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DAY 4

Sunday Morning Hunt

Pat: I went back to the same tree that I spent all day in yesterday. I was hunting the scrape line again where I've been seeing all those great bucks. Several does used the close trail and I thought for sure one of those nice bucks was going to follow them in. By 9 AM all I saw was a small 8 that wasn't a shooter. At 10 am I saw the big 9 that I was going to shoot two days ago. But like the other bucks yesterday he was cruising out in the field and with the north wind he caught a whiff of me at the edge of the tree belt. I decided that this wasn't working out with a north wind. The bucks are far more comfortable moving through the field and scent checking the tree belt than actually getting close to it. All I was doing was educating these nice bucks so I called Kent to pull me out at 11.

Jake: Jake hunted the Silo stand this morning, he saw a nice eight but too young along with a six, some does and fawns, nothing else.

Ron: Ron hunted Ken's tree and saw an ancient buck that he thought about killing, more as a novelty than anything else. But not much else.

Sunday Afternoon Hunt

Pat: We decided to go somewhere different and one of the options was an old favorite stand of mine called Calvary Creek. The weather was nasty, with a cold wind and rain that turned misty by the end of the day. At 4 a doe came in followed by three bucks. One of them was close to a shooter. I put him in the 130s.

This was the first buck that showed up. I debated shooting him but didn't

A doe busted me from behind and he ran back into the trees. As I was watching him, I heard a grunt and turned to see a nice buck heading in. He wasn't a monster, but he was a solid 140+ buck that had great mass and split brow tines. I decided to take him. I flipped the camera on record and grabbed my bow.

I decided to shoot him. But when we walked out of the video frame I couldn't shoot.

The buck headed to the bait and I drew my bow. I didn't want to mess up and shoot fast so I took my time, steadied the pin, and made sure it was level. I just started to squeeze the release when the deer grunted and turned toward the other deer. I went "nerr" and stopped him cold. I had him broadside at 18 with the pin right on his heart. I had all the time in the world but before I shot I had realized that the deer had walked out of the video frame. The deer was a nice buck, but far from my best here so I decided if I couldn't get the shot on tape, I wasn't going to take it. I let him walk. As I review the footage I'm kind of glad I did. There are far bigger bucks here and I'd rather hold out. Guess I'm getting bloodthirsty.

The buck moved back into the trees as the previous buck came out to meet him. Those two bucks locked horns and started a fight the likes' I've never seen. It was worth the entire trip to witness that. They were bouncing off big trees and knocking down small ones. These two bucks were trying to kill each other. The buck I had drawn on won this round but the fight was far from over. They locked it up again and continued that for 10 minutes. What a sight! For the rest of the hunt all I saw was small bucks and does.

Jake: Well someone had to finally kill something and that was Jake. He had a nice 10 come into his stand at the north pines and he decided to kill him.

He used his 93lb bow to blow clear through the 10. He went less than 60 yards. This is Jake's first Kansas buck!

Ron: Ron got cold and wet. His stand was getting blown around pretty hard and with the cold mist it was pretty miserable for him. He saw some does and dinks, nothing else.

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