Thursday, October 15, 2009

Pre Rut Buck





This is a Buck that I have observing for about 2 weeks now. I have 100 acres of land in Louisa and maintain 14 food plots through out the property, using trail cams to take pictures of the animals that use the plots. These particular pictures are fron 2 cameras, one under a set of Persimmon trees and the other a long trail in the woods planted in Whitetail Imperial Clover, under a stand of mature White Oaks. The deer over the last few weeks have decimated the clover to the point that it is only about 2 inches tall now and have kept it mowed to that height for the last 2 months. There are 2 Oak trees dropping acorns into the plot and the deer are eating them as quick as they fall. There are very few Oak trees producing on my property this fall, I think these 2 are due to all the lime and fertilizer that I have spread in the area. I have over a thousand pictures of other deer from the 3 trail cams on the property and about 50 more of this particular deer but I thought these were the most interesting, chronicling the movements of this Buck.
I was worried this Buck was going to leave the property soon with the rut not far away and I knew if we were to harvest the deer it would have to be soon. The weather was changing drastically, there was a major cold front moving in today, the weather was cold and getting colder, and it was going to rain for the next 3 days. I called up 3 other hunter friends and invited them over for an afternoon hunt, hoping someone would get a chance to bag the Buck. I got into a stand on a trail that led to one of my plots and at 5:45 a doe and her 2 fawns came by and started feeding in the plot. Soon after I heard some grunting and a 6 point passed by following the does. A little after 6 the does got nervous and started looking up the trail, at which point I saw a larger Buck coming in. The does and smaller Buck took off as the larger Buck approached. I waited for the Buck to give me a good shot, I watched him for 5 minutes before he turned quartering away from me at 40 yards and I let an arrow fly. I heard it score , he ran up the hill 50 yards and I heard a very loud crash.
We recovered the deer about an hour later, the shot was true and it was obvious the deer did not suffer. Pre rut deer are relatively easy to pattern, especially with trail cams, and with a little luck on our side our plan came together. Enjoy the photo's of this deer.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great story. You're a great sportsman.