I'd like to start with my apology to Adam for taking so long to get this posted. The life and times of an operational landman (and website owner) are busy as can be these days, so I am lagging behind on getting this posted. Now that I have finally have our latest BOTM ready for showtime... Congrats to Adam on getting his 2011-2012 season off to a great start! Well done buddy!!!
September 27th turned out to be a great day for me...
I decided at noon to go out and check one of my trail cams in a section we call " The North Block "to see what had been moving in the last week". After walking about 100 yards in the woods, I hear and see two doe take off running to the south. They only ran about 75 yards and stopped. They just stood there watching me continue to walk my path to the trail cam. This is when I had a feeling the deer would be on their feet for an evening hunt. I got to the trail cam only to find no bucks moving through this area and decided for my evening hunt to hit the pasture observation stand I hunted on opening day. (Who said pastures are only for cows and horses anyway!!!)
Picture from the stand...
As the day went on, the clouds started rolling in and looked like it was building up to rain. At 4:30 when the wife returned home from work, I told her I wanted to head out for the evening. Just as I was walking out the front door ready to hit the road it started to rain. I didn't care and was determined to sit because I just had that feeling deer was going to be moving. I got out to the property where my pasture stand was and jumped out of the truck and got my smoked up hunting cloths on, put my safety harness on, grabbed the bow, and the rest of my gear.
I walked pretty quickly up the hill to my stand because it was now 5pm and from checking this cam most of the summer I had noticed in the last week the deer had started coming by around 6pm to hit the mineral site. I got back to my stand and dropped my gear off so I could walk a few yards over to the trail cam and change cards and look at the pictures while on stand. I decided I would switch the trail cam to video just for something new and to maybe have a poor man’s camera crew! LOL. With the card changed it was time to start my climb into the stand. I pulled my bow up and hung it on the bow hanger and started looking at pictures from the trail cam. First picture on there was a nice 10pt buck that had come past the cam during shooting light a few days earlier. I was pretty excited to see that due to the fact most of the buck pictures I had seen before this was well after shooting light.
Sitting in my stand for only about 20 minutes the rain finally stopped and the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds. As I sat there I happened to catch some movement off to my right on the edge of the pasture. I look over and see 5 turkeys working the pasture from west to east grabbing all the little bugs. Pretty cool to watch them wonder around as it isn't something you see everyday around here. Shortly after they disappeared over the ridge I hear a chipmunk start chirping from the same direction the turkey had come out of the small section of woods. I had a feeling the deer had changed their travel patterns a bit and had started coming out of this spot in the woods instead of coming up a trail in the pasture from the river bottom. An oak tree in a fencerow was now dropping acorns about 60 yards away from my stand and I knew when I hung this stand the deer might start hitting that tree and use this spot for a staging area before heading out into the bean field after dark.
Another 10 minutes passed and again, I catch movement off to my right. I look over to see a good buck standing there about 30 yards out sniffing the air and looking around. I grab the bow off the hanger as he makes his way towards my stand on a trail that would lead him just 7 yards from my stand. As luck would have it he stopped and smelled the ground where I had walked to my trail cam to change out the cards. I thought "Oh great, here we go. He is going to take off back the way he came and I have no shooting lanes on this side of my setup". I was amazed he did what he did next. He walked over closer to my cam that was now in video mode and started sniffing around and looking at the trail cam. Thankfully the smoke cover scent from the Scent Smoker had covered enough of my scent that he didn’t pay it much attention.
After he was satisfied with that, he continued to walk over to my mineral site a few yards further and into my shooting lane. I draw the bow back and was standing there at full draw for what seemed forever waiting on him to turn or to start walking on down the path to the river bottom giving me a quartering away shot. He didn't start walking away like I thought he would and instead stood there facing me slightly turned and getting a little more skittish as he must have known something just wasn’t right but couldn't’t figure out just what it was. I decided to take a shot that probably wasn't the best angle in the world but confident I could make. I released the arrow and he dropped like a rock right in his tracks. The broadhead clipped his spine and into the chest cavity. He did manage to make it back to his feet but only made it a few yards before he expired. I was thrilled with the buck I had just put on the ground. I made several text messages to friends and sent pictures. After all this was my first bow buck and using a brand new bow this season; I was pumped!
I worked my butt off over the last couple of years hunting this property and had some pretty disgusted moments where I just wanted to toss my towel into the ring and give up. With the encouragement from my friends I stuck with it. I have to thank all of them for pushing me and smacking me back into reality when I needed it. Thanks fellas, I appreciate each and everyone of you for helping me along the way.
Sniffing the trail cam just before stepping into my shooting lane.
[video=youtube;SQO6OV3ohUI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQO6OV3ohUI[/video]
Picture I seen while on stand from a couple days earlier.
After the short distance to his final resting place.
One happy hunter!
This buck may not be the biggest buck out there but he will do just fine for this hunter. I can't wait until next season rolls around just so I can try and outwit the deer again.
September 27th turned out to be a great day for me...
I decided at noon to go out and check one of my trail cams in a section we call " The North Block "to see what had been moving in the last week". After walking about 100 yards in the woods, I hear and see two doe take off running to the south. They only ran about 75 yards and stopped. They just stood there watching me continue to walk my path to the trail cam. This is when I had a feeling the deer would be on their feet for an evening hunt. I got to the trail cam only to find no bucks moving through this area and decided for my evening hunt to hit the pasture observation stand I hunted on opening day. (Who said pastures are only for cows and horses anyway!!!)
Picture from the stand...
As the day went on, the clouds started rolling in and looked like it was building up to rain. At 4:30 when the wife returned home from work, I told her I wanted to head out for the evening. Just as I was walking out the front door ready to hit the road it started to rain. I didn't care and was determined to sit because I just had that feeling deer was going to be moving. I got out to the property where my pasture stand was and jumped out of the truck and got my smoked up hunting cloths on, put my safety harness on, grabbed the bow, and the rest of my gear.
I walked pretty quickly up the hill to my stand because it was now 5pm and from checking this cam most of the summer I had noticed in the last week the deer had started coming by around 6pm to hit the mineral site. I got back to my stand and dropped my gear off so I could walk a few yards over to the trail cam and change cards and look at the pictures while on stand. I decided I would switch the trail cam to video just for something new and to maybe have a poor man’s camera crew! LOL. With the card changed it was time to start my climb into the stand. I pulled my bow up and hung it on the bow hanger and started looking at pictures from the trail cam. First picture on there was a nice 10pt buck that had come past the cam during shooting light a few days earlier. I was pretty excited to see that due to the fact most of the buck pictures I had seen before this was well after shooting light.
Sitting in my stand for only about 20 minutes the rain finally stopped and the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds. As I sat there I happened to catch some movement off to my right on the edge of the pasture. I look over and see 5 turkeys working the pasture from west to east grabbing all the little bugs. Pretty cool to watch them wonder around as it isn't something you see everyday around here. Shortly after they disappeared over the ridge I hear a chipmunk start chirping from the same direction the turkey had come out of the small section of woods. I had a feeling the deer had changed their travel patterns a bit and had started coming out of this spot in the woods instead of coming up a trail in the pasture from the river bottom. An oak tree in a fencerow was now dropping acorns about 60 yards away from my stand and I knew when I hung this stand the deer might start hitting that tree and use this spot for a staging area before heading out into the bean field after dark.
Another 10 minutes passed and again, I catch movement off to my right. I look over to see a good buck standing there about 30 yards out sniffing the air and looking around. I grab the bow off the hanger as he makes his way towards my stand on a trail that would lead him just 7 yards from my stand. As luck would have it he stopped and smelled the ground where I had walked to my trail cam to change out the cards. I thought "Oh great, here we go. He is going to take off back the way he came and I have no shooting lanes on this side of my setup". I was amazed he did what he did next. He walked over closer to my cam that was now in video mode and started sniffing around and looking at the trail cam. Thankfully the smoke cover scent from the Scent Smoker had covered enough of my scent that he didn’t pay it much attention.
After he was satisfied with that, he continued to walk over to my mineral site a few yards further and into my shooting lane. I draw the bow back and was standing there at full draw for what seemed forever waiting on him to turn or to start walking on down the path to the river bottom giving me a quartering away shot. He didn't start walking away like I thought he would and instead stood there facing me slightly turned and getting a little more skittish as he must have known something just wasn’t right but couldn't’t figure out just what it was. I decided to take a shot that probably wasn't the best angle in the world but confident I could make. I released the arrow and he dropped like a rock right in his tracks. The broadhead clipped his spine and into the chest cavity. He did manage to make it back to his feet but only made it a few yards before he expired. I was thrilled with the buck I had just put on the ground. I made several text messages to friends and sent pictures. After all this was my first bow buck and using a brand new bow this season; I was pumped!
I worked my butt off over the last couple of years hunting this property and had some pretty disgusted moments where I just wanted to toss my towel into the ring and give up. With the encouragement from my friends I stuck with it. I have to thank all of them for pushing me and smacking me back into reality when I needed it. Thanks fellas, I appreciate each and everyone of you for helping me along the way.
Sniffing the trail cam just before stepping into my shooting lane.
[video=youtube;SQO6OV3ohUI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQO6OV3ohUI[/video]
Picture I seen while on stand from a couple days earlier.
After the short distance to his final resting place.
One happy hunter!
This buck may not be the biggest buck out there but he will do just fine for this hunter. I can't wait until next season rolls around just so I can try and outwit the deer again.
