Guys – I was way too tired last night to post pictures or score him. My guess is he’ll score between 80 and 85. Nothing to write home about but I’m thrilled. It’s my first deer on my new Wisconsin land. This was the craziest year of hunting ever for me. I had bucks in bow range at least 15 times (most over the last 2 weeks), probably 12 different bucks. The small bucks would give me a shot opportunity and every shooter would run past or somehow give me the slip. I was getting so frustrated. I was telling everyone it was the year of missed opportunities. The morning before I had a beautiful 130 class 10 point run past at 32 yards. He was in the open for a second. That was it. I have been working on food plots and everything else related to my land every weekend since the snow melted. over the past 2 weeks my land has been infested with deer. I've never seen anything like it. daytime pictures of shooters every morning and every night but they kept giving me the slip. I was so frustrated!! I NEEDED to get a buck this year.
Last night was my last bowhunt of the year. With all my frustration I was ready to shoot anything – doe, spike, fawn, cat, squirrel...ANYTHING! I had a 3 point come running past me full bore at 1pm and I tried to stop him. I thought to myself ‘what am I doing?’. Haha. I haven’t shot anything that small since my first bow hunting buck about 15 years ago.
At about 2pm (I was sitting all day) I saw a buck coming to the little food plot (40 yards off 2 acre plot) I was setup on. I had just moved to that stand at 1pm from the 2 acre plot. There’s 2 fresh scrapes on the edge of the plot. He very slowly made it to one scrape (no shot) and freshened it up. He moved very slowly and was extremely skittish. I was expecting him to go to the other, bigger, scrape and give me a perfect shot, but instead he turned back towards the thick stuff. One big branch blocked my shot the entire time he was in bow range. This was the most intense encounter with a deer I’ve ever had. He was within bow range for at least 15 minutes with me holding my bow and ready to pull back at any second. I had started pulling back 4 or 5 times as I thought he was going to step into the open. The scrape he freshened was about 7 yards from my stand and I was only 11 feet off the ground. He looked up at me about 5 times. Each time I thought that was it, he was going to bolt.
As he was walking away I drew figuring I had to find an opening in the pine branch to get a shot. I found a little opening and took the 15 yard shot. It was probably a risky shot but was the best shot I had at an 8 point or better all year. I absolutely drilled him. He fell in site, 5 yards from my atv trail and 10 yards from the 2 acre plot. It was this buck or tag sandwich for me so I was pretty pumped. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about shooting a deer. Funny too because I’ve only shot 2 bucks smaller than him w/ my bow.
I’ll get pictures posted tonight. Good luck the rest of the year guys. Make sure to sit all day if possible. Just about all the bucks I saw over the past 2 weeks were between 10am and 3pm. Saw 3 yesterday during that time.
By the way, my 10 year old son got a button buck on mn gun opener Saturday. He made a perfect 105 yard shot with my gun, out of range for his .30-30. Proud moment for me. My daughter will be trying for her first deer this coming Saturday. Then next 2 weekends are Wisconsin w/ the kids again. Hopefully we'll get one of the bigger bucks hanging around.
Sorry for the novel J