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Author Topic: Uncle Barry missed... update  (Read 51609 times)

Offline Huntingnut

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #180 on: November 03, 2011, 05:00:00 AM »
Man, what a beautiful deer!

Offline Jack Whitmire Jr

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #181 on: November 03, 2011, 05:10:00 AM »
Congrats on the Massive deer Barry !
Tolerance is a virtue of a man without any  Morals- unknown author

Offline pitbull

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #182 on: November 03, 2011, 06:15:00 AM »
If there was a lifetime achievement award for bowhunting, you would be the winner. Congrats on an awesome animal!   :thumbsup:

Offline BCWV

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #183 on: November 03, 2011, 06:20:00 AM »
That's an amazing deer. Very nice U.B.!!

Online Terry Green

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #184 on: November 03, 2011, 07:34:00 AM »
Really look forward to reading the story...

Take your time Barry.....and enjoy the moment.    :campfire:
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Offline bornagainbowhunter

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #185 on: November 03, 2011, 07:38:00 AM »
Yes, I agree with Terry.  Enjoy the moment, one of the best parts of the whole hunt.  What a smoker!

God Bless,
Nathan
But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. Psalms 3:3

Offline jonsimoneau

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #186 on: November 03, 2011, 08:14:00 AM »
Never had a doubt in my mind that Barry would get him.  I think he waited three years just for the anticipation factor!  He was trying to outdo Charlie Lambs story telling!  Hurley has got to be really old now.  8.5 or 9.5?  Way to go Barry.  I cannot WAIT to hear the details.

Offline Bob Palmer

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #187 on: November 03, 2011, 08:19:00 AM »
Simply awesome!! Thanks for the pics Steve!!
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground."
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Offline Kyle Lancaster

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #188 on: November 03, 2011, 08:25:00 AM »
Barry,
   I remember reading that you wrote somewhere about all of the "committments and especially sacrifices" that you (and Gene) have made to live your lives like you do. Those sacrifices must be resonating now?? As Bob Urban said, thanks to you and Gene for sharing your adventures with us. Most of all...congratulations.

Offline RM81

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #189 on: November 03, 2011, 09:08:00 AM »
Can't wait for the story.  Congrats!!  Sounds like the chase itself has been quite an adventure.

Offline Friend

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #190 on: November 03, 2011, 09:16:00 AM »
A dream buck no doubt and possibly a catalyst to encourage others to dream bigger.

Splendid harvest!

Congrats!!
>>----> Friend <----<<

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Offline PBNJ

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #191 on: November 03, 2011, 09:37:00 AM »
Wow Barry...what else is there to say? Congratulations.

Offline PA stickbow boy

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #192 on: November 03, 2011, 09:58:00 AM »
yep,  just a little guy... I think I would've gave him another year.   :thumbsup:  can't wait for the story   :campfire:    :coffee:
Keep the sun at your back and the wind in your face.

Offline Barry Wensel

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #193 on: November 03, 2011, 10:02:00 AM »
Thank you all for your patience. I'm not sure exactly how to do this so please bear with me. Sharing is half the fun and I'd like to share my success with all my brothers of the bow on TG, PBS and Stickbow. I have to admit I must be one sick dude as today is Nov. 3, 2011, it's 37 degrees out, I have a valid tag in my pocket and I'm sitting behind the computer!
I don't really know where to start because this quest encompassed years in the making. I guess I'll bring everyone up to speed starting on Oct. 28, 2009 when I missed Hurley. Live footage of him is in our latest DVD "Essential Encounters". Basically, I had a broadside shot at him but there was a horizontal branch halfway between he and I. I knew if I shot below it I'd hit him too low so tried to slide the shaft over top of the branch. I over compensated and shot right over his back. That's when I named him Hurley because I felt like hurling right about then.
A week or so later I lost control on a nice 6x5 standing broadside looking the other way and I was out. What an idiot. Last year, Halloween evening I had that B&C buck we nicknamed "Burly" do the same thing. I honestly thought about not shooting him because I had my heart set on Hurley. But a 173 3/8" 4x4 broadside under 15 yds. looking the other way was too much for me. After I shot Burly I continued to hunt with the camcorder even though I was having major camera problems. I ended up seeing Hurley five times and unfortuneately only got a few seconds of footage (which is also on Essential Encounters). The most memorable encounter he walked by at 25 yds. and the camera flashed "eject cassette" giving me zero footage and only memories. And my memory isn't so hot anymore.
But the next and most important sighting added a vital piece to the puzzle. One morning while walking out an old logging/slid road I came around a corner and there was Hurley working the overhead branch on a scrape along the road. I saw him before he saw me. I took a couple steps backwards and was digging the camera from my backpack when he stepped from the skid road and topped a small rise. Again, zero footage. BUT it gave me more knowledge of his undisturbed pattern and more importnatly, upon close inspection it revealed a very minor trail where he crossed. This episode ended up being a huge piece of the puzzle. About ten days ago while walking out after dark I came around the little dogleg in the skid trail and was shining my flashlight down the road as I walked. Something caught my eye in the exact place I saw him mentioned above. I could see two widely spaced eyes in the light and pieces of antler just above it. I had a strong feeling it was him. I turned the light out and just stood there a few minutes to let him move on hopefully without disturbing him.
A few mornings later on the way into stand in the dark I saw a smoking fresh scrape right where his little, minor trail left the skid road. Hurley tends to make very aggressive scrapes that were pawed deeply into the ground, actually making the scrapes concave. I was almost certain it was his scrape. Another piece of the puzzle.
The next morning, Oct. 29th, as Gene and I entered the skid road before light we were running a little late. I showed Gene the scrape. Because we were late, Gene took a trail camera from his pack, just set it on the ground pointing towards the overhead branch, turned it on and we walked away.
This is interesting stuff that all adds to the puzzle. That morning I never saw a single deer... zero. Gene saw two does. On the way out he pulled the chip from the camera laying on the ground. An hour later it revealed a giant bodied buck standing in the scrape but you couldn't see his head. I thought I recognized that body. Another piece of the puzzle.
That was three times I thought he'd crossed through there. We needed to get a stand in there.

Offline Quickblood

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #194 on: November 03, 2011, 10:08:00 AM »
Congratulations Barry!  It was just a matter of time until you caught up with Hurley again, he just didn't know it!  Thanks for sharing.  Keith

Offline John Havard

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #195 on: November 03, 2011, 10:13:00 AM »
Congratulations Barry on a great buck and especially on your determination.  Thanks for sharing it all with us.

John

Offline Gary Logsdon

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #196 on: November 03, 2011, 10:36:00 AM »
While you're waiting to hear the rest of Barry's story you can see a few photos of "Hurley" at  www.brothersofthebow.com  

Click on the "Latest Game Cam Images" link.  I put at least two pix of the big boy in the album, photos #30 and #31.
Gary Logsdon

Offline Barry Wensel

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #197 on: November 03, 2011, 10:55:00 AM »
On Oct. 30th mid-day I scrutinized the area. This was mature, hardwood timber with little understory. The skid road runs east/west. To the north was a little flat covered with slash then a bowl dropping down to a creek bottom. On the south side of the skid trail there was a minor ridge/finger dropping down into another creek bottom. Sign indicated he was coming from the north in the morning, crossing the skid road, following the finger ridge down into the bottom, crossing the dry creek bed and bedding on the north facing slope with the predominate south winds covering his back. This way he entered his bedding area with a head wind then positioned himself watching his backtrail while the wind covered his rear. Absolutely nothing but common sense on his part but the details we tend to overlook.
The fact it was clean, "pretty woods" was a problem. I didn't want to get too far south because his exact travel was varied and hard to be sure of. I found a decent tree in a good location. It really wasn't what I wanted but I prefer a mediocre tree in a good location over a great tree in a mediocre spot. The tree was a shag bark hickory only maybe 14 inches in diameter. Not the best tree to hide a fat guy. But there was another slightly smaller tree a couple feet away and a third a couple yards behind it to the east.
Here's where I got sneaky. The minor trail I felt he was using was about 20 yds. from the stand. I'm a 15 yd. guy. So I took the blade of my pole pruner and wisked out a new, visible trail in the dry leaves angling just slightly closer to my treestand. Then I took a five inch diameter deadfall branch that was nearby and layed it west of the north/south trail, angling it just slightly to nudge his travel to 14/15 yds. rather than 20 yds. I also added a new mock scrape along my new trail just south of where the intended shot would be, then doctored it with Smokey's doe in heat and pre-orbital. We named the stand "Goner" because of his passing it the morning of the 29th while we were gone.

Offline Steve O

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #198 on: November 03, 2011, 11:06:00 AM »
"Goner"


 

Offline katie

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Re: Uncle Barry missed... update
« Reply #199 on: November 03, 2011, 11:16:00 AM »
Great coffee read when you are stuck inside with kiddos home from school. The school should never give kids two days off in the middle of rut, what are they thinking:)
My kids are loving this thread UB! My son said maybe this means Mom will get her missed deer back too. I told him I never miss;)
"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity"  John Muir

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