LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
Congrats to Mark Drury!
Can the season get any better? We’ve had so much luck up to this point, yet I felt the best was still to come. We’ve been dealing with unseasonably warm weather and high, high winds. But it is now November, and anything can happen!
The morning of November 5th, I decided to go to one of my favorite trees. The wind was galling and it was raining on and off. We sat in the truck until nearly 7:30 to keep the cameras dry. The sky finally cleared to west and we jogged to get to the tree in time before movement started. Between 7:30 and 8:30 we saw four different bucks including one gigantic 8 point I knew all too well. The 5 ½ yr old giant seemed to be cruising for an available doe, so I cracked the horns together while he was about 100 yards away. He immediately ran straight towards us and dropped into a deep draw. I expected to see him at any second. After an hour of intense searching and waiting for him to emerge, we decided he ran into a distraction because he never did show. Movement slowed down, temps rose into the low 70’s and the wind continued to blow at 25mph. Given the luck I experienced last weekend around the pond set, I decided to go back to where I killed Flyer on October 30th.
Around 4:30pm we had a giant buck slip in our back door from the 6ft tall switch grass. In fact, we didn’t see this 24” wide 8pt until he was 15 yards and coming towards the tree! Panic buttons weren’t just pressed; they were stomped through the bottom of the tree stand! The buck crossed our draw straight down wind at five steps from the tree and immediately started heading towards a couple of does that had been down winds from us the entire evening. At 25 yards away, the buck stopped, stomped his foot, and turned to face our tree – he obviously caught our wind. Over the next few minutes, the buck repeatedly tried to catch our wind, but just could not figure out what was going on. He finally relaxed, accepted whatever he had smelled, and continued on his way. At 29 yards, I bleated to stop him, and the Dream Season X-Force found its mark.
This one buck is the reason why we wear and believe in Scent Blocker/Scent Shield products and clothing. Without it, I don’t think I would have been able to kill this 5 ½ year old 24” wide 8pt. He new something was wrong, he just couldn’t figure out what. He held on long enough to give me a kill shot. I have probably over 200 Reconyx images of this deer and feel extremely privileged to be sitting behind him on the evening of November 5th. What a giant!
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Great photo with a Reconyx Trail Camera.
