sureshot
The Hunt Never Ends....
(UPDATED) Captain Hook Makes A Mistake
Captain Hook Makes A Mistake
(UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM OF POST!)- I found out I had 2007 photos of this buck and a shed off of him...not sure how I didn't realize it sooner...
The story of this particular buck started on a hot summer afternoon in mid-July. I got off work early and decided to go out and do some glassing on a farm in which I had never hunted before. My hunting partner Geoff Everly rode along with me on the trip. We arrived at the farm and parked my truck on top of a large ridge overlooking an alfalfa/corn field, a perfect area to glass whitetails. As the sun started to set over the horizon, deer started to fill into the alfalfa field. Just before dusk a large racked buck stepped out of the corn and onto my hitlist, as I knew he was a buck in which I would be pleased at having the opportunity of harvesting. I knew he was a nice whitetail, but due to the low light conditions that evening it was tough to tell how nice he really was. I immediately decided to put some trail cameras in the area in hopes of catching a better glimpse of this particular buck, and hopefully determine whether or not he really was a shooter.
It wasn’t until later that week that I finally got some time to go back to the farm and put up the cameras. I asked Tim Snyder (brewcrew) if he would be willing to go with me, to not only setup a few cameras, but to also assist me in finding possible treestand locations for the upcoming bow season. In my opinion getting help in the forms of thoughts and opinions from other hunters can always help. Anyways, while walking towards the area in which I wanted to put the camera we crested over a large pond dyke, and that is when I received my first up close and personal encounter with the buck. Upon cresting the pond, the buck stepped out of his bed in the cattails a mere 50 yards away, stared in our direction for a few seconds, then slowly trotted away into the woods. Tim and I decided to walk towards the area where the buck entered the woods to look for possible stand locations. We both immediately noticed a natural funnel that would be perfect for ambushing an old mature whitetail during the rut. A steep ridge ran down into a small bottom, which then butted up to the pond. The deer were naturally forced to travel this route when going from feeding to bedding areas and vice versa. I decided that when the time was right, I would carry my loan wolf into this area, hang, and hunt. On the way out Tim and I put up the camera and hoped that the big buck would walk by.
One week later I returned solo to the camera site, and sure enough the big buck that we had seen one week earlier had walked by. After looking at the photos of the buck I immediately noticed a ‘hook’ like kicker on the back of his left side G-2. Naming big deer that I have trail camera photos of is something that I have always done, and because of the bucks ‘hooked’ kicker, he was named Captain Hook. Over the remainder of the summer my cameras captured 1000’s of trail camera photos of Captain Hook. The big buck was captured on three of my eight camera setups, but visited the setup by the pond on a daily basis.
Once mid-September rolled around the cameras were pulled and I completely stayed out of my hunting areas. Then came mid-October and scrapes started to show up. I made the decision to drive along the field edges (to not spook the deer bad) and look for scrapes to put my camera on. I drove over by the pond and found two giant scrapes next to one another, under the branches of a large oak tree. I put up the trail camera, and decided to check it two weeks later. Once I checked it, I saw that Captain Hook was still in the area, as I had captured photos of him on the scrape, on separate days, and during shooting light.
The daylight photos gave me confidence that this buck wasn’t afraid to move before dark, and also gave me relief that he was still in the area. However, the wind was wrong and out of the south east fairly consistently, and I needed a north-west wind to best utilize my setup and remain undetected. As bad as I wanted to hunt the area, I knew that I had to wait until the time was right. On the morning of November 9th, 2008, the wind was out of the north-west, and I decided to make my move.
THE HUNT
By 6:00a.m. I had the loan wolf hung and was ready to hunt. The morning started off with doe, after doe, after doe walking past my stand. In fact, two separate groups of does made their way from the fields, and past my setup within easy shooting distance. By 7:20a.m. the does had worked their way back into their bedding areas and the morning action slowed down.
The next thirty minutes went by without a single deer sighting, until I heard rustling in the leaves 80 yards behind me. I turned and saw a buck working a scrape, but I couldn’t tell if he was a shooter through all of the brush. I pulled up my binos, and that’s when I realized that the buck making the scrape was Captain Hook. I watched as the big rutting whitetail continued to scrape and rub trees while slowly working his way through the funnel towards my ambush. When Captain Hook reached 50 yards he hit the trail that the does walked on earlier in the morning, and immediately put his nose to the ground and started trailing them towards the bedding area. I pulled out my grunt tube and gave a few short grunts, he looked my direction, but then put his nose back to the ground and continued trailing. I went into desperation mode, and decided to give him a snort wheeze. Immediately after giving him my best snort wheeze, Captain Hook turned on a dime, and trotted towards my stand, grunting with every step. He was pissed to say the least. When he reached 15 yards, he pawed the ground and urinated on his tarsals. He then continued to walk to no more than 10 yards from my stand, and rubbed a decent sized tree. He worked the tree for a good two minutes, grunting occasionally. By this time, my nerves had taken all they could handle. My knees were shaking uncontrollably, and my heart felt as if it could beat out of my chest. Captain Hook was literally putting on the show of a lifetime for me, but finally, after being within 10 yards for over two minutes, the buck turned and started to angle away. It was go-time, and I knew I had to control my nerves to execute a lethal shot. At 17 yards the buck hit a small opening and I drew, bleated him to a stop, and settled my pin. The next 30 seconds was a blur as my arrow plummeted through his vitals, and I watched as Captain Hook ran 45 yards before getting woozy, and finally taking a dirt nap. I was in disbelief. He’s not a world class deer by any means, but he’s one of the whitetails that I was after. His typical 10 point frame ended up grossing 155 and some change, and then with the 10 inches of abnormals his final gross score was 165 4/8.
As you all know, it only takes that one chance encounter to turn your season around. I’ll be the first to admit that the lack of big buck sightings this year from the stand was starting to wear on me. However, you’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time, and capitalize on the opportunity. I cannot describe to any of you in words how happy I am to have my archery buck season come to a close as it did on the morning of November 9th, 2008. I want to thank all of my good friends for helping me with pre-season scouting (cameras, stands, glassing, etc.), which ultimately led to the harvest of Captain Hook. Blake (Lefler168), Cody, Tim (Brewcrew), and Geoff(Brownman); You all helped me achieve my goal of harvesting one of the big bucks that I had trail cam photos of, and I’m grateful for that.
I hope all of you enjoyed the photos and story, and good luck to those of you who still have tags yet to fill! The woods are rocking right now, and that big mature whitetail is just waiting for you to capitalize on his mistake.
-Sureshot1
_________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATED....
This morning Brewcrew (Tim) and I were looking at some shed antlers that I have found over the years. Tim picked one up and said "This looks like Captain Hooks shed!" Sure enough, after comparing the shed to Captain Hooks mount they were a match. I'm not sure how I never put two and two together. I found the shed just this past March and it had been chewed on. We then looked at some of my old trail cam pictures and compared them, and its Captain Hook for sure! His kicker is in the same place, main-beams and tines are similar shape, and even his brows were beginning to curve. The pictures are consecutive years, but about 3/4 mile away from one another. Thought some of you guys would like to take a look!
2007
2008
2007
2008
2007
2008
His shed (not good pic but all I have on my computer right now!)
Captain Hook Makes A Mistake
(UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM OF POST!)- I found out I had 2007 photos of this buck and a shed off of him...not sure how I didn't realize it sooner...
The story of this particular buck started on a hot summer afternoon in mid-July. I got off work early and decided to go out and do some glassing on a farm in which I had never hunted before. My hunting partner Geoff Everly rode along with me on the trip. We arrived at the farm and parked my truck on top of a large ridge overlooking an alfalfa/corn field, a perfect area to glass whitetails. As the sun started to set over the horizon, deer started to fill into the alfalfa field. Just before dusk a large racked buck stepped out of the corn and onto my hitlist, as I knew he was a buck in which I would be pleased at having the opportunity of harvesting. I knew he was a nice whitetail, but due to the low light conditions that evening it was tough to tell how nice he really was. I immediately decided to put some trail cameras in the area in hopes of catching a better glimpse of this particular buck, and hopefully determine whether or not he really was a shooter.
It wasn’t until later that week that I finally got some time to go back to the farm and put up the cameras. I asked Tim Snyder (brewcrew) if he would be willing to go with me, to not only setup a few cameras, but to also assist me in finding possible treestand locations for the upcoming bow season. In my opinion getting help in the forms of thoughts and opinions from other hunters can always help. Anyways, while walking towards the area in which I wanted to put the camera we crested over a large pond dyke, and that is when I received my first up close and personal encounter with the buck. Upon cresting the pond, the buck stepped out of his bed in the cattails a mere 50 yards away, stared in our direction for a few seconds, then slowly trotted away into the woods. Tim and I decided to walk towards the area where the buck entered the woods to look for possible stand locations. We both immediately noticed a natural funnel that would be perfect for ambushing an old mature whitetail during the rut. A steep ridge ran down into a small bottom, which then butted up to the pond. The deer were naturally forced to travel this route when going from feeding to bedding areas and vice versa. I decided that when the time was right, I would carry my loan wolf into this area, hang, and hunt. On the way out Tim and I put up the camera and hoped that the big buck would walk by.
One week later I returned solo to the camera site, and sure enough the big buck that we had seen one week earlier had walked by. After looking at the photos of the buck I immediately noticed a ‘hook’ like kicker on the back of his left side G-2. Naming big deer that I have trail camera photos of is something that I have always done, and because of the bucks ‘hooked’ kicker, he was named Captain Hook. Over the remainder of the summer my cameras captured 1000’s of trail camera photos of Captain Hook. The big buck was captured on three of my eight camera setups, but visited the setup by the pond on a daily basis.
Once mid-September rolled around the cameras were pulled and I completely stayed out of my hunting areas. Then came mid-October and scrapes started to show up. I made the decision to drive along the field edges (to not spook the deer bad) and look for scrapes to put my camera on. I drove over by the pond and found two giant scrapes next to one another, under the branches of a large oak tree. I put up the trail camera, and decided to check it two weeks later. Once I checked it, I saw that Captain Hook was still in the area, as I had captured photos of him on the scrape, on separate days, and during shooting light.
The daylight photos gave me confidence that this buck wasn’t afraid to move before dark, and also gave me relief that he was still in the area. However, the wind was wrong and out of the south east fairly consistently, and I needed a north-west wind to best utilize my setup and remain undetected. As bad as I wanted to hunt the area, I knew that I had to wait until the time was right. On the morning of November 9th, 2008, the wind was out of the north-west, and I decided to make my move.
THE HUNT
By 6:00a.m. I had the loan wolf hung and was ready to hunt. The morning started off with doe, after doe, after doe walking past my stand. In fact, two separate groups of does made their way from the fields, and past my setup within easy shooting distance. By 7:20a.m. the does had worked their way back into their bedding areas and the morning action slowed down.
The next thirty minutes went by without a single deer sighting, until I heard rustling in the leaves 80 yards behind me. I turned and saw a buck working a scrape, but I couldn’t tell if he was a shooter through all of the brush. I pulled up my binos, and that’s when I realized that the buck making the scrape was Captain Hook. I watched as the big rutting whitetail continued to scrape and rub trees while slowly working his way through the funnel towards my ambush. When Captain Hook reached 50 yards he hit the trail that the does walked on earlier in the morning, and immediately put his nose to the ground and started trailing them towards the bedding area. I pulled out my grunt tube and gave a few short grunts, he looked my direction, but then put his nose back to the ground and continued trailing. I went into desperation mode, and decided to give him a snort wheeze. Immediately after giving him my best snort wheeze, Captain Hook turned on a dime, and trotted towards my stand, grunting with every step. He was pissed to say the least. When he reached 15 yards, he pawed the ground and urinated on his tarsals. He then continued to walk to no more than 10 yards from my stand, and rubbed a decent sized tree. He worked the tree for a good two minutes, grunting occasionally. By this time, my nerves had taken all they could handle. My knees were shaking uncontrollably, and my heart felt as if it could beat out of my chest. Captain Hook was literally putting on the show of a lifetime for me, but finally, after being within 10 yards for over two minutes, the buck turned and started to angle away. It was go-time, and I knew I had to control my nerves to execute a lethal shot. At 17 yards the buck hit a small opening and I drew, bleated him to a stop, and settled my pin. The next 30 seconds was a blur as my arrow plummeted through his vitals, and I watched as Captain Hook ran 45 yards before getting woozy, and finally taking a dirt nap. I was in disbelief. He’s not a world class deer by any means, but he’s one of the whitetails that I was after. His typical 10 point frame ended up grossing 155 and some change, and then with the 10 inches of abnormals his final gross score was 165 4/8.
As you all know, it only takes that one chance encounter to turn your season around. I’ll be the first to admit that the lack of big buck sightings this year from the stand was starting to wear on me. However, you’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time, and capitalize on the opportunity. I cannot describe to any of you in words how happy I am to have my archery buck season come to a close as it did on the morning of November 9th, 2008. I want to thank all of my good friends for helping me with pre-season scouting (cameras, stands, glassing, etc.), which ultimately led to the harvest of Captain Hook. Blake (Lefler168), Cody, Tim (Brewcrew), and Geoff(Brownman); You all helped me achieve my goal of harvesting one of the big bucks that I had trail cam photos of, and I’m grateful for that.
I hope all of you enjoyed the photos and story, and good luck to those of you who still have tags yet to fill! The woods are rocking right now, and that big mature whitetail is just waiting for you to capitalize on his mistake.
-Sureshot1
_________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATED....
This morning Brewcrew (Tim) and I were looking at some shed antlers that I have found over the years. Tim picked one up and said "This looks like Captain Hooks shed!" Sure enough, after comparing the shed to Captain Hooks mount they were a match. I'm not sure how I never put two and two together. I found the shed just this past March and it had been chewed on. We then looked at some of my old trail cam pictures and compared them, and its Captain Hook for sure! His kicker is in the same place, main-beams and tines are similar shape, and even his brows were beginning to curve. The pictures are consecutive years, but about 3/4 mile away from one another. Thought some of you guys would like to take a look!
2007
2008
2007
2008
2007
2008
His shed (not good pic but all I have on my computer right now!)
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