jkratz5
Well-Known Member
I had posted my story on the "other" website during the server transfer and wanted to put it here to keep the Harvest Forum rolling. Keep the stories coming fellas, nothing better then coming hear and reading good harvest stories.
My 2020 year started slow. Summer cams had only revealed 2 shooter bucks on all my Indiana farms and this was abnormally low. Don't get me wrong, we had plenty of nice deer but only 2 caught my eye as shooters and 1 of them only showed up 1 time between July and Oct 1st. I had decided that I would focus the majority of my hunting around the other buck that had been fairly consistent on cams and had been around the year before in the same area. However, the farm he was living on is fairly pressured with numerous guys hunting the ground and several of which don't hunt all that smart. Fortunately I can hunt a 60 acre chunk that borders this ground also and a buddy and I are the only ones with access. However, this chunk is solid timber and generally doesn't hold bucks, but it is heavily used for rutting activity. During our 8 years of hunting this ground we have really figured out when the bucks access it and how to kill them, with 5 mature deer hitting the ground there.
I hunted the adjacent farm (pressured farm) a few times during October cold fronts and had some great hunts but my shooter never showed. He continued to be present on cams, of course always at night. Finally, rut vacation hit and I hit the woods hard beginning Nov. 3rd. Despite some unseasonably warms temps we had some awesome hunts, with a couple of nice bucks given a pass along the way. I pulled two cards on the walk out the night of the 11th and realized my target buck had been all over the farm for about 5 days, showing up several times on each cam. I called my buddy and put a plan together on where to sit the following day.
The morning of the 12th arrived and it was nice to have frost on the ground and cool temps. The deer woods was alive from the time I stepped out of the truck. On my walk to the stand I could hear deer all around me grunting and chasing and as soon as I got settled in I knew that it was going to be a great morning as a nice 3 year old made his way past me. I had deer all around me for the first 30 minutes of light and just as I hit send on a text reply to my brother about one of us sticking a hawg this morning I heard a deer behind me. I turned and instantly knew the deer. I grabbed the bow (knocked an arrow as I realized I forgot to do that) and when his head went behind a tree I drew. He stepped out at a few seconds later at 35yds and I sent the Rocket Hammerhead to eat. He ran about 60yds before the legs got stiff and he tipped over. It was great to have a target buck down and again have a plan come together to put a big, mature whitetail down.
Not sure that the pics do his mass justice but I couldn't wrap my hand around his bases and he carries it well (yeah Muddy I know I have small hands
)
My 2020 year started slow. Summer cams had only revealed 2 shooter bucks on all my Indiana farms and this was abnormally low. Don't get me wrong, we had plenty of nice deer but only 2 caught my eye as shooters and 1 of them only showed up 1 time between July and Oct 1st. I had decided that I would focus the majority of my hunting around the other buck that had been fairly consistent on cams and had been around the year before in the same area. However, the farm he was living on is fairly pressured with numerous guys hunting the ground and several of which don't hunt all that smart. Fortunately I can hunt a 60 acre chunk that borders this ground also and a buddy and I are the only ones with access. However, this chunk is solid timber and generally doesn't hold bucks, but it is heavily used for rutting activity. During our 8 years of hunting this ground we have really figured out when the bucks access it and how to kill them, with 5 mature deer hitting the ground there.
I hunted the adjacent farm (pressured farm) a few times during October cold fronts and had some great hunts but my shooter never showed. He continued to be present on cams, of course always at night. Finally, rut vacation hit and I hit the woods hard beginning Nov. 3rd. Despite some unseasonably warms temps we had some awesome hunts, with a couple of nice bucks given a pass along the way. I pulled two cards on the walk out the night of the 11th and realized my target buck had been all over the farm for about 5 days, showing up several times on each cam. I called my buddy and put a plan together on where to sit the following day.
The morning of the 12th arrived and it was nice to have frost on the ground and cool temps. The deer woods was alive from the time I stepped out of the truck. On my walk to the stand I could hear deer all around me grunting and chasing and as soon as I got settled in I knew that it was going to be a great morning as a nice 3 year old made his way past me. I had deer all around me for the first 30 minutes of light and just as I hit send on a text reply to my brother about one of us sticking a hawg this morning I heard a deer behind me. I turned and instantly knew the deer. I grabbed the bow (knocked an arrow as I realized I forgot to do that) and when his head went behind a tree I drew. He stepped out at a few seconds later at 35yds and I sent the Rocket Hammerhead to eat. He ran about 60yds before the legs got stiff and he tipped over. It was great to have a target buck down and again have a plan come together to put a big, mature whitetail down.
Not sure that the pics do his mass justice but I couldn't wrap my hand around his bases and he carries it well (yeah Muddy I know I have small hands
) 
