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DAY 4

Wednesday Morning Hunt

A north wind is what I needed to go back to the stand where I've been chasing that big eight. And a north wind is what we had this morning. So I opted to go back and hunt for that nice buck again this morning. Along with the north wind was a forecast calling for wind gusts to 40 mph. This was not good but I hoped for the best.

Right at pink light, I saw the form of a deer moving toward me. Just like yesterday morning only this time the camera was on the "off" position. But as the buck got closer, it was not the big eight, but the little resident eight I'd been looking at each day. He fed around then moved into the trees. The resident doe and fawn also showed up as did the forky and the spike. It was like a reunion at my little corner of Kansas. The wind picked up by 9:00 but it seemed like every hour I had a visit by one of our little resident deer. Neither my eight, nor any shooter bucks were seen this morning. I stayed in till noon and darn near was blown out of the tree.

Wednesday Afternoon Hunt

For the afternoon hunt I decided it might be best to give the stand I've been hunting a rest. Besides, I was getting a bit concerned that this area did not hold more than the one big eight and I may be limiting my options by focusing on him. So Kent and I talked it over and decided to hunt a special stand called "Pat's stand" named after...you guessed it, me. This was the stand I shot my nice buck in last year on the last evening of the last day.

The wind was howling and this stand sits in a cottonwood all by itself in the middle of the prairie. I was not expecting much activity but opted to start hunting a 2:00 PM because of the rut. I'm glad I did. At 3:00 PM, I noticed a doe standing to my Northwest. Suddenly, a real big 8 appeared 30 yards from her. I put my binoculars on him and he was BIG. I opted not to risk spooking the deer by messing with the video camera and positioned myself in the stand for a shot. But the doe bounded off and the buck chased her around the prairie. At this point, it was safe to flip on the camera and I captured some good footage of the chase before they disappeared.

"Pat's stand" sits in the middle of a grass field alongside a row of tamarack trees. It's a great spot for bucks since they will cruise downwind of the tamaracks looking for does. When they do that, they are within 20 yards of my stand. But it's also impossible to miss any deer coming my way since there is no brush or trees anywhere near it. With that in mind, several times this afternoon I just happened to look down to see a deer under my stand. It was like they had materialized from thin air. Unfortunately, they were also picking me off in the tree and would stiff-leg it to my downwind side and then blow. This happened most of the afternoon and it got frustrating. At 4:00 PM I looked into the Tamaracks and there was a decent buck making a scrape. But his rack looked funny and after glassing him and zooming in with the camera, I realized that all of his points except his G1 were busted off on his left antler. That must have been some fight he had.

I had several does continue to work there way down the tamaracks only to bust me in the tree. One big obnoxious doe (I called Rosie) would not shut up. She moved 80 yards away and blew at me for 15 minutes straight. This was during the prime time too, the last 45 minutes of daylight. Before darkness fell I saw one more buck that was close to being a shooter, but not quite. Next year he'd be a really nice ten but this year he needs to walk. Overall it was a windy, but fun day filled with more action than I had anticipated.