O7' has been by far the best year in my short hunting career of 6 years. Sorry this is so long but it has been an incredible year. It all started with getting permission to hunt 350-400 acre farm thats bordered on two sides by property where there's no hunting.
On opening day I hunted public land and saw a total of 9 doe andtook one 10minafter sunrise.Ifinally received the keys to the farm and hunted onNov. 10th and saw 6 doeand did a little scouting around the pasture whichhas trees and scrub brush all through it. There are 3 other guysthat hunt here and they seem to stay in the woods so Ithought I would stay out of their way and hunt out in the pasture.SoI decided where I would hunt saturday morning. I head out to the tree line with my decoy in tow and get setup on the ground and do a little rattling about 7:30am. 15min later I have a small 8pt come in 5yds from me circling the decoy. I was afraid he was going to attack bucky soI grunted and ran him off. I waited about 5min and rattled again, within 3-5min I see a rack comingover the same trailas the small8pt.
This was the buck I was hoping for, beautiful wide dark rack withheavy mass!He's making his way towrds me and gets to 15yds facing me. I must have blinked, moved or maybe was shaking to hard because he stared at me and then bolted! We he took off I came to full draw and grunted with my mouth. It worked he stoped at 40yds and turned perfectly broadside. I put my pin on him and released only to watch my arrow fly just beneath his chest! I was sick, the biggest buck I've ever released an arrow on and I MISSED!
I go out on monday the 12th and setup in one of the scrub trees in the pasture. These are terrible trees to hunt out of but it put me in a great location to intercept the deer going from the fields to bedding areas. I hang a lock-on stand in this tree only 7ft off the ground and use the limbs to climb into the stand. I did some ratlting and calling just as the sun was rising. At 7:15am I hear a grunt to my left and see a doe running all out with a huge 10pt close behind and a small 6pt behind him. I hit the grunt and they all stopped about 60yds out, they look at my decoys(buck & doe) and continue on their way. Throughout the morning I saw6 other bucks running through the pasture and the neighbors hayfield. I climbed downaround 12noon and took the rack off bucky in hopes of drawing in the big boys with 2 does.About 2pm I had several doe and 2 smaller bucks in the neighbors field 150yds away.
At 2:15pm I see a real nice 8pt with a tall narrow rack come into the field. I rattled lightly and got his attention but proceded to rub a small tree along the field edge. I waited a few minutes a rattled again this time loud and aggressive. This time it worked he raised his head and was on his way to a fight! He never stopped, he crossed the field jumped the barbed wire fence. Unfortunatly he turned left when he jumped the fence which gave me one open shot but it was at 40yds. I gave him the mouth grunt and he stopped perfect slightly quartered away. I released and once again watched my arrow fly just below his chest! UNBELIEVABLE! Throughout the remainder of the eveing I saw 7 other bucks and probably 15-20 doe.Now I practiced alot over the summer out to 50yds but only planning to shoot out to 40yds. At 40yds I was having awesome groups. So I went to the range on tuesday to figure out what was going on, I found out that I was just getting excitedand usedthe wrong pin, STUPID!!
I go out on thursday afternoon and setup in a different tree again only 8-9ft of the ground. This time I used the platform of my lone wolf climber. I set bucky up about 25yds out where he could be seen from a couple of bedding areas and I was back ina ravine. About 3pm I did several rattling sequences and had 1 buck run across the top of the hill above me 60yds out but he spotted a couple of does and was gone. About 4pm I see 2 doe and a small 6pt up the ravine from me just browsing around and there's a cow with her calf not far from them up the ravine bedded down. I'm watching them with the binos thinking if one ofthe doesgive me a shot I'm taking it, I need a confidence builder after my other outings. I put down the binos and there stand a nice 8pt 40yds from me upwind coming down the hill crossing the ravine. I hit the can call and he stopped and looked around and started to walk off. I grab the true talker and grunt twice and he spotted bucky and was on his way to check him out. He walked through the brush and came out at 18yds, I settled my pin and released,SMACK!! He kicked and ran off 60yds and vanished into the brush but I see the 6pt and the cows staring into the brush. It's 4:35 and getting dark fast! All of sudden he steps out of the brush and laid down. The 6pt walks within 10yds of him just looking at him. Then the cow & calf started making their way over to him. I'm watching with the binos and see him moving his head around like he was about to puke or something. The 6pt walked off and then the cow walks over to him and put her nose on my buck! He tried to stand up and then fell over kicked once and was done! I started to shake uncontrollably it was 35deg with winds 20-30mph and I was full of adrenaline!
He's not as big as the 2 that I missed but I'm very happy with this buck! Plus there's alot of hunting still to be done this year!
My Buck & incredible year with story & pics
