megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Got back last week from my annual trip hunting on my farms in TN. Had a great week, really busy since I got back, so just now getting around to posting about it.
The season started out bittersweet. Great expectations, as we had 7 or 8 3.5 y/o's last year we passed up, and one 4.5 y/o that broke his entire beam off. Trail cams were put up in July, and we just weren't seeing any of the bucks we passed last year. I was hoping they were hiding in the cornfields 1.5 miles away, but as the survey season progressed, and the bucks failed to show, I began to wonder if they had made it. I started asking around, and found out the 4.5 y/o with the snapped off beam was shot about 3/4 mile away last year. Many of the other 3.5 y/o's were also taken. Finally, one of our last years 3.5 y/o's showed back up in mid October!
He was a mainframe 9 last year, approx. 130 gross. This year he exploded... 4.5 and probably pushing 160" as a mainframe 11. Although he was the only mature deer we had on camera (except for a 110" 4.5 y/o 7 ptr), he was enough to get myself and all those that hunt the property excited about the upcoming season.
Fast forward another couple weeks, and got the text picture of him dead on Nov 4, killed on a neighboring property. Still no shooters on camera after I arrived to hunt 2nd week of ML.
While my friends chose to hunt my primary farm, I started hunting other farms that we didn't run as many cameras on hoping to see something I would be happy to shoot. I found the first estrous doe on Nov 15, but she only had a 2.5 and 1.5y/o with her. Spent 8-10 hours per day either on stand, or observing from expansive vantage points trying to locate the first estrous does or perhaps even see a shooter buck. Deer sightings were down overall, due to the drastic decline in population, but most noticeable were the decline in yearling bucks. Fawn recruitment was again abysmal due to coyote predation. I still had fun shooting them during the week, though... I ended up with 4 coyotes, and another 2 taken by friends. Had another 6 that were either out of range or came in range in packs and I was only able to take one out of each pack with the ML. Evenings were greeted with howling from 3 or 4 different packs in all directions
. In fact, one morning while hunting off the ground, I had a coyote run an adult deer 3 yards by me about 30 minutes before legal shooting time. I could just barely see them since they were so close, and I could hear both the deer and coyote panting as they passed by.
Finally, on Thursday, I moved to another farm to scout/ hunt. We had one camera on this 200 acre farm, and had pictures of a tall 3.5 y/o 8 pointer that should have scored in the upper 120's. Other than that, we had nothing else of interest. That morning before the front hit, I saw 15 deer, the best being a 3.5 y/o 8 pointer I had pictures of on another farm 1.5 miles away. That afternoon, I had this young 10 pointer spend 3 hours tending a doe in front of me. (Picture was with the cell phone, that will let you know just how close he was to me at one point
)
But about 30 minutes before dark, my week changed. Approximately 1300 yards to the east, and about 400 yards off my property and on a neighbor's hill, I saw an absolute shooter. At that distance, and through binoculars, I couldn't tell exactly what he was... but definetly 19-20 inside and beams that went past the nose. Decent mass, decent tine length, but not able to tell the number of points. Looked to be around 150" if he was a clean 8 with 26-27in beams. He checked some does on the hillside, then bedded down in the open since none were receptive. I watched him until he arose from his bed and meandered off to the southeast.
I started putting a plan together... in years past, I have seen deer on that hillside travel onto my property, but only if they leave the hill from the northeast. I wanted to get a closer look at him, so I hunted the far east property line. I passed the 115" 3.5 y/o 8 pointer I saw the day before when he crossed with a doe 75 yards to my west, but never saw the shooter buck. That afternoon, I hunted a ladder stand on that part of the property with a clear vantage of the neighbor's hill... and sure enough, he came back out. This time I was looking at him from 550 yards away. Clearly exactly the caliber animal I thought he was, and I could tell he only was a mainframe 8. He again travelled off to the southeast about an hour before dark, so I bailed on that stand and travelled about a mile and a half away to cover another potential hotspot on another farm right before dark. A cool buck that we couldn't decide was 3.5 or 4.5 came out 50 yards away right before dark. He used to have a cluster of 6 or 8 points coming off a damaged pedicle on his right side, the left was a clean 4. Only he had broken off most points on his right and was left with only a misshapen spike on that side when he came out in front of me.
Opening day of rifle, I put my cousin and his 12 y/o daughter in the shooting house we had seen the 2.5 y/o 10, a 3.5 y/o 10, and the 3.5 y/o 8 I had seen a couple times before on the same farm I had seen the shooter the past couple of days. I hunted another farm so as not to disturb them. Unfortunately, the neighbors to the south stacked their farm, with a couple set up on my fenceline within 300 yards of my cousin. They saw a couple does, a couple yearling bucks, but no bucks that she wanted to shoot. I only saw a single yearling, a button buck, and a couple does. However, my cousin texted me, " I see your shooter to the east... just WOW" I asked him to watch him and see which way he left the hill. To my surprise, this time he left the hill to the northeast... Holy cow, I have a shot at him this afternoon, I thought to myself.
We had our annual family reunion, so we bailed on the hunting and headed to that. A little after noon, the front starting moving through with anticipated winds changing from the south at 20mph to the north at 20mph and temps forecast to plummet. It was more than I could take, and at 1:45, I told everybody I just had to get in the stand. I changed clothes in the truck, and headed out. I started the hike in around 2:15, and immediately saw a 1.5 y/o 7 pointer acting squirrely about 100 yards ahead. He put his nose back down to the ground and headed over the hill... definitely trailing a doe, I thought.
As I climbed the hill following the buck, with the wind now coming strong out of the west, I smelled a mature buck in the woodlot off the property to the west. I snuck into my stand, texted a couple people that this was going to be the evening, then set in with incredible anticipation. The ladder stand was pretty miserable, completely exposed to the strong wind, and the tree was swaying with every gust. About 3pm a doe hopped out of the woodlot to the west upwind , acted very strange, then turned and jumped back over the fence into the woods. However, she didn't do a good job clearing the last two strands of loose wire and tangled herself up. With her hung in the fence thrashing around for what seemed like 5 minutes (but was probably only 60 seconds in reality), I finally decided I would have to shoot her. I picked up my gun, and fortunately she pulled loose and got back into the woods, seeming none worse for wear. First time I have ever seen that.
Around 4 pm, I looked up and saw a different shooter! He was wide and had long beams, but definetly not as wide or long as the one I had been after. Clean 8 pointer. No pictures of him for reference, I thought. He had come out of the woodblock where I smelled the mature buck and he was making a scrape and stretched out, so I couldn't really assess his age, but he looked like he was sporting a 130" or so rack. 132 yards away. AND 2 yards ACROSS my property line! Gut check... shoot this deer and flip him over the fence? Watch him walk away? He stood there for 30-45 seconds and I decided I WOULD shoot this buck, but only if he were on my side of the fence. He was close to a fence crossing, and I hoped he might come my way... Nope, walked the fenceline to the east, stayed 2 yards on the wrong side the whole time He disappeared over the hill, and I texted a few people that I had just watched a different shooter buck cross by.
By this time, my cousin and his daughter had arrived late to the shooting house at the front of the property. They had seen a spike, but nothing else on the feed prior to the front. They were tucked in the house, and comfortable out of the wind.
about 4:30, I looked up and the buck I had seen before had come back... headed right for the fence crossing! I didn't take time to think. I raised my gun, followed him, and as soon as his feet touched ground on my side after jumping the fence, I let him have it. He made it about 10 yards toward me before collapsing! I climbed down, went up to him, and experienced some serious ground shrinkage. This was a little bodied deer, with one entire ham atrophied (? nerve damage... all 4 major muscles of the quad were 1/2 the size of the other ham). Very weak mass, but still had a fairly impressive spread and beam length. Average tine length. Took a field photo, then headed back to my ladder stand to pick up my backpack. I was still very happy with this deer, despite the fact that he was a bit smaller than I had hoped.
After gathering my things, I texted my cousin that I was going to pick up the 4 wheeler to load him, but I wouldn't come out until after dark, so as not to mess up their hunt. I looked up from the phone, and the 'shooter' buck I had been following the past 3 days was standing 75 yards away! Holy crap, I can see ALL of this deer... and yup, he's 150". He's standing broadside in the open, downwind of my dead buck and smelling him. Yet another gut check time... shoot this deer as well? Check him in the morning? I will admit the thought DID cross my mind. Fortunately, the little angel on my right shoulder overcame the little devil sitting on my left shoulder and I dismissed the thoughts of illegally and unethically shooting 2 deer (I have a 1 buck limit on my farms, and I hold myself to the same standards as my guests, even though I pay the taxes). The buck moved up to my dead buck, and locked in on him. Seriously, this deer was not going anywhere... after I realized that, I texted my cousin and told him and his daughter to RUN to me, and they might actually get a shot on him. It took them about 10 minutes for them to make the 3/4 mile trek to me, and the big buck never left. They came up the hill behind me, found me in my orange prone in the open field, then moved off to the west to ensure I was not in the way. My cousin got his daughter set up on the bipod from the ground to take the shot, but the grass was too high for her to clear it. She still felt comfortable with the 130 yard shot, and wanted the opportunity to take it, so he got her set up kneeling. Light was fading fast, but the big 8 wasn't about to leave. After a couple more minutes, she finally shot, and the buck ran back the way he came up. I didn't hear the bullet hit, and the buck didn't appear to be injured, but we still held out hope for a miracle.
We spent the next hour looking for blood, finding none, then getting the truck with headlights driving all over the fields hoping to find him. Nothing... probably a clean miss, but I told my cousin I would come back the following day with good light and check for blood and walk all the thickets on the property. We got field pics of my deer, then processed him. Headed out with mixed emotions for the evening.
I taped the deer out... 131.25 inches, 18.75" inside spread, 21" and 23.5" beams, pulled the jawbone... only 3.5... oh, well, I'm more about having fun at this point rather than killing monster... and THAT was a fun hunt!
Came back the next day and spent 2 more hours looking for blood or the deer... neither were found. At least that gives those who are still hunting the farm hope they may encounter him... I hope I get to post pics of him later this season!
The season started out bittersweet. Great expectations, as we had 7 or 8 3.5 y/o's last year we passed up, and one 4.5 y/o that broke his entire beam off. Trail cams were put up in July, and we just weren't seeing any of the bucks we passed last year. I was hoping they were hiding in the cornfields 1.5 miles away, but as the survey season progressed, and the bucks failed to show, I began to wonder if they had made it. I started asking around, and found out the 4.5 y/o with the snapped off beam was shot about 3/4 mile away last year. Many of the other 3.5 y/o's were also taken. Finally, one of our last years 3.5 y/o's showed back up in mid October!
He was a mainframe 9 last year, approx. 130 gross. This year he exploded... 4.5 and probably pushing 160" as a mainframe 11. Although he was the only mature deer we had on camera (except for a 110" 4.5 y/o 7 ptr), he was enough to get myself and all those that hunt the property excited about the upcoming season.
Fast forward another couple weeks, and got the text picture of him dead on Nov 4, killed on a neighboring property. Still no shooters on camera after I arrived to hunt 2nd week of ML.
While my friends chose to hunt my primary farm, I started hunting other farms that we didn't run as many cameras on hoping to see something I would be happy to shoot. I found the first estrous doe on Nov 15, but she only had a 2.5 and 1.5y/o with her. Spent 8-10 hours per day either on stand, or observing from expansive vantage points trying to locate the first estrous does or perhaps even see a shooter buck. Deer sightings were down overall, due to the drastic decline in population, but most noticeable were the decline in yearling bucks. Fawn recruitment was again abysmal due to coyote predation. I still had fun shooting them during the week, though... I ended up with 4 coyotes, and another 2 taken by friends. Had another 6 that were either out of range or came in range in packs and I was only able to take one out of each pack with the ML. Evenings were greeted with howling from 3 or 4 different packs in all directions
. In fact, one morning while hunting off the ground, I had a coyote run an adult deer 3 yards by me about 30 minutes before legal shooting time. I could just barely see them since they were so close, and I could hear both the deer and coyote panting as they passed by.Finally, on Thursday, I moved to another farm to scout/ hunt. We had one camera on this 200 acre farm, and had pictures of a tall 3.5 y/o 8 pointer that should have scored in the upper 120's. Other than that, we had nothing else of interest. That morning before the front hit, I saw 15 deer, the best being a 3.5 y/o 8 pointer I had pictures of on another farm 1.5 miles away. That afternoon, I had this young 10 pointer spend 3 hours tending a doe in front of me. (Picture was with the cell phone, that will let you know just how close he was to me at one point
) 
But about 30 minutes before dark, my week changed. Approximately 1300 yards to the east, and about 400 yards off my property and on a neighbor's hill, I saw an absolute shooter. At that distance, and through binoculars, I couldn't tell exactly what he was... but definetly 19-20 inside and beams that went past the nose. Decent mass, decent tine length, but not able to tell the number of points. Looked to be around 150" if he was a clean 8 with 26-27in beams. He checked some does on the hillside, then bedded down in the open since none were receptive. I watched him until he arose from his bed and meandered off to the southeast.
I started putting a plan together... in years past, I have seen deer on that hillside travel onto my property, but only if they leave the hill from the northeast. I wanted to get a closer look at him, so I hunted the far east property line. I passed the 115" 3.5 y/o 8 pointer I saw the day before when he crossed with a doe 75 yards to my west, but never saw the shooter buck. That afternoon, I hunted a ladder stand on that part of the property with a clear vantage of the neighbor's hill... and sure enough, he came back out. This time I was looking at him from 550 yards away. Clearly exactly the caliber animal I thought he was, and I could tell he only was a mainframe 8. He again travelled off to the southeast about an hour before dark, so I bailed on that stand and travelled about a mile and a half away to cover another potential hotspot on another farm right before dark. A cool buck that we couldn't decide was 3.5 or 4.5 came out 50 yards away right before dark. He used to have a cluster of 6 or 8 points coming off a damaged pedicle on his right side, the left was a clean 4. Only he had broken off most points on his right and was left with only a misshapen spike on that side when he came out in front of me.
Opening day of rifle, I put my cousin and his 12 y/o daughter in the shooting house we had seen the 2.5 y/o 10, a 3.5 y/o 10, and the 3.5 y/o 8 I had seen a couple times before on the same farm I had seen the shooter the past couple of days. I hunted another farm so as not to disturb them. Unfortunately, the neighbors to the south stacked their farm, with a couple set up on my fenceline within 300 yards of my cousin. They saw a couple does, a couple yearling bucks, but no bucks that she wanted to shoot. I only saw a single yearling, a button buck, and a couple does. However, my cousin texted me, " I see your shooter to the east... just WOW"
I asked him to watch him and see which way he left the hill. To my surprise, this time he left the hill to the northeast... Holy cow, I have a shot at him this afternoon, I thought to myself.We had our annual family reunion, so we bailed on the hunting and headed to that. A little after noon, the front starting moving through with anticipated winds changing from the south at 20mph to the north at 20mph and temps forecast to plummet. It was more than I could take, and at 1:45, I told everybody I just had to get in the stand. I changed clothes in the truck, and headed out. I started the hike in around 2:15, and immediately saw a 1.5 y/o 7 pointer acting squirrely about 100 yards ahead. He put his nose back down to the ground and headed over the hill... definitely trailing a doe, I thought.
As I climbed the hill following the buck, with the wind now coming strong out of the west, I smelled a mature buck in the woodlot off the property to the west. I snuck into my stand, texted a couple people that this was going to be the evening, then set in with incredible anticipation. The ladder stand was pretty miserable, completely exposed to the strong wind, and the tree was swaying with every gust. About 3pm a doe hopped out of the woodlot to the west upwind , acted very strange, then turned and jumped back over the fence into the woods. However, she didn't do a good job clearing the last two strands of loose wire and tangled herself up. With her hung in the fence thrashing around for what seemed like 5 minutes (but was probably only 60 seconds in reality), I finally decided I would have to shoot her. I picked up my gun, and fortunately she pulled loose and got back into the woods, seeming none worse for wear. First time I have ever seen that.
Around 4 pm, I looked up and saw a different shooter! He was wide and had long beams, but definetly not as wide or long as the one I had been after. Clean 8 pointer. No pictures of him for reference, I thought. He had come out of the woodblock where I smelled the mature buck and he was making a scrape and stretched out, so I couldn't really assess his age, but he looked like he was sporting a 130" or so rack. 132 yards away. AND 2 yards ACROSS my property line! Gut check... shoot this deer and flip him over the fence? Watch him walk away? He stood there for 30-45 seconds and I decided I WOULD shoot this buck, but only if he were on my side of the fence. He was close to a fence crossing, and I hoped he might come my way... Nope, walked the fenceline to the east, stayed 2 yards on the wrong side the whole time
He disappeared over the hill, and I texted a few people that I had just watched a different shooter buck cross by.By this time, my cousin and his daughter had arrived late to the shooting house at the front of the property. They had seen a spike, but nothing else on the feed prior to the front. They were tucked in the house, and comfortable out of the wind.
about 4:30, I looked up and the buck I had seen before had come back... headed right for the fence crossing! I didn't take time to think. I raised my gun, followed him, and as soon as his feet touched ground on my side after jumping the fence, I let him have it. He made it about 10 yards toward me before collapsing! I climbed down, went up to him, and experienced some serious ground shrinkage. This was a little bodied deer, with one entire ham atrophied (? nerve damage... all 4 major muscles of the quad were 1/2 the size of the other ham). Very weak mass, but still had a fairly impressive spread and beam length. Average tine length. Took a field photo, then headed back to my ladder stand to pick up my backpack. I was still very happy with this deer, despite the fact that he was a bit smaller than I had hoped.
After gathering my things, I texted my cousin that I was going to pick up the 4 wheeler to load him, but I wouldn't come out until after dark, so as not to mess up their hunt. I looked up from the phone, and the 'shooter' buck I had been following the past 3 days was standing 75 yards away! Holy crap, I can see ALL of this deer... and yup, he's 150". He's standing broadside in the open, downwind of my dead buck and smelling him. Yet another gut check time... shoot this deer as well? Check him in the morning? I will admit the thought DID cross my mind. Fortunately, the little angel on my right shoulder overcame the little devil sitting on my left shoulder and I dismissed the thoughts of illegally and unethically shooting 2 deer (I have a 1 buck limit on my farms, and I hold myself to the same standards as my guests, even though I pay the taxes). The buck moved up to my dead buck, and locked in on him. Seriously, this deer was not going anywhere... after I realized that, I texted my cousin and told him and his daughter to RUN to me, and they might actually get a shot on him. It took them about 10 minutes for them to make the 3/4 mile trek to me, and the big buck never left. They came up the hill behind me, found me in my orange prone in the open field, then moved off to the west to ensure I was not in the way. My cousin got his daughter set up on the bipod from the ground to take the shot, but the grass was too high for her to clear it. She still felt comfortable with the 130 yard shot, and wanted the opportunity to take it, so he got her set up kneeling. Light was fading fast, but the big 8 wasn't about to leave. After a couple more minutes, she finally shot, and the buck ran back the way he came up. I didn't hear the bullet hit, and the buck didn't appear to be injured, but we still held out hope for a miracle.
We spent the next hour looking for blood, finding none, then getting the truck with headlights driving all over the fields hoping to find him. Nothing... probably a clean miss, but I told my cousin I would come back the following day with good light and check for blood and walk all the thickets on the property. We got field pics of my deer, then processed him. Headed out with mixed emotions for the evening.
I taped the deer out... 131.25 inches, 18.75" inside spread, 21" and 23.5" beams, pulled the jawbone... only 3.5... oh, well, I'm more about having fun at this point rather than killing monster... and THAT was a fun hunt!
Came back the next day and spent 2 more hours looking for blood or the deer... neither were found. At least that gives those who are still hunting the farm hope they may encounter him... I hope I get to post pics of him later this season!
