Well guys, i never imagined i would be making this post so soon. Jeff and I both scored opening day up here in North Dakota. It is so awesome up here! I never imagined there would be whitetails running around up here....heck, there are hardly any trees! These deer bed in sunflower fields and catails and just pour out into the crop fields to feed and come to water holes to get a drink.
We left Missouri on Thursday night right when i got out of class and drove all throught he night the 12 hours to get here. Once we got here we met up with Nate and Chet Flynn. Nate and Chet are good family friends of mine that are from Missouri and recently bought this lodge up here in North Dakota. The specialize in waterfowl hunts, but do do some deer hunts and are going to be doing more in the future. Being waterfowl outfitters they have access to a TON of land and Nate has been up here for the last couple weeks scouting, putting cameras on water holes and setting stands. I can't thank him enought for coming up a littler early and doing some scouting since i couldnt make it because of school. After talking to Nate and Chet for a while, they showed us the lodge and we jumped in bed for a couple hours since we were dead tired. We then got up and shot our bows, and went to check a couple cameras. We were pumped when we checked the camera overlooking a waterhole and got pictures of a GIANT 7X5. We then headed back to the lodge, took showers and headed to the field. Jeff was hunting a funnel on the way to some fields and i was hunting a waterhole.
I was super excited after checking the camera but my excitement quickly turned to frustration when the farmer came driving by right through our waterhole in his sprayer. He was spraying the fields all around us till about an hour before dark.Finally he finished up and i settled in hoping the deer would start moving. Right then i feel the wind switch and hit me right in the back of the neck. Nevertheless the deer started moving. First just a bunch of does in the distance, and then we had two nice bucks come in. They came in directly down wind from us but didnt catch our wind. They walked right to the waterhole and started drinking. One was a young 2 year old 9 pointer and the other a big bodied mature 4X2. He was funky and tempting, but since it was the first night i let him walk. After they moved off we didnt see much action till right at last shooting light we had an awesome bachelor group come in. 4 bucks including 3 really good deer, two of which were definate shooters. Unfortunately it was too dark for camera light, but with a buck of a lifetime standing in front of me at 12 yards i drew my bow, settled in and released my arrow. It smacked him hard and he did a huge mule kick and ran as fast as he could through the cat tails behind me. I thought i heard him go down, but it was so loud from all the bucks i wasnt sure.
Skyler and I decided to get out of the tree and head back to the lodge since we werent exactly sure about the shot. We met up with Nate, Jeff, and Dusty and discoved that Jeff had also scored on a good buck that he saw went down. That being said, we loaded up the truck and went to get Jeffs buck. After recovering Jeffs buck we headed to the farm where i shot mine and started looking for blood. Unfortunately, we didnt find a whole lot of blood. He was bleeding alright, but it was soo hard to find in the cattails. We trailed him for about 40 yards and decided to go ahead and wait till morning. We marked last blood and headed back to the lodge. Since i was running off about 3 hours of sleep, i was actually able to go to bed for a while. This morning, we woke up and went to look for him. We went to the last spot we found blood the night before when Nate (who happens to be 6'4", maybe more) could spot him. He had only went about 80 yards from the shot and piled up. The arrow went in about half way back, dead center in the body and came out through the opposide shoulder. I couldn't believe how big he was when i wrapped my hands around his giant velvet rack. I had told the guys that i thought he was conservatively 150". I never imagined that he was a gross Boone & Crocket.....
What an experience!
Skyler running the camera
Deadly waterhole
Big Velvets in North Dakota! (More Photos Added)
