I shot this buck a week ago today, but I am just now getting around to posting it up. We hunt just northeast of Clarendon, and most of our hunters only hunt quail. Our lease is made up of my dad and three other guys who are all bird hunters. The lease is a family lease so they allow me to deer hunt. Since I do not pay anything to hunt I do not get real pushy about where I am going to hunt. The lease is made up of several parcels of land. My stand and feeder are on a section that is about 70% culivated land and 30% brush. The last two years the whitetails have been almost non-existent. I have only killed Mulies these past two years.
This year I decided to ask my dad about hunting another section up the road since it seems to hold more whitetails. They gave me the green light and said there was wheat planted on the NW corner. The rest of the property is CRP. I had not stepped foot on the place since I quail hunted it 5 years ago. I decided to sit there the first evening up under a tree between their bedding area and the wheat field. That evening I counted 34 does and 3 bucks! All bucks were cruising and out at 300+ yds.
The next morning I decided to get a little closer to their bedding area where I saw the bucks cruising. I sat up on some hay bales not 150 yds from where I saw a good shooter buck cruising the afternoon before. From sun up I had does moving all around me. Then about 8:00 am I hear movement through the brush just 40 yds away. A group of 7 does were moving through and munching on the native browse. Then I spot a young 8 coming up through the brush. I watch him push does around for about 5 minutes then he goes to leave. He ends up circling back around into the brush and I lose sight of him. Then 10 minutes later I see antlers through the brush in the same place that 8 came from. I assumed it was just him again coming back. But then it got closer and I could tell it was not him. This was a bigger buck. He made his way to the edge of the brush and I could tell I would take the shot if he presented it. He stepped out to check a doe at about 35 yds and that was that.
I was glad I asked about hunting this place. I can't wait til next year. The landowner told me there are "lots" of bucks like this one. He said he has been seeing two monsters in that same area. I was happy to harvest this guy this year. Next year I will probably hold out for one of those monsters!
This year I decided to ask my dad about hunting another section up the road since it seems to hold more whitetails. They gave me the green light and said there was wheat planted on the NW corner. The rest of the property is CRP. I had not stepped foot on the place since I quail hunted it 5 years ago. I decided to sit there the first evening up under a tree between their bedding area and the wheat field. That evening I counted 34 does and 3 bucks! All bucks were cruising and out at 300+ yds.
The next morning I decided to get a little closer to their bedding area where I saw the bucks cruising. I sat up on some hay bales not 150 yds from where I saw a good shooter buck cruising the afternoon before. From sun up I had does moving all around me. Then about 8:00 am I hear movement through the brush just 40 yds away. A group of 7 does were moving through and munching on the native browse. Then I spot a young 8 coming up through the brush. I watch him push does around for about 5 minutes then he goes to leave. He ends up circling back around into the brush and I lose sight of him. Then 10 minutes later I see antlers through the brush in the same place that 8 came from. I assumed it was just him again coming back. But then it got closer and I could tell it was not him. This was a bigger buck. He made his way to the edge of the brush and I could tell I would take the shot if he presented it. He stepped out to check a doe at about 35 yds and that was that.
I was glad I asked about hunting this place. I can't wait til next year. The landowner told me there are "lots" of bucks like this one. He said he has been seeing two monsters in that same area. I was happy to harvest this guy this year. Next year I will probably hold out for one of those monsters!
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