roymunson
5 year old buck +
Got lucky last week during firearms season in Ohio.
We had a buck we've had our eye on for a couple years. He's 5 this year and king of that ridge. I'd hunted for him Monday all day and cams said he was in the food plot at 6:30 when first light was right around 7.
Had pics of him in another food plot about 500 yards away mid week, so Thursday afternoon my hunting buddy and got dropped off at the blind around 1:30. (We've found they don't booger from a side by side the way they do if you walk in).
This spot is in the middle of the woods on a hilltop that my buddy identified as a food plot spot when he bought the property in 2013. So he cleared off about 5 acres and split it into 2 or 3 sections, but choked it down into an hour glass shape where you've got a bow shot going from 1 side of the plot to the other.
About 3:30 a fawn stepped out with this guy in tow. Not sure if she was in heat, but it seemed off that you'd have a 5 year old on his feet at 3:30, Thursday of gun season in a food plot. But there he was
35 yard shot and a about a 120 yard death run and he was cooked.
swapped seats and my buddy ended up dropping a doe right before dark.
The redeeming habitat part of this was that
1. he'd identified the spot for the plot years back (This was the third buck we'd had killed out of this blind this year. a 4 year old, a 5 year old, and a 6 year old, all within bow range)
2. The buck had bedded just off the plot in the sanctuary and felt low enough pressure to be on his feet at that time of day, on the 4th day of gun season
3. He only scored around 132", but he was a buck we'd had on the radar for a while and the oldest buck on the farm. Age wise, he could just as easily have been a 160" deer if he'd had the right genetics, but he was the age class we are trying to kill.
Pretty fun hunt and in the end, as most habitat guys know, kinda bittersweet. You watch them for all that time on camera, but when you actually get him outsmarted, you kinda wish he could get up and keep the game going.
We had a buck we've had our eye on for a couple years. He's 5 this year and king of that ridge. I'd hunted for him Monday all day and cams said he was in the food plot at 6:30 when first light was right around 7.
Had pics of him in another food plot about 500 yards away mid week, so Thursday afternoon my hunting buddy and got dropped off at the blind around 1:30. (We've found they don't booger from a side by side the way they do if you walk in).
This spot is in the middle of the woods on a hilltop that my buddy identified as a food plot spot when he bought the property in 2013. So he cleared off about 5 acres and split it into 2 or 3 sections, but choked it down into an hour glass shape where you've got a bow shot going from 1 side of the plot to the other.
About 3:30 a fawn stepped out with this guy in tow. Not sure if she was in heat, but it seemed off that you'd have a 5 year old on his feet at 3:30, Thursday of gun season in a food plot. But there he was
35 yard shot and a about a 120 yard death run and he was cooked.
swapped seats and my buddy ended up dropping a doe right before dark.
The redeeming habitat part of this was that
1. he'd identified the spot for the plot years back (This was the third buck we'd had killed out of this blind this year. a 4 year old, a 5 year old, and a 6 year old, all within bow range)
2. The buck had bedded just off the plot in the sanctuary and felt low enough pressure to be on his feet at that time of day, on the 4th day of gun season
3. He only scored around 132", but he was a buck we'd had on the radar for a while and the oldest buck on the farm. Age wise, he could just as easily have been a 160" deer if he'd had the right genetics, but he was the age class we are trying to kill.
Pretty fun hunt and in the end, as most habitat guys know, kinda bittersweet. You watch them for all that time on camera, but when you actually get him outsmarted, you kinda wish he could get up and keep the game going.
