LoessHillsArcher
PMA Member
long post warning...
Well this season just doesn't seem to have any down time. I've got to say we've been blessed with lots of time in the stand and great opportunities!
Dad kept the ball rolling when the three of us went to a big log blind we built this summer. Dad was shooting, Russ filming, and me along for the heck of it! It was Nov. 7th (day before dad's b-day) and windy, that evening hunt we decided to take the decoy out and hope to catch a cruising buck. We were hunting near the neighbors huge standing corn field so we didn't know quite what to except to see. It was slow until dark when a group of 4 does/fawns came out 125yds away. A button buck spotted the decoy and came running in to less than 10yds. We held dad off as we weren't 100% sure it was a doe. Luckily the other 3 deer followed to see what was so intriguing. A doe came in to less than 10yds and dad smoked her at last light! Awesome night in the blind!
This past weekend we got back home Friday around noon and should have probably gotten right into the deer stand. We figured out time was better spent getting another stand ready for the upcoming hunts and checking a cam. We made a good decision as the cam showed some mature bucks in the area and one in the area at 10am that morning!
Russ picked out a tree we could bring our lone wolf stands/sticks in in the morning. The plan was for us to hunt the bottom of this valley and dad to go on top of the ridge 80yds away. At about 6:50 we seen a nice buck cruising the ridge top and when it got near dad we heard a nice 'thack'! The buck bounded off a couple yds and stopped. We could tell it was hit and on the camera I could see where I though he hit it. I was thinking to myself..if that is the entrance that buck looks like it should be going down in sight. Well it bedded near dad and we watched it the rest of the morning get up and bed down again but wasn't moving too far.
We then had a little buck come cruising through, kept the excitement going. Then at 8:00 we had this buck come cruising through...one that got the blood pumping for sure! Got some great video of him, got to 60yds and walked away!
A few minutes later a doe pops out with a buck right on her tail. This buck we just got our first pics of in the past few days and he is a great buck, 4.5 y.o.+. He followed the doe about 70yds away and never came in, again the excitement was building and we waited for a good one to get close enough! This was the buck we had a pic of right under our stand at 10am the previous morning, ones gotta come close enough this morning...
We had 3 more bucks 2.5 y.o. or younger cruise through and bed down. The exciting morning never stopped as bucks were around us every minute! Finally at 10:45 Russ makes a quick grab for his bow and tells me a bucks coming hard! I turn the camera on as fast as I can and find the buck only 50yds away on a trail, running right for us! I'm stuggling to keep up with the pace of this buck on the camera. Russ has to bleat really, really loud 5 times and barely stops the buck at 20yds. I lost the buck as he was on the other side of the tree we were in. I told Russ to wait for me to get on him with the camera..he came back and said "You better hurry up!"...1 second later..'whack'! He shot him before I could get on him but it wasn't a big deal. Awesome morning and capped off with an awesome buck! By far our best morning in the woods!
..but..the work wasn't done. We got down to recover Russ' buck and forgot about dad's buck that was still alive and bedded 80yds away. We must have bumped him and he was alive 3hrs after the shot. We got Russ' buck out of there and watched the video of dad's entrance wound at the cabin. We felt the shot was in the liver and enough to put the buck down. We went back 8hrs later to look for the buck, we looked for 3.5hrs that evening and came up empty. The following morning Dad searched 3 more hrs and found blood a ways down the ridge top. Dad had to get back to harvesting so at 9:30 Russ and I got down from the bow stand and went to that farm to continue searching for the buck. We were at a loss on what to do. We just started thinking what was this buck thinking, gut/liver shot buck..headed towards water probably? We don't have much water near here except for little catch ponds in the terraces in the middle of cut corn fields. It seemed like a long shot but we started checking each of these thick little mud holes.
At one point I was walking the field/timber edge and Russ was walking 70yds away near one of the catch ponds. I was at a loss of what to think. I was near one of our gun stands on the edge of the cut corn field, I decided to get into it to see if it needed any additional work over Thanksgiving break before gun seasons. I had to look many many times but my eyes weren't lying when I seen dad's buck dead in the middle of the cut corn field 50yds infront of me! Words couldn't describe how we felt being able to go back and get dad from harvest to tell him we found his buck! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
we've got tons of pics and trail cam video of this buck from velvet to hrs before he shot him.
sorry for the long post..
Well this season just doesn't seem to have any down time. I've got to say we've been blessed with lots of time in the stand and great opportunities!
Dad kept the ball rolling when the three of us went to a big log blind we built this summer. Dad was shooting, Russ filming, and me along for the heck of it! It was Nov. 7th (day before dad's b-day) and windy, that evening hunt we decided to take the decoy out and hope to catch a cruising buck. We were hunting near the neighbors huge standing corn field so we didn't know quite what to except to see. It was slow until dark when a group of 4 does/fawns came out 125yds away. A button buck spotted the decoy and came running in to less than 10yds. We held dad off as we weren't 100% sure it was a doe. Luckily the other 3 deer followed to see what was so intriguing. A doe came in to less than 10yds and dad smoked her at last light! Awesome night in the blind!
This past weekend we got back home Friday around noon and should have probably gotten right into the deer stand. We figured out time was better spent getting another stand ready for the upcoming hunts and checking a cam. We made a good decision as the cam showed some mature bucks in the area and one in the area at 10am that morning!
Russ picked out a tree we could bring our lone wolf stands/sticks in in the morning. The plan was for us to hunt the bottom of this valley and dad to go on top of the ridge 80yds away. At about 6:50 we seen a nice buck cruising the ridge top and when it got near dad we heard a nice 'thack'! The buck bounded off a couple yds and stopped. We could tell it was hit and on the camera I could see where I though he hit it. I was thinking to myself..if that is the entrance that buck looks like it should be going down in sight. Well it bedded near dad and we watched it the rest of the morning get up and bed down again but wasn't moving too far.
We then had a little buck come cruising through, kept the excitement going. Then at 8:00 we had this buck come cruising through...one that got the blood pumping for sure! Got some great video of him, got to 60yds and walked away!
A few minutes later a doe pops out with a buck right on her tail. This buck we just got our first pics of in the past few days and he is a great buck, 4.5 y.o.+. He followed the doe about 70yds away and never came in, again the excitement was building and we waited for a good one to get close enough! This was the buck we had a pic of right under our stand at 10am the previous morning, ones gotta come close enough this morning...
We had 3 more bucks 2.5 y.o. or younger cruise through and bed down. The exciting morning never stopped as bucks were around us every minute! Finally at 10:45 Russ makes a quick grab for his bow and tells me a bucks coming hard! I turn the camera on as fast as I can and find the buck only 50yds away on a trail, running right for us! I'm stuggling to keep up with the pace of this buck on the camera. Russ has to bleat really, really loud 5 times and barely stops the buck at 20yds. I lost the buck as he was on the other side of the tree we were in. I told Russ to wait for me to get on him with the camera..he came back and said "You better hurry up!"...1 second later..'whack'! He shot him before I could get on him but it wasn't a big deal. Awesome morning and capped off with an awesome buck! By far our best morning in the woods!
..but..the work wasn't done. We got down to recover Russ' buck and forgot about dad's buck that was still alive and bedded 80yds away. We must have bumped him and he was alive 3hrs after the shot. We got Russ' buck out of there and watched the video of dad's entrance wound at the cabin. We felt the shot was in the liver and enough to put the buck down. We went back 8hrs later to look for the buck, we looked for 3.5hrs that evening and came up empty. The following morning Dad searched 3 more hrs and found blood a ways down the ridge top. Dad had to get back to harvesting so at 9:30 Russ and I got down from the bow stand and went to that farm to continue searching for the buck. We were at a loss on what to do. We just started thinking what was this buck thinking, gut/liver shot buck..headed towards water probably? We don't have much water near here except for little catch ponds in the terraces in the middle of cut corn fields. It seemed like a long shot but we started checking each of these thick little mud holes.
At one point I was walking the field/timber edge and Russ was walking 70yds away near one of the catch ponds. I was at a loss of what to think. I was near one of our gun stands on the edge of the cut corn field, I decided to get into it to see if it needed any additional work over Thanksgiving break before gun seasons. I had to look many many times but my eyes weren't lying when I seen dad's buck dead in the middle of the cut corn field 50yds infront of me! Words couldn't describe how we felt being able to go back and get dad from harvest to tell him we found his buck! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
we've got tons of pics and trail cam video of this buck from velvet to hrs before he shot him.
sorry for the long post..
