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After having an injury for part of last season that restricted my hunting abilities, I was super excited to get back in the stand this year, in full health.
My wife, dad, and a good buddy take part in a metroparks lottery hunt during the first 5 weeks of every season. This is an opportunity to fill the freezer while keeping out of our good spots until the time is right. It makes for a great time with lots of hunting and butchering for the early season.
All was going good until the cold weather hit and had me thinking about our main buck property where I’d had luck in early season in previous years when a good cold front pushes through. Not to mention I had some good bucks in daylight in a particular spot last year on Oct 23, 27, and 28. This particular cold front lined up with a long weekend away that my wife and I had planned to go see the elk in PA. We were leaving Saturday, planning to stay Saturday and Sunday night, then heading home Monday. The cold front was coming through Saturday and I knew Sunday was going to be a great day....but we had plans and I was happy to stick to them.
Long story short, our accommodations were not up to par and the folks we rented the shack from were rude and disrespectful. My wife was very upset and suggested that we stay Saturday night, then head home Sunday morning. I wasn’t going to question things if that’s what she wanted...
So on the way home, I slid in a little hint about us possibly hunting that evening and she was all for it. We got home, unloaded our vacation crap, loaded our hunting crap, and hit the road again, headed to the woods this time
We have 4 stands on this 80 acre property but only 2 of them are in very productive spots. We had a couple other hunters get permission at the spot a couple years ago and although they’ve done a great job disrupting the deer movement, the two stands I’m referring to have remained great because the other two guys haven’t mooched in on this area yet. I let Sarah have first pick on spots and I thought it was a good choice on her part and she could get a crack at a monster. I went to a stand that is only about 100 yards from where she was and it has been a great spot in the past. Things were calm for a while until at about 5:30 when a couple of does popped out into the corn field. Two more does popped out behind them and within 10 minutes had run down into the woods right in front of me and had started browsing. As long as there aren’t too many, I always love when a couple does are around because they can be such a great second pair of eyes.
After the group had been feeding for about 5 minutes, something caught their attention and as I glanced up, I saw a fork horn enter the woods. He stopped, looked at them for a second, then moved on like he knew he had no chance. 5 more minutes had passed and now something new had caught the groups attention and they seemed a little more concerned about what was there this time. As I repositioned myself to see what they were looking at, I caught a view of some substantial bone and reached for my bow. I could see a pretty good looking 5 point side heading my way but couldn’t tell for certain what he was yet. He stopped at about 50 yards and made a very aggressive scrape, almost throwing leaves on his own back. I was fired up to say the least. After making the scrape, he jerked his head up, looked at the does, let out a deep BAHHHHHH, and headed their way. I knew he was going to walk right through an opening I had at 30 yards and that was my opportunity. He walked into the space perfectly, I stopped him, focused on my shot, and let him have it. The hit was perfect but I didn’t get a pass through, I figured it hit the off shoulder at the time. I texted my wife then sat tight until dark in hopes that my wife would get a crack at one too. She saw some does and a couple young bucks but no luck. The night ended with two 1 1/2 yr olds and a 2 year old chasing does in the cut corn field and being SUPER vocal which was neat to be a part of.
We dropped our stuff off at the truck and began tracking. I hadn’t seen him go down but knew by the looks of the hit that he didn’t go far. We found him maybe 60 yards from where I had shot him.
Walking up on this buck was a little bittersweet for me. I try not to get caught up in the antler size thing but I try my best to hunt for mature bucks and I think this deer was likely 3. It’s hard to make the call on a borderline shooter on October 21 when the best is yet to come. Nonetheless, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to take this deer and now I am looking very forward to taking some time off with my wife during the rut to help try and get her on a good one!
My wife, dad, and a good buddy take part in a metroparks lottery hunt during the first 5 weeks of every season. This is an opportunity to fill the freezer while keeping out of our good spots until the time is right. It makes for a great time with lots of hunting and butchering for the early season.
All was going good until the cold weather hit and had me thinking about our main buck property where I’d had luck in early season in previous years when a good cold front pushes through. Not to mention I had some good bucks in daylight in a particular spot last year on Oct 23, 27, and 28. This particular cold front lined up with a long weekend away that my wife and I had planned to go see the elk in PA. We were leaving Saturday, planning to stay Saturday and Sunday night, then heading home Monday. The cold front was coming through Saturday and I knew Sunday was going to be a great day....but we had plans and I was happy to stick to them.
Long story short, our accommodations were not up to par and the folks we rented the shack from were rude and disrespectful. My wife was very upset and suggested that we stay Saturday night, then head home Sunday morning. I wasn’t going to question things if that’s what she wanted...
So on the way home, I slid in a little hint about us possibly hunting that evening and she was all for it. We got home, unloaded our vacation crap, loaded our hunting crap, and hit the road again, headed to the woods this time
We have 4 stands on this 80 acre property but only 2 of them are in very productive spots. We had a couple other hunters get permission at the spot a couple years ago and although they’ve done a great job disrupting the deer movement, the two stands I’m referring to have remained great because the other two guys haven’t mooched in on this area yet. I let Sarah have first pick on spots and I thought it was a good choice on her part and she could get a crack at a monster. I went to a stand that is only about 100 yards from where she was and it has been a great spot in the past. Things were calm for a while until at about 5:30 when a couple of does popped out into the corn field. Two more does popped out behind them and within 10 minutes had run down into the woods right in front of me and had started browsing. As long as there aren’t too many, I always love when a couple does are around because they can be such a great second pair of eyes.
After the group had been feeding for about 5 minutes, something caught their attention and as I glanced up, I saw a fork horn enter the woods. He stopped, looked at them for a second, then moved on like he knew he had no chance. 5 more minutes had passed and now something new had caught the groups attention and they seemed a little more concerned about what was there this time. As I repositioned myself to see what they were looking at, I caught a view of some substantial bone and reached for my bow. I could see a pretty good looking 5 point side heading my way but couldn’t tell for certain what he was yet. He stopped at about 50 yards and made a very aggressive scrape, almost throwing leaves on his own back. I was fired up to say the least. After making the scrape, he jerked his head up, looked at the does, let out a deep BAHHHHHH, and headed their way. I knew he was going to walk right through an opening I had at 30 yards and that was my opportunity. He walked into the space perfectly, I stopped him, focused on my shot, and let him have it. The hit was perfect but I didn’t get a pass through, I figured it hit the off shoulder at the time. I texted my wife then sat tight until dark in hopes that my wife would get a crack at one too. She saw some does and a couple young bucks but no luck. The night ended with two 1 1/2 yr olds and a 2 year old chasing does in the cut corn field and being SUPER vocal which was neat to be a part of.
We dropped our stuff off at the truck and began tracking. I hadn’t seen him go down but knew by the looks of the hit that he didn’t go far. We found him maybe 60 yards from where I had shot him.
Walking up on this buck was a little bittersweet for me. I try not to get caught up in the antler size thing but I try my best to hunt for mature bucks and I think this deer was likely 3. It’s hard to make the call on a borderline shooter on October 21 when the best is yet to come. Nonetheless, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to take this deer and now I am looking very forward to taking some time off with my wife during the rut to help try and get her on a good one!
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