I will start by saying that I am not a writer, so bare with me. My bow hunting journey started in 2003 after high school. I picked up a old Golden Eagle compound bow, and outfitted it with the latest gadgets. Preparing for this season, I practiced and felt confident in my ability. As a matter of fact I got so consumed into shooting, that I didn't do any scouting. Opening season after less than an hour in the trees, I shot a nice doe. I thought to myself "this isn't that hard, what is everyone complaining about". I never did recover that animal. Later that season I was fortunate to take a button buck. For the next seven seasons I hunted I put down a couple more does, and little button bucks. Always hunting from the ground, I did not have enough confidence in my hunting ability to "limit" myself to a stand. I think it was the fear of not seeing a deer, although I was seeing deer I was very seldom offered a shot. During this 7 year time, I found myself moving from the State of Nebraska to the State of Kansas. This gave me a new desire to change my hunting techniques and really try to learn more about deer behavior. I mean this was the land of the giants right. This should not be that tough. There should be a buck behind every tree. Being a young family, and not able or willing to spend money on tree stands, I continued to hunt from the ground with the same limited success. Although I was trying to better my strategies by learning how to play the wind and read deer sign and everything else that play into this game my success seamed to be the same. Later during this season I acquired a tree stand and planned my entrance and exits to and from this stand. Feeling confident I hunted this stand every chance I got. This was 2011, and the year I killed my first bow kill buck. This was not a great deer, being about a 120" 8pt, but I was happy to have achieved my goal of killing a full racked deer. Although this season I felt like I had grown the most as a hunter, I did find out that Kansas indeed doesn't have giant deer behind every tree. The following year, 2012, I found myself hunting from the same stand, and once again tagged a nice 8 pt also scoring mid 120's. After taking this deer I decided that I wanted to harvest mature deer, or at least attempt to up the age/size of the animals I harvested. Over the next 2 seasons I learned plenty more about deer, and my archery hunting ability. By the 2013 season I had acquired more stands, more properties, and more knowledge. I hunted very hard this season all to be ended in tag soup. I did have an opportunity at a mid 140's buck, and made a bad shot, and never recovered this animal after jumping him from his death bed. (once again I learned a lesson the hard way) Moving into late October of 2014, I found myself practicing one afternoon with a friend. This particular afternoon we were having a friendly competition shooting apples at 50 yds. Being consistent at hitting these apples, I was full of confidence heading to the stand that evening. About 20-minutes before dark, I rattled in a nice 11 pt buck. With this buck at 12 yds, I allowed buck fever to get the best of me once again, and shot low. That night I checked the trail cam and determined this was the deer I had shot low. About a week later I again checked trail cam and confirmed that the low shot deer was alive and well. Needless to say, about two weeks after my first encounter with this deer I was given a second shot while sitting in the same stand, I shot high this time. This season was wrapped up again with one more miss on a different buck, and once again eating tag soup. This brings us to the 2015 hunting season. With my 11 year old son tagging out in early youth season, and being able to take some vacation around the rut, I stayed away from this spot. I only checked cameras, and moved one stand to get into this bucks travel route. With my vacation quickly approaching I was confused by not having any mature deer on camera. About four days before my vacation, I checked the cams one last time and discovered the big 11 was back. The big 11 had now grown two drop Tines and more mass from the prior year. I was feeling good going into my vacation. I was having a life long friend down to hunt with me for these few days of vacation. We hunted hard the first 2 days, and although we were seeing good deer movement, we hadn't seen any good bucks. While walking in the third night I checked the camera again and had pictures of a good 10 pt that came through about 20 minutes after we left the stand that morning. During that evening sit, I noticed a big narrowed racked buck across the field from me chasing does. After leaving that night, I advised my buddy that if he was hunting with me the next day he needed to pack a lunch, because we were sitting all day. The following morning we met early, because we had spooked deer every morning that week walking in. We entered the stand about an hour and a half before first light. Before light I had one doe come by my stand. About 30 minutes after first light my buddy text me stating that he had just missed the big 10 pt we had on trail camera. It was also about this time that I saw a big bodied deer across the field from me. This deer looked like the big 11, but I could not tell for sure. I used a estrus bleat, and the buck started to come, but turned north and crossed the property line before he got to me. My buddy then text a second time and stated that he just hit a decent 8 pt. Now I was starting to get frustrated thinking what kind of luck this was, he gets two shots in the same morning and I haven't even had a deer in shooting distance since daylight. While I was going to respond to my buddies text, I heard something to the north of me. I noticed the Left antler and long G2 and G3 tines. I immediately grabbed my Nitrum Turbo, and waited for the buck to pass behind cover. When he did I drew my bow, only to find myself getting hung up in my safety harness. Overcoming this little challenge, I finally got my bow to full draw as the buck was stepping into my shooting lane. While at full draw I watched this buck at 16 yds, facing directly to me. It felt like forever, but the buck eventually turned broadside at 16 yds while turning to go back North. This is when I released the arrow and watched the fletching disappear into his ribcage. The deer made It about 40 yds before the Dirt Nap Gear DRT put him to rest. After recovering this Redemption Buck, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I was happy to have been able to share this experience with my life long friend, which I introduced to the sport of bow hunting. Cant wait to get the mount back.
That's an awesome story. Everything happens for a reason. Made you wait until you appreciated it more lol. Congrats on an awesome buck!
Just out of curiosity would you all agree he was three in the first pick, or do you think four. He weighed 205# this year dressed if that helps. Thanks
I would agree, that is what I was thinking. Maybe should have let him go, but I am very happy with him anyway!!!
