) back in October of 2010 when I was hanging a stand. I think I had snuck up on him good enought that it scared him out of the area for a while. I didn't see him at all that season, but I did get a trail camera picture of him (actually all he showed was his rack...) during the rut that November. I hunted hard with my bow (I'm usually a die-hard bowhunter, but in this case, I wanted the gun to increase my chance of success...) until the very last day of season in January, but he was always a step ahead of me.....This year I guess I hunted smart in stead of just hunting hard. I knew where the does were going to be and I thought I knew this buck's bedding area. Finding bedding area was a little bit of a guess, but also based off of previous big buck sightings and some good TOPO mad studying..... This past summer I hung two stands that I knew I would have the best chance of seeing him from. One was near where I thought he was bedding and the other was in a doe bedding area.
I waited until the wind was perfect (Nov. 5) and then I hunted that first stand where I thought he was bedding. I think I was a little late on this hunt as he was not in the area. (I think buck bedroom stands have the highest probability before the rut when the buck is not wondering around chasin' does...) I saw plenty of rut action on the first hunt, but did not see him. He was probably off chasing a doe somewhere or other.... I realized I need to move the stand about 50 yards in order to better conceal myself from the deer's eyes and to give myself more of a better view of the area and approaching deer... I moved the stand as quickly and quietly as I could and then I got out of there without alerting any deer.
One week later (Nov. 12/yesterday) I came back and hunted the same stand again. Based on the amount of bucks chasing does I had seen, I knew it would be a good time to be there. I saw a ton of does that morning and a few little bucks trailing behind some of them. Action tapered off a little until around 10:00AM when I saw "HIM". He was following a lone doe that was obviously about to go into heat. I unfortunately did not get any shot at him because the range was far too long and there was a ton of brush/trees in between him and me. I made a mental note of where he went (down a drainage/valley and over to the next big hill about 400 yards away) and decided the best thing to do was bail out for the day as quetly as possible. Thanks to my earlier scouting, I knew the buck was following the doe into her bedding aea, where I already had stand #2.
The next morning (Nov. 13/today) I woke up just in time to get to this stand about 30 minutes before daylight. I thought I was running a little late, but I figured it would be worth a shot and the does don't usually get to thier beds until later anyway... 9:00AM rolls around and I have 6 does (actually I think two of them were button bucks...) come in and bed down between 50 and 75 yards. The lead doe was aware that "something" was in that tree and she did not like it. She kept on stamping her feet and trying to get me to move. I just made sure she never saw my eyes and I stayed as still as I possibly could. After a while, she settled down and decided I wasn't going to be a problem.... So here I am stuck in the middle of six does and I cannot move a muscle without spooking them all. I sat there practically without breathing all the way 'till about 12:45. I didn't think I could take any more of it. I had been sitting there in a cushinless treestand seat with my whole backside aching for hours. I thought for sure the buck would have already been here by now if he was coming at all. I was so close to convincing myself that I should just give up and go home..... Then I saw a doe come in out of the corner of my eye.... and guess who was behind her...... I recognized the forked tines in about half a second and I moved quickly as he was just about to get on the other side of a bunch of brush that would be impossible to shoot through. I managed to get into position for the shot without spooking any does. I settled the crosshairs on his heart and the shot was off. The buck flinched, walked about 10 step, stopped to look around and I took advantage of the situation. I thought for sure I had hit him the first time, but I didn't have time to study his vitals for any aparent wounds.... I took another shot and he just completely collapesed, fell on his side and just disappeared from my view. I was shocked. I didn't know what to think. I climed down from my stand to look for blood. It only took about a minute to find the blood from where he fell. I followed it about 10 feet to the edge of a cliff that is about 100 feet high and very steep. I looked to the bottom of the drainage and there he was. He had slid to the bottom and gotten caught in between two logs. Completely pinned and just letting out his last breath as I looked throught my scope at him. He was done for sure. I got my gear together and got to the bottom where he was. I had known all along that this buck was a big one, but I had no idea he had so many points on his rack...I thought he was about a 12-pointer, but I was pleasantly suprised with all the kickers he had.... I called my dad and told him that I had shot a little doe and I wanted to know if he could bring the truck around (buck ended up about 200 yards from our neighbor/tennants driveway...) so we could load here up. When he arrived, I walked him to the deer and needless to say he was suprised........
I am so grateful that I was able to actually scout this buck out and that I stuck to the plan. It all played out perfectly and I could not be more happy!!!!!
Thanks to my Dad (AJMD429) for owning the property that I hunt on (I'm basically spoiled rotten as far as that goes....) Also thanks to Mark for being a great employer and letting me have yesterday off work to be in the woods. I would not have known to hunt that stand today if I was not out there yesterday.... Finally thanks to my friend Darrell French for being an awesome buddy/mentor and giving some great pointers about how to be careful while hunting this buck and how to keep scent-free and keep from spooking him. Also for helping encourage me to stick with my plan and tuff it out in the stand all day, no matter how uncomfortable it was getting....
The buck has 17 scoreable points and an inside spread of 17.25". His tallest tine (right G2) is 12 inches tall and he has some sweet mass and palmation on a few of his tines. He's also got lots of gnarley junk around the bases as well as on his tines. He is a fantastic buck and I feel spoiled as heck to have gotten him.
Thanks for reading. Now this pictures:
(notice the trailcamera picture of him is right around the same time during the rut.....)
