It's been a great season so far for me so far this year. Instead of writing multiple threads I thought it best to put them all in one. Hope you all enjoy the pics and stories. I live and work to hunt in the fall like many of you and harvesting nice game is only part of the journey...
9/19/12
After shooting a huge cat food eating raccoon the previous night I wasn't sure if I could get up early to go deer hunting...but alas, at 05:00 I rolled out of bed, cleaned up and headed out to the woods. Decided to go to a place I call "The Pocket". It is a VERY small patch of woods in the middle of corn fields on all sides. The walk in is rather long for around here but a lot of my deer cam pics come from there. As I was going in I jumped up a deer in the dark so I figured it was going to be a good day. By the time I got up in my stand I wasn't so sure. It's been a long time since my Viper Extreme climbing stand has been used and the user was a bit rusty...sounded like a drunk gorilla playing a metal drum set climbing up that tree!
None the less, I had been there about 30 minutes when the familiar crunch, crunch of deer approaching was heard. She came from the south with the wind blowing her scent to me (course I was 25 foot up in a tree). As she turned to cross in front of me behind some brush I stood and made ready. As soon as she cleared I was drawn and ready to fire. Now, I forgot that she was only about 15 yards, at max, from me...the arrow from my old PSE Mach Flight bow, with a slick trick broad head, caught her in the spine right between the shoulders and down she went! Seeing her toss around a bit there I put another arrow into her lungs just for good cause. Turns out it wasn't needed as the first arrow had gone in at such a sharp angle that it pierced her lungs as well. She was DRT. And she managed to break my first arrow...
Then I sat back, watched the birds and enjoyed the sunrise...what a wonderful way to start the day.
10/30/12
I've been hunting deer with a bow for nearly 20 years now and had a first this day. I harvested two very nice does out of the same stand within about 30 minutes of each other. The first one was found about 150 yards from where I shot her and the second was found about 20 yards from where I shot her. The last time I hunted this stand was about three weeks prior and they busted me due to movement at about 08:30. This time I was expecting them to come from the same direction and when they came I wasn't really sure a doe was what I was after. But at 15 and 10 yards each it's hard to pass them up...so I didn't!
It was a great morning and they will be good eating. One was probably a 2.5 year old and the other was about 9 months old. All in all a great day!
11/10/12
It was opening day here in Nebraska for deer with a rifle. The winds were tremendous in the morning blowing out of the south at about 30mph. Because of the wind I was faced with having to hunt a new property for the first time ever. The morning was pretty much a bust as I saw a few does running through the trees as a guy drove all over the property with his truck "hunting". That seems to be the way folks do it around here. They just drive around until something pops out and then they shoot it.
Anyways, going into evening I was faced with a decision. Hunt in the now 35-40mph wind or stay home. I decided to go and lay down in the draw which I'd seen the does go into at day break. After getting set up in an old blow down around 15:30 I looked through my scope and saw a HUGE rub that was fresh about 80 yards in front of me. I decided this could be a good spot after all and there were lots of tracks in the bottom of the creek bed. So, I took a nap. HA! Hey, it was a long day in the wind.
At about 16:50 I awoke to sounds of crunching to my left (south) the direction the wind was blowing from. I looked through the ceders and could see two bodies. As they separated one was a 3x3 and the other was unknown but was much larger. The waiting was nice as I enjoy seeing deer close and these were only about 25 yards away behind the trees. Finally, they finished their scrapes and the bigger one grunted so I grunted back. The little one wanted to see what was going on so he crossed first in front of me about 40 yards out. He got a free pass.
As light was now fading fast a decision had to be made quickly when the big one started to cross through the cedars of the draw in front me. At about 80 yards I could not tell how big his rack was because when he stopped his head was behind a tree but his body was nice and large and I knew he had a nice rack from watching him walk through the trees! So I put the cross hairs on him and squeezed. The Nosler 165g BT moving at about 2600fps out of my M70 Coyote .308 did it's job and he only went about 20 feet before falling over stone dead. Turns out he is a very respectable 2.5 year old 9 pointer (typical 4x4 with a sticker). The bullet went in behind his shoulder and turned his heart to mush before sending fragments into the opposite rib cage, no wasted meat. I'm happy as it was a rough day for the woods!
Then the next morning I took a friend out that has not hunted in about 15 years and he got his first doe from the same exact spot! Just goes to show, the deer gotta move in the wind just like everything else!
11/12/12
After a rather uneventful previous evening I decided to take my friend Jake, who has never shot a deer before (he just got into hunting last year), and my dad, who was in town from Arkansas to meat hunt, out to a "honey hole" about two minutes from the house this morning. Now I LOVE going hunting with my dad and also LOVE taking new hunters. Both Jake and dad only have doe tags and this was going to be a great chance to put some meat in the freezer for the winter.
I was really just there for the experience and wasn't going to shoot a doe even though I had three doe tags left. But I also had one buck tag and knew that there was a nice 8 pointer in this hole as I missed him a week ago during bow season from 15 yards away when my arrow hit a branch.
We had only been in the woods about an hour and a half when I looked over to where Jake was and saw a deer approaching. I like to keep new hunters close and since Jake has only been out a couple of times with me he was about 50 yards away. Then the rack appeared. The deer walked up to within about 10 yards of Jake and I could see that it was the 8 pointer. It watched Jake closely for about five minutes before turning and coming down the path in front of me un-alarmed. As he approached I thought about letting him pass but then good sense got the better of me. We don't need the meat but since dad and Jake hadn't got any yet it seemed like a good chance to make sure they didn't go home with empty coolers...
As I watched through the vintage 2-7x32 Wide View Redfield perched atop my minty 1969 Remington 788 .308 the buck came into an opening about 80 yards in front of me. I squeezed off the shot right behind the front right shoulder. The 165g Hornady SP in front of 43g of VVN140 was placed perfectly and the buck stumbled off towards the creek. As I looked over I saw Jake had jumped to his feet and was watching the buck run to his final resting place.
Per our plan, I slowly crept out of the woods and went to the truck to go get a cup of coffee and wait for one of them to shoot the does that were, unbeknown to us, in the creek bed about 50 yards away. I found out later that one of the does ran by my dad at warp speed about 20 minutes later and he didn't have a shot. The other wandered behind some brush and disappeared in the thick stuff.
About an hour and a half later I came back and we recovered the old buck approximately 100 yards from where I shot him. There was a great blood trail and it was fun to watch Jake follow it through the woods carefully as we stalked up to where the buck lay under a giant locust tree.
It has been an incredible hunting season for me. I've bagged three does with my old bow and two very nice bucks with two different rifles. It has been even better because of the time spent in the woods with my dad and good friends.
So thanks once again for indulging me by reading the stories of my hunting adventures this year. Up next is muzzle loader season and perhaps I'll try for a doe in late season with my pistol...who knows what journey will happen!
My dad and me.
My friend Jake and me.
9/19/12
After shooting a huge cat food eating raccoon the previous night I wasn't sure if I could get up early to go deer hunting...but alas, at 05:00 I rolled out of bed, cleaned up and headed out to the woods. Decided to go to a place I call "The Pocket". It is a VERY small patch of woods in the middle of corn fields on all sides. The walk in is rather long for around here but a lot of my deer cam pics come from there. As I was going in I jumped up a deer in the dark so I figured it was going to be a good day. By the time I got up in my stand I wasn't so sure. It's been a long time since my Viper Extreme climbing stand has been used and the user was a bit rusty...sounded like a drunk gorilla playing a metal drum set climbing up that tree!
None the less, I had been there about 30 minutes when the familiar crunch, crunch of deer approaching was heard. She came from the south with the wind blowing her scent to me (course I was 25 foot up in a tree). As she turned to cross in front of me behind some brush I stood and made ready. As soon as she cleared I was drawn and ready to fire. Now, I forgot that she was only about 15 yards, at max, from me...the arrow from my old PSE Mach Flight bow, with a slick trick broad head, caught her in the spine right between the shoulders and down she went! Seeing her toss around a bit there I put another arrow into her lungs just for good cause. Turns out it wasn't needed as the first arrow had gone in at such a sharp angle that it pierced her lungs as well. She was DRT. And she managed to break my first arrow...
Then I sat back, watched the birds and enjoyed the sunrise...what a wonderful way to start the day.
10/30/12
I've been hunting deer with a bow for nearly 20 years now and had a first this day. I harvested two very nice does out of the same stand within about 30 minutes of each other. The first one was found about 150 yards from where I shot her and the second was found about 20 yards from where I shot her. The last time I hunted this stand was about three weeks prior and they busted me due to movement at about 08:30. This time I was expecting them to come from the same direction and when they came I wasn't really sure a doe was what I was after. But at 15 and 10 yards each it's hard to pass them up...so I didn't!
It was a great morning and they will be good eating. One was probably a 2.5 year old and the other was about 9 months old. All in all a great day!
11/10/12
It was opening day here in Nebraska for deer with a rifle. The winds were tremendous in the morning blowing out of the south at about 30mph. Because of the wind I was faced with having to hunt a new property for the first time ever. The morning was pretty much a bust as I saw a few does running through the trees as a guy drove all over the property with his truck "hunting". That seems to be the way folks do it around here. They just drive around until something pops out and then they shoot it.
Anyways, going into evening I was faced with a decision. Hunt in the now 35-40mph wind or stay home. I decided to go and lay down in the draw which I'd seen the does go into at day break. After getting set up in an old blow down around 15:30 I looked through my scope and saw a HUGE rub that was fresh about 80 yards in front of me. I decided this could be a good spot after all and there were lots of tracks in the bottom of the creek bed. So, I took a nap. HA! Hey, it was a long day in the wind.
At about 16:50 I awoke to sounds of crunching to my left (south) the direction the wind was blowing from. I looked through the ceders and could see two bodies. As they separated one was a 3x3 and the other was unknown but was much larger. The waiting was nice as I enjoy seeing deer close and these were only about 25 yards away behind the trees. Finally, they finished their scrapes and the bigger one grunted so I grunted back. The little one wanted to see what was going on so he crossed first in front of me about 40 yards out. He got a free pass.
As light was now fading fast a decision had to be made quickly when the big one started to cross through the cedars of the draw in front me. At about 80 yards I could not tell how big his rack was because when he stopped his head was behind a tree but his body was nice and large and I knew he had a nice rack from watching him walk through the trees! So I put the cross hairs on him and squeezed. The Nosler 165g BT moving at about 2600fps out of my M70 Coyote .308 did it's job and he only went about 20 feet before falling over stone dead. Turns out he is a very respectable 2.5 year old 9 pointer (typical 4x4 with a sticker). The bullet went in behind his shoulder and turned his heart to mush before sending fragments into the opposite rib cage, no wasted meat. I'm happy as it was a rough day for the woods!
Then the next morning I took a friend out that has not hunted in about 15 years and he got his first doe from the same exact spot! Just goes to show, the deer gotta move in the wind just like everything else!
11/12/12
After a rather uneventful previous evening I decided to take my friend Jake, who has never shot a deer before (he just got into hunting last year), and my dad, who was in town from Arkansas to meat hunt, out to a "honey hole" about two minutes from the house this morning. Now I LOVE going hunting with my dad and also LOVE taking new hunters. Both Jake and dad only have doe tags and this was going to be a great chance to put some meat in the freezer for the winter.
I was really just there for the experience and wasn't going to shoot a doe even though I had three doe tags left. But I also had one buck tag and knew that there was a nice 8 pointer in this hole as I missed him a week ago during bow season from 15 yards away when my arrow hit a branch.
We had only been in the woods about an hour and a half when I looked over to where Jake was and saw a deer approaching. I like to keep new hunters close and since Jake has only been out a couple of times with me he was about 50 yards away. Then the rack appeared. The deer walked up to within about 10 yards of Jake and I could see that it was the 8 pointer. It watched Jake closely for about five minutes before turning and coming down the path in front of me un-alarmed. As he approached I thought about letting him pass but then good sense got the better of me. We don't need the meat but since dad and Jake hadn't got any yet it seemed like a good chance to make sure they didn't go home with empty coolers...
As I watched through the vintage 2-7x32 Wide View Redfield perched atop my minty 1969 Remington 788 .308 the buck came into an opening about 80 yards in front of me. I squeezed off the shot right behind the front right shoulder. The 165g Hornady SP in front of 43g of VVN140 was placed perfectly and the buck stumbled off towards the creek. As I looked over I saw Jake had jumped to his feet and was watching the buck run to his final resting place.
Per our plan, I slowly crept out of the woods and went to the truck to go get a cup of coffee and wait for one of them to shoot the does that were, unbeknown to us, in the creek bed about 50 yards away. I found out later that one of the does ran by my dad at warp speed about 20 minutes later and he didn't have a shot. The other wandered behind some brush and disappeared in the thick stuff.
About an hour and a half later I came back and we recovered the old buck approximately 100 yards from where I shot him. There was a great blood trail and it was fun to watch Jake follow it through the woods carefully as we stalked up to where the buck lay under a giant locust tree.
It has been an incredible hunting season for me. I've bagged three does with my old bow and two very nice bucks with two different rifles. It has been even better because of the time spent in the woods with my dad and good friends.
So thanks once again for indulging me by reading the stories of my hunting adventures this year. Up next is muzzle loader season and perhaps I'll try for a doe in late season with my pistol...who knows what journey will happen!
My dad and me.
My friend Jake and me.
