Canuck33

Awesome bucks gang congrats to all, sorry to hear about your buck HC but what a find. Hopefully you stumble on your buck soon.

WV Hunter

Anyone still hunting? I haven't been out much lately....gonna try to get out a couple times later this week. It gets slim pickins here this time of year, but you never know.

Christine...I'm still pulling for ya! Hopefully you'll find your buck yet.

Canuck33

We still have a couple weeks of smokepoling

WV Hunter

Saw a pretty nice 6pt and some does on Friday. Hope he makes it. Gonna try to get out this week sometime hopefully. Good luck guys...

Canuck33

Seems my luck continues, I smoked the #2 buck on my hitlist, the buck I called Dropper 10, yesterday morning. I saw a bigger buck the morning before chasing does and making crazy loud guttural grunts. 30 minutes or so later a decent 8pt and a 3 pt come out of the brush and start to circle this patch of thick stuff and all of a sudden Dropper 10 comes busting out of the brush pushing the bucks away so I immediately knew he had doe pinned and they were trying to steal her but he would have none of that. This went on for awhile till the landowner decided came around patrolling and bumped them and ended the morning hunt but what a morning it was. I went back in the afternoon but only to see a couple young bucks and does enter the cut beans with no sign of the big boys. I knew where I had to be in the AM and went back to the same set from the previous morning but the first 30 minutes or so I only saw a couple doe’s move through prior to shooting light. I figured it was time to try and make something happen so I decided to try out my own version of rutting action so pulled out my Primos Buck Roar. I tell you what, a few guttural and tending grunts and this stud popped out of a brushy field about 5-600 yards away like a ghost staring right at me. A few more tending grunts and he trotted across the brushlot my way. He paused in a thick hedgerow and I knew he needed a couple grunts to commit so I eased my tube out of my pocket and gave a couple soft grunts which he heard immediately and bristled right up and started what I like to call the monster march of a dominant buck on a mission to kick some arse and win the lady. As he got closer I decided if he went to my right I would shoot at the first clear shot but if he went left I would let him get as close as possible. He went left and walked right in to about 10 yards at the most where I put a 250gr shockwave slam down on him. To be perfectly honest I thought I missed because he ran like 60 yards back to the hedgerow and stood looking around (probably deaf from the muzzle blast of the Omega) then walked back 4-500 yards across the field he came from and into the thick stuff. I called Melcher who was hunting with me and said I was going to hang myself from the stand with my harness because I thought I had just missed Dropper 10 at 10 yards. I got down checked the shot location and all I found was hair on the snow. I walked across the first field and found nothing but monster tracks. I went back and got Melcher and we hit the trail right where I knew he walked and we found nothing all the way across the field he walked off on. We got about 10-15 yards into the thick brush and saw the first spot of blood and I immediately knew that was good, we saw another spot looked right and there he laid 10 yards away tangled up in a tree! What a feeling high fives and man hugs all around! There was 0 blood from the point of impact all the way to where he laid 600+ yards or so away tangled up in a tree. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see and track it. What a huge lesson one following up on any shot you make, regardless of what you see or think happened. These animals are to be respected and it is all our duties as avid outdoorsman to respect them and give it 100% to recover any and all game you decide to harvest.


[IMG]http://i566.photobucket.com/albums/ss107/33Canuck/Dropper101.jpg[/IMG]

WV Hunter

What a buck! wow....congrats! I wish we had bucks like that around here. Great job finding him....and you are right, always follow up!

Where did you hit him that you didn't get any blood at all? Strange for sure....especially with snow - you would have seen it for sure. Did you not get an exit?

jnrbronc

Finally posted my buck in the official scoring thread.

Just finished Iowa's second shotgun season last Sunday. It was my last any sex deer tag and I didn't get a huge buck. Went ahead and shot a couple of does for the freezer. They are in the fridge and I need to wrap and freeze, starting tonight.

I have two archery antlerless tags and hope to make it out a time or two before season ends.

Congrats to all who have been successful.

Good luck to those still hunting!

Happy Holidays to all.

Canuck33

Nice buck jb, 120" buck is awesome with a bow!

HNI_Christine

Congrats!!

I'm still getting out hunting every now and then but time and optimism are running short.

The river is mostly frozen with opaque ice so I can't go out on it and look for my dead buck. (too much ice for the canoe, not safe ice to walk around on) The banks of the river are private property so I can't just walk along the bank and look. So my chances of recovering him are not looking good.

jnrbronc

I feel for you, tough situation!

I wounded a buck last Saturday evening during shotgun season. Let him go overnight, jumped him the next morning, took a couple of running shots (why not, he was wounded). He left the property, so I had to leave the gun at the fence (law allows for the unarmed pursuit of wounded game on property w/out permission). Trailed him about a third of a mile (I'd let him go 2 hours after jumping him in the morning). Found where he had bedded, pool of blood in it. Must have clotted laying there as I could not find a blood trail away from the bed. I think I just got a muscle hit on him and he will survive. I'll check trail cams to see if I catch any pics of him.