Hunting

Warning, long post.

Forecast was calling for rain tonight and thunderstorms tomorrow so I left work at lunch to sit in my stand from early afternoon until dark.

At 3:00 a button buck and young doe crept in behind me. 30 minutes after them 2 more little ones came in. After an hour of watching them feed on acorns the doe and button buck bedded down 25 yards from me. The 2 little ones wondered away and then started crying for mom.

They returned, still calling for mom. But mom was apparently in deep sleep and didnt respond. After they walked away, mom and the button buck jumped up and chased after them.

30 minutes later its just me and holy hell I had to take a piss. Its now just about 6:00 and there isnt much time left to hunt. I refuse to climb down outta my stand and decide to just whip it out and pee from 20 feet up. My stream hits the dry leaves and it sounds ridiculously loud. As I zip up, I hear leaves crashing/shuffling.

Yep, its a buck and I just wizzed everywhere. He came into my clearing with nose up and to my shock he started rubbing his head/nose on a limb. Turned broadside at ~15 yards and I let it rip. He took off out of eye sight behind some pines.

As I stand there replaying the shot in my head, I felt i had good placement on him but i let the arrow fly in-between 2 limbs. Man, I hope I didnt clip one of them. Oh, and by the way earlier in the day I saw a video about rage broadheads and realized I had mine set in the grooves instead of the collars so I fixed them all while sitting in the stand today.

After 30 minutes I climb down because now im panicking not knowing if I should or shouldnt have messed with the mechanical blades. I walk over to the point of impact and we got decent blood. I look at my phone and realize its suppose to start raining any second and I havent even started to track because it hasnt been an hour yet.

I slowly take baby steps tracking. Blood glistening on crispy leaves. And there he is. Holy shit, he maybe made it 10 yards. My shot was true, I double lung’d him and blasted the top part of his heart.

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Stakem , is that the same big fat buck from your post just before?
No the night pic is an absolute tank - 10 pointer that is likely 50+ lbs heavier than this 8 point.

This buck I harvested I do not believe was even on my radar. I will have to dig into older cam footage as I know he wasnt around recently.
 
This buck I harvested I do not believe was even on my radar. I will have to dig into older cam footage as I know he wasnt around recently.

Well, I could not find any archived pics of my buck but upon review of my camera from this past week, he was captured at 9:30 pm on monday.

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I am very grateful for this harvest but I cant help but think of the “what ifs.” Knowing this guy was previously creeping at 9:30 pm proves the 2 other buck I was dreaming about were capable of slipping up and walking by my stand during shooting hours as well.

The strength of these animals is incredible. I cannot believe he was even able to walk/run away from taking a broadhead through the heart.
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Warning, long post.

Forecast was calling for rain tonight and thunderstorms tomorrow so I left work at lunch to sit in my stand from early afternoon until dark.

At 3:00 a button buck and young doe crept in behind me. 30 minutes after them 2 more little ones came in. After an hour of watching them feed on acorns the doe and button buck bedded down 25 yards from me. The 2 little ones wondered away and then started crying for mom.

They returned, still calling for mom. But mom was apparently in deep sleep and didnt respond. After they walked away, mom and the button buck jumped up and chased after them.

30 minutes later its just me and holy hell I had to take a piss. Its now just about 6:00 and there isnt much time left to hunt. I refuse to climb down outta my stand and decide to just whip it out and pee from 20 feet up. My stream hits the dry leaves and it sounds ridiculously loud. As I zip up, I hear leaves crashing/shuffling.

Yep, its a buck and I just wizzed everywhere. He came into my clearing with nose up and to my shock he started rubbing his head/nose on a limb. Turned broadside at ~15 yards and I let it rip. He took off out of eye sight behind some pines.

As I stand there replaying the shot in my head, I felt i had good placement on him but i let the arrow fly in-between 2 limbs. Man, I hope I didnt clip one of them. Oh, and by the way earlier in the day I saw a video about rage broadheads and realized I had mine set in the grooves instead of the collars so I fixed them all while sitting in the stand today.

After 30 minutes I climb down because now im panicking not knowing if I should or shouldnt have messed with the mechanical blades. I walk over to the point of impact and we got decent blood. I look at my phone and realize its suppose to start raining any second and I havent even started to track because it hasnt been an hour yet.

I slowly take baby steps tracking. Blood glistening on crispy leaves. And there he is. Holy shit, he maybe made it 10 yards. My shot was true, I double lung’d him and blasted the top part of his heart.

1D19164E-BF8B-463A-B643-27F2C1EB1C9A.jpeg
BCDB6A1A-4135-4417-92B0-822CC491E573.jpeg

Dat Fantome sticker!

You are probably the only truck drivin' deer hunter with that on their rig.
 
Well, I could not find any archived pics of my buck but upon review of my camera from this past week, he was captured at 9:30 pm on monday.

87F59B6E-0973-4EE0-ABCF-D391DC9BE84C.jpeg

I am very grateful for this harvest but I cant help but think of the “what ifs.” Knowing this guy was previously creeping at 9:30 pm proves the 2 other buck I was dreaming about were capable of slipping up and walking by my stand during shooting hours as well.

The strength of these animals is incredible. I cannot believe he was even able to walk/run away from taking a broadhead through the heart.
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That's fuckin amazing! Thank you for sharing that.
 
Opening morning for modern gun here in Texas. Unusually cold week for us, so I hoped the deer would be stirring. About an hour after daylight a couple of young bucks came out. They ignored my corn and after several minutes moved on. They kept looking behind them as they left so I thought maybe a larger buck was behind them.

About 5 minutes later this one walked out. Much larger than the previous two, but only a 3 pointer. Watched him thru the scope for a few minutes and judged him to be 4-5 years old. Decided to cull him since he was older and with stunted antlers.

Front shoulder shot and he ran for a few seconds before I heard him crash. Older buck but he has lots of good meat on him.
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Shot a few more quackers this morning in Big Valley CA.
 
whitetail rut is on in my area.

Was off work all day yesterday to sit with the bow in hopes of arrowing a mature doe, bear or turkey.

I got into a stand I havent sat in yet this year and for the hour leading up to daybreak it sounded like a herd of deer was circling me. Once it was light out it calmed down but I did see a doe getting chased by a rather nice buck.

I was not prepared for an all day sit so around lunch I got up to move and get some bloodflow/feeling back in my feet. I had lunch and went to a different spot.

In the last hour of light I watched 4 young doe at sub 30 yards. As they grazed away from me a doe came crashing in behind me getting chased by a shovel buck and behind him a nice 6 point was also giving chase. They looped around me a couple times and off they went. Couple minutes after that a 5 point comes walking in, huffing and puffing and beds down 25 yards from me. I had to do a double-take to make sure he wasnt hit by another hunter. I stayed in my climber until I couldnt see anymore and when I started down I shined my flashlight on him, saw no injuries and he darted off.

Gonna give it another go tomorrow am and then meet my brother and nephew to put the murder on some pheasants.
 
One day ill have the free time, tools and recipes to make my own but until then im very happy to take 40 pounds of ground venison to a butcher and get this in return.

Pizza flavored sausage (not my top pick to do with this meat but my kids go bonkers for it.)
Country style breakfast sausage links

Then 3 flavors of snack sticks:
kielbasa with cheese
hot sticks with cheddar
hickory sticks
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It was 26 degrees this morning. I may or may not have fell when crossing the creek to my stand which had snowflakes on the seat when I climbed in.

I was so wet and cold, I barely made it to daylight let alone lasted to 8:30 where I had to go into self preservation mode and move. The wind cut right through me despite wearing 8 layers. I lost feeling in my limbs, still dont know how I climbed down.

Swapped out my wet clothes, and bow for shotgun and met my brother and nephew to go after pheasants. They lasted a little over an hour until they both succumbed to the cold.... guys, you wernt even wet this morning! Whatever.

I pressed on by myself and limited out.

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Rut has started here, so I took off yesterday to sit on the stand all day. Nice day in the woods, but didn’t see a hide. Came back out this afternoon and started hitting the doe urine spray every 30 minutes in hopes of catching an evening straggler. After a couple of hours he came out downwind of the spray. Not sure if he came out specifically because of the urine or was just traveling thru.

Got him broadside right behind the front shoulder. He leapt up high as soon as I shot, then took off. I heard him crash after just a few seconds. He made it about 10 yards before falling. Went to take the heart while processing but it was shredded.

Definitely one of the largest body deers I’ve killed in several years. Thankful for the opportunity to take such an animal.
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Pretty emotional experience from the treestand yesterday.

My daughter is 8 and she has been asking to go deer hunting with me for the last couple years. Her mentored youth license arrived friday so I took her last night.

It was 30 degrees out and I had her wrapped it so many layers, you will see in the pic she wasnt even in full camo. Earlier in the day I went in and took sections out of my ladder stand so it wasnt too high for her and then I installed the deadshot shooting mount I bought for her that she had been practicing with.

Walking in, she looked at me. Gave me a hug and a kiss and said Daddy, thank you so much for taking me hunting. She thanked me about 6 different times in the 1.5 hours we were out. I knew she wanted to go but didnt realize it meant this much to her.

The first 30-45 minutes we sat and quietly talked about how good deer can see, smell and hear. She practiced taking aim at different trees, rocks and squirrels.

When she started to lose focus, I got out the tube and gave a few grunts. I also handed her a doe bleat can call and she thought that was amazing that she was calling too.

5 minutes later a buck comes crashing right at us. He came down the same run I shot my buck from! I was losing my mind. She took aim but he never gave her a clean shot. He slowly made his way away from us. But she looked at me with eyes wide open and said: THAT WAS SO COOL!

We kept her aim in that direction knowing he could come back at any moment. 15 minutes later 2 doe come in from the opposite direction. The smaller of the 2 was at 5 yards but she wanted to shoot the larger one which was at about 20 yards. She aimed, flipped the safety off and fired. I watched the bolt miss high.

I grabbed ahold of her and gave her the biggest hug. We talked about what needs to happen now that she took a shot. We spoke about why we wait and what we do next. We sat talking for about 20 minutes and then climbed down. We returned to my truck to drop off the crossbow, the shooting rest and the extra gear and we grabbed extra batteries for our flash lights. I knew she missed but we went looking anyway. No signs of blood, hair etc and we couldnt find her bolt... except for the knock which musta popped off on impact like she hit a rock. Gonna head out in about an hour to do a more thorough search for the missing bolt.

She was a little bummed she missed but also real happy to have seen a deer on her first time out. I told her this just means she has to practice more and get that next one!

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Pretty emotional experience from the treestand yesterday.

My daughter is 8 and she has been asking to go deer hunting with me for the last couple years. Her mentored youth license arrived friday so I took her last night.

It was 30 degrees out and I had her wrapped it so many layers, you will see in the pic she wasnt even in full camo. Earlier in the day I went in and took sections out of my ladder stand so it wasnt too high for her and then I installed the deadshot shooting mount I bought for her that she had been practicing with.

Walking in, she looked at me. Gave me a hug and a kiss and said Daddy, thank you so much for taking me hunting. She thanked me about 6 different times in the 1.5 hours we were out. I knew she wanted to go but didnt realize it meant this much to her.

The first 30-45 minutes we sat and quietly talked about how good deer can see, smell and hear. She practiced taking aim at different trees, rocks and squirrels.

When she started to lose focus, I got out the tube and gave a few grunts. I also handed her a doe bleat can call and she thought that was amazing that she was calling too.

5 minutes later a buck comes crashing right at us. He came down the same run I shot my buck from! I was losing my mind. She took aim but he never gave her a clean shot. He slowly made his way away from us. But she looked at me with eyes wide open and said: THAT WAS SO COOL!

We kept her aim in that direction knowing he could come back at any moment. 15 minutes later 2 doe come in from the opposite direction. The smaller of the 2 was at 5 yards but she wanted to shoot the larger one which was at about 20 yards. She aimed, flipped the safety off and fired. I watched the bolt miss high.

I grabbed ahold of her and gave her the biggest hug. We talked about what needs to happen now that she took a shot. We spoke about why we wait and what we do next. We sat talking for about 20 minutes and then climbed down. We returned to my truck to drop off the crossbow, the shooting rest and the extra gear and we grabbed extra batteries for our flash lights. I knew she missed but we went looking anyway. No signs of blood, hair etc and we couldnt find her bolt... except for the knock which musta popped off on impact like she hit a rock. Gonna head out in about an hour to do a more thorough search for the missing bolt.

She was a little bummed she missed but also real happy to have seen a deer on her first time out. I told her this just means she has to practice more and get that next one!

96B122E5-3A91-4E50-A09E-DD5750F86656.jpeg

That so awesome man. Doing any hobby or sport with kids is an absolute blast, even better when it’s something you enjoy yourself. When a child is so thankful, so excited and enthusiastic to do it with you, it sure as hell makes your heart explode with joy, and they don’t know that ultimately the roles are reversed.

awesome awesome story. I hope she practices well, and gets her shot next time
 
I dont post all that much about pheasants anymore but this was from my outing today and yesterday after work.

I try to avoid harvesting hens because they have such little meat to them compared to the cock birds but yesterday I only came across 2 birds and they were hens so I took them.

One of which was quite the mature bird as her breast meat was as substantial as the male counterparts. Then today, the second male I harvested was also quite the mature bird as I was crashing through some briars that son of a bitch held tight like a grouse and flushed when I almost stepped on it. Scared the shit outta me as I wasnt ready for that like I am when im busting cover for grouse.

It breaks my heart that every time I come home with birds my pup goes crazy. I know he wants to go with and man id love to take him but I know what it does to him and I cant stomach the thought of him running himself to death and being unable to standup/walk for the next week. God id give anything for one last hunt with him.

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Here is a pic of the male spurs of which I assume the upper dull darker ones are from the younger bird and the one on the bottom is the pointy talons of the more mature bird that is ready to fight. My hand is really messing up the pic, you gotta take my word for it that the spurs on the bottom are not only pale but 2x longer and as sharp as needles. 6662C11D-AE66-4616-BB56-996AA8B4AE02.jpeg
 
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