jkratz5
Well-Known Member
Having tagged out in early October in Indiana this year, I was fortunate to be able to spend some quality time in the tree in Illinois during early November. I arrived November 4th and hunted hard for a week. The week was very fun, with some great encounters with some awesome up and comer 2 and 3 year olds and sightings of at least 5 mature deer, all of which remained outside of bow range. I was very pleased at the quality and quantity of deer I had seen as our county was hit hard with EHD 4 years back and while the quality has always remained, the quantity of bucks has been down. After an unsuccessful archery hunt I returned the following Friday for the gun season. Again, opening morning proved to be an exciting hunt, lots of deer moving and bucks chasing but nothing worth pulling the gun off the hanger for. Around 11:00 we had a wind shift and I decided to grab lunch and put a plan together for the afternoon. Come 2:00 the winds were constant at 40mph and gusts >50mph and I was second guessing even hunting that afternoon. Finally, I decided to head to an area that I call the hole as it is just that, a large bowl in the middle of the farm that is fairly sheltered by the wind and also between two very nice bedding areas. I figured I could slide into that area quietly with the wind, still hunt on my walk in, and put myself in a spot where the deer might actually get on their feet.
As I approached the timber 300yds or so from the stand I began glassing and immediately caught a glimpse of a doe bedded up on a ridge. I continued to glass and when I couldn't identify any additional deer, I began to move on slowly. Another 40yds or so and I caught that all to familiar wif of a rutted up buck. I knew that a buck was nearby or had recently passed through the area. I was now standing on a logging road with a gnarly briar thicket to my east and a ridge to my west. I began glassing the ridge, moving a step or two every minute or so. After about 10 minutes of this, I glanced away from the ridge and toward the briar thicket and standing at 15yds was an absolute stud of a buck. At the same moment I shouldered my gun I caught a glimpse of a second deer, a doe that had his attention and allowed me to settle the cross hairs on him without being spooked. The buck was facing me with a slight quarter so I envisioned where I needed to place the shot for it to pass through his heart, settled in and let the Shockwave do the rest. The giant reared up and went stiffed legged in the air and I knew he was smoked!! After scrambling for about 10yds he came to rest and after getting the muzzy reloaded I sat on the road in disbelief at what had just happened. I had to chuckle a little thinking about the time we put into planting plots, running cams, hanging sets, sitting in the tree and trying to pattern a mature deer and then something like this happens and I have nothing to credit the successful hunt to except for blind luck.
After a few minutes I called my brother and told him I had just smoked a stud. About that time I realized I really had no clue what deer I had shot and went to check him out. He ended up being a deer that eluded my brother a week earlier as he ran through his shooting lanes never presenting a shot. He is a dandy main framed 10 with a kicker on his left G2.
First couple of pictures I took myself as I first came upon the buck.
Sorry about the eyes closed (flash got me), but this pic really shows his mass and tine length
Later that night as we laughed about the ordeal my brother said "you have a golden horse shoe up your ass" and I have to admit I have been in the right place at the right time a number of times in my life while deer hunting.
As I approached the timber 300yds or so from the stand I began glassing and immediately caught a glimpse of a doe bedded up on a ridge. I continued to glass and when I couldn't identify any additional deer, I began to move on slowly. Another 40yds or so and I caught that all to familiar wif of a rutted up buck. I knew that a buck was nearby or had recently passed through the area. I was now standing on a logging road with a gnarly briar thicket to my east and a ridge to my west. I began glassing the ridge, moving a step or two every minute or so. After about 10 minutes of this, I glanced away from the ridge and toward the briar thicket and standing at 15yds was an absolute stud of a buck. At the same moment I shouldered my gun I caught a glimpse of a second deer, a doe that had his attention and allowed me to settle the cross hairs on him without being spooked. The buck was facing me with a slight quarter so I envisioned where I needed to place the shot for it to pass through his heart, settled in and let the Shockwave do the rest. The giant reared up and went stiffed legged in the air and I knew he was smoked!! After scrambling for about 10yds he came to rest and after getting the muzzy reloaded I sat on the road in disbelief at what had just happened. I had to chuckle a little thinking about the time we put into planting plots, running cams, hanging sets, sitting in the tree and trying to pattern a mature deer and then something like this happens and I have nothing to credit the successful hunt to except for blind luck.
After a few minutes I called my brother and told him I had just smoked a stud. About that time I realized I really had no clue what deer I had shot and went to check him out. He ended up being a deer that eluded my brother a week earlier as he ran through his shooting lanes never presenting a shot. He is a dandy main framed 10 with a kicker on his left G2.
First couple of pictures I took myself as I first came upon the buck.
Sorry about the eyes closed (flash got me), but this pic really shows his mass and tine length
Later that night as we laughed about the ordeal my brother said "you have a golden horse shoe up your ass" and I have to admit I have been in the right place at the right time a number of times in my life while deer hunting.
