I have went every year to Kansas except one since non-residents were allowed in.
Last few years I've hunted with a recurve, this year I went back to a compound, 62#, weighted carbons, 125 gr Slick Trick RazorTrick broadheads.
Below is from a thread I had on another site - hunt didn't last long this year, but some years I've stayed away from my family 9-10 days hunting, so a gift year and buck like this I'm very happy for !
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Some bucks from camtrackers we had out
I left at 9 pm Tuesday night, Nov 2nd after working all day ... and made it Salina, then had to road side park sleep a few hours. Made my hunting area at 11 am or so, went to a stand location and found big rubs, scrapes right under the tree .... readjusted the stand to face better, trimmed a branch or two and went to the house I stay at and napped until 2:30 in stand by 3:30 pm
I dont enjoy long drives and little sleep like I use to !
here is a video of my stand location and all - the buck below came out of the cedars, down to between that telephone pole and me. notice the telephone pole has been rubber ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d66r3e_8RJc
started seeing does/fawns at 4:30 pm or so
and this little one
followed by 3-4 others like the above and this one
I know there were at least 11 different does and fawns and 5 different buck .... and this buck came out close to dark chasing - I snapped a 100 yard quick photo and got ready. He came in after 2-3 minutes about half way between me and the telephone pole - a gimmee 12 yard shot
He's only 14-15" wide and he's just an 8 .... not what I came here for especially 1st day !
pretty buck though aint he? with a recurve or longbow I'd likely have shot
anyway, very active afternoon, almost t-boned a doe a big buck chased onto the road driving home - we'll see what tomorrow brings besides wind
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Next morning hunted an entirely different area. I had a doe and 2 fawns come in, hung around for 20 minutes and then this muley buck at 9:30 am ..... I think I'm back to that other stand this afternoon that I hunted yesterday afternoon
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what an afternoon .... I had the above 8 pointer come in, and then 2-3 other large, shooter type bucks and at dark I shot what I believe to be a big 8 pointer - bigger than the above photo by quite a bit. like 150" big 8 pointer
I hit him down and almost knocked him down .... I'm pretty sure I heard him fall 75 yards inside some trees and he went the direction my buddy is hunting, and he never saw any buck come out
I don't want to count on anything but I think I got him - will go back in another 1-2 hours to try and find him
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well we didn't find him - but that's not terribly surprising as thick and nasty as the stuff was he ran into
I took a shot that was quarter to me, down and into him at .... 15 yards, maybe 17 yards. I almost knocked him down with the shot, and as he ran off I could see arrow - hard to say how much. There was a THWACK at the shot - but it wasn't straight down.
It was not an ideal shot, it was the shot I thought I could make though.
I'll do my best to find him tomorrow - makes for a long night that's for certain. I'm still very sure I killed him, now I have to find him
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being real here guys .... I didn't find him, in fact I didn't find a single speck of blood
why? I covered a lot of area, 3 other guys did too not one speck of blood.
why?
a quartering to shot is not an ideal shot - you have to slip the arrow in just right to keep from hitting the thick rib bones, and I thought I did just that. In fact, I THOUGHT I had an angled in shot as well as he ran off
two things happened IMO
#1 I hit the thick backbone, in such a way as to not break it but also not penetrate into the body cavity. If I did this, he wouldn't have bled much at all, never bedded down .... not really hurt at all.
#2 I drove shaft into his body cavity, all the blood went in, instead of out, and if this happened I cannot see him going more than 200 yard if even that hit hard. I am 99% sure he's not in a 200 yard radius of the stand, in fact 400 yards radius.
It sucks, you never feel as badly as when you shoot and cannot recover a deer. I've not shot and lost one in several years, especially with a compound.
I'm going back out, one last look .... and then hunt this evening.
I wish now I'd not taken the shot ... but you can't take shots back, you try and make the best shots you can, sometimes hits don't go the way they're suppose to.
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we ate lunch and the guys went to take naps .... I went back to look for my buck, just knowing I hit him hard
I found him in about 20 minutes, deep inside a cattail grove.
What happened .... I hit him a bit far back, I broke the 3rd and 4th last ribs on his right side. The arrow went down, not gut but organs I'm sure, and sliced into ham into the femur. That was the loud sound and why he almost went down.
I found a deer bed about where I thought this buck fell last night - no blood in it, but I'm thinking now he was there when we went in with lights, and from there he moved the 250 yards into the cattails.
He's not quite as big as I thought - and he's got the broken brow tine that splits all the way down to the pedicle. He's 5 1/2" bases, holds nice mass through, both his G2's are broken tipped and are still 11" and his G3's are 10" or so .... 24" main beams, 18" inside spread .... he's a fine fine mature KS whitetail.
What I learned - maybe to never take that kind of shot again? For certain that, just horrible tracking conditions come from it.
Don't give up - could have easily quit, went back one last time.
that picture does have a Chuck Adams quality to it doesn't it?
24" main beams
6" brow tines
10" G2's (both had 1- 1 1/2" broke off)
9" G3's
19" of mass on each side
17" inside spread
he'd have pushed upper 140's had that brow not been broken off and those 2 tips too ..... gads I wish I'd have caped him now and mounted him and one of these days if I get a good KS cape I still can
here he is after I cleaned the skull up (camera photo sucks)
