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Florida buck down! “Smoked a MONSTER”

Tufrthnails said:
That is a slick canoe setup. How long does the battery last on it. I run a yak for my water access point, but it can get really sketchy in big gator territory during dark time access and departure.
Click to expand...

Not certain, good for a solid 5 miles I’d say. It doesn’t die running down to my spot and back so it’s long enough, haha


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Last edited:
Alright, story time.

This is a little honey hole that I have, mostly gun hunted it before by slip hunting because it’s hard to find places for climbers and I rarely ever used lock ons. But this year, saddle to the rescue...

So I got home from a fire department sponsored swift water class last night. Was tired, but had been jonesing to get back on this stand all week. Opening day last Saturday had a deer blow at me in this spot. So I get the truck all loaded last night, stayed up a little, watching hunting public on YouTube, then bam, overslept (5am alarm)... wife wakes me up (6am) “aren’t you going hunting?” Ohhh ****, fly outta the house with just enough time to take a leak. Left funky breath and all and put the truck in the wind.

I contemplated a couple different spots to sit, and decided to go to where the deer busted me even though I had the same wind. It’s a pinch point and I was surprised last week that the deer got me with as stiff of a wind as we had. Milkweed was carrying a long way. So I decided I needed to move back just a little, talking about 30-40yards, that put me just far enough back in the pinch that I felt deer wouldn’t bust me.

It was just cracking light at the boat ramp. And the ride isn’t too far. But it was about 730 when I was walking into the spot. So as I’m slipping in, I spot a deer. Can’t tell what it was, just see body 25 yards away. Should have been right downwind so not sure why it didn’t blow out. Gave me time to nock an arrow and that was that, gone.

Little discouraged that I was late for at least one deer that would have come by, I went ahead and set up. Uneventful mostly, did have a small bobcat come right under me, with two even smaller youngins, pretty cool, took a little video.

So now it’s just after 10. Haven’t seen deer and can’t hear because of the wind. And all the sudden I notice this bush 20 yards from me shaking like crazy. I look up at tree tops to confirm it’s not THAT windy. As I glance back down I see the top of a rack, “shooter” instantly! This is a thick area so I still haven’t seen the deer, but had openings on both sides of where he was so I knew he was about to pop out left or right. He happened to be on my strong side, so I just leaned over a little. He stepped right out broadside and right into “Top pin alley”, started to quarter and was about to step back behind a few bushes and I talked him out of it... SHWACK! Shot looked and sounded good. He kicked and tore out hard. Thought I heard him crash but kinda sounded like he bent to the left as he ran off straight away from me. Got down and packed all my stuff to give him a little time. Went over to where he had been when I couldn’t see him and he had made a rub and scrape, there was a few fresh scrapes almost a month ago when we scouted as well. Rut is crazy timing around here, late Aug/early Sept next to my house, not sure exactly on this spot. Maybe close to a secondary rut, not sure. Anyways...Arrow looked great, plenty of bubbles. Didn’t have crazy good blood but it was walking blood, not crawling blood. After 60or so yards all the sudden I couldn’t find more blood, I was tunnel visioned and looking hard going straight and to the left, blood looked like it was going left, and in my head the deer went left. Looked left hard for about 10 minutes then walked back to my last blood spot kinda dumbfounded. Then felt like an idiot when he was laying 10 yards to the right of that last blood. I was so tunnel visioned on the blood and had it in my mind that he went left. Looked better at the last blood and noticed some splattered as high as 6 feet up the tree. So he obviously crashed hard and flipped to the right a few yards.

This was a solo trip, being a firefighter, a lot of my hunting buddies are working during the week. But got it done, layed out the tarp, quartered and packed him, loaded the boat, grabbed some food, and finally home and cooling in the A/C for a minute now. Bout to head back outside to unload it all, clean up the meat and I’ll be letting it chill for a few days in the cooler.

Glad I could share this story with y’all and good luck to everyone this season. Happy hunting!


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Ready for the boil pot
20bffc496ced5fc35f4619ba50b5738d.jpg



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That’s going to make for a beautiful euro mount!!


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shwacker said:
Alright, story time.

This is a little honey hole that I have, mostly gun hunted it before by slip hunting because it’s hard to find places for climbers and I rarely ever used lock ons. But this year, saddle to the rescue...

So I got home from a fire department sponsored swift water class last night. Was tired, but had been jonesing to get back on this stand all week. Opening day last Saturday had a deer blow at me in this spot. So I get the truck all loaded last night, stayed up a little, watching hunting public on YouTube, then bam, overslept (5am alarm)... wife wakes me up (6am) “aren’t you going hunting?” Ohhh ****, fly outta the house with just enough time to take a leak. Left funky breath and all and put the truck in the wind.

I contemplated a couple different spots to sit, and decided to go to where the deer busted me even though I had the same wind. It’s a pinch point and I was surprised last week that the deer got me with as stiff of a wind as we had. Milkweed was carrying a long way. So I decided I needed to move back just a little, talking about 30-40yards, that put me just far enough back in the pinch that I felt deer wouldn’t bust me.

It was just cracking light at the boat ramp. And the ride isn’t too far. But it was about 730 when I was walking into the spot. So as I’m slipping in, I spot a deer. Can’t tell what it was, just see body 25 yards away. Should have been right downwind so not sure why it didn’t blow out. Gave me time to nock an arrow and that was that, gone.

Little discouraged that I was late for at least one deer that would have come by, I went ahead and set up. Uneventful mostly, did have a small bobcat come right under me, with two even smaller youngins, pretty cool, took a little video.

So now it’s just after 10. Haven’t seen deer and can’t hear because of the wind. And all the sudden I notice this bush 20 yards from me shaking like crazy. I look up at tree tops to confirm it’s not THAT windy. As I glance back down I see the top of a rack, “shooter” instantly! This is a thick area so I still haven’t seen the deer, but had openings on both sides of where he was so I knew he was about to pop out left or right. He happened to be on my strong side, so I just leaned over a little. He stepped right out broadside and right into “Top pin alley”, started to quarter and was about to step back behind a few bushes and I talked him out of it... SHWACK! Shot looked and sounded good. He kicked and tore out hard. Thought I heard him crash but kinda sounded like he bent to the left as he ran off straight away from me. Got down and packed all my stuff to give him a little time. Went over to where he had been when I couldn’t see him and he had made a rub and scrape, there was a few fresh scrapes almost a month ago when we scouted as well. Rut is crazy timing around here, late Aug/early Sept next to my house, not sure exactly on this spot. Maybe close to a secondary rut, not sure. Anyways...Arrow looked great, plenty of bubbles. Didn’t have crazy good blood but it was walking blood, not crawling blood. After 60or so yards all the sudden I couldn’t find more blood, I was tunnel visioned and looking hard going straight and to the left, blood looked like it was going left, and in my head the deer went left. Looked left hard for about 10 minutes then walked back to my last blood spot kinda dumbfounded. Then felt like an idiot when he was laying 10 yards to the right of that last blood. I was so tunnel visioned on the blood and had it in my mind that he went left. Looked better at the last blood and noticed some splattered as high as 6 feet up the tree. So he obviously crashed hard and flipped to the right a few yards.

This was a solo trip, being a firefighter, a lot of my hunting buddies are working during the week. But got it done, layed out the tarp, quartered and packed him, loaded the boat, grabbed some food, and finally home and cooling in the A/C for a minute now. Bout to head back outside to unload it all, clean up the meat and I’ll be letting it chill for a few days in the cooler.

Glad I could share this story with y’all and good luck to everyone this season. Happy hunting!


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Click to expand...

Great story, thanks for telling!
 
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