sp69
PMA Member
I got to Kansas late Sunday night, Nov 1st, and got checked into the hotel. This was one week earlier than originally planned but my wife was starting a new job on Nov. 9th and needed me back in town. I had scouted out a few different farms that I was allowed to hunt in late September and came away very excited about my chances of seeing a big buck.
During a conversation about one farm, I was told of a couple of things that really sparked my interest. One was that the local sheriff mentioned to the farmer that the highway that borders the east side of the property has more deer/auto collisions than anywhere in the county. This is where a bridge goes over a creek that crosses onto his property. The other thing mentioned was that the farmer didn't know much about the chunk of timber that is located near the bridge because nobody ever goes in there. My first thought was this must be a deer haven and I would like to be the first to find out.
I had picked out three stand placements on the farm with one on the east side in the timber, a funnel stand in the center of the property along the river next to a picked bean field and a beautiful stand on the west side in a location that I could see and hear a small waterfall.
After daydreaming of my coming hunt for 3 weeks, for the first morning I chose to sit in the stand nearest the highway. I didn't see any deer that morning probably due to the usual first day follies of being noisy, dropping stuff from the tree and various other little miscues. I got out of the tree at about 11am and went to place a stand in a tree next to the bean field. Got the stand set and headed back to the hotel for lunch and some rest before the heading back out for an evening hunt. During this time is when I discovered the hotel was full of bow hunters from across the US. During my short stay I met hunters from Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas and Minnesota.
I headed back out at 3pm for an evening sit. At 4:30 I decided it was time to try my rattling in hopes of bringing one in. I hit the antlers for about 45 seconds and before I sit them down I saw a buck running my way. He was a nice 3.5 year old buck with a tall set of antlers that had somewhere around 13 points going in all directions. His rack was really unique but just didn't have a lot of mass. If it would have been further along in my hunt I may have thought otherwise but I let him walk hoping both he and I might be around again next year.
He hung around at about 40 yards rubbing a tree and making a scrape before he saw a doe standing in the bean field and headed out the check her out. After 20 minutes I decided to hit the rattling antlers once again. Not long after the second rattling sequence I see another buck approaching from the same direction the first buck appeared from.
With one look at this huge old buck I knew he was a shooter. At 30 yards, with shaky hands, I let an arrow fly. From the sound, I knew I had hit him but wasn't real sure how well as when he took off I couldn't see a arrow wound. He circled around a couple small cottonwood trees and started walking back the direction he came from. I was able to get another arrow knocked and after stopping him with a loud grunt and estimating his distance at 60 yards and let another arrow go. After the shot he took off like a rocket so I figured I had managed to hit him again. This was a confident shot as I spent a lot of time practicing from 60 yards the past few weeks.
After 20 minutes it was starting to get dark so I got down and found the first arrow. It was a complete pass through but I noticed the arrow had some blood on it but was covered mostly in gunk from a gut shot. I was disappointed in a poor shot but was confident the second shot had done some hurt on him. I found the blood trail and followed it until I located where he had laid down then had got up and moved. At this time I decided it was best to let him go until morning. This was hard to do based on my excitement along with hearing a pack of coyotes howling nearby.
The next morning I got back out to the farm and within a minute or so found the buck laying down by the creek. He had only gotten only about 30 yards from where I had bumped him the previous night. After looking him over I noticed that the second shot from 60 yards had gone through his neck. Not an ideal shot placement but from that distance I was happy to get a second arrow in him and help take him down.
After gutting him, the farmer was gracious enough to help me save time and sweat by offering the usage of one of his ATVs. Got him in the truck and headed back to town to show the buck to the boys at the hotel. This was an ego booster as everyone was very impressed with this great buck and commented on the age of the deer and the amount of mass. I will find out for sure when he get back from the taxidermist but my guess is that he was 5.5 years old and will score in the mid to upper 150's. A wall hanger for sure as he is my biggest to date.
Special thanks to my friends who set me up with this with land in Kansas to hunt. I was disappointed to not have drawn a tag in my original home state of Iowa this year and was very grateful to get an opportunity at a Kansas whitetail. Also thanks to my wife who strongly supports and understands giving me the time away from our family to experience my strong passion for bow hunting.
