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The pen pal deer

TripleA88

*Supporting Member*
To be honest, I don’t think I ever saw this deer with my own two eyes except for 1 occasion.. I’ve joked around and always called this deer my “Pen Pal”.

The property setting is basic. Take an aerial view of the township and it looks like someone dabbed their paint brush in paint and threw it on paper. Dots, lots and lots of dots. Smaller 10-20 acre wood tracts out the ying yang every which way you looked. The property had nothing special, all I had access to was 18 acres of thick immature woods surrounded by 140 acres of AG fields. The neighbor had an adjoining 3 acres and a 250 yard fence row of trees that ran to another 20 acres of thick timber.

I began hunting this property during the middle of the 2006 season. It was shared by 2 others at the time. I felt obligated the first few years to earn my stay and did very little bow hunting. My season was generally made by just helping the 2 landowners sons be successful. When I moved in, they lacked scent control and proper stand placement, and I’m not saying I’m a professional by any means. Lets just say they both tripled their deer kills with my help. Year after year I saw both of them lose more and more devotion to the sport. Partly because reality took over for the both of them and time restrictions. Now was my time to make some moves as I had to property to myself 90% of the time.

Graduating from college, being self employed and single most of the time, I began running my buddies trail cameras he let me borrow in 2009 and hunting more for myself. I didn’t know shit about them. Find a scrape, throw a cam on it, get a few pictures of some bucks, take inventory and wing it. I never produced. This cycle went on for a few years, but each year I got more efficient. I slowly began picking up on consistent travel routes each year but vowed I would never go farther than 40 yards inside the wood line to hunt. It’s their house, and I always played the cautious game thinking they knew when we would set foot in there. I got some real nice bucks on cam over the years but the glimpses I’d see of them were darting out of the woods running a doe never to be seen again.

My goal was always to harvest a good buck that I may have had some history with, whether I had seen him a few times or through camera. I’d see guys through forums and TOO over the years kill great bucks with awesome history. I wanted that personal challenge and pride.
 
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TripleA88

*Supporting Member*
Fast forward to 2012. With a recently purchased IR trail camera from Joe, deer season one month away, I got my first sequences of velvet pictures. Right on a bean field edge along the 250 yard fence row. I was hooked instantly. Like I said, I’ve gotten pictures of deer before by winging it, but once I got velvet pictures of him, I said this is the one. This will be the one I will devote my time too.



I’d pick up on ideas on how guys had similar land setups as I. Hunt fence rows, so I kept my camera right on it, as well as hanging a stand eventually. Season was right around the corner, velvet was shedding and I began getting A LOT of pictures of this deer. All at night though…



I wasn’t getting enough clues as where to hunt this deer going into season so my best bet was to wait it out until the end of October, the seek phase and hope for the best. Through October I also placed another camera nearly a half a mile away over a community scrape and sure enough he would occasionally present himself there.




Seek phase was kicking in so I positioned myself in a stand on the fence row connecting the two woods. Each time I’d hunt, a regular group of 8 does would travel that fence row. It was only the matter of time before this buck would show and scent check or run these does. I kept this routine with no avail. The last picture of my buck came around midnight on November 5th. One morning I slept in to drive the area around November 7th. Nearly a mile and a half away, behind a house stood my buck, watching me drive. I stopped, threw binoculars on him, he turned and ran a doe into a 3 acre woodlot.

“You got to be f***ing kidding me” I thought. How the hell long would he be there? Will he survive? I know of a father and son that bow hunted that general area… I kept the cams running and continued to hunt through gun season, nothing…It’s over, I’ve been down this road, every year a monster is in the area only to disappear. I made a last hurrah during muzzy season but I was going into a rut of my own lol.

Turkey season came and went. Too be honest I’d occasionally think about that deer and what I could have done different. I wanted that deer but hope was fading as time went on.
 
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TripleA88

*Supporting Member*
Gearing up for the 2013 season I had no interest in returning to the property. Same shit different year, a new buck will show and disappear that I wouldn’t get in bow range. I had picked up some new property that I had more interest in. Season came in, and the new property (40 acres) revealed to have some real characters hunting it that the landowner failed to reveal. I backed out. In the mean time my buddy had setup a camera on a scrape line where I’ve had them before. Awesome area to take inventory of what might pass through.




October 16th-
I hooked up with him that day after buying a new Polaris Ranger to go joy ride for a bit. We snagged his cam, fired up my net book, and threw the SD card in. He had positioned his camera near a branch that triggered nearly 700 pictures of nothing. What a bust.. Nearing the end of the last few pictures I notice brown.

Instantly I knew when I blew the picture up. Took me half a friggin second and I had my phone out going through last years pictures. “IT’S HIM, in daylight?”.



I went home and I swear I spent 3 hours analyzing the pictures, thinking, and day dreaming. Now what do I do? This dude is one year older and one more year wiser. I didn’t just want to hunt this deer, wing it again like others and risk blowing him out. I stewed on it for one long night. This deer is around, my buddy and his son are riding quads every evening around the woods and they haven’t busted him out? I pretty much figured that the deer has ALWAYS been in the area. Slick bastards..

Then began the 2nd year quest. I made the assumption this deer was used to human/quad intrusion because my buddy has been riding probably all summer long. I used this to my advantage, every move I made in or around the woods, placing, checking cams or even hanging a stand, I would make sure I was noisy and in my Ranger. I had 2 cameras to get out. I know I had one on the community scrape I spoke of from the year before and I ended up getting pictures of him at midnight. Cant remember where I had placed the other, but I know it was a bust. I didn’t want to place the cam in the same area (fence row) I had it the year before knowing he only visited at night. I needed to switch it up this year.

Rut was closing in and I decided to get a little more aggressive this year hopping in between stands hoping to catch a glimpse. All I saw were dinks and does. I went home November 1st and stewed on my deer hunting tactics. It was a long night. I can remember thinking, how the hell can this deer be so elusive in a friggin 18 acre wood block? He’s around somewhere. In my head I formulated a new plan, one that would break my original rule. A leap of faith, lets get in the woods. I had just the spot in mind but within 70 yards of prime bedding. A bedding I’ve known of but stayed away from.

The next afternoon I showed up with my ranger, stands, a camera, and 2 five gallon buckets of apples. Didn’t take long, maybe 30 minutes and that area was locked and loaded. It was in an inside corner, maybe 80 yards in the woods, over looking small clearing but I was surrounded by honey suckle. I hunted that evening and saw deer, very hesitant deer at that, they were curious of my apple pile. That specific deer hunt taught me something new. I hung a stand hours before, hunted, saw deer and successfully got out of the woods without bumping deer. Looking at how cautious I was years past, thinking any thing and everything foreign to a deer would blow them out and then I just pulled this off? Hot damn, I had a revelation… But would a mature buck tolerate such non sense?

Here he is 2 days later, although at night…November 4th



The sequences of pictures he left me didn’t tell me anything new and I wasn‘t getting any closer. I figured this deer just sort of hops in and out of all the area woodlots. “Fugg it” I said, were going into rut, tomorrows November 5th and I’m hunting 5 straight days. Does, dinks, does and more dinks in those 5 days. Even a nanny alpha doe that lit my ass up late October in two other stands farther west I swore to shoot. She never skipped a beat in letting me know she knew I was there in the other stands. But she never caught on to me in this area. I would watch her and 3 others daily, but I held out.

Mentally and physically tired, I took a two day break the 11th and 12th. Guess what…





I was pissed beyond belief but now felt 100% confident he might be closer than I think. I had several conversations with myself and summed it up that he’s there now in daylight for the does. The fire was burning even hotter under my ass and I kept jumping in between work and hunting when I could, AM hunt this day, PM hunt this random day. Between the flurry of hunts I had after the 12th, I think the next closest time I would have closed in on him came right at last light a few days later, although I wasn’t there lol.

I kept trucking along, but my camera had not shown me evidence he was around 16th through 19th. My guess was lockdown due to our states trickle rut theory. I began cursing cameras. All they did was show me he was there when I wasn’t.

I hunted the 20th, hunted till 10ish, and left. Here’s me and what came an hour later.







Yea.. I wasn’t having fun any more. Here I am, a week or so out until gun, the landowners son hasn’t hunted at all yet and he’s planning on stocking the freezer during gun. My window of opportunity was fading. I called Joe, we talked, he put it in my head this deer has me patterned. A formula so to speak. I drive a loud ass diesel from hell, straight piped with a 7 inch stack that even wakes Jesus Christ himself up at night. It bellows louder than a T-Rex. It can be heard from 3 miles away and I park nearly ¾ of a mile away from my stand. Joe told me, “he hears your truck and has it matched with your scent of when you been to your stand, you roll in, in your truck, your busted. But he’s obviously comfortable enough to still be there though, switch it up”. I didn’t have the resources to switch up much nor much time. It’s all a blur when I hunted after that because I was in such a hurry. I think I hunted a few times till noon or hunted the fence row then climbed up in the woods stand around 9. No sightings and I got one last picture of him cruising by before gun. My cams were pulled during gun week.

I hunted opener of gun, heard a shot in the neighboring woods (20 acre wood lot) that evening and prayed for the best. Then I saw snow in the forecast and my priorities changed. Plow equipment came out and I was screwed the rest of gun. The landowners son smoked a button buck Tuesday on the fence row, I may have cringed a bit but kept my head held high. Gun season ended and I was absolutely swamped with snow but I stayed optimistic. I found a break on December 11th and got my cams back out to take post gun season inventory. On my way out I stopped by the landowners sons house, asked him if he went out anymore of gun, he said yep. His brother and himself pushed the woods Sunday shot at a doe on the front then shot at another doe back in the bedding area by my stand I’ve been hunting my buck out of. Nothing I could do, but felt I just wasted my time getting my cams back out. That bucks gone for sure by now I thought.
 
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TripleA88

*Supporting Member*
I no longer cared, I figured I’d take time off and look into hunting after the holidays. On Sunday the 15th I figured I had nothing better to do, so I went and checked cams. I took my net book with me, took a knee, and started scrolling through the pictures. Took a couple quick glances of daylight photos of the buck and backed out quietly and fast as I could. I didn’t have my ranger with me. This deer was bedding CLOSE!









Speechless.

This is exactly what I saw looking through my pictures on December 15th around 2 pm. It was a no brainer of what was going through my mind. I couldn’t ever add up why he didn’t get blown out but nor did I care. The time was now and told myself…”I can do this”. Texted Joe and told him I’m going to smoke him tomorrow. The weather was calling for a wind chill near zero with a slight dusting of snow. Wally World was my next stop. I bought enough hand warmers for 4 hunts. On my way home I battled between taking my compound or the cross bow. With that much clothing on and heavy hand mittens, I felt it was best to use the cross bow.

5:45 AM alarm rang and I’m in the truck. Speedway. Monster Energy and dip. Let’s fuggin do this. I pull in like I generally do, suit up, smoke up and there’s no wind with heavier snow falling than what the reports said. Snow covered the ground with a thin layer of ice on the top. All was quiet, still, except me crunching my way through the snow. Hopped the fence to enter my stand area, regardless of the noise I was making, I told myself its now or never. My stand was in sight and its closing in on 7 am. I’m late. Cross bows hooked, began my climb up the lone wolf sticks, and it wasn’t a quiet one. I’m in my stand, the tree bark its frozen making un godly amounts of noise and I figured I’m busted by now. I couldn’t even sit on my seat nor tried because it was glazed with ice so I stood, moving very little. Lastly, the bows in the tree with me ready to go.

7:40 I hear my phone vibrate. A guy that sub contracts me is texting me work orders so I hurried up and got him off my back for a bit.

7:51 I spot movement. The 8 point that has shown himself once with my buck in the past 3 days rolls in. I instantly knew it was game on and he would show in a moment. My bows in my hands. Adrenaline took over.

7:54 Movement spotted, hear comes a rack through the honey suckle. It’s him, no questioning, took my eyes of his rack. I couldn’t believe this was going to happen, everything I’ve been through the past two years flashed before my eyes. He gets a few steps from my opening. Brought my bow up, fugg, snow in the scope ring, steadily breathed into it. Cleared it, pointed, held, and the arrows in flight.

The rest is history. I found him 60 yards away and I couldn’t believe it. The near 500 day journey was over. Instantly, I broke news to Joe and two other friends. To be honest the whole situation hit me like a ton of bricks when I had time in the evening to look over all the camera pics from 2012. Nothing but respect for that deer. Words couldn’t describe it. It was just bittersweet. The most overlooked slightest adjustments got this deer. When you sit in the stand I took him in, your within a short baseballs throw of his core bedding to the south. If you look to the North, staring into the sea of cherry trees and honey suckle, you can distantly see glimpses of the fence row that connected the two woods tracts.

Every trip I made to the property since August of 2012 was like Christmas no matter how aggravated I would get, hoping he would appear on camera or I’d catch sight of him from the stand.

When I sit here and reflect on this deer, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. The success that came from the hardship makes it that much better. He was a needle in a hay stack as far as I’m concerned, literally the only mature buck in that area going into both deer seasons. It’s going to take some getting use to not seeing him anymore. I know they’ll be others to replace him but he’s the first I’ve gone a serious distance on. He had me schooled and kept me guessing. That near 500 day journey, hundreds of trail cam pics, and countless stand hours boiled down to my less than 1 minute encounter. It was one heck of a ride.

I can remember seeing this deer for the first time through a computer and for some reason he appealed to me more than any other deer I’ve been after. I had that feeling something great could come from this. Destiny? Luck? Who knows. I just had that feeling, one day…

Everything I’ve been through with this deer didn’t come full circle until the end, when I had actually sat down and thought about it. It hits home now that its over.


I’ll leave this story with a quote from Jesse (bowhunter1023) that describes it at best, and my bucks last hours.

“Plain and simple: This deer taught me more about myself than he did about hunting big, mature whitetails. For someone who doesn't understand what the hunt for one specific buck is like, this story probably seems overdramatized. The same can be said for those who don't understand the spiritual aspect of hunting.”




 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
HA! I'm honored that you would attach a quote of mine to such a great story! Literally brought a tear to my eyes as a flood of memories and emotions came back after reading your story and that quote. I am SO happy for you buddy! In my eyes, this is the ultimate accomplishment in bow hunting and you not only earned it, but really deserved it. He is a fantastic looking buck and the entire story is one that will ride with you through eternity. Congrats again on achieving what I consider to be the Holy Grail of bow hunting mature bucks.
 
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cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Out-frickin-standing!!! Great recap! I enjoyed every minute of it. And to some extent, I (like Jesse and some other son here) can relate to what you went through. I have my own white whale I've been after for 3 years (this year I did not devote as much time on him as I should have). You're story is just awesome!
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
That is one hell of a story, Alex. Definitely an instant TOO hall of famer IMO. I think we all learned a lot about mature deer from just reading that. Way to go dude... Very happy for you!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
That was an excellent read Alex! Congratulations again on fulfilling your journey with your Pen Pal! I said it several times when you posted up a pic of him that this deer was one of the most impressive deer posted by anyone so far this year and after hearing that you killed him I knew you had done something special!

Savor it man! Well deserved!!!