Nocked and Locked-Team 10

BBD!!! More to come later, but I put down a public land buck on my first ever public land hunt.


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Way to go Clinton.

 

Way to go Clinton. Did you get good footage?

-D

 

Heck of a Buck Skywalker. Cant wait to read the story and see some footage.
Go Nocked & Locked!

-D

 

Congrats you guys!!!!

 

Yes we got good footage. THANKS FOR STEALING MY THUNDER SHYWALKER. Cant even let a poor guy have the spotlight for two hours. How rude. HAHA. Congrats man I couldn't be happier for you. HERE WE GO.

 

^lmbo!

 

Is it just me, or do there seem to be an abnormally high number of team names with the word "Nock" in them this season? Hummm, I wonder why? ;-)

-D

 

We've got one hell of a team!!!!

I'll give you guys my story before I post it in the general forum. 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.

 

That's a great story Skywalker and a handsome buck. Nice work on the hero shots. Thanks for sharing.
-D

 

I was thinking that a month ago. Haha.

Clinton and Skywalker, congrats guys. Balls starting to roll!


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Nice work Clinton and Dandy buck Stephen! Right back at the top again. My season is about to get rolling so hopefully I can help out!

 

Whooo! You folks are some killers!! I like it.... Maybe I'll get some time in the woods this weekend and add too it!

 

Looks like we will be out Sunday morning. First goal of the hunt is to get Jess on a deer. Second is to attempt a double kill on camera. I'll have the GoPro mounted on my bow and the cam arm on her. I set up on an Oak ridge that drops off to an oak flat that is loaded with acorns. A cold front has moved in and deer movement is up in the morning. Add to that reports of chasing have been floating around our area. I'm more excited about this hunt than any so far this year.


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It's hard to believe it's almost 3 weeks until prime time in my area and I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to do until rifle season starts! I've shifted gears a little bit and I'll be doing some filming for the next couple weeks. There's a chance I get to film for someone that is pretty high up in the hunting industry, so I have my fingers crossed that everything goes well.

 

Great buck skwalker and everyone else who shot deer. Thats a great story man! I am gonna be back out Wednesday. Saw 7 bucks last sit no shooters but some of em were chasing does already gotta get back in there! I shot a doe that morning but forgot to take a pic I butchered it in the woods because it was like a 2 mile walk. sorry I'll kill plenty of them in december though. Anyways good luck guys can't wait to see some more pics.

 

Well, well, the story of my hunting career. Got busted at 10:06am. Normally I scan the area just before I make a major move like moving my bow to situate my falling asleep posterior. I din't at 10:06am this morning. I was trying something new as in a strap on my new thumb release and it hit my riser. As soon as I moved my bow, she blew at 25yd and all I saw was that infamous white tail dancing off through the woods. Good thing is, I'll not be back at that stand for 2 weeks at least. I removed the strap and it will stay hooked to my D-loop from now on. Live and learn right? Pretty sure it was my arch enemy the old grey nanny that I've been after for 3 seasons now. If I shoot her, she will go on the wall. I believe she has been harder to kill than a mature buck.


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You guys rock! Great job and keep up the good work. We have 10 more elk, 6 whitetails and a dozen goats left to kill for the rest of the season. Looking forward to hunting a little :D, congrats to everyone so far!

 

Well I was way overconfident going into rifle season. I saw oodles of does and a few small bucks but only one decent buck... which I shot... but I got a crummy hit. I didn't factor in the wind when I shot. (and it's windy on the tops of those mountains) After looking literally high and low, I came up empty handed.

So... The meager upside to this is that I can go back to bowhunting for a buck. The only open zones aren't close to home so I don't know how many trips I can make but I hope to make at least a few. Wish me luck, I'll need lots!

 

Starting on the 31st I'll have at least 17 days of hunting through the end of November between WI and MN season. I have 4 tags in my pocket (2 bow/2 gun) so we will see what happens.