Boonerville's 2017-2018 Semi-Live Season thread

Just started a thread asking about the radix cams. Boonerville, if I remember correctly you have some of their cams. Let me know what you think about the lower models. The 500 is a bit steep for me

 

So sorry for not updating this thread. I have been insanely busy with work for over a month straight and have not had any time to be on the forum. Ill come back and fill in the gaps. But in more current news, yesterday was my First hunt since I killed my buck on November 8th. My Late muzzleloader season lasted all of 25 minutes. Took off an hour early from work and got to my blind at 4:03pm. At 4:30 the first deer to come into the field was what I believe to be an 8 year old bully buck. Gave my a 100yd broadside shot. I smoked him(literally) with my TC muzzleloader. Oldest deer I’ve ever killed. 150 7/8” with 6 7/8” bases and only a 15” spread. Super happy with him. My Iowa season is done.





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Took some better pics of my Muzzy buck






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Great buck!

 

So Yea...the long anticipated updates...here goes

Again...sorry I have not updated this thread. I took a ton of time off of work to kill stuff and have been buried at work.

 

November 1st I sat my creekbottom stand again. No Mature buck sightings. I passed a 2 yr old 8 pt I have since dubbed the Creekbottom 8 pt. He has some cool brow tines that lean out. Overall it was slow day for deer movement

 

Well get all caught up before next season, maybe you can take time next season to kill some actual decent deer, ya pathetic wank.

 

November 2nd the weather sucked. Very warm and humid. it was foggy at daylight, and the wind Was Straight out of the North, which was terrible for where I wanted to sit. I decided to just hunt the morning in an observation stand on the Far south edge of my home farm and then start harvesting soybeans since the weather was so bad for hunting. About 8:15 I saw a few deer way to my South on the neighbors property. I pulled up my binos and it was 2 does, followed by a big wide 4 year old...Doublewide. It all began to make sense. Hundreds of trail camera pictures since July, all the way up to a couple days before...but never a single daylight picture. Always at night. I knew Doublewide was not living on this property, and based on topography I figured he lived to the south. But here he was in daylight. I watched Him tend a doe and take her into a little patch of cedar trees against a creekbank in an active cow pasture. BINGO! I knew now where he bedded. The creek he bedded against is the same one that runs past my creekbottom stand 500 yds to the North. I got down and went to work for the afternoon.

 

November 3rd the wind was out of the East, and I could not hunt the west side of the farm where I wanted. So I hunted my kill plot right behind my house. I didn't have any shooters on camera in daylight here since late October, but it is a great spot with a lot of does. I passed a split G2 8 point and another 2 year old I call Fingers



But in front of one of my other stands, on the far west edge of the farm...Doublewide worked a mock scrape in daylight. The first daylight pictures ever.

 

November 4th...same wind. I went back to the same stand behind my house, but I wanted to be on the west end of the farm. My hunt only lasted 20 minutes. A buddy hunting one of my leases called and said he shot a buck so I got down and went to help. Turns out he shot the best 2 year old on the entire farm...one specifically on the do not shoot list. I was ticked...still am if I'm being honest. 137 5/8" as a 2 year old.

 

The evening of November 4th the wind had changed and I finally headed to my bean field stand on the far west end of the farm. I only saw a few small bucks, but checked my camera on the way in, and Doublewide had been in front of my stand again that morning right after daylight. 2 days in a row he broke daylight and was in the same exact spot. Up until now I was targeting 2 different bucks on the same farm, but one had been a no show since late August, and the other had disappeared off of the cameras since October 29th. I decided to shift focus and target Doublewide. he was a great buck, mature, and now he was what I thought was killable as I knew his bedroom and the travel routes he liked to use based on cameras.

 

November 5th was a cold windy day. I sat my bean field stand again. In the morning I rattled in a 140" 3 year old 8 pt, but action was pretty slow until 1:00 PM. I saw 5 bucks chasing a lone hot doe across the filed 500 yards away. 2 of the biggest bucks I did not recognize. This was definitely that "first hot doe" action of the rut. After an hour, one of the bucks appeared on the horizon with the doe and they bedded down in a terrace out in the field a long ways off. I couldn't tell a great deal about the buck, but he was super mature and had a narrow rack. I later found out it was this buck.

So as I sat there watching the buck and doe, I hear a commotion in the creek bottom to my right...down by my creek bottom stand. It's 2:15 PM, and out steps Mr Clean. He is the largest framed 10 point I have ever seen in person. Pictures do not do him justice.

Mr Clean chased a doe out of the creek bottom and took her south onto the neighbors property. I had not had a picture of this buck since October 29th, and had never seen him in person. So I was pretty jacked about seeing him. Then as light was fading, Doublewide stepped out of the creek bottom...alone. He hit the trail of the doe that MR Clean and run by earlier and turned and went back to the South. I was thinking MAN I gotta get in that creek bottom stand!

The 2nd big buck I had seen chasing the hot doe at Noon had one of the largest bodies I have ever seen, and was super aggressive. he actually came charging in as I was climbing down and attached my decoy. every bit of 300 lbs on the hoof. Only had 2 pics of him all year

 

November 6th was hands down the best and craziest day of rut action I have ever seen in my life. I hunted my bean field stand once again, as I still did not have the west wind I needed to get down into that creek bottom. I had deer all around me in the dark. Once daylight came it was a parade. I had seen over a dozen different bucks after an hour. All of them kept marching into this crp patch between the beans and the creek bottom. A lot of them came running back out. I couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I saw a 2 year old running at me from the crp. behind him I saw a big rack and a giant body. It was the tight racked buck that had the doe way out in the beans the day before. He had his doe locked down in that crp and was chasing all the other bucks off. I watched him do this literally all day. Bucks were walking all over the place. I saw 34 different bucks in total. Every time one would get the does trail, the buck (Who I have named Lockdown) would stand up, chase the intruder off, turn around and go back to the doe. I sat there not moving a muscle for hours. in the last 20 minutes of light, the doe went down into the creek bottom (right past my stand) and circled around behind me. She popped out to the south of me and Lockdown was right behind her thrashing saplings. I decided Lockdown was a shooter...clearly a 5+ year old 6x6 with stickers. I got turned around in my stand, and ranged the doe as she walked by. 36 yards. The buck walked into my shooting lane and I drew. he stopped on his own so I had a ton of time to aim. I shot and my bow almost jumped out of my hand; I watched my arrow go a foot under the buck. Both deer ran off to the south. I discovered that while I was aiming, I swung my bow into a position where the limb I hang my pack on was in front of the cam at full draw. At the shot, the cam rotated forward and hit the limb. I was PISSED!

Lockdown in my plot the night before


This is the limb my Cam hit. Lockdown was standing in that opening perfectly broadside

 

The one buck I expected to see on the 6th, Doublewide, was a no show. But a later check of my cams showed me he was out cruising past my stand in the cow pasture 1/4 mile away.



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November 7th was surprisingly a slow day. Nothing at all like the action I saw the day before. I was in the bean field stand again. I think I saw only 7 bucks that day, and nothing over 2 years old.

But...Doublewide was still cruising. He came out of the neighbors pasture to the South where he bedded and went into a cedar thicket on the far East side of the farm. I had never had a single picture of him over there before.

 

November 8th. I FINALLY had a SW wind and I slipped into my creek bottom stand. It was dead calm and super cold. Right at first light a doe and fawn came past my stand, followed closely by a small 8 point. As I watched them leave I caught movement to my right. I saw a big rack staring at me. The biggest 3 year old on the farm, a buck I call Cowboy, was 25 yards away and almost at eye level He had snuck in behind me and come from across the big alfalfa field where I blow my scent. (As a side note, this based on trail cam pics showed me where he likely beds...look out 2018). I froze, and he didn't blow, but didn't like the situation so he turned and walked back out to the field and made a big loop before dropping back into the creek bottom 150 yards south of me. he will be a superstar in 2018.

 

At 7:45 Am I caught movement in the crp west of me. It was Mr Clean. cruising by himself. I grunted once and he stopped and whipped his head around and stared into the creek bottom. I grunted one more time and he started trotting right at me. He was coming really fast and was behind brush so I stood up rather quickly and reached for my bow. He burst into the creek bottom and hit the brakes immediately, whirled and trotted back out into the crp. I don't know if he caught me moving or if the calm winds had my scent swirling down in the creek bottom. He was nervous but still curious about my grunt. he started walking away and I turned him 3 more times with grunts and snort wheezes, but he wouldn't come back in. I know I said pics didn't do him justice, but he is BIG. 170" clean 10 pt. That was the last time I have seen him. I hope he is alive. He will be crazy big this fall

 

Movement cooled off after that. I saw a few 2 year olds up until 11:00 or so. The sun was super bright and I started dozing off in the early afternoon.
But Doublewide had been moving all day. At 11:00 AM, over 1/2 a mile away, my camera picked him up coming out of the same cedar thicket he went into the day before.

 

He apparently went back to the south onto the neighbors cattle pasture and cruised through the small blocks of timber there, and eventually worked his way back around to the creek where he bedded, and he headed north.
At 3:15 I looked to the south and I saw him coming. He was 75 yards and walking my way on a mission. I stood up and grabbed my bow. I ranged the big scrape in front of my stand on the trail he was on. 35 yds. As he stepped into my shooting lane I stopped him, settled and shot. I saw my lighted nock hit perfectly. He tore down the trail and stopped right at the edge of the crp, then walked around the corner and disappeared.

footage isn't that great, but I got the shot on my tactacam

 

I went home to get my wife and we came back to track him an hour later. When I saw him disappear it was because he fell over and died. he only went 35 yards and was dead in less than 10 seconds.