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Brock/Mason 2020

brock ratcliff

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Great looking bachelor group you guys have running around! This at the Gar Hole?
Nah, over where I took you and Karissa shed hunting. We saw five good ones in one group the other night. We’ve got sheds from two of these guys from last season. We picked em up while turkey hunting or scouting before season. It would be cool to kill one of them since we have those horns. Funny thing about sheds; Mason had actually went shed hunting several times and found nothing. We were picking mushrooms one day before turkey season and I found one of them in an area he had crawled all over while actually looking for them. 😁. He claimed he had walked all around it.
 

brock ratcliff

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I’ve been working my tail of to get proficient with trad bows again. I don’t know why other than it used to be easy for me but for the last ten years or so it’s been a struggle to stay consistent. It’s maddening. Mason bought this 40 lb bow a couple years ago. He got aggravated and foolishly sold it to me. It is a fun bow to shoot because I can shoot hundreds of arrows at a time and really work on the flaws I’ve developed. I’m relatively certain it will kill a deer at close range (15-20). I can certainly shoot it well enough at that range but for some reason just stepping back to 30, I’m too inconsistent. Maybe I’ll improve but I really think it’s just so slow at that distance any flaw is exaggerated. The arrow looks like it drops a mile. So I busted out a 57lb hybrid and gave it a whirl at 30... it worked but is not at all as enjoyable to shoot. I’ve got a couple others I will shoot in coming days. Still, my opening weekend set up will only require a 15 yard shot, so I may just try the child’s bow. Mason has been shooting at 80-100 yards regularly while I’m working hard to get it right at 20. 😁. I will be ordering new strings for both of my compounds soon, I’m not a complete fool. In the attached pics it’s easy to see which arrows were shot beyond 20 with the little recurve, inside of 20, I’m pretty happy.
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brock ratcliff

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Checked a couple cams today. Mason and I have been glassing the biggest of the bunch in a bean field almost every evening. Mason has already slipped in there and built a blind along the edge of the field. If those beans stay green for the first week or so of season, he might be in trouble.
I’ve got an apple pile going across the road and have a couple nice 8s over there i would be happy to shoot. Can’t walk much so I’ll be glad to kill one eating apples. Mason has done all the leg work collecting apples so I hope he can maintain a supply.
We have looked at a lot of bucks since the big ones died hoping to see some sort of genetic link. I think we have finally found one. Crazy mass and the unique G4 on the inside of the right beam... here’s hoping he makes it a couple more years. Beans jr, perhaps.
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brock ratcliff

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Glassed fields last night. Saw four good ones, three of which I’d be thrilled to kill. We did not see any deer in the field where the big ten has been most every evening but I believe the landowner did some bush hogging below the field yesterday. That could have changed things for a while or maybe they just hadn’t made it out there yet. One of the deer we did see was the nice 8 in the daytime pic I posted along with his slightly bigger buddy. I’ve got a shed from him last season and would be thrilled to get an arrow in him! I really wish our season came in early September!
 

brock ratcliff

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Finally got some really good trail cam pics of the big ten we have been glassing most evenings. Mason was studying the pics on the back porch while I was busy shooting. He got awful excited and called me over. Not so much because we finally had decent pics of him but more so because there is no doubt after looking at him where his genetics come from. He most certainly has to be a defendant of Tines. For those of you that don’t know that story, we chased him for three years. He got locked up with another giant and died in a creek and his final score was 228. This deer is not nearly that big yet. Given the chance to harvest, he isn’t going to get that big. Mason has decided to kill this buck if he can even knowing what he could turn into in the next couple years. The area is now surrounded by Amish and it was hunted hard before they showed up in the last couple years. If we owned a huge farm, he’d get a pass just because we know what he could be.... not the case here. Anyway here is a phone pic. I’ll post the actual pics tomorrow maybe.
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brock ratcliff

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I’m only guessing here, but I think this one is very killable at least in relation to Tines. I’m on my way over to glass this guy right now. 90% sure I’ll see him. In the three years I glassed those fields for Tines, we caught him one time for sure, second time maybe. This is a young version of that deer I think and Mason wants him. If he doesn’t kill him, we just hope no one else does because that deer is gonna blow up if he makes it another year or two.
 

brock ratcliff

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Mason and I made a move into a patch we’ve never had a stand yesterday. Picked the tree and sorted out the access routes, bought a stand today and will get it placed tomorrow. If season was in, this deer would be in trouble. We watched him and four of his buddies last night which made me happy since we had been pretty much on top of him yesterday afternoon. He didn’t show up in the bean field tonight, at least not with enough light to see him. He’s a fun deer to keep track of and Mason will kill him if given the chance but we are absolutely hoping he makes it a couple years. I’m certain he is the offspring we have hoped for but never actually expected to see. Here’s another pic of him, we have piles of them now. I’ve been shooting my bows a lot, shooting well too. Haven’t had one of those “flyers” that trad shooters know all too well for a very long time and I’m thrilled about it. Mason walked out this afternoon with his hunting rig, ranged a 3 D target at 83 yards and sunk an 11 like it was just easy. Speaking of bow shooting, Mason placed second at the ASA State shoot this weekend as well as 2nd place for shooter of the year... he was disappointed to be the first place loser. Lol. He did well. He will do better next time.
And now some pics...
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