A little background...
So my lease consists of 100 acres of CRP, with wooded fencerows around the outside. My buddy and I ran trail cameras since August and we didn't catch many shooters. One week in October, it got down in the 20's a few nights, and we caught two shooters. We hunted all bow season and never saw them, or any other decent bucks. Needless to say, we were kind of second guessing ourselves about leasing the property. We had gotten pictures of plenty of deer, and there was a lot of sign, but only a couple pictures of shooters. From hunting it in bow season, everything seemed very slow. Does would meander in and out of the CRP and that was about it.
Yesterday
Things were pretty slow for me. I saw an 8 poitner right at first light, but I decided to wait for something bigger. Then about 20 minutes later, just like people have said, it sounded like WWIII was going on all around me. After two hours of listening to about 20 shots every fifteen minutes, I was kicking myself for not taking the 8 pointer. I saw several does late in the morning, but they were all moving through quickly as they had surely been pushed off of a neighboring property. Yesterday evening, I saw 4 deer out in the middle of the CRP, but it was so dark, I couldn't even tell what they were.
Today
It was slow today too, though I only heard a few shots all morning. Apparently the troops had moved out. Or maybe the dense fog had something to do with it. I saw a basket rack 8, and 3 does up to 10AM and I was about to call it quits and end my deer/shotgun season (since I have to work and my lease is a good 50 minutes away). I had my rattle bag with me, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I rattled for 5 minutes, nearly as loud as I could with the bag, which isn't all that loud. After 20 minutes or so, I hadn't seen anything. 5 minutes later, I heard something walking along the fenceline I was hunting. I couldn't see anything until I spotted a buck at 35 yards, walking down the trail that runs along the fencerow. He was a nice 10! I got my gun up, I forgot I had my scope on 9 power because all the deer I'd seen were out at 100+ yards. I went to take the shot and all I saw was brown fur! I located the shoulder, moved over a little and when he walked right in front of me, 10 yards away, I pulled the trigger.
The buck ran 80ish yards and tipped over. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen this buck before after 4 months of running trail cams. Infact I hadn't seen hardly any bucks. Also, I had never seen a deer walk that trail. And I shot him at 10:30 AM. Unbelievable. The odds were stacked against me and I had pretty much given up hope. What an emotional swing!
He isn't a monster, but he looks very mature to me. Huge body and a huge head. Nice mass too. Your thoughts on age and score? Also what are those markings on his back? from fighting?
So my lease consists of 100 acres of CRP, with wooded fencerows around the outside. My buddy and I ran trail cameras since August and we didn't catch many shooters. One week in October, it got down in the 20's a few nights, and we caught two shooters. We hunted all bow season and never saw them, or any other decent bucks. Needless to say, we were kind of second guessing ourselves about leasing the property. We had gotten pictures of plenty of deer, and there was a lot of sign, but only a couple pictures of shooters. From hunting it in bow season, everything seemed very slow. Does would meander in and out of the CRP and that was about it.
Yesterday
Things were pretty slow for me. I saw an 8 poitner right at first light, but I decided to wait for something bigger. Then about 20 minutes later, just like people have said, it sounded like WWIII was going on all around me. After two hours of listening to about 20 shots every fifteen minutes, I was kicking myself for not taking the 8 pointer. I saw several does late in the morning, but they were all moving through quickly as they had surely been pushed off of a neighboring property. Yesterday evening, I saw 4 deer out in the middle of the CRP, but it was so dark, I couldn't even tell what they were.
Today
It was slow today too, though I only heard a few shots all morning. Apparently the troops had moved out. Or maybe the dense fog had something to do with it. I saw a basket rack 8, and 3 does up to 10AM and I was about to call it quits and end my deer/shotgun season (since I have to work and my lease is a good 50 minutes away). I had my rattle bag with me, so I figured it couldn't hurt. I rattled for 5 minutes, nearly as loud as I could with the bag, which isn't all that loud. After 20 minutes or so, I hadn't seen anything. 5 minutes later, I heard something walking along the fenceline I was hunting. I couldn't see anything until I spotted a buck at 35 yards, walking down the trail that runs along the fencerow. He was a nice 10! I got my gun up, I forgot I had my scope on 9 power because all the deer I'd seen were out at 100+ yards. I went to take the shot and all I saw was brown fur! I located the shoulder, moved over a little and when he walked right in front of me, 10 yards away, I pulled the trigger.
The buck ran 80ish yards and tipped over. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen this buck before after 4 months of running trail cams. Infact I hadn't seen hardly any bucks. Also, I had never seen a deer walk that trail. And I shot him at 10:30 AM. Unbelievable. The odds were stacked against me and I had pretty much given up hope. What an emotional swing!
He isn't a monster, but he looks very mature to me. Huge body and a huge head. Nice mass too. Your thoughts on age and score? Also what are those markings on his back? from fighting?
