Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I was able to seal the deal on a my first ever public lands buck last night. I always struggle to find a place to hunt where other peoples actions and activities dont negatively impact my hunting. Even on our own family farm I struggle to find a quiet spot. I haven't killed a deer since the 2013 season. I have had plenty of chances at little bucks, but havent had one since 2013 that made me want to release an arrow. The area I killed this one is a 160 acres of habitat in the middle of a sea of ag crops. Last year I put up a stand in the southwest corner over looking a old irrigation re use pit. Over the course of the winter I was dreaming and scheming for another stand location. Luckily I was looking at Google aerials and have realized that you can actually see deer trails. I found another location on this piece of ground that looked like it would be a natural spot for deer to walk through between two areas of heavier cover. This summer I drug a ladder stand a 1/4 of mile on foot to put it up in the cedar tree. It was hot that day and I thought I should have picked a better day to put up a stand! Things had been fairly slow the other few times I had hunted this stand this fall. I had always seen deer but not the numbers I had hoped to. Trail cams showed a couple potential targets, including the buck that only has a drop tine for his left antler. About a month ago our state game and fish decided to remove some cedars they had deemed "invasive". I couldnt believe they waited till hunting season to undertake that project!! Tuesday I hunted our family farm and only saw 1 doe that was on the run from something. Tuesday night I went to the public lands spot and never saw a deer. With rifle season starting on Saturday I knew that the remaining deer hunting was going to go down the crapper after that. So last night I walked into my cedar stand. Once I got settled into my stand I happened to look out into the native grass in front of me and saw a young doe standing there 60 yards out, seemingly having materialized from thin air. I couldnt believe that deer was there as it was 100 yards or more to any deer hiding cover. I watched her and she bedded down. Realized that she had likely been bedded when I walked in and never got spooked as I got into my stand. Probably a 15mph wind last night when I climbed up. That doe got up and looked around every 20 mins or so and then would bed back down. About 4:30 a tall spike buck came from the south past my stand. He found the bedded doe and once she got up followed her back to the south. About 4:45 I watched a small racked buck cross a picked bean field to my east about 500 yards away. Around 5:00 a tall racked, young 3x3 came from the north across the grass headed for my stand. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I should just put some meat in my freezer, but as he walked by I decided if I was dragging a deer out from here it wasnt going to be him. About the same time the spike deer came back heading north. Looking to the east I saw a doe and a buck headed south down a fenceline, I wasnt sure what that buck was so I grabbed my rattling antlers to see if I could interest him coming my way. He stopped but never came my way. Within a few minutes of rattling I could hear a deer coming from the south, looked up and saw the spike coming back from the north. The tall 3x3 and the spike met in front of my stand, at the same time I could hear another deer coming from the south. This other deer came right under me and I could see it was one of the better bucks I had on camera. He went around the cedar I was in and came face to face with the other 2 bucks. He bristled up and luckily started side stepping away from the cedar I was in. I found a gap in the cedar top and put a 2 blade Rage into him. He was only 10 yards away tops, hit fairly high but actually worked out well as the Rage exited low in front of the opposite shoulder. He ran like his tail was on fire for about 100 yards and then in the fading light it looked like he turned and fell. I waited a bit and climbed down. Found the blood trail easily and from the blood I was pretty confident that he had went down where I thought. Followed the blood trail and ended up finding him about 15 minds later in the tall grass. Went home to get my son to help me drag him out. Sorry its not a very well staged harvest picture, but there was work to be done and I was already out of my hunting clothes. He is a pretty well balanced 4 x 4, I am guessing 2.5 yrs old maybe 3.5 hope I can find a trail cam picture of him from earlier. Big bodied over 200lbs for sure.
Last edited:
