The Whitetail rut is on! and I took my first archery hunt of the season this morning. Went pretty well. Had a NE wind which allowed me to hunt a ground blind I brushed in a couple of weeks ago along in the timber edge of one my Clover, wheat, rye food plots in the CRP. I had a couple of younger bucks and a couple of does feeding to my left when the Buck I shot came stomping past my shooting port at 15 yards doing the mean walk to fight the 8pt on my left. Stomping/walking sideways, ears flat back, hackles raised. Track was short and easy but practice makes perfect.
Happened fast. Had a brief moment to judge him through a small opening on my right which was covered with netting. Had the blind closed up to keep scent from blowing out. He was stomping in to fight, I saw alot of tines, a tall rack and big bodied Buck, made the snap decision to shoot, and the shot was there immediately following. 14 scorable points - I am tickled. Archery never seems easy to me. And now we can bird/waterfowl hunt and exercise more trigger control in the rifle season ....
Ground shrinkage, that evil demon. My biggest bull suffered from that. He had to turn his head sideways to fit between the trees when he was walking up to me and I never took a look at his head beyond that. He was the biggest one around (walked up on him and a buddy in deer season) and he was the one I was after so when he stopped broadside at five yards, I pulled the trigger.
Real nice buck, but here in Idaho that would be a 4 point.
"You have to be smarter than the dog to train it." "A working dog is a happy dog." "Semper Fi" HQ/11th "Chukar: The first time you hunt them it's for sport. After that it's revenge."
Boy you are having a great season. I aways wonder what it would be like to live in a place that you saw deer regularly let alone 2 bucks at a time. Super jealous.
"The problem with quoting info from the internet is that you can never be sure it is accurate" Abraham Lincoln