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- Sep 19, 2014
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Just last Monday I tagged a great buck in Ohio and was thrilled to finally have my luck turn around. I had to work all week and was excited to get back out in WV today even though I had done no scouting and didn't have anything to go off of really. I had a cell cam on a thick ridgetop over a scrape and had one blurry picture of a buck during the night but that was it. My plan for this afternoon was to retrieve that camera and check out another area for sign and setup if I thought it looked good. At 1pm I grabbed the cam and made my way to the next ridge and quickly found some fresh rubs and a few scrapes. I walked a little farther and found more rubs and three scrapes all in a 30 yard circle. All the sign was on an old logging road intersection where the road coming up the side of the ridge met with the top. I had a SW wind which I figured would put the buck down over the ridge in the direction the road was running. I picked a tree downwind of that road and setup. I really didn't put much thought into it, honestly :lol:
At 2pm I saw a lone doe about 100 yards away and it was quiet after that. At around 4pm a small six point bumped some does out of the bedding below me and they went out the ridge away from me, never getting closer than 80 yards. At 5:15 I filmed a little interview on the camera saying how my archery season was pretty much over and how I looked forward to some rifle hunting. Honestly I thought the hunt was over and I was starting to think about packing up. Wouldn't ya know it, just about then I heard steady footsteps walking my way, not from the bedding area, but from the ridgetop to my left. I look down the logging road and see antlers. Nice ones! :shock: I quickly grabbed my bow and got the camera on and in a few seconds he was working the scrape I had set up over at 17 yards. He turned broadside and I took my time and squeezed the shot off and watched the arrow hit exactly where I aimed. He took a few jumps, stopped and fell over! Dead in 15 yards! :dance:
Needless to say I freaked out :lol: I was excited! The hunt literally couldn't have been more perfect. He must have been bedded up on top of the ridge on the edge of the thick stuff. This doesn't surprise me because the does bed all over the place and I'm sure he was keeping tabs on them.
I'm thrilled to kill my first WV buck this year and I got it done in the knick of time before the rifle opener Monday! This makes my third buck in three states this year!
At 2pm I saw a lone doe about 100 yards away and it was quiet after that. At around 4pm a small six point bumped some does out of the bedding below me and they went out the ridge away from me, never getting closer than 80 yards. At 5:15 I filmed a little interview on the camera saying how my archery season was pretty much over and how I looked forward to some rifle hunting. Honestly I thought the hunt was over and I was starting to think about packing up. Wouldn't ya know it, just about then I heard steady footsteps walking my way, not from the bedding area, but from the ridgetop to my left. I look down the logging road and see antlers. Nice ones! :shock: I quickly grabbed my bow and got the camera on and in a few seconds he was working the scrape I had set up over at 17 yards. He turned broadside and I took my time and squeezed the shot off and watched the arrow hit exactly where I aimed. He took a few jumps, stopped and fell over! Dead in 15 yards! :dance:
Needless to say I freaked out :lol: I was excited! The hunt literally couldn't have been more perfect. He must have been bedded up on top of the ridge on the edge of the thick stuff. This doesn't surprise me because the does bed all over the place and I'm sure he was keeping tabs on them.
I'm thrilled to kill my first WV buck this year and I got it done in the knick of time before the rifle opener Monday! This makes my third buck in three states this year!
