CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
I went into this season with my mind set on one buck. He disappeared last year during second season shotgun which isn’t uncommon for the area so I had hope. He usually showed up on the farm late October so I told myself it was him or nothing in October. October came and I passed some dandies in hopes my ghost would show up. Unfortunately he never did.
November came and I had two deer on cam that I’d shoot if they gave me an opportunity the first one being the buck above. I call him Wheezer because you can usually hear him before you see him. He wheezes and coughs like crazy. I have some photos where you can see a dark spot on him and made me wonder if he lost a lung from an arrow. Well he read the script perfectly on November 4th. I put a 20 yard shot on him and my arrow got 0 penetration. I was stumped because where it hit I’d put my shot there 10/10 times.
(Top spot was the previous spot, lower spot is where I hit him)
As you can tell by the date in the photo he showed right back up and was back to chasing does, he’s still running around as of two days ago.
The other buck I told myself I would shoot if he gave me the chance was the Junker buck. He was around last year and just bullied the other deer in the area. During second season last year I had a chance to shoot him at 40 yards and for some reason I talked myself out of it. Which turned out to work in my favor as I killed a mega eight point
(Him last year)
The Junker buck was a tricky one to hunt I hunted the cold fronts in October and every day I had the right winds in November. Mother Nature needs to make south winds disappear during bow season as I have no stands I can hunt with south winds on the farm. I only saw Junker one time and it was early November and he was on the neighbors milling around in the bean field. He’d show up on cams in the dark or during the south wind days to rub it in. I have over 140 photos of him from just this year. I hunted the 22nd and ended up getting down early as the wind was swirling terribly and was floating every direction possible. To my surprise when my camera checked in Junker was headed my way at 70 yards when I got down. Now this could have been a blessing because I didn’t spook him. He visited my rub post just before I got down and visited again on the night of the 23rd.
Well yesterday I finally got another NE wind. I have a stand I love hunting but rarely get the opportunity as I need a E or NE wind. I can hunt a straight N wind in it as well but it’s a little risky so I like to keep it fresh. It’s at a creek crossing and overlooks my rub post. Most of my movement has been later in the morning and the real feel was supposed to be 8 degrees so I decided I would just get to my stand around 5 minutes before legal light. I got in and ready. Around 7 I had a doe and fawn work in from the north and start heading to the creek crossing which is to the S of me. They caught my ground scent and were a little cautious but not too worried about it. I had forgotten to spray my boots down as I took them out of the box that morning. They milled around under 20 yards and all of a sudden I could see a buck raking the willows to my East at 45 yards. I had a good idea it was the Junker buck so I slowly got my bow in my hands but I couldn’t stand as the doe and fawn were still under 20 yards. Junker read the script though and walked in and turned broadside at 20 yards and worked a scrape. Unfortunately to me I had a fawn staring at me and I need to turn 180 degrees to be able to shoot. Before I knew it he pushed the doe out of my life and the fawn followed shortly after. So I’m thinking there goes my chance. I remembered though Junker had a pattern. He’d usually go by the rub post fairly early in the morning and then end up back there around ten. So I told myself just sit til ten. Well I’m sure those that hunted that morning know how I felt in that cold wind. I’m shivering, getting up doing some squats once in a while just to stay warm. Around 8:20 I see a deer working down the fence line to the north east of me. I pull the binos up and sure enough it’s him. I’m thinking here we go he’s gonna hop the fence and take the trail that brings him twenty yards broadside and game over. He had different plans. What I didn’t see is there was also a doe and he ended up pushing her back up and out of view to the NE on the neighbors despite my amazing snort wheeze. So about twenty minutes go by and I see him pop out of the cedars on the neighbors property and he chases a doe south and disappears. Turns out he ended up straight east of my about 130 yards in my food plot
(Time is off one hour since it hasn’t daylight savings updated yet)
So I’m sitting there beginning to wonder if I’d even be able to pull my bow back as I’m so cold and thinking he is just chasing does around on the neighbors. Then I hear ice break. I’m like that’s weird and I look. It’s Junker!!! Coming from the west side of the creek at 9:26. Somehow he was able to find a way to where I couldn’t see him and he crossed the creek and got to the south of me. Which is a feat as I can see pretty much everywhere he could have gone and never saw him. And no I wasn’t on my phone it was too cold to have my hands out of my pocket.
So here he is 30 yards broadside crossing the creek dang near straight down wind of me. I rush to get my bow and stand up and turn around. Lucky for me the creek was frozen. It was pretty comical watching him carefully break the ice. It’s like he knew he couldn’t walk on it but he also didn’t want to get wet. He crossed the creek and I figured he’d stop at the rub post giving me a 25 yard shot. Well he begins walking past it and I stop him. He was quartering away slightly and I settled the pin and squeezed the release. The arrow hit its mark and I saw lots of blood immediately. I watched him take off into the bean field and disappear up in the draw where my food plot is. I had the wife’s Thanksgiving dinner at noon and still needed time to cook for it so I checked my arrow a little while later and it looked great. I could also see an easy trail of blood to follow but backed out as I didn’t want a grumpy wife. I went to Thanksgiving and came back 6 hours later to find him piled up 133 yards away in my food plot. After inspecting the vitals while gutting, it was a perfect double lung shot.
Couldn’t be more thankful to hunt these critters and have the opportunity to hunt the farm I do. This being the first deer I’ve ever harvested in November on the farm makes it even more special. Junker buck will always mean a little extra to me.
Here’s some photos to enjoy.
(Seconds before I shot him, see me full draw in the top left of picture)
November came and I had two deer on cam that I’d shoot if they gave me an opportunity the first one being the buck above. I call him Wheezer because you can usually hear him before you see him. He wheezes and coughs like crazy. I have some photos where you can see a dark spot on him and made me wonder if he lost a lung from an arrow. Well he read the script perfectly on November 4th. I put a 20 yard shot on him and my arrow got 0 penetration. I was stumped because where it hit I’d put my shot there 10/10 times.
(Top spot was the previous spot, lower spot is where I hit him)
As you can tell by the date in the photo he showed right back up and was back to chasing does, he’s still running around as of two days ago.
The other buck I told myself I would shoot if he gave me the chance was the Junker buck. He was around last year and just bullied the other deer in the area. During second season last year I had a chance to shoot him at 40 yards and for some reason I talked myself out of it. Which turned out to work in my favor as I killed a mega eight point
(Him last year)
The Junker buck was a tricky one to hunt I hunted the cold fronts in October and every day I had the right winds in November. Mother Nature needs to make south winds disappear during bow season as I have no stands I can hunt with south winds on the farm. I only saw Junker one time and it was early November and he was on the neighbors milling around in the bean field. He’d show up on cams in the dark or during the south wind days to rub it in. I have over 140 photos of him from just this year. I hunted the 22nd and ended up getting down early as the wind was swirling terribly and was floating every direction possible. To my surprise when my camera checked in Junker was headed my way at 70 yards when I got down. Now this could have been a blessing because I didn’t spook him. He visited my rub post just before I got down and visited again on the night of the 23rd.
Well yesterday I finally got another NE wind. I have a stand I love hunting but rarely get the opportunity as I need a E or NE wind. I can hunt a straight N wind in it as well but it’s a little risky so I like to keep it fresh. It’s at a creek crossing and overlooks my rub post. Most of my movement has been later in the morning and the real feel was supposed to be 8 degrees so I decided I would just get to my stand around 5 minutes before legal light. I got in and ready. Around 7 I had a doe and fawn work in from the north and start heading to the creek crossing which is to the S of me. They caught my ground scent and were a little cautious but not too worried about it. I had forgotten to spray my boots down as I took them out of the box that morning. They milled around under 20 yards and all of a sudden I could see a buck raking the willows to my East at 45 yards. I had a good idea it was the Junker buck so I slowly got my bow in my hands but I couldn’t stand as the doe and fawn were still under 20 yards. Junker read the script though and walked in and turned broadside at 20 yards and worked a scrape. Unfortunately to me I had a fawn staring at me and I need to turn 180 degrees to be able to shoot. Before I knew it he pushed the doe out of my life and the fawn followed shortly after. So I’m thinking there goes my chance. I remembered though Junker had a pattern. He’d usually go by the rub post fairly early in the morning and then end up back there around ten. So I told myself just sit til ten. Well I’m sure those that hunted that morning know how I felt in that cold wind. I’m shivering, getting up doing some squats once in a while just to stay warm. Around 8:20 I see a deer working down the fence line to the north east of me. I pull the binos up and sure enough it’s him. I’m thinking here we go he’s gonna hop the fence and take the trail that brings him twenty yards broadside and game over. He had different plans. What I didn’t see is there was also a doe and he ended up pushing her back up and out of view to the NE on the neighbors despite my amazing snort wheeze. So about twenty minutes go by and I see him pop out of the cedars on the neighbors property and he chases a doe south and disappears. Turns out he ended up straight east of my about 130 yards in my food plot
(Time is off one hour since it hasn’t daylight savings updated yet)
So I’m sitting there beginning to wonder if I’d even be able to pull my bow back as I’m so cold and thinking he is just chasing does around on the neighbors. Then I hear ice break. I’m like that’s weird and I look. It’s Junker!!! Coming from the west side of the creek at 9:26. Somehow he was able to find a way to where I couldn’t see him and he crossed the creek and got to the south of me. Which is a feat as I can see pretty much everywhere he could have gone and never saw him. And no I wasn’t on my phone it was too cold to have my hands out of my pocket.
So here he is 30 yards broadside crossing the creek dang near straight down wind of me. I rush to get my bow and stand up and turn around. Lucky for me the creek was frozen. It was pretty comical watching him carefully break the ice. It’s like he knew he couldn’t walk on it but he also didn’t want to get wet. He crossed the creek and I figured he’d stop at the rub post giving me a 25 yard shot. Well he begins walking past it and I stop him. He was quartering away slightly and I settled the pin and squeezed the release. The arrow hit its mark and I saw lots of blood immediately. I watched him take off into the bean field and disappear up in the draw where my food plot is. I had the wife’s Thanksgiving dinner at noon and still needed time to cook for it so I checked my arrow a little while later and it looked great. I could also see an easy trail of blood to follow but backed out as I didn’t want a grumpy wife. I went to Thanksgiving and came back 6 hours later to find him piled up 133 yards away in my food plot. After inspecting the vitals while gutting, it was a perfect double lung shot.
Couldn’t be more thankful to hunt these critters and have the opportunity to hunt the farm I do. This being the first deer I’ve ever harvested in November on the farm makes it even more special. Junker buck will always mean a little extra to me.
Here’s some photos to enjoy.
(Seconds before I shot him, see me full draw in the top left of picture)
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