LoessHillsArcher
PMA Member
The past few days at work have been pretty dang slow so I finally got around to catching back up on the harvest, trail cam pics, and sheds on IW from the past few months. Life's been busy since school ended and work began... I was warned things would change and they did. Anyway thought I'd throw up the story of a couple bucks from the late muzzy season.
January 1st, 2011
Russ and Dad had been hunting the past 7 days together with dad hunting and Russ filming. It had been tough, the moon calendar said it would be and it couldn't have been more right. On the first night out a good buck was spotted and that was it. Finally on day 5 the two of them went to a field that had produced these two bucks for our uncle and cousin a few days earlier...
The first night to the field again dad and Russ had great luck. It was windy and cold and they were just tucked inside a cedar. With plenty of light left the field filled up with deer. Finally a buck we've got some history with showed up. We call him the Long-G3 (I know, not the most original name but helps us know what deer were talking about). It was hard for them to recognize the buck at first because he had busted off his entire left side G2, and both of his G4s were broke in half. Here he is at 2.5 - 2008
3.5 - 2009
4.5 - 2010 - this was from the rut... before he had busted everything off
The buck fed out to 180yds and dad decided to take a crack at him but with the high cross winds it really drifts a muzzleloader bullet. Needless to say dad missed and the buck was safe... as a matter of fact. The buck felt so safe he came back out at last light and gave dad another 180yd shot and the same result. Bullet drifted left again. The distance hasn't been a problem for us but it better be calm out if we're going to take that again we learned.
They hunted that same field the next two days (days #6 and #7) and were seeing nice bucks all nights, but nothing over 3.5. On night #7 the moon calendar was predicting action packed hunting and they were right on!
Night #7 Russ and dad headed out to the same field and it filled with deer this night again, including a couple better bucks! The biggest fed a ways off in the corn field and we never could get a look at the rack and tell what buck it was. With deer all over the excitement was high and when a ncie 8pt came chasing a doe out of the timber Russ and dad's intial reaction was that it was a shooter buck we'd had on trail cam. The buck came out into the field...
...and started to work his way to the right, so far right dad wouldn't be able to shoot him and Russ wouldn't be able to film him. It was a short amount of time between the buck stepping into the field and deciding whether to shoot so dad figured... 'shoot first, ask questions later' :grin: They stopped the buck at 140yds and dad smoked him
No question this deer was done, so they came back and got myself, Brandon, and the 4 of us went to recover the buck. Turns out it was a 3.5 we only had 2 trail cam pics of and definitely wanted to let walk. But oh well, Russ and dad got to spend 7 days together and couldn't ask for more than that. But you bet we won't be purposely shooting 3.5's ever!
That night dad made some deer burgers in celebration... typically he makes big big burgers but he out did himself this night...
So now that dad has his buck down Russ was going to try to bowhunt and dad was going to film me with the muzzleloader. We tried another field for the next night but yotes had that field pretty well destroyed... so we ended up coming back to hunt the same field we'd had all the luck on so far during the late season.
The last few times hunting this field deer would pile out well before dark... but I guess after shooting a few deer off of it and missing twice they were on to us because it wasn't until about 45 minutes before dark we spotted the first does and fawns in the timber. This time they looked like they were heading to a different field to feed, one way to our right that we couldn't see or shoot to. We did spot one good racked buck in the timber with them but couldn't make out how big or which buck it was.
About 10 minutes go by and dad decides to peak his head out the right window of our blind and he was pretty surprised to see deer feeding 100yds away to our right. They were on the other side of the cedar tree we had the blind brushed in and there was no way of getting a shot at them at the spot they were feeding now. So we just glassed them and that good racked buck from before was out there with them. I got the camera on him and immediately recognized that long split G3, it was the same buck dad missed twice! Within the next 10 minutes the buck slowly worked towards us and I cocked the hammer three different times and let it down each time waiting for a better shot and angle. Finally at under a 100yds he stopped mid-stride and appeared to be a bit on alert I let the smoke fly...
After the shot the buck spun around 180* on his butt and ran towards the timber. I lost which deer it was running away but did catch what I thought was possibly a deer falling over in the timber, I just wasn't sure what my eyes were seeing at the time... I guess the excitement had gotten to me. The shot was a touch low and back and with the slightly quartering too angle we weren't sure of the hit, even though I thought I saw him go down. So we decided to just back out, not even go look for blood, and come back in the morning.
Dad and I went back the following morning and picked up blood in the field right away. It wasn't until we got to the timber that we picked up great great blood. Then dad spotted the buck laying only 70yds inside the timber edge... I look up and only thing I see is a red mess up there? It didn't really look like a deer. Turns out the buck dropped right where I thought I saw him and the coyotes had cleaned him up pretty well. The buck dropped right where I thought I saw him but what do you do? I think given the same situation we'd let him sit again but maybe go check for blood at the timber edge? But what if he was bedded right inside the timber edge and we bump him and he's gut shot? Tough deal but great evening with dad!
He isn't a giant buck but at 4.5 he was only pushing 135" (unbusted)... that was enough of a reason for us to shoot him! haha There's better deer around that will hopefully take his place. Good reading the rest of the harvest stories on here, good work fellas!
here's is what he had to work with taking pictures...
January 1st, 2011
Russ and Dad had been hunting the past 7 days together with dad hunting and Russ filming. It had been tough, the moon calendar said it would be and it couldn't have been more right. On the first night out a good buck was spotted and that was it. Finally on day 5 the two of them went to a field that had produced these two bucks for our uncle and cousin a few days earlier...
The first night to the field again dad and Russ had great luck. It was windy and cold and they were just tucked inside a cedar. With plenty of light left the field filled up with deer. Finally a buck we've got some history with showed up. We call him the Long-G3 (I know, not the most original name but helps us know what deer were talking about). It was hard for them to recognize the buck at first because he had busted off his entire left side G2, and both of his G4s were broke in half. Here he is at 2.5 - 2008
3.5 - 2009
4.5 - 2010 - this was from the rut... before he had busted everything off
The buck fed out to 180yds and dad decided to take a crack at him but with the high cross winds it really drifts a muzzleloader bullet. Needless to say dad missed and the buck was safe... as a matter of fact. The buck felt so safe he came back out at last light and gave dad another 180yd shot and the same result. Bullet drifted left again. The distance hasn't been a problem for us but it better be calm out if we're going to take that again we learned.
They hunted that same field the next two days (days #6 and #7) and were seeing nice bucks all nights, but nothing over 3.5. On night #7 the moon calendar was predicting action packed hunting and they were right on!
Night #7 Russ and dad headed out to the same field and it filled with deer this night again, including a couple better bucks! The biggest fed a ways off in the corn field and we never could get a look at the rack and tell what buck it was. With deer all over the excitement was high and when a ncie 8pt came chasing a doe out of the timber Russ and dad's intial reaction was that it was a shooter buck we'd had on trail cam. The buck came out into the field...
...and started to work his way to the right, so far right dad wouldn't be able to shoot him and Russ wouldn't be able to film him. It was a short amount of time between the buck stepping into the field and deciding whether to shoot so dad figured... 'shoot first, ask questions later' :grin: They stopped the buck at 140yds and dad smoked him
No question this deer was done, so they came back and got myself, Brandon, and the 4 of us went to recover the buck. Turns out it was a 3.5 we only had 2 trail cam pics of and definitely wanted to let walk. But oh well, Russ and dad got to spend 7 days together and couldn't ask for more than that. But you bet we won't be purposely shooting 3.5's ever!
That night dad made some deer burgers in celebration... typically he makes big big burgers but he out did himself this night...
So now that dad has his buck down Russ was going to try to bowhunt and dad was going to film me with the muzzleloader. We tried another field for the next night but yotes had that field pretty well destroyed... so we ended up coming back to hunt the same field we'd had all the luck on so far during the late season.
The last few times hunting this field deer would pile out well before dark... but I guess after shooting a few deer off of it and missing twice they were on to us because it wasn't until about 45 minutes before dark we spotted the first does and fawns in the timber. This time they looked like they were heading to a different field to feed, one way to our right that we couldn't see or shoot to. We did spot one good racked buck in the timber with them but couldn't make out how big or which buck it was.
About 10 minutes go by and dad decides to peak his head out the right window of our blind and he was pretty surprised to see deer feeding 100yds away to our right. They were on the other side of the cedar tree we had the blind brushed in and there was no way of getting a shot at them at the spot they were feeding now. So we just glassed them and that good racked buck from before was out there with them. I got the camera on him and immediately recognized that long split G3, it was the same buck dad missed twice! Within the next 10 minutes the buck slowly worked towards us and I cocked the hammer three different times and let it down each time waiting for a better shot and angle. Finally at under a 100yds he stopped mid-stride and appeared to be a bit on alert I let the smoke fly...
After the shot the buck spun around 180* on his butt and ran towards the timber. I lost which deer it was running away but did catch what I thought was possibly a deer falling over in the timber, I just wasn't sure what my eyes were seeing at the time... I guess the excitement had gotten to me. The shot was a touch low and back and with the slightly quartering too angle we weren't sure of the hit, even though I thought I saw him go down. So we decided to just back out, not even go look for blood, and come back in the morning.
Dad and I went back the following morning and picked up blood in the field right away. It wasn't until we got to the timber that we picked up great great blood. Then dad spotted the buck laying only 70yds inside the timber edge... I look up and only thing I see is a red mess up there? It didn't really look like a deer. Turns out the buck dropped right where I thought I saw him and the coyotes had cleaned him up pretty well. The buck dropped right where I thought I saw him but what do you do? I think given the same situation we'd let him sit again but maybe go check for blood at the timber edge? But what if he was bedded right inside the timber edge and we bump him and he's gut shot? Tough deal but great evening with dad!
He isn't a giant buck but at 4.5 he was only pushing 135" (unbusted)... that was enough of a reason for us to shoot him! haha There's better deer around that will hopefully take his place. Good reading the rest of the harvest stories on here, good work fellas!
here's is what he had to work with taking pictures...
Last edited:
