My story started last year when I first got permission to hunt a farm just a few miles from my house. I actually was looking for shed hunting permission and the nice farmer said I can hunt a 80 acre portion of his farm as other hunters hunt the bigger more enticing portion of his farm. I gladly accepted and told him if he needs ANY help on the farm just give me a call and I would be more the happy to help.
I did actually find a huge set of sheds on his property that early spring and set my goal to harvest that particular deer. Here are those sheds:
I hunted this deer with a passion and never once laid eyes on him all season but I did have a close encounter with another 150" buck that I never knew existed because I was apprehensive on putting any TC's out because of the others who hunted on or near the piece of property. It was around Oct. 29,not positive but very close, that I got to my stand at 9:00am that morning because of working 3rd shift. As I was settling in the property owner across the creek started his leaf blowing a mere 100 yards across the creek and up on the hill from my position. Boy! Was that disconcerning but nontheless, I was sure the deer were use to it by now and it was pre-rut time and some big ones had to be out cruising. I was in my stand for 1/2 hour when I looked down the creek and slinking his way up the creek between me and the leaf blower was this clean wide 10 point. He paid NO mind to the noise and was closing fast. I grabbed my bow, turned and drew back my bow and followed him through my sights from 30 yards out to complete broadside at 18 yards while he was still walking with not a clear shot to his vitals anywhere. I looked out ahead of him and saw a nice lane in which he was going to cross and started to get positioned for the shot there while still at full draw. Problem! Big problem! I had hung my backpack on the leftside of my tree and it was shoulder high and I could not get my bow to that position. He crossed that lane and stopped at a scrape a few feet from it and started hitting the limbs while facing me. It appeared he was looking right thru me in a daze a mere 25 yards from me at this time. When he stopped and looked away I let down in disgust hoping he might go in behind me and come out in the shooting lanes on the rightside of my tree but that didn't happen. I just had to watch him walk away and wait another day. I never saw him the rest of the season even though I bowhunted both of those deer real hard.
Fast forward to shed season. I walked my ass off looking for both of these bucks sheds and had once of the worse shed seasons ever only finding 11 and most of them were chewed to ruins or little dinks.Then this past summer I was out setting up cameras in the first parts of July and on my way out I saw the farmer as he was filling his tractor up with fuel getting ready to plant the rest of his soybeans. When he finished he turned to see me standing there and was somewhat startled. He said he'd been hoping to run in to me soon as he ran over a huge set of sheds a few weeks prior when he was disking up a small field. He showed me the huge shed that I knew was the same buck I found the sheds to last season. He asked me if I wanted it and I said, Heck yeah, and then thanked him and told him of the other set I found of the same deer. I asked where its mate was and he said it was broken up pretty bad and he just threw it in the wood line from where he ran over it. I ran over there and searched for a 1/2 hour till I found it and now I have the last two years of complete sets of the buck I call, "Bonehead"! Here is a pic of the two sets:
Now it's on! This set was ran over and mere 200 yards from where I picked the other set a year earlier so I know the deer hangs out here alot. Here is a TC pic of the deer a year ago in early Sept./late Aug. of 2010:
Well I started running my cams and wasn't getting much till it got closer to the velvet shedding period and while checking my cams one day I was excited to find a pleasant surprise. The buck that gave me the slip the previous season wasn't just passing thru that day but is also a resident deer as well. Here is the buck I harvested with another up in coming buck which happens to have splits on BOTH G-2's:
Well I decided to hunt a piece of this property that the ONLY way to hunt it without getting winded is hunting a set that needs a NW to N to NE wind. I would hunt below a shelf that both of these bucks use and the downwind side drops off to a steep creek basin. I finally got my wind direction I wanted due to a cold front moving thru on Oct. 2nd and slipped in to my stand around 4ish and settled in. At 6:45 I heard something off to my right and turned to see a top of a 12' tall tree swaying back and forth. I heard the blunt antler to tree trunk sound and turned with bow already in hand to glass the situation. I didn't need too! I could see it was "Bonehead", and immediately got into kill mode. I talked myself calmly as to how I was going to kill this deer with a chip shot in the near future. In a minute he was on his way to a wide shooting window in front of me with a steady cool breeze blowing from him to me. I was already at full draw and settled the 20 yard pin behind his shoulder and told myself to aim high to hit high and come out low. I actually aimed to high and with him dropping slightly at the shot I took a few shoulder and back hairs off him instead of sealing the deal. When he busted his way to the flat out in front of me the other target buck came busting out from the tree canopy with him. I never knew he was there because I was so focused on Bonehead. I had two 160" target bucks within 25 yards of me and it was only Oct. 2nd and I'm going home empty handed. Talk about dejection! Here is the pic of where I gave Bonehead a haircut. The lone yellow leaf in the center of the large shooting window is where he was walking through:
Even though I was dejected I hunted as often as I could, juggling a 3rd shift work schedule,family time,work around the house and visits to my very sick mother-in-law. I was seeing plenty of deer, both small bucks and does but both target bucks were a no show for the biggest part of October lull. Finally on Oct. 29th I was heading to a new set along the same creek but a place in between the backpack hunt and the hairshaving hunt. I had my rattling horns with me and I was going to make something happen. I sprayed some Buck Bomb on a honeysuckle bush 25 yards to the upwind direction of my stand prior to climbing up the tree. At 8:13am after not seeing a thing I grabbed my horns and tore it up for approx. 30 sec. then hung them up and grabbed my bow. Within 10 minutes I brought in a doe and little fella below me and two year and half old bucks above me. The doe blew out of there when she saw the bucks and the bucks gave me countless shooting ops and continued on thru after spending 5 minutes around my tree. Then! With my head on a swivel I caught movement in the creek bottom near the bend in the creek and saw "Split" ,the backpack buck, trying his dangest to get downwind wind of me. He couldn't because of the drop off. He did act as though he smelled the scent I sprayed out and didn't appear to be comfortable with it and skirted it's location as well as mine. I had him at 28 yards and there was just no shot. He slinked his way in the head of the finger in front of me and vanished again.
I hunted as hard as I could till I got a call on Halloween am from my wife that her mother had passed away at hospice. It was such a blow to our family and I knew I had to be at home for my wife and support her as long as she needed me too. I was out of the woods for approximately a week wondering what the target bucks were doing and going thru the grieving process at the same time.
I started hunting hard again after my wife, bless her heart, knew I was miserable not being in the woods. I am so blessed to have an understanding wife that even after losing her best friend she understands what hunting means to me.
After hunting the weekend and a few mid day hunts and not seeing the two targets I was after I started believeing both were locked down with a hot doe. I was seeing mostly 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks cruising and does just browsing throughout the day. Then on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, I saw two more mature bucks(still not quite shooters) out moving and searching as if things were going to pick back up. The weather was calling for a nasty front to move in our area on Mon. the 14th which was dampening my spirits on even trying to hunt that morning. I slept in till 7:30 and looked out the window expecting to see fierce winds and rain blowing sideways and it actually looked overcast and just alittle breezy. I told myself I can't kill them from the house so I cleaned up and headed for my stand overlooking a beanfield hoping to at least see a shooter from my perch.
I got to my stand at 8:00 and wasted no time in setting up using the wind as noise cover. As I was tying myself on I noticed a small busted up 8 pt. cruising in behind be at 35 yards. I told myself this might be the day! I turned around grabbed my bow and sat with it resting on my knee. It wasn't 5 minutes later(8:15am) I see a rather large deer step out of the corner of a draw approx. 150 yards away from me. I grabbed my bino's and immediately saw it was "Splits".
I did actually find a huge set of sheds on his property that early spring and set my goal to harvest that particular deer. Here are those sheds:
I hunted this deer with a passion and never once laid eyes on him all season but I did have a close encounter with another 150" buck that I never knew existed because I was apprehensive on putting any TC's out because of the others who hunted on or near the piece of property. It was around Oct. 29,not positive but very close, that I got to my stand at 9:00am that morning because of working 3rd shift. As I was settling in the property owner across the creek started his leaf blowing a mere 100 yards across the creek and up on the hill from my position. Boy! Was that disconcerning but nontheless, I was sure the deer were use to it by now and it was pre-rut time and some big ones had to be out cruising. I was in my stand for 1/2 hour when I looked down the creek and slinking his way up the creek between me and the leaf blower was this clean wide 10 point. He paid NO mind to the noise and was closing fast. I grabbed my bow, turned and drew back my bow and followed him through my sights from 30 yards out to complete broadside at 18 yards while he was still walking with not a clear shot to his vitals anywhere. I looked out ahead of him and saw a nice lane in which he was going to cross and started to get positioned for the shot there while still at full draw. Problem! Big problem! I had hung my backpack on the leftside of my tree and it was shoulder high and I could not get my bow to that position. He crossed that lane and stopped at a scrape a few feet from it and started hitting the limbs while facing me. It appeared he was looking right thru me in a daze a mere 25 yards from me at this time. When he stopped and looked away I let down in disgust hoping he might go in behind me and come out in the shooting lanes on the rightside of my tree but that didn't happen. I just had to watch him walk away and wait another day. I never saw him the rest of the season even though I bowhunted both of those deer real hard.
Fast forward to shed season. I walked my ass off looking for both of these bucks sheds and had once of the worse shed seasons ever only finding 11 and most of them were chewed to ruins or little dinks.Then this past summer I was out setting up cameras in the first parts of July and on my way out I saw the farmer as he was filling his tractor up with fuel getting ready to plant the rest of his soybeans. When he finished he turned to see me standing there and was somewhat startled. He said he'd been hoping to run in to me soon as he ran over a huge set of sheds a few weeks prior when he was disking up a small field. He showed me the huge shed that I knew was the same buck I found the sheds to last season. He asked me if I wanted it and I said, Heck yeah, and then thanked him and told him of the other set I found of the same deer. I asked where its mate was and he said it was broken up pretty bad and he just threw it in the wood line from where he ran over it. I ran over there and searched for a 1/2 hour till I found it and now I have the last two years of complete sets of the buck I call, "Bonehead"! Here is a pic of the two sets:
Now it's on! This set was ran over and mere 200 yards from where I picked the other set a year earlier so I know the deer hangs out here alot. Here is a TC pic of the deer a year ago in early Sept./late Aug. of 2010:
Well I started running my cams and wasn't getting much till it got closer to the velvet shedding period and while checking my cams one day I was excited to find a pleasant surprise. The buck that gave me the slip the previous season wasn't just passing thru that day but is also a resident deer as well. Here is the buck I harvested with another up in coming buck which happens to have splits on BOTH G-2's:
Well I decided to hunt a piece of this property that the ONLY way to hunt it without getting winded is hunting a set that needs a NW to N to NE wind. I would hunt below a shelf that both of these bucks use and the downwind side drops off to a steep creek basin. I finally got my wind direction I wanted due to a cold front moving thru on Oct. 2nd and slipped in to my stand around 4ish and settled in. At 6:45 I heard something off to my right and turned to see a top of a 12' tall tree swaying back and forth. I heard the blunt antler to tree trunk sound and turned with bow already in hand to glass the situation. I didn't need too! I could see it was "Bonehead", and immediately got into kill mode. I talked myself calmly as to how I was going to kill this deer with a chip shot in the near future. In a minute he was on his way to a wide shooting window in front of me with a steady cool breeze blowing from him to me. I was already at full draw and settled the 20 yard pin behind his shoulder and told myself to aim high to hit high and come out low. I actually aimed to high and with him dropping slightly at the shot I took a few shoulder and back hairs off him instead of sealing the deal. When he busted his way to the flat out in front of me the other target buck came busting out from the tree canopy with him. I never knew he was there because I was so focused on Bonehead. I had two 160" target bucks within 25 yards of me and it was only Oct. 2nd and I'm going home empty handed. Talk about dejection! Here is the pic of where I gave Bonehead a haircut. The lone yellow leaf in the center of the large shooting window is where he was walking through:
Even though I was dejected I hunted as often as I could, juggling a 3rd shift work schedule,family time,work around the house and visits to my very sick mother-in-law. I was seeing plenty of deer, both small bucks and does but both target bucks were a no show for the biggest part of October lull. Finally on Oct. 29th I was heading to a new set along the same creek but a place in between the backpack hunt and the hairshaving hunt. I had my rattling horns with me and I was going to make something happen. I sprayed some Buck Bomb on a honeysuckle bush 25 yards to the upwind direction of my stand prior to climbing up the tree. At 8:13am after not seeing a thing I grabbed my horns and tore it up for approx. 30 sec. then hung them up and grabbed my bow. Within 10 minutes I brought in a doe and little fella below me and two year and half old bucks above me. The doe blew out of there when she saw the bucks and the bucks gave me countless shooting ops and continued on thru after spending 5 minutes around my tree. Then! With my head on a swivel I caught movement in the creek bottom near the bend in the creek and saw "Split" ,the backpack buck, trying his dangest to get downwind wind of me. He couldn't because of the drop off. He did act as though he smelled the scent I sprayed out and didn't appear to be comfortable with it and skirted it's location as well as mine. I had him at 28 yards and there was just no shot. He slinked his way in the head of the finger in front of me and vanished again.
I hunted as hard as I could till I got a call on Halloween am from my wife that her mother had passed away at hospice. It was such a blow to our family and I knew I had to be at home for my wife and support her as long as she needed me too. I was out of the woods for approximately a week wondering what the target bucks were doing and going thru the grieving process at the same time.
I started hunting hard again after my wife, bless her heart, knew I was miserable not being in the woods. I am so blessed to have an understanding wife that even after losing her best friend she understands what hunting means to me.
After hunting the weekend and a few mid day hunts and not seeing the two targets I was after I started believeing both were locked down with a hot doe. I was seeing mostly 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks cruising and does just browsing throughout the day. Then on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, I saw two more mature bucks(still not quite shooters) out moving and searching as if things were going to pick back up. The weather was calling for a nasty front to move in our area on Mon. the 14th which was dampening my spirits on even trying to hunt that morning. I slept in till 7:30 and looked out the window expecting to see fierce winds and rain blowing sideways and it actually looked overcast and just alittle breezy. I told myself I can't kill them from the house so I cleaned up and headed for my stand overlooking a beanfield hoping to at least see a shooter from my perch.
I got to my stand at 8:00 and wasted no time in setting up using the wind as noise cover. As I was tying myself on I noticed a small busted up 8 pt. cruising in behind be at 35 yards. I told myself this might be the day! I turned around grabbed my bow and sat with it resting on my knee. It wasn't 5 minutes later(8:15am) I see a rather large deer step out of the corner of a draw approx. 150 yards away from me. I grabbed my bino's and immediately saw it was "Splits".
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