This weekend was a special one! Hagerman now has a special place in my heart. 6 years or so ago I was picked for the turkey hunt and visited Hagerman for the very first time. I knew on that hunt that I needed to put in for the deer hunt. When driving into the Refuge for the first time, it was magical. Deer everywhere! Fast forward to last year when I was drawn for segment A. I spent some time in Meyers and was set on hunting there. Then the flood came and the hunt was postponed to 2019, and they were rotating the units. Big Mineral became open and I knew I needed to spend some time there search for some spots. This years draw one of my customers and really good friends got drawn for segment A. He didn’t have any time to scout and I offered to scout for him. Found some spots in BM for us and knew we needed to get to them quick on Thursday to make sure we were first in the area. Sure enough we were! Luckily we set my buddies stand first because there were 2 guys that wanted that same spot! We quickly moved to mine and I was pretty much by myself in my area. While hanging my stand we had 3 does within 40 yards of us and they didn’t care that we were there. It had me super excited and confident that I’d see deer come Friday morning. Well first thing Friday my buddy had slung an arrow at a nice 8, but just grazed him. Friday I had a small fork horn come in from behind me eating acorns and then he found a hot doe, and started chasing her around my area for 20 minutes. Then a super big 8 point came down the same trail from behind me and ran that 4 point off, and took over the chasing of the doe. He chased her in figure 8’s around my area for 40 minutes, but never offered a shot. They moved off and a 9 or 10 point came in. He ate acorns for a few minutes until he caught that trail from the doe and then off he went in the direction she was chased. The 8 point would have went around 130-140 and was super heavy, almost black antlers, and a gray coat. Super cool buck! The 10 was probably in the 125 range and a touch young.
A couple hours go by and a dark big bodied deer appears in front of me in the thicket. I tried pulling the binos up on him, but couldn’t make out what he was. I knew it was a decent buck, but wasn’t sure how big. A couple minutes go by as he made his way straight at me through the thicket. As he made his final steps into the opening in front of me he turned his head to get through the tight trees with his wide rack. I knew at that point he was a giant! He picked up a couple of white oak acorns and turned his head to my right, and showed off his impressive typical rack. My heart was really pounding out of my chest as I was trying to figure out where he was going to go. He continued straight at me and didn’t offer any shots. As he got to 7 yards he dropped his head to grab another acorn and I drew back hoping he’d be focused on picking out an acorn. As I drew I could see my arrow bouncing around on my rest and figured there was no way he wasn’t going to pick me out of this tree. He cracked that acorn and went down for another at 5 yards. I quickly got settled and put my pin high behind his shoulder, and let it rip! I saw the fletchings disappear and blood quickly shoot out of his back. He made a giant leap with blood pouring out of him and disappeared in the thick brush. I listened for him to crash, but never heard it. I was in shock of what had just happened! After waiting about an hour I met up with my buddy Charlie and we started on the trail. First 30 yards were easy trailing and then it started to fade out. Luckily Charlie spotted the buck up ahead another 30 yards and then the celebrating began. I was in awe! He was bigger than I thought! We took some pics and I got to work on gutting him. Then for the 2.5+ mile pack out! Took almost 3 hours to get him back to the truck from the time we found him. It was tons of work, but when is Hagerman easy? He had an 18.75” spread, almost 6” bases, and almost 20” beams. He weighed in at 140 pounds dressed as well. Heavy mass everywhere! No clue what he scores, but he’s by far my best buck! The best part was though was Thursday evening my pregnant wife was talking to our boy about me hunting the H and asking him if he thought I was going to take a buck. She said he was going crazy kicking and moving around while she was talking to him about it. When we did his gender reveal I shot a balloon filled with paint and I stuck a broadhead back on that arrow. I happened to be using that same arrow when I shot the buck and feel like my boy was there the whole time during the hunt. It was the coolest feeling! Couldn’t have been more perfect!
As we finished at HQ with my buck, ttubud (Eric) had shot a buck, so Charlie went to assist. He shot a heck of a 10 point! 35 yard shot in a tight window and hit him perfect! That buck had no teeth left! Congrats Eric!
Yesterday morning Charlie was able to make a perfect shot on a doe and collect his golden ticket! We were super close to pulling 3 super Hagerman bucks out all from the same house. I’m glad Charlie was able to get his ticket for next year and get another chance at the H!
Had a cool encounter last night with a stud younger 10 point. He came in from behind me while a young spike ate acorn in front of me. The 10 came up to 10 yards and snort wheezed at the spike. Got it all on video as well!
All in all it was a long, grueling, fantastic weekend and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! The H is something special and will put you through the test on a 3 day hunt. I loved my first deer hunt there and hope I can get drawn again some day! Congratulations to all that punch some tags! Thanks for all of the PM’s and texts, I really appreciate it! I was blessed to have this opportunity!
Here are some pics from the weekend:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A couple hours go by and a dark big bodied deer appears in front of me in the thicket. I tried pulling the binos up on him, but couldn’t make out what he was. I knew it was a decent buck, but wasn’t sure how big. A couple minutes go by as he made his way straight at me through the thicket. As he made his final steps into the opening in front of me he turned his head to get through the tight trees with his wide rack. I knew at that point he was a giant! He picked up a couple of white oak acorns and turned his head to my right, and showed off his impressive typical rack. My heart was really pounding out of my chest as I was trying to figure out where he was going to go. He continued straight at me and didn’t offer any shots. As he got to 7 yards he dropped his head to grab another acorn and I drew back hoping he’d be focused on picking out an acorn. As I drew I could see my arrow bouncing around on my rest and figured there was no way he wasn’t going to pick me out of this tree. He cracked that acorn and went down for another at 5 yards. I quickly got settled and put my pin high behind his shoulder, and let it rip! I saw the fletchings disappear and blood quickly shoot out of his back. He made a giant leap with blood pouring out of him and disappeared in the thick brush. I listened for him to crash, but never heard it. I was in shock of what had just happened! After waiting about an hour I met up with my buddy Charlie and we started on the trail. First 30 yards were easy trailing and then it started to fade out. Luckily Charlie spotted the buck up ahead another 30 yards and then the celebrating began. I was in awe! He was bigger than I thought! We took some pics and I got to work on gutting him. Then for the 2.5+ mile pack out! Took almost 3 hours to get him back to the truck from the time we found him. It was tons of work, but when is Hagerman easy? He had an 18.75” spread, almost 6” bases, and almost 20” beams. He weighed in at 140 pounds dressed as well. Heavy mass everywhere! No clue what he scores, but he’s by far my best buck! The best part was though was Thursday evening my pregnant wife was talking to our boy about me hunting the H and asking him if he thought I was going to take a buck. She said he was going crazy kicking and moving around while she was talking to him about it. When we did his gender reveal I shot a balloon filled with paint and I stuck a broadhead back on that arrow. I happened to be using that same arrow when I shot the buck and feel like my boy was there the whole time during the hunt. It was the coolest feeling! Couldn’t have been more perfect!
As we finished at HQ with my buck, ttubud (Eric) had shot a buck, so Charlie went to assist. He shot a heck of a 10 point! 35 yard shot in a tight window and hit him perfect! That buck had no teeth left! Congrats Eric!
Yesterday morning Charlie was able to make a perfect shot on a doe and collect his golden ticket! We were super close to pulling 3 super Hagerman bucks out all from the same house. I’m glad Charlie was able to get his ticket for next year and get another chance at the H!
Had a cool encounter last night with a stud younger 10 point. He came in from behind me while a young spike ate acorn in front of me. The 10 came up to 10 yards and snort wheezed at the spike. Got it all on video as well!
All in all it was a long, grueling, fantastic weekend and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! The H is something special and will put you through the test on a 3 day hunt. I loved my first deer hunt there and hope I can get drawn again some day! Congratulations to all that punch some tags! Thanks for all of the PM’s and texts, I really appreciate it! I was blessed to have this opportunity!
Here are some pics from the weekend:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Comment