jboswell
Member
The story goes like this:
September 2009: Trail camera pictures show a nice 4.5 y/o 8pt on one of my farms, we guessed he was a low 140 class 8 but, at 4.5 we decided to give him another year and see if he blew into something wild... we named him the pitchfork buck.
March 2010: During a shed hunting / scouting trip I found a spot on one of my farms with high potential to be a rut staging area near the pitchfork bucks core area. Scrapes and rubs littered around a brushy draw located in a 60 acre CRP field that drains into approximately 200 acres of corn. Found 67" 4pt shed in a known winter bedding area close to the draw, after comparing to trail cam pictures it was determined it was from the pitchfork buck
July 2010: Went back to the above mentioned spot, cleaned out the tree I identified during March shed hunting / scouting trip.
September 2010: Trail cameras pick up some pictures of the pitchfork buck, I guessed him at the time to be upper 140's. Pitchfork was 5.5 y/o at this point, although he didnt blow into giant status he would be a great trophy and he went on "the list".
October 30 2010: After seeing some good chasing during my morning hunt and with East winds forcasted for the next day I quietly went in to the staging area and setup a stand in the tree I had cleared in July.
October 31 2010: My morning hunt saw some more good chasing activity and I thought the stage was set to kill the pitchfork buck. The wind was out of the east as forcasted and it was time to make my move. I ate an early lunch and headed out for my 2.5 mile loop around the area where I thought he was bedded and arrived in my stand at 1pm.
The afternoon was long and boring but about 5pm I started seeing doe movement. 5:30 the small bucks started moving, by 6:15 I had passed 3 nice 3.5 y/o bucks ranging from 130 to 140 inches (one 12 point in particular that will be a slammer next year!).
At 6:35 a large deer gets up out of the weeds 75 yards to my east... it was pitchfork! He proceeded to walk towards me to harrass some yearling 6 pointers that were fighting off to my north east 20 yards and presented me with a 15yd shot quartering to me. As I released the arrow I heard the best sound in the world.... Thawack! After calming down and getting out of the stand after about an hour I wandered over to get my arrow (passthru), the blood was dark but I thought I could see bubbles, I should have known better but I pushed forward and jumped him. Once I jumped him I backed out and went home. The next morning I searched for a few hours but no dice, the blood trail was only 25 yards and then stopped. After work my wife and I loaded up on the Ranger to grid search the CRP field. She stood up in the passenger seat to look while I drove... We found him an hour and a half later!
Gross Green Score 151 2/8
September 2009: Trail camera pictures show a nice 4.5 y/o 8pt on one of my farms, we guessed he was a low 140 class 8 but, at 4.5 we decided to give him another year and see if he blew into something wild... we named him the pitchfork buck.
March 2010: During a shed hunting / scouting trip I found a spot on one of my farms with high potential to be a rut staging area near the pitchfork bucks core area. Scrapes and rubs littered around a brushy draw located in a 60 acre CRP field that drains into approximately 200 acres of corn. Found 67" 4pt shed in a known winter bedding area close to the draw, after comparing to trail cam pictures it was determined it was from the pitchfork buck
July 2010: Went back to the above mentioned spot, cleaned out the tree I identified during March shed hunting / scouting trip.
September 2010: Trail cameras pick up some pictures of the pitchfork buck, I guessed him at the time to be upper 140's. Pitchfork was 5.5 y/o at this point, although he didnt blow into giant status he would be a great trophy and he went on "the list".
October 30 2010: After seeing some good chasing during my morning hunt and with East winds forcasted for the next day I quietly went in to the staging area and setup a stand in the tree I had cleared in July.
October 31 2010: My morning hunt saw some more good chasing activity and I thought the stage was set to kill the pitchfork buck. The wind was out of the east as forcasted and it was time to make my move. I ate an early lunch and headed out for my 2.5 mile loop around the area where I thought he was bedded and arrived in my stand at 1pm.
The afternoon was long and boring but about 5pm I started seeing doe movement. 5:30 the small bucks started moving, by 6:15 I had passed 3 nice 3.5 y/o bucks ranging from 130 to 140 inches (one 12 point in particular that will be a slammer next year!).
At 6:35 a large deer gets up out of the weeds 75 yards to my east... it was pitchfork! He proceeded to walk towards me to harrass some yearling 6 pointers that were fighting off to my north east 20 yards and presented me with a 15yd shot quartering to me. As I released the arrow I heard the best sound in the world.... Thawack! After calming down and getting out of the stand after about an hour I wandered over to get my arrow (passthru), the blood was dark but I thought I could see bubbles, I should have known better but I pushed forward and jumped him. Once I jumped him I backed out and went home. The next morning I searched for a few hours but no dice, the blood trail was only 25 yards and then stopped. After work my wife and I loaded up on the Ranger to grid search the CRP field. She stood up in the passenger seat to look while I drove... We found him an hour and a half later!
Gross Green Score 151 2/8
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