27 November DeerDear MAHA Staff, I thought I would give you a short update. Dad and I hunted [location deleted] as you had suggested. We scouted one of the farms 2 weeks earlier and found a large amount of buck sign. This weekend, the farm was nearly devoid of active scrapes. The weather had warmed and this seemed to stifle the rut. Also, the soybeans were harvested last week and it seemed that the doe had left at about the same time. Several of the neighbor's properties had good looking alfalfa and I suspect most of the doe were over there. Opening morning, I had a decent 130 inch buck trot past my stand at about 50 yards. I wasn't happy with the shot so I let him pass. Dad saw several bucks he figured in the 130 inch range but as usual, he pardoned them.
Sunday morning, the wind had changed. I wasn't happy with the wind direction and where my stand was placed, I decided to do some still hunting on the creek bottoms. I posted on a ridge top until sunrise and then made my way across several creek bottoms. At approximately 8:30, I spotted a very nice buck upwind of me about 50 yards in the bean stubble. I was of course, on the ground, standing behind a very large elm tree. He could either go down into the creek bottom or stay on the bean stubble. Either way it would be a close shot. He decided to go into the bottoms. Unbeknownst to me is that he was following 2 does. I watched the doe for 15 minutes upwind at about 30 yards, but no sign of the buck. He finally appeared in the bottoms. I watched him and the 2 does for the next 30 minutes, which seemed like 2 hours. It then dawned on me that I was standing on a deer trail and sooner or later one of the does was going to bust me! Talk about panic!
The 3 of them slowly worked my way, and sure enough, one of the does decided to come up the ridge. She took one look at me and ran off with a loud snort. She stopped about 30 yards away in the brush. I thought that perhaps she would calm down. No such luck. She had seen enough and took off. The buck watched as the doe left at MACH 4. It was then time for him to leave. As most big bucks do, he was slow and methodical and was surveying the situation. I only had 1 shot through the brush if he exited the creek bottom where he entered. As luck would have it, he did. I took him at 50 yards. 15 score-able points.
Not very wide but great mass on this big main frame 10 pointer. His Gross Score was 164 3/8! My biggest to date! Definitely a buck of a lifetime! As an ER doctor, I thought I was going to need a defibrillator!
Thanks to all of the MAHA staff who makes the Association the best! I can't wait until spring! [name deleted]
Great hunt account, congratulations on your personal best! Thank you for sharing you story and picture, the kind we all like to read.
PheasantJohn here a few pictures of some bird hunts in [location deleted] I have found the habitat to be good but the bird # are down a little from the last couple of years going to [location deleted] sat. for a few days will send more pictures and a report when I return, I also want to thank everyone else for the reports thanks, Rick.
Thank you Rick for showing your hunts. Looks like a several good days. Always like seeing the dogs.
For the most part pheasant reports indicate fair to great hunts with Kansas providing the best hunts to date.
QuailQuail reports are best characterized as sporadic. Different hunters within the same county one week apart have had widely divergent success/failure assessments. Reports of poor to good hunts have been sent in covering each of our upland bird regions. At this point in the season with the cooler weather having just arrived more future hunt reports are expected and perhaps regional differences will emerge. |
|
|
|
