Well, congrats to you guys and good luck to many who are plugging away. Even this idiot can manage to have a little luck....
Passed this deer last year many times, he was a 4 year old & always do all I can to pass & baby younger deer (4 or younger) with great potential & even if some get smoked, most make it in my year's of experience. For some reason I could never get very good video of him but he came by quite a few times. For some reason this year he didn't grow a ton like many other bucks had. This is a small farm & a hunting area just like any other. Contrary to some opinions- vast majority of bucks make it from year to year- even though pressure & neighbors and small farms - vast majority survive and live if passed (and my experience on many farms, including a little 30 acre tract I hunt!). Passed up some 3-4 year old bucks that will be unreal coming up in a year or 2 and it was super fun to let them go and catch some video of them.
Super fun & exciting hunt.... He showed up in the middle of a field with a couple trees & kept bedding down - obviously I didn't realize he was with a doe that was obviously in heat. He was running off at least 12-15 bucks of different ages and size. Had a really nice 160 that was probably the biggest other deer I saw that night that he chased off and later that buck showed up with a doe that may also have been in heat. Bucks were all over, 2 does in heat can take a slow & less intense rut I've been used to for several years and make it crazy in a hurry.
The dude walks past me at 45 yards following the doe about 1.5 hours before dark. I was absolutely paralyzed- nothing I could do. Walks way into the timber while I'm covered in other deer - thought that was it and would have to hunt another day for him, especially with all the deer there and him wanting to get this doe away from the action. (Oh, and I did hang & hunt that night, something I hate doing, just annoys the daylights out of me and simply not my thing but I of course will do it when needed & I knew this buck was living on southern end of my place). All the sudden as I thought the night may be coming to an end soon - the doe comes back and the buck in tow. 100 yards away and it was just a waiting game for the other younger bucks to run her closer to me and just wait on this guy. Took maybe 20 mins (and probably 20-30 mins of shooting left) and finally she gets bumped my direction. He follows to 5 yards of my tree and I hold completely still so she passes to opposite side. Once she made it 10 yards passed- figured I needed to wait, hold tight and use the years of experience not to make a dumb or rushed shot. Didn't want to do the straight down shot of course either so I waited til it was a nice angle about 8 yards out. Letter fly, perfect thru the boiler and busted out the opposite shoulder. 50 yards and dunzo. 2 other guys had success the same day as well and helped me recover. Before we recovered I had some score guesses in my mind I texted to them but honestly I still don't know and have not taped him up yet. I know he's 5, I know it was a blast, super fun and I know with the bucks passed, there will be plenty of bucks for next year for everyone around there to hunt. As long as they do what they always do, have MOST sneak by and evade the guys all around to make it a year older & closer to maturity. Really fun and rewarding and was one heck of an intense night of hunting. A lot of the pics turned out crappy cause of sun so really the good pics and angles need to be re-done and take some more pics. Anyways, good luck to all, great hunting ahead, love late Nov & hope that crafty old mature monster makes his daylight appearance by you when you might least expect it if you're hunting hard during the hard hunting times. Some monsters will be going down in the next week or 2! Keep after it and congrats to those who had great hunts & memories!
Pic showing up ok?
Passed this deer last year many times, he was a 4 year old & always do all I can to pass & baby younger deer (4 or younger) with great potential & even if some get smoked, most make it in my year's of experience. For some reason I could never get very good video of him but he came by quite a few times. For some reason this year he didn't grow a ton like many other bucks had. This is a small farm & a hunting area just like any other. Contrary to some opinions- vast majority of bucks make it from year to year- even though pressure & neighbors and small farms - vast majority survive and live if passed (and my experience on many farms, including a little 30 acre tract I hunt!). Passed up some 3-4 year old bucks that will be unreal coming up in a year or 2 and it was super fun to let them go and catch some video of them.
Super fun & exciting hunt.... He showed up in the middle of a field with a couple trees & kept bedding down - obviously I didn't realize he was with a doe that was obviously in heat. He was running off at least 12-15 bucks of different ages and size. Had a really nice 160 that was probably the biggest other deer I saw that night that he chased off and later that buck showed up with a doe that may also have been in heat. Bucks were all over, 2 does in heat can take a slow & less intense rut I've been used to for several years and make it crazy in a hurry.
The dude walks past me at 45 yards following the doe about 1.5 hours before dark. I was absolutely paralyzed- nothing I could do. Walks way into the timber while I'm covered in other deer - thought that was it and would have to hunt another day for him, especially with all the deer there and him wanting to get this doe away from the action. (Oh, and I did hang & hunt that night, something I hate doing, just annoys the daylights out of me and simply not my thing but I of course will do it when needed & I knew this buck was living on southern end of my place). All the sudden as I thought the night may be coming to an end soon - the doe comes back and the buck in tow. 100 yards away and it was just a waiting game for the other younger bucks to run her closer to me and just wait on this guy. Took maybe 20 mins (and probably 20-30 mins of shooting left) and finally she gets bumped my direction. He follows to 5 yards of my tree and I hold completely still so she passes to opposite side. Once she made it 10 yards passed- figured I needed to wait, hold tight and use the years of experience not to make a dumb or rushed shot. Didn't want to do the straight down shot of course either so I waited til it was a nice angle about 8 yards out. Letter fly, perfect thru the boiler and busted out the opposite shoulder. 50 yards and dunzo. 2 other guys had success the same day as well and helped me recover. Before we recovered I had some score guesses in my mind I texted to them but honestly I still don't know and have not taped him up yet. I know he's 5, I know it was a blast, super fun and I know with the bucks passed, there will be plenty of bucks for next year for everyone around there to hunt. As long as they do what they always do, have MOST sneak by and evade the guys all around to make it a year older & closer to maturity. Really fun and rewarding and was one heck of an intense night of hunting. A lot of the pics turned out crappy cause of sun so really the good pics and angles need to be re-done and take some more pics. Anyways, good luck to all, great hunting ahead, love late Nov & hope that crafty old mature monster makes his daylight appearance by you when you might least expect it if you're hunting hard during the hard hunting times. Some monsters will be going down in the next week or 2! Keep after it and congrats to those who had great hunts & memories!
Pic showing up ok?
