Here's what happened. After a lot of internal debate (see where to hunt thread), I decided to stay north and hunt Geauga County rather than head south and hunt Belmont. I'm not a fan of hunting deep snow and we have a bunch up here, so I truly had little confidence that anything exciting would happen. My morning hunt was much like I expected. No deer. After I got out of my climber I decided to explore the east side of the property. I had never been over there before. I found some sign, but nothing crazy. There was clearly more sign near my feeder, but i had not seen a deer there since the pre-rut. So after some lunch I head out to the new location. I had a friend with me for the afternoon. He set up on the southwest portion of the property.
Well, I was in my stand less the 15 minutes. I was still adjusting stuff when I look to my left and see a definite shooter. He was in some beech scrub and I didn't have a great shot. As he started away from me, I decided to try to squeeze one through the brush. BOOOOM! After the shot he ran towards me stopped and took off again. At the next opening I let another go...BOOOOM! He was out of site for a moment and they he ran up the embankment away from me. When I got down from the tree, I was only able to find hair and no blood. While checking for blood, I jumped him less the 40 yards from the clump of hair. I called my buddy and had him meet me at my stand. We tracked the deer to the bed and there was only a speck of blood. We decided to take up the track and hope to catch him bedded again. I stayed on the trail and had my buddy flank me by about 20 yards. We trail for quite a while. We could tell the buck was slowing by his tracks, but still no additional blood. We finally got to some thick stuff and felt the buck may be bedded. Again, I worked through and my buddy flanked. Just as I cleared the thicket I see the buck walking slowly straight ahead of me about 75 yards out. I put the crosshairs on him and BOOOOM....BOOOM.....BOOOM. My gun was empty and the buck lay dead in his tracks.
Certainly not a text book, made for TV hunt, but the result was me harvesting the best buck of my life.
Well, I was in my stand less the 15 minutes. I was still adjusting stuff when I look to my left and see a definite shooter. He was in some beech scrub and I didn't have a great shot. As he started away from me, I decided to try to squeeze one through the brush. BOOOOM! After the shot he ran towards me stopped and took off again. At the next opening I let another go...BOOOOM! He was out of site for a moment and they he ran up the embankment away from me. When I got down from the tree, I was only able to find hair and no blood. While checking for blood, I jumped him less the 40 yards from the clump of hair. I called my buddy and had him meet me at my stand. We tracked the deer to the bed and there was only a speck of blood. We decided to take up the track and hope to catch him bedded again. I stayed on the trail and had my buddy flank me by about 20 yards. We trail for quite a while. We could tell the buck was slowing by his tracks, but still no additional blood. We finally got to some thick stuff and felt the buck may be bedded. Again, I worked through and my buddy flanked. Just as I cleared the thicket I see the buck walking slowly straight ahead of me about 75 yards out. I put the crosshairs on him and BOOOOM....BOOOM.....BOOOM. My gun was empty and the buck lay dead in his tracks.
Certainly not a text book, made for TV hunt, but the result was me harvesting the best buck of my life.
