I'm leaving today (hopefully by 2 pm) for my yearly Kansas deer hunt. Every year seems to be different. Last year I relapsed back to wheels and while successful at filling a tag, I sure wish I had my recurve in hand and so this year, I will, again. Another twist this year is the great people that invite me out just had a baby boy (and Grandbaby boy) and so I'm not sure how much hunting we'll have together like years past. I've always said it's more the place and the people in Kansas that makes the hunting memories, not just the possibility of running into great big bucks.
I'm shooting a bit different setup this year. I'm dropping down to around 575 gr total weight, CX carbons, weight tubes and Zwickey Delta 2 blade 170's (sharpened with a KME) and my old trusty Zipper all bamboo recurve. Well, it's trusty in so far as I do my job. Shooting about 53# at my draw and I've missed a grey fox twice this year and a little doe. The fast fox I can forgive and accept missing at 25 yards to my right ...... the doe however was pure I didn't pick a spot. I have GOT TO CONCENTRATE or I will find myself with that shot at a once in a lifetime buck and crumble.
Another twist is I have a new video camera. How much I'll use it remains to be see - I've never done this before – adding more elements to an already challenging hunt!
Here are a few bucks from years past ....... The guy there is my gracious host, a homemade recurve and that buck was like 166" if I remember right? Gorgeous buck though aint he? That massive 8 is cool, the giant 10 is from 2 years back, I don't know if he's alive still or not. The rack that was found dead near a stand that is hung every year ... the rack is extreme in mass, tines and an old buck.
Every day I'll post pictures, maybe some video if I'm lucky and hunt updates. I'll be able to hunt Friday morning (driving all night, sleep a few hours then hunt baby HUNT !) through next Thu/Fri or maybe a bit longer, we'll see. My goal this season is a 150" buck or bigger.
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Here are a couple of bucks from a camtracker strapped to the trunk of a tree I have a stand in right now. Great deer activity here, rumors of a drop tine buck, a big 175" type typical 10 and 3 others bucks bigger than this one. But this one fits the bill – he's a shooter for me on this trip, no question. Should be in the 155" range?
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Will be a good one next year?
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this one has NICE main beams – but he's an 8, probably a 130" buck? Still he would be sweet to photo and watch
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Looking forward to this one Brad, good luck!
David
Good luck and have a safe trip!! :campfire:
Best of luck. This will be fun to follow
Good luck. Thanks for taking us along.
:campfire:
:campfire: :coffee:
Good luck....your timing is good.
I hope I can do this as well as some of the guys do their hunting threads !
forecast next 10 days
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Good luck Brad! I have followed your hunts in Kansas before and look forward to following your hunt this year. Thanks for taking the time to share your hunt with us here!
they are for sure moving after our lil fall storm last night good luck and have fun jake
:campfire:
With a full moon next week, are you staying in the stand all day?
How about posting times you spot deer?
Good luck for a 150" deer. There seems to be plenty of those in Kansas.
Wishing you good luck Brad, I leave for Kansas this Saturday for a week, third year, excited-yep. Looks like Monday and middle to end of next week should be good after the front pushes thru.
Good luck! Looking forward also to the hunt journal.
Go get 'em, Brad!
Good luck! I will give you a tip on filming. Get the camera on early and in place where you are going to shoot because if you don't and are rushing to get set up you won't pick a spot. It happenned to me more than once.
I will be checking back frequently...hope you see some action. Good luck!
I drove 700 miles - from 2:00pm and got to where I needed by 2 am greeted by 24 degrees and high SE winds. brrrr
it was a great morning and a bad morning.
great in that I saw 7 different bucks, one nice 8 that I could have killed (video below) and a 10 I'd love to have had a better look at
but climbing into the tree this morning, I rammed a stick into my eye - yes, as silly as that sounds. I didn't know how bad it was, just that it was bleeding and I still had 100% of my vision. when I got back to the truck I looked and yeah, it didn't look good. I got to a optometrist by 1 pm (lucky only 30 miles away and he had a good deer story too :) ) and basically I scraped the top layers of my eyeball all the way back to the corner of the eye. I didn't puncture the eye, I only scraped the white - so very very luck there. But with a dilated eye that's throbbing no hunting this afternoon. Probably not in the morning, Doc ruled it out but I haven't yet :)
lucky man I feel like right now - very close to losing an eye. I was pulling myself up and pulled right into it - unbelievable.
its throbbing a bit, but if I can handle the pain I think an am hunt in the morning I can do
but
here is the video of the nice 8 I passed on - he looked BIG under my stand :)
http://youtu.be/yEWznXgW8JY
here at some photo's off the camtracker I took off the tree I'm sitting in ...
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nice!
anti-biotic drops, 2 other bottles of drops and suppose to be icing it to ease the swelling.
great way to start a hunt huh? I'm going to try and hunt a few hours in the morning
see if I uploaded these video's right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzfilS6re0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN30W6XCDnE
Take care of yourself Brad! The lost of an eye not worth the moments of pleasure, so be careful and things will come together in the right time.
I'm going to get up and go in the morning - if it hurts because of the wind or sun or anything then I'll at least have tried.
12 weeks ago I had the patella tendon ACL surgery, just getting to where I can feel normal and go and do this ..... one obstacle after another but makes for a great story if I can shoot a big buck in the coming days huh ?
Been there done that with the patela tendon ACL deal. My knee aches just thinking about it. Be careful and good luck. That buck on the vid was a beauty!
Uh......WOW! Good luck, this should be good. :coffee:
Good luck, can't wait to see how this turns out!!!
Looks like a great hunt in the making!
high HIGH winds today, all day. I saw a few dink bucks and deer movement stopped at 7:30 am.
I went to another place we have permission to hunt and jumped a big shooter 10 point and saw other deer. hunt a stand in the same tree I hunted from in 2007 or 2008? great location, but forecast of SW is about the WORST wind to hunt there.
so, back to this one stand I about put my eye out in, and 30 minutes before dark here comes this buck.
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very very nice 8 pointer, his main beams wrap around and are maybe 6" from touching, he didn't look like a big bodied buck, very long tines - he came out of willows and rubbed and drank from a creek .... then back into them. I was too worried about shooting him to film him :)
That's it - just not a lot of deer movement, probably because of the gale force winds. Tomorrow back to the eyeball stand I reckon until i get something other than a SW wind.
Mon/Tue rain, and Tue high of 42 ... I'd just as soon kill my buck tomorrow :)
Hang in there bud....when it was 100+ degrees we had hardly any wind....now it all comes this fall. You will connect!
Thank goodness your eye injury wasn't worse. Good luck!!
long day, slow day, a few dinks, a few does, can't believe the buck traffic in there on the camtracker Tuesday/Wednesday and I sit it Friday/Saturday/Sunday and only that first day solid 8 that come by
I don't think me being in there disturbs it THAT much - just unlucky?
Tomorrow I go to a new place - its the stand I sit 2 years ago, shot at a 150" at daylight, missed, had a GIANT buck come in at noon and couldn't get a shot then missed a P&Y 8 at dark .... I jumped a nice 10 scouting it and hanging the stand. BUT - its suppose to start raining at noon or 2:00 pm and 40-42 degree's ...... just great, and then turning to snow Tuesday morning and 2-8" or ?? who knows - but will make a very interesting hunt that's for sure
the eye hurts, its redder today but no worse other than that.
Couldn't ask for better weather!
horrible morning, didn't see a whitetail until 10:20 am ...... drove to another stand location and got in it at 12:15 pm .... pretty much sat all day. Saw 3 bucks this evening, 2 good ones but couldn't get them close to decide if they really were shooters. Saw a very nice 10 driving out, of course.
I did watch geese flying over, I got to enjoy God's country in 40 degree weather with sprinkling rain :) fox squirrels were very active and playing this evening, saw a possum that I would have zwickey'd if he'd been close enough I imagine, the coyotes serenaded me again at dark .... wasn't a complete failure although the deer hunting wasn't that great
and I didn't poke my eye today, that's a success!
Keep up the good reports and here's hoping you can arrow a good one!
Go get em Brad! Wednesday looks good as long as the wind stays down!
34 degree's and raining/snowing ....... at 9 am I had a NICE 10 point come from my East. He followed the trail just like he was suppose to for 400 yards. at 75 yards he goes behind a cedar tree, I get my bow ready, ready for a shot and decide since he's following the trail, and that the trail goes under my tree, I'll wait until he goes under and shoot him quartering away. That's the way the stand it set up - shooting to my left, a right handed shooter.
I wait, and here he comes at 20 yards stepping out from behind the cedar. Wind heavy in my face - perfect.
And then, he stops, shakes like a dog, and veers off the trail, walking from my right to left but now out in front of me. Had I been turned to the right, I might have gotten a shot. As it were, i watched him walk out, and around and at 25 yards, he stops and glances down to my far left. OK, trail goes that way too - and for 3 seconds I have a 25 yard shot quarter away but I didn't like it, and maybe he turns and no, he doesn't, walks straight away .... he never knew how close he comes to getting Zwickey'd
drying clothes right now - going back out in a bit. Snow this afternoon, 3-5" ..... should be an interesting evening ;)
I hope you get another chance at him. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
I hunted another area this evening, it didn't snow or rain anymore, gorgeous afternoon to hunt, I saw 3 does, a couple of distant bucks, a bunch of sandhill cranes, a few hawks, a cottontail rabbit, a coyote that if I'd seen a bit earlier I'd have sent a Zwickey his way.
Driving home we almost t-boned a giant of a buck a few miles from the farm we're hunting. He had it all - giant long beams, 6 points on his left beam, maybe 6 on the right, really tall tined, mass ....... we thought he was a mule deer at first. We braked hard and came within 10' of hitting him I guess. He was a 180" or bigger giant of a buck.
I'm going home Thursday evening. I've got 2 day's left. Pressure is on
Keep after them Brad. It's only going to get better for the next week or so.
The rain is supposed to move out here tomorrow and sunshine and high pressure for the next 5-6 days. Should be perfect conditions for the rut.
bretto
The next day or 2 should be awesome....
Man o man! Special deer there Brad! Good luck.
I sat a very cold morning - low 20's and a stiff wind across my face. Saw one dink buck. Very disappointed there because the area is SO good. In fact, after I removed the stand and got back to the house, the land owners had seen 3 big bucks and another GIANT not 1/4 mile up the creek from me.
Dang, wish I'd left the stand and hunted it, instead the plan is to go back to where I've hunted almost the whole hunt - where I saw the big 8 3 days ago I guess?
I can't sit like I use to - my back hurts a bit. But here I go into the stand I stabbed my eye in at 12:15 pm. I had to get down and pee not long after, dropped my book, 2 guys parked on the road and came in to about 40 yards before seeing me and finally leaving. At 4 pm I was really questioning this whole thing!
Then I look East and see a doe running - nice. Buck can't be far behind. So I'm watching them, get my camera out .... put it away, glance to my left and dang, there is that big 8 I saw 3 days ago, standing 50 yards looking at me. But he isn't boogered, and keeps drinking.
This buck ...... when i watched him the other day he was SO cautious. One step, stand motionless, wait, look, take a step, repeat. I watched him for probably 40 minutes, and he didn't move 75 yards. He did rub a cedar hard. He didn't respond to my grunts. I had him broadside at 35 yards, looking away ..... not a shot I can take and make.
So then he starts going away, and when he's 100 yards I grab my antlers and rattle pretty aggressively. I had 3 bucks off to my right - but I wasn't concerned with them.
It worked.
Here he comes. Taking the trail and coming straight to me. He took a second to rub the telephone pole in front of me (yes, its a rubbed pole, a licking pole) and then comes straight at me.
Right as he gets to where I can make any shot I take it.
And I hit a limb, deflecting the shot. I grab another arrow as he takes one bound and he looks RIGHT UP AT ME. Stare down time. He drops his head, boogers a bit, looks back up .... I'm still in half get my arrow nocked position and when he dropped his head again I nocked/drew and shot.
At the shot he bounded, and I could see fletching as he tried to make the top of the little hill in front of me. He didn't make it, almost falling before coming back down and going down very quickly.
Unbelievable. Never thought I'd get him to come to me, never imagined I could shoot and get another arrow on the string and shoot again.
My arrow hit farther back than I wanted, probably him jumping at my motions? I hit him in front of the right ham, angling forward and cutting the two ribs on the left side. I cut liver too - I don't think I've ever seen a deer die faster.
Gorgeous buck, over 24" main beams, 10" tines, nice mass, 15" inside spread ... he's going to score around 140" I imagine for anyone interested in that.
Zipper recurve, 53#, CX Heritage shafts, Zwickey broadhead sharpened with KME, weight tubes, probably 550 grains total weight.
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we think he's a 4 1/2 year old buck, over 200 pounds live weight. The bucks are so silly right now, but this one acted so differently. Just very very cautious. I am tickled to death, he's my best traditional buck and he's going on the wall.
I'm so lucky to be able to come to where I do, the people who invite me out are great to have me, exceptional hosts, great hunting partners and I can't thank them enough.
Congrats! Now that is one nice buck. Great job!
Congrats Brad! Real nice buck!
Nice..!
I leave tomorrow morning for a week in Kansas,I been getting some good reports!
Good job Brad. :clapper:
Great buck Brad!
Whats up with all that mass? steroid food plots.
Beautiful deer sir! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thanks for taking us along!
Wow
Great Deer. Congrats :campfire:
Way to go, Brad!
Thanks guys - Alvis killed a 8 point tonight with his home made recurve that makes mine look like little!
I'll post pictures when I get them, but he's like a 155" or better 8
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Super nice deer Brad.
Brad
One heck of a buck man! Very excited for you, and really enjoyed following this hunt.
Wishing you more and more success!
hillboy is hunting about 70 miles south of where I was ..... Tuesday was their 1st day, so far no bucks down that I know of
Great job Brad!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Very nice. Man, I live in KS and never have that much action and big buck interaction. Congrats!
KSdan 3 years ago was an unbelievable year. This is the biggest buck I saw in the field in 7 days of hunting.
Looking back .... I hunted this same stand 6 mornings and 6 evenings - averaging 5 hours a sit that's about 60 hours I had invested in this stand. I saw this same buck on Monday evening I think it was. I had that one nice 10 come through but nothing else as big.
Now, the guys I hunted with on the farm we are so lucky to hunt, they've seen big bucks two days in a row. I'm trying to get good photo's of the buck Alvis shot with his recurve.
This is the only one I got - in the 35 minutes after he shot it and they tracked it (it didn't go 100 yards) coyotes had found it and at 1/2 a ham. unreal.
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Congrats!
The dang coyotes can be a real pain in places....
I was getting ready to shoot a "doe" this morning...until I saw it was a spike.... and he had a coyote run him HARD out of a ravine....no shot on the dog either.
Coyotes just keep getting worse, all over Kansas. I hunt mostly in NE KS and have watched the population grow each year over the last 12. To the point now where it sounds like there are a hundred of them when they start yipping and howling. Sends a chill up your spine when you are walking out in the dark with nothing but a bow and it sounds like they are 50 yards away.
Great buck Brad, way to go!!!
David