Kicker Brow 10
This summer I had a bachelor group of good bucks on part of the ground I hunt. I had hundreds of pictures of these deer from June through early September. In early September the farmer’s hired man set up a ground blind in the middle of a field overlooking 2 field edges where I had hung stands. He was hunting with a rifle during the disabled season. He spent most evenings for a week and a half, sitting in that blind and the bucks patterned him well. He never saw them but shot a doe and a fawn from that blind. The bucks that I had spent all summer patterning had changed their patterns significantly.
The buck on the top of my list was the Dumpster Buck. This is a deer I’ve been after for 4 years and have pictures of him every year. I believe he’s 8.5 years old. Dumpster Buck’s rack went down hill this year for the first time and he’s a 180 class 6x5 with trash. Buck number 2 was the Kicker Brow 10. He had really good mass, good tine length and the body of a mature deer. I named him the Kicker Brow 10 based on the split brow on his left side. He lived with that name for 2 months before I noticed that he was a main frame 9, not a 10. As someone who usually can remember and recall every little aspect of a rack of a deer I’m after, this was pretty embarrassing but I decided the name should stick since it was a part of the story. After all, with the split brow he IS a 10 pt, and he has a little ¾ inch bump on the bottom of his right beam that almost counts too.
Early muzzle loader and archery seasons came in on Sept. 21 and I had some close encounters but was never able to seal the deal. On 2 occasions I was carrying my bow instead of the muzzle loader and I could have had a shot with the smokepole. Muzzle loader season pasted with no shot. I continued to target the 4 bucks from this bachelor group even though they had split up. I was getting trail camera pictures but no where near as many as during the summer. They were covering more ground.
On the evening of Nov. 10, I saw a good deer in a milo field and over an hours time was able to close the distance to 35 yards. I have a disabled waiver that allows me to use a crossbow, since I can’t draw my compound because of a bad shoulder. At last light I took a shot at this buck. I got decent blood but since a milo plant looks like it’s had blood splatter all over it naturally, I decided to back out and recover him in the morning. I went back with help and we looked and looked. I spent much of the 3 days following continuing to look for the deer, while looking for coyotes, buzzards and crows. On Saturday morning, I got pictures of a deer with a wound that I believe is from my shot. He was alive and healthy, working a scrape so I decided to go back to the stand.
Sunday night I sat in my stand and watched 4 shooter bucks on the other side of the river (I can’t hunt that side) chasing each other and a doe. Fun to watch but frustrating at the same time.
Monday was a cold day with rain/snow and sleet and wind gusts to 30 mph. That evening I went back to the same area but in a different stand. Almost as soon as I got in the stand a good 8 point ran past me and I would have shot him if I could get him to stop but he kept going. Soon after that I began to see deer movement in the direction he had come from. As I watched, I could see different bucks running, sparring and chasing each other and a doe. These deer were 150 to 200 yards away in the brush and I couldn’t tell a lot about them for could see there were at least 2 shooters there. I tried to rattle and grunt to see if I could pull something off of the group but had no luck. I watched the action and enjoyed it for an hour and a half until the doe came busting out of the cover, running along the field edge toward where I was sitting. I saw that he was a shooter, and didn’t look at the rack again. The doe was trotting and walking just off the edge of cover with the buck on her heals. As he approached my first shooting lane I grunted several times but he never even broke stride. I swung to the second lane preparing for a 15 yard shot and grunted again. When he didn’t slow, I put the pin on the center of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I watched my muzzy 100 grain bury right behind the right shoulder and as he stepped forward I saw the lumenok sticking out of the ground on the other side. He faultered for a step or two, then took up the chase again. I watched him trot for 50 yards, wobble and fall. That is where he lay when I walked up to him 15 minutes later, having deflated both lungs and sliced the top of the heart.
Kicker Brow 10 rough scores 154 4/8 inches gross non typical. It’s been a rollercoaster season, from having 4 good deer totally patterned and predictable, to not seeing them for a week at a time, to shooting and losing a good buck, to harvesting one of my top target bucks. God has been good to me. I owe a special measure of thanks to my dad for all he has taught me about deer over the years. Also thanks to Jason for all the time and energy helping me hang stands and prepare for the season. Thanks to all who have given me words of encouragement, especially as I had quit sitting in a stand to spend my time looking for a deer I thought was dead. Now it’s time to devote a little more time to my family.
Matthew
This summer I had a bachelor group of good bucks on part of the ground I hunt. I had hundreds of pictures of these deer from June through early September. In early September the farmer’s hired man set up a ground blind in the middle of a field overlooking 2 field edges where I had hung stands. He was hunting with a rifle during the disabled season. He spent most evenings for a week and a half, sitting in that blind and the bucks patterned him well. He never saw them but shot a doe and a fawn from that blind. The bucks that I had spent all summer patterning had changed their patterns significantly.
The buck on the top of my list was the Dumpster Buck. This is a deer I’ve been after for 4 years and have pictures of him every year. I believe he’s 8.5 years old. Dumpster Buck’s rack went down hill this year for the first time and he’s a 180 class 6x5 with trash. Buck number 2 was the Kicker Brow 10. He had really good mass, good tine length and the body of a mature deer. I named him the Kicker Brow 10 based on the split brow on his left side. He lived with that name for 2 months before I noticed that he was a main frame 9, not a 10. As someone who usually can remember and recall every little aspect of a rack of a deer I’m after, this was pretty embarrassing but I decided the name should stick since it was a part of the story. After all, with the split brow he IS a 10 pt, and he has a little ¾ inch bump on the bottom of his right beam that almost counts too.
Early muzzle loader and archery seasons came in on Sept. 21 and I had some close encounters but was never able to seal the deal. On 2 occasions I was carrying my bow instead of the muzzle loader and I could have had a shot with the smokepole. Muzzle loader season pasted with no shot. I continued to target the 4 bucks from this bachelor group even though they had split up. I was getting trail camera pictures but no where near as many as during the summer. They were covering more ground.
On the evening of Nov. 10, I saw a good deer in a milo field and over an hours time was able to close the distance to 35 yards. I have a disabled waiver that allows me to use a crossbow, since I can’t draw my compound because of a bad shoulder. At last light I took a shot at this buck. I got decent blood but since a milo plant looks like it’s had blood splatter all over it naturally, I decided to back out and recover him in the morning. I went back with help and we looked and looked. I spent much of the 3 days following continuing to look for the deer, while looking for coyotes, buzzards and crows. On Saturday morning, I got pictures of a deer with a wound that I believe is from my shot. He was alive and healthy, working a scrape so I decided to go back to the stand.
Sunday night I sat in my stand and watched 4 shooter bucks on the other side of the river (I can’t hunt that side) chasing each other and a doe. Fun to watch but frustrating at the same time.
Monday was a cold day with rain/snow and sleet and wind gusts to 30 mph. That evening I went back to the same area but in a different stand. Almost as soon as I got in the stand a good 8 point ran past me and I would have shot him if I could get him to stop but he kept going. Soon after that I began to see deer movement in the direction he had come from. As I watched, I could see different bucks running, sparring and chasing each other and a doe. These deer were 150 to 200 yards away in the brush and I couldn’t tell a lot about them for could see there were at least 2 shooters there. I tried to rattle and grunt to see if I could pull something off of the group but had no luck. I watched the action and enjoyed it for an hour and a half until the doe came busting out of the cover, running along the field edge toward where I was sitting. I saw that he was a shooter, and didn’t look at the rack again. The doe was trotting and walking just off the edge of cover with the buck on her heals. As he approached my first shooting lane I grunted several times but he never even broke stride. I swung to the second lane preparing for a 15 yard shot and grunted again. When he didn’t slow, I put the pin on the center of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I watched my muzzy 100 grain bury right behind the right shoulder and as he stepped forward I saw the lumenok sticking out of the ground on the other side. He faultered for a step or two, then took up the chase again. I watched him trot for 50 yards, wobble and fall. That is where he lay when I walked up to him 15 minutes later, having deflated both lungs and sliced the top of the heart.
Kicker Brow 10 rough scores 154 4/8 inches gross non typical. It’s been a rollercoaster season, from having 4 good deer totally patterned and predictable, to not seeing them for a week at a time, to shooting and losing a good buck, to harvesting one of my top target bucks. God has been good to me. I owe a special measure of thanks to my dad for all he has taught me about deer over the years. Also thanks to Jason for all the time and energy helping me hang stands and prepare for the season. Thanks to all who have given me words of encouragement, especially as I had quit sitting in a stand to spend my time looking for a deer I thought was dead. Now it’s time to devote a little more time to my family.
Matthew
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