sureshot
The Hunt Never Ends....
Well, to say that I'm on cloud 9 right now is an understatement. This season could not have worked out any better for me, and for once, everything went as planned. On November 4th, shortly after 6pm, I put an arrow in a buck that I call Full House which put an end to a two year history. I think I'll start from the beginning, so sit back, relax, and grab your favorite beverage 
August 2010
The summer of 2010 was a great summer for me in terms of big buck pictures. I had a handful of great deer on trail camera that would make me happy to put my tag on. One deer that I didn't think much of was a buck that was later dubbed 'Full House.' After running cameras all summer, my cuddeback only captured 3 pictures of Full House. He appeared to be 3.5 years old. The summer turned to fall and Full House never showed himself again on the farm. My cameras never captured any more shots of him, nor did I ever lay my eyes on him during the season or afterwards. I felt like he was likely just passing through and was living on a neighboring farm.
Full House; 3.5 years old
Summer 2011
After not having the best shed season, I was ready to run trail cameras to see what bucks made it through the 2010 season. I ran cameras hard, and with the help of two of my buddies, Geoff Everly and Blake Lefler, we got some pictures of some great whitetails. In August I checked the camera and Full House showed back up. He had grown considerably, but due to the angle of the picture it was tough to tell how big he really was. Just like previous year, he disappeared after the one picture my cam captured of him. I figured that he would be gone, but I was wrong.
August 4th, 2011
Shortly after getting the pictures of Full House I posted a few on iowawhitetail.com. It wasn't much longer when I received a PM from a member of this site. It turned out that he had just bought the farm directly adjacent to where I was getting pictures of Full House and a few other bucks, and he had also been getting pictures of the same whitetails. I immediately knew that this particular person had the same passion that I did for deer hunting, and it wasn't much longer and we were sharing pictures/information between each other. I feel like this relationship is going to help us out tremendously in the future, and to be honest, it's a lot of fun sharing information with one another! Good Luck JM, I hope you get a pig. Here are a few pictures that he shared with me. They gave me a better idea of what Full House turned into, and it was clear to me that he had jumped approximately 50inches in one year.
With a recent job change I was not going to be able to hunt much, if at all in October. Because of this, I knew I had to be ready and prepared once my vacation started, so I decided that I would put all of my cameras out in full force on scrapes in mid-October and check them a few days before my vacation started. My reasoning behind this was to figure out what deer were where, and decide which farms I wanted to dedicate my time to. On October 30th Blake, Everly, and myself checked cameras. To my surprise, Full House showed back up on two of my cameras. To say that I was excited was an understatement. Full House was back on the farm, and I was very confident in killing him. He was actually my favorite buck out of all the deer on my cameras, and I had decided to hunt him hard once my vacation started.
Here is a link to a short video I made on October 31st where I talk about Full House and my desire to kill him;
http://chrisandblake.bowhuntingroad.com/2011/11/01/the-time-has-come/
November 2nd was my first day of vacation, and my first morning in the stand. Blake Lefler tagged along with the video camera to capture my season. The forecast for the day didn't look good, but I knew that I couldn't kill a buck while sleeping in my cozy bed at home. I ignored the weather forecasts, which called for heavy rains, and headed to the stand anyways. With thunder sounding off in the background, I knew I may be in store for a short hunt. The deer didn't move and the rain started coming down not 40 minutes into my hunt. I made the decision to get down and sneak out, and come back to hunt Full House a different day. November 3rd brought high winds and little deer movement for me, but with the amount of sign, and the pictures of Full House in the area, I decided to come back and hunt the same set on the 4th. The morning of the 4th was perfect with light winds and frost on the ground. 10am rolled around and I had not yet seen a deer when movement caught my eye to my right. I pulled up my binoculars and noticed a nice 4.5 year old 10pt that I called Rookie heading my direction. Rookie entered the field and once he crossed where I walked in, he put his nose to the ground and walked directly to the base of my tree never giving me a shot due to a strong quartering too angle.
Trail Cam Picture of Rookie;
Still Video Image of Rookie Coming In;
August 2010
The summer of 2010 was a great summer for me in terms of big buck pictures. I had a handful of great deer on trail camera that would make me happy to put my tag on. One deer that I didn't think much of was a buck that was later dubbed 'Full House.' After running cameras all summer, my cuddeback only captured 3 pictures of Full House. He appeared to be 3.5 years old. The summer turned to fall and Full House never showed himself again on the farm. My cameras never captured any more shots of him, nor did I ever lay my eyes on him during the season or afterwards. I felt like he was likely just passing through and was living on a neighboring farm.
Full House; 3.5 years old
Summer 2011
After not having the best shed season, I was ready to run trail cameras to see what bucks made it through the 2010 season. I ran cameras hard, and with the help of two of my buddies, Geoff Everly and Blake Lefler, we got some pictures of some great whitetails. In August I checked the camera and Full House showed back up. He had grown considerably, but due to the angle of the picture it was tough to tell how big he really was. Just like previous year, he disappeared after the one picture my cam captured of him. I figured that he would be gone, but I was wrong.
August 4th, 2011
Shortly after getting the pictures of Full House I posted a few on iowawhitetail.com. It wasn't much longer when I received a PM from a member of this site. It turned out that he had just bought the farm directly adjacent to where I was getting pictures of Full House and a few other bucks, and he had also been getting pictures of the same whitetails. I immediately knew that this particular person had the same passion that I did for deer hunting, and it wasn't much longer and we were sharing pictures/information between each other. I feel like this relationship is going to help us out tremendously in the future, and to be honest, it's a lot of fun sharing information with one another! Good Luck JM, I hope you get a pig. Here are a few pictures that he shared with me. They gave me a better idea of what Full House turned into, and it was clear to me that he had jumped approximately 50inches in one year.
With a recent job change I was not going to be able to hunt much, if at all in October. Because of this, I knew I had to be ready and prepared once my vacation started, so I decided that I would put all of my cameras out in full force on scrapes in mid-October and check them a few days before my vacation started. My reasoning behind this was to figure out what deer were where, and decide which farms I wanted to dedicate my time to. On October 30th Blake, Everly, and myself checked cameras. To my surprise, Full House showed back up on two of my cameras. To say that I was excited was an understatement. Full House was back on the farm, and I was very confident in killing him. He was actually my favorite buck out of all the deer on my cameras, and I had decided to hunt him hard once my vacation started.
Here is a link to a short video I made on October 31st where I talk about Full House and my desire to kill him;
http://chrisandblake.bowhuntingroad.com/2011/11/01/the-time-has-come/
November 2nd was my first day of vacation, and my first morning in the stand. Blake Lefler tagged along with the video camera to capture my season. The forecast for the day didn't look good, but I knew that I couldn't kill a buck while sleeping in my cozy bed at home. I ignored the weather forecasts, which called for heavy rains, and headed to the stand anyways. With thunder sounding off in the background, I knew I may be in store for a short hunt. The deer didn't move and the rain started coming down not 40 minutes into my hunt. I made the decision to get down and sneak out, and come back to hunt Full House a different day. November 3rd brought high winds and little deer movement for me, but with the amount of sign, and the pictures of Full House in the area, I decided to come back and hunt the same set on the 4th. The morning of the 4th was perfect with light winds and frost on the ground. 10am rolled around and I had not yet seen a deer when movement caught my eye to my right. I pulled up my binoculars and noticed a nice 4.5 year old 10pt that I called Rookie heading my direction. Rookie entered the field and once he crossed where I walked in, he put his nose to the ground and walked directly to the base of my tree never giving me a shot due to a strong quartering too angle.
Trail Cam Picture of Rookie;
Still Video Image of Rookie Coming In;
Last edited:
