Buck down on my first ever public land hunt. I haven't been getting the trail cam pics I was hoping for on my place. No doubt due to the cows being ran on the 40 to my east. I decided I wanted to try my hand a public land hunting, so Saturday afternoon I headed out to the public ground about 4 miles from me. Decided to check out the north west corner of the property, looking for an nice group of oak trees. Not a single oak in that area almost no deer sign, which I found strange since we see deer in the crop field on the east edge of the property all the time. Any way, I logged about 4 miles of scouting before I found this nice ridge with plenty oaks and plenty of acorns on the ground. I found I tree that would work good for the Lone Wolf in what I thought was a good locations. A little too close to a deer trail, but it was the best tree in the area. I hunted my place the next morning. Never a good sign when I bust deer out of my front yard as soon as I open the door. There were deer all over in my front hay field. They blew at me like crazy on my way in but I figured I might as well stick it out, as they never really busted out of there. Only saw two deer on that sit, one was a really nice 1 1/2 old basket rack 8 with great potential. I decided to give it a shot yesterday afternoon so I headed out at about 2:45. I was in and set up by 4:00. Got settled in and was doing a little b-roll footage when I saw another hunter step into the timber and climb up in a stand not 80 yards from me. I never came into the timber from that direction, so I never saw his stand. I would have never set up on top of him like that if I had known. I thought about getting down and backing out, but knew that would ruin his hunt so I decided to just stick it out. About 6:00ish I saw a deer come into the timber from an open field about 180 yards down the hill. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, but I was fairly certain I saw the white of antlers. Nothing but squirrels after that until about 6:40, when all the sudden this buck appears out of no where 25 yards straight in front of me. He was walking right at me so I couldn't reach around for my bow. Luckily I was already standing as it was during the magic hour. He proceeded to hit that deer trail and walked right down it towards me. At 7 yards he freezes and I could tell he had smelled something he didn't like. Most likely he picked up some scent from me laying my gear down or something. He stayed frozen for what seemed like an eternity, at least 5 minutes. Eventually he decided to turn and go back the way he came. Once he turned, I grabbed my bow figuring there wasn't going to be much chance of a shot as he was walking away. Well he made it about 10 yards down the trail and turned left as if he were circling around to see if he could figure out the scent. He walked about 10 yards and gave me a perfect broadside shot. I stopped him with a "Meehh" and release my arrow. He tuns and runs down the hill with the arrow sticking out of him. I was afraid I hit him too far forward and caught the shoulder blade. He ran for over 100 yards but I was sure I heard him crash. Obviously I was super pumped, but I was a little concerned by not getting the pass through. After things settled down and shooting light was over, that other hunter got down out of his stand and walked over to me. I was still in the stand finishing up my interview and packing out. We talked for a bit, and he congratulated me. I showed him the footage and he said he had been hunting in that area since the beginning of the season and hadn't seen that buck. He had also been running a trail camera and hadn't had a buck that big on camera all season. He offered to help me locate him and I accepted. My Father-in-law, brother-in-law, wife and daughter were already headed that way to help me recover him. I was glad to have his help though as I'm color blind and have a hard time tracking blood. We couldn't find any blood at the point of impact and I was getting concerned, but he ended up finding the back half of my arrow. Lighted nocks are freaking awesome! It had great blood on it and from that point on there was an excellent blood trail. even though I was confident at that point that it was a lethal shot, I decided we needed to wait until every got there to get some more eyes and give the buck a little more time. While we waited on my family to show up, he let me know that he is the new area manager for that conservation area. I'm sure it probably sucks for him to see someone shoot a buck in the area he had selected to hunt. I let him know that if he ever needs any help recovering a deer just to give me a call and I'd be more than happy to come out and help him. Once everyone showed up, we tracked the blood for another 100 yards or so before I finally saw that white under belly. After further examination, I did get a complete pass through double lung shot. I was very relieved that I didn't hit that front shoulder because that's what it looked like as he spun and ran away. This was my first ever public land hunt. I don't know if I just plain got lucky, or if my scouting and though process put me in the right spot. Either way I'm thrilled. He's going up on the wall with the rest of them. He scored 133 6/8 which is about what I had guessed him at.
Amazing. Congrats. I would put it at a bit of luck and also your thought process on where to hunt. That is so awesome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Awesome story and great buck. I'm glad to hear that guy was so humble and happy to help you. Once again, congrats
Awesome job! Not many guys out there can claim a big that big off public land ever, let alone their first hunt. You should throw in the towel now and go out on top.
That's a great deer and a great story. Sounds like you met a good guy too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
