Kind of a slow Tuesday night so here's a deer story.
This deer first showed up on camera in late November. I got this one single picture of him and it wasn't very good.
We were looking for bucks to add to the cull list and the ranch owner said if I thought he was old enough, go ahead and shoot him. I named him MF Stubby (MF because after that he disappeared for a month and ended up being a pita to hunt
.)
In late December he started showing up again on camera again but only at night and I'd usually just get one picture of him at a time. He continued to be somewhat of an elusive buck. It seemed he was cruising through at odd hours, picking up a kernel or two of corn and moving on.
I took a couple weeks off for the holidays and returned to the ranch in early January. I was glad to see Stubby showing up on camera more regularly and during daylight hours. He wasn't there every day but he was coming in every 2-3 days. I guessed him to be 4.5...possibly 5. He seemed to travel with other 5-6 year old bucks. His short tines and beams were certainly not characteristics this ranch was managing for and I knew if we just put enough time in eventually someone would have an encounter with him.
The problem was this particular blind wasn't good in a north wind and there were so many days we couldn't hunt that spot because of the wind. Then I got the flu and the only hunting I did for several days was from the kitchen window. Even when I felt well enough to get out of the house my cough made it impossible to sit in a bow blind with deer at close range.
We had hammered the bucks pretty hard and MF Stubby was the last hit list buck remaining on that side of the ranch. And we had yet to see him in person.
One evening when we had a north wind and I was still struggling with a cough, I sat in tower blind on a pipeline r.o.w. where I could corn 300 yards and rifle hunt. I caught a glimpse of a deer I felt almost positive was MF Stubby crossing the pipeline with two other mature bucks. They went straight across without stopping. I thought they might come back out later, but I didn't see them again.
A couple days later, the wind finally got right and I felt like I could sit in a bow blind without hacking up a lung. According to the trail cam, Stubby hadn't been at his usual spot in two days so I felt he was due to make an appearance. I had a couple young bucks come in right after the feeder went off but they were gone by 4:30 and it got dead quiet. By 5:45 I was convinced I wasn't going to see anything else.
I had about 5 minutes of shooting light left and two bucks slipped in from the right. They were like ghosts just floating over the dead leaves. I never heard them coming. The second buck I immediately realized was MF Stubby.
I drew my bow and he presented me with a perfect quartering away shot. At the shot, I heard two loud cracks. The first was the Slick Trick slamming in to his ribcage. The second was his opposite leg breaking as he wheeled away. He only made it 40 yards before piling up.
Everything finally came together...right wind, right place, right time. Though somewhat of a small-bodied deer, his teeth showed 5.5 and he scored 115 and change.
The hard to find bucks are always the most fun to hunt and I definitely enjoyed hunting for this deer, even though he's not much to look at in the antlers department. If I didn't already have a bunch of other animals at the taxidermist he would have been honored with a shoulder mount.
This deer first showed up on camera in late November. I got this one single picture of him and it wasn't very good.
We were looking for bucks to add to the cull list and the ranch owner said if I thought he was old enough, go ahead and shoot him. I named him MF Stubby (MF because after that he disappeared for a month and ended up being a pita to hunt
.)In late December he started showing up again on camera again but only at night and I'd usually just get one picture of him at a time. He continued to be somewhat of an elusive buck. It seemed he was cruising through at odd hours, picking up a kernel or two of corn and moving on.
I took a couple weeks off for the holidays and returned to the ranch in early January. I was glad to see Stubby showing up on camera more regularly and during daylight hours. He wasn't there every day but he was coming in every 2-3 days. I guessed him to be 4.5...possibly 5. He seemed to travel with other 5-6 year old bucks. His short tines and beams were certainly not characteristics this ranch was managing for and I knew if we just put enough time in eventually someone would have an encounter with him.
The problem was this particular blind wasn't good in a north wind and there were so many days we couldn't hunt that spot because of the wind. Then I got the flu and the only hunting I did for several days was from the kitchen window. Even when I felt well enough to get out of the house my cough made it impossible to sit in a bow blind with deer at close range.
We had hammered the bucks pretty hard and MF Stubby was the last hit list buck remaining on that side of the ranch. And we had yet to see him in person.
One evening when we had a north wind and I was still struggling with a cough, I sat in tower blind on a pipeline r.o.w. where I could corn 300 yards and rifle hunt. I caught a glimpse of a deer I felt almost positive was MF Stubby crossing the pipeline with two other mature bucks. They went straight across without stopping. I thought they might come back out later, but I didn't see them again.
A couple days later, the wind finally got right and I felt like I could sit in a bow blind without hacking up a lung. According to the trail cam, Stubby hadn't been at his usual spot in two days so I felt he was due to make an appearance. I had a couple young bucks come in right after the feeder went off but they were gone by 4:30 and it got dead quiet. By 5:45 I was convinced I wasn't going to see anything else.
I had about 5 minutes of shooting light left and two bucks slipped in from the right. They were like ghosts just floating over the dead leaves. I never heard them coming. The second buck I immediately realized was MF Stubby.
I drew my bow and he presented me with a perfect quartering away shot. At the shot, I heard two loud cracks. The first was the Slick Trick slamming in to his ribcage. The second was his opposite leg breaking as he wheeled away. He only made it 40 yards before piling up.
Everything finally came together...right wind, right place, right time. Though somewhat of a small-bodied deer, his teeth showed 5.5 and he scored 115 and change.
The hard to find bucks are always the most fun to hunt and I definitely enjoyed hunting for this deer, even though he's not much to look at in the antlers department. If I didn't already have a bunch of other animals at the taxidermist he would have been honored with a shoulder mount.
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