I knew this was going to be a great year. If we could just get those big boys to stick around on our side of the fence. My buddy, Bob Lott, and I contacted the Whitetail Institute for their professional opinion and expert advice on deer nutrition. By listening to our unique hunting situation they helped us establish what kind of nutrition these deer needed to produce body mass and antler growth. They were able pinpoint where this food plot needed to be and what seed would benefit the herd. We needed a central location to pull the deer. In previous years, the bigger bucks left the farm to find does that had better forage. If we could keep does feeding on our little square, we were certain the old, more mature bucks would show.
This deer was hard to see during daylight hours, but he got love struck and his girlfriend brought him 15 yards beneath me this November day.While most Ohio residents are screaming "go bucks" on this OSU/Michigan game day, my alarm goes off at 4:45 a.m. and says Go GET a Buck!
Timmy Young passed this deer up last year on video at 20 yards. THANK YOU!!! We thought him to be a 3 1/2 year old. He is 4 1/2 this year and his 17-point rack scored 188.5 Boone and Crockett inches.
We had been seeing this deer all over the farm on our trail cams, and found him to be favoring the north end of his usual thicket. I moved a stand set into a funnel knowing that a big deer like that would be looking for those last few does coming into Estrous this late in the rut. All the does on the farm were demolishing our Winter-Greens food plot that we planted in August and I just knew this funnel between his two favorite thickets would be the perfect ambush spot.
I can’t believe that I was right! I’m never right about where these deer will be. They never do what they are supposed to do. He did on Saturday. I just happened to be sitting there when he chased her by. She just happened to stop 4 yards from my tree to take a breather. He just happened to pause behind a tree long enough for me to draw. He just happened to be broadside at 15 yards. From the time I saw him to the time the arrow was released was all of 10 seconds. I’m glad for that. If I would have looked at him any longer, I would probably have missed, and threw up on my lap.
I venture to say that this 25-year-old bowhunter will never harvest an animal like this again. I wanted to share this with all of you.
