After a couple of dry years, I finally made the scoreboard. Broke my farm in with a landowner tag filled, and now I can spend the next month looking patiently for one of the larger deer I've targeted. That hole is from a 100 grain muzzy.
Had a nice shooter 10pt at 40 yards yesterday am. Lots of buck activity with new scrapes and rubs all over. Today sucked. In stand from 730 to 11. Back in different stand from 4 till dark 30 and saw squat. They are at early rut no doubt and next week will be fun. Ill hunt tomorrow and sunday then be preping for election night party and back wednesday eneming and hunt through rifle season. That means run around on 4 wheeler running off fucking trespassers
Originally Posted by Al Czervik:
It is always on the 2nd Saturday of November. November 10th this year.
My friends out West say the summer didnt do the birds any favors this year.
Numbers are down. We usually hunt around Hays.
Going go to South Dakota instead......
Good luck!!
I don't know about the birds up there, but they had a fairly signification drought up there also. I heard a pissload of corn got silaged off. It's a big state, but the drought got up there too.
Yeah, the birds are down, but there are some birds to be had. If you like the hunt, it is still worth coming out. [Reply]
I sat dark-dark yesterday. I was sitting the same stand where the buck above was killed. I had some does bed at 15-20 yards and heard quite a bit of small buck activity, grunts and whatnot in the area. Around 6pm, I heard a grunt in some brush at 60 yards...I grunted at it...it grunted...and it was a deep, mean, aggressive "MAN" grunt like I've never heard in the wild. Then, around 40-50 yards straight in front of me in the woods a big doe comes up and stops. I see horns behind her....the buck to my right blows a snort-wheeze. I see him step out down towards them and the 2nd buck steps from the brush and timber shadows. He's a big 8....a big....8. The 2nd buck comes into view and he's a big 10....a big big 10. The kind of buck I've sat in a tree since 1998 waiting to come into view. They meet with the doe between them and I and circle each other...prepping for a brawl. The doe is facing me so I have to be careful. The bucks aren't fighting, but they're sizing each other up. My heart is pounding out of my chest and I get a shot of adrenaline and endorphins like I've never felt...I was almost...high or something.
The 8 point steps in the open in a 3' window about 40 yards......I am shaky and I draw my bow, anchor to my cheek and and let an arrow fly. I hear a thump...a whack, and am saddened to see that my arrow passed 2-3" under the deer and stuck into a tree.
he doesn't run....he looks around and starts coming closer...He's taking the same path where I smoked the buck. The doe and the 10 are looking my direction...I can't get an arrow knocked in time. My nerves are breaking....I'm shivering....but I can't draw as the buck goes behind me to my left and stops 30 yards behind me, not quite in a shooting lane.
What do I do? Do I turn and wait for him to take a couple of more steps and thread a needle?....he's turned looking at the big 10. OMG....the big 10 is walking closer...in the direction of the other buck...he's big....really, really big.....this is the moment I've been dreaming about since a few years before I started this thread....THIS is why men sit in trees for endless hours. My mind is racing, my heart is pounding......He's coming into my shooting lane and I draw........a few more steps, he's at 28 yards, quartering to me...
I close my eyes, I remind myself to breath. "Gather yourself, you're acting like a pussy" Focus on a patch of hair.....breath.....aim, focus....feel the kisser on your cheek where it belongs and let it go. I focus on a patch of hair behind the front leg...I usually shoot a little back, so I purposely aim a little forward....I feel myself relax, I exhale....I release the arrow.
The buck jumps....I see the arrow buried behind his front left leg, but it's further forward than I like...If the arrow went in less than 6"....he might not doe....8" and I have a lung and liver shot.
He runs, tail down crashing through the brush and disappears into a deep ravine.
Euphoria....I'm beside myself with excitement. This is why I hunt. This is why I've hunted for as many hours for as many years as I have. This is the deer that I want to show my friends and put photos of on Chiefsplanet......I want to tear off my sleeves, grow a beard and be a punter for Gunther Cunningham. My erection tears through 3 layers of pants and wool camo.....not really, but it might have.
Nothing to do now but wait....go home, shower, try to relax. Form posse for 9am search.
I had 2 of the biggest deer I've seen from my tree in 10 years come out last night at 40 yards. I freaking missed one of them.....the other, I was 2" from the spot I wanted to hit, but the broadhead didn't pass through for whatever reason.
This morning, there was no blood at the shot spot....I knew where he'd ran. Found blood at 50 yards, a lot of blood in a ditch at 60 yards...up a steep ravine a few drops....then the trail was gone. It has been raining this morning.....blood trail is gone.
My brother thinks he jumped the buck out of a draw 500 yards away....running like the wind. I think I single lunged him and he's probably not going to die.
I'm pretty damn deflated about that right now. Group consensus is this deer is alive and not going to die. What a douche. So many hours...so many years to shit the bed at the moment of truth.
I hate bow hunting right now......but I think I'm going to go sit this evening to get back on the horse. [Reply]
Took my 14 year old son for the Missouri youth deer hunt this weekend. First time he has been deer hunting. Saturday we spooked a nice 8 pointer about 50 yards away. He says "there's one" and I tell him to "shoot!" He fires off 3 rounds from my 30-30 as it disappears into the brush. "Did I get it?" he asks. "No, I don't think so" I said. Strike one.
This morning we sit down on a hill above a clearing with a well used trail about 40 yards away. He breaks out a snack of Cheez-its and we hear rustling leaves as a 4 pointer wanders out of the woods, grazing on the grass along the trail. I point because he just looks at me wondering what the noise is. He can't see it so he of all things, stands up. OMG... I can't believe he did that. Now the deer sees and turns toward us giving him a narrow front shot. He shoots now and we watch strike two disappear the way he came. "Did I get him?" again was the question.
Oh well, at least he wants to go back next weekend. I told him who ever is first seeing the next one gets the shot. [Reply]
