I examined a piece of land behind a farm I had recently been shining and noticing a few good bucks. I did not have permission to cross or hunt these fields but the hoosier national ran behind these fields so I made a plan. My brother and I decided to hike the 2 miles it would take to get around to the back side of the field (mind the hills we had to climb up and down are serious) we arrived at the property line at around 1pm and started our scouting we split in opposite directions from the property line.
I had some points already picked out where I believed mature bucks would be bedding. I skipped past the first 2 points seeing that there was no thick cover for a good buck to hide in but then when I came to the third point I saw the thick and nasty. Off in the distance I saw pines and looking down my scope I saw nice rubs everywhere. I decided to set up my lone wolf there.
Once up in my stand it was all to quiet. Around 4pm I saw 2 does coming over the hill but heading in the direction of my brother who was 500+ yards away. I told him on the walkie talkie that does were heading his way. About 25 mins later I hear two shots in the distance. Sadly he missed both. Now what do I do? I surely thought the noise of 12 gauge would spook the deer in the area or cause them to hide in the area till dark.
Dark is around 520 it was 450 and something in my gut told me to carefully scan the point I thought a buck would be bedded in so I did. Low and behold I could barley make out a thick antler. I then decided to hit my grunt call once to see if I would get any reaction.
He jumped straight to his feet and started making his j hook around me. Luckily it is gun season here in IN and he didn't quite make his j hook wide enough. My heart started pounding out of my chest as this is the first decent buck I have seen in the woods. Everything I have seen thus far were small basket rack 6 or 8s. BOOM I let my shot ring out from 65 yards away. He looked me in the eyes and instantly hit the ground limp. I call over the walkie talkie with my hands trembling "BUCK DOWN BUCK DOWN!"
This buck is not as big as the bucks I see you guys knocking down (I've lingered the forums since last season). But as this is only my 2nd season hunting and my first buck taken I feel great! I absolutely love being in the woods and can't believe I missed out on this for 25 years.
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