Last couple of days have been off and on again with the weather. Rained good and hard two days ago. Yesterday was an awsome day to be out but I had to work and run errands all day. Come to find out... as fate would have it (it's always that way) Denny, took a real nice 6 point only 50 yards from my stand!
I'm real happy for him! Kinda wish it would have been my harvest, but then again, my season would be over that quick. Although, it'd end on a high note and I'd be able to have the braggin rights to havin gotten my buck and doe... oh yeah... and I've also got a muzzleloader tag left too... so yeah... I wish that was my harvest lol. Nah... I know there's bigger/better there. That's why I've got my stand there.
I'm honing in on good deer around these parts more and more. My skill as a big buck hunter is improving. I'm seeing the results. Although this buck isn't HUGE by any means... a respectable buck up here where anything that's brown is down! That buck would have been a PERFECT archery buck though. The five I seen was a tad bigger than this... spread wise and main beam wise. About the same tine length though. Well, I'll be out there today, to put up a stand or two and hunt the remainder of the day/evening. Hopefully the bigger/badder buck will come out to play!
Well let me just start by saying it has been one helluva rollercoaster ride this season. It's been seriously a hit or miss game for me let me tell ya. Primarily, it's been about being wrapped up in all that's going on with the fam. So ANYTIME I get in the woods, it's just for some "me time"... down time, tranquility in nature's unaltered state of zen. Ok... not a hippy or anything but hey... it's what it is. In other words... meat in the freezer is a bonus and hopefully a reality. Cuz.. afteralll, I LOVE venison! Seriously, I'd have no problem with living off from it for an entire year (with a pizza here and there too
). Anyway.. on to the hunt....
Ok, so I was at the range earlier with my uncle. He asked of my assitance to help sight in his new .308. I obliged and was happy to do so! I just love shootin guns! Don't you? Anyway, when I was done with the gun, it was a tack driver. We shot 150 gr. BT Hornaday ST bullets. Dead nuts. Why is this important? Well, because "I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning" lol... I dunno... I just got the "itch" after shootin at the range. I wanted to KILL something now... besides just cardboard and paper. I had the urge to put something with fur behind those crosshairs and it rhymed with might fail...
So, for the last week I had been hunting a leased property. It's kinda like a "time share" program. I got lucky enough to draw the first 10 days in Novemeber! Rock on!
. Problem was, was that I'm VERY limited in my time spent afield this year, and as luck would have it... today would be the last day that I could hunt it before my time expired! I'm working most of the day tomorrow and I'm taking a trip this weekend to catch the Giants/Cowboys game (thank you Gametraxx.com!
). Anway, it was my last day. I had been hunting this property HARD... for what I could. Very calculated and not wanting to make any mistakes. I had seen plenty of good sign, just no real sightings. I've been real limited in my talks about this spot cuz a fellow hunter and member here hunts there too lol
. I only had a day or two to really get down to bidness.... and a call to arms was necessary....
So as I stated, I was up against the wall running against the clock. And the rut was just starting to kick into full swing around here. With all the reports of scraping, rubbing, chasing etc... I just knew that every moment that I could sneak away from "real life" needed to be spent afield. And since my free time is about as rare as a feasible gas price, I needed to up my odds for every venture I made in the woods! And I sat and thought hard about what ONE thing I could add to my arsenal in doing this?? One thing came to mind... DEER SCENTS!!
Hey, it's the rut and these deer are chasin like a fat boy to a free buffet! And my thoughts are that deer use their nose more than any other sense that they have in THEIR arsenal... why not use their biggest asset and use it against them to make it their biggest liability?!
Now, the Racks & Spurs Club just so happens to be sponsored by
VS-1 Deer Scents' New England Regional Distributor. I just had to get my hands on some this year! I've heard nothing but great reviews from the die-hard buck hunters that use it and I didn't want to miss out on my piece of the action. Especially here out in the northern zone of New York State! When I talked with them about how it's a bit difficult to get a solid buck in these parts, it only made "scents" (pardon the pun) to go with a product that true and tried in the field. When used properly... this stuff is a literal KILLER!
I received my hunters package in the mail just as the rut was heating up. I must say that I was more than impressed with all that came with! Talk about a COMPLETE scent system! An instructional DVD was in the mix of goodies on how to properly use the product... cuz lets face it, at the premium price for a premium product such as VS-1... you don't want to waste it! The DVD made sense of the use of this product. It came with a 1 oz. bottle of the VS-1 estrous doe urine (the 1 oz. bottle of estrous urine is not included in the regular hunter's package, that is sold seperately.). Which I learned that the "VS" in VS-1 stands for "vaginal secretions"... which is what makes all the difference in the world. When she's ready to breed THIS is what the bucks are going crazy over. I also recieved a "Deer Herd In A Stick" & a "VS-1 Stick" as well... they come in what looks like a deoderant stick. So I've got a liquid scent product and two sticks that can be applied to basically anything in the woods for it's use! AND a DVD on how to use it properly! Not bad!
It also came with scent wafers to apply the urine to, as well as a wind "Detect o' breeze" direction identifier, and a cool game tag protector! Awsome stuff!
So, the time had come... for me to put this to use. I'm running against the clock and have been hunting since Sept 27th this year over a month and still no buck! Something had to be done, and soon! My answer...
VS-1 !!!!
So a few days back I ventured into the woods with the intent to lay out a mock scrape line where I had noted some good fresh buck activity previously this year. There were rubs, scrapes and good runs bordering a thick condensed bedding area. All down in the bottom of a bench flat. PERFECT for a rutting buck to cruise through daily! The idea here was to get the bucks that were in there (i had figured there to be about 3-4 solid bucks in this one spot) to feel as if an "intruder buck" had come in to THEIR house and is starting to lay claim on their almost ready does! My thoughts were that hopefully these bucks that have been putting in the time to work these does until they come around would be HIGHLY aggitated at the idea of another INTRUDER coming in and stealing their girls. With the peak of the rut closing in and the VS-1 deer scents in my arsenal... it was damn near unfair! lol
I layed out about 6-7 mock scrapes that hugged real tight to the thick cover. I freshened up other pre-existing real scrapes as well. The real scrapes I dug up and used the "Deer Herd In A Stick"... which is a combination of multiple deer scents combined into one. A "calming" scent more than anything. To allow the rutting bucks to be aware that other deer are there and aware. Just a drop or two of VS-1 Estrous liquid in the scrape. Then, the mock scrapes (more toward my stand location) I used the VS-1 Estrous stick and put out a wafer on a overhanging branch with some VS-1 estrous liquid soaked into it. A few liberal drops in the scrape itself and the stage was set!
I have to admit... I seen the Phonepole buck just the other day! And man was he ever majestic! I was out with the bow at that time and was more "setting up" than I was actually hunting. I missed my opportunity but the sighting was worth my season! The other problem was that he was just on the other side of the adjoining property that I DON'T have permission to hunt. Bummer! I did manage to sit that day and saw IMMEDIATE results! Two very respectable 8 points had come to investigate the scrapes I had laid out! The bigger of the two TORE UP the tree I put the Deer Herd In A Stick on!! Just ravished it! He freshened up one of the scrapes and urinated on it rubbing his hind legs/tarsals while doing so. What a sight! He was real nice! Bigger than my 7 and thensome! But he was just outta range for my bow and I had seen the Phonepole and was hoping he'd return. With no luck though.
I only had a couple more days to hunt this property and the rest of my season might only have a few more days of hunt time I could commit to anyway, so the next time I went out, I'd have to take the best respectable buck I could. As luck would have it... I was about to make it happen!
So after a couple of days of laying out some fresh premium scent, the area had become ALIVE with activity! I basically had charged that battery to it's full capacity man! New scrapes had popped up and rubs were EVERYWHERE!
I went in last night on a whim. There was a stand location that I haven't hunted because of the wind and last night it was just right! The problem with this stand was that it was much further back and away from where I had laid out the scrapes... but it WAS in rifle range! Which was what I was packin with me last night! I wasn't playin for anything but keeps last night. I actually hadn't even really planned to hunt last night. But when I saw the weather and then went to the range and shot off a few rounds... well, the rest was history!
So as I mentioned as I made my way to the stand there was just sign EVERYWHERE! In a matter of a few days this area had become a whitetail hunters dream! I jumped a real big bodied deer on my way in also! This area got SMOKIN HOT! I got up in the stand about 17 feet in the air. Got settled in and waited. I had kinda felt a bit disappointed in the fact that i had jumped a deer as I felt that may have ruined the set. But to my surprise, that wouldn't be the case!
As I sat there I contimplated the spooked deer. Did it run out of the area altogether? Did it alarm other deer? I didn't know, but what I did know was that jumping deer on the way to the stand was not something I wanted to do. Either way, I felt I had nothing to lose so I pulled out a rattle bag and started a medium paced rattle sequence. Within 2 minutes of rattling, I had caught movement right out in front of me in the thick brush. Two white flags were bounding away!
I had at that point assumed that the rattling had spooked them. I didn't even know they were in front of me. Granted, they were out at about 200 yards though.
So here I'm thinking "Well... that's great! ... Now what?! Time is just tickin away and my season may be over until the late muzzleloader season. Dang it all!"....
So I gave it a few minutes and just watched the thickets. Then, all of a sudden, I see a white flag just standing up high and slightly twitching.... then it bounds off to the left. I see another deer trailing behind it. Bounding through the thickness. It was actually very intense because I couldn't see what it was at first and with it being so thick I could only catch quick glimpese. And the sightings were all over the place... cuz one minute it'd be to my left, then over to my right... not being able to catch the in-between because of the cover. Then,.... I saw RACK! There was a buck out there... and apparently they weren't as spooked as I had thought! Actually, I think my rattling sparked that bucks mood and got him chasing that doe out there! Rock on!
So the doe actually makes here way at a b-line toward me! She stops at one of my mock scapes about 75 yards away from me and urniates in it. The buck trailing behind starts running at her and then stops on a dime! He moves to the right and starts licking a wafer I had hanging over one of my other mock scrapes! He was going NUTS!! He had a live doe in front of him and stopped on a dime to investigate my mock scrape! He didn't even care about the hot doe! His interest was in that VS-1 man! I was just in awe of all this!
So she continues toward me. She's now literally underneath my stand. The buck went into the cover and I lost him for a second. Then, he pops out of the brush directly in front of me at 40 yards! He turns his head and I can see that he's got at least four points on the one side. Not a huge rack but his body was HUGE!!! He was pushing over 200 lbs live weight! A real nice pig of a buck round these parts! With only about 45 minutes left in my hunt and a possible end to my seasaon, I had decided to take this buck!
The doe standing right below me looks beyond without a clue to my whereabouts. I take the safety off the .270 and put the crosshairs behind his shoulder. I squeeze the trigger and BLAM! He went straight down! The doe takes off and stops only 75 yards out. I hit the buck solid, but this bruiser didn't want to go down so easily. He gets back up on his feet and wobbles. I didnt' want to take any chances so I raise up again. He's quartering toward me and I put the crosshairs on him once again. Just as I'm squeezing off the shot, he turns his head back toward his hind end as he tries to bound away and BLAM!! My shot goes right through his eye, through his skull, then back into his body! I didn't have time to react and the shot went off! It did, obviously, put him down at that point.
I let out a YES! As it went down! I give my ol man a call and say I've got at least a 6 or 8 point down. While I'm on the phone I look over and see the doe still standing there! She has no clue what's going on! Then, she slowly starts walking away.... she actually STOPS at the same scrape she urinated in and started pawing it ou like she was a buck! I couldn't believe it! All this that was going on and she still gets drawn in by the scent system! AWSOME STUFF!!
So I realize... hey, I've still got my doe tag... I'm gonna take her! I tell my ol' man hold on... I'm gonna take a doe out. I'll call you right back! Blam! She goes down! Right on the shoulder! Two deer down in under two minutes! A buck and a doe! I call right back to my ol' man and say "It don't get any better than this!"
The buck was a solid 7 point. The rack wasn't the biggest and he was not by any means the biggest racked buck in the area. Had I had more time to hunt the property, I would have held out for bigger! But I'm happy with him that's for sure. Nothin to sneeze at by any means. It's his body that really impressed me though. He goes over 200 lbs live weight. Just a bruiser big bodied buck! Many thank you's go out to Dave McDuff of
www.WhitetailShopping.com and VS-1 Deer Scents for making me a believer and happy hunter because of their products ability to produce. It made the difference this year for me and I'll continue to support their products! They work and I highly recommend getting some before they run out! Once it's gone for the season... IT'S GONE! Thank you again and man does it feel good to have one hangin!....
2007 Upstate NY Seven Point Buck