My first Kansas buck
#1
My first Kansas buck
Spent last week in Kansas hunting public ground that consisted of reclaimed strip mines. I stayed with my new friend whom I met through this wonderful hunting site and he was a terrific host. I hunted hard for six days, hunting almost all day each day. I finally found a hot spot(which was a road crossing: I was hiding 40 yards off the road) and set up in there at first light and saw deer on and off most of the morning, when I heard some move through down wind of me at about 80 yards. Then a little later I heard some grunts and heard brush hitting antlers. This went on for about 45 minutes before I ever caught sight of either deer. Then I finally saw the doe's ear twitch about 15 yards away in the thick brush. Then I saw the buck a few seconds later, he came in and was broad side at about 12 yards with his head behind a tree, but the brush was to thick to shoot through, so I waited. The doe then moved on to where another doe was laying(she had been bedded there for about 2 hours ~40 yards from me) and the buck followed her but i still couldn't shoot. The does then split up and one went right to me and was about 15 feet away looking right at me(Did I mention I was standing on the ground?) And the other doe moved through going down wind of me and the buck followed her. I was at full draw just begging for an opening to appear. Finally there it was, a hole about big enough to put your fist through: he was about 17 yards trotting through the brush and I released the arrow and made a perfect heart shot, he went 30 yards and was down! This all went down on 11-11 at 11 in the morning. He's an 8 pointer that scores just shy of 130 and field dressed at 205 #'s, which is really big for the area I was in. We figured he was at least 4 or 5 yrs old. I can't wait to go back to Kansas next year!