Going for broke.
- PK_
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Going for broke.
Not sure where to begin...
Had planned on hunting the Midwest for a couple weeks. Been looking forward to the trip all year. In all honesty, I almost bailed on the trip last minute. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. Things have been hectic, just life in general. On top of that traveling halfway across the country alone, not sure where i would be sleeping, not even entirely sure where i would be hunting most of the time just left a pretty big cloud of doubt.
Last year i went out there and ate my tag. What if i get skunked again in the promised land? Not sure if my ego can take it but overall i knew i would regret not taking the trip... and I had to break the Missouri curse.
I hit the road on Thursday. Drove through the night and arrived in KY Fri around 1pm. Enough time to park, change clothes and walk a couple miles back into the hills and for the first time look at a waypoint in person that has been nagging at me for about 6-7 years now.
On the way in, man there is buck sign all over. I am pumped. But the further I get from the road the deer sign dries up. No scrapes, no rubs, not even tracks crossing the trail. Now i am second guessing everything. But decide to hunt the terrain instead of the sign.
I Get to the area i had in mind. Still zero deer sign but terrain-wise it was beautiful. A dominant saddle pinching East-West movement. A minor saddle and a major deep draw funneling the North-South movement coming and going from a very deep and secluded part of the public with no back door entrance. Lots of bedding points and knobs on either side of the Main ridge and no lack of cover, that is for sure. Even with the rifle, the deer would need to pretty much be in bow range.
With limited shooting now it comes down to tree selection. Between all the other terrain features i described there is a long point that runs off the main ridge. It has a plateau along the top that is right about where the bedding elevation would be on the Main ridge and it feeds right into the other funnels. Perfect travel corridor. I snuck up to the top of that point to see what it looked like. There was an old hidden logging road running the length of the point on top and a micro saddle (doesn’t show on topo). This was the spot within the spot, for sure. I threw up the lw and headed back to the truck.
It’s getting dark, I have nowhere to go so i scarf down a couple pbj and crawl into the backseat of the truck for some shut eye. Alarm goes off, get ready and head back into the timber. Trucks are roaring down the dirt roads all around. I love me some bowhunting but there is something absolutely electric about opening day of rifle.
Hoof it down the trail, cut off into the woods, sneak the last couple hundred yards and slide up into the stand just before shooting light. I was doubting my setup due to the lack of sign and the wheels were already spinning about where i needed to hunt that afternoon...
Well, 15 mins after shooting light i look down the old logging road and about 75 yards away through some branches i see a big muzzle and a swollen neck heading my way. I knew it was going to be a shooter. Didn’t know or care much about what was on his head. He stops at 60 yards and I can just see his hind quarters thru the scope and I see dirt flying. Then he continues down the logging road right towards me. At 25 yards i couldn’t stand it any longer and gave him a win .32 spcl high shoulder.
I thought I was a bad man after all the long drags out of swamps but this was honestly one of the toughest drags of my life. Took me about 3 hours to go the first .5 miles to get him up to the top of the hill then another 3 hours for the next mile or so back to the truck. Those KY hills are no joke. He dreessed out at 175lbs and felt like 275
Anyways. I got him taken care of and i was on my way to the show me state...
This Post is going to be really long, I am going to have to try to condense the rest...
MO was awesome. Hunted archery for a week. Got to hunt with CBay a few days and that was a blast. Saw aloT of bucks but Had to eat that tag. The Missouri curse was still alive and strong. But I found a spot i was sure i would have an opportunity to kill a good buck on opening morning of gun.
Camp in MO:
Opening morning of rifle. I am sitting on the ground and right after first light about a 145” 10 point comes walking by. I shoot, he mule kicks and runs off. I peel off the jacket and go to retrieve the buck I have dreamed of for years. Get to where he was standing, no blood. A little worried now. I walk down the trail he took a ways, no blood... Then I hear BOOM right in the direction he ran and someone yell ‘WHOOOOO’. My heart sank. I have no idea what happened. Grid searched for 30-45 mins just in case.
I sat back down and was at one of the lowest points I can ever remember in hunting. Not just losing a deer or a nice buck, it’s not the first time and won’t be the last. But anyway, can’t even put into words all the emotions that run through you at a time like that. So much time and energy, being alone so far from home. Things got pretty heavy, but had to shake it off and figure out what to do next. After missing 3 bucks last year and then this buck, the Missouri curse was strong.
I figured i burned that spot up pretty good. So I decided to move a few hundred yards. To another pinch point. Had a super nice 8point push a doe by me but he never offered a shot I really liked and he slipped by. Uggggggh. Sit there another 4 hours. Stand up to stretch. Decide to slip up and peak around the corner. Buck stands up about 50 yards from me. Big body, high rack but short times, lots of mass. I line up and squeeze. He takes off and pretty sure I hear him hit the ground. Awesome, finally.
Walk over to where he was standing. No blood. This is getting ridiculous. But I heard him fall so i walk in that direction and come to an old fence, which is what I heard him jump over, not fall... this is crazy, at this point I can’t even believe it and didn’t know what i was even doing wasting my time in the woods. I said if I really missed this deer I am done I am going home (boohoo poor me). I grid searched for a while. Then i accepted another beating from the Missouri Curse.
On the bright side, where I was searching for this buck ended up being the most phenomenal buck bedding area i have ever seen. I gathered up my gear and started heading out of the woods. By now it is prime time. I was walking past so much incredible fresh buck sign that i decided i needed to just butch up and sit down til dark. I told myself I was going to shot any legal buck that offered me a perfect shot. 5 mins later a buck walked out of the thicket to my left 30 yards away and thru an open lane in the cedars. Bang. Dead. Just like that the Missouri curse was broken.
That’s it in a nutshell. Not proud of some of that but it’s the truth.
Had planned on hunting the Midwest for a couple weeks. Been looking forward to the trip all year. In all honesty, I almost bailed on the trip last minute. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. Things have been hectic, just life in general. On top of that traveling halfway across the country alone, not sure where i would be sleeping, not even entirely sure where i would be hunting most of the time just left a pretty big cloud of doubt.
Last year i went out there and ate my tag. What if i get skunked again in the promised land? Not sure if my ego can take it but overall i knew i would regret not taking the trip... and I had to break the Missouri curse.
I hit the road on Thursday. Drove through the night and arrived in KY Fri around 1pm. Enough time to park, change clothes and walk a couple miles back into the hills and for the first time look at a waypoint in person that has been nagging at me for about 6-7 years now.
On the way in, man there is buck sign all over. I am pumped. But the further I get from the road the deer sign dries up. No scrapes, no rubs, not even tracks crossing the trail. Now i am second guessing everything. But decide to hunt the terrain instead of the sign.
I Get to the area i had in mind. Still zero deer sign but terrain-wise it was beautiful. A dominant saddle pinching East-West movement. A minor saddle and a major deep draw funneling the North-South movement coming and going from a very deep and secluded part of the public with no back door entrance. Lots of bedding points and knobs on either side of the Main ridge and no lack of cover, that is for sure. Even with the rifle, the deer would need to pretty much be in bow range.
With limited shooting now it comes down to tree selection. Between all the other terrain features i described there is a long point that runs off the main ridge. It has a plateau along the top that is right about where the bedding elevation would be on the Main ridge and it feeds right into the other funnels. Perfect travel corridor. I snuck up to the top of that point to see what it looked like. There was an old hidden logging road running the length of the point on top and a micro saddle (doesn’t show on topo). This was the spot within the spot, for sure. I threw up the lw and headed back to the truck.
It’s getting dark, I have nowhere to go so i scarf down a couple pbj and crawl into the backseat of the truck for some shut eye. Alarm goes off, get ready and head back into the timber. Trucks are roaring down the dirt roads all around. I love me some bowhunting but there is something absolutely electric about opening day of rifle.
Hoof it down the trail, cut off into the woods, sneak the last couple hundred yards and slide up into the stand just before shooting light. I was doubting my setup due to the lack of sign and the wheels were already spinning about where i needed to hunt that afternoon...
Well, 15 mins after shooting light i look down the old logging road and about 75 yards away through some branches i see a big muzzle and a swollen neck heading my way. I knew it was going to be a shooter. Didn’t know or care much about what was on his head. He stops at 60 yards and I can just see his hind quarters thru the scope and I see dirt flying. Then he continues down the logging road right towards me. At 25 yards i couldn’t stand it any longer and gave him a win .32 spcl high shoulder.
I thought I was a bad man after all the long drags out of swamps but this was honestly one of the toughest drags of my life. Took me about 3 hours to go the first .5 miles to get him up to the top of the hill then another 3 hours for the next mile or so back to the truck. Those KY hills are no joke. He dreessed out at 175lbs and felt like 275
Anyways. I got him taken care of and i was on my way to the show me state...
This Post is going to be really long, I am going to have to try to condense the rest...
MO was awesome. Hunted archery for a week. Got to hunt with CBay a few days and that was a blast. Saw aloT of bucks but Had to eat that tag. The Missouri curse was still alive and strong. But I found a spot i was sure i would have an opportunity to kill a good buck on opening morning of gun.
Camp in MO:
Opening morning of rifle. I am sitting on the ground and right after first light about a 145” 10 point comes walking by. I shoot, he mule kicks and runs off. I peel off the jacket and go to retrieve the buck I have dreamed of for years. Get to where he was standing, no blood. A little worried now. I walk down the trail he took a ways, no blood... Then I hear BOOM right in the direction he ran and someone yell ‘WHOOOOO’. My heart sank. I have no idea what happened. Grid searched for 30-45 mins just in case.
I sat back down and was at one of the lowest points I can ever remember in hunting. Not just losing a deer or a nice buck, it’s not the first time and won’t be the last. But anyway, can’t even put into words all the emotions that run through you at a time like that. So much time and energy, being alone so far from home. Things got pretty heavy, but had to shake it off and figure out what to do next. After missing 3 bucks last year and then this buck, the Missouri curse was strong.
I figured i burned that spot up pretty good. So I decided to move a few hundred yards. To another pinch point. Had a super nice 8point push a doe by me but he never offered a shot I really liked and he slipped by. Uggggggh. Sit there another 4 hours. Stand up to stretch. Decide to slip up and peak around the corner. Buck stands up about 50 yards from me. Big body, high rack but short times, lots of mass. I line up and squeeze. He takes off and pretty sure I hear him hit the ground. Awesome, finally.
Walk over to where he was standing. No blood. This is getting ridiculous. But I heard him fall so i walk in that direction and come to an old fence, which is what I heard him jump over, not fall... this is crazy, at this point I can’t even believe it and didn’t know what i was even doing wasting my time in the woods. I said if I really missed this deer I am done I am going home (boohoo poor me). I grid searched for a while. Then i accepted another beating from the Missouri Curse.
On the bright side, where I was searching for this buck ended up being the most phenomenal buck bedding area i have ever seen. I gathered up my gear and started heading out of the woods. By now it is prime time. I was walking past so much incredible fresh buck sign that i decided i needed to just butch up and sit down til dark. I told myself I was going to shot any legal buck that offered me a perfect shot. 5 mins later a buck walked out of the thicket to my left 30 yards away and thru an open lane in the cedars. Bang. Dead. Just like that the Missouri curse was broken.
That’s it in a nutshell. Not proud of some of that but it’s the truth.
No Shortcuts. No Excuses. No Regrets.
Everybody's selling dreams. I'm too cheap to buy one.
Everybody's selling dreams. I'm too cheap to buy one.
Rich M wrote:Typically, hunting FL has been like getting a root canal
- Bowhuntercoop
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Re: Going for broke.
Dude! Killer write up. Congrats on everything. Sounds like a dream trip. You going back west again next year?
- muddy
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Re: Going for broke.
Congrts love me some pbj
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Leading the way for habitat and management information
"It's a good thing you don't need commas and colons to kill deer" -seaz
- Stanley
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Re: Going for broke.
Great stuff and nice buck for sure. Those drag outs will make a monkey out of a man and fast.
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.
- SamPotter
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Re: Going for broke.
Slaying them left and right! Nice work getting it done away from home.
- Jackson Marsh
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Re: Going for broke.
Outstanding PK!
When PK arrives, bucks die.
Certified buck killer.
Well done PK.
When PK arrives, bucks die.
Certified buck killer.
Well done PK.
- Bonecrusher101
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Re: Going for broke.
I love this story. I really enjoyed the way you told it. Hunting gets frustrating but the way you pushed through and made it happen is why you are a great deer hunter. It didn't all go as planned but you broke your curse. Congrats.
Be original and Enjoy every step along the adventure.
- Lockdown
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Re: Going for broke.
Don’t condense your stories anymore. I could have easily read twice what you wrote
Congrats on some Great deer! JM is right too. You’re a deer’s worst nightmare.
Congrats on some Great deer! JM is right too. You’re a deer’s worst nightmare.
- tgreeno
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Re: Going for broke.
Sounded like an awesome trip! And Congrats!
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It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it an remove all doubt
It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it an remove all doubt
- Matt6506
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Re: Going for broke.
Nice, awesome bucks and a fantastic trip
“Immerse yourself in the outdoor experience. It will cleanse your soul and make you a better person.”
- Fred Bear
- Fred Bear
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Re: Going for broke.
Great read. Thanks for sharing!
- BKMississippi
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Re: Going for broke.
Solid post. Congrats
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Re: Going for broke.
Congrats PK!! Way to get it done. Awesome adventure, upanddown. What a ride.
- Dewey
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Re: Going for broke.
Great job as usual.
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Re: Going for broke.
Nice work PK.
Any more out of state hunts for you this year?
Any more out of state hunts for you this year?
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