my IL Buck on Public Ground
11-20-2007, 01:26 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 1,704
my IL Buck on Public Ground
My buck story:
I took my buck on public property at a state park in Illinois, just 45 minutes south of my house. A friend and I camped there in my RV so we could hunt it sunrise to sunset without any disruptions.
We hunted hard and we saw a lot of great rut action.
Eric even had an opportunity on a 130”+ buck on Friday evening but it was too dark and didn’t work out.
On Monday I moved my climber to a river bottom area that offered open trails between thick cover and forest mast. I sat in the pouring rain for 5 hours with nothing to see but 2 young does. By the time I climbed down at dark I was so cold from sitting still in the pouring rain with nothing more than a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans that I didn’t have the energy to remove my climber so I decided to leave it overnight and come back for it in the morning.
Tuesday morning found me walking the trail to the river bottom easily 2 hours before daylight. I wanted plenty of time to change stand locations and set up several scent trails.
Lucky for me I already had a stand set up because it was impossible to see anything. The fog was so thick this morning that I could barely see my handsin front of my face,no joke! The white LED and bulb on my headlamp were way too bright in the dense fog and immediately blinded me temporarily from the close reflection. I would not have been able to find a suitable location to hunt let alone a straight tree for climbing.
Itook my time to set out scent trails and hang scent wicks of fresh bottled doe-heat urine that I ordered from a deer farm in New York.
I set a 2D folding buck decoy out to an area that I knew had an open shooting lane about25 yards away from my tree and I climbed up the tree to watch this magically misty morning unfold.
At first light I had 2 hunters approach my stand – remember this is public land. I flashed my light to let them know I was there and they moved on down the trail disappearing into the mist. I didn’t see another living creature for nearly 2 hours.
At 8:05am I caught movement through the bottoms about 150 yards away and heading into the forest. I stopped the shadow with a wheeze, whereupon a buck replied with his own wheeze. I came back with 2 short wheeze calls and with a flick of his tail he lowered his head and started my way. He was a smallish 6 point and I would have shot him had he given me the opportunity, but unfortunately (at the time) he wasn’t in a position to see my decoy (being flat and all)or catch my doe-heat scents that I so carefully laid out and he never made it closer than 40 yards to me. He left 4 times and each time I was able to promptly call him back with a very loud and aggressive buck growl/roar using the Primos Buck Roar call.
Finally I scared him away accidentally by hitting my rattle bag. I could have guessed then that he had had his butt kicked once or twice in this area and was absolutely not interested in another fight.
At 9:15am I had the urge to climb down and move on, but decided to give it another hour here for good measure. But by 9:40 I still hadn’t seen anything, my stomach was beginning to rumble, and my patience was wearing thin so I started putting my gear away.
At 9:46am, with everything neatly packed up, I turned around in my climber to strap my feet in but instead saw a mature buck making his way through the bottoms. As I fumbled in my pack for a call and my release I saw the buck turn inside out and bolt away from the sight/scent of the 2 hunters sitting on the ground not 80 yards away from my stand!!! – remember this is public land.
I gave one thunderous roar with the Primos call and the sprinting buck stopped and turned my direction without hesitation. He was mad and I believe intended to take it out on whoever just yelled at him in his house! Perfectly positioned to see my 2D buck head-on, he puffed up his chest andbegan to charge at the intruder. At 5 yards from and facing the decoy he abruptly stopped, quartering towards meat 28 yards.
He cocked his head back and upwards then very slightly to the side in a threatening posture to the paper warrior.
Just then he must have caught a whiff of the doe-heat scent bomb hanging just 10 yards upwind of him and he once again turned his attention on a dime.
I could almost see the buck’s brain do a complete back flip inside his skull at his confusion as all of these thingscrashed intohim at once. He seemed to relax for a brief moment and took one full step towards me and sniffed the ground. But he was now facing directly towards me.
Then, as his brain firmly stuck the perfect landing he seemed to know in an instant that something was very very wrong and he froze. His hair raised some and began to twitch in places as he contemplated his options.
I could see that he was starting to shift his weight back and was going to flee but at this point I already had my 25 yard pin tuned in on his throat, just in case (aiming for the exit hole which would take me through at least one vital organ.) And when I felt he was about to jump 180 and bolt I squeezed the release.
The obligatory fish shot:
My arrow made a complete pass-thru, entering the throat it cutting the esophagus and an artery, then entered the chest and hit the front half of his right lung, exiting just behind the right shoulder and painted the forest red. He left a 18” wide stripe of red all the way to his final resting place not 100 yards from the place of impact. When we field dressed him, he had less than a half a cup of blood left in him.
All in all – I would say that this was nearly the perfect hunt. Everything just happened to line up correctly and for once the accidents ended up in my favor. I suppose many successes rely in small part to favorable accidents. I know I’ll keep taking as many as I can get!
Side Note:
This is not a shot that I would recommend for anybody to take and I realize that it is not the desired shot. In fact, it might shock some of you and I think that is alright. I am an expert marksman, army trained, and can drive nails with a rifle or a bow. I have also made this very shot on 3 other occasions, twice with my sniper rifle of a shotgun setup and once with a bow. These were all the 4 fastest kills I’ve made, lasting only seconds.
I would still prefer a quartering away shot but am very comfortable threading a needle when needed too.
Also, my friend Eric got his best buck this weekend – We’re both very happy!
I took my buck on public property at a state park in Illinois, just 45 minutes south of my house. A friend and I camped there in my RV so we could hunt it sunrise to sunset without any disruptions.
We hunted hard and we saw a lot of great rut action.
Eric even had an opportunity on a 130”+ buck on Friday evening but it was too dark and didn’t work out.
On Monday I moved my climber to a river bottom area that offered open trails between thick cover and forest mast. I sat in the pouring rain for 5 hours with nothing to see but 2 young does. By the time I climbed down at dark I was so cold from sitting still in the pouring rain with nothing more than a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans that I didn’t have the energy to remove my climber so I decided to leave it overnight and come back for it in the morning.
Tuesday morning found me walking the trail to the river bottom easily 2 hours before daylight. I wanted plenty of time to change stand locations and set up several scent trails.
Lucky for me I already had a stand set up because it was impossible to see anything. The fog was so thick this morning that I could barely see my handsin front of my face,no joke! The white LED and bulb on my headlamp were way too bright in the dense fog and immediately blinded me temporarily from the close reflection. I would not have been able to find a suitable location to hunt let alone a straight tree for climbing.
Itook my time to set out scent trails and hang scent wicks of fresh bottled doe-heat urine that I ordered from a deer farm in New York.
I set a 2D folding buck decoy out to an area that I knew had an open shooting lane about25 yards away from my tree and I climbed up the tree to watch this magically misty morning unfold.
At first light I had 2 hunters approach my stand – remember this is public land. I flashed my light to let them know I was there and they moved on down the trail disappearing into the mist. I didn’t see another living creature for nearly 2 hours.
At 8:05am I caught movement through the bottoms about 150 yards away and heading into the forest. I stopped the shadow with a wheeze, whereupon a buck replied with his own wheeze. I came back with 2 short wheeze calls and with a flick of his tail he lowered his head and started my way. He was a smallish 6 point and I would have shot him had he given me the opportunity, but unfortunately (at the time) he wasn’t in a position to see my decoy (being flat and all)or catch my doe-heat scents that I so carefully laid out and he never made it closer than 40 yards to me. He left 4 times and each time I was able to promptly call him back with a very loud and aggressive buck growl/roar using the Primos Buck Roar call.
Finally I scared him away accidentally by hitting my rattle bag. I could have guessed then that he had had his butt kicked once or twice in this area and was absolutely not interested in another fight.At 9:15am I had the urge to climb down and move on, but decided to give it another hour here for good measure. But by 9:40 I still hadn’t seen anything, my stomach was beginning to rumble, and my patience was wearing thin so I started putting my gear away.
At 9:46am, with everything neatly packed up, I turned around in my climber to strap my feet in but instead saw a mature buck making his way through the bottoms. As I fumbled in my pack for a call and my release I saw the buck turn inside out and bolt away from the sight/scent of the 2 hunters sitting on the ground not 80 yards away from my stand!!! – remember this is public land.
I gave one thunderous roar with the Primos call and the sprinting buck stopped and turned my direction without hesitation. He was mad and I believe intended to take it out on whoever just yelled at him in his house! Perfectly positioned to see my 2D buck head-on, he puffed up his chest andbegan to charge at the intruder. At 5 yards from and facing the decoy he abruptly stopped, quartering towards meat 28 yards.
He cocked his head back and upwards then very slightly to the side in a threatening posture to the paper warrior.
Just then he must have caught a whiff of the doe-heat scent bomb hanging just 10 yards upwind of him and he once again turned his attention on a dime.
I could almost see the buck’s brain do a complete back flip inside his skull at his confusion as all of these thingscrashed intohim at once. He seemed to relax for a brief moment and took one full step towards me and sniffed the ground. But he was now facing directly towards me.
Then, as his brain firmly stuck the perfect landing he seemed to know in an instant that something was very very wrong and he froze. His hair raised some and began to twitch in places as he contemplated his options.
I could see that he was starting to shift his weight back and was going to flee but at this point I already had my 25 yard pin tuned in on his throat, just in case (aiming for the exit hole which would take me through at least one vital organ.) And when I felt he was about to jump 180 and bolt I squeezed the release.
The obligatory fish shot:
My arrow made a complete pass-thru, entering the throat it cutting the esophagus and an artery, then entered the chest and hit the front half of his right lung, exiting just behind the right shoulder and painted the forest red. He left a 18” wide stripe of red all the way to his final resting place not 100 yards from the place of impact. When we field dressed him, he had less than a half a cup of blood left in him.
All in all – I would say that this was nearly the perfect hunt. Everything just happened to line up correctly and for once the accidents ended up in my favor. I suppose many successes rely in small part to favorable accidents. I know I’ll keep taking as many as I can get!
Side Note:
This is not a shot that I would recommend for anybody to take and I realize that it is not the desired shot. In fact, it might shock some of you and I think that is alright. I am an expert marksman, army trained, and can drive nails with a rifle or a bow. I have also made this very shot on 3 other occasions, twice with my sniper rifle of a shotgun setup and once with a bow. These were all the 4 fastest kills I’ve made, lasting only seconds.
I would still prefer a quartering away shot but am very comfortable threading a needle when needed too.
Also, my friend Eric got his best buck this weekend – We’re both very happy!
11-20-2007, 02:05 PM
#6
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Senatobia ms
Posts: 153
RE: my IL Buck on Public Ground
Awesome buck! And if you are comfortable in your skills to make that shot, more power to ya! I have made that shot a few times and it was devasting. But as you said some will come at you about it. Never seen a story with pics of everything you used lol...
11-20-2007, 02:06 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Elkview WV
Posts: 2,369
RE: my IL Buck on Public Ground
I, unlike some of the others, will says congrats and that's one heck of a shot. I've taken two full front on shots in my life with a bow and the end results were a very short, heavy blood trail to a dead deer.
11-20-2007, 02:14 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SOUTH Carolina--I've moved!
Posts: 2,760
RE: my IL Buck on Public Ground
ORIGINAL: USAF_hunter
I will also congratulate you! If you are comfortable in your shot, take it. Regardless of an alert deer or not. Nice buck sir.
I will also congratulate you! If you are comfortable in your shot, take it. Regardless of an alert deer or not. Nice buck sir.
11-20-2007, 02:16 PM
#10
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location:
Posts: 13,082
RE: my IL Buck on Public Ground
Congrats man! Awesome shot, and AWESOME DEER!! Nicely done! There's more than 1 way to skin a rabbit, and who is anyone to say it is right or wrong....It got the job done, and that's all that matters....