jmoose
PMA Member
This might be kinda long as I am a long winded guy, so if you don’t wanna read it, just scroll down to the pics.
There are two hunts that I look forward to more than any other each year…a trip to Kansas chasing turkeys in the spring, and a trip to Illinois chasing whitetails during their gun season in the fall. The one thing these two hunts have in common and the reason I enjoy them the most, is because I get to spend some time with my good friend Jarin (jkratz) and his brother Steve. Putting a tag on an animal is really just a great bonus. I can plan on laughing so hard that I will literally cry at least twice on each of these trips.
Thursday afternoon I drove over to the Quad Cities to meet up with Steve and then head to their family farm. I was running late so we didn’t have a chance to glass the place the evening before, but I was excited nonetheless due to the number of deer and trophy-class bucks they had been seeing during bow season. Since Jarin wouldn’t be arriving until late that night, Steve, their dad and I headed to the local watering hole to meet up with some other guys we knew that were also in town to hunt. By the time Jarin showed up, I think we were all feeling no pain!
Fast forward to dawn the next morning… we had WAY too much fun the night before, because I think we were all hurting a bit, but we all still managed to find our way to a treestand. I saw a pretty good number of deer that morning, but nothing I wanted to put a tag on. Mid morning I heard a gunshot and got the “BBD!” text from Steve. NICE! One on the board! Steve shot a very old, busted up, warrior with a funky rack. At around 11:00 we all went into town to grab some lunch, check on other’s success and catch a short nap.
That afternoon, we headed back out to the farm and figured out where we were each going. I decided to head to an area clear on the back of the farm that nobody had sat yet this year. Jarin also decided to head to another stand on that part of the farm. Just as I stepped into the woods, Jarin let me know that he had just bumped a good buck that was bedded right under the stand he was heading to. DANG! But at least we knew a good one was living back there. I got to my stand, climbed up and got settled in at 2:30. I realized I hadn’t put a cap in my muzzleloader so I popped one in and hung my gun back up. I no more than got sat back down when I heard a twig snap to my right. I turned my head that direction and it was so thick that all I could see were a deer’s legs walking toward me about 100 yards out. I had no idea if it was a buck or doe, but grabbed my gun hanging to my left anyway. As I turned back to my right, the deer stepped into an opening about 70 yards out….there was no doubt this buck was a shooter!! I got my gun up and cocked the hammer. Lucky for me, this buck had read the script! He turned to my left and slowly walked down the hill straight out in front of me. At 60 yards, he was in a shooting lane. MUURRP. He stopped. BANG!! There was absolutely NO wind that day, so the smoke just hung there forever like a fog. By the time the smoke cleared, I could see the buck down the hill 100 yards or so doing the drunken wobble. As he stumbled out of sight I heard him crash. I thanked the Lord and looked at my phone… It was 2:32. I’d been in the stand for 2 minutes! My phone vibrated and I see a text from Jarin “Are you kidding me?” Like I said, I’d only been in the stand for 2 minutes and he couldn’t believe I’d just fired a shot. I sent the text “BBD!!!”
Jarin called me and I could barely answer my phone I was shaking so bad. I think I was partly in shock about what had just happened. I told him what had just gone down and he said he’d heard him crash too.
I sat in the stand until dark so I wouldn’t disturb anyone else’s hunt by trampling through the timber but believe me, that was the longest couple hours of my life!! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this buck! I was a nervous wreck! Dark finally came and Jarin showed up under my tree. We went to the spot where the buck had been when I’d shot and there was really good blood about 15 yards down the hill. We followed the blood about a100 yards and right where I’d heard the crash laid my buck!
I spent the rest of the weekend “on observation” (that’s code for napping in the truck) during the days and enjoying a few cocktails and sharing stories in the evenings. I did help recover another buck on Sunday morning when their dad connected on a great 8 pointer that I had seen from the truck the night before.
I can’t thank Jarin, Steve, and their dad (also Steve) enough for letting me hunt with them on their family farm! As I said earlier, I have a blast with this crew in camp and tagging a great buck is just a bonus!
There are two hunts that I look forward to more than any other each year…a trip to Kansas chasing turkeys in the spring, and a trip to Illinois chasing whitetails during their gun season in the fall. The one thing these two hunts have in common and the reason I enjoy them the most, is because I get to spend some time with my good friend Jarin (jkratz) and his brother Steve. Putting a tag on an animal is really just a great bonus. I can plan on laughing so hard that I will literally cry at least twice on each of these trips.
Thursday afternoon I drove over to the Quad Cities to meet up with Steve and then head to their family farm. I was running late so we didn’t have a chance to glass the place the evening before, but I was excited nonetheless due to the number of deer and trophy-class bucks they had been seeing during bow season. Since Jarin wouldn’t be arriving until late that night, Steve, their dad and I headed to the local watering hole to meet up with some other guys we knew that were also in town to hunt. By the time Jarin showed up, I think we were all feeling no pain!
Fast forward to dawn the next morning… we had WAY too much fun the night before, because I think we were all hurting a bit, but we all still managed to find our way to a treestand. I saw a pretty good number of deer that morning, but nothing I wanted to put a tag on. Mid morning I heard a gunshot and got the “BBD!” text from Steve. NICE! One on the board! Steve shot a very old, busted up, warrior with a funky rack. At around 11:00 we all went into town to grab some lunch, check on other’s success and catch a short nap.
That afternoon, we headed back out to the farm and figured out where we were each going. I decided to head to an area clear on the back of the farm that nobody had sat yet this year. Jarin also decided to head to another stand on that part of the farm. Just as I stepped into the woods, Jarin let me know that he had just bumped a good buck that was bedded right under the stand he was heading to. DANG! But at least we knew a good one was living back there. I got to my stand, climbed up and got settled in at 2:30. I realized I hadn’t put a cap in my muzzleloader so I popped one in and hung my gun back up. I no more than got sat back down when I heard a twig snap to my right. I turned my head that direction and it was so thick that all I could see were a deer’s legs walking toward me about 100 yards out. I had no idea if it was a buck or doe, but grabbed my gun hanging to my left anyway. As I turned back to my right, the deer stepped into an opening about 70 yards out….there was no doubt this buck was a shooter!! I got my gun up and cocked the hammer. Lucky for me, this buck had read the script! He turned to my left and slowly walked down the hill straight out in front of me. At 60 yards, he was in a shooting lane. MUURRP. He stopped. BANG!! There was absolutely NO wind that day, so the smoke just hung there forever like a fog. By the time the smoke cleared, I could see the buck down the hill 100 yards or so doing the drunken wobble. As he stumbled out of sight I heard him crash. I thanked the Lord and looked at my phone… It was 2:32. I’d been in the stand for 2 minutes! My phone vibrated and I see a text from Jarin “Are you kidding me?” Like I said, I’d only been in the stand for 2 minutes and he couldn’t believe I’d just fired a shot. I sent the text “BBD!!!”
Jarin called me and I could barely answer my phone I was shaking so bad. I think I was partly in shock about what had just happened. I told him what had just gone down and he said he’d heard him crash too.
I sat in the stand until dark so I wouldn’t disturb anyone else’s hunt by trampling through the timber but believe me, that was the longest couple hours of my life!! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this buck! I was a nervous wreck! Dark finally came and Jarin showed up under my tree. We went to the spot where the buck had been when I’d shot and there was really good blood about 15 yards down the hill. We followed the blood about a100 yards and right where I’d heard the crash laid my buck!
I spent the rest of the weekend “on observation” (that’s code for napping in the truck) during the days and enjoying a few cocktails and sharing stories in the evenings. I did help recover another buck on Sunday morning when their dad connected on a great 8 pointer that I had seen from the truck the night before.
I can’t thank Jarin, Steve, and their dad (also Steve) enough for letting me hunt with them on their family farm! As I said earlier, I have a blast with this crew in camp and tagging a great buck is just a bonus!
