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Brock/Mason, 2017

brock ratcliff

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All it took was a visit to a barn full of sheds and dead heads? 😂

Nope. I went to check a stand along a creekbottom. Before we started hunting those big ones, Mason and I hunted there a lot. We saw a lot of deer on the years white oaks produced. Big deer too and early in October. The oaks are on another property that I didn't have permission on. Well, I'm not hunting any particular deer this year, oaks are dropping and I made a phone call to that landowner. Permission secured, stand set. Oh yeah, four scrapes within shooting range of the tree too. :)
 

brock ratcliff

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I was skunked again tonight. Third time deer hunting this season and I have not seen a deer From the stand yet. Oh well. I've purposely put Mason in my money spots, it's what dads do I guess. Lol. Anyway, tonight was no different, he saw a ton of deer, lost count in fact. He won't remember any of the deer he saw except one, the one. He stepped from a cornfield and Mason watched him for 5-10 minutes. In that time he drew a couple of times but didn't let it fly either time. He's a really good buck. I saw him last year and hoped he would add a little this year but didn't. Don't get me wrong, he's good enough! I guess him the be 160s, but after Mason saw him in the flesh tonight, he's pretty sure I've underestimated him. Lol. Here is a pic from this summer. He's a dandy and I genuinely wish Mason would have killed him today. Maybe next time.
 

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brock ratcliff

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I got skunked again tonight. Mason was in the mix again though. He saw nine. He passed a nice 8 that was dogging does within 20 yards. Nice young deer. He said after the episode last night he wasn't very tempted by this one. lol.
 

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rsmith

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Hey Brock, any sightings on that deer Mason missed a couple years back? That deer was a monster and I always wondered if you guys ever saw him again. Just curious as to what is going to trip Mason’s trigger. That one he passed the other day would have been a dead deer for most.
 

brock ratcliff

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Hey Brock, any sightings on that deer Mason missed a couple years back? That deer was a monster and I always wondered if you guys ever saw him again. Just curious as to what is going to trip Mason’s trigger. That one he passed the other day would have been a dead deer for most.

Yeah, that deer was nice! The day after we had that big sucker in, we found the tow really big ones on another property. That big ten was at the bait pile almost every day with shooting light for two weeks but Mason refused to even hunt him. I, however, was not so foolish. I saw him a time or two, but never had an opportunity. He was run off by another much smaller buck and we never saw him again. This is the last video we ever got of him on the camera....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnErPPdZTS4

Yesterday morning I had a nice hunt. I saw 8 on the way to the stand, saw another 6 from the tree, one of which was a really nice young buck. Probably 125-130" 9 point. He gave me plenty of opportunity to kill him, but I videoed instead. If I could get YouTube to load it, I'd post it.
Last night I sat on the ground, same farm. Mason was in the fencerow stand. I saw two antlerless, he saw 8, I think.

Here is a trail cam photo of the buck I passed yesterday after he went by my stand.
 

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rsmith

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Hahha if I was that buck I would get out of town too after being mounted by another buck LMAO [emoji23] Either way sounds like you are seeing some nice deer and lots of them now just a matter of the right one coming in at the right time.
 

brock ratcliff

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Time to catch up a little.

I killed one Oct. 25. Not a giant, not a dink. I'd seen a doe and two fawns before shooting the buck. It was quick and clean, saw him die from the stand. Mason lost count of the number of deer he had seen that evening. When I drove back to pick him up there was a dandy buck grunting his way across the field in front of Mason's stand. He couldn't make out exactly how big he was due to it being pretty dark, but through his binos he said he could tell it was a good one.

We haven't been out since. Mason is spending the night with a friend tonight, which is fine since it's Friday and pizza guys like me are too busy to hunt on Fridays. I'm hoping to get back up to the farm tomorrow to set another stand in the fencerow where Mason has been hunting so that I can video his hunts over the next couple weeks.

Not that it matters much, but the deer I shot the other day "gross scored" 150 3/8".... got that Boarhead, 3/8"?

I've got a "project" I've been working on half-heartedly for the last several years, more like off an on for nearly 30 years. My Mom gave my Dad a recurve in 1960 as a Christmas gift. I've hunted with it, missed and winged a couple over the last three decades. I want to kill one with that bow and have been shooting it a lot in preparation. I think Dad would get a kick out of that if I could pull that off. It will give me a reason to get out of bed some in the coming weeks, too.