As is my tradition, the early season (October) was very unproductive. I had one encounter with a good buck early, he just beat me back to his bedding area a little too early in the morning and busted me. A lot of typically, deerless big woods hunts. I committed to more inseason scouting, and that was equally unproductive. There were zero acorns this year, which had these mountain deer on some really strange patterns. Then, there was something weird about the rut sign this year. Rubbing and scraping activity was super underwhelming until it starting blowing up in November. Sign wise this year it was like the deer just skipped October all together, the sign in the woods went straight from September to Novemberish. We did have a new muzzleloader bear season mid October, that I think really messed with some of my areas.
As I hit the core of my season, rutcation, I had only one area I felt confident in. But I needed north/west winds. South winds don't work well there. That lived up to expectations, my south wind days all felt like wasted effort to a degree. Postmortem of my season that was definitely my Achilles, I just didn't have good plans for South winds, which we get a lot of.
The first few days of my rutcation we had good weather, but the action slow, slow, and slower.
Going into the last week, I had a few more days vacation to use, and was hopeful things would pick up. I guess they did, at least a little bit. I never experienced one of those super crazy rut days this year, but I started to see a few big bucks on their feet.
On Tuesday, 11/12, I hunted from the tree I killed my buck last year. It was a cold, windy morning with about 1/2" snow accumulating as I was settling in.
Barely legal shooting light, I hear deer running below me, then grunts. Doe busts out and runs up onto the bench. I hear footsteps, buck isn't really chasing, just bumping her.
I catch a glimpse at 35 yards, it was pretty big, definite shooter. Maybe really big, I'm not sure. Wish I had a better look.
I draw because I think he's going to take off after his lady friend and I'd only have a couple quick lanes thru the laurel. He might have caught me drawing, I don't really know. He just turned around and calmly trotted back where he came from.
It seems I get one crack at a big woods mature buck per year, and I thought that was my chance vanishing out of my life.
A couple more fairly non-eventful days pass, and Friday we are really getting down to the wire. I am headed back to the same area, targeting another doe bedding area about 300 yards up the hill. Winds are supposed to be west, but maybe some south mixed in. Trying it anyway, now is the time to be aggressive. Access here is a real bear. Fight thru 250 yards of mountain laurel . If anyone tells you they can walk quietly through laurel, they are lying for sure. But you just gotta do it sometimes. Despite loudly crashing through the laurel in the dark I was feeling pretty good about my chances to see something as I could tell the does had been using this area pretty heavily.
I saw one of the biggest forkhorns I've ever seen, but not legal here with antler restrictions. I saw him at 7, then again at 12:30. I was not really sure whether to sit all day or make a mid-day move. Ultimately, I consulted with my gut, and it was telling me to stay put for the long haul. I'm not sure if it was confidence in that spot as much as lack of a better alternative.
At 3:31, I was texting with my brother as much as the limited reception would allow. I had just sent a text commiserating about the boring grind of all day sits. The rut can be a love/hate thing like that, and this is the coldest ones I ever remember. Lot of wind, lot of cold. I went through a lot of handwarmers the last two weeks.
Just as I sent that text, I heard familiar crunching above me and got ready. Into view pops a good shooter. Just. like. that. Really does happen in an instant. I go into kill mode, he's coming right at me, but I know the thermals are definitely iffy, him being up on the ridge above the bench I am on. Need to kill him the first crack I get.
At 20 yards, he passes behind a big laurel and I draw. He locks up at 15 yards, quartering pretty hard to me. Feeling he is nanoseconds from bolting, I settle the pin in front of his shoulder and let him have it. Down goes Frazier! He drops like a ton of bricks and just lays there. Come to realize it was a spine shot, and I put the finisher in him. And that was that, sit there putting all those hours in, and it's over in a matter of about 30 seconds. 3:36, sent the text to my brother, "BBD". It was pretty cool.
I'm tickled with this dude. I've always had a soft spot for "weird" bucks probably as much if not more than conventional "big" bucks. And a big old 6 point fits the weird bill just fine by me. He has a bigger frame than the buck I killed last year. Definitely what I'm after, based on his teeth he's probably 4.5, maybe even 5.5.
The "as he lay" photos:
Couple of kinda posed ones:
My only bummer with this one is I didn't get to bring him home for my kiddos to see. I remember those as some of my favorite moments from when I was a kid with my dad. But the kids were sleeping over at the inlaws and we had an event to get to, the logistics just weren't worth a 3/4 mile drag through the laurel jungle. So I hurriedly quartered him and packed him out of there in one gloriously heavy/miserable load.
I think I may have a shed from him last year also. Which is amazing because I almost never find sheds. Found close to a half mile away in a buck bedding area.
