Help needed in KS!

[Bowanta]

Congrats on your doe and good luck on your buck. Post up pics on this forum. You won't necessarrily be believed without pics (HAHA).

Bisch

Bisch is CORRECT.. Post are useless WITHOUT Pics....
Good Luck

[Shane]

Wise grandma! She figured out how to make sure you come and visit her EVERY year, no matter where you move off to.

[jta75]

Ok guys I need some opinions now on whether or not to shoot a small buck. Given that I've never shot a buck before, I'm dying to shoot one. This morning I had a 4 pt and small 6 pt walk under my tree. I passed on both of them in hopes of seeing "THE BIG ONE" the landowner has told me about. The 4 pt actually came back to me 30 minutes later. I passed twice on the guy this morning. He's a local and I see him everyday (I passed on a shot two days ago too). He's really starting to look like summer sausage with legs to me! Would you all go ahead and take him just to get your first or let him grow for future hunts? I was really wanting my first to be at least an 8 pt. Would you be embarrassed to show folks pics of a 4 pt you took or do I get a first buck exemption?

Another option is to take another doe. My tag is an Any Season - Either Sex tag.

I'm running out of time. Most likely Sunday morning will be my last hunt, although my wife is really suggesting we leave tomorrow afternoon.

[jta75]

I just realized I probably jinxed myself by presuming the 4 pt will come within range again. Great.

[Burnadell]

I suggest holding off on the 4 point, but for your first buck it would be okay. You already have doe for meat and your first kill, so that hooked you. Now, hold off and let the 4 point grow.

My hunting buddy has convinced me that BIG OLD KANSAS bucks get spooked easily and WILL go into hiding if they sense your intrusion. The young bucks may come back, but the wise old bucks will not come back for a while. Be cautious and don't shoot a buck just to be shooting one; hold off for a trophy.

Send me a PM, and I'll come up there and teach/show you.

Good luck and welcome to TBH and deer hunting!

[jta75]

I suggest holding off on the 4 point, but for your first buck it would be okay. You already have doe for meat and your first kill, so that hooked you. Now, hold off and let the 4 point grow.

My hunting buddy has convinced me that BIG OLD KANSAS bucks get spooked easily and WILL go into hiding if they sense your intrusion. The young bucks may come back, but the wise old bucks will not come back for a while. Be cautious and don't shoot a buck just to be shooting one; hold off for a trophy.

Send me a PM, and I'll come up there and teach/show you.

Good luck and welcome to TBH and deer hunting!

Thanks for the input! I know letting him grow is the right thing to do and that's what I'll do.

I had my wife pick up another tree stand during a black friday sale today. I decided to set it up north a bit from my other location. I've seen deer following a creek that runs thru a draw in the adjacent CRP field. I positioned my new stand in a tree where the draw intersects the land I have permission to hunt. This area is wooded and I found several scrapes on medium sized trees along the creek. Hopefully this new location will produce the brute. For now I'm giving up on the deer trails along the hedge row.

So I have to share my story from tonight's hunt. I'm sitting in my new location and about 30 minutes from dark 3 does started walking down the draw my way. Well one of them decides to drink from the creek directly below me and then just hangs out for 20 minutes. She was being very cautious so I'm standing completely still in order to not give away my position. Well before you know it my side starts cramping...then my calf...then my back. It was hurting like heck but I fought thru it. For some crazy reason I enjoyed every minute of it! This bowhunting is a blast.

[Burnadell]

Yep, you are hooked. Good job on not giving your position away. Since you only get one buck, it is up to you on what you want to shoot. You cannot kill big bucks if you settle on a small one. Good luck!

[Bluesman]

Congrats on the doe.
I've hunted whitetail in Kansas since 1965. Typically there is no difference between Kansas deer and deer anywhere else. You get close based on their terms, your positioning, and luck.
In Kansas large scale farming with wind (hedge) rows seperating the fields does help as the wind rows provide cover for the deer to travel from place to place. Even though a good selection of a stand site in a hedge row seems to be almost fool proof you can still blow that site in spite of your best efforts. Deer will have an alternate route and will change at a moments notice.
If you are having mature does pass within bow range, a good buck will eventually follow.
I think I have learned more about bigger mature buck behavior by watching bachelor groups in August and September. Quite often the younger bucks venture out in the open to play around while the bigger fellas stay back in the brush and observe. They will usually wait until late evening to come out in the open.
I've also observed bucks waiting in the brush for does to travel to them opposed to what we commonly think of during rut behavior. In this case getting set up in his position is pretty difficult. If does are headed your way always look at where they are headed something nice may be nearby waiting.
Regardless of what I think you're getting close on a regular basis so keep doing whatever you're doing.
Best of luck to you.

[lovemylegacy]

jta75 congrats on the doe, since a few deer have been spooked an alternate stand maybe best and come back to the original stand after a good rain. Personally I've hunted the same stand many consecutive times as long as the deer are not alerted to my presence.

[Burnadell]

So, any blood spilled today?

[jta75]

So, any blood spilled today?

Well I ended up shooting a buck on my last hunt.

Unfortunately the buck was not as nice as I first thought. Being that it was my last hunt, I jumped the gun a bit. I was just too anxious to shoot my first buck. When I first spotted him, he was moving thru the trees and I only got a short glimpse of him. I saw enough to THINK he was a small 8 pt and decided it was worthy for my first buck ever. He wasn’t a shooter for experienced trophy hunters, but for my first I figured it would be ok. What I didn’t notice is that one of his antlers was broke off. He was moving too fast that I didn’t get a great look at him. I drew while he stopped behind an evergreen. He poked around the tree and was quartering toward me. By that time I was so focused on aiming that I STILL didn’t notice his broken antler. Well I thumped him and noticed later that he was missing his left antler. His remaining antler had broken points too. So my first buck ever turned out to be a bit ugly...although he was a big boy.

Oh well, I guess I learned a lesson. Its like they say in carpentry…measure twice, cut once! Next time I’ll double check before I let fly.

Still it was a blast and I can’t wait until next year! I'm very fortunate to be hunting this property. It's loaded with deer and I'm this first to hunt it in 6 years. Luckily they said I was welcome back next year!

Pics to come.

[jta75]

So here is my broken brute. You can really see in the last pic what kind of devastation those Rage 2 blades cause! He was slightly quartered towards me and when he ran off his liver was hanging out of the exit hole. There was no doubt he was going down.

[150class]

Congrats man nothing like the first!!!!!!!

[Bowanta]

Congrats and welcome to BOWHUNTING.... Nothing beats it..

[Big Spec]

very nice, congrats