About 10 years ago, a property I had always hunted with a friend suddenly became off-limits when leasing started there. No hard feelings on my part, I knew the "business" aspect of it and 100% understood what was going on. That left me with no private land access until one of my wife's coworkers offered up their place. I've hunted out here for about 10 years now. A few years back, I jokingly told my wife, "If they ever sell their house/land, I want to be first in line." What seemed like 1000 puzzle pieces fell into place, and here we are, living here since May.
Between work, kids sports schedules, and other family stuff, I had only been in the woods twice this season. It's not a huge property and I was forcing myself to be minimally invasive until we got to the rut, and I had a couple of rut saddle setups pre-hung I was excited about. Yesterday, with the cold and wet weather incoming, I decided to give the corner blind one more shot. The idea of a roof was appealing and the strong west wind was virtually bulletproof for the blind. I had been shooting the Stalker Wolverine the past few days (I can't bear to see it unstrung and not regularly shot) so I grabbed it and headed out.
I wasn't in the blind long when the weather conditions worsened. The weather app had said the wet stuff wasn't starting until after 6PM but it was a solid 2 hours early. I actually considered sneaking out, thinking deer might not move in the high winds and rain. That thought barely crossed my mind when Deer 1 showed. Since late summer, I've had a half-rack buck on every camera on the property. Not shocking I saw him come by.
Shortly after he showed, the twin fawns (a BB and a doe fawn) that I see practically every time I even THINK about going out of the house showed up. The half rack wasn't interested in them and soon left. The fawns hung out in the corner for a while, then bedded down. Not an ideal situation because I had to piss something fierce and now I was stuck and didn't want to risk moving.
They (well, she) ended up being the bait I needed, though. After about 45 minutes, they both looked over to the field edge to my right. The Tidewe blind is one with the "see-thru" material on the sides. I can't see detail but I saw a body emerge from the brush and immediately let out a "brrrrrr" so I knew it was a buck. He chased after the doe fawn and ran her across the field. I figured he was going to run her and not come back thru, but he gave up quickly and walked back towards the blind. I had to watch him for what seemed like a few minutes until he finally walked towards the scrape. He paused perfectly in a shooting window when he looked away towards the BB and I let the Stalker eat.
I knew the hit was slightly higher than I wanted but also was a complete pass thru with a nasty sharp Simmons Swamp Shark. This was my first deer with a Simmons head. Seeing the hit and the pass thru, I knew he was cooked and ripped off my hat and black facemask hoping to hear something. With the wind and wet ground, I didn't hear a crash. I didn't wait long because I didn't want to lose a blood trail and was 98% sure the buck was dead. In the fading light, I was having some issues seeing the blood mixed with the moisture on the ground. A good light was all I needed, even though it wasn't completely dark. The trail was easy to follow even where I knew he was running. When he slowed down, the blood poured out. It was a crime scene.
My guesstimation is he made it about 80-90 yards before he went down. Yes, I had bigger deer on camera, but I'm 100% happy with taking him. He's actually my biggest trad bow buck, first buck kill ever on this property, and first deer taken here as landowner. We've been very fortunate to not seem to lose many bucks here to EHD, but doe numbers do seem low here this fall. I was already leaning heavily towards not shooting a doe here this year, and this buck seals that. My season is over after three sits. The daily shooting practice and non-invasive approach seemed to pay off this year for me. The past two seasons I was still hunting hard into January to fill tags, so I'm looking forward to taking it easy the rest of this deer season. I'd like to learn a little about coyote trapping, so I may start dabbling in that soon.
Between work, kids sports schedules, and other family stuff, I had only been in the woods twice this season. It's not a huge property and I was forcing myself to be minimally invasive until we got to the rut, and I had a couple of rut saddle setups pre-hung I was excited about. Yesterday, with the cold and wet weather incoming, I decided to give the corner blind one more shot. The idea of a roof was appealing and the strong west wind was virtually bulletproof for the blind. I had been shooting the Stalker Wolverine the past few days (I can't bear to see it unstrung and not regularly shot) so I grabbed it and headed out.
I wasn't in the blind long when the weather conditions worsened. The weather app had said the wet stuff wasn't starting until after 6PM but it was a solid 2 hours early. I actually considered sneaking out, thinking deer might not move in the high winds and rain. That thought barely crossed my mind when Deer 1 showed. Since late summer, I've had a half-rack buck on every camera on the property. Not shocking I saw him come by.
Shortly after he showed, the twin fawns (a BB and a doe fawn) that I see practically every time I even THINK about going out of the house showed up. The half rack wasn't interested in them and soon left. The fawns hung out in the corner for a while, then bedded down. Not an ideal situation because I had to piss something fierce and now I was stuck and didn't want to risk moving.
They (well, she) ended up being the bait I needed, though. After about 45 minutes, they both looked over to the field edge to my right. The Tidewe blind is one with the "see-thru" material on the sides. I can't see detail but I saw a body emerge from the brush and immediately let out a "brrrrrr" so I knew it was a buck. He chased after the doe fawn and ran her across the field. I figured he was going to run her and not come back thru, but he gave up quickly and walked back towards the blind. I had to watch him for what seemed like a few minutes until he finally walked towards the scrape. He paused perfectly in a shooting window when he looked away towards the BB and I let the Stalker eat.
I knew the hit was slightly higher than I wanted but also was a complete pass thru with a nasty sharp Simmons Swamp Shark. This was my first deer with a Simmons head. Seeing the hit and the pass thru, I knew he was cooked and ripped off my hat and black facemask hoping to hear something. With the wind and wet ground, I didn't hear a crash. I didn't wait long because I didn't want to lose a blood trail and was 98% sure the buck was dead. In the fading light, I was having some issues seeing the blood mixed with the moisture on the ground. A good light was all I needed, even though it wasn't completely dark. The trail was easy to follow even where I knew he was running. When he slowed down, the blood poured out. It was a crime scene.
My guesstimation is he made it about 80-90 yards before he went down. Yes, I had bigger deer on camera, but I'm 100% happy with taking him. He's actually my biggest trad bow buck, first buck kill ever on this property, and first deer taken here as landowner. We've been very fortunate to not seem to lose many bucks here to EHD, but doe numbers do seem low here this fall. I was already leaning heavily towards not shooting a doe here this year, and this buck seals that. My season is over after three sits. The daily shooting practice and non-invasive approach seemed to pay off this year for me. The past two seasons I was still hunting hard into January to fill tags, so I'm looking forward to taking it easy the rest of this deer season. I'd like to learn a little about coyote trapping, so I may start dabbling in that soon.
