Daver
PMA Member
TNT is a buck that we caught on camera this year probably 30+ times beginning in August and right up until the day before we got him. My son had spotted him two times as well while bow hunting this fall, once at 31 yards, but the shot was not clear and he held off. My son named him TNT for his characteristic rack which was...Tall Narrow Ten.
I personally have not hunted very much this fall as I was often working on a cabin we built this year at our farm. I had been kicking around the idea of getting a late muzzy tag this year as I had not gun hunted at all. On Friday, New Years Eve day, it dawned on me that I never got a landowner's deer tag yet this year, 2010. My younger son had been on me like a biting sow to go out again and use his unfilled bow tag. So I thought, "what the heck, let's doooo it", and got one. I was thinking too that the bitter cold might do the boy sum' good too and knock some of the stink off him.
I was confident that we would have a couple of good feeding pattern options at our place, thanks to Dbltree's good information, and so we headed down Saturday morning for a classic late season, cold weather hunt that evening. More on the hunt below...
I will confess, I am not sure what age I think this deer is. The body is relatively small, but the antlers are decent. I quickly rough scored them at a little over 150" gross. He was a pencil neck this summer and when I walked up on him that was my first thought too...his neck is small. His antlers have good mass though, particularly on the beams. I'll say he is 3-1/2, but I am unsure about that. The first three pics are from a card pull on 8/18, while he was still in velvet.
This is a hard horn pic from an early October card pull, I believe the date on the pic is correct.
Another hard horn pic, from a different area on the farm. I believe this pic was taken on 10/3/10. It was one of the few we had in the daytime on this guy, he was pretty nocturnal according to our trail cam pics.
Now...back to the hunt. Did I mention that it was cold out!? :grin: I sat in a stand that I knew was OK for the HOWLING wind we had and was adjacent to a bean/rye field that I knew the deer would visit. But I felt like I wasn't in the best spot to intercept the deer using that field, but any other thought I had of going on the ground there wasn't conducive to that wind direction. So I decided to sit the stand I had up and had I not, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have seen this buck, which I think came later than the rest of the hungry deer.
At just about the time I figured, I had a small buck and two antlerless deer slide by me and then trot on up over the hill, still in the beans. I was on high alert now because I thought more would be coming down the same trail as those three, but while watching them now further out in the field I noticed a couple of "extra" heads just over the skyline. Aaaargh...those hungry buggers were getting in the field on me without coming by me!
Time for a strategy adjustment! I quickly lowered my gun and slithered down the tree as quietly as I could, but let's just say that the noisy wind worked in my favor here more than my cat-like stealthiness! Using the crown of the hill to hide me, it is a BIG crown, I hustled across the field into the wind and was at first just going to wait for more deer to show from that vantage point, but now I could see that there were several more deer already on the field. Amazingly, none were aware of the big blob now in the field with them. (Maybe their ears were frozen shut. :grin
Another strategy adjustment...I bent down and snuck forward as far as I dare without getting upwind of them. I stood up and now was fairly close to some of them, but all were within range. I started going through all of them with my scope and was pleased that the one nearest to me was a good buck. I dropped to my knee to get a rest of some sort, but by so doing I could only see the top of his buck, so I stood back up, held my breath and took my best aim freehand and BLAMMO!
He lurched and looked to be hit hard and they all ran back to the timber. I was confident of the shot as even though I wasn't on a rest, he was only 50 yards away and my muzzy is nails.
BUT...about 20 minutes later when I met up with my son he gave me some information that concerned me. He was hunting about 250 yards away from me and after I shot he had some of the deer on the field streak by him, including a big buck. Yikes, maybe my shot wasn't good...as the last place he saw that buck was about 300 yards from where I shot and he was still hauling.
Given that sighting, and that I did not see any other big bucks on the field, I decided to wait until this morning to look. Well, the trailing job this morning was a short one. He only went about 50 yards and the big boy my son saw run by him is hopefully out there for us next year! :grin:
I learned two more things this morning while taking these pictures...#1. It's tough to look into the rising sun. #2. Daver needs to go on a diet this year! I look like a pumpkin about to pop here.
Happy New Year!
I personally have not hunted very much this fall as I was often working on a cabin we built this year at our farm. I had been kicking around the idea of getting a late muzzy tag this year as I had not gun hunted at all. On Friday, New Years Eve day, it dawned on me that I never got a landowner's deer tag yet this year, 2010. My younger son had been on me like a biting sow to go out again and use his unfilled bow tag. So I thought, "what the heck, let's doooo it", and got one. I was thinking too that the bitter cold might do the boy sum' good too and knock some of the stink off him.
I was confident that we would have a couple of good feeding pattern options at our place, thanks to Dbltree's good information, and so we headed down Saturday morning for a classic late season, cold weather hunt that evening. More on the hunt below...
I will confess, I am not sure what age I think this deer is. The body is relatively small, but the antlers are decent. I quickly rough scored them at a little over 150" gross. He was a pencil neck this summer and when I walked up on him that was my first thought too...his neck is small. His antlers have good mass though, particularly on the beams. I'll say he is 3-1/2, but I am unsure about that. The first three pics are from a card pull on 8/18, while he was still in velvet.
This is a hard horn pic from an early October card pull, I believe the date on the pic is correct.
Another hard horn pic, from a different area on the farm. I believe this pic was taken on 10/3/10. It was one of the few we had in the daytime on this guy, he was pretty nocturnal according to our trail cam pics.
Now...back to the hunt. Did I mention that it was cold out!? :grin: I sat in a stand that I knew was OK for the HOWLING wind we had and was adjacent to a bean/rye field that I knew the deer would visit. But I felt like I wasn't in the best spot to intercept the deer using that field, but any other thought I had of going on the ground there wasn't conducive to that wind direction. So I decided to sit the stand I had up and had I not, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have seen this buck, which I think came later than the rest of the hungry deer.
At just about the time I figured, I had a small buck and two antlerless deer slide by me and then trot on up over the hill, still in the beans. I was on high alert now because I thought more would be coming down the same trail as those three, but while watching them now further out in the field I noticed a couple of "extra" heads just over the skyline. Aaaargh...those hungry buggers were getting in the field on me without coming by me!
Time for a strategy adjustment! I quickly lowered my gun and slithered down the tree as quietly as I could, but let's just say that the noisy wind worked in my favor here more than my cat-like stealthiness! Using the crown of the hill to hide me, it is a BIG crown
, I hustled across the field into the wind and was at first just going to wait for more deer to show from that vantage point, but now I could see that there were several more deer already on the field. Amazingly, none were aware of the big blob now in the field with them. (Maybe their ears were frozen shut. :grinAnother strategy adjustment...I bent down and snuck forward as far as I dare without getting upwind of them. I stood up and now was fairly close to some of them, but all were within range. I started going through all of them with my scope and was pleased that the one nearest to me was a good buck. I dropped to my knee to get a rest of some sort, but by so doing I could only see the top of his buck, so I stood back up, held my breath and took my best aim freehand and BLAMMO!
He lurched and looked to be hit hard and they all ran back to the timber. I was confident of the shot as even though I wasn't on a rest, he was only 50 yards away and my muzzy is nails.
BUT...about 20 minutes later when I met up with my son he gave me some information that concerned me. He was hunting about 250 yards away from me and after I shot he had some of the deer on the field streak by him, including a big buck. Yikes, maybe my shot wasn't good...as the last place he saw that buck was about 300 yards from where I shot and he was still hauling.
Given that sighting, and that I did not see any other big bucks on the field, I decided to wait until this morning to look. Well, the trailing job this morning was a short one. He only went about 50 yards and the big boy my son saw run by him is hopefully out there for us next year! :grin:
I learned two more things this morning while taking these pictures...#1. It's tough to look into the rising sun.
#2. Daver needs to go on a diet this year! I look like a pumpkin about to pop here. Happy New Year!
