Big Game > Whitetail Deer

The hunt for a public land buck...

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Bukmastr:
Last year during the rut I 1st saw the buck while shining ( a legal practice here ) the public land. He was with a doe in a private field ajacent to the public marsh. It was just after dark and I new where the big bucks that used that field bedded most of the time, at least if they were arriving in that field that early. The next evening I was slipping to the big buck bedding area to cut it off between the bedding area and the field and had to pass thru a small doe bedding area that only gets used every now and then. As I was walking thru the doe bedding area a doe jumped up and ran and then the buck stood up. I could see he would be close to B&C size wise and new instantly it was the buck I shined the day before. He was only about 30 yards from me standing broadside, but I did not have an arrow nocked. By the time I got an arrow on the rest he bolted...  He went the complete opisate direction of the doe and ran right to the big buck bedding area that I had expected him to be in in the 1st place...  I decided my best bet was to set up right where the doe ran off the other way hoping he would come back before dark looking for his girlfriend. And he did, but he was smart enough to make a large circle downwind and catch my scent and blow out of there.

  I noticed there were some great rubs that were in the vacinity of the buck bedding area. The rubs were stomach high on me indicating it was a mature buck. This is a VERY high pressure area and hunters were set up over all the rubs and scrapes. You are not allowed to leave stands over night here, but several were indeed hanging in the trees.

 It was obvious that the hunters were misreading the sign and believing the buck was coming up the trails from the doe bedding areas where the rubs and scrapes were. But he was in my opinion crossing the doe trails checking for does in heat and marking where he crossed there trails.

 The big buck bedding area is located in a way that everybody overlooks it and hunters rarly ever go into this little patch of brush.

 After my 1st encounter with that buck, I did not get another chance to see him while hunting. But did see him on private ground a few times with the spotlight... Meanwhile a lot of hunters around the little town of Rome were talking about shining this buck, and a few had claimed to see it in the woods near where he was seen by me during the rut.

 This last summer leading up to this deer season I shined the buck on private and public land in that area. But I was not alone. There were many hunters shining and talking about this buck. When early season arrived the buck dissapeared...  and his rubs did not show up. I kept hope that he would come back after the does in the prerut. About the 2nd to 3rd week of November talk around town was that the buck was being shined again...  I took a walk along the rubline and found the big high rubs opened back up, and treestands, groundblinds, and scent bombs everywhere along his rought. The wind was wrong for a hunt that day... 

  I went shining that night and seen him cruising the private field adjacent to his bedding area on the public just after dark. There was a line of others shining him as well...

  We had several days of bad wind. But on Halloween evening, we had the right wind. So I slipped into the planned set up tree for the 1st time this year. I had to really sneak because the tree is only about 75 yards from the buck bed. I had to set up really high because of braches in the way ( we are not allowed to cut shooting lanes on public here )

On the way to the stand I passed up several other hunters sitting over the rubs and scrapes.

I used 5 sticks and climbed the back of the tree to avoid being seen from the bed in the cattails. It was a pretty uneventfull evening till the last 20 minutes or so when the buck rose up out of his bed 75 yards from me.

He slowly headed straight for me. There was no clear shot till he passed by the tree at 7 yards. It took him about 15 minutes to get 75 yards, and it was almost closing time when I shot him.

My hit was a little high, but took out his spine and dropped him in his tracks.

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