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This is the story of my 2019 buck.
June
July
August
After September 1st sightings became fewer and the last time we got a picture was about October 14.
And at the end of November he showed up again
As you can see from the pictures, we had watched this buck all summer and into fall. He was regularly visiting a feeder and salt block in the middle of the property.
My dad bought the property just before he retired after 40+ years at Whirlpool. He has owned the property for 19 years and has never shot a ‘good’ buck off of it. He has killed a lot of nice bucks over the years just never one on his own place.
I wanted him to shoot this deer.
My wife had a medical issue the day before season opened so my dad went by himself. The first morning and evening were blanks. The second day he hunted the morning and blanked again. We had so much confidence in this deer showing up and after 3 sits dad decides he needs a break and takes Sunday afternoon off to watch NASCAR. Yep, a nice buck came to the feeder. Not the same ten point but another good one. I chastised dad pretty good for that. He stayed at the cabin and hunted most of the week but the ten never showed.
Pictures of the ten slowed down and the last one we got of him before the rut was October 14.
Around the first of November dad did what he has done too often in the past and shot a questionable buck too close to dark and felt the disappointment of serious ground shrinkage. This left the property open for me to hunt during the rut. I hunted for 10 days. It was a very disappointing week. I saw very few deer and the cameras had no bucks except for a couple spikes and baskets.
When I returned to work, a coworker finally gave me permission to hunt her 50 acres abutting public land here in Delaware county. We thought we were golden. The place had several great rub lines and lots of deep trails in an overgrown pasture. I bow hunted there a few times before gun season hoping to catch a rutting buck but only saw does and small bucks.
I was pretty confident gun season would bring a lot of action.
Monday I didn’t see a single deer. Tuesday morning I saw a doe and fawn. I was frustrated. I climbed out of my tree at 11 and was on my way to Monroe county by noon.
I made it to the cabin in time to hunt a couple hours that evening and I saw 3 does. I checked the feeder in the dark because it hadn’t gone off and found the battery dead. I opened the top and threw several pounds of corn out on the ground.
The next morning I climbed into my stand that sits just above a bench about 75 yards from the feeder. From here I can cover two facing hillsides and all routes through this holler.
At about 7:40 I catch movement of a deer coming around a logging road about 140 yards away heading directly to the feeder. I immediately see it’s a good buck. Now I am somewhere between a panic and completely dumbfounded that this is happening. It’s just impossible.
The buck walks straight to the corn like he watched me put it there for him.
I have no way to rest my gun from a standing or sitting position and a pretty good breeze is blowing more than I like to shoot offhand so I get on my knees and take rest on the armrest of the ladderstand. The wind is perfect, blowing left to right. I would seemingly have plenty of time to shoot but I have seen deer walk away from feeders for no reason at all so I am back to panic.
I let the buck get close enough to broadside and I let the 45/70 do it’s job. At the shot the buck bounds about 10 yards towards me and stops. WTF? I see his tail flicking so I assume he must be gut shot. I have some limbs in front of him now but I am still in panic mode so with him hard quartered to me I shoot. This time he comes towards me again, jumping the creek, and stopping 40 yards below me on my hillside. Now I am back to dumbfounded. I try to get the deer in the scope but it’s on 9 power so I crank it down real quick. I get the buck in my sights and all I can see is his head and neck. That is enough and I put the 3rd shot through his neck.
It wasn’t until I walked up on the buck and saw the long G4 and forked brow that I knew exactly which deer it was. All I could do was stand there and laugh.
I took a few pictures and sent them to dad. He was pretty happy for me. I was happy but a little disappointed he hadn’t shot it.
I don’t drink a lot but I do love to celebrate a successful hunt with a beer or three or four. So I drank a couple while I recounted the story to dad over the phone at the cabin. Afterwards, I grabbed a couple more beers, the tractor, and headed back down to recover the buck.
The first shot had entered behind the near shoulder and blew a 2 inch hole out of the back of his ribs. Taking out both lungs, the liver, and guts. The second shot broke his femur in the middle of his hind quarter. The shot must have deflected because it didn’t exit the ham. The third shot was middle of the neck and dropped him in his tracks.
I took this pic to post for Giles. My rifle was safely back at the cabin at this point.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
June
July
August
After September 1st sightings became fewer and the last time we got a picture was about October 14.
And at the end of November he showed up again
As you can see from the pictures, we had watched this buck all summer and into fall. He was regularly visiting a feeder and salt block in the middle of the property.
My dad bought the property just before he retired after 40+ years at Whirlpool. He has owned the property for 19 years and has never shot a ‘good’ buck off of it. He has killed a lot of nice bucks over the years just never one on his own place.
I wanted him to shoot this deer.
My wife had a medical issue the day before season opened so my dad went by himself. The first morning and evening were blanks. The second day he hunted the morning and blanked again. We had so much confidence in this deer showing up and after 3 sits dad decides he needs a break and takes Sunday afternoon off to watch NASCAR. Yep, a nice buck came to the feeder. Not the same ten point but another good one. I chastised dad pretty good for that. He stayed at the cabin and hunted most of the week but the ten never showed.
Pictures of the ten slowed down and the last one we got of him before the rut was October 14.
Around the first of November dad did what he has done too often in the past and shot a questionable buck too close to dark and felt the disappointment of serious ground shrinkage. This left the property open for me to hunt during the rut. I hunted for 10 days. It was a very disappointing week. I saw very few deer and the cameras had no bucks except for a couple spikes and baskets.
When I returned to work, a coworker finally gave me permission to hunt her 50 acres abutting public land here in Delaware county. We thought we were golden. The place had several great rub lines and lots of deep trails in an overgrown pasture. I bow hunted there a few times before gun season hoping to catch a rutting buck but only saw does and small bucks.
I was pretty confident gun season would bring a lot of action.
Monday I didn’t see a single deer. Tuesday morning I saw a doe and fawn. I was frustrated. I climbed out of my tree at 11 and was on my way to Monroe county by noon.
I made it to the cabin in time to hunt a couple hours that evening and I saw 3 does. I checked the feeder in the dark because it hadn’t gone off and found the battery dead. I opened the top and threw several pounds of corn out on the ground.
The next morning I climbed into my stand that sits just above a bench about 75 yards from the feeder. From here I can cover two facing hillsides and all routes through this holler.
At about 7:40 I catch movement of a deer coming around a logging road about 140 yards away heading directly to the feeder. I immediately see it’s a good buck. Now I am somewhere between a panic and completely dumbfounded that this is happening. It’s just impossible.
The buck walks straight to the corn like he watched me put it there for him.
I have no way to rest my gun from a standing or sitting position and a pretty good breeze is blowing more than I like to shoot offhand so I get on my knees and take rest on the armrest of the ladderstand. The wind is perfect, blowing left to right. I would seemingly have plenty of time to shoot but I have seen deer walk away from feeders for no reason at all so I am back to panic.
I let the buck get close enough to broadside and I let the 45/70 do it’s job. At the shot the buck bounds about 10 yards towards me and stops. WTF? I see his tail flicking so I assume he must be gut shot. I have some limbs in front of him now but I am still in panic mode so with him hard quartered to me I shoot. This time he comes towards me again, jumping the creek, and stopping 40 yards below me on my hillside. Now I am back to dumbfounded. I try to get the deer in the scope but it’s on 9 power so I crank it down real quick. I get the buck in my sights and all I can see is his head and neck. That is enough and I put the 3rd shot through his neck.
It wasn’t until I walked up on the buck and saw the long G4 and forked brow that I knew exactly which deer it was. All I could do was stand there and laugh.
I took a few pictures and sent them to dad. He was pretty happy for me. I was happy but a little disappointed he hadn’t shot it.
I don’t drink a lot but I do love to celebrate a successful hunt with a beer or three or four. So I drank a couple while I recounted the story to dad over the phone at the cabin. Afterwards, I grabbed a couple more beers, the tractor, and headed back down to recover the buck.
The first shot had entered behind the near shoulder and blew a 2 inch hole out of the back of his ribs. Taking out both lungs, the liver, and guts. The second shot broke his femur in the middle of his hind quarter. The shot must have deflected because it didn’t exit the ham. The third shot was middle of the neck and dropped him in his tracks.
I took this pic to post for Giles. My rifle was safely back at the cabin at this point.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
