This journey starts December 2013. My fiancé Kayla and I, were sitting in a tower blind overlooking a pipeline ROW. It was a frosty, clear, high pressure morning, and we had the Tikka T3 270wsm in hand, hunting for Kay's first deer. It was an eventful hunt. A doe had come into late estrous and we watched a parade of young bucks chase her back and forth up and down the right of way. Around 930 the action had turned to an occasional bird or rabbit. We were packing up to leave and I made one last scan as a buck popped out of the brush 40 yards away. He was a pretty 8 that I assumed was 2.5. Immediately Kayla perked up as the buck made his way to the feeder. I judged him through the binos and gave her the thumbs down. I noticed her wilt, but this deer had a huge frame for his age and had two noticeable bumps on his bases. They weren't what I would call points but you could hang rings on them if he held his head right. After he mozied on off we had a management talk and agreed to kill monster bucks you had to let good young ones go. The season ended without another sighting of that deer but the image was filed away in my brain.
September of 2014 camera card pulled showed a mainframe 10 with two kickers above his bases. He looked like a 3yo and at the time I didn't connect the dots. We had a few pictures of that deer and Mid October he cruised by my dads stand. He kinda got my dads heart pumping, and we all hoped he would make it to 2015. We didn't see him or have any pictures of him after that mid October day. Naturally we expected the worst.
2015 rolled around and we didn't have high hopes for the season, but again in September a nice frame 10 point started showing at the pipeline. Kayla was a bow hunter now and I knew this deer was a 4yo that she would really be proud of, so I reluctantly gave her the green light. We figured he would be a 120s deer and he showed up at the pipeline a few times a week for the whole season, but never showed himself for Kay. The season ended with pictures of him and a boar eating under the pipeline feeder and I was excited to see what another year would bring him.
A couple of months before the 2016 season we were able to pick up extra acreage as our landowners other hunters moved on to greener pastures. We set up two new stands and my stand was by an old Uranium mine. Our land owner told us that's where the old bucks live. My brother and I flipped a coin for first stand choice and I won. I will hunt in the back by the mine.
We got the new tripods set up late summer and on opening morning of bow season I was walking up to my stand around 0615. We hadn't had a chance to check the camera yet so I was going in blind. It was agood morning. I saw 8 different bucks that morning and 2 does. On my way out of the stand I pulled the card an was surprised at what I saw. Almost every afternoon a big mainframe 10 with a 2.5" kicker above his base was underneath the feeder. I was devestated when I saw he was waiting at the feeder at 615 that morning when I walked up. I blew it. I bumped him out of there. I started getting to the stand 1.5 hours before sunrise and about 2pm in the afternoon. I hunted hard the the buck continued to show up on camera until October 20th. Then he disappeared and I was worried. I hunted through the pre rut with no sign of him anywhere. Finally the tables turned on November 21, 2016.
We were driving to the pipeline to put the card in the camera around noon. All of our gear was packed up in the truck, bows, clothes, coolers, everything. On our drive we saw a doe run up to the fenceline and standing behind her was the big ten. They turned back for the brush and I told Kayla that had to be him. We hurried over to the pipeline and I threw the card in the camera as my mind was racing. I asked Kayla if she wanted to try and rattle him up and we both figured we had nothing to lose. We raced back to camp unloaded our clothes, bows, and rattling horns. We snuck in down wind of a tank that was 200 yards from where he was with the doe and in the direction they headed. My initial plan was to sit on a bluff looking over the tank, but as we were getting setup on the bluff out busted the doe with three bucks hot on her tail. They cut her in and out of the thicket and she bolted across the road into a thicket on the north side of the tank.
We scurried over and set up in a mixture of cedars and mesquites on the tank dame. I was so excited and tunnel visioned that I didn't realize the wind was completly wrong for this setup. Kayla sat behind me, my bow sat by my side and I slammed the horns together still oblivious to the wind. I rattled for about 2-3 minutes when I Heard " Josh, Josh, Josh" I set the horns down and reached for my bow seconds too late. Straight in front of me at 18 yards were the 3 bucks. My hand was on my bow grip and I couldn't move! All three bucks were staring our direction. That's about the time I felt the wind hit me on the back of my neck. Seconds later he bolted white tail waving at me as he went back into the brush. We didn't see him or have pictures of him again until January 13, 2017. He was back at the uranium mine looking extremely poor.
I tried to keep the protein feeder filled to the best of my ability during the off season and he setup his home base in that area by the mine
In the summer I set up a krivoman blind to help contain my scent. He became a lot more visible coming to the feeder morning and afternoon all September. We connected all the dots from previous years and found the game cam pics tracking him all the way back to 2014. That's when I realized he was the base kicker 10 and the buck I made Kayla pass up in 2013. October rolled around and he diassappeared on October 3. We finally got pics of him a mile away in the middle of the night on October 17 then again by the mine on November 17th and 18th.
I didn't plan on taking off Friday December 22 off work but Kayla talked me into it. We both wanted to go hunting. It was raining Friday morning when my alarm went off and Kay elected to stay in the warm camper. I got dressed and got to the stand early. The rain was fading in and out from a drizzle to a rain and I kept the windows closed in my krivoman blind until the sky got gray. I opened the middle window and could make out a couple bodies waiting for the feeder to go off. I got out the binos and began the process of glass for a few seconds, defog, glass, defog, glass, defog. Finally I went through this process enough to see it was a couple of the regular young bucks. I sat for a few minutes and scanned the brush behind the feeder to see if they were accompanied by any bigger bucks. That's when a deer under the feeder raised his head. Whoa!... Defog. I glassed him again and sent the text to my dad, brother, and Kayla " He is here!" Now we wait. It wasn't light enough to shoot in the blind yet. I started to visualize the shot and talked myself through it.
At 0730 I took the bow off the hanger rested it on my knee. Still not enough light. I opened one of the side windows slowly and it let out a light creak. Dang it! He looked at the blind and went back to eating. I sat silently like a statue for a few minutes. He fed while facing the blind keeping an eye on me. I clipped the release on the loop and waited for my opportunity. Finally at 743, 29.4 yards I drew. He took one step to open up his vitals and I sent it. Perfect shot he ran twenty yards and stopped. What the heck? Was it perfect ? Then I saw the blood coming from the pump house as he got wobbly legged. Down he went! Followed by a text to the group, " I freaking smoked him",
I scored him at 143 2/8. 6 years old and my biggest to date!
September of 2014 camera card pulled showed a mainframe 10 with two kickers above his bases. He looked like a 3yo and at the time I didn't connect the dots. We had a few pictures of that deer and Mid October he cruised by my dads stand. He kinda got my dads heart pumping, and we all hoped he would make it to 2015. We didn't see him or have any pictures of him after that mid October day. Naturally we expected the worst.
2015 rolled around and we didn't have high hopes for the season, but again in September a nice frame 10 point started showing at the pipeline. Kayla was a bow hunter now and I knew this deer was a 4yo that she would really be proud of, so I reluctantly gave her the green light. We figured he would be a 120s deer and he showed up at the pipeline a few times a week for the whole season, but never showed himself for Kay. The season ended with pictures of him and a boar eating under the pipeline feeder and I was excited to see what another year would bring him.
A couple of months before the 2016 season we were able to pick up extra acreage as our landowners other hunters moved on to greener pastures. We set up two new stands and my stand was by an old Uranium mine. Our land owner told us that's where the old bucks live. My brother and I flipped a coin for first stand choice and I won. I will hunt in the back by the mine.
We got the new tripods set up late summer and on opening morning of bow season I was walking up to my stand around 0615. We hadn't had a chance to check the camera yet so I was going in blind. It was agood morning. I saw 8 different bucks that morning and 2 does. On my way out of the stand I pulled the card an was surprised at what I saw. Almost every afternoon a big mainframe 10 with a 2.5" kicker above his base was underneath the feeder. I was devestated when I saw he was waiting at the feeder at 615 that morning when I walked up. I blew it. I bumped him out of there. I started getting to the stand 1.5 hours before sunrise and about 2pm in the afternoon. I hunted hard the the buck continued to show up on camera until October 20th. Then he disappeared and I was worried. I hunted through the pre rut with no sign of him anywhere. Finally the tables turned on November 21, 2016.
We were driving to the pipeline to put the card in the camera around noon. All of our gear was packed up in the truck, bows, clothes, coolers, everything. On our drive we saw a doe run up to the fenceline and standing behind her was the big ten. They turned back for the brush and I told Kayla that had to be him. We hurried over to the pipeline and I threw the card in the camera as my mind was racing. I asked Kayla if she wanted to try and rattle him up and we both figured we had nothing to lose. We raced back to camp unloaded our clothes, bows, and rattling horns. We snuck in down wind of a tank that was 200 yards from where he was with the doe and in the direction they headed. My initial plan was to sit on a bluff looking over the tank, but as we were getting setup on the bluff out busted the doe with three bucks hot on her tail. They cut her in and out of the thicket and she bolted across the road into a thicket on the north side of the tank.
We scurried over and set up in a mixture of cedars and mesquites on the tank dame. I was so excited and tunnel visioned that I didn't realize the wind was completly wrong for this setup. Kayla sat behind me, my bow sat by my side and I slammed the horns together still oblivious to the wind. I rattled for about 2-3 minutes when I Heard " Josh, Josh, Josh" I set the horns down and reached for my bow seconds too late. Straight in front of me at 18 yards were the 3 bucks. My hand was on my bow grip and I couldn't move! All three bucks were staring our direction. That's about the time I felt the wind hit me on the back of my neck. Seconds later he bolted white tail waving at me as he went back into the brush. We didn't see him or have pictures of him again until January 13, 2017. He was back at the uranium mine looking extremely poor.
I tried to keep the protein feeder filled to the best of my ability during the off season and he setup his home base in that area by the mine
In the summer I set up a krivoman blind to help contain my scent. He became a lot more visible coming to the feeder morning and afternoon all September. We connected all the dots from previous years and found the game cam pics tracking him all the way back to 2014. That's when I realized he was the base kicker 10 and the buck I made Kayla pass up in 2013. October rolled around and he diassappeared on October 3. We finally got pics of him a mile away in the middle of the night on October 17 then again by the mine on November 17th and 18th.
I didn't plan on taking off Friday December 22 off work but Kayla talked me into it. We both wanted to go hunting. It was raining Friday morning when my alarm went off and Kay elected to stay in the warm camper. I got dressed and got to the stand early. The rain was fading in and out from a drizzle to a rain and I kept the windows closed in my krivoman blind until the sky got gray. I opened the middle window and could make out a couple bodies waiting for the feeder to go off. I got out the binos and began the process of glass for a few seconds, defog, glass, defog, glass, defog. Finally I went through this process enough to see it was a couple of the regular young bucks. I sat for a few minutes and scanned the brush behind the feeder to see if they were accompanied by any bigger bucks. That's when a deer under the feeder raised his head. Whoa!... Defog. I glassed him again and sent the text to my dad, brother, and Kayla " He is here!" Now we wait. It wasn't light enough to shoot in the blind yet. I started to visualize the shot and talked myself through it.
At 0730 I took the bow off the hanger rested it on my knee. Still not enough light. I opened one of the side windows slowly and it let out a light creak. Dang it! He looked at the blind and went back to eating. I sat silently like a statue for a few minutes. He fed while facing the blind keeping an eye on me. I clipped the release on the loop and waited for my opportunity. Finally at 743, 29.4 yards I drew. He took one step to open up his vitals and I sent it. Perfect shot he ran twenty yards and stopped. What the heck? Was it perfect ? Then I saw the blood coming from the pump house as he got wobbly legged. Down he went! Followed by a text to the group, " I freaking smoked him",
I scored him at 143 2/8. 6 years old and my biggest to date!
Comment