I got lucky this past Friday morning when this pig of a buck stepped into my shooting lane. Up to this point I hadn’t had but two previous sits, opening morning and this past Wednesday. I’m set up about 250 yards from the nearest corn feeder and some 350 yards from the closest protein station. He’s been pretty regular at both and knew it would only be a matter of time before he took a liking to my hand corn.
After almost a month of not being able to hunt my schedule finally allowed for a Wednesday morning escape. From previous TC pics I knew there were several big bodied bucks in the area and was hoping my luck would allow one of them to show. My brother dropped me off about 20 minutes before first light. It wasn’t long before I could hear crunching followed by moving shadows appearing as the brush slowly came to light. There was one very large shadow that stood out from the rest. When I was finally able to make him out I realized it was the big bodied 8 that had been pounding the protein and devouring our corn. He was on the hit list so I grabbed my bow and waited for enough shooting light. I couldn’t believe how big of a body this guy had. At one point I found myself second guessing his distance. I remember telling myself there is no way that deer is 20 yards, it looked more like 15. Nope, ranged him at 21 yards. So there he stood feeding on my hand corn, everything going just as planned. Finally when I had enough light to shoot I lifted my bow and as luck would have it a young 4.5 10 point stepped right behind him. Not two minutes went by when the fat 8 decided to walk out of my lane, not returning to feed the rest of the morning. I enjoyed the rest of the sit and got some great video of the nice young 10. A few pics from the video.
Thursday had to work but knew I would have all day Friday & Saturday morning at a chance at this deer. As I drove to the lease Thursday night I remember telling myself, if this big dude walks out I’m just gonna pass and wait till I have somebody with me on Saturday morning. I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot two other big bodied bucks (240+), both times being at the ranch all alone. Both times I swore it would be the last time I put myself through that. When I got to the ranch I noticed two other members had already arrived and were signed in. I thought, Well, at least I’m not here completely alone. That’s all it took for the butterflies to kick in. I had “the feeling” that the buck was going to show the following morning. That night I got very little sleep and 4:30am came about 2 ½ hours after I’d finally passed out. Got myself ready to start the feed route and was out the door a few minutes after 5am. Had a few layers of cloths with me as temperature was in the low 40’s when I left camp. The further I got from camp the colder it kept getting. When I finally made it to my first stop, 20 minute drive on opposite end of the ranch, I knew I would not have enough cloths to stay warm. Here is what I saw.
Of course my best of buds, The Buddy Heater, had been left comfortably sitting at home. Didn’t think I would need him this early in the season. I corned the blind and was then faced with the following predicament. I can complete the feed route, make it to my blind on time and freeze my butt off. Or, I can go back to camp get a few more layers and drive straight to my blind and ignore the rest of the feed route. No brainer, I need to stay warm. When all was said and done I was settled in and ready at 6:44am. Once again the big shadows slowly began moving as first light slowly peeked through. Again, the fat 8 showed bright and early and fed on my hand corn, this time quartering too me. There he stood for about 30 minutes (no buck behind him) feeding, but never offering me a shot. (By this time I was very thankful I had decided to go back to camp for more layers, it was cold!) All of a sudden, again, here comes the 4.5 10pt. This time fat 8 didn’t want him around and ran him off. When he came back around, there he was standing perfectly broad side at 21 yards. I grabbed my bow (which was also freezing cold) and got ready for the shot. By this time he was quartering away, perfect. I drew, settled my 20 yard pin and hit the release. Heard the Thwack and watched him donkey kick out of sight leaving with my arrow sticking out of him. Man it felt good to hit that release! Checked the time (8am) and reviewed the video. Everything looked great, except I couldn’t tell exactly how much penetration I had got. Only took a few minutes for the deer to circle back around and keep feeding in my shooting lanes. Had an older, small framed, 10 feeding some 30 yards out for pretty much the rest of the morning. Just to be safe, I decided I would wait till all the deer funneled out before I would go and take a look. 1.5 hrs later deer were still feeding. It was starting to warm up and I just had to go take a look. Whistled a few times and there the deer went. I knew I didn’t get a pass through and on the quartering away shot was expecting to find very little blood. Before I picked up the trail I got on one knee, said my hunting prayer and asked my Grandpa, TD & Blaine to guide me to my deer. I had lost a big bodied buck last year and wanted all the help I could get to avoid the repeat. To my surprise the GrizzTrick left a solid trail. About 100 yards into it I see my arrow sticking out of the buffelgrass. After a very deep breath, a sign of relief finally crept through my body. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous the entire track. As I approached I couldn’t believe it, there laid a beast.
Now to get him out of the brush. Took me close to an hour to drag this guy 60 yards to a newly cut seismic road. (A few times I found myself walking back to the truck to get a drink of water and rest up a bit)
I wasn’t even going to attempt to get him on the truck alone. Went back to camp and asked one of the other members for a hand. Got him loaded up and off to camp to see exactly how big this fatboy was. I knew he was big, but not 265lbs. big! He ended up dressing at 215lbs. What a freakin Beast! Got him in the cooler and didn’t get any LDP’s till the following day. A breakfast Victory Beer was in order. I wanted nothing to do with loading, unloading and reloading this guy in the truck, at least not for the remainder of the day.
Finally, LDP’s
When I finally got to skinning him I couldn’t believe his fat content. Felt like I was skinning a boar. He had over 2” of solid fat in some areas.
Look at those back straps!
Thanks for reading along, hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed the hunt.
-Dan
After almost a month of not being able to hunt my schedule finally allowed for a Wednesday morning escape. From previous TC pics I knew there were several big bodied bucks in the area and was hoping my luck would allow one of them to show. My brother dropped me off about 20 minutes before first light. It wasn’t long before I could hear crunching followed by moving shadows appearing as the brush slowly came to light. There was one very large shadow that stood out from the rest. When I was finally able to make him out I realized it was the big bodied 8 that had been pounding the protein and devouring our corn. He was on the hit list so I grabbed my bow and waited for enough shooting light. I couldn’t believe how big of a body this guy had. At one point I found myself second guessing his distance. I remember telling myself there is no way that deer is 20 yards, it looked more like 15. Nope, ranged him at 21 yards. So there he stood feeding on my hand corn, everything going just as planned. Finally when I had enough light to shoot I lifted my bow and as luck would have it a young 4.5 10 point stepped right behind him. Not two minutes went by when the fat 8 decided to walk out of my lane, not returning to feed the rest of the morning. I enjoyed the rest of the sit and got some great video of the nice young 10. A few pics from the video.
Thursday had to work but knew I would have all day Friday & Saturday morning at a chance at this deer. As I drove to the lease Thursday night I remember telling myself, if this big dude walks out I’m just gonna pass and wait till I have somebody with me on Saturday morning. I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot two other big bodied bucks (240+), both times being at the ranch all alone. Both times I swore it would be the last time I put myself through that. When I got to the ranch I noticed two other members had already arrived and were signed in. I thought, Well, at least I’m not here completely alone. That’s all it took for the butterflies to kick in. I had “the feeling” that the buck was going to show the following morning. That night I got very little sleep and 4:30am came about 2 ½ hours after I’d finally passed out. Got myself ready to start the feed route and was out the door a few minutes after 5am. Had a few layers of cloths with me as temperature was in the low 40’s when I left camp. The further I got from camp the colder it kept getting. When I finally made it to my first stop, 20 minute drive on opposite end of the ranch, I knew I would not have enough cloths to stay warm. Here is what I saw.
Of course my best of buds, The Buddy Heater, had been left comfortably sitting at home. Didn’t think I would need him this early in the season. I corned the blind and was then faced with the following predicament. I can complete the feed route, make it to my blind on time and freeze my butt off. Or, I can go back to camp get a few more layers and drive straight to my blind and ignore the rest of the feed route. No brainer, I need to stay warm. When all was said and done I was settled in and ready at 6:44am. Once again the big shadows slowly began moving as first light slowly peeked through. Again, the fat 8 showed bright and early and fed on my hand corn, this time quartering too me. There he stood for about 30 minutes (no buck behind him) feeding, but never offering me a shot. (By this time I was very thankful I had decided to go back to camp for more layers, it was cold!) All of a sudden, again, here comes the 4.5 10pt. This time fat 8 didn’t want him around and ran him off. When he came back around, there he was standing perfectly broad side at 21 yards. I grabbed my bow (which was also freezing cold) and got ready for the shot. By this time he was quartering away, perfect. I drew, settled my 20 yard pin and hit the release. Heard the Thwack and watched him donkey kick out of sight leaving with my arrow sticking out of him. Man it felt good to hit that release! Checked the time (8am) and reviewed the video. Everything looked great, except I couldn’t tell exactly how much penetration I had got. Only took a few minutes for the deer to circle back around and keep feeding in my shooting lanes. Had an older, small framed, 10 feeding some 30 yards out for pretty much the rest of the morning. Just to be safe, I decided I would wait till all the deer funneled out before I would go and take a look. 1.5 hrs later deer were still feeding. It was starting to warm up and I just had to go take a look. Whistled a few times and there the deer went. I knew I didn’t get a pass through and on the quartering away shot was expecting to find very little blood. Before I picked up the trail I got on one knee, said my hunting prayer and asked my Grandpa, TD & Blaine to guide me to my deer. I had lost a big bodied buck last year and wanted all the help I could get to avoid the repeat. To my surprise the GrizzTrick left a solid trail. About 100 yards into it I see my arrow sticking out of the buffelgrass. After a very deep breath, a sign of relief finally crept through my body. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous the entire track. As I approached I couldn’t believe it, there laid a beast.
Now to get him out of the brush. Took me close to an hour to drag this guy 60 yards to a newly cut seismic road. (A few times I found myself walking back to the truck to get a drink of water and rest up a bit)
I wasn’t even going to attempt to get him on the truck alone. Went back to camp and asked one of the other members for a hand. Got him loaded up and off to camp to see exactly how big this fatboy was. I knew he was big, but not 265lbs. big! He ended up dressing at 215lbs. What a freakin Beast! Got him in the cooler and didn’t get any LDP’s till the following day. A breakfast Victory Beer was in order. I wanted nothing to do with loading, unloading and reloading this guy in the truck, at least not for the remainder of the day.
Finally, LDP’s
When I finally got to skinning him I couldn’t believe his fat content. Felt like I was skinning a boar. He had over 2” of solid fat in some areas.
Look at those back straps!
Thanks for reading along, hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed the hunt.
-Dan
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