HuntingNet.com Forums - I had the best time in ND, Thanks Tim!

Well, I am finally back safely from my ND late season whitetail trip with fellow member TJF (TIM) and what an absolutely awesome week of sharing great times and hunting I had with Tim and his family. It was extreme whitetail hunting from the ground and a few trees, our warmest temps were around 12-15 and our lowest, believe it or not dipped down to -45 below. Tim and I hunted our tails off for8 days.......... nestling in natural ground blinds in every hunt except one which I set up in a ladder stand.

I was lucky enough to start the trip off by landing in ND and meeting up with fellow Rut Junkies and HNI'rs Dan and his crew! So Tim, Tyler (tims son) Dan, John and Dan's Bro in law all got some quick visiting in as I stepped off the plane. Dan and the crew were headed to Saskatchewan and were passing through Grand Forks when I flew in. We had a nice visit, It was great getting to meet everyone! obtw, congrats Dan on your 5x5 bull!

Tim and I spent Friday the 26th to Sat Jan 3rd, Hunting every morning, then scouting during the mid days and then hunting every evening. We took on some cold temps and deep snow to sneak our way into various set-ups comprised of standing corn field edges, shelter belts, sloughs and crp fields. The deer hunting was awesome, not only did I see more deer than I would see in 2 to 3 years of bowhunting out here in the big woods of Idaho, I really enjoyed most getting to set up game plans with Tim on how we would approach each hunt. I happened to have an either sex tag and held out through the entire week for a big mature buck. I ended up passing on a 8 or 9 bucks at less than 20 yards all immature 3.5's and younger.

I did get a shot a dandy 4.5 plus year old bruiser that Tim and I had found and scouted the morning earlier. Timsnuck me into an gigantic slough area that had some corn butted up against it. We spent a couple hours glassing for a big boy and found him that morning, later that evening I slipped back into the slough and set up in some cain grass on the edge of cut field. Like clock work the big 5x5 emerged from my west, the same direction he had exited that slough earlier that morning. I was actually set up too well in that he made a "b" line straight to my position, nose to nose. With in seconds the big boy was standing at 15 yards from me straight on, never giving me an opportunity to draw. So I held tightas he looked right through me...face toface as he dropped his head to dig for grass and eat. Finally he made a move to enter the cain grass and I had to draw when he was broadside at 12 yards, when I did, he spooked (i expected that)and I bleated at him and itstopped him but not after he had burst out to 40 yards. At full draw and at 40 yards, he turned broadside and looked back at my position. I settled my 40 yard pin on his heart and tripped my release. Upon release, I all remember is a loud crack! and then watching the buck race off for over 1/2 mile... Full bore.. Something definately went wrong with my release, I never did see nor find my arrow even with over a full hour of daylight to search in... Tim and I tracked the bucks tracks for a good 3/4 of a mile and he definately showed 0 evidence of ever being hit. No blood, running full bore uphill..etc...After analyzing everthing........ the best explanation Tim and I can come up with is that I either clipped a cain grass shoot or more likely had my arrow slip off my original trophy taker prong and it rested on my shelf between my fallaway and riserwhen I let the arrow fly... That skinny little rest may have cost me a trophy buck, and later in the week while pre-drawing (practicing) on some other deer I had my arrow do this one more time, except for I caught it because I was just practicing on some smaller bucks I knew I wouldnt shoot. Anyway, I got the opportunity of a lifetime, to shoot at a big mature buck off the ground and it just didnt work out. No regrets there! Tim and I hunted for6 more days after I missed the big buck and I passed up several younger bucks and many does. Tim always putting me in his best spots and he let me go to work picking alot of my own, I couldnt have been treatedbetter. Tim and I had a great time deciphering and game planning these late season deer and we did quite well in regards of numerous shot opportuntiies. Tim like myself passed up many does and several young bucks. He actually passed up more 3.5s than I did...

Again it was just a dream for me to get to see deer on every hunt. It just doesnt work that way here at home in my big timber. All in all I had the best time I have ever had on an out of state hunt, the only thing that could have made itbetter was for me to have killed that big buck I got a shot at. But I am a believer in that everything happens for a reason and with my miss early in that week, I did everything to learn from it and move on. I told Tim I have a 12-24 hour rule, 12 hours to analyze and make any changes needed and then the final 12 to drop it. Thats what I did. I was very tempted to shoot a dandy3.5 year old that was pretty broke up... on the second to the last day but I elected to pass, knowing I was gonna hunt the big bucks spot one more time! Late on my last evenings hunt, I was able to drill a nice big fat doe and that in itself was very cool for me. I have never shot a doe in my life until last Friday evening.. The 525 grain acc and 125 tipped Montecs did the job very well on a double lunged 8-10 yard shot... She tipped over in 40-50 yards in about 8-10 seconds..

I can't thank Tim and his family enough for letting me come out andI got to enjoy as good ofwhitetail hunting as I could everimagine in the late seasonand to be honest, I actually liked the bitter cold conditions, we ddint see another hunter!I learned a ton from Tim; about his country, how is deer use it etc! I also foundthat the cold couldnt slow us down, even the -45 belowday!

My brother had said to me a few years ago when I bought that TT rest that that "skinny little prong was going to cost me abigbuck someday!" Maybe he was right! I still dont know forsure if it did, but my gut feeling is just that..

Below are some pix of my hunting in ND, just an awesome experience. Again Tim I can't thank you enough for having me out!