Three of us been doing this hunt for a few years, we look at this as a "fun hunt" and much different style of hunt than we do in the remote bigwoods each year. Met a farmer several years ago, and kept his phone number. Gave him a call, "he says sure, come on down, you can hunt the farm and stay in my huntin' shack. So we did just that, he has a polebarn, which half is a barn and half is a cabin, maybe 600 sq./ft. The farm is 220 acres of good whitetail habitat, typical farm fields and small woodlots. We cyber scout the farm, listen to the farmer about deer movement, we hunt the farm for 2 days with several small bucks seen, but this area has a 4pt a side MAR, no legal bucks and by tracks and sign, the property isn't holding many good deer.
The weather has been in the low 40's the first 2 days, and snow is soft and melting. As the weather turns cold on day 3, the snow refreezes and gets very loud. We spook out quite a few deer the 3rd morning, going to stands in the darkness.The 3 of us meet up after the morning hunt, we all agree time to change up the game plan. The area has several small public hunting/conservation areas, we spend the rest of the day driving around looking at these public lands. Day 4 finds us mobile, hunting 1 of the public areas, with only 2 deer spotted, the deer aren't moving, but the area has good sign. Time for another change of plan, we look over some aerials, and plan a couple of 3 man deer drives. The first 2 drives, we post one guy and 2 drive towards him, traditional drive. We see deer, but with the noisy snow conditions, the deer are moving and running out to the side, long before they get to the poster. We all agree, we need to slow down, more of a nudge hunt tactic. The last drive of the day, we work a drainage with 2 fingers and all slowly move towards each other. When my 2 buddies get within a 100 yards of each other, a nice 140 class buck busts out of cover, one buddy misses a 30 yard shot, as the buck comes past me at mach 3, I pick a spot and fire, a 60 yard shot, see the buck flinch but keeps going. I follow up the shot and find hair at the point of the shot, but no blood, believe I grazed hair off the front of the chest, follow for almost 1/2 mile, close but clean miss, one lucky buck.
Day 5 the last day of the hunt, we continue to do nudge type hunts, we have 3 either sex tags and 3 doe tags, time for some venison. Early afternoon, me and 1 of my buddies slow push a small block of woods and post our other buddy on a ridge top. This buddy shoots 5 times and kills 1 doe at 285 yards, good shot with a muzzleloader. He was out of position for where the deer were coming out, but sees 19 deer, and has one BIG smile on his face, says "man that was fun","lots of shooting and only have to drag 1 deer, my kind of hunt".
The last drive of the day, 3/4 mile long drainage with 2 fingers that blend into 1 deep ravine. Drop both of my buddies off, drive around to the other end, and post. Within 5 minutes see 2 does slip by and let them walk, then I hear one of my buddies shoot from the other end, several minutes later, have 12 does come running by along the edge of a field, think about taking a shot, but they are 150 yards and on the move, I pass. Turn back and notice 2 deer moving along the bottom of the ravine, first thought buck, and both are bucks. At 70 yards, give them a mouth grunt, both bucks freeze, the first buck is a 6pt and not legal and is staring right at me, the 2nd buck is larger but behind cover and can't get a good look at him. We all know how time seems to stand still at this point, your busted and can't move. The bucks start to move, see 4pts on the 2nd buck, and I fire, buck drops in his tracks. The buck ends up being a 9pt, not large, but well earned.
My buddy had shot a doe early in the drive, and I kill a buck at the end, just before dark on the last day of the season, doesn't get much better. Good hunt, good friends, doing what we love to do, best of times.
As we load up the next morning, the farmer is giving us grief about how we killed, "the whole family"
The group of 8 guys that hunted the private farms, we had been hunting, killed 1 buck. At the end of last years hunt, pulled my stand from a spot on one of the farms, one of the guys went with me, and asked a bunch of questions about why I was hunting "there". Explained why, and how I approached the stand. Guess who killed the one buck? And from what tree? Yup, the guy that played 20 question with me from last year.
Guess the lesson from this hunt could be summed up in one word. Adapt
