BrewCrew
Active Member
I apologize for neglecting this forum lately. Since we moved we haven’t had a decent internet connection so hopefully this will bring me, DW1LK, DANNYB0Y, and KILL2HUNT back to life :grin: .
For me deer hunting starts with the end of every hunting season and the beginning of every new year
so I figured I would give everyone an update on how my 2011 season went.
By and far this has been my most successful year in terms of harvesting animals compared to the amount of the time I was able to spend in the stand. In a strange way I believe that may be the reason why I was able to make it a successful season. Because of family (baby girl on the way) and work duties I wasn’t able to spend countless hours in a stand as usual so I made what little time I had count. Five out of Seven days a week during this hunting season I would wake up early and take the long way to work so I could see what was cruising around. On my way home I would do the same and scout the fields for deer and turkeys and I firmly believe that is worth its weight in gold. Although I wasn’t able to chase every time I saw something worthy, I made a note to self for the day that I would be able to make it out there. Along with that I also ran a couple trail cameras just to monitor some hit-list bucks and see what times they were on their feet.
My typical year starts with the shed hunting. I used to believe that shed hunting was just to add up the antlers in the man cave for decoration but after this year they became much more valuable than that.
This was taken during a 2009 shed hunt where my little brother and us went out and piled up some antlers. One of the sheds he found that day ended up being the left side of the buck I harvested with my bow during this 2011 season.
During the 2010 season while I was shed hunting the same farm I stumbled across a very nice left side. Upon meeting up with my buddy he too had some luck and had found a nice antler but in 3 pieces spread across the section, and it was the match to the left side I had found. Apparently this buck had broken his main beam and his G2 off during a fight (guessing in November, judging by the bleaching from the antler) in an open bean field and then had shed his left antler and his base and brow-tine off of his right side sometime later. Luckily for us, we somehow pieced them all together making a very unusual matched set. So we began to call him the 3Piece buck.
On November 1st, I wasn't having a great day. I had been called out to work about an hour late and had my mentor student fake sick and sneak out of his house. I decided at the last moment to go hunting.
I climbed into stand at 545pm (old time) and looked back into the CRP and seen three does staring me down. They eventually spook and head over the hill as I waved at them with a (big grin). I sat down, relaxed, and listened to the pheasants cackle. At 600pm 3 does came back over the hill followed by the 3Piece buck.
He came into 60yards, made a scrape and then eventually he was at 25 when I let an arrow go.
He went 40 yards and stopped and stood for 20 minutes. What I thought was a heart shot, definitely was not. He slowly walked about 200 yards to the creek flicking his tail the whole time and at dark I snuck out. (This is where it starts to sound a lot like Liv4Ruts harvest story)
Next morning, we bumped him from the ditch I watched him go into and he headed for the 240acres of CRP. We tracked him through the mud with no blood and lost tracks at the grass.
I went back the night of the 2nd after a snow and used Muddy's advice and just glassed from a vantage point terrace back into a couple bowls and ditches on the property. No luck.
On the 3rd, I didn't make it out until 5 and walked fence-lines, and the only ditch on this particular property that held water. No luck again.
I was using the thickets where I found this deer's shed as motivation to keep searching for this deer so I wanted to have a few guys to help when I hit them. On the afternoon of November 4th, Sheriff Phudd came to my rescue!!! We started the search at 130pm and headed straight to the thickets that I had left untouched. By 345pm Sheriff Elmer uncovered the murder of his lifetime!! 3Piece was found and only 20 yards away in the thicket from where I found his left shed this last March!
Upon further examination of the carcass, turned out to be a one lung shot.. I hit him behind the front leg slightly quartering too and exited near the liver but causing minimal damage there.
I know we learn something new every day when we deer hunt, but in this case I think I learned some very valuable information through shed hunting as well. A deer we had never seen, but we knew exactly 4 things, 2 spots where he had bedded and lost his sheds at, and a field where he had scrapped with another buck and broken off 2 pieces of antler. If not for those shed finds I believe I could have made some crucial mistakes when looking for this buck and had a lot less confidence when it came to looking for him. But most of all, it pays to have friends who are just as excited about deer hunting that will help with even the biggest Goos chases!!
Traditional (note the shadow :grin: )
I’ll keep my late season muzzleloader story short.
The weather has been great, but not for deer hunting. The deer are on no real pattern. I finally got tired of playing cat and mouse with a loppy eared ten point that I had a crush on and figured I would take some peace and serenity and go sit on cornfield I knew was getting some attention.
At 430 12 does and 4 bucks were already on their way. They slowly grazed through a bean field toward my direction and I was on the fence if I should shoot the biggest buck in the group. Eventually I am covered up in deer and debating. Opportunities have been slim and this was a great deer but not the loppy eared ten I had my sights on, but I had that voice in my head saying, “shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.” It felt great, almost like I was a child again and I knew I had to see if I could get him killed. I was excited and it was turning into an incredible gun hunt (I was wishing I had my bow), at only 30 yards I pulled the hammer and squeezed the trigger. He reared up and hit the ground and expired in seconds. I was thrilled and needless to say, what a way to cap off the year for me.
While I was watching this buck come into range I thought it was this deer from a trail camera picture that was taken during bow season on the same farm but after harvesting him and comparing, it wasn’t. The genetics are very similar but he’s another mystery buck we’ve never seen but I look forward to hopefully seeing him in the future.
Traditional
This year I’m thankful to have great friends and family who I am able to share this great sport with, if it wasn’t for that, I don’t think you would mean all that much to me. Best of luck everybody and Happy New Year! :cheers:
For me deer hunting starts with the end of every hunting season and the beginning of every new year
so I figured I would give everyone an update on how my 2011 season went. By and far this has been my most successful year in terms of harvesting animals compared to the amount of the time I was able to spend in the stand. In a strange way I believe that may be the reason why I was able to make it a successful season. Because of family (baby girl on the way) and work duties I wasn’t able to spend countless hours in a stand as usual so I made what little time I had count. Five out of Seven days a week during this hunting season I would wake up early and take the long way to work so I could see what was cruising around. On my way home I would do the same and scout the fields for deer and turkeys and I firmly believe that is worth its weight in gold. Although I wasn’t able to chase every time I saw something worthy, I made a note to self for the day that I would be able to make it out there. Along with that I also ran a couple trail cameras just to monitor some hit-list bucks and see what times they were on their feet.
My typical year starts with the shed hunting. I used to believe that shed hunting was just to add up the antlers in the man cave for decoration but after this year they became much more valuable than that.
This was taken during a 2009 shed hunt where my little brother and us went out and piled up some antlers. One of the sheds he found that day ended up being the left side of the buck I harvested with my bow during this 2011 season.
During the 2010 season while I was shed hunting the same farm I stumbled across a very nice left side. Upon meeting up with my buddy he too had some luck and had found a nice antler but in 3 pieces spread across the section, and it was the match to the left side I had found. Apparently this buck had broken his main beam and his G2 off during a fight (guessing in November, judging by the bleaching from the antler) in an open bean field and then had shed his left antler and his base and brow-tine off of his right side sometime later. Luckily for us, we somehow pieced them all together making a very unusual matched set. So we began to call him the 3Piece buck.
On November 1st, I wasn't having a great day. I had been called out to work about an hour late and had my mentor student fake sick and sneak out of his house. I decided at the last moment to go hunting.
I climbed into stand at 545pm (old time) and looked back into the CRP and seen three does staring me down. They eventually spook and head over the hill as I waved at them with a (big grin). I sat down, relaxed, and listened to the pheasants cackle. At 600pm 3 does came back over the hill followed by the 3Piece buck.
He came into 60yards, made a scrape and then eventually he was at 25 when I let an arrow go.
He went 40 yards and stopped and stood for 20 minutes. What I thought was a heart shot, definitely was not. He slowly walked about 200 yards to the creek flicking his tail the whole time and at dark I snuck out. (This is where it starts to sound a lot like Liv4Ruts harvest story)
Next morning, we bumped him from the ditch I watched him go into and he headed for the 240acres of CRP. We tracked him through the mud with no blood and lost tracks at the grass.
I went back the night of the 2nd after a snow and used Muddy's advice and just glassed from a vantage point terrace back into a couple bowls and ditches on the property. No luck.
On the 3rd, I didn't make it out until 5 and walked fence-lines, and the only ditch on this particular property that held water. No luck again.
I was using the thickets where I found this deer's shed as motivation to keep searching for this deer so I wanted to have a few guys to help when I hit them. On the afternoon of November 4th, Sheriff Phudd came to my rescue!!! We started the search at 130pm and headed straight to the thickets that I had left untouched. By 345pm Sheriff Elmer uncovered the murder of his lifetime!! 3Piece was found and only 20 yards away in the thicket from where I found his left shed this last March!
Upon further examination of the carcass, turned out to be a one lung shot.. I hit him behind the front leg slightly quartering too and exited near the liver but causing minimal damage there.
I know we learn something new every day when we deer hunt, but in this case I think I learned some very valuable information through shed hunting as well. A deer we had never seen, but we knew exactly 4 things, 2 spots where he had bedded and lost his sheds at, and a field where he had scrapped with another buck and broken off 2 pieces of antler. If not for those shed finds I believe I could have made some crucial mistakes when looking for this buck and had a lot less confidence when it came to looking for him. But most of all, it pays to have friends who are just as excited about deer hunting that will help with even the biggest Goos chases!!
Traditional (note the shadow :grin: )
I’ll keep my late season muzzleloader story short.
The weather has been great, but not for deer hunting. The deer are on no real pattern. I finally got tired of playing cat and mouse with a loppy eared ten point that I had a crush on and figured I would take some peace and serenity and go sit on cornfield I knew was getting some attention.
At 430 12 does and 4 bucks were already on their way. They slowly grazed through a bean field toward my direction and I was on the fence if I should shoot the biggest buck in the group. Eventually I am covered up in deer and debating. Opportunities have been slim and this was a great deer but not the loppy eared ten I had my sights on, but I had that voice in my head saying, “shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.” It felt great, almost like I was a child again and I knew I had to see if I could get him killed. I was excited and it was turning into an incredible gun hunt (I was wishing I had my bow), at only 30 yards I pulled the hammer and squeezed the trigger. He reared up and hit the ground and expired in seconds. I was thrilled and needless to say, what a way to cap off the year for me.
While I was watching this buck come into range I thought it was this deer from a trail camera picture that was taken during bow season on the same farm but after harvesting him and comparing, it wasn’t. The genetics are very similar but he’s another mystery buck we’ve never seen but I look forward to hopefully seeing him in the future.
Traditional
This year I’m thankful to have great friends and family who I am able to share this great sport with, if it wasn’t for that, I don’t think you would mean all that much to me. Best of luck everybody and Happy New Year! :cheers:
