- Joined
- Sep 19, 2014
- Messages
- 3,939
I'm sure several of you have been following my vids and posts in my live hunt thread, but for those that haven't here's a little back story to this buck....
-I scouted this area out in March and found a great bedding area in a super thick, briar filled area that borders some hardwoods. This hillside sets up good for bedding up top on a SW wind and on any N wind they bed lower on the hardwoods/brush transition.
-In July I hung a camera on a main trail coming from the bedding area and was surprised to see a big bachelor group of bucks using this area and mostly in daylight.
-Come Mid Sept the group split and only a few of the original group stayed, two of which I deemed shooters
-Fast forward to September 30th, our opening day. We have a great cold front and a NE wind which is PERFECT for this accessing this spot. and hunting the lower beds.I slipped in early in the afternoon and climb a good tree that should put me in the action. Well before dark I look behind me and there stands a nice eight point that had been bedded 40 yards from me the whole time! I nearly got a shot at him but never had the right chance for a clean shot. That evening I saw four more smaller bucks get up from their bed and got to watch the direction of travel.
-A few nights later we had the same wind and I go back. I wanted to setup farther out, closer to where I saw all of them travel but I just couldn't find a tree to get in, so I opted for my original tree. As I'm climbing, a limb falls from a tree 20 yards away from me and the second nice buck i'm after pops up out of his bed at 30 yards and walks right by me with my bow on the ground!!
-I hunted another area with no luck and gave the area a break for a while, but I knew with another NE wind where I was going, and this leads me to last night, October 10th
I skip work early and i'm on my way to the tree by 3:30. Plenty of time to get setup. I make the climb up the first hill and start up the second, 100 yards or so out from the tree I want to get in and I jump the buck i'm after! He was bedded in a spot I hadn't seen him use before. Luckily he didn't really spook, just trotted off toward the area I was going. As soon as he was out of sight I moved quickly to my tree and climbed up using two Muddy sticks. My thought was that he may come back and bed on the next transition edge and watch his back trail. And that was one guess I was dead on with.....not ten minutes into getting in the tree I hear something below me and here he comes! My bow was still on the ground and my pack with camera gear on my back. I quickly jerked the bow up the tree and got an arrow nocked.
He comes up the thick logging road and at 40 yards beds down! Now I am stuck in a super awkward leaning sideways position with all my body weight on one leg. After a few minutes he gets up and i'm thinking "this is it, i'm gonna get my shot!" He walks toward me and hits my opening under 30 yards and just as i'm about to release he beds down again!! So here I am, stuck in a terrible way in the saddle and he's facing me. Thank God the wind was perfect and he was calm. I was able to shift my weight around a little and relieve the pressure on my leg but it was still brutal. I hung like that for over 30 minutes just waiting for him to stand.
As agonizing as it was it was pretty awesome to watch this buck so close bedded down and how he tested the wind and looked at every little noise around him. At one point he reached back to lick himself and a small branch landed on his rack and that really annoyed him. It was at that point he stood to get that free from his antlers and gave me the chance I needed.
At 24 yards he was in my peep and I had the pin buried in front of his shoulder to account for the 1/4 angle toward me. This is a shot i've taken numerous times and was comfortable with it so I sent the arrow on it's way only to watch in horror as it hit way right of where I was aiming!! The arrow entered tight behind the shoulder and exited low and back. I watched him hunch up and slowly walk away about 80 yards.
After about ten minutes he bedded and I had to decide whether to try and sneak up on him or just leave. As hard as it was I decided I needed to just back out.
At 6:30am this morning I was back at the shot location extremely nervous about what I might find (or not find in this case). As it got light I started searching for blood and quickly realized there wasn't any! At that point it started raining as well and I just started searching in the heavy brush and grass for beds hoping to find him that way. After a couple hours of nothing I was really starting to doubt and the pouring rain wasn't helping my spirits either. Something was telling me I needed to push just a little farther from the last place I saw him so I started walking slowly, scanning every little hole and pocket of cover along the logging road. After 100 yards I looked to my left and was shocked to see a white belly and a rack!! I couldn't believe it!!
My shot was exactly like I thought it was and I don't think he had been dead for long. Looking back now I made the right decision to wait. I got him back to the house and quartered and luckily all the meat is fine!!
My tactics for this spot were aggressive but I knew with the hot temps I needed to be right in their bedroom and it paid off an another early season WV buck from the saddle!!
-I scouted this area out in March and found a great bedding area in a super thick, briar filled area that borders some hardwoods. This hillside sets up good for bedding up top on a SW wind and on any N wind they bed lower on the hardwoods/brush transition.
-In July I hung a camera on a main trail coming from the bedding area and was surprised to see a big bachelor group of bucks using this area and mostly in daylight.
-Come Mid Sept the group split and only a few of the original group stayed, two of which I deemed shooters
-Fast forward to September 30th, our opening day. We have a great cold front and a NE wind which is PERFECT for this accessing this spot. and hunting the lower beds.I slipped in early in the afternoon and climb a good tree that should put me in the action. Well before dark I look behind me and there stands a nice eight point that had been bedded 40 yards from me the whole time! I nearly got a shot at him but never had the right chance for a clean shot. That evening I saw four more smaller bucks get up from their bed and got to watch the direction of travel.
-A few nights later we had the same wind and I go back. I wanted to setup farther out, closer to where I saw all of them travel but I just couldn't find a tree to get in, so I opted for my original tree. As I'm climbing, a limb falls from a tree 20 yards away from me and the second nice buck i'm after pops up out of his bed at 30 yards and walks right by me with my bow on the ground!!
-I hunted another area with no luck and gave the area a break for a while, but I knew with another NE wind where I was going, and this leads me to last night, October 10th
I skip work early and i'm on my way to the tree by 3:30. Plenty of time to get setup. I make the climb up the first hill and start up the second, 100 yards or so out from the tree I want to get in and I jump the buck i'm after! He was bedded in a spot I hadn't seen him use before. Luckily he didn't really spook, just trotted off toward the area I was going. As soon as he was out of sight I moved quickly to my tree and climbed up using two Muddy sticks. My thought was that he may come back and bed on the next transition edge and watch his back trail. And that was one guess I was dead on with.....not ten minutes into getting in the tree I hear something below me and here he comes! My bow was still on the ground and my pack with camera gear on my back. I quickly jerked the bow up the tree and got an arrow nocked.
He comes up the thick logging road and at 40 yards beds down! Now I am stuck in a super awkward leaning sideways position with all my body weight on one leg. After a few minutes he gets up and i'm thinking "this is it, i'm gonna get my shot!" He walks toward me and hits my opening under 30 yards and just as i'm about to release he beds down again!! So here I am, stuck in a terrible way in the saddle and he's facing me. Thank God the wind was perfect and he was calm. I was able to shift my weight around a little and relieve the pressure on my leg but it was still brutal. I hung like that for over 30 minutes just waiting for him to stand.
As agonizing as it was it was pretty awesome to watch this buck so close bedded down and how he tested the wind and looked at every little noise around him. At one point he reached back to lick himself and a small branch landed on his rack and that really annoyed him. It was at that point he stood to get that free from his antlers and gave me the chance I needed.
At 24 yards he was in my peep and I had the pin buried in front of his shoulder to account for the 1/4 angle toward me. This is a shot i've taken numerous times and was comfortable with it so I sent the arrow on it's way only to watch in horror as it hit way right of where I was aiming!! The arrow entered tight behind the shoulder and exited low and back. I watched him hunch up and slowly walk away about 80 yards.
After about ten minutes he bedded and I had to decide whether to try and sneak up on him or just leave. As hard as it was I decided I needed to just back out.
At 6:30am this morning I was back at the shot location extremely nervous about what I might find (or not find in this case). As it got light I started searching for blood and quickly realized there wasn't any! At that point it started raining as well and I just started searching in the heavy brush and grass for beds hoping to find him that way. After a couple hours of nothing I was really starting to doubt and the pouring rain wasn't helping my spirits either. Something was telling me I needed to push just a little farther from the last place I saw him so I started walking slowly, scanning every little hole and pocket of cover along the logging road. After 100 yards I looked to my left and was shocked to see a white belly and a rack!! I couldn't believe it!!
My shot was exactly like I thought it was and I don't think he had been dead for long. Looking back now I made the right decision to wait. I got him back to the house and quartered and luckily all the meat is fine!!
My tactics for this spot were aggressive but I knew with the hot temps I needed to be right in their bedroom and it paid off an another early season WV buck from the saddle!!
