Hi all,

Saturday the 4th was an awesome day hunting for me. I got to my stand early, about 6, and waited for shooting light to come, shich is about 6:30 in my part of Wisconsin. We had been seeing lots of sign, but felt the rut really hadn't kicked full swing yet. I was wondering what I would see.

Well, what a morning, the rut is definately on! At exactly 6:30, a 1 1/2 year old buck came into the area slowly munching on acorns. He was about 70 yards away. My stand is in thick hardwoods, but this particular spot is sitted on a draw where three small ridges intersect, and, it is a little more open. You can see quite a bit of area. I had laid an esterous scent walking in, and he crossed right over it without batting an eye. No biggie, I ws thinking it was fun just to see him. Well, from that moment on, I never sat down. All kinds of deer were moving, and at one point, I saw two 2 1/2 year old bucks and three 1 1/2 year old bucks and 7 does all at once in my area. For the next two hours I watched them chase, rub, check scrapes, fight and run around.

At about 8:30, a very nice 2 1/2 year old was chasing away one of the 1 1/2 year old and ended going about 70 yards straight downwind to my right. I had the drag I used with the esterous strung up in a tree and I saw him stop and stick his nose into the air. I hit my bleet can and he started coming right at me. (my stand is 20 feet high and I was on ground higher than him). I was not too worried about being scented. I got up, not sure if I was going to shoot him or not.He walked right up to my scent wick. At that same time, I heard the crunch/crunch of a deer to my left. I assumed it was one of the does or maybe a small buck that I saw going that way just a few minutes earlier. I looked over and here was a sweet buck, hair up, low aggressive grunts looking right at the 2 1/2 year old, ready to rumble! He was about 45 yards away, sorta behind a tree. I quickly, trying not to be seen, grabbed my bow. The 2 1/2 year old did a ten yard charge/trot towards the bigger buck. The big boy moved forward to challenge, and when he got to 35 yards, I drew back. I knew he would have to turn more broadside to get to the other deer, and at 30 yards he did.

I released the arrow and saw a good hit. The arrow stayed in and he bounded back the way he came. He slowed down and slipped over the ridge.

I got down from my stand and beelined it exactly the opposite direction about 30 minutes later. I came back 3 hours later to track him. He went another 200 yards after I saw him! I was getting a little worried, but had a great blood trail to follow. I finally found him over another ridge. I hit an artery and his liver, but not his lungs. He literally bled out trying to get to a thick swamp another 100 yards away.

His rack has awesome mass, just not big tines. He was a pig. He weighed 187 lbs field dressed and had a 24 inch neck! You can kind of see his neck in the pic. I took these the next day. My field pics were taken by my father-in-law and I do not have those yet.

Good luck to you all! I hope you are fortunate to have the experience I did.

Broc

wesome nice looking buck congrats

Nice buck! Congrats!

Sounds like a great morning. Congrats.

Congrats. That boy was ready for some action. Look at that neck.

congrats nice buck

Brocster,

Nice buck. I wanted to say that I noticed your name a few days ago, I too have had the "Bracster" nickname since I was a youngin'. My brother gave it to me and its cool to see another fellow "brocster" on here!Way to go on you buck, congrats!

"Bracster"

Hi,

I am new to this forum. Very nice buck! Congrats.

I hunt in Wisconsin also. Where did you get him? Did you rattle or call him in?

Thanks Linder.

I hunt by Balsam Lake/Milltown. I had deer all around, but I did use the Primos can just prior to him showing up. He came through some thick stuff, not on a trail per se. He either came after hearing the can, or, he came cause he heard other bucks chasing around.

My guess is that he came becasue of the doe call. Makes the most sense from my standpoint.