I have been hunting one particular farm for 15 years. There is just one catch; we can't hunt there on the first weekend of the season. There is a man from Kansas City that has been hunting this farm for 30+ years on the first weekend only. He hunts with a muzzle loader and does not want anybody else hunting there while he's there. So for the last several years (6, I think) we have been hunting at Hidden Hollow Conservation Area the first day (we normally don't hunt on Sunday).
This has been an unusaully warm fall. Deer season was upon me before I was mentally ready for it. I never got to go scouting except for one Sunday afternoon about a week before opening day. The boys and I went to Hidden Hollow Conservation Area where we hunt the first day. We found 4 new spots to hunt. The spots we hunted the previous several years just were not producing any deer. The new spots looked so promising that we were afraid 50 other hunters might want the same spot.
Opening day of deer season.
We got up at 4:00 AM and were in our spots an hour before legal shooting hours. Other hunters were entering the woods near where we entered. Luckily, my spot was totally left alone. I never saw a single hunter all morning. I had given Barbara what I considered the best spot. She would have to work in the afternoon and would have the least amount of time to hunt. She was about 30 yards from a very active scrape. Unfortunately her spot was also a place where many hunters chose to walk through to get to there spots. So she saw no deer and several hunters. Sam and Mahlon both saw a few hunters.
I saw 2 deer that I could not get a shot at. At about 8:00 a small buck walked through my area at a rtange of about 35 yards, well within range for my muzzleloader. But... the law says he's got to have at least 4 points on one antler. The most I could see was 3. No matter how hard I tryed I could not find the fourth one. He never knew I was there. It is pretty cool to watch a deer walk right by you so peacefully, not realizing that his life could be in danger. Later Sam saw a young buck, too. We believe it was probably the same one.
That afternoon I took the boys back out. I let Millie go with me, too. She, of course was just going along as an observer. Barbara was at work. Sam decided to try a new spot near where he had hunted in the morning. Mahlon wanted my spot. I took Millie down over the hill, about 100 yds. from my morning spot. We sat next to a tree on a small bluff overlooking a creek bottom. At about 5:00 I was needing to stretch my legs, so I stood up. Millie did the same. She was bored to death having to hold still for so long.
We had been standing for no more than 30 seconds when my eyes caught some movement down below. I whispered, "Millie, there's a deer. Do you see it?" I pointed in the direction of the deer. Millie nodded her head. She saw it. I slowly raised my 6mm and squeezed off. The young doe dropped slight as the 100 gr. bullet struck her chest, and took off running. She was soon out of our sight, but I was confident that I had made a good shot and that she would fall just out of my sight. Millie was no longer bored. She was so excited!
I radioed the boys, to let them know that it was indeed me that had shot. Millie and I started down the bluff to find our deer. Sure enough there was blood, but the deer had run much farther than I expected. I soon radioed the boys to come help me find her. It was fast getting dark and we needed to find her as quickly as possible. About an hour later we found her. It took us about an hour to field dress her and drag her out of the timber. By then 2 of our flashlights had fizzled out. Thankfully Mahlon had one of those fancy crank up flashlights that we could crank to recharge. I highly recommend one of them.
Monday Morning.
The kids had to go to school, so I would be hunting alone on Roger's farm. I walked back to my favorite spot which is well over half a mile from where I parked the van. I walked slowly, watching for deer as I went. Even though I was walking slowly, I was working up a sweat which is not a good thing. I am unsure what this morning could possibly bring. It was 60 degrees. Deer generally move better when it is cold, however, they also move just before a storm system moves in. The weather man was predicting rain for that evening. That was my biggest consolation for the day. I had not been back there since last deer season. I had no idea what deer were in the area, however my "Secret Spot" had produced many, many deer for me over the last 12-15 years.
I finally got to my spot at around 6:30 AM. I immediately kicked all the leaves away from the tree I was about to sit next to (as is my practice). I hung out my scent wick which was soaked with Knight & Hale's Doe Estrous Scent and a couple of H S Scent wafers in Buc Rut "flavor". I sit down quietly and grunt a few times on my Tru Talker Grunt Call. I waited a while (perhaps 15 minutes) and rattled with my Rattle Box, which is supposed to imitate 2 bucks in a sparring match. AT 7:05 I caught some movment in the brush. It was a nice buck. I didn't have time to count his points to see if he was legal, but I didn't have to. He had plenty to go around. I saw him for just a moment and he was behind some cedar trees from me. I swiveled my body in the direction that he was going and softly grunted another 3 grunts on the Tru Talker. Almost immediately he stepped out from behind the cedars at a range of about 60 yds, paying no attention to me. Apparently he was on the trail of a hot doe. I raised my rifle, put the crosshairs on his chest and followed him for a step or two till I had a clear shot. I squezzed the trigger. The buck immediately bounded out of my sight.
I just sat there spellbound. I had just missed the buck of my dreams. This hunt had gone much like a similar hunt a year or 2 ago. It may even have been the same deer. As I sat there pondering I heard him crashing through the brush, probably waving his tail goodbye and laughing at me for having buck fever. It was with some reluctance that I slowly got up (about 5 minutes later) to see if there was any trace of blood. To my surprise, I found a few drops of blood right where stood when I shot. I walked a few steps in the direction that he had run. There was a lot of blood. He must be hit good. I followed the blood trail a few more steps and looked up. There he was. He had not gone more than 25 yds. I could not believe my eyes! He was huge!
My ill-placed shot on Saturday evening had hurt my confidence in my shooting abilities. Which is why I told myself that I had missed him. When I thought I heard him running away, he was in reality dying just over the ridge from me.
Two and a half hours later I finally had him loaded on my trailer and headed back to the house.
Hazel Creek Taxidermy has a Big Buck Contest, so I decided to enter it. I figured there are plenty of other bucks out there bigger than mine but this is definitely my biggest. They measured him up and to my surprise he was the fifth largest one they had measured this year. He scored 161 2/8, falling 5/8 below #4. I decided to let them cape him out and mount him for me. The #1 spot was held by Sam Schwartz, who bought my place 2 years ago. I don't remember his score. Before I got out of there, A new #1 came in from the Worthington area. That would put mine down to #6. I left before they measured him, but he was HUGE! I wished I had my camera.
Can you tell that I am excited?
For bigger pictures click on the picture below:
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| My Trophy Buck |
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