Good job, Rob! Congrats, buddy. Now, you'll get to spend the rest of the season with your boy and try to help him out. Hoyt - that's a SLAMMER of a 4x4. Wow. Can't wait to see more pics of him! I'll be out again on Thursday & Saturday.
Spent last night in what I thought of as a throw away spot near my house because I have absolutely nothing for ESE anywhere else. Had a button that I wanted badly to be a doe as I'm getting real itchy about shooting one. It's no longer a throw away, pretty neat spot actually and if the deer travel the way that little dummy did, it's now my only spot for ESE. Came 15 yards from nanny heaven on Monday, just didn't happen. Sooner or later, I'm bound to stumble on a buck. Have fun boys.
Good luck this weekend gentlemen! I haven't hunted since last Thursday and likely won't hunt again until next Thursday. I NEVER see any deer on my place with a full moon or during Mid-October period, so I am letting it rest. I hunted some of my best spots early on, so letting the property lay low for a couple weeks will do it a lot of good. My property is super sensitive to pressure.
Well, I may have screwed up again. I had a giant 4x4 come in on me last night, and yet again, I didn't shoot it. Honestly, this time, it wasn't necessarily for lack of trying... He was no bigtime scorer, 125-130 max. Just wide and heavy. 4" G1, 7" G2, 7" G3. I'd put his beams at 22 each, as they were his real showstopping feature. Great mass - probably 15" per side. The wind was blowing like a banshee, and I couldn't even hear myself think. He angled in behind me, and I caught him just as he walked into a wide-open shooting lane at 20 yards and closing. I settled the sights on him, but he was moving slowly, and I hesitated. No idea why, either, because my sight, for a split second, was buried dead-center in his vitals. I just wasn't sure. Things were happening too fast, and I needed at least a moment to think... That hesitation cost me. He came straight into my wind line at 7 yards behind me, and absolutely turned inside-out. He went off that mountain like a steam engine. I can still hear the thumping of those hooves, pounding into the sod as he barrelled down off of the ridge. He was a big buck. Arguably the largest deer I've ever seen on the hoof. No ****, this buck looked like a horse . . . big, hanging gut, sway back, the whole nine yards. The most interesting thing was how he acted when he hit my scent... He didn't pick up his head and look around. He never froze to analyze it. One whiff, and as fast as that human odor hit his nostrils, he was barrelling out through the woods like a missile. LOL I had deer standing right behind me (downwind) all day. I do the whole scent routine - carbon clothing, scent shower, bathing my skin with SilverMax. You just can't beat the nose of a mature buck, I don't care who you are or what you do. It was really a stupid move on my part, mostly because I knew that he was heading right into my scent, but I just didn't think it was going to be an issue. LOL I'm not broken up about it, because he was definitely a tweener, as far as what I'm hunting for, but that's not to say that he wasn't an absolutely gorgeous buck. He had these unique pasty yellow antlers that really stood out against the backdrop. Even his bases weren't colored much. It's funny, because I consider myself to be a huge fan of non-typical chocolate racks. Something about heavy, dark antlers really get me going. This guy was banana-peel yellow, and as typical as typical could ever be, but I think I'd have shot him in a second, if he'd have come walking out from behind me. LOL
Checking in....gots no internet at home. I made a new scrape in near the food plot that my brother saw that good buck in. In less than a day he was on my cam checking it. Wednesday has a strong ENE wind. I would have liked it not to have it so strong, but in light of the fact that I'm having real trouble finding anything N or E to hunt that stand, I'll likely be there. Let's hope for a visitor.
Ben, don't sweat the heavy winds, bro. Saturday was the windiest day I've hunted in years, and we had more big buck activity in that one day than we've seen in the whole season combined. There was a point where it got to be so bad that it became a borderline safety issue. I was one more big gust away from going ground-and-pound.
Normally I actually prefer the winds....but with my current hunting grounds situation, it's forced me to the mountain for more hunts. Wind doesn't make for more sightings up there traditionally. I'm not wishing my season away, but I'm really looking forward to this coming offseason and having the time to look for more places to hunt. This past summer killed me with building the house. Last night was an ugly one for other reasons....I'll pm.
I hunted all day yesterday. does and small bucks, next week I start vacation. I get a new buck tag next saturday. Hunting nannies til then. good luck out there guys.
Sat in Rob's stand tonight. He was gracious enough to ask his landowner if we could. It's a great spot, but we only saw does across the field. Got a favorable wind for one of my favorites tomorrow as well. Rob's coming with the camera, hopefully we'll have some footage. Weather's starting to feel right. Get em boys.....get em.
Well, it's going to be a long night in Quikkieland. I shot my target buck tonight. Not a huge scorer, but a really impressive looking buck on the hoof. This guy: [video=youtube_share;xE6qgQHK6Pw]http://youtu.be/xE6qgQHK6Pw[/video] He was quartering-to, and I put one down through his front end, exiting through the paunch. I just picked up the arrow and backed straight out, never even tempting myself to look at the bloodtrail. I'm probably borderline maniacal about bumping a gut-hit deer out of its bed - I've just seen too many bucks get pushed. These bigger guys have a little more will to survive, so I err on the side of caution. The bus pulls out at noon tomorrow for the recovery mission, so we'll see what happens. If he's laying right where I think he should be, this gentleman should begin his trip to the taxidermist around 2:00. This area has been a hotbed of buck activity all summer. Long story, but we'd actually pulled our gear and hunted elsewhere, but I was hard-up for a quick-hitter hunt tonight, so I had a good wind for a little field edge spot that's been scraped to hell and back in the past week. He showed up and I took the shot. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm thinking that the arrow punched the right lung, passed through the diaphragm and liver, finally exiting through the paunch at the brown/white hairline on the left - 2/3 back. I've run every possible scenario, and I keep arriving at the same result. All I can do is pray that the big guy isn't suffering, one way or the other. It's gonna be a long night, boys...
Slow mythodical track job, you will find him! Hes a nice buck Quick. You made the right call getting out, cant wait to see the pics bud!
Quiks got him. I shot a 7 this morning too. Mine's only gonna go about 90, his will go much higher. Details later.
SweeT! congrats boys! i will score my 8 later and post up some measurements for our points.Its head is thawin now in my shop.
Thanks for all the good luck wishes, fellas. Much appreciated. We got 'er done today, but it wasn't without at least a few moments that left me really second-guessing myself. http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php?26805-Little-Bunny-Foo-Foo-.-.-. So are we going to get to see the footage of the Ben buck? Rob - who has the footage, you or Ben? I can't wait to see. Ben, congrats again bro. Man, I couldn't have been happier for you.
Don't look now, but the Bunnies are rallying. We posted about 300" in the last week. I have a doe tag, and I'll use it if we need the points. Now, we need some of the other teammates to step up. We've got 3 down. We're gonna need 6 bucks and a handful of does to win it. Put your rallycaps on, fellas.
