Your Last Buck Kill

[TN Whitetail Freak]

setup your last BUCK kill and method behind it.

On the day of November 14 just days after the opening of muzzloader season in TN, I decided to try a spot on the east side of the cotton field where a bunch of points ran N to S...The wind was out of the N-NE. I decided that Id hunt on the boundary marked in red line of an area that was off limits to hunting hoping that deer would funnel by using that fence as a guide. This was my first time in this area and my point of interest was the point where the red dot is......I didnt know there was a buck bedded up there but knew that there "could" be one up there based on the wind running off the ridge and food to the wsw. I slowly crept up to the north facing point just off that fence line and got to the top of the tree around 3 pm with my bow. I hung up everything and pull the bow up as I heard a shot going off in the distance. For some reason, I decided that I was going to give out a bleat/grunt sequence before i settled in to start my hunt. I took out my Extinguisher(best call ive ever used) and made 3 doe bleats followed by short tending grunts then i repeated that sequence 15 seconds later and put the call up....before i could get the call in my pack I heard a deer coming...it was a buck and at this point in the season i could tell it was the biggest i had seen all year....i grabbed my bow as i watched this deer come from the direction of that point and cross the valley over to my point. My heart is pumping and I anticipate this deer's path as he approaches....I picked my opening at 10 yds and let my arrow fly....the deer bounded north back toward that point he was bedded but crashed at the foot of my ridge in the valley ....no tracking job necessary. I was tore up and was done with the hunt by 3:15 pm. This deer ended up being the biggest deer I seen all year and is a new personal best bow buck. I based this hunt on the hope deer would use that point as bedding because id scouted most of the points on that property with no luck finding beds. It was more like a product of cancellation....there werent many points left to bed off of and the combination of the funnel fence, the restricted area to the south and this point led me to my November 14th bow Kill.


Red dot-buck was bedded
blue dot-my tree
orange line-deer route
red x-deer shot
green trail-entry route
red line-funnel fence

 

[Vince]

Wow. Cool.

 

[catman529]

Good story.

Mine was the Thanksgiving buck, in what I now call the Thanksgiving stand.

I had passed does and small bucks all throughout November, hoping a good buck might show up.

The Wednesday before rifle opener, I blew a chance at a very nice 8 point that snuck behind my tree. I was back in there on rifle opener, but no deer were to be seen.

So thanksgiving morning came around, and like I had before, I got up early to hunt before getting ready to help cook with the family later.

I climbed into my creek side stand and watched the woods wake up. I don't remember how long I was in the tree, but it was still pretty early when I heard the sound of water sloshing over my shoulder.

I looked down into the creek and saw a buck wading chest-deep across to my side. He looked to be a decent 8 point, and as far as the season had come, I knew right away I would shoot him.

He came up on the bank and stopped to look around, shaking off his coat from the cold water. He then slowly walked towards my tree while I drew my bow, following a trail that goes right under my stand.

He got under the tree and a little bit past, and stopped to sniff around. I centered the pin high shoulder, aiming almost straight down at the deer. The arrow hit and he crashed off through the thick nasty privet jungle.

I gave him some time and then got down to look. I found one drop of blood where he took off, and another spot of blood where the back end of the arrow had snapped off. It showed a good 10-12 inches penetration, and I knew that was good.

Not much farther, I saw horns, and walked up to my deer, a fat 2.5 year old that dressed 150 pounds. I had thought he was 3.5 but no regrets. He had been double lunged and the broadhead lodged in the offside shoulder joint.

We ate some of him with our thanksgiving meal that evening...

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[buckmaster31]

my last buck kill was November 14th in ohio. The first half of the week was a disaster we was on a lease that wasn't supposed to have any pressure at all and you couldn't walk 100 yards without finding a different tree stand. So we decided to go to public land that we had scouted previous 10 mins in the stand on the first day being in public land I had a 140 inch 8 point dogging a doe right by me ended up seeing 6 different bucks before I shot this one wasn't what I really was wanting but dad killed one a couple days before I did and he was wanting us to have a double so with it being next to last day I decided I would lower my standards so 15 mins after daylight I heard deer walking and looked behind me and him and the 140 I seen earlier was 45 yards the big one turned and went into the thicket but this one gave me a shot so I smoked him he didn't go 40 yards after a rage went through him

 

[csi-tech]

Thanksgiving Day 2013.

 

[Sucarnochee]

8 point when I still lived in ala. First shot ever with muzzleloader. Iron sites at 100 yards. Been sitting in green field for 5 min. Shooting house was a porta john. One of those kills you will always cherish. Have not been deer hunting since. Going this year back in ala a few trips u hope. Can't wait!!

 

[Widowmaker]

December 10, 2014...(backstory) I broke my foot two weeks before bow season and had to have surgery on my foot. It kept me out of commission for bow season, muzzleloader, and a good part of rifle. This was my first time in the woods that year and I was still in a walking boot. Started the morning off having to be ferried across a small stream (walking boot) by my good friend and hunting buddy. We had to hunt on the ground because there was no way for me to get in a stand. Saw absolutely nothing on a shelf that sees a lot of movement. Around 11 o'clock we decided to take a quick stroll around to part of the farm we never hunt. Sat down on a hillside overlooking a natural funnel to drink water/eat snacks. We were actually talking and I look down the hill and all I can see is horns. The buck walks straight towards us on a trail and I shot him at 35 yards with a 30-30 and he ran 40 yards and crashed out. Definitely one of the more memorable hunting days I've had. Not the biggest deer ever but that doesn't make me any less proud or appreciative.

 

[tree_ghost]

setup your last BUCK kill and method behind it.

On the day of November 14 just days after the opening of muzzloader season in TN, I decided to try a spot on the east side of the cotton field where a bunch of points ran N to S...The wind was out of the N-NE. I decided that Id hunt on the boundary marked in red line of an area that was off limits to hunting hoping that deer would funnel by using that fence as a guide. This was my first time in this area and my point of interest was the point where the red dot is......I didnt know there was a buck bedded up there but knew that there "could" be one up there based on the wind running off the ridge and food to the wsw. I slowly crept up to the north facing point just off that fence line and got to the top of the tree around 3 pm with my bow. I hung up everything and pull the bow up as I heard a shot going off in the distance. For some reason, I decided that I was going to give out a bleat/grunt sequence before i settled in to start my hunt. I took out my Extinguisher(best call ive ever used) and made 3 doe bleats followed by short tending grunts then i repeated that sequence 15 seconds later and put the call up....before i could get the call in my pack I heard a deer coming...it was a buck and at this point in the season i could tell it was the biggest i had seen all year....i grabbed my bow as i watched this deer come from the direction of that point and cross the valley over to my point. My heart is pumping and I anticipate this deer's path as he approaches....I picked my opening at 10 yds and let my arrow fly....the deer bounded north back toward that point he was bedded but crashed at the foot of my ridge in the valley ....no tracking job necessary. I was tore up and was done with the hunt by 3:15 pm. This deer ended up being the biggest deer I seen all year and is a new personal best bow buck. I based this hunt on the hope deer would use that point as bedding because id scouted most of the points on that property with no luck finding beds. It was more like a product of cancellation....there werent many points left to bed off of and the combination of the funnel fence, the restricted area to the south and this point led me to my November 14th bow Kill.


Red dot-buck was bedded
blue dot-my tree
orange line-deer route
red x-deer shot
green trail-entry route
red line-funnel fence

I love the setup bro!

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[MUP]

Opening day of ML season. Early, doe comes in with buck in tow. After a misfire using BH209 in my pre 2009 CVA Kodiak Mag, I was fortunate enough to get reloaded, and then get a 2nd shot.

 

[easy45]

The President's Island buck hunt last season, my first thought was to set up in the woods on the back side of some open sand dunes in the woods but there were people hunting on the backs of both dunes and there were people hunting the dunes themselves so I decided to hunt the open woods between the dunes that led to the thickets, around 1:30 I heard a deer blow and saw him heading my way, going around the hunter in the dune ahead of me and to come through where I was at headed to the thickets, I shot him at 26 yards, my biggest bow buck and first P & Y buck.

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[Mission08]

Killed this deer in 2013 on opening morning with my brand new mission bow. It was the 7th buck to walk by that morning and I am glad I waited. Took him at 28 yards and found him dead 75 yards from where he was shot. My biggest buck to date.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

What county and date?^^^^^^^^^

 

[Mission08]

Opening morning of bow 2013. Bedford Co.

 

[ZachMarkus]

Nice bucks fellas


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[Tracker56]

I enjoy reading all the about all the setups and stories. Here's mine...

God blessed me with an awesome hunt Wed morning (11/12/14). I have had pictures of this buck all Spring, Summer & Fall. He is actually the smaller of the 2 that I have pictures of on this property. "Spreader" is still roaming the woods unless he got to ride in the back of another pickup, which isn't out of the question with public land only a stones throw away.

This was the second encounter I had with this buck. I had him at 25 yds on Sat (11/8/14) and closing but the wind shifted and he slammed on the brakes and looked straight at me. He trotted off at a safe distance away from me to the N. I had seen a descent buck earlier that same morning about 100yds to the ENE traveling from N to S and decided since this buck would probably never come passed this stand again it was time for a new plan.

When I climbed down on Sat I went over to the area I saw the decent buck and scouted for a good tree for a climber and marked it. Then I started checking the weather to see when I was going to get a good N wind and Wed it was. The forecast kept getting better too, the N wind was bringing with it a big drop in temp and offered some rain showers Tue afternoon and evening that allowed me to sneak in and hang my climber for a Wed morning hunt.

Wed finally arrived, the temps had dropped and the wind was the forecast N @ 8-10mph. I snuck in and climbed tree about 5:00 with legal light coming at 5:50. I had a plan to hunt til 9 since I had some other things going on that day. The morning overall was pretty quiet expect for a spike that came in behind me around 6:00 and 1,000,000 squirrels. At 8:30 I finally caught a glimpse of a buck chasing a doe about 100 yds to the NW. So I figured there was a chance she could bring him passed. So I stood up, clipped release on loop and positioned my feet to get ready. I no more than look up from clipping on release and here comes the doe right at me from straight up wind. Then I see the buck right behind her grunting the entire way in. They came through at 8yds @ 8:37 and I barely got him stopped long enough to shoot. I went with the mehhh, mehhh and finally HEY!!! Stopped long enough to send a slick trick through one lung and clipping the bottom of the other.

I thought for sure I'd see him go down in site but wasn't the case. He was still chasing the doe and followed over the road into the next section about 50 yds away. I climbed down and inspected the scene of the crime and the arrow looked good and I had good blood on the ground and on the next tree. I immediately headed to where I saw him cross and thought for sure I'd see him just over the next little hill or log. After 200 yds of this I decided to tie some surveyor tape to a tree and back out.

I went to work for my couple meetings and another apt and then headed back out @ 1:30 to meet a couple buddies to pick tracking back up. We got to the tape and picked the trail back up and it wasn't 50-75 yds and I could see his antlers sticking up!! What an awesome way to end the hunt!!! A dead buck and to get to share it with 2 great friends and fellow brothers in Christ.

Thank you to the Lord above to making this all possible.

God bless your time in the woods and wear those safety harnesses!!

 

[infoman jr.]

This is the way a lot of mature bucks are killed.

He made an uncharacteristic mistake and I happened to be there.

Great deer! You'd mentioned hunting 5 days straight. Perhaps he had patterned you, and switching things up got it done. Your first sit in a stand is often the best!

 

[BAMA BOW MERKER]

Nov 7, 2014. Saw 13 does and a small buck in the morning. I shot one of the does, it happened to be the biggest doe I've ever seen and I think I'm more proud of her than the buck. Stayed all day and at last light I had a nice 8 come out directly downwind. Watched him freshen up about 3 scrapes before he gave me a shot. Made a good shot and watched him go down.


If you notice in the bottom pic she is laying on him. She has been field dressed and he hasn't. She still dwarfs him. Wish I would have weighed her.

 

[spoon]

My last one, he walked by I shot him

 

[bjerniga]

Nov. 23, 2014 Middle TN hunting on my family farm. I had been hunting hard all season on public land and been seeing some nice deer but hadn't sealed the deal on a buck yet (was fortunate to kill a doe with my bow). My fiance's father was asking me to take him deer hunting and I figured public land would be too hard on him so I decided to take the 3 hour drive to my hometown for the rifle opener. We hunted opening day without any luck, I passed on a small buck and ended up taking a coyote. The next morning, we hunted a different farm that my family owns that receives quite a bit of hunting pressure, which is why I had passed on hunting there on opening day. There was a front moving in that day and the forecast was calling for rain by 9:00 am. I had positioned my future father in law in the area that historically had seen the most deer traffic and I decided to sit on the opposite side of the woodlot from him, honestly not expecting a lot of action. At first light I see this buck working scrapes along the edge of another woodlot a few hundred yards away from me. I could instantly tell he was a shooter. When he reached the end of that woodlot, he started trotting across the field towards the woodlot I was positioned against but at the angle he was running, I knew I was going to have to make a long shot. I slowly got in the prone position and just before he disappeared into the woods, I bleated loud with my mouth to stop him. He stopped, looked, and then I squeezed the trigger on my 7mm Mag. I could tell he was hit when I heard the bullet impact and he mule kicked and ran into the woodlot. Nervous about the hit, I walked over to my partner's position and told him to be ready in case I pushed the deer out the backside of the woodlot. I walked over to where he had been standing and found very little blood, but could see his tracks very well. I followed the tracks to the edge of the woods and saw him laying only 20 yards away. I had made a perfect heart shot from 200 yards, however, the bullet did not exit so most of the bleeding was internal. I estimated him to be low to mid 130's but my taxidermist taped him at 142" and aged him at 4-1/2 yrs old. It was an awesome day to say the least and I'm thankful to have taken such a deer off my old stomping grounds!

 

[Kayman12]

Thanksgiving day, 2014.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Dec 19, 2014. I had been hunting this buck for awhile. I first saw him in 2013. He stayed confined to a narrow patch of very thick woods on the edge of this farm. There is a old fence line between a yea old select-cut patch of hardwoods and a CRP field that was grown up about 15 feet high.

I put lot of time in this area, would catch glimpses of him, but never anything even close to a clear shot despite having him within 50-80 yards multiple times. He hugged that fence line and never, ever left thick cover. There was no way to move any tighter because deer often bed in this area throughout the day.

On The evening of Dec 19th, I was running late, so didn't risk entering the woods since I would often have regular deer movement in this spot. I flopped down on the South end of this field looking back North.

About a 3rd of the way up, you'll see some "streaks" across the field. That is a very subtle berm at the base of a hill. To my amazement, this buck stepped out from the West and began slowly moving and sniffing the ground heading East following the subtle terrain feature 170 yards to my North. I was utterly dumbfounded.

Despite a perfect broadside shot, he ran a good 100 yards and expired in the middle of the thick area that I had caught glimpses of him before. Even though I killed him 100 yards from where I had been actively hunting him, it was dumb luck. He made an uncharacteristic mistake and I happened to be there. 2 other guys hunt the field edges in this area and had never seen him in a field before. It's also worth noting that hunting 5 days straight, this was the only deer I saw, which is unusual for this farm.



http://www.GoCarnivore.com

This is great stuff and what I was after when creating this thread...pictures for the visual learners....good stuff poser

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Nov 7, 2014. Saw 13 does and a small buck in the morning. I shot one of the does, it happened to be the biggest doe I've ever seen and I think I'm more proud of her than the buck. Stayed all day and at last light I had a nice 8 come out directly downwind. Watched him freshen up about 3 scrapes before he gave me a shot. Made a good shot and watched him go down.


If you notice in the bottom pic she is laying on him. She has been field dressed and he hasn't. She still dwarfs him. Wish I would have weighed her.

Am interested in your setup on this deer...looks like you had to enter by water...how'd you find the spot

 

[easy45]

Could somebody tell me how to do what Poser did with the maps.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Could somebody tell me how to do what Poser did with the maps.

caltopo.com

or bingmaps and screen shot it...if on laptop use the snipping tool

 

[WhitesCreek]

Lots of 2014 kills


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[pass-thru]

I shot this buck on the Va ML opener last year. I had 3 years of photos and believe him to have been 4.5. His rack did not get any bigger from the year before...probably due to the drought and mast failure of the previous year.



This is the POV from the stand where he was killed. I had cut this shooting lane at the end of the previous season. It may look like a jeep trail in the pic but it's actually not much wider than the body of a deer. Anyway he stepped out at the very end of the lane (80-85 yards) after I had been on stand 4 hours. Could immediately tell he was mature based on posture alone.

 

[TN Whitetail Freak]

I shot this buck on the Va ML opener last year. I had 3 years of photos and believe him to have been 4.5. His rack did not get any bigger from the year before...probably due to the drought and mast failure of the previous year.



This is the POV from the stand where he was killed. I had cut this shooting lane at the end of the previous season. It may look like a jeep trail in the pic but it's actually not much wider than the body of a deer. Anyway he stepped out at the very end of the lane (80-85 yards) after I had been on stand 4 hours. Could immediately tell he was mature based on posture alone.

What made you setup here?

 

[pass-thru]

It's a funnel that I've actually been hunting for many years. Two blocks of timber catty corner with a pond and a pasture filling out the other sides. It is a tricky spot to hunt because deer flow down hill from both sides into the funnel. Although I have hunted for years I just cut the lane through thick stuff to allow shots on that side, which is to my right oblique sitting in the stand.

Here is straight ahead, and to my left out over the corner of the pond.






The straight ahead is looking into the funnel where the woods are necked down to about 30 yards, for a length of 50 yards or so. The property line and a cattle pasture is on the other side of that small strip, but it's thick to where you can't see it from the stand.

 

[BAMA BOW MERKER]

I hunt public a lot. Sometimes it's a lot easier to get to areas by water. Find a lot of spots scouting in February and March when it's easier to see, no snakes, and the deer trails are more obvious