James and Theresa had marked on their calender when they were coming to Bowhunt Sk Whitetails, and we were well aware when they would be down. One thing that I was very clear of by the time they made it was that Theresa wanted to stick a full velvet whitetail. I think I was reminded daily of this fact.
It seemed that alot of the deer had been dumping their velvet, except the smaller deer, but we had a deer/Stand in mind. 3 days before Theresa started hunting, the deer was still in velvet. Whether he would or not if she was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of him, would be a who knows.
The deer, was one we found in 2006, what I figured was a 3 yr old. He never did get a name for years. He had heaps of potential, and we had high expectations.
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Here he is in 2006 ( Dont mind the date, its an 06 pic)
2007 rolled around, and he grew a bit, nothing tremendous, but we still thought he had a twinkle in his eye to be a biggen'
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here he is in 2007
2008 rolled around, again he looked good, but now 5 years old and not a shooter still... This lead to his name. Thomas. Not an Exciting name, but it was after Thomas the Train... Because he reminded me of the little engine that thought he could... Be a booner. He had such promise, but just never panned out. Next year I thought. It is interesting as if some remember a deer named Spike that Jason Killed in 2008, we filmed Thomas most nights we were hunting Spike, and over and over said, hes gonna be a big one, he has to.
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Here he is in 2008
2009 came in and I just knew it would be Thomas's year. When we found him, it was not his year. He had actually regressed. Did we miss his high spot at 5 yrs old? Shouldnt have. Oh well, he was off the radar. We seen him lots through the season, and wondered if he would live, what he would be, regress more, stay the same or maybe he had a bad year and would do better.
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Here he is in 2009
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2010, june, so you have to understand, by this time, we all had a negative perception of thomas, we thought he would be a biggen, but just not meant to be. We checked cams, no Thomas, then July there he was... He looked good. But still... not what we once figured. August he put on some good horn, but the negativity that was linked with watching him the last few years really blinded us. We barley stopped to look at him on trail cam pics.
So right before season, I took another look at him, and he did look good. I thought 155ish... A cool old buck we had really enjoyed, so maybe someone would want to try him. Stevie kept saying to me, "Ya better go take a good look at Thomas in person" and Jason " Deano, hes better than your giving him credit for", but I really disregarded them and replied "he;s a nice deer, but not the deer." Fast forward to Sept 3. James and Theresa arrive. They have some ground to hunt but the wind is wrong. I run Thomas past Theresa, that he's not a giant, but a fine archery deer, more importantly and old mature buck, and possibly still in velvet. The word Velvet is all it took and we were getting them to the stand.
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Here he is in 2010
So we get them in the tree at a spot where they have been filtering out to a 2 week old cut alfalfa field, and Jason and I head the 1hr drive to sit for blades. This was their first time in the trees for whitetails, first time with the bow, and the shot would be at 18yrds. I gave them the rundown that these old bucks arent bears, you cant get away with anything, ANYTHING, no movment, talking, just the old Sit down and shush lecture. We drive off, I look at Jason and Chuckle and say "what time do you think they will get busted by" and grinned. In my mind, brand new at this game, there would be issues.
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We get to our spot, and a text rolls in the cell phone from Theresa. I am expecting a "what does it mean when the deer look at you and go Phfeeeew" but instead it says "Giant (swear word) buck down". I give a double take... Giant, theres none there, thomas is by far the best in the area. So now I am thinking some new stud rolled into the area and She crushed him... I text,"explain the deer to me" she does, its Thomas to a T. I look at Jason and say" No not a real big one, they got thomas" so back we go to help.
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We get back, and review the footage/shot...
Well I now realize there are several things I have underestimated here. First, Theresa was like a Ninja in the tree, second James was spot on with the camera, like excellent old pro, and third... Thomas looked really really good. Better than I thought... But we were looking at footage, which can be deceiving. Off to blood trail the deer, it was a sparse trail, then Jason called to me "He's over here". I headed over that way and he met me half way to the deer and said, " I hope your ready for this, cause you were wrong, Thomas is a Stud!" I said "a 150's deer is a stud in my books for sure" he looked at me with a menacing grin and said come on. We hadnt informed James and Theresa just yet he was down. I walked up on the ridge just as Jason tilted his horns up... Yikes, he's not 150, or 155, or 165 for that matter, I knew instantly it was a 170 gross jumper. Jason and Steve poked me a bit about how if this is a 150, what one would look like that I thought was 170. We decided not to be too cruel, circled back and let James and Theresa know we "thought" he headed up the ridge... We didnt want to miss getting her first look at him up close on camers. Jason got in behind the us with the cam to catch her/their expressions when we walked up on him. The rest I guess... Is History. We had a pile with this deer, and thoroughly enjoyed watching him the last 5 years. Ol' Thomas sure showed me who would be the stud, and who would be the dud.
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Congrats Theresa, and James!! Great hunt, great shot, great buck, and great people. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend!
Ol Theresa though, shes in a tight spot. She's hunted whitetails with her bow for 1 hr to date... Next season, both the deer and time spent might be a bit tough to beat, but if anyone can, it will be her... I tell you the girls a killer!>
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It seemed that alot of the deer had been dumping their velvet, except the smaller deer, but we had a deer/Stand in mind. 3 days before Theresa started hunting, the deer was still in velvet. Whether he would or not if she was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of him, would be a who knows.
The deer, was one we found in 2006, what I figured was a 3 yr old. He never did get a name for years. He had heaps of potential, and we had high expectations.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Here he is in 2006 ( Dont mind the date, its an 06 pic)
2007 rolled around, and he grew a bit, nothing tremendous, but we still thought he had a twinkle in his eye to be a biggen'
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here he is in 2007
2008 rolled around, again he looked good, but now 5 years old and not a shooter still... This lead to his name. Thomas. Not an Exciting name, but it was after Thomas the Train... Because he reminded me of the little engine that thought he could... Be a booner. He had such promise, but just never panned out. Next year I thought. It is interesting as if some remember a deer named Spike that Jason Killed in 2008, we filmed Thomas most nights we were hunting Spike, and over and over said, hes gonna be a big one, he has to.
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Here he is in 2008
2009 came in and I just knew it would be Thomas's year. When we found him, it was not his year. He had actually regressed. Did we miss his high spot at 5 yrs old? Shouldnt have. Oh well, he was off the radar. We seen him lots through the season, and wondered if he would live, what he would be, regress more, stay the same or maybe he had a bad year and would do better.
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Here he is in 2009
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2010, june, so you have to understand, by this time, we all had a negative perception of thomas, we thought he would be a biggen, but just not meant to be. We checked cams, no Thomas, then July there he was... He looked good. But still... not what we once figured. August he put on some good horn, but the negativity that was linked with watching him the last few years really blinded us. We barley stopped to look at him on trail cam pics.
So right before season, I took another look at him, and he did look good. I thought 155ish... A cool old buck we had really enjoyed, so maybe someone would want to try him. Stevie kept saying to me, "Ya better go take a good look at Thomas in person" and Jason " Deano, hes better than your giving him credit for", but I really disregarded them and replied "he;s a nice deer, but not the deer." Fast forward to Sept 3. James and Theresa arrive. They have some ground to hunt but the wind is wrong. I run Thomas past Theresa, that he's not a giant, but a fine archery deer, more importantly and old mature buck, and possibly still in velvet. The word Velvet is all it took and we were getting them to the stand.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Here he is in 2010
So we get them in the tree at a spot where they have been filtering out to a 2 week old cut alfalfa field, and Jason and I head the 1hr drive to sit for blades. This was their first time in the trees for whitetails, first time with the bow, and the shot would be at 18yrds. I gave them the rundown that these old bucks arent bears, you cant get away with anything, ANYTHING, no movment, talking, just the old Sit down and shush lecture. We drive off, I look at Jason and Chuckle and say "what time do you think they will get busted by" and grinned. In my mind, brand new at this game, there would be issues.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
We get to our spot, and a text rolls in the cell phone from Theresa. I am expecting a "what does it mean when the deer look at you and go Phfeeeew" but instead it says "Giant (swear word) buck down". I give a double take... Giant, theres none there, thomas is by far the best in the area. So now I am thinking some new stud rolled into the area and She crushed him... I text,"explain the deer to me" she does, its Thomas to a T. I look at Jason and say" No not a real big one, they got thomas" so back we go to help.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>
>
>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
We get back, and review the footage/shot...
Well I now realize there are several things I have underestimated here. First, Theresa was like a Ninja in the tree, second James was spot on with the camera, like excellent old pro, and third... Thomas looked really really good. Better than I thought... But we were looking at footage, which can be deceiving. Off to blood trail the deer, it was a sparse trail, then Jason called to me "He's over here". I headed over that way and he met me half way to the deer and said, " I hope your ready for this, cause you were wrong, Thomas is a Stud!" I said "a 150's deer is a stud in my books for sure" he looked at me with a menacing grin and said come on. We hadnt informed James and Theresa just yet he was down. I walked up on the ridge just as Jason tilted his horns up... Yikes, he's not 150, or 155, or 165 for that matter, I knew instantly it was a 170 gross jumper. Jason and Steve poked me a bit about how if this is a 150, what one would look like that I thought was 170. We decided not to be too cruel, circled back and let James and Theresa know we "thought" he headed up the ridge... We didnt want to miss getting her first look at him up close on camers. Jason got in behind the us with the cam to catch her/their expressions when we walked up on him. The rest I guess... Is History. We had a pile with this deer, and thoroughly enjoyed watching him the last 5 years. Ol' Thomas sure showed me who would be the stud, and who would be the dud.
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Congrats Theresa, and James!! Great hunt, great shot, great buck, and great people. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend!
Ol Theresa though, shes in a tight spot. She's hunted whitetails with her bow for 1 hr to date... Next season, both the deer and time spent might be a bit tough to beat, but if anyone can, it will be her... I tell you the girls a killer!>
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