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Headed out.
Service was terrible. No deer spotted.
I’ll post write up and score with pics in about 30 minutes.Comment
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Great deer and congratulations I say 154
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155.Comment
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I want to start out with, I know I’ll probably never top the last two days hunts the rest of my life and I’m totally fine with that.
There have been so many emotions from Super High to Super low it’s a miracle I’m not in some sort of mental state.
I’ll start with yesterday morning...
A more perfect script couldn’t have been written for the hunt yesterday morning. I had brought Brian a brand new ladder stand as a token of appreciation for everything he has done for my family over the years. He suggested hanging it on a property that is hardly pressured at all and pretty much an Ace In The Hole spot. Then he said “I’ll put Talen there Friday morning.” My eyes lit up. I’ve hunted this property. I know how good it is.
So we hung the stand. Trimmed shooting lanes and it was a done deal.
Saturday morning roles around and we are covered up. Everything kinda settles down and Talen bumps my leg followed with, “Dad, big buck. Big buck!” The buck he shot comes in on a string and checks 2 yearlings that had bedded 39 yards from us and proceeds to 27 yards broadside and starts feeding. I got the video rolling and am in shock at what is playing out.
Now before I go any farther, I need to say, I left this next part out of yesterday’s live hunt because I’ll never make excuses for a bad shot. Especially for my kids. Freak things happen. It’s bow hunting. And I was urged to tell it like it happened from a buddy today.
Talen has never shot his bow with cold weather gear on. Never with a face mask or neck gaiter. When I give him the go ahead to shoot, he drew his bow and at full draw while anchoring, not even looking thru the peep, his thumb release caught his neck gaiter and the bow fired. It’s a miracle he even hit the deer. He has been working on drawing with his bow out in front of him instead of skyline drawing. So he had it pointed in the bucks direction before drawing.
What followed after that was the shot, Talen saying “Oh no! My release hit my face mask!” & me thinking every thing was ok. Shot was a touch high but looked good enough to get lungs. I was totally unaware of what had happened and telling him it’s good. It’s a lethal hit. When he told me the details I was shocked he hit the deer. In the video you can hear him say those words after the shot.
Y’all know how the rest of the day went. We hunted the evening. Had a great hunt & saw lots of deer. Dog showed up worked great. We backed out due to respect for other hunters and accepting the fact that the shot wasn’t lethal after 900 yards of tracking with no bed found.
SOOOO, when we got back to the camp, discussing today’s plan, Brian gave T the Ok to shoot another buck and suggested we go to the windbreak property as new bucks had been showing up on camera. I said Talen, you’re back in buddy. Where do you want to hunt? Same place as this evening or the windbreak? Followed with, the windbreak is tough hunting. I hunted there 3 times and saw 1 deer. But it was a shooter buck. Not a lot of deer but it does hold some bucks. The property we hunted this evening has a lot of deer.
My 15 yr old son, who just lost the biggest deer he has ever shot, gun or bow, replies with...
“Dad. I want to go big or go home. Let’s hunt the windbreak.”
10/4 Buddy. That’s what we’ll do.
So this mornings alarm clock goes off and I’m hitting snooze still sour about not finding the deer and the freak misfire. Im debating on just going to the property from yesterday evening because I know we are gonna see plenty of deer. Nope! That boy wants to hunt a big Deer and that’s what we are gonna do. So we head to the windbreak.
Arrived @ 6:00. In our stands at 6:10. We are 60-80 yards from each other. I get a text from Brian @ 6:30. “Hope youre on the wind break... shooter”. I reply, We are. I check the camera and bout have a heart attack. 170+” deer 200 yards from Talen. I literally need blood pressure medication by the time daylight shows up @ 6:50, I text Talen to let me know when he can see his pin so I can rattle. I get the go ahead and give a long loud grunt and start working the horns. I immediately see this big sucker barrel out of the windbreak and is headed our way. But he angles out in the wheat and is 70 yards from Talen and 80 yards from me and continues West towards me until he gets T’s wind and leaves out headed North.
I’m frustrated and aggravated. But pumped that we got to see that deer and have such a cool encounter. I’m glad that Talen got to see how rattling works in Kansas. Amazed that this kids has laid eyes on 2 Kansas brutes in less than 24 hrs. Thinking to myself how blessed we are to be doing this together.
20 min goes by and I decide to rattle again. So I grab the grunt call. Let out a big growl and got to working the horns again. Immediately another buck pops over the hill to our East and is headed right down the windbreak to Talen. I set the horns down, grab the binos, and take a look. Shooter!!! I signal T to get ready. I get the camera rolling but can’t get it focused due to so many limbs in the way. He is coming in in a string looking for a fight. Right before he gets to T he veers off in the wheat and I’m panicking. From my view he looks to be out of range. Suddenly I hear Talen let out a, meeeh. Buck doesn’t stop. Another louder, meeeh. I’m panicking more. He looks out of range. “Please Lord let him make a good shot.”
I hear the bow. I see the red nocturnal flying thru the air and stop as the arrow makes contact. I see the buck leave out like he just got lit on fire. He runs straight to the windbreak and is coming towards me. Limbs are busting, bushes are moving and the nocturnal is bouncing around like it’s strapped to a jackhammer. He sounds like a D8 dozer going thru the brush. I’m watching the whole thing saying to myself. Go down. Please go down. Just as I lose sight of him I hear all kinds of commotion and then silence. I’m trying to gather my thoughts and take in everything that just happened.
What was actually 1 min and 20 secs seemed like an hr. I couldn’t take it anymore. I called out to T, “Talen! You just killed that buck!!” I hear a response, “Dad!!! I just killed that buck!!!” That’s when I lost it. Tears poored down my face and I sobbed like a little kid while telling my son how proud I was of him and how much this hunt meant to me, (all from a lock on 60 yards away from him). To watch him range, grunt, stop the deer, and capitalize a 35 yard shot. All after what had just happened the day before.
I finally gathered my self up and told him to get down and we met at the shot. Found blood immediately. I said to heck with tracking him. I know where he is. Let’s go! We got to the windbreak, I looked to the right where I thought I heard him crash. Nothing. Looked to the left and there he lay 15 yards from us. I immediately bear hugged T. Then we both ran to him and that’s when we realized what he had just killed. I had no idea that buck was that good. Mass, Tines, main beams, kicker, Mule deer Fork. What a toad!!
We looked him over. Hugged again. FaceTimed his Mom and told her the story. Then I lost it again. Emotions took me over explaining to Summer how proud I was of him for keeping his composure and not getting down about losing the other buck. How he had stopped the buck himself and made a perfect shot. I looked at T to apologize for crying and saw he had tears running down his face. I hugged him and told him how much I loved him. It was a proud moment for me to say the least.
We took a few grip & grins. Called Brian to share the news and got him tagged. Laughed about how this kid had laid eyes on 470” of bone on just 3 deer in less than 24 hrs. Loaded him up and stopped at the State park to take more pics.
We all took our guesses on what we thought he scored.
Brian -139” Heith- 142” Talen-145”
Got him to camp and got him caped, quartered and on ice.
Brian took to the score sheet while Talen and I handled the cleaning.
At the final tally we were all shocked at the outcome!!!!
152 & 1/4”. Not bad for a 15 yr olds first Kansas buck!!!
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Hope you got some sleep buddy.Originally posted by trophy8 View Post****. I just got home on nights and supposed to sleep. Now I can’t
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Sorry for the delay. LolComment
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Yes sir. But farmers were in there an 1hr after the shot building fence. So property will be left alone for a while.Originally posted by GarGuy View Post
Thanks Justin! Really appreciate that!Originally posted by Justin Spies View Post
Thanks Steve! That’s an awesome compliment!Originally posted by GarGuy View PostComment
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18 Days to Kill- Live!!! - Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, South Tx
Originally posted by Backwoods101 View Post
Hahaha!
Thanks Buddy!
Bryce is enjoying the married life and holding a full time job down. He has hunted hard this year. Just hasn’t capitalized yet. His wife shot her personal best buck 2 weeks ago. 131” 9 point.
Our family is definitely having an epic year.
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Way to go Men. Y'all have had more fun in two days than most do all season.
Congratulations!Comment
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Again, heck of a buck, and even better write up! Congrats dad and great job T!!Comment
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Man I was dead on the numbers except beams. Even better!Comment
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Don't get any better than that. Huge congrats T, and good luck getting that kansas out of your blood.
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