Well, its over for me quickly here at home this year.  We had a serious bout with EHD this summer, and I was tickled to get a chance at anything halfway decent locally.

Wednesday evening as I was coming out to the truck I spotted a group of 6-7 deer feeding in the soybeans on the west side of a thicket bordering one section of the timber I was hunting.  I could tell that a couple of them were decent bucks, but could only see that one was higher/narrower racked and the other shorter/wider.  It was too dark to tell much else, but I thought they looked to be the same age class.  

I had to get by the deer to get to the truck so I decided to wait them out then make a dash across a finger of beans into another section of timber to get around them without spooking them hard.  Of course one of the does spotted me and had to come check it out, coming in from 100 yards to about 30, with the other deer following behind.  Finally I decided I had to do something before she walked into me and really spooked so I barked at them several times, like a dog, hoping at least that they wouldn't figure out I was a person.  The does scattered across the field, but the bucks peeled off into the thicket bordering the beans.  This thicket is 300 yards north/south and about 75 yards deep, bordered by timber to the east.

My devious mind started whirring, and I realized I had a stand hanging on the thicket/timber edge straight east of where the bucks went in.  With the wind on thursday predicted to be west/southwest this looked like a good chance to slip into that stand through the timber in hopes of catching the bucks travelling into the timber to work the falling white oak acorns.

I eased into the stand the next afternoon and about 1 hour before dark spotted horns in the thicket.  It was the taller/narrower buck feeding along on honeysuckle and browse.  It took him about 30 minutes, but he ended up 8 yards in front of me on the thicket brush edge.  Not one to look a gift horse (or buck) in the mouth, when he got mostly broadside on I shot him.  He took off into the thicket and I was pretty sure I heard him crash.  The arrow went right through, and had good blood, but stomach matter too.

We gave him 3 hours and went back - my wife Katia handling our tracking dog Oskar, and myself.  After a 5 minute tracking session we found the buck about 80 yards away, where I heard him go down.  The arrow was right behind the shoulder, getting both lungs before exiting through the front of the stomach, with limited blood on the ground due to the plugged exit hole.

Its great when a plan finally comes together!  He was the right buck at the right time for me and I'm real happy with him, especially with a busy rut coming up (Iowa tag this year and a new place in Missouri to hunt).  

I shot him with my old Jack Howard Gamemaster Jet - getting about 63-64 lbs out of that bow and a 640 grain carbon with a big Snuffer head.  The arrow was about 3 inches in the dirt on the other side.

Guess I'm down to looking for the "right" doe in Indiana now!

Best of luck

R


 


 

Congratulations, that's a fine looking buck!  

Great deer Ryan! Congrats!  

Nice deer and excellent tracking dog!!

Congrats on a fine buck!!!

Congrats, great looking buck!

Very Nice! well done!

Congrats Ryan really enjoyed the pictures, I've been reading you fathers "Whitetail Magic" the past few nights like I do every fall.

Congratulations!    

Beautiful buck! Congratulations Ryan!

 Cool tracker you got there!!

Man that is a dandy buck!

That's a fine buck, Ryan.  Congratulations.
Shick

Nice buck! Congrats!      

Outsatanding Ryan. Nice of you to put Oskar to work. I had a chance to watch my daughters WHD track one this year. What fun! Again, congratulations.  

Nice Buck! Love your blood trailer.

Tim

Congrats Ryan,Nice buck.

Beautiful buck, Ryan. Congratulations!

Congrats to you Ryan, good buck!

Congrats Ryan!