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Morning Hunt

With this being my last day we agonized over which stand to hunt for the morning. The wind was OK for the stand I've been hunting all week and where I saw the giant buck. I decided to go there.

As I waited for dawn I could hear does being chased out of the CRP and into the trees where I was positioned. This area is a natural funnel. There is a wheat field a half mile to the South and this area provides bedding cover. Kent and I picked out this tree and he hung it on the first day of this hunt. This area was virgin.

As it got light a doe and a fawn walked into the trees and up the trail in front of my stand. They looked over their shoulder and I could see the frame of a nice buck following them. He gave me no time to study his rack. He rushed in and tried to gore the doe who then turned to the north. I was already at full draw. I grunted to stop him from chasing her and it worked. The buck stopped for a brief second and I shot him at 30 yards. It felt good. I called Kent and waited 90 minutes before taking up the trail. I won't give any more details due to an upcoming blood trail challenge however we found the deer easily.

Watch the Video of the Shot -

He is a nice mature buck. He's got a unique rack, great mass with main beams the curve forward. He is a mainframe 8 with great G1's and G2's and weak G3's so he wouldn't be a shooter for someone chasing a book buck, but I don't care, I am thrilled with him.

However...

After I shot the buck and was waiting on Kent I noticed another buck heading in. What a pig! He was a Perfect 10 with nothing broken. Kent guessed him around 160. I knew something like that was going to happen, I was just glad it wasn't the 190 inch buck. The buck never did come into the trees, when he was scent checking the bedding area he caught a whiff of me. I probably would not have had a shot at him.

That's not all. After finding my buck Kent went for the pickup as I spent a few moments admiring him. I got a text from my buddy Bill who wanted me to send him a photo. As I was typing the text, Kent drove up and then came flying out of his pickup truck. I knew something was up.

"Did you see that" he said?

"See what?" I replied.

As I was texting the photo to my buddy a buck trotted by me on the other side of a blow down. He was a mainframe 12 that Kent thought would go 175-180 inches! He was only 20 feet from me and I never saw him. He was spooked by Kent's truck and he ran down the same trail my buck took. As Kent described him to me it was clear he was not the 190" buck. This one had light horns and brow tines, the 190 had no brows with chocolate horns. That makes at least 5 bucks here over 160" in 4 morning hunts. Not bad, and one of the reasons I love it here so much.

We didn't talk much about Jeff Goulet's hunts due to the late night. Jeff left this morning with an empty tag, but only because he was holding out for a 170+ buck. He passed on several bucks that would go into the 160's. His trophy discipline is amazing and he deserves several of the 170" deer he has already killed. He also witnessed one of the best deer fights I'd ever seen filmed. Jeff is a regular hunter here but this was my first time hunting with him. He was a pleasure to have in camp and was also an awesome cook!

Another year and yet another big buck taken here with my friends Kent Wolfolk and Kent Jarnagin. You know we'll be back.

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