The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

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ADKMtnTrapper
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The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

Unread postby ADKMtnTrapper » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:15 am

The Welcome Back Buck:

To begin I want to say that only within the last few weeks have I discovered the “Beast Mode” style of hunting and it sounds promising but this story doesn’t necessarily involve these tactics but hey I guess no matter how we all hunt we are all beast hunters right!?

So just a short background, I am a native to the Adirondack Mountains where deer are few and far between and big bucks are fewer and farther. Prior to the fall I lived in Charleston South Carolina for about a year where my wife and I had our baby girl. Then decided South Carolina is far too hot, flat and no place to raise our daughter so we pack it up and moved back home.

Fast forward a few months and it brings us to the Northern Zone rifle season opening weekend. My whole family was our hunting camp for the weekend so we had three days to put some deer on the ground. This is the first time I have been in the woods in a whole year and I was eager to get my boots in the leaves! During the summer we had gotten some trail cam pictures of two nice 10’s and a solid 8pt and knew they were frequenting this certain hill back about 2 miles from camp.

The logging company we lease our 3,000 acres from had logged off the area about 2 years prior and the beech nut saplings have grown to about 6 ft and were so thick you can hardly see 50 yards in front of you. This makes for ideal deer habitat so my cousin and I decided circled to the back side of the section of woods and still hunt our way over the hill to do some scouting while trying to walk up on a deer moving into its bedding area. It had rained the night before and the leaves were well soaked and made it easy to sneak through the old logging roads and brush patches. The other members of our clan decided to sit in tree stands in the clear cut and wait for the deer to move.

We decided to spread out a few hundred yards apart and slowly still hunt our way to everyone in there tree stands. After about an hour and a half of taking 2-3 steps and glassing and repeat my cousin radioed me saying he thought he heard something crashing though the brush but it was hard to tell. I acknowledged him and decided to stick to an old logging trail; it was easy walking and conveniently looked down a small ridge.

I walked about 100 yards scanning the brush and as I walked by an area where the brush opened up slightly and as I walked by I said to myself, “Damn that looked just like a deer’s ear.” Then I hit me like a ton of bricks, that’s because it was a deer! I took a step and a half backwards and looked through the brush. Sure enough less than 50 yards away I could see pieces of an ear, eyes, shoulder, and beams that went past his ears! I flicked my safety off of my .270 Winchester and put the gun to my shoulder in one slow motion. As I looked through the scope all I could see was brush and brown, my scope was set to 4 power but he was so close I couldn’t make out where I was aiming.

My heart dropped I was afraid that I missed my chance that maybe he had run off. As I lowered my rifle I picked him right back up, he never moved it was just so thick he blended in. He stood there like a statue waiting for me to move on. This time kept my eye on him and pulled my gun up to my eye. There was no missing him this time, I quickly put the crosshairs on his shoulder and fired, “BOOM!!” The buck took one leap and quickly disappeared. As I scanned the brush looking for signs of him suddenly a quick brown flash crossed the logging road ahead of me. “BOOM!!” I fired my gun from the hip hoping to get another round into him incase my first shot didn’t hit its mark good enough.

Then my cousin came over the radio asking, “What’d ya get, which way is he headed?” I replied, “He headed behind me, why don’t you come over and help to see if I hit him.”

After 10 minutes passed my cousin found me and I told him that I was going to go over where I first shot at him and look for sign and told him to walk the logging road looking for where he crossed. Once I got to the spot where he stood I found that he was standing on another logging road but it had a deep skidder rut and I couldn’t tell if he was standing in it or not. It was 3 foot deep and if he was standing in it there was a chance I shot the ground in front of him. Anxiously I followed the overturned leaves searching for any sign of hair, blood, anything to indicate a hit. With every step my heart began to sink until about 30 feet from where I shot at him I found a small amount of bright red blood covering the wet leaves of a berry bush.

At the same time I began to tell my cousin I found blood he whispered to me, “I got good blood over here, looks like a good lung shot!” I quickly advanced to his location and there was a good two foot diameter area of spraying blood! After waiting another 15 minutes I advised him to follow up the logging road so he could get an elevated view of the area the buck headed towards. The brush was THICK to thick for a rifle so I slung my rifle over my back and pulled out my S&W .44 Revolver for back up. At this point I was on pins and needles at he ready in case he was to jump and run. As I track him I kept constant contact with my cousin on our direction and location, it was easy tracking as with every bound there was blood spray covering the brush I’m sure he wasn’t far.

Another 50 yards went by and my cousin had worked his way off of the logging road and into the brush. As I was pushing head down through the brush my cousin suddenly shouted, “I found him he’s down, holy he’s a moose!!!” I pushed harder and my heart began to race I couldn’t believe he was down, I had no clue on the size of this beast and I couldn’t wait to see what his idea of a “moose” was. As I walked up behind him all I could see was a huge barrel shaped body with a mass of dark reddish tan horns towering off his head like a mighty Adirondack crown!

I had not only shot my first 10pt but I had also unknowingly joined the 200lb club! After many congratulations, hand shakes and laughter we cleaned him up and made the drag back to the main road. This is my biggest buck to date and text book Adirondack brute weighing in at 219lbs dressed with a 20” spread. His neck was massive over 2 ft in circumference at the base of his head he was definitely king of the mountain without a doubt.

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Bear Claw Chris Lapp: "You're the same dumb pilgrim who i've been smellin' for twenty days, and hearin' for three!"

AeroEvolution Saddle w/Treebolts climbing system
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Bear Claw Chris Lapp: "You're the same dumb pilgrim who i've been smellin' for twenty days, and hearin' for three!"

AeroEvolution Saddle w/Treebolts climbing system
Matthews Z7 with G5 OPTIX XR BOW SIGHT EastonAxis Nano w/Schwacker Broadheads
moog5050
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Re: The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

Unread postby moog5050 » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:42 am

Great story - wish I could see the pics.
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Re: The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

Unread postby moog5050 » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:43 am

Must be the buck in your avatar. Nice! Welcome from another upstate NYer.
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Stanley
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Re: The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:45 am

Great story. Nice buck also.
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.
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Re: The Welcome Back Buck (ADKMtnTrapper) {moved from BBC}

Unread postby JoeRE » Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:02 am

Good story. Congrats, sounds like a beast! Cant see any pics though?

Only part I am not sure about is firing your gun from the hip at a deer you didn't know for sure if you hit with the first shot...maybe I interpreted that incorrectly.


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