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DAY 5

Wednesday Morning Hunt

I'm just sick. I went back to the Box stand, where I hunted yesterday evening. The forecast called for a North wind and that's perfect for this stand - but only if the deer follow their normal patterns coming off a wheat field several hundred yards to the North. After I settled in, the wind turned more Westerly and that could be a problem if the deer came from the woods - instead of the fields. Usually I see movement off the fields here at first light, but nothing moved from the fields. Instead, at 7:00 AM I spotted a lone doe coming toward me - from the woods. Not good, my scent was blowing right at the main trail she was coming down. She locked up at 30 yards and raced back into the woods. This was a bad sign - especially since behind her, was King Kong.

I was too concerned about the wind to get nervous. I focused my video camera on him as he headed in. I was bound and determined to catch the shot on video - especially of such a breathtaking buck like this. He stood and watched the doe for a few moments and I thought for sure he was going to follow her out of sight. But instead, he came down the same trail. He was only 15 yards below me. But he became nervous and started to sniff the air. I knew it was over. He busted out of there before breaking into a slow walk and grunting his way back through the trees. I was so close!

Watch the video

Another great buck showed up not 20 minutes later, this one from the West. He caught my wind as well before busting down the hedgerow. At that moment it was apparent that the deer were not coming off the fields. All the activity was going to come from the woods. I couldn't stay in this stand. I'd be doing nothing more than educating these deer, so I called Kent and had him come and pick me up.

It was the right thing to do, but it screwed up a great morning. It had turned much cooler and the bucks were out! Kyle had hit a deer last night and they decided to leave it overnight and look for it this morning. So I opted to help look as well. Kyle found his buck - a nice 9 point - and after photos and handshakes I came back here to upload the video and pictures of my morning. I'm heading right back after this is done for a very long afternoon hunt.

What do you think he'd score?

Wednesday Afternoon Hunt

Painful - that was the adjective I use to describe what Kent, Ron and I went through trying to figure out what stands we should hunt for this afternoon. Kent made several suggestions and I picked the Calvary Creek stand. But after we arrived there, the wind was far from ideal and it would be a risk to hunt it. So we opted to try the stand North of town where I shot my big buck last year. The last time I was here, I was bloodtrailing my 154, it was good to be back.

Not 30 minutes after Kent drove away 4 bucks showed up. They were chasing each other, posturing and even fighting at one time. One of them had great mass - especially for a Button! I'd never seen anything like it - 4 button bucks pretending to be like the big boys they've been observing. It was a riot - especially the button fight - they were banging their heads together like sheep and pushing each other around. I captured the antics on video and tried to keep from laughing out loud.

Those 4 buttons hung around most of the afternoon. They were joined by a small scrub buck at one point and a variety of does during the course of the afternoon. Just at dusk, I heard a buck rubbing his antlers on branches and grunting. As he came in he was a perfect 10 and would score around 140. It was dark, but doable, but no video and he really needed 2 more years to be a spectacular buck. I figured him for 3.5 years old, so I passed him up. As it became darker, I decided to try and snap a couple digital photos of the buck. I had tried it before with does and it didn't phase them, but I had never tried it with a big buck. The flash didn't seem to bother him at all so I snapped a dozen photos of him - some came out but most didn't. I proved one thing, the flash of my game cameras probably does not affect the deer that walk by them.

Overall It was a slow night.

Other Hunters - Ron had another slow day, his hunt has been tough so far. Bill hit a nice buck, but unfortunately it was a superficial hit in the shoulder. The buck had run away with the arrow flopping. They looked for a long time but never found a single drop of blood. This was Bill's last day so we were all wishing the best for him - it was a bummer.