shadowpeople
Active Member
Well, I took off last week Wednesday through the weekend in hopes I could punch my tag. Worked out. Wednesday, I saw numerous small bucks and a few does, Thursday was a day of more of the same except I did see a giant about 200 yards way out in the field. Friday I saw 8 bucks and a couple does, including one buck I really should have shot in hindsight. Most decent buck activity I had seen from the stand was happening between 11 and 2, and every single buck was cruising through the woods looking for a doe. After sitting practically dawn till dusk for 3 days (had to move once because of the winds), it finally happened Saturday morning.
We were up late tying one on like usual, but somehow managed to oversleep Saturday morning
I didn't get showered and leave the truck until 10 min past legal shooting light. I snuck my way toward the stand and noticed a small 8 point feeding out in the hay field. I sat in the fence line and waited for him to move through. I finally made it to the stand and began my sit. It was probably one of the most beautiful mornings I've been in the stand. That week I dealt with some pretty high winds and watched plenty of trees fall over to make me a little nervous. I noticed a doe trotting all by herself across the field about an hour later, but nothing was chasing her surprisingly. She looked like she was in heat the way she was acting but nothing was chasing her and she moved on through.
About an hour later, I looked out into the field and saw him trotting across toward the timber where I was sitting. I got a good look at him and determined that he was the buck we had on the trail camera a few weeks ago with some nice splits on his g2. I decided it was good enough for me, and prepared to make the shot.
He made a scrape on the edge of the timber, and hopped on a trail that took him a little further than I prefer. He started rubbing on a big downed tree, and proceeded down the trail. I "meerp'ed" him to a stop at 40 yards and sent the arrow on it's way. It was somewhat difficult to see where it hit, and his head and neck was behind a couple big trees. It blew through him and he bounded off down the hill. As he cleared a log, I saw him hunch up as he sauntered off and thought to myself 'I hope I didn't just gut shoot him'. Made a couple of calls, and got down from the stand to retrieve my arrow. Decent blood, but it seemed to have an off odor to it. Maybe it was just because I had helped a buddy track a buck the night before that he hit too far back, and coming up on it still alive, or maybe it was my buddy that gut shot a buck two days before and bumped him and luckily found it the next day 100 yards from where he first bumped him, but it felt like karma, and I certainly wasn't going to be the one to bump my deer never to recover it. So, we backed out a few hours and decided we were going to head up there, go to the site of the shot, and go 100 yards, no more, and see if there was good blood. We started walking, and after he crossed the log, there was a great blood trail, and looked up and there he was. Didn't make it 60 yards down the hill and piled up, perfect double lung shot.
Couple of pics....
I caped him, boned him out, and got the meat to the locker Sunday. Then I headed back to my parents to get him to the taxidermist. On the way, a couple buddies from back home and I decided it would be a good day to see if we could get a few ringnecks on some of our CRP acres. We had some great luck and came home with 6 birds (6th bird was in the other truck). Probably some of the better pheasant hunting we've had up there in the last couple years at least.
I got the head dropped off at the taxidermist, and then, a friend of mine called and said he just shot a good one on some public ground. It was on my way home, so I hauled tail and got there. He failed to inform me that he was 2 miles into some of the nastiest, thorn infested, terrible ground I've seen in a while. We finally found him around 8 PM and started the haul out. He was a real nice 4.5 yr old that scores a little over 150". Got lost twice in the cloudy night with no GPS and made a big circle. Finally got him to a horse trail, and got him out of there. Didn't get home till midnight Sunday night, hands all cut up from the thorns and completely exhausted. But man... what a weekend!!! Good luck to those still trying to fill their tag. I've seen so many bucks out and about this weekend while driving to the locker, taxidermist, etc..., it's pretty hot right now at least from what I've seen in NE, NC, and Central Iowa.
We were up late tying one on like usual, but somehow managed to oversleep Saturday morning
I didn't get showered and leave the truck until 10 min past legal shooting light. I snuck my way toward the stand and noticed a small 8 point feeding out in the hay field. I sat in the fence line and waited for him to move through. I finally made it to the stand and began my sit. It was probably one of the most beautiful mornings I've been in the stand. That week I dealt with some pretty high winds and watched plenty of trees fall over to make me a little nervous. I noticed a doe trotting all by herself across the field about an hour later, but nothing was chasing her surprisingly. She looked like she was in heat the way she was acting but nothing was chasing her and she moved on through.About an hour later, I looked out into the field and saw him trotting across toward the timber where I was sitting. I got a good look at him and determined that he was the buck we had on the trail camera a few weeks ago with some nice splits on his g2. I decided it was good enough for me, and prepared to make the shot.
He made a scrape on the edge of the timber, and hopped on a trail that took him a little further than I prefer. He started rubbing on a big downed tree, and proceeded down the trail. I "meerp'ed" him to a stop at 40 yards and sent the arrow on it's way. It was somewhat difficult to see where it hit, and his head and neck was behind a couple big trees. It blew through him and he bounded off down the hill. As he cleared a log, I saw him hunch up as he sauntered off and thought to myself 'I hope I didn't just gut shoot him'. Made a couple of calls, and got down from the stand to retrieve my arrow. Decent blood, but it seemed to have an off odor to it. Maybe it was just because I had helped a buddy track a buck the night before that he hit too far back, and coming up on it still alive, or maybe it was my buddy that gut shot a buck two days before and bumped him and luckily found it the next day 100 yards from where he first bumped him, but it felt like karma, and I certainly wasn't going to be the one to bump my deer never to recover it. So, we backed out a few hours and decided we were going to head up there, go to the site of the shot, and go 100 yards, no more, and see if there was good blood. We started walking, and after he crossed the log, there was a great blood trail, and looked up and there he was. Didn't make it 60 yards down the hill and piled up, perfect double lung shot.
Couple of pics....
I caped him, boned him out, and got the meat to the locker Sunday. Then I headed back to my parents to get him to the taxidermist. On the way, a couple buddies from back home and I decided it would be a good day to see if we could get a few ringnecks on some of our CRP acres. We had some great luck and came home with 6 birds (6th bird was in the other truck). Probably some of the better pheasant hunting we've had up there in the last couple years at least.
I got the head dropped off at the taxidermist, and then, a friend of mine called and said he just shot a good one on some public ground. It was on my way home, so I hauled tail and got there. He failed to inform me that he was 2 miles into some of the nastiest, thorn infested, terrible ground I've seen in a while. We finally found him around 8 PM and started the haul out. He was a real nice 4.5 yr old that scores a little over 150". Got lost twice in the cloudy night with no GPS and made a big circle. Finally got him to a horse trail, and got him out of there. Didn't get home till midnight Sunday night, hands all cut up from the thorns and completely exhausted. But man... what a weekend!!! Good luck to those still trying to fill their tag. I've seen so many bucks out and about this weekend while driving to the locker, taxidermist, etc..., it's pretty hot right now at least from what I've seen in NE, NC, and Central Iowa.
