in my mind and realized that I had hunted hard for almost two weeks to finally score on that buck. I was once again confident in myself and my gun and I hoped we could tag out this evening or the following day. After some time passed I checked my watch to find it was suddenly 4:30, time to think about doing my push through the hardwood.
I took one last look up and down the bush line before moving when I heard a a long, deep grunt from in the hardwood in front of me. Almost immediately another louder grunt came from a different spot closer to me! Then a soft buzzing call from a doe somewhere close by, they were already in the grass and I could not see them in the low light. Damn it all, I was screwed, I could not move now even if I wanted too. I scanned the grass hard and at about 150 yards caught a movement, it was a buck and he was looking over his left shoulder down towards Luke. I put him in the scope and wound the power back up to 7X he was a big tall buck with a nice rack... but what was he looking at? I put the gun down and carefully scanned the grass, then I saw a doe, she was moving like smoke almost invisible out in the grass!
Thats when I saw the white of antlers, much farther down the line, closer to Luke than me. I put the scope back up and saw a much bigger rack swaying above the grass, my heart was pounding with the adreneline rush that comes from seeing a big Antlered Buck!
The closer buck grunted and swing his head toward me, this got my attention back on him long enough to realize that he had his head back and was fleming. I realized that If I waited any longer he could wind me and all would be lost. I thought about the distance, held on the good stuff and squeezed slowly.... Bang! At the shot he spun 180 and ran three steps back the way he had come, crosshairs fell on his shoulder... Bang! The buck dissapeared in the grass then all four legs appeared, straight up, waving slightly, as if he was surrendering! I swung the gun to a flag instictively and watched the doe hesitate slightly in the scope before dissapearing into the bush, no sense thinking about her, we were out of tags. I was half way to the buck before his legs fell to the ground and he was DRT, no need for a finisher.
I stared in amazement at this buck he was a big bodied deer with a hugely swollen neck and a nice even 20 inch wide eight point rack.
I got on the radio to let my people know we were tagged out. Luke showed up within moments to help me with the field dressing and said he had wanted to radio me for a half an hour but could not because the deer were all around him grunting! Luke did not see the big horned deer but he heard them run behind him at the sound of the shots.
Lots of ribbing ensued as we cleaned and dragged the buck back to the house but we were all happy to take the last day of the hunt off and relax... tagged out!
I am just gonna post the last two bucks I killed to go with the story... I already posted a bunch of pics of them and the others in a previous thread.
Yeah.. the 15 year old kid is bigger than me
We had a good opening day and managed to kill nine deer, seven of which were bucks but later it became harder and harder.
I kept finding sign but the deer were only moving middle of the day and middle of the night and I found it impossible to push them out of the cover. They were moving around me like fog in the bush but would not be pushed. So we sat and we waited... I finally got a shot at a nice fat fork horn that was running from cover to cover but I missed... I'm saying it was the scope! I shelved that gun and went back to the Browning for confidence reasons!
Late in the first week the deer had settled into a nocturnal pattern and Tony smacked another small buck sneaking into the food plot right at sundown on Thursday night.
Early in the second week Lucas came out for a night shift and shot another buck right in the same stand as his father Tony had... very cool. This stand is right on the edge of the water and it became obvious that the immature deer were hunkered in the swamp tight because of the rutting activity.
Wednesday of the second week the one landowner plowed a corn field so Big Tony and I went for a walk to see what was what. Bingo... found a big set of buck tracks over a single set of doe prints in the plowed field from the night before. I had a Buck tending a Doe, I had a direction and a time and that was all I needed.
The next day it snowed and we set up on the top bush to try to intercept the breeding pair.... nothing moved early and Tony and Heather had to leave by 9:00AM so we headed back to the house for coffee. I knew that I only had a short window of opportunity on this buck so I immediately went back out when they left and set up to watch the bucks bedroom.
I made a hasty ground blind on the far side of the hydro line from the hardwood where I believed the buck to be tending the doe. The wind was perpendicular to the run way out of the bush so I used the high ground for my blind to help diffuse my scent. I put out scent wicks at 30 yards in a 180 degree circle and freshened them with doe in heat. I sat down on my cushion in the snow and waited.
From 10:00 o'clock until 1:30 in the afternoon I tried to stay awake and see through the blowing snow, at one point it was snowing so hard I could not see my own boots in front of me. Then the snow lessened and the wind shifted and blew over my back and down into the hardwood. As I briefly considered moving I thought I heard a footfall.
You know that feeling you get... the little hairs on your neck stand up... your mouth goes dry... your vision becomes crystal clear. Out of the snow a buck appeared walking diagonally across the hydro cut in the long grass. He had his head down and was hound-dogging, searching for the doe he could smell. The distance was inside 125 yards but he was quartering to me so I waited.
As he moved across in front of me I slowly shouldered the slug-gun, released the safety and pushed open the lens covers. I saw my window clearly now, he would be broadside at about 90 yards and the grass was short... he stepped into my scope, I held low behind his shoulder and waited for the near leg to move forward.
The shot sounded like it came from somewhere else... I felt no recoil and the buck shuddered with the impact... he started to run... I stood, moved and fired again... he stumbled. I moved and shot a third time just as he reached the edge of the trees. At the final shot his head dropped and his momentum took his rear end up and over his head in a complete somersault.
I dropped a slug into the action and the bolt rang shut like a bell, signaling the end of the buck that lay still a few yards away.
After realizing that the buck was not moving I looked around and saw that I had moved about 20 yards away from my blind while shooting! I saw from the tracks that I had taken six running steps down the hill while shooting the three shots, I'm lucky I didn't fall on my face.
I went over and checked the buck, he was "DRT" upside down and had his antlers burried in the ground. I managed to free him and drag him out into the open... definitely not the big one I was hoping for but a nice heavy 2 1/2 with an eight point rack. He had one hole a little high in the lungs, another slug hole was perfect heart and lungs and one that just touched the inside of the front leg and entered the brisket a liitle forward.
I managed to drag him around in a circle to do some gutting when I felt a funny tingle in my chest, then it turned into a buzzing feeling right over my heart. Geezuz! I thought for a second it could be the big one, there are worse ways to go I guess.Then I realized that it was my cell phone in my inside chest pocket, it was set to "vibrate". Tony calling to see what time we were setting up for the night shoot! "Hey Tony Guess what! Wahtcha doin right now? Wanna come give me a hand?"
The next day was cold and snowing and we only had Heathers tag left, she could not hunt in the morning so we waited for the night shift. Tony and I decided that the big buck would still be tending does in the hardwood so we would circle it late in the afternoon and wait.
It was a family affair with Tony, Lucas and Heather all lining up on the escape routes on the rail fence down wind. I was going high to where I had shot the night before and half hour before dark I was going to do a push through the hardwood. I felt that Lucas had the best shot and was confident in his ability, he had killed two deer during the archery season and two more during the gun-hunt which made a veteran out of this 15 year old hunter! Tony was on the far run where they would be flat out running if Lucas did not score. And Heather would be watching the corner if they were pushed in front of me through the heavy cover.
I decided to sit in my blind to wait the two hours until it was time to push the bush. I heard the radio click once to indicate Tony was set and a little while later I could see Luke in his Orange set up at about 300 yards on the rail fence. I knew that Heather would be hunkered in over on the corner. With only three shooters and a dogger I felt that we had a 50/50 chance if the Buck was still in his bedroom and it was the second last day and I knew that time was short.
As I waited I replayed the last evenings events in my mind and realized that I had hunted hard for almost two weeks to finally score on that buck. I was once again confident in myself and my gun and I hoped we could tag out this evening or the following day. After some time passed I checked my watch to find it was suddenly 4:30, time to think about doing my push through the hardwood.
I took one last look up and down the bush line before moving when I heard a a long, deep grunt from in the hardwood in front of me. Almost immediately another louder grunt came from a different spot closer to me! Then a soft buzzing call from a doe somewhere close by, they were already in the grass and I could not see them in the low light. Damn it all, I was screwed, I could not move now even if I wanted too. I scanned the grass hard and at about 150 yards caught a movement, it was a buck and he was looking over his left shoulder down towards Luke. I put him in the scope and wound the power back up to 7X he was a big tall buck with a nice rack... but what was he looking at? I put the gun down and carefully scanned the grass, then I saw a doe, she was moving like smoke almost invisible out in the grass!
Thats when I saw the white of antlers, much farther down the line, closer to Luke than me. I put the scope back up and saw a much bigger rack swaying above the grass, my heart was pounding with the adreneline rush that comes from seeing a big Antlered Buck!
The closer buck grunted and swing his head toward me, this got my attention back on him long enough to realize that he had his head back and was fleming. I realized that If I waited any longer he could wind me and all would be lost. I thought about the distance, held on the good stuff and squeezed slowly.... Bang! At the shot he spun 180 and ran three steps back the way he had come, crosshairs fell on his shoulder... Bang! The buck dissapeared in the grass then all four legs appeared, straight up, waving slightly, as if he was surrendering! I swung the gun to a flag instictively and watched the doe hesitate slightly in the scope before dissapearing into the bush, no sense thinking about her, we were out of tags. I was half way to the buck before his legs fell to the ground and he was DRT, no need for a finisher.
I stared in amazement at this buck he was a big bodied deer with a hugely swollen neck and a nice even 20 inch wide eight point rack.
I got on the radio to let my people know we were tagged out. Luke showed up within moments to help me with the field dressing and said he had wanted to radio me for a half an hour but could not because the deer were all around him grunting! Luke did not see the big horned deer but he heard them run behind him at the sound of the shots.
Lots of ribbing ensued as we cleaned and dragged the buck back to the house but we were all happy to take the last day of the hunt off and relax... tagged out!
I am just gonna post the last two bucks I killed to go with the story... I already posted a bunch of pics of them and the others in a previous thread.
Yeah.. the 15 year old kid is bigger than me
