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I know something about getting it done on public land...

Vermonster1121

Junior Member
66
17
Sheldon, VT
Well the days have come and gone on our highly anticipated trip to Ohio. This year marked our 4th year making the long trek from Vermont to Ohio. As usual the anticipation was high and we were hoping to hit the rut (which can always be challenging booking a vacation a year in advance). This year we had our cabin booked from November 2nd to November 12th. Being that it was our fourth year hunting the same piece of public ground, my buddy and I had started to maintain a short list of proven spots although, like always, we had new areas of interest. The beginning of the trip was spent with days exploring new coordinates and dealing with the everyday struggles of hunting public ground. We weren't seeing many deer, in fact I had yet to see a deer until I saw the one below, but spirits were still high as we knew rutting activity would soon be picking up and we had saved our better spots until the weather turned good.

It was the morning of November 8th, the first good weather day after a weather front, and the first planned all day sit. I had previously scouted this spot on the prior Saturday, hanging two trail cameras due to the amount of fresh sign in the area. I had found this area on the year prior and hunted it twice before. Although I did not physically see any deer in this area on a sit here the year before, I would still consider this area one of my "honey holes" as I heard deer on previous sits, its challenging location, and the trail cameras it had produced the last year. During the scout I pondered the idea of hunting from the ground. Not only was it a "fun" walk in with my climber, once up in a tree I could hardly see though the undergrowth as it was all from around the same growing period, so I decided to give it a go on the ground. The day before I hit up a Rural King (awesome store that we don't have in VT) and pick up a hot seat for all day comfort and to keep my biscuits dry. As I made my way into the area on the morning of the 8th I sprayed down with some purty stuff as I approached my first of two cameras. I grabbed the camera and continued another .2 miles to my next camera and where I would be sitting. After pulling camera number two I picked a large oak tree to sit under on the edge of a small bank where it met a shelf. The oak had a nice dead long leaning up against the stump and would allow me to shoot 30 yard to the shelf behind me and 30 yards to the trail below me. I cleaned all the leaves out from the base of the tree to remain quiet and began to settle in for my all day sit. As the woods began to wake up I popped my SD cards into my phone to see what my cameras had captured. I sat there thumbing through photos as I heard the infamous "snap" and the low sound of walking footsteps in the soft leaves. Through the thick undergrowth in front of me I spotted a dark body working up to the mock scrape I had made and just pulled my camera off of. The deer began working the scrape and through his movement I was able to spot a nice main beam with multiple points. The buck put on quite the show working the scrape and even stood on his back legs to work the licking branch. Although I have not harvested many bucks with my bow (this makes my second) I still did not drive to Ohio to shoot something "small" or something I could harvest at home. A buddy and I always refer to it as the "wow factor." Needless to say the more of a show the buck kept putting on, paired with me sitting on the ground a mere 30 yards away, his "wow factor" began to creep up. I decided that I was going to try and harvest the deer if he presented me a shot. In making the decision to shoot I remembered that I had not yet loosened the wing nut on my HHA single pin sight to be able to adjust my yardage wheel. I reached up to loosen the nut and struggled a bit. As the nut came loose, either I jerked, or my release thumped off the string but the buck stopped what he was doing and stared directly at me. At this point I thought my hunt was over. I remained still behind my bow and stared back for 10 or so seconds. I was dressed in full camo (including gloves and facemask) and it must have been enough to hide me under the dark canopy of the early morning. The buck went back to working the scrape. After a few more seconds he picked up the scent I had sprayed on my boots on the walk in and began heading out on the trail. I grunt stopped him at 30 yards and sent a nice shiny Beman White Out into the boiler room. He whirled and made it about 70 yards before I heard him pile up. I felt blessed to be able to witness such and show and harvest a beautiful buck. The satisfaction of making a long trip out of state, to hunt public ground, and use knowledge gained of the whitetail deer in order to study maps and locate them is why I love hunting public ground. I'm thankful that Ohio has so many different tracks of public ground and affords the opportunity for us "out of staters" to come hunt. I could never imagine what it would be like to live in such an amazing whitetail habitat.

I know this has been a long write up already, but I also wanted to share a short story of another buck harvested on our trip. This gentlemen joined us for his first trip to Ohio. After I had harvested my buck I sent him to this particular area and he was able to harvest his first ever buck with a bow, a true Ohio beauty. As daylight broke he had a small 6 point come in and decided with one day left in the trip to try and harvest it. Upon releasing an arrow he successfully arrowed a small tree just feet away. The buck made a couple bounds off but did not know what the commotion was. Since the buck didn't run off he nocked another arrow and grabbed his grunt call to try and coax him back in. The young buck wanted nothing to do with the grunt call and slowly walked off. As he sat back down and hung up his bow he heard that infamous "snap" we have all heard. He looked up and the below buck was walking in. It worked a scrape at a mere 18 yards. Boy I can never have that luck! I guess when it's meant to be it's meant to be. The guy wasn't sure of the hit so he went to the truck and waited for my buddy and I to help take up the blood trail. Upon arrival he was very worked up so we thought it best for him to stay on last blood. Keep in mind at this point all he had told me was that the had shot at "a tall 8 point." So we began tracking and after a few moments my friend and I had no doubt the deer was dead, but yet we didn't tell our inexperienced friend lol. A few moments later we came up on the buck and were all amazed by his size. I felt lucky just to be able to put my hands on such a creature.

Thanks all for the read. Happy hunting and shoot straight!
 

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MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Congrats on 2 nice bucks. Just goes to show there are big bucks behind every tree. But it just took 4 years to find the right tree. Just don't tell any more NR deer hunters. LOL
 

Vermonster1121

Junior Member
66
17
Sheldon, VT
Congrats on 2 nice bucks. Just goes to show there are big bucks behind every tree. But it just took 4 years to find the right tree. Just don't tell any more NR deer hunters. LOL

People know I go to Ohio but I don’t even tell people what part or what forest. I’ve done way too much work to find some of these spots. There are definitely not bucks behind every tree but if you work for them you can find them.