So fellow saddle hunters I’ll make this story as short as I can but there has been a lot happen during the past 3 seasons. Three seasons ago we purchased a new 38 acre farm which has very little timber on it but is surrounded by Ky foothill mountains behind me and big crop land bottoms across the road! After moving here and getting acquainted with the farmer neighbor I gained permission to hunt the lower end of his crop land along with a 30 acre tract of mountain behind me! I was pumped up, I started scouting, setting up cameras and putting out my own mineral sites! When the pictures started coming in there were some bucks that looked promising, so I kept working hard on feed with minerals and learning their patterns! I bought my son a new bow the first Christmas here and he had to go try it out, so first evening sit he kills a small buck, which was fine by me because he was extremely exited over his new bow and buck!
That season came to a close and I didn’t even hunt any deer here at all, the next season rolled around and I saw some bucks make some good jumps in size from the previous year. My son soon set his sights on a real nice 8 pointer that was coming regular during velvet. I watch the cameras close, wind direction and picked an evening for him to slip in for a hunt! Everything went perfect, about 30 minutes before dark his target buck walked right in 20 yards and he made a great shot, short recovery with a very happy dad and boy! That season I killed a nice buck in Ohio on public land and never caught up with any shooters at home. That brings us to our 3rd season here, with tons more mineral, feed and scouting we have now got some real nice mature bucks on camera. We picked up another farm down in the bottom land and my son shot a dandy buck back in early November there! I was still chasing one of the three shooters we had on camera at home. Our gun season opened up, I am strictly a bow hunter, so I continued hunting the rut gun season bow in hand! Nothing!!!!! Day after day after week nothing, all sightings were at night and some bucks have left altogether. Second week of gun season I learned that a neighbor boy across the mountain killed the biggest scoring buck I had on camera, 160”+. 12 point buck that I had named crab claw! Sad but happy for the young man that got him! So I have hunted my hide off this year for one of these older mature bucks and they have kicked my hide all season. Seems every day I wasn’t in there they showed up in the daylight, go figure! Finally we got some nasty weather, and there is one thing that I have learned about deer is that before and after bad weather gets deer on their feet! the last three days here the wind has blown 15 to 20 mph gust upwards of 50mph, rain, sleet and snow! I have been hunting every time we got a break in the weather I ran up a tree, I would set at one spot and they would show up at another! Just couldn’t catch a break! Finally this afternoon and setting on another farm this morning in 20+mph winds, the wind calmed, the sun came out and everything felt perfect. I had been hanging in my saddle about one hour and I hear deer feet in the leaves, look and here come two weanlings to the corn pile, one button and one doe fawn! I was busy watching them eat and play while videoing them and happen to look up and there stands one of my target bucks, a nice mature 9 pointer. He walks straight in giving me no shot and stands at the corn pile for seems like forever. Daylight is fading fast I need him to go left or right for a shot, he spooks at something, turns completely around with his but to me now, I draw and wait, finally he turns broadside back towards me, I settle the pin, squeeze the release and contact! It was getting so dark that I couldn’t tell for sure but looked like the shot may have been forward too much but he did give a big kick on impact! Being a preacher man and having church on Saturday night I just came down, went to the house, watch the footage in which I didn’t get the shot on film. So off to church we went, God gave me a good sermon on being kind to one another and loving our neighbor as ourself, after shaking hands with everyone we headed for home to start the track job! God smiles on me again, we had a great blood trail, tracked about 50 yards and there he was piled up! Very happy to have tagged this buck and to log another recovery with my son! Thanks for reading and God Bless to all!
2nd season buck
3rd season buck on the other farm!
My buck from this evening!
That season came to a close and I didn’t even hunt any deer here at all, the next season rolled around and I saw some bucks make some good jumps in size from the previous year. My son soon set his sights on a real nice 8 pointer that was coming regular during velvet. I watch the cameras close, wind direction and picked an evening for him to slip in for a hunt! Everything went perfect, about 30 minutes before dark his target buck walked right in 20 yards and he made a great shot, short recovery with a very happy dad and boy! That season I killed a nice buck in Ohio on public land and never caught up with any shooters at home. That brings us to our 3rd season here, with tons more mineral, feed and scouting we have now got some real nice mature bucks on camera. We picked up another farm down in the bottom land and my son shot a dandy buck back in early November there! I was still chasing one of the three shooters we had on camera at home. Our gun season opened up, I am strictly a bow hunter, so I continued hunting the rut gun season bow in hand! Nothing!!!!! Day after day after week nothing, all sightings were at night and some bucks have left altogether. Second week of gun season I learned that a neighbor boy across the mountain killed the biggest scoring buck I had on camera, 160”+. 12 point buck that I had named crab claw! Sad but happy for the young man that got him! So I have hunted my hide off this year for one of these older mature bucks and they have kicked my hide all season. Seems every day I wasn’t in there they showed up in the daylight, go figure! Finally we got some nasty weather, and there is one thing that I have learned about deer is that before and after bad weather gets deer on their feet! the last three days here the wind has blown 15 to 20 mph gust upwards of 50mph, rain, sleet and snow! I have been hunting every time we got a break in the weather I ran up a tree, I would set at one spot and they would show up at another! Just couldn’t catch a break! Finally this afternoon and setting on another farm this morning in 20+mph winds, the wind calmed, the sun came out and everything felt perfect. I had been hanging in my saddle about one hour and I hear deer feet in the leaves, look and here come two weanlings to the corn pile, one button and one doe fawn! I was busy watching them eat and play while videoing them and happen to look up and there stands one of my target bucks, a nice mature 9 pointer. He walks straight in giving me no shot and stands at the corn pile for seems like forever. Daylight is fading fast I need him to go left or right for a shot, he spooks at something, turns completely around with his but to me now, I draw and wait, finally he turns broadside back towards me, I settle the pin, squeeze the release and contact! It was getting so dark that I couldn’t tell for sure but looked like the shot may have been forward too much but he did give a big kick on impact! Being a preacher man and having church on Saturday night I just came down, went to the house, watch the footage in which I didn’t get the shot on film. So off to church we went, God gave me a good sermon on being kind to one another and loving our neighbor as ourself, after shaking hands with everyone we headed for home to start the track job! God smiles on me again, we had a great blood trail, tracked about 50 yards and there he was piled up! Very happy to have tagged this buck and to log another recovery with my son! Thanks for reading and God Bless to all!
2nd season buck
3rd season buck on the other farm!My buck from this evening!
