5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

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Knute78
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Knute78 » Sat Nov 17, 2012 3:30 am

Sweetness!

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Genesis 27:3

"Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me;"
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xpauliber
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby xpauliber » Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:37 pm

Absolutely phenomenal! And most people that say they want to consistently kill big whitetails won't go to a fraction of what you went to to kill this buck.

Do you have any feelings of sadness that the chase is over?? I just read a story in a magazine about Barry or Gene Wensel hunting a deer for several years and when he finally sealed the deal, it was bittersweet because the chase was over.

I love the coloring under the eyes, it is very identifiable. Amazing buck!
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Stanley » Sun Nov 18, 2012 4:02 am

Cool time line and great buck.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Schultzy » Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:43 am

You know your stuff moondude!!! I enjoy reading your stuff. Congratulation's on one heck of a buck!!
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Craaaig » Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:17 pm

Congrats man!!! Interested in the beam lengths!!!! They look like they stretch out there pretty good!!!

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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Craaaig » Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:19 pm

I'm going to guess about 26 inch beams!!!

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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Craaaig » Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:21 pm

Also, was he a 5 yr old or 6?

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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Schubox1265 » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:08 am

Awesome chase and story.
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moondoondude
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby moondoondude » Fri Apr 19, 2013 1:33 pm

Craaaig wrote:I'm going to guess about 26 inch beams!!!

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Yep. I think they were around 26.5
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby rizzo999 » Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:23 am

Nice write-up and pics of the history you have with this buck. Keep up the good work.
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby JoeRE » Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:03 am

I guess I never congratulated you moondoondude on this. Great story, great buck!

For those that wonder what skills and mind set it takes for a hunter to excel, I think the answers are in this story.
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby mheichelbech » Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:33 am

JoeRE wrote:I guess I never congratulated you moondoondude on this. Great story, great buck!

For those that wonder what skills and mind set it takes for a hunter to excel, I think the answers are in this story.

This is an incredible story...it would be interesting to see more details such as what you did to avoid having him pattern you, how you decided to hunt the tree you hunted outside that thicket...how did you decide to set up where you did?

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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby Timmy » Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:04 pm

Thats an awesome story! what a great buck!
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby csoult » Thu Sep 24, 2015 12:21 am

Now that's history...
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moondoondude
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Re: 5 year chase ends with this legend of a buck!

Unread postby moondoondude » Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:29 am

mheichelbech wrote:
JoeRE wrote:I guess I never congratulated you moondoondude on this. Great story, great buck!

For those that wonder what skills and mind set it takes for a hunter to excel, I think the answers are in this story.

This is an incredible story...it would be interesting to see more details such as what you did to avoid having him pattern you, how you decided to hunt the tree you hunted outside that thicket...how did you decide to set up where you did?

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Sorry for getting back to you so late.

I went in after this buck after seeing him the afternoon before and entering the thicket based on the assumption that he would still be there with his hot doe. The next morning, I had to skirt around the entire thicket and hunt the opposite side of it. That was the one and only time that I hunted that side of the thicket. I waited until it was just light enough to see in the morning because I had never hunted that side of the thicket and I didn't have a tree that I knew I wanted to hunt. I had a small lane in front of me which kind of jutted up into the thicket. I crept in really slow and climbed quietly, again assuming that the buck was in this thicket. The wind was blowing directly away from the thicket and into my face. There was a small lane in front of me, it was kind of like an opening that extended into the thicket about 30 yards or so, it was maybe 7-12 yards wide. Out here we have a ton of trees called bradford pears. The thicket consisted of mostly bradford pears, cedars, and small saplings and grape vines. A nice big tangly mess with a lot of overstory. The edges of the thicket were surrounded by some bigger woods on all sides (maybe 50-100 yards of it at most on the edges). The thicket itself was probably 300 yards x 300 yards. Surrounding that timber was not deer habitat. So basically, once a deer is in there in daylight hours he almost always stays there and only comes/leaves under the cover of darkness. I bet on the buck not leaving through darkness since he had a hot doe with him on the previous afternoon.

The back corner of the thicket I hunted is almost the direct opposite side that I typically hunt. That is why I went in late and during light. I used the edges of the timber for entry, keeping my distance from the thicket. That back corner also has a small finger which extends to another bigger patch of timber, cover, and good deer habitat. That back corner is where deer most often come and go to the thicket under the cover of darkness. I don't hunt it since I usually hunt deer that are in the thicket, bedding during daylight hours. The doe that the buck was with was just casually moving through the thicket, which wasn't that big. It makes sense that deer try to back themselves into the far downwind side of cover. The two deer had nothing behind them (or so they thought) and in front of them they had the deer territory. I would guess they chose this spot since she was in heat and that was probably the only place she wasn't getting harassed since it was concealed by wind from the rest of the thicket.

The deer didn't pattern me because I didn't really hunt him until 2012. I watched him safely from areas that would be perceived as low threat and checked cameras sparingly. I saw this deer his entire life, which really benefited me since I always felt like it was a matter of when or if he reached maturity that I would go after him. I had him pegged and he lived where I hunted. I got lucky in that sense. I hunted a few parcels that were conjoined and which made up roughly 80% of his range. I was finding his antlers off the same hill. He chose a safe place to live, extremely tiny place too, and I in turn found that place and left it alone. When I say a hill here, it isn't like other parts of the country. I mean literally an elevation change of at the most 20 feet over the course of 100 feet. A small burm your kids would go sledding on (except in the woods obviously) - and he liked to lay up on the top of it or about 3/4 of the way up it on a tiny flat.

I didn't hunt often at all that year (2012) either. I knew I wanted to shoot that buck. I'm not one to go out and make an aggressive move unless it is warranted. It was warranted in this situation because I knew the buck was in a relatively small area leading up to my hunt. If I have a sighting or a camera picture in daylight, then great - I will make a bold and aggressive move on a big buck but if I don't, I will do my best to hunt in ways that are not intrusive. But, leading up to that point in time, it really wasn't warranted so I didn't go for it.

I hope this helps mheichelbech. Sorry for the late response but please feel free to PM me and I will probably see it sooner.


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