Well I'll try to be as concise as possible, as I personally don't like long reads...
Cliffs:
-Hunted same park last year, no further than 1/4 mile off roads, never saw another hunter. Was literally a mile back this year, had a guy walk by at 60 yards:smiley_boos:
-Got pics of the buck I shot, saw all the bucks I got on cam. Shot the biggest one.
-Saw a lot more deer than last year; movt was still slow. Early sightings, late sightings, or one and not the other. No mid day movt.
-No response to calling again, with the exception of the last minute buck I shot last year.
-Made the entire drag out without flipping the cart one time or even coming close!:smiley_clap:
-Took over an hour still to get him out!
-Forgot my butt out; won't do that again...
-Hunted by myself; never more important to me how important hunting buddies are to share in the experience:frown:
Story as short as possible. Scouted in Sept, found a good area with rubs already. Found a white oak cluster that seemed to have good sign around. I was booked on it, didn't even ck out any other areas. Had my backups from last year if I needed them. Started Thursday afternoon, had that guy come by on Saturday afternoon, bummed me out. Of course no deer after he walked by. Ended up shooting my buck at 0720 roughly on Sunday morning. So I get up, think to myself man i'd really like to sleep in. Something said to me, no way man, today is the day. Walking in I get a stronger feeling than ever before that "I'm going to shoot that 9 today, I know it". So about 0700 I see a deer, looks big, get the binos up, finally see he's a little forky I had on trail cam. He makes his way to 10 yards behind me, I get out my phone to snap a pic, forgot the auto flash was on. He looks up at me and boogers about 10 yards, goes back to feeding. I'm leaning against my tree just looking back at him feeding and he yanks his head up. Stares, stares, stares, finally I hear crunch crunch crunch... My first thought is I bet that's the 9 when I see the deer. Second later I see rack and say that's gotta be the nine. He starts heading down to me from about 50 out, get a better look, see his little G4, know it's the 9. He comes to a scrape about 25 out and hits it real authoritatively. Looks over to the 4 and starts coming in. He's going to walk broadside at 15 yards, goes behind bush, I draw back. Like they always do, he stops behind the bush covering his vitals. Stands there, stands there, stands there, he turns away. Quartering away, I debate blowing through the bush. Said no and finally let down. He stands there for a minute or so and then does another 180 and starts coming DIRECTLY to my tree. I thought here we go again, 3 years in a row I have a deer walk facing me to my tree 5 yards away. So I'm just waiting deciding what I'm going to do. I learned my lesson 3 years ago to not try to draw on a deer facing you, underneath you... Got my buck last year waiting. So I wait again this year. He stops 8 yards out and puts his head down. Moves it left and it goes behind a little bush. I said that's it, I'm drilling you. 8 yards away, I'm shooting new arrows this year, Easton Axis FMJ, 11.3gpi and they blow right through my block target. Also switched to the Exodus head this year from the rage, and glad I did, because I never would have taken this shot with a Rage. I knew I was going to blow through the spine. Settle the pin about two inches behind his center of shoulder line and let rip. If you would have put a quarter on this deer, I would have drove it through him. CRACK!!! He goes down like a sack of bricks, kicks for 30 seconds and he's done. The arrow broke right through his spine and went completely through his vitals. I missed both lungs and passed through the heart. Somehow the arrow didn't go completely through him... Looking at the trail cam pics I knew he was borderline shooter, my buddy said dude you have to shoot that deer, he's a really nice public land buck. I know there are plenty of P&Y deer walking this land, so it was hard, knowing he wouldn't break P&Y, but he's still a great deer and my vow was not another one I wasn't putting on the wall, and I plan on mounting this one. Of course I'm a stupid hunter and was happier after I put a tape on him. Why I let that decide my happiness I don't know, but in this big buck era, it ruins the hunt for a lot of us. He ended up taping out at 120 6/8, so I broke the teens which I was super pumped about. Last years was 108-110 so this was a nice jump. If I can make another 10 inch jump next year, woohoo!!!:smiley_clap:
And now the pics....
As he layed, arrow untouched
trophy pics
Cliffs:
-Hunted same park last year, no further than 1/4 mile off roads, never saw another hunter. Was literally a mile back this year, had a guy walk by at 60 yards:smiley_boos:
-Got pics of the buck I shot, saw all the bucks I got on cam. Shot the biggest one.
-Saw a lot more deer than last year; movt was still slow. Early sightings, late sightings, or one and not the other. No mid day movt.
-No response to calling again, with the exception of the last minute buck I shot last year.
-Made the entire drag out without flipping the cart one time or even coming close!:smiley_clap:
-Took over an hour still to get him out!
-Forgot my butt out; won't do that again...
-Hunted by myself; never more important to me how important hunting buddies are to share in the experience:frown:
Story as short as possible. Scouted in Sept, found a good area with rubs already. Found a white oak cluster that seemed to have good sign around. I was booked on it, didn't even ck out any other areas. Had my backups from last year if I needed them. Started Thursday afternoon, had that guy come by on Saturday afternoon, bummed me out. Of course no deer after he walked by. Ended up shooting my buck at 0720 roughly on Sunday morning. So I get up, think to myself man i'd really like to sleep in. Something said to me, no way man, today is the day. Walking in I get a stronger feeling than ever before that "I'm going to shoot that 9 today, I know it". So about 0700 I see a deer, looks big, get the binos up, finally see he's a little forky I had on trail cam. He makes his way to 10 yards behind me, I get out my phone to snap a pic, forgot the auto flash was on. He looks up at me and boogers about 10 yards, goes back to feeding. I'm leaning against my tree just looking back at him feeding and he yanks his head up. Stares, stares, stares, finally I hear crunch crunch crunch... My first thought is I bet that's the 9 when I see the deer. Second later I see rack and say that's gotta be the nine. He starts heading down to me from about 50 out, get a better look, see his little G4, know it's the 9. He comes to a scrape about 25 out and hits it real authoritatively. Looks over to the 4 and starts coming in. He's going to walk broadside at 15 yards, goes behind bush, I draw back. Like they always do, he stops behind the bush covering his vitals. Stands there, stands there, stands there, he turns away. Quartering away, I debate blowing through the bush. Said no and finally let down. He stands there for a minute or so and then does another 180 and starts coming DIRECTLY to my tree. I thought here we go again, 3 years in a row I have a deer walk facing me to my tree 5 yards away. So I'm just waiting deciding what I'm going to do. I learned my lesson 3 years ago to not try to draw on a deer facing you, underneath you... Got my buck last year waiting. So I wait again this year. He stops 8 yards out and puts his head down. Moves it left and it goes behind a little bush. I said that's it, I'm drilling you. 8 yards away, I'm shooting new arrows this year, Easton Axis FMJ, 11.3gpi and they blow right through my block target. Also switched to the Exodus head this year from the rage, and glad I did, because I never would have taken this shot with a Rage. I knew I was going to blow through the spine. Settle the pin about two inches behind his center of shoulder line and let rip. If you would have put a quarter on this deer, I would have drove it through him. CRACK!!! He goes down like a sack of bricks, kicks for 30 seconds and he's done. The arrow broke right through his spine and went completely through his vitals. I missed both lungs and passed through the heart. Somehow the arrow didn't go completely through him... Looking at the trail cam pics I knew he was borderline shooter, my buddy said dude you have to shoot that deer, he's a really nice public land buck. I know there are plenty of P&Y deer walking this land, so it was hard, knowing he wouldn't break P&Y, but he's still a great deer and my vow was not another one I wasn't putting on the wall, and I plan on mounting this one. Of course I'm a stupid hunter and was happier after I put a tape on him. Why I let that decide my happiness I don't know, but in this big buck era, it ruins the hunt for a lot of us. He ended up taping out at 120 6/8, so I broke the teens which I was super pumped about. Last years was 108-110 so this was a nice jump. If I can make another 10 inch jump next year, woohoo!!!:smiley_clap:
And now the pics....
As he layed, arrow untouched
trophy pics
