Archive for May, 2016

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

Last night was downright scary. Tornadoes touched down in the area. Shortly after midnight, severe thunderstorms rocked the area and continued until around 7 a.m. As soon as the thunder and lightning passed, we raced to our stands. Unfortunately it was a little late. A nice 9-pointer got to the stand before me. Since it wasn’t a shooter, it didn’t bother me too much. I did get a picture of him on the trail camera.

As I was latching the stand, I scared two does off the top of the hill. Around 10 a.m. a nice 8-pointer came out of the bottom. I drew on him but chose not to shoot. When he got closer to me, I realized his antlers weren’t as big as I had originally thought. He excited me when I saw him. I’m lucky I didn’t let an arrow fly.

When I got sick of the rain, I went to check the camera near the tube. There hadn’t been a deer that passed by it. I sat in Buck Alley for the last part of the day. I saw the “Gimpy” buck, which was a deer that had something wrong with its legs. Its rack was pretty messed up, too. I almost shot it because I felt bad for it. I also saw the same doe and fawns that I saw last night.

Dad saw a shooter under his stand as he was getting there. Tonight he saw four does. The rain was tough today. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. It seems kind of slow.

 

Monday, November 16, 2015

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

This is the date that I shot the big buck across the road from camp four years ago. I sat in the big timber this morning. I didn’t see anything. Dad sat in the north bowl and saw a few bucks and does.

This evening I sat in buck alley and saw a few does and fawns, one of which was a button buck. Dad sat up by the pond behind camp. Although he didn’t see anything come underneath him, he did spot a nice buck on the neighbor’s property.

It’s pretty slow. I haven’t seen much sign either. Heavy rain is predicted for tonight after midnight. It’s supposed to last through mid-day tomorrow. I hope they move when the rain stops. I’ve had some phenomenal luck in situations like that in the past. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

I sat in the tube stand this morning. At first light, I had a small buck make its way past me. A short time later, a fawn blasted off the hill in front of me, but nothing followed it. Around 9 o’clock a doe and fawn fed past me before disappearing. At 10:30 a 4-pointer came down the hill and headed toward the creek.

Dad sat in Charlie’s stand. He saw a couple of bucks, including one sickly-looking one followed by six does at 11:00 a.m. This evening he sat in the north waterway and saw two does on the private ground behind him. I sat in the big timber and had a lot of does randomly running through the woods all around me. I spotted a nice 10-pointer chasing a doe. I drew on him but chose not to loose an arrow. He just wasn’t what I wanted to shoot. He could be a really good deer in a couple of years.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

We killed the big forked G-2 on this day eight years ago.That was one of the most rewarding deer we have killed. It doesn’t seem possible that it was that long ago, and I’ve realized that time goes by way too fast. I wish I could stop the hands of the clock from turning. I enjoy life too much to have it pass by so quickly.

We hunted for a few hours this morning. Brian wounded a really good 9-pointer at 9:30. He waited for a shot when the deer was angling away from him. Unfortunately, we never found the deer. I think the arrow may have catapulted when it hit because of the mechanical broadheads on the end of his arrows.

After returning to camp and packing everything up, we dropped Brian off at the airport and headed to Kansas. I’m exhausted tonight. Hopefully, Kansas will bring us some luck. You never know what’s going to happen out there.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

Traditionally, this has been one of my better days in the woods. I’ve killed some really good ones on November 13, including the Ice Buck featured in my first book.  I went back to one of the places I hunted last week.

I saw a lot of bucks today, including a really good 9-pointer and an even better 8-pointer. It was a fun day. Brian hunted dad’s stand in this same area. He saw a handful of bucks. Jeff and Doug hunted back up north today. Jeff saw 12-15 deer, and one of them was a giant. He couldn’t get a shot at it, but it left him with a memory that will be hard to erase. Although Doug sat within a hundred yards of Jeff, he only saw three deer. Dad hunted down near camp today. He saw a bunch of little bucks, but nothing he wanted to shoot. Here are a few trail camera pictures from the area where Jeff sat this morning.

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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

Today I dropped Brian off in the place where I killed the deer a few days ago. He was pretty excited about returning there. Personally, I thought there was a little too much activity in the area over the last few days to have a successful hunt, but you never know what could walk past you during the rut. It was in the low 30s when I dropped him off.

After pulling back onto the road, I decided I would pull a few cameras. Unfortunately, people were parked in the areas where I had cameras placed, so I decided to scout an area we hadn’t hunted.

When I was walking around, a big 10-pointer chased a doe right past me. I definitely would have shot it if I still had a tag. By the time I got back to the truck, I had seen three bucks and a few does. If I return in future years, I will definitely be hunting in this area. There didn’t appear to be too much pressure once I got back in a ways.

Dad finally got a shot today at the buck he has been seeing. The shot was less than ideal and it didn’t connect.

Doug and I went to pull a stand that Brian and I had set up earlier in the week. We only used it twice. I think it would have been a lot better if they didn’t cut the corn in the field behind it during the middle of the week. I had a really good feeling about the stand. I think we should have used it more than we did.

As we got close to the stand, I spotted a big buck entering the corn field on the other side of it. It was 1:30 p.m. and the buck didn’t have a care in the world. It walked into the field and fed on the loose kernels in the field that remained from when the farmer picked the corn a few days earlier. Doug and I took video and pictures until the buck eventually trotted back into the thick cover. It was an unbelievable sight to watch.

After pulling the stand, we went to retrieve one of the cameras I had left in the area. The camera was nowhere to be found. Someone stole it, and I’m pretty sure I know who took it. I think it was the guy that gave my dad some crap earlier in the week. That guy’s vehicle was the only one we saw parked on the road throughout the week in that spot, and we passed the spot every day.

Ooops, I almost forgot. This morning after dropping Brian off, I saw three different 150-class bucks cross the road in front of me in one quarter mile stretch. It was incredible! Every one of them had broken tines. It was a sight that I will never forget. I also mentally noted the place where I saw them.

Here are a few pictures of the buck Doug and I saw while pulling my stand.

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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

Doug and I didn’t hunt today. Deer movement was slow this morning. Between Brian, dad and Jeff, they saw only one buck. Dad was the one that saw it. Thunder and lightning storms rolled in around 11 a. m. and tornados ripped through the surrounding areas throughout the afternoon.

When the skies cleared an hour before dark the woods came alive with deer. Jeff saw two shooter and another buck; Brian saw one buck; and dad saw more deer than he could count, including a number of bucks. Unfortunately, nobody got any shots. Doug and I saw piles of deer this afternoon while we were driving around.

The wind is blowing more than 30 mph right now. It’s 10:30 p.m., and it’s supposed to remain this way for the next two days. Here are some photos from our travels today after the storms passed.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2016

Monday, May 2nd, 2016

It was a beautiful morning. I went north with Brian. On the way to the parking place, I saw a shooting star free falling from the sky. I wished upon it that dad would shoot a giant buck. Doug and Jeff hunted just north of camp and dad stayed near camp again. He’s on a mission to catch up to the big buck that we both saw in that one area.

Brian had a really big 10-pointer go by him at first light. At 35 yards, the buck stopped and checked a scrape. He didn’t take a shot and regrets it now. It sounds like it was a really good one. Around 8:30 a.m. he had another small 8-pointer come down the same trail. The buck got a little nervous and went back up the hill.

Around 9 o’clock I saw a good buck come out of the bottom. Hemming and hawing, I was unsure if I wanted to shoot at him because I could see a broken tine on one side. The other side was impressive. After deciding to take him, he quickly turned in another direction and began heading away from me.

When I grunted to stop him, he stopped in a hole I had previously ranged. I couldn’t tell exactly where he was standing, so I put my 50-yard pin on him and tried to shoot. Unfortunately, I tried to manually trigger the release and power-flinched. Luckily, the arrow didn’t go sailing into the bushes somewhere. I regained my composure, took a deep breath, and executed a flawless shot.

He bolted and quickly ran in a circle before stopping next to a tree a short distance from where he was standing when I shot at him. I could see blood pouring down his shoulder. It quickly turned into a large pool of blood. He stood next to the tree for 14 minutes before putting his head down and walking toward another buck that was chasing does around in the area.

As he was walking toward the other buck, I launched another arrow but missed. A belch-like grunt followed by a snort wheeze made the other buck tuck its tail and head in the opposite direction. A few minutes later everything was quiet.

Brian and I waited until 2 p.m. to track the deer. After jumping a buck out of its bed, we gave up. The bed had blood in it and we could see where the blood had clotted. When we followed the tracks out of the bed, there wasn’t any blood to be found and the buck looked like it was in good shape when it bounded away.

Disappointed, we headed back to our stands to sit for the rest of the afternoon. On our walk back we stumbled over a dead deer and it was the buck I had shot. After researching everything, we learned that another buck had used the same bed as the wounded buck after the buck had got up and headed back toward my stand. Since we never looked in that direction we assumed the buck we jumped was the same one I shot. We both learned a valuable lesson when we saw that the buck had actually got up and walked out of the bed before circling a tree and dying. Somehow we stumbled upon it. I’ve never been very lucky while hunting, but that all changed today.

A few minutes before I shot the buck, Doug texted me to tell me he shot one, too. It turned out to be his best buck to date. It was a dandy 8-pointer that scored in the low 130s. I was really happy for him. He’s had a rough go of it for the last few months. He deserved the buck he got. We should have fun the rest of the week when we ram the roads and help the other guys get onto something.

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