Brock/Mason 2018-2019

[xbowguy]

Good Deal Brock. Always enjoy following you two. Good Luck Fellas!

 

[bowhunter1023]

This becomes the best thread on this forum over the next 4-12 weeks!

 

[Mike]

Good luck guys!

 

[Fletch]

Good Luck to you and Mason this year...Looking forward to the stories....

 

[brock ratcliff]

We broke the ice tonight. As is the norm, I was skunked at the creek stand. Mason saw three antlerless in the fencerow. The landowner is busy cutting beans and started chopping down the field in front of Mason about 20 minutes after he had settled into his stand. Apparently the deer came out of the woods as the landowner was cutting away from them and hung in the edge of the corn under Mason when the combine returned. He said they paid zero attention to the farmer once he again turned.

I checked our cams tonight. Nothing at the creek, but the camera closest to Masons stand has been on fire this week. We did have a dandy 8 on there along with numerous does and smaller bucks.

Here is a clip I was surprised to see captured. My arthritis has been flaring pretty bad lately. Very sore, stiff, etc. As we were walking back to the truck, Mason even knowing what I've been dealing with, asked if I wanted to race. You don't have to be fast to win a race...

 

[giles]

Blahahahaha! That was hilarious!!!

 

[brock ratcliff]

Hopefully we will get an opportunity to shoot a couple of these this year. We usually get a chance or two at them every season.

 

[hickslawns]

Old, slow,and wise beats youthful enthusiasm. Love it! Good luck this season.

 

[Bigslam51]

That was funny! Some good size yotes there, kill them bastards!

 

[Dustinb80]

LOL Awesome. Hope you can take care of those yotes

 

[bowhunter1023]

That's a move my dad woulda pulled too!

 

[hickslawns]

Reminds me of the Harley guy who put up a bunch of money to drag race a crotch rocket. Chugs up to starting line. Their buddy said "take off on 3". At 2 the Harley guy kicked the crotch rocket over. On 3 he putted down the street to finish line.

 

[brock ratcliff]

I’m tied up at work all the time now so hunting hasn’t been in the cards for me. Mason however, now has friends that drive. He went last night on a piece of public next to our home. Didn’t see anything. Tonight he and his buddy Josh went out to the property where he killed his first buck years ago. Josh hunted from that stand, Mason stayed on the ground. He let three does feed by under twenty yards. Shortly after, a shooter came through. After getting his range the buck continued to feed on acorns and did not stop in an opening for Mason to shoot. He said the deer is a giant 8 with 14” G2s. Sounds like they had a heck of a good hunt. Here is a pic Mason snapped of one of the does. He said she was at 16 yards at the time.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Mason and I went into his spot Thursday evening. I was again skunked. He again had a shooter get by without getting shot. So tonight we tried to sneak back in there and managed to blow a stud off the ridge while crossing a fence a short distance from his set up. Grrr. We sat anyway and I think I figured out how to get a crack at one of those bucks if they stick to the same routine. We will see.
Got a text from our friend, Townzen, that he had shot a doe. We were able to join him for the recovery. Love it.

 

[brock ratcliff]

We hunted Fayette tonight. First sit in a new set for me. It will be a good one. Tonight a couple of does got a free pass, no bucks seen, but they will be soon enough. I placed this stand after several years' observations from the fencerow stand. A casual scouting trip or two would never give enough insight for a person to hang a stand where I put this set. I've seen countless bucks enter and exit there, but it just isn't an obvious spot. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to sitting there in the coming weeks! I ended the evening seeing a total of four antlerless, Mason saw "about ten". He didn't do a very good job of keeping track.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Update: Mason killed a buck yesterday. Nice deer, 142".

I went up to Fayette to hunt the fence for the first time this year. I saw seven. One small buck chasing does, one "good" buck at last light. I'm not going to be overly picky this year, but I would not have shot this buck. His antlers are out past his ears, but he looks young to me. I think he could be a super star in a couple years. Besides, it's still early. I probably won't hunt again until Monday.

 

[brock ratcliff]

I bought a Blind Turtle last Monday. I’ve wanted one since Mason and I hunted out of one down at Mrex’s place several years ago. I told Mason that purchasing that thing was a guarantee we would kill our bucks early and we would never hunt out of it. That’s just the way things go. Of course he shot his buck two days later and I have bucks crawling all over the Fayette property now. My bride told me she would make sure the shop was covered this week so I could finally put some effort into killing a deer. No way I’m gonna get to hunt from this blind, I thought. Saturday morning I was finishing up putting the legs on that dang thing when I felt my back snap. Oh crap. Yep, now I’m gimped up again. Sweet. If it isn’t one thing it’s another. Been that way for a few months now. Lol. Oh well. Maybe I will get some use out of this thing in January after all.

Here’s a pic of Masons buck...

 

[giles]

That sucks, hope it snaps back quickly.

 

[brock ratcliff]

My back is still a mess so I can’t hunt. However, I did get to help Masons buddy, Kade out a little this morning. Nothing much on my part but I did save the boys a little drag time by driving my truck in. This was Kade’s best buck, he could not have been happier.

 

[giles]

All them years of letting them grow really is paying off for you guys. It’s a great thing you do getting these kids on good deer. Way to make it count Kade! Congrats