Oh man Fletch that takes some real self control!! Way to be discipline! I have a feeling you will have a run in with him once again shortly! Tony, I hope you are right! I'm not sure we can compete with your high fence hunts though...
Hey guys it's been awhile since an update I have been hunting hard for awhile and just recently needed to take a break, I'm dealing with getting, married, moving, and getting a new job all at the same time so I've been swamped with stuff to do. I did miss a nanny a couple of weeks ago but i'll definitely pick back up here in a week or two as rut kicks off. Were doing great guys, well should I say y'all are doing great haha I should contribute here in the next month for sure!
"He's not a huge scoring deer, maybe 160's"….. Huh? I've never seen a 160 class deer other than on TV and these forums.
Believe me, I know that 160 is a lot of antler. But HUGE here is something north of 180. Unfortunately, two years in a row of EHD really put the smackdown on us for big mature bucks. I don't even have a 180 plus to hunt this year that I am aware of. That's why I have been patiently waiting for November to get here so I can hopefully pick up a surprise.
Oh shut up..... Seriously, though, it must be nice to hunt in that part of the country. Still, where I hunt in Kentucky produces some deer that you would call huge. I'm still waiting to see one, but they do exist there.
They are really tough to come by anywhere. As much as I would like to think I kind of know what I am doing, I have only killed two that top the 180 mark. They are a 1 in a thousand animal and pretty darned smart too. lol I have seen pictures of HUGE deer from Tennessee for sure.
I passed up an 8 yard shot on an 8 point last night that would have pushed 150" Just too early to pull the trigger just yet. He did tempt me, but I think he would have been just shy of the 150 mark and for now, that is my minimum. I rattled up 4 bucks this morning, but the best was a 3.5 year old 10 point.
Was you using any scents or just rattling? I used some lowes buck butter saturday and had a small 4 point show up
Hey guys, I've got some good news and some bad news. First the good news, I made it out to Kansas today to start my 2 1/2 week hunt to try and kill a big buck. Now the bad news, the farmer that I am hunting on decided to wipe out all the cedar trees and all the smaller trees that he could get with his front mounted rotary saw attached to his skid steer. That has severely reduced the number of deer on his property. Hopefully I can still get it done but will have to wait and see how it changes my deer hunting. I will keep you posted. Great job so far guys....
Sorry to hear about the change in habitat. Do you know how long ago he did this? Anyway, good luck out there, brother!
Thanks LittleChief..He just did it over the summer. I've been hunting this farm for 12 years and the deer numbers are way down this year. That's why he did it, to reduce the deer numbers to minimize crop damage. I don't blame him but now I have to change things up a little and try and locate some deer.
This year it's mostly Milo and winter wheat, last year it was mostly corn and winter wheat. He has around 4500 acres.
Man what a great hunt I had this morning. I hunted a stand I was saving for the rut, and I ended up seeing 9 deer total, 3 confirmed bucks. 2 of the bucks I would have shot but no shot presented itself. At first light I had two run through off to my right, looking like a buck chasing a doe but I couldn't tell. Had 2 does run through at 7:30, and at 8:05 I had a doe behind me at 40 yards. Was watching at her when I heard a grunt from behind her, and out stepped a shooter (for me) 8. I grunted and rattled a little bit at him, but he wouldn't break from the doe. Had him within 50 yards for over ten minutes but he wouldn't come in any closer. Eventually the doe trotted off and he followed. 5 minutes after that a one sided four point stepped out at 30 and I let him walk. He ran down the same trail the doe and the buck took with his head down and mouth open. At 9:20, I gave out a short rattling sequence and just as I was hanging up the antlers, I looked to my right and there was a different shooter (for me) 8 running right at me. He stopped 40 yards behind me and disappeared into the thicket. Saw one more deer after that but couldn't tell what it was. The wind shifted on us so we snuck out of there. The rut is on guys, good luck!!
I'm all loaded up and will be leaving around 10:00 am tomorrow for eleven days of hunting. Three in Kentucky followed by eight in Missouri. I'm 51 years old and I'm more excited than a kid on the night before Christmas. Good luck fellas.
