Happy Labor day everyone. So, this post is about 2 of the first big bucks ive ever shot, and ive only shot three so back off. Just kidding. Anyway, this private spot is a 3 acre piece located in one oof the heaviest hunted counties in Michigan. A little more detail about the spot is its an abandoned piece of vaction property, someone built a driveway that cuts thru a stamp of 30 yr old pine tree rows and at the end of the driveway there is an opening or yard rather and this person always worked on and built motorhomes, tractors, trailers, and lots of metal fab. So, these people would drive up from south Michigan on the weekends and work on stuff and stay in either of these two motor homes, and this was about 20 yrs ago, and fast forward to now and these motor homes and garage are still there but everything is overgrown. Birch trees growing thru the bumbers and what not, its madness back there.
So, i got permission to hunt this property by clearing the driveway, yard and hauled away a lot of abandoned metal and junk and always kept the grass cut but the motor homes and garage stayed. And so one year in early September prob, I had one of my good buddies help me clear some lanes, put out bait and hang a stand. (We grew up with zero hunting guidance besides guys that knew how to fine tune bows. This is how a few of us hunted its kinda funny now.) And he had the idea to hunt the actual yard where the motor homes were parked and the yard itself is just a circle opening that's about 50 yds x 50 yds of actual wide open space and theres a really good spruce that overlooks the whole thing so i tucked a stand in the crotch of this dual spruce, and has big game stand that ive never had a deer spot me or anything in this tree and its only 15 ft up. I hunted this spot hard a couple years, before I moved to Central New York for college, and saw and passed on probable 20 bucks in those couple years. I think the entry I took every time and where i parked at the neighbors was perfect for this spot is why it was on fire.
I move away and October comes along and i cant concentrate on school during that time and my work schedule was during the week and i lived in a closet sized room and drove a decent impala (300,000 when frame rotted i put her down) so having hunting equipment out there was never really an option. it always burned my grades during that time but whatever so i drove thru Canada late night on Oct 1 and hunted afternoon of oct 2 and i had my buddy put in clover in the yard during the summer and stayed out of there until then.
So this guy showed up with 5 does eating this clover upwind of me in this yard. All within 30 yds, so hes munching on the clover and gives me a straight broadside shot at 15yds and i put a rage2 blade chisel tip with a carbon express maxima 250 gr. out of a 2000series hoyt cybertec that i still kill bucks with, square into his shoulder and found blood bout 20 yds later and whats really crazy about this part is the arrow broke off with about 6 inches of penetation and the rage still open stuck in this bucks shoulder acted like a blender, spinning and cutting its way into his lungs turning them into soup. he ran about 80 yds with a shady start of the blood trail but eventually turned into a red carpet effect. On the blood trail I discovered a couple large scrapes that were laid in these pines right before it transitioned into the yard and I thought that was crazy for this early being the 2nd day of season.
I had another available weekend to hunt around the 14th of oct so I went back and got in the exact same tree on the same south wind and heard this guy stage and work the scrape I discovered, comes into the yard and checks everything of the yard including walking down the driveway i enter thru but, that day I cut into the pines slightly and walked where i thought they wouldn't go. And all i saw was his 10.5 inch long tine at first and somehow kept it all together and put an arrow in him at 35 yds while he was scenting up a service berry bush underneath two big apple trees and they are located on the same trail where i found the scrapes. The arrow hit high, still taking out both lungs but he ran 400 yds into a golden rod bedding area surrounded by dogwood.
Thanks for reading everyone. And to highlight one of the success points for other hunters; is that i think the early season scrapes had a huge part in the behavior and patterns of both these bucks. Obviously figuring out if they are hitting it at night or day is big factor. But this was all during discovering Dans Extreme Bedding and mobile tactics and i read a lot about Mitch Rompolla (being from Michigan before i found out about Dan) and did a lot of winter scouting finding buck beds with poop in them. And its up to you to decide whether or not trail cams will hurt or help you. If youre a young hunter who isn't concerned about score, i say screw them trail cams and find beds.
2016 Private Land Double Whammy
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2016 Private Land Double Whammy
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Joe Dirte of bow hunting
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Way to go!! Congrats on making that happen!
- cspot
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Congrats!!!!
- Jackson Marsh
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Cool stories and a couple of good looking bucks
Had to feel funny setting up that close to the "people area" but it sure paid off.
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Jackson Marsh wrote:8-)
Cool stories and a couple of good looking bucks
Had to feel funny setting up that close to the "people area" but it sure paid off.
Definitely feels weird but once you start seeing deer and just how oblivious they are, crazy spots make a lot of sense.
Joe Dirte of bow hunting
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Great bucks! Where in CNY did you go to school?
Twigs in my hair, don't care.
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Huntress13 wrote:Great bucks! Where in CNY did you go to school?
Thanks Morrisville I lived and worked in Cazenovia
Joe Dirte of bow hunting
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Those are both real nice bucks. Congrats.
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
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
That's awesome Joe Dirt of Bowhunting. Thanks for sharing. Couple of nice bucks right there
- greenhorndave
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Re: 2016 Private Land Double Whammy
Great bucks and great stories!
From real “fat chick” stands too! (I will not reveal my source for that term... )
From real “fat chick” stands too! (I will not reveal my source for that term... )
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Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
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