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A Buck for My Girls...

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Before I start getting all long winded and such, I want to give thanks to a few people in my life who made this journey possible. The most important of those being my loving wife Tracie. Without her constant love and support, not to mention her tolerance for my obsession, I would not enjoy being a bowhunter as much as I do. To my parents, I offer a huge “Thank You” for buying me my first bow and setting this journey in to motion. They too have endured my shenanigans over the years and for that, I will be eternally grateful. Fluteman Greg, you have been a tremendous friend and hunting companion whose support has never waivered. Thank you not only for that, but for also helping with the recovery. I look forward to the day where I can repay the favor! And last but not least, to the members of this forum, I offer a heartfelt “Thank You TOO” for always being supportive and making The Ohio Outdoors the best damn virtual deer camp out there! You guys rock!!!

A Buck for My Girls…

Journey. Other than being the artist whose hit “Faithfully” supplied the music for the bridal party dance at our wedding reception, journey refers to “the travel or passage from one place to another”. As hunters we are on a never ending journey of highs and lows, twists and turns. My journey for a mature buck with a bow, one I felt I had earned once the hunt was over, has been on going since the 2001 season, with the past 6 seasons being the most intense. Since embarking on this quest, the lows have been numerous, with the twists and turns sickening at times. If there was ever a season for things to end on a high, I hoped more than ever it would the 2012 season. With my first child on her way at the end of December, I knew this would be my last season of intense, all consuming bow hunting and it was “now or never” going in to this season. When I picked up the phone to call my wife after the shot on Sunday, knowing she was opening gifts at her baby shower, I had tears in my eyes also knowing that the journey was over and a new one was about to begin. With any great journey, there comes an equally great story. I have been after my greatest story for years and it feels damn good to finally be putting pen to paper! This is the story of how my 2012 bow buck hit the dirt…

Saturday - November 3rd - AM Hunt

Going in to this season, I picked up a new farm that totals 260 acres and butts up to some tremendous ground for holding big deer. Along with our farm and the acreage behind my parent’s house, adding this new property to the mix gave me what I felt was as good a chance to harvest a respectable buck as I have ever had. At midday on Friday, I hung a stand in an area of the new farm that should have produced a good encounter or two. It was slow that evening, so I elected to leave the stand overnight and return in the morning with high expectations of having a good hunt the next day. Shortly after shooting light Saturday morning, I spotted a doe headed my direction and readied myself for the action that could follow. Soon after she had filtered through the timber in front of my stand, I heard footsteps coming from the thicket behind the stand and thought I was in business. To say I was disappointed when I realized it was another hunter would be an understatement. Trying to be respectful, I climbed down and made my presence known. After a friendly discussion with the neighbor who had every right to be there and had hunted this particular spot for years, I elected to pull out of the area and head to a new spot. Being frustrated with the growing “public private” feel to this new farm, it was now a toss up on where to go next, so I decided to head to “old faithful” as I’ve dubbed my parent’s 11.5 acres. The ground behind their house is not spacious by any means, but it is about as strategically placed piece of ground as you can get. It also seems to be the first spot where I see rutting activity on an annual basis, so I was confident that the move could produce given some luck.

By 10AM, I had settled in to my stand which overlooks an overgrown field, creek bottom, and oak flat that parallels the field. Around noon, I spotted a young doe that acted spooked as she ran across the field and disappeared in to the woods in front of my stand, only to reappear a short time later as she bounded back across the field. No less than two minutes behind her, was another young doe who also appeared to be spooked. My first thought was a coyote had spooked them as they came from the direction of the yips I had heard earlier in the morning. Then I got to thinking that a buck could be the reason they were on edge and he might be right behind them. I decided to wait 5 minutes, and then rattle if I had not seen any sign of a buck. The 5 minutes passed and there was no sign of the buck, so I grabbed the Knight & Hale Pack Rack and painted the image of two bucks fighting over a hot doe. Shortly after I finished my calling sequence, the same 2.5 year old 8-point I had rattled in last Sunday, came flying over the ridge in to the field looking for the source of the commotion. He eventually worked his way back in to the woods and it left me contemplating about what I should do for the evening sit. Knowing the tree I was in could produce at any moment, gave me the confidence to come back. But I still had Captain Jack and our farm on my mind. So I downloaded a coin flipping app on my phone and decided that best out of three would determine where I would spend my evening. Little did I know I was about to get the stroke of luck I needed as the stand I was in, won the coin toss. At 1PM, I broke for lunch, put on some dry socks, and readied myself for the evening hunt.

Saturday - November 3rd - PM Hunt

I took my time walking back to my stand and had a little fun with a couple of does on the way back. By 2:30, I was settled in the stand and readiy for what I hoped would be a great evening hunt. Around 3:30, I heard foot steps along the field edge in front of the stand. After grabbing the binos and spotting tines through some thick brush, I was able to get a brief glimpse of what I estimated to be a 140” 10-point as he scanned the field from the safety of the brush. After a few minutes, he slipped back in to the woods from the direction he came. This was an encouraging sign, but at the same time it began raising some concerns about the rest of the hunt. He came from the same direction where my scent was beginning to back draft and I was worried the next deer to appear from that area would be directly downwind. Knowing most of the good bucks I have ever seen on this property prefer that same area as their access to the field, I knew I was pushing it by continuing to hunt with that wind direction. Finally around 4:15, I decided that despite my faith in the Scent Smoker, it was not worth the risk of educating a mature buck given the limited amount of ground I have to hunt there. My ground blind in the bottom below my stand would have to suffice for the remainder of the evening.

Shortly after settling in to the blind, I caught movement on the hill above me and watched as two lone doe fawns worked down the hill towards my food plot. Knowing they have been with a big doe all season, I readied myself for a shot at momma. She never did show and the two fawns eventually worked down the bottom where they encountered another lone doe fawn. A short boxing battle broke out and I was enjoying the show when I caught movement on the ridge near my stand. I grabbed the binos and watched as one of the biggest deer I have seen in years reared up on his hind legs and thrashed the branches above a scrape. All I could do was shake my head knowing that he had just walked past the stand I was in less than an hour earlier, providing what would have been a 25 yard quartering away shot. (Finding his tracks along that trail later on confirmed this.) When I talk about the sickening twists and turns of this journey, his actions perfectly represent the constant bad luck I have had over the course of my bowhunting career! Last season, I was beginning to hate bowhunting and it warranted a change in perspective on my behalf, or I was going to hang it up and get a new hobby. This new found attitude allowed me to laugh off what had just happened and at the same time, it fired me up to come back the next morning. See over the years I have learned that any buck I see working that direction in the evenings, I know he will most likely return from that direction in the morning. On the way back to the truck that night, I couldn’t help but think tomorrow could be the day despite Saturday being the day that the Deer Gods kicked my butt!!!
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Sunday - November 4th

Sunday was my wife’s baby shower, so one of her close friends from college and her husband Ben came down Saturday evening for the shower. Ben came along so he could hunt with me on Sunday and the plan was to spend the morning behind my parent’s place, and then head to the farm in the evening. Shortly after daylight Sunday morning, he spotted a nice buck working out of the thicket near our barn. Ben grunted at the buck as he turned down a trail that wouldn’t provide a shot, but he never did come in to range. As the buck worked off, he went in a direction that gave me a little confidence that we could get Ben on him that evening. Ultimately, this played a part in getting us back there in the evening and eventually, to me killing my buck.

Not long after Ben has his encounter, I heard foot steps in the same area I had seen the 10-point appear from on Saturday. The noise was also coming from the same trail the buck I spotted on Saturday night used when he exited the field after tearing up the scrape. I knew it was him and that my observation of deer leaving that direction in the evening, and returning from that direction the next morning was about to gain some street cred!

Several minutes passed before I saw my buck enter the field and act as if he was going to cut the corner and enter the woods within range of my stand. After taking a couple of steps my direction, he turned and started walking away from me. I grabbed the grunt call and hit it twice, stopping him in his tracks. He stood there fixated on my location for several minutes before turning to head away from me again. This time I hit the grunt call a little more aggressively and threw in a doe bleat for good measure. This time, he turned and walked my direction before locking up at 75 yards. For a good 5 minutes, he stood in one spot staring intensely in to the woods near my stand. Again, he turned to leave and again I got more aggressive with the call, eventually bringing him to the field edge 45 yards from my stand. It was way too thick for a shot and now he could see the oak flat where all the “commotion” was coming from. The longer he stood there scanning the woods, the more nervous he became. Close to 25 minutes in to our encounter, he turned to leave and I threw a last ditch snort-wheeze at him only to have it turn him inside out! I sat down in my Millennium and hung my head. I was so close, yet so far away. It worked, but it didn’t. It was one more low and one more sickening turn in my journey...

After I was done feeling sorry for myself, I texted Ben and asked if he had any issues with skipping the evening hunt at the farm and returning to my parent’s in the evening. Thankfully, he was good with the plan and eager to make a move on the buck he saw that morning. So we broke for lunch around 11:30 and were back in our stands by 1:30 that afternoon. I placed Ben on a small hogsback in our creek bottom near one of the best pinch points I have to hunt. If the buck he saw that morning had bedded where I felt he had, he would most certainly come past Ben’s stand that evening. My decision was to make a move up the field edge to the general area where I had seen my buck leave, come from, and leave again over the span of my last two hunts. Tree selection was limited and the Lone Wolf/Millennium combo proved itself once again as I was able to tuck myself in a quadruple split Hickory tree with ample cover. I was no more than 18’ off the ground, but I was well hid in this tree and the trail I expected him to use, was to my left at 8 yards. Although the trail was directly downwind of my stand, I was going to forget the wind and hunt because it had already cost me once!

For the third straight day, the wind was brutal and it forced me to pull my beanie down over my ears and put the hood up on my jacket. I stood with my back to the wind (as well as the area I really needed to be watching) and was really beginning to hate life. I tried to stay positive and as I have a million times, I played out the scenario of how THIS would be the day it finally happened. After all, it was my little girl’s baby shower and it made for a great story right? And I live for the story. But I knew better as the years of failure were causing doubts to creep in my mind and I was growing increasingly tired of the thought of grinding it out for another 7 or 8 days. Not to mention I was sick and tired of hunting in the wind! I was running out of gas and it was only Day 3. Desperately in need of a pick me up, around 5PM it happened…

I had just finished texting my buddy Jackson about dinner when something told me to turn around and when I did, I spotted my buck as he was coming across the field towards my stand. He was 50 yards out and closing fast. I quickly dropped my hood, pulled off my beanie, grabbed my bow and readied my release. As he entered the woods, he stopped on the trail I had walked in on, the same one I expected him to use as he walked past my stand. I knew it would be the first real test of the EverCalm and knots started forming in my stomach. He stood there for 2-3 minutes picking up leaves in his mouth, spitting them out and sniffing the ground. At one point, he stuck the end of 3 saplings in his mouth that I had touched with the same hand I had used to apply the EverCalm to my boots. I was in shock at what I was witnessing!!!

The longer he stood there facing down the hill checking things out, the more I was worried that he might walk directly down the hill and not give me a clean shot. He was at 27 yards and I had one small opening to shoot through, but somehow I convinced myself not to force the shot and let things unfold as they were meant to. No sooner than I had made that decision, did he took a step my direction, committing to walking down the trail that would give me an 8 yard. “Holy shit, this is going to happen…” I thought as I put some tension on the string. He worked along the trail slowly, sniffing the ground and EverCalm all the way to his death. As he neared, I backed up to the seat on my Millennium, readied my bow and drew as he went behind the last of the cover between us and the shooting lane. When he entered the sight picture, I bleated to stop him, took one last look at my level bubble, corrected the cant of my bow and let loose on a 100-grain Montec CS tipped Easton Flatline. I watched the arrow disappear right behind the shoulder and midway up his chest; the blood was immediately visible as he tore off through the woods. I listened for the crash and felt I heard him go down after what sounded like him running in circles down in the creek. I threw my hands in the air and the tears followed. I cannot express in words the feeling I had looking down on a bloody arrow knowing that my journey towards a decade old goal may have become a reality on a very special day in Tracie and I’s life.

The aftermath…

I picked up the phone and called Tracie who was in the middle of opening gifts at the shower. After sharing my excitement with her, I texted Greg and Jackson to help with the recovery because I knew it was going to be a chore getting him out of the area where he crashed. Ben called while I was pulling my stand to tell me that he had heard me bleat, heard the shot, and watched the buck run off from his stand in the bottom. He also felt he heard him crash, which was reassuring to say the least! After packing up all my gear, I made my way down to my food plot where I threw in a celebratory chew of Redman and we took off after the buck.

He made it further than I expected he would, but it wasn’t long before I again raised my hands in triumph! I finally had a mature buck, one I had earned, on the ground and it was time to celebrate!!! We snapped a few quick photos with our phones, and then headed back to the house to round up our help and throw back a few cold ones while we waited. Here is how I found him…



After getting him loaded in the truck, I spent the rest of the evening texting people and enjoying a few glasses of American Honey and Sprite! I woke up early yesterday so we could take him to the farm for pictures, get him to the processor, and “officially” run a tape over him. My estimate is that his deer is at least 4.5 years old, maybe older and I plan to have the teeth aged to verify that. His field dressed weight was 215 pounds, making him the largest deer I have ever killed by 18 pounds. The final numbers from the tape verify that he is the biggest buck of my career, outpacing my 2004 gun killed 9-point by 3” with a gross score of 139” even. He carries 37” of mass and his right side scores 70.25”. If he had matched, and even with a 15” spread, he would have been a 155” 10-point plus or minus a few inches. There is also a broken tine behind his 1.5” brow on the weak side that would have certainly put him over 140 gross. Both bases were 5.5” and 6” respectively, with his right side mass measurements being 5.5”, 5”, 4.5” and 4”. His longest tine is his left G2 which measures 10.5”. All in all, I am one satisfied bowhunter and it is a damn good feeling!!!
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Thankfully for those of you willing to read this novel, I have nothing left but the pictures. I hope you enjoyed reading my story and thanks for going along on my journey…













One final side note: This deer posed in front of one of my cheap Covert trail cameras Saturday night when he reared up on his hind legs to thrash the licking branches over his scrape. He also struck a fantastic pose in front of it Sunday morning with the raising sun illuminating his presence; an image that would have been one of the best trail cam pictures I have ever recorded. Unfortunately, and very painfully for me, the camera never triggered and I am left without what were sure to have been some classic pictures of this buck. When I returned to the stand Sunday evening after discovering this, I brought one of my SpyPoints with me and hung it over the scrape. That camera only snapped one series of pictures, but I was left with an indelible image the shows how I felt post shot and when I first laid eyes on him after the shot. I guess this will have to work…

 

huntn2

Senior Member
6,090
157
Hudson, OH
Great read Jesse. Congrats again. You are absolutely correct about a new chapter in life beginning come December.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Great buck and read. Its a refreshing feeling isn't it

Thanks man. And without a doubt it is refreshing! I was ignorant in my thinking a few years ago that I could simply work hard and will it to happen. That is not the case and I caused myself a lot of misery. I have a lot of you guys on here to thank for helping me gain a new perspective on my passion for bowhunting. I needed both a pick me up and a reality check, and both were supplied by you all. It made a difference this season for sure!
 

1hornwilly

*Supporting Member III*
Every bit of that was awesome. Thanks for taking the time to write all the detail...it made for an awesome read. I learn something from every one of these stories. You deserved it, buddy. Just awesome, awesome stuff.
 

JOHNROHIO

Participation Trophy Winner
2,824
136
Job well done Jesse, congratulations on an awesome deer! I really enjoyed reading your story.
 

xbowguy

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
29,633
234
Licking Co. Ohio
Great Story and even Greater Buck Jesse. Deer God's were not against you....Just leading you in the right direction. I definately agree you earned this one. Congrat's on such a nice buck!
 

lung buster

Senior Member
2,666
106
hocking county
As i imagined, your story was worth the wait! I have always enjoyed reading about your adventures over the years. I think it is safe to say that there is not many people around that has more passion for our sport than you. Congrats on a well earned deer!
 

ImpalaSSpeed96

Junior Member
561
60
NJ
Congrats Jesse, Ill come back and read the rest later. Awesome buck though and can I suggest getting some pics in the woods with him, guts still in. You took great pics, they would have been AMAZING in the woods while he was still fresh. Still very great pics.

BTW, you're a lot uglier than I imagined..... lol
 

Fluteman

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,094
146
Southeast Ohio
What a great read Jesse! I was pumped when I received the text, and glad to be there to help you get him out. There are few out there that have worked as hard as you have and endured the things you have to finally kill a great deer. To say you earned that deer is simply an understatement. I cannot think of one person I wanted to see succeed more than than you, and I truly do mean that. Congrats on a fine buck, and enjoy the rest of your season while you can!