Opening Day Hoosier Buck

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johnsoninc86
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Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby johnsoninc86 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:59 am

So I first need to start this thread off with a big collective thanks to this whole forum. I've been mostly a lurker on here for the past two years or so, soaking up info and trying to implement everything I can. This buck never would have happened without the inspiration and knowledge I got from this group of hunters. I love reading all the in depth kill stories on here, so I'll give mine.

A little bit of hunting background on myself: This makes my 4th season hunting now. After a season or two of not seeing many bucks and mostly burning out my 1 small private spot, I was getting frustrated and started looking for more options and new tactics. That led me to the BEAST. After last season and finally being convinced on what I was reading here, I really ramped up my off-season scouting and began seeking out some of the numerous public land parcels that are strewn around my place here in southern Indiana. I scouted quite a few hill country bedding areas, a few small swamps we have around here, and came up with 5-6 decent spots for this season. One spot really stood out and I couldn't wait to hunt it this season. The spot was deep on a land-locked piece of public ground. The spot was a long ridge running NW-SE, with several areas of blow downs on the top of the ridge from a 2011 tornado, that were now thick undergrowth. There were several good bedding points off the NE side of the ridge that I had found buck beds on. The whole ridge was littered with rubs and scrapes last year, so I knew this was going to be a prime spot come this season. One spot stood out above the rest though, as it had doe bedding in two locations, with buck beds downwind of it on smaller points, and then a good drainage ditch funnel between the two. It just felt right when we scouted it. I even looked at my buddy and said, "I'm going to kill a good buck here, I know it."

I hunted a few of the leeward beds early on with no action, so I figured they must come alive during rut or post-rut and planned accordingly. I had quite a bit of vacation time built up for around the rut this year, so I banked on that being my ticket to success in this spot. My first hunt was on Friday, 11/6. I snuck in early and immediately had a nice wide 6 point cruise by as I was climbing my sticks. It was off to a good start. At around 9am, I shuffled a little bit in my stand to immediately hear a deer blow about 60 yds behind me and take off. It was a doe and her two yearlings. She had caught me moving and wanted to let the whole woods know where I was. She blew for a good half an hour and I thought my hunt was toast. She slowly trailed down the ridge, only to show up 20 minutes later, this time with a small buck in tow. He chased her around awhile, and this went on the rest of the day with several small bucks. She was smart though, she knew I was sitting in that funnel and she did circles around me with bucks in tow all day. That was that for the first hunt.

Fast forward to the following Tuesday, 11/10. I again snuck back into this spot and climbed into a slightly different tree with more back cover to hope to avoid getting spotted by this doe again. Nope, she managed to spot me again from a different angle and blow at me. At this point, I was getting frustrated, but decided to stick it out. Today was different, she had dropped her two yearlings, and now was being chased ferociously by several different bucks, including a nice 2.5 year old nine pointer. It seemed like she must be getting hot and the boys knew it. Again though, she wouldn't come through the funnel knowing I was sitting there. I watched her run around most of the day with different bucks following suit and I began to take notes of her preferred routes. One route in particular seemed to be used the most, and it led up into the tornado blow down area on the top of the ridge. Right at closing time, I see her coming on that route after loosing whatever buck was chasing her, only to intercept another buck coming down the ridge. This buck was different though, he was a shooter. In the last 10 minutes of light, I watched her get chased by this big frame deer and finally run out of sight up the ridge. As I got down out of the tree, I told myself I needed to be in that tornado blow down area come Saturday morning with a gun in my hand.

Saturday morning, 11/14 rolls around, opening day of Indiana firearms, and the wind is right to hunt this spot again. But this time I made an adjustment and moved 150 yards to the tornado blow down area. I snuck in at gray light and found a nice tree in a clearing in the middle of this tangled mess of an area. 8:15 a decent little 7 point meanders by and I smile knowing its going to be another good day. 9:00 am rolls around, and the sun is just now poking through the trees. I hear the familiar sound of footsteps on the frosty leaves, and I look down the ridge to see that same doe from previous hunts standing on the small bedding point. She's moving slow this time, not being chased. I then catch movement behind her. I get the binos up only to see steam blowing out from behind a big oak, backlit by the morning sun pushing through the trees. It was one of those images that will be burned in my mind from this hunt for a good while. The anticipation of seeing what buck was creating this steam cloud was killing me. I had to wait a good minute before he finally stepped out. I immediately knew this was a big buck, but it was too thick to count points or field judge at that point. My heart started to pound as the doe led him straight at me just as rehearsed earlier in the week. "Good thing we made a tree adjustment today" I think to myself. She leads him to 15 yards, but I still can't make out exactly how big this deer is. The muzzleloader gets cocked regardless as I know this is most likely a shooter. He finally rounds one of the big blowdowns and all I see are 4 big points on two long heavy main beams. The gun gets shouldered slowly and I wait for a clear shooting lane. The big boy stops two steps short of a clearing and lets out long low "brrrrrrrrruuuupp" grunt. He finally takes the two steps I need out from the thicket. The hammer drops and he takes off from the cloud of smoke back down the ridge where they came from. I knew I put a good hit on him. He hobbles a good 45 yards, stops, gets wobbly, then turns and runs straight down hill out of view and I hear the sweet sounds of crashing leaves and breaking limbs. He's down. Whew, mission accomplished. After a horrendous drag out with help from one of my best buds, we had him in the back of the truck. What a day...

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He ended up not having any brow tines, so it made him a big 8 point. I green scored him at 128 1/8 with 22 and 24" main beams. Ball State University had students aging deer at the processor and they aged him at 5.5 years, so I was thrilled. Nothing better than a big, mature, opening day, public land buck to bring my season to a close. I'm super proud of the work I put in this year, and I can't wait to start the whole process again next year.


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stash59
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby stash59 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:02 am

:clap: :clap: :clap:
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Jackson Marsh
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:41 am

He looks awesome! ! Congrats :dance:

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wv-outdoor
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby wv-outdoor » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:45 am

Wow!!! Awesome Buck.. Congrats
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jarang1128
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby jarang1128 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:26 am

Big Congrats from Southern Indiana. Job Well Done!!!!
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muddy
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby muddy » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:31 am

Good one

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Redman232
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Redman232 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:38 am

That's a stud, congrats

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john1984
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby john1984 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:52 am

great buck! congrats

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Motivated
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Motivated » Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:00 pm

Great job! Great buck!

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Ack
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Ack » Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:49 pm

:clap:
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seazofcheeze
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby seazofcheeze » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:20 pm

Thats an awesome buck!

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DaveT1963
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:50 pm

Very nice..... Cingrats on a great buck!

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Edcyclopedia
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:30 pm

Spectacular! :clap:
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HoosierG5
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby HoosierG5 » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:55 pm

Congrats fellow hoosier!

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Slumpy
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Re: Opening Day Hoosier Buck

Unread postby Slumpy » Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:28 am

Nice buck, glad to see some college students doing something (adding your deer) other than harassing hunter like they did me opening day.

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