"HAMMERTIME" pics
10-18-2005, 01:02 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Northern Idaho's Panhandle
Posts: 4,436
"HAMMERTIME" pics
Well guys, I am pretty stoked to say the least. I arrowed a dandy buck yesterday morning. He is a main frame 6x6, that scores 168 2/8ths gross.I estimated him at a150 class buck last fall and has definately put on some size this year. I estimate him to be a 4.5 old, possibly 5.5. I haven't had the teeth checked yet. I weighed him in at 215lbs dressed on my scale. I weighed his gut pile that I bagged at 38 pounds.He has beautiful chocolate antlers. His greatest attribute are his 25.5 main beams 6x6 main frameand his beautiful cape.
Here is how it all played out.
Got to my stand at daylight. I am situated in a very narrow funnel that separates a farmers field and a clearcut. So litterally the only way a buck can sneak down through here without being out in the open is to use this thin strip of timber. At daylight I settled in and began to watch the sun peak over the mountains to the east. The temps were in the high 40's to low 50's. I had set for about 10-20 minutes and I watched 2 does and a baby buck make their way up through the steep clearcut. After this I waited about 30 more minutes and decided to give my social doe call a few hits. I grunted a couple times and settled in. It just felt like one of those perfect mornings. The cool air was accompanied by a slight breeze that blew from my right to left shoulder into the eastern side of the funnel. My mind mulled over the earlier conversation mybrother and I had just discussedtwo days beforeabout the area and had talked about the big 5x5 150 class buck that we had seen in therethis pastsummer while scoutingand then the "LUCKY 6" 6x5 or 6x6....that had eluded a high shot from my brother the year before. The 6x6 we figured would be the biggest buck in the area that we knew of this year....
Like a ghost a deer appeared right in front of me at about 50 yards. I couldnt believe he got soclose without me seeing him in the brushy clearcut...anyway...He was meandering through the thick brushed up clearcut feeding. I thought to myself, did he come into this grunt call? He was a young but gorgeous 4x4. Probably 2.5 years old and scoring in the 115 range. So as he turned his head away I slowly moved my head to the hands-free call and grunted, just to see how he would react. I hit the grunt 1 time and he perked his head up and looked my way. Then he looked around a bit and walked downthecuttowards me in and out of thrick thick brush..until he got within 30 yards and he turned broadside. I thought, youngin' your lucky your a pup.I enjoyedwatchinghim for about 10 minutes as he went back to feeding and occasionally glancing my way. He fed off up over the clearcut after a bit and then dissappeared. I began to ponder, I wonder if this is too early in the season to get a mature buck to come check out this grunt. So I decided what the heck it's been daylight for over an hour now, I better give it a chance.... I grunted a short sequence trying to sound like two different deer talking back and forth. I scanned the timber line and the clearcut above me for any movement, the wind was still blowing across my face from right to left. I sat for about 20 more minutes and grunted occasionally like feeding deer do when they travel in groups. Suddenly I caught movement 75 yards over my left shoulder, directly downwind of me as the breeze was blowing from west to east... My stand is in the very bottom as far as elevation goes in relation to the hourglass pinch point and the clearcut that travels up the mountain side out in front of my stand, so I am sitting in a thin strip of timber at about 22 feet. Directly over my left shoulder out steps this big bodied deer. He's only about 5 feet out of the timberline standing in some thick brush in the clearcut. I slowlyraise up my binocs and wowzzzzzaaaaaaa....I see TINES!!!!! then he turns as he is lip urling and scent checking the wind. When he turned theagain....I saw those main beams and that picket fence of tines and knew immediately this was a dandy buck. He then stares in my direction. Now I am thinking, good lord I believe he is interested in this grunt, he's checking me out and probably the scent of that 4x4 and those earlier deer I saw after daylight which all of their scent would be blowing towards him too...I felt pretty good about the scenario that was about to unfold...So I grunt at him with two short social grunts. He immediatly pics up his head and looks hard my way, he then lip curls again and scent checks the air. I was pretty confident in my cleanliness and watched his behavior. He stood for about 30 more seconds then he just dropped his big ole head and started walking my way... straight down the clearcut timber line at first then he starts angling out a bit towards those other deer route. When he gets to roughly 50 yards I grunt one more time, He stops and turns his headto me then side to side...and then steps and ducks his rack around a big brushy bush. This was one of the prettiest sights I have ever witnessed in the wild. Just the way that big ole boy moved was awesome. He keeps coming then stops at about 40 yards. He's pretty much heading on a path to walk right infront of then past me out in the cut angling up the hill. So I scan ahead of him a few yards and pick outbig bush of elderberries he is going to pass behind. He holds still for ever, so do I the same...with my index finger pressed against the back side of my release trigger which is fastened around my loop. After what seemed to be an eternityhe scent checks the air and starts againangling up the hill a bit. As he passed behind the elderberry tree I go to full draw. he doesn't notice a thing...his ears are tilted back a bit now and hes moving...along...At this point he is about at the same level as my tree stand and 35 yards from me. He step past the tree and is giving me a quartering away slightly past my stand...slightly down angle...He is almost right where the 4x4 buck had been earlier. I grunt at him with my mouth and he stops instantly, jerks his head my way and seemshis body language exudes that............"oh chit" what is that coming from...look..
.........I already have the copperjohn 2 pin (30) rested on his mid lung level. I see the spot and trip the trigger. Thwack.. the arrow hammers him about 4 ribs backmidlevelwith the arrow quarting forward and down at an slight angle. I see only fletch sticking out as he turns and bolts straight up the clearcut. I know he's smacked hard...I get to watch him running frantically up hill. This didnt last long. He starts to stumble and within 50-60 yards he face plants and starts flopping around kicking and thrashing the brush. I can see glimpses of him on the ground in the brush. I thinking HOLYMOLY I just dropped the HAMMER on a HAMMER! He kicks a few more times and within 1 minute I seeand hearnothing. He's lying motionless in the thick thick brush...on the mountainside...I am pretty darned pumped right now and just stop and pray and say thank you lord, thank you lord, thank you lord.
I will be honest I didnt wait the 30 minutes. I knew he was dead, I just knew it...no ifs ands or buts.... I knew he was dead. I got out of the tree in ten minutes. I couldnt wait any longer...When I walked up on this buck,I knew who he was then. The big 6x5 from (last year) and nowa6x6 that we had hunted the year before. He definately had put on some size. I just sat there and looked him over. I kind offell into a trance at this point for about 30 mintues asI just sat there with him soaking it all in... I didn't want to do anything but just sit with this awesome gift. His beautiful cape stood out...and the nice job the ole bowtech set up had done on him. I notice my broadhead had passed throughhis left frontlower shoulder area and must have been broken off when he thrashed on the ground as did the fletching. What an awesome whitetail. With so much season left to hunt and another whitetail buck tag to fill. I can't wait. I already have him at my Taxidermist. He was very impressed with this bucks cape and he loved the chocolate antlers.
Here is how it all played out.
Got to my stand at daylight. I am situated in a very narrow funnel that separates a farmers field and a clearcut. So litterally the only way a buck can sneak down through here without being out in the open is to use this thin strip of timber. At daylight I settled in and began to watch the sun peak over the mountains to the east. The temps were in the high 40's to low 50's. I had set for about 10-20 minutes and I watched 2 does and a baby buck make their way up through the steep clearcut. After this I waited about 30 more minutes and decided to give my social doe call a few hits. I grunted a couple times and settled in. It just felt like one of those perfect mornings. The cool air was accompanied by a slight breeze that blew from my right to left shoulder into the eastern side of the funnel. My mind mulled over the earlier conversation mybrother and I had just discussedtwo days beforeabout the area and had talked about the big 5x5 150 class buck that we had seen in therethis pastsummer while scoutingand then the "LUCKY 6" 6x5 or 6x6....that had eluded a high shot from my brother the year before. The 6x6 we figured would be the biggest buck in the area that we knew of this year....
Like a ghost a deer appeared right in front of me at about 50 yards. I couldnt believe he got soclose without me seeing him in the brushy clearcut...anyway...He was meandering through the thick brushed up clearcut feeding. I thought to myself, did he come into this grunt call? He was a young but gorgeous 4x4. Probably 2.5 years old and scoring in the 115 range. So as he turned his head away I slowly moved my head to the hands-free call and grunted, just to see how he would react. I hit the grunt 1 time and he perked his head up and looked my way. Then he looked around a bit and walked downthecuttowards me in and out of thrick thick brush..until he got within 30 yards and he turned broadside. I thought, youngin' your lucky your a pup.I enjoyedwatchinghim for about 10 minutes as he went back to feeding and occasionally glancing my way. He fed off up over the clearcut after a bit and then dissappeared. I began to ponder, I wonder if this is too early in the season to get a mature buck to come check out this grunt. So I decided what the heck it's been daylight for over an hour now, I better give it a chance.... I grunted a short sequence trying to sound like two different deer talking back and forth. I scanned the timber line and the clearcut above me for any movement, the wind was still blowing across my face from right to left. I sat for about 20 more minutes and grunted occasionally like feeding deer do when they travel in groups. Suddenly I caught movement 75 yards over my left shoulder, directly downwind of me as the breeze was blowing from west to east... My stand is in the very bottom as far as elevation goes in relation to the hourglass pinch point and the clearcut that travels up the mountain side out in front of my stand, so I am sitting in a thin strip of timber at about 22 feet. Directly over my left shoulder out steps this big bodied deer. He's only about 5 feet out of the timberline standing in some thick brush in the clearcut. I slowlyraise up my binocs and wowzzzzzaaaaaaa....I see TINES!!!!! then he turns as he is lip urling and scent checking the wind. When he turned theagain....I saw those main beams and that picket fence of tines and knew immediately this was a dandy buck. He then stares in my direction. Now I am thinking, good lord I believe he is interested in this grunt, he's checking me out and probably the scent of that 4x4 and those earlier deer I saw after daylight which all of their scent would be blowing towards him too...I felt pretty good about the scenario that was about to unfold...So I grunt at him with two short social grunts. He immediatly pics up his head and looks hard my way, he then lip curls again and scent checks the air. I was pretty confident in my cleanliness and watched his behavior. He stood for about 30 more seconds then he just dropped his big ole head and started walking my way... straight down the clearcut timber line at first then he starts angling out a bit towards those other deer route. When he gets to roughly 50 yards I grunt one more time, He stops and turns his headto me then side to side...and then steps and ducks his rack around a big brushy bush. This was one of the prettiest sights I have ever witnessed in the wild. Just the way that big ole boy moved was awesome. He keeps coming then stops at about 40 yards. He's pretty much heading on a path to walk right infront of then past me out in the cut angling up the hill. So I scan ahead of him a few yards and pick outbig bush of elderberries he is going to pass behind. He holds still for ever, so do I the same...with my index finger pressed against the back side of my release trigger which is fastened around my loop. After what seemed to be an eternityhe scent checks the air and starts againangling up the hill a bit. As he passed behind the elderberry tree I go to full draw. he doesn't notice a thing...his ears are tilted back a bit now and hes moving...along...At this point he is about at the same level as my tree stand and 35 yards from me. He step past the tree and is giving me a quartering away slightly past my stand...slightly down angle...He is almost right where the 4x4 buck had been earlier. I grunt at him with my mouth and he stops instantly, jerks his head my way and seemshis body language exudes that............"oh chit" what is that coming from...look..
.........I already have the copperjohn 2 pin (30) rested on his mid lung level. I see the spot and trip the trigger. Thwack.. the arrow hammers him about 4 ribs backmidlevelwith the arrow quarting forward and down at an slight angle. I see only fletch sticking out as he turns and bolts straight up the clearcut. I know he's smacked hard...I get to watch him running frantically up hill. This didnt last long. He starts to stumble and within 50-60 yards he face plants and starts flopping around kicking and thrashing the brush. I can see glimpses of him on the ground in the brush. I thinking HOLYMOLY I just dropped the HAMMER on a HAMMER! He kicks a few more times and within 1 minute I seeand hearnothing. He's lying motionless in the thick thick brush...on the mountainside...I am pretty darned pumped right now and just stop and pray and say thank you lord, thank you lord, thank you lord. I will be honest I didnt wait the 30 minutes. I knew he was dead, I just knew it...no ifs ands or buts.... I knew he was dead. I got out of the tree in ten minutes. I couldnt wait any longer...When I walked up on this buck,I knew who he was then. The big 6x5 from (last year) and nowa6x6 that we had hunted the year before. He definately had put on some size. I just sat there and looked him over. I kind offell into a trance at this point for about 30 mintues asI just sat there with him soaking it all in... I didn't want to do anything but just sit with this awesome gift. His beautiful cape stood out...and the nice job the ole bowtech set up had done on him. I notice my broadhead had passed throughhis left frontlower shoulder area and must have been broken off when he thrashed on the ground as did the fletching. What an awesome whitetail. With so much season left to hunt and another whitetail buck tag to fill. I can't wait. I already have him at my Taxidermist. He was very impressed with this bucks cape and he loved the chocolate antlers.
10-18-2005, 01:19 PM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Paoli PA
Posts: 898
RE: "HAMMERTIME" pics
NICE DEER!!!!! You told that story so perfectly I felt like I was there! congrats on an awesome deer....don't know how many deer there are around here like that but i will try. Post a pic of the mount once you get it back!
