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DAY 6

Thursday Morning Hunt

Down to the wire as usual. For my last day it was a tough decision which stand to hunt. But Kent suggested a stand that was in a thick grove of trees. It was extremely windy last night but it was suppose to lay down by the morning. When we were getting ready before dawn, there was no sign of it laying up. It was blowing.

As Kent and I drove into this area I immediately liked it. It was very thick and brushy. A good place to see movement all day, especially now when the weather had turned cooler and the rut was coming on. I climbed the stand and waited in the dark for at least 35 minutes before it was light enough to see anything.

Fifteen minutes later a small doe fed directly under my stand. I thought for sure she would smell human scent on the climbing sticks. But she didn't. Another doe fed in from behind me and I saw more coming. As I watched the deer trickling in, movement caught my eye under the stand. It was a BIG buck - the biggest buck I had ever had in range. I tried not to count points or get too worked up by looking at his antlers - there was time for that later.

I flipped on the video camera and hit the record button. I slowly stood up, grabbed my bow and gently turned 180 degrees to shoot the deer off my right side. With so many does around, I was sure I would get busted, but luck was on my side. I drew and picked a spot - holding for at least 30 seconds before releasing.

The woods exploded with deer and my buck ran to the north - over a small hill before disappearing. My initial reaction was the shot was perfect, but the video was needed to confirm that. I was pretty calm - probably more calm than I should be. I flipped the video camera on VTR to watch the shot and to my horror, the video camera had not recorded anything. (Note: I am still trying to get the footage off the camera, this has happened before and sometimes it will work after playing a few times).

With no footage to watch, I waited 15 minutes then quietly climbed down the stand and checked the arrow. It was slick with blood - the entire length - and the blood trail started immediately. Still, I wanted to give him time and it was early. Kent was not due to pick me up for several hours so I left my gear at the tree and started walking the 15 miles back to the house. Before long a friendly local offered me a ride and I was back at the house.

Kent and I took up the bloodtrail an hour later. It was so easy to follow I'll spare you a bloodtrail challenge. The buck was piled up just at the other side of that little hill - 60 yards away. Dead from a perfect heart shot.

The buck was incredible! I knew he was big, but I didn't know he was this big, and that's probably a good thing. While I still would have loved to shoot that nice NT on the first morning, this buck dwarfed him, so perhaps there was a little bit of magic in that interfering cedar branch.

Look out Chuck Adams !

We'll let you guys guess the score. We're going to green him tonight and I'll let you know how close you got in the next couple days. The first one to guess the green gross score, or closest to it, will receive one of our new DVD's "Beyond Adrenaline."

Once again, Kent and Kent from Cimarron River Outfitters delivers an incredible deer hunt. So far this makes 3 out of my 4 deer hunts successful with each buck bigger than the last. I wonder what next year will bring? Thanks for following along on our last live hunt of the season. We'll be bringing you more in the spring with a hog and turkey hunt.