Last night was largely uneventful. I did see 3 different 2 year olds check every doe in the field. It was pretty cool watching them grunt and chase does around, but nothing mature showed up.
Back at it! In my best stand! Finally have a SE wind. Sitting between bedding and alfalfa, with corn and cut beans beyond Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This Jerry buck really really wants to die. He has been all over the place. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well after last night's hunt and pulling some cards I have a theory. I think many really big deer do not have really big attitudes. My top 3 bucks have all went MIA...However, looking through trail camera pics very carefully, i noticed something about all 3. My #1 has been amazingly camera friendly all year. he has been on multiple cameras daily, a lot of it in daylight too, up until 5 days ago...now he has vanished. 10 days ago, the Jerry buck shows up, and has completely taken over the farm. hitting every scrape camera, every food plot. I watched him snort wheezing and being very aggressive to other bucks last night. I fear after a few days of that my number 1 got pushed out. Same with my #2, and #3 (Mr Clean) on my home farm. When pics of them stopped coming in, I looked through all the other pics and within a few days of both disappearing I had an old 140" 10 point (Johnny Cash) show up and he has now taken over every scrape and food plot I have. I think I have a bully buck problem. I'm going to keep monitoring cameras, and my rutcation starts soon. If my top bucks don't show back up pretty soon ima go on a bully buck killing spree, in hopes my bigger deer will come back once the bullies are gone and keep them safe from the neighbors.
Funny how dominance has about nothing to do with antler size. A buck has no idea how big his antlers are. I remember Bill Winke have a similar situation a few years ago where the buck he was after was almost a ghost until he saw another buck beat it in a fight and shot said buck. Then all of a sudden his number 1 was all over the place. Good luck man I’ll be interested to see how it works out. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
From Boonerville to Mafiaville, where the "Plotman" turns into the "Hitman". Wish I had your problems
So some interesting developments in the last couple days. One of my best friends and lease partner shot the biggest buck of his life Friday evening. 5 1/2 year old mega giant with 2 years of history. The buck was locked down, as in actively tending, a doe. His shot was low...super low. Right where brown/white hair meet, but mostly in the white. Hardest blood trail I have ever followed. Arrow didn’t enter chest cavity. The broadhead scraped the brisket bone. But apparently a small artery got severed. Blood was never a lot at once, but was consistent the whole way, just a few drops every couple yards. Friday night we tracked him 350 yards to the property line and backed out. Yesterday morning we started at last blood at the fence where he crossed. The buck entered a huge switchgrass field. Following blood was tough. Buck doubled back almost to fence where he crossed and then went west to a hedge thicket. Blood got down to pin drops heading into a deep draw. We tracked him through that and when he headed up the other side, you could tell his heart started pumping more blood as he walked uphill and blood picked up again. Over 1/2 mile in at this point. The buck crested the next hill and headed into another steep draw. He crossed a creek in the bottom and went back up the other side. He stopped and hit a big hub scrape that really got his heart going because immediately after the scrape there were big patches of pink oxygenated blood. He must have started feeling the blood loss then. 50 yards later I found a bed. Then 20 yards later another, then 10 yards later another. 5 beds total in about 60 yards. Then you could tell he got up in a hurry out of the last one. My theory is coyotes pushed him out of it. We lost blood for a while. My buddy happened to check a fence crossing 50 yards away going into yet another property, a wide open cow pasture. He spotted one drop of blood across the fence. I then found to more drops about 30 yards out in the pasture. Pasture is a big sidehill with a creek in the bottom. My buddy headed to check the creek and I walked the fenceline back towards the farm he came from because he kept trying to double back. I was up high and my buddy was down low in the creek. I looked past my buddy and laying out in the wide open on the other side of the creek was the buck. 1.5 miles later! The buck literally bled to death. He was walking on a cow path and his heart just ran out of blood and he dropped dead. Not a drop of blood in him. Definitely the toughest and most epic blood trail of my life. It was worth every second. The buck has 18 scoreable points, 28” of extra points on a 10 point frame, and over 43” of mass. Scores 207 4/8”. I’m as happy for my buddy as if I had shot it myself. Very rewarding to share with people that work as hard as you do and have the same commitment to management. This buck was passed multiple times last year as a 160” 4 year old. Put on 47” from 4-5. This is why I moved to Iowa. You never know what a deer might turn into here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
All I kept saying is WOWWW WAH. Congrats to your buddy! What a story and a tough track for sure. I keep telling the wife we are moving to Iowa next! Thanks for sharing. Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Wow, congrats to your friend and equally to you for sticking to the track. Just goes to show how that bit of extra effort can pay off and as long as there is blood to follow press on. On a side note, if he wasn't on your hit list, holy chit!
Thats wild! Thanks for that write up and glad it was successful Sent from my SM-G930P using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Also, after taking care of my buddy’s buck I didn’t have time to hunt, so I checked 13 cameras, set out one new one, and moved a blind based on observed movement. The card pull was very telling. My number 1, as well as virtually every other 2-4 year old, has been pushed off the farm by the buck I call Jerry. He is one of the most aggressive deer I have ever seen. Jerry has completely taken over the farm, on every camera in daylight. So I have made the decision to go after Jerry. He should be very killable. And while it means I won’t have a tag for my number 1, my hope is that if I kill Jerry, he will come back and his chances of being killed by a neighbor will go way down. He is only 4, so if he does come back and makes it, he will be a world class deer at 5. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You would have better chances of asking for and getting Jennifer Aniston to send you autographed nudes. Sent from my SM-N920P using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
