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Thread: Waiting on a Whitetail

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    272

    Waiting on a Whitetail

    This tale begins the winter of 2014. It had been a couple of hard winters on the ungulates in our area and the elk and white tails were constantly coming in to eat with my livestock. As the winter progressed we began to find the sheds around the yard and feeding area. While feeding i picked up this shed so it would not "deflate" my day. Without a second thought I threw it in the shed bin beside our wood stove
    Last edited by bwhnter; 11-27-2020 at 07:33 AM.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    2015rolled around and all through the year we checked our trail cameras to see what was still around. Nothing caught our eye so we carried on with our elk hunting and didn't spend much time chasing whitetails. When the rut started in November we couldn't help but hope that some good mature bucks would roll in looking for does. We had a small field that we had seeded to late oats in hopes of the green feed bringing in a few more deer. We were successful but the wolves figured it out as well and even though it was only 200 yards from my house they took down a deer almost every night leaving nothing but hair, blood and a green smear in the snow. They would howl in my yard and we would see them in the moon light but never during shooting hours. We boiled some snares and began to take them down. While we were at it we figured we would set some for the coyotes as well.



    Last edited by bwhnter; 11-27-2020 at 07:34 AM.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    With our evening snare checks my son started to eyeball a buck that was really dogging the does. Having never shot a whitetail he decided this buck would do he took him with one shot from his mothers 30-06.

  5. #4
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    Feb 2006
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    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    The rest of the deer season went by with no other excitement. My son had also drawn a late season any elk draw and we spotted a split main beam bull and on a balmy -35 degree day in January we stalked the bull across our field and one shot later with his 7mm-08 he had a very unique trophy. We started to call him the one shot wonder.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    599

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    Love where this is going! Great thread bwhnter!
    "The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    Roughly 4 days later I was walking into the yard and noticed a shed antler. Once again I picked it up gave it a quick glance and threw it on the shed pile.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    2016came and same old routine. We had a couple of really old bucks that we were getting on camera but never able to get eyes on them. Just too wise to the game. This buck was on the "last day" hit list and although not a high scoring deer a truly "aged" trophy. (Like a good scotch)
    Last edited by bwhnter; 11-27-2020 at 07:34 AM.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    region 9
    Posts
    11,528

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    Great thread so far, and nice harvests, especially the preds....

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    As my handle shows I really prefer to bowhunt but my family mainly rifle hunt. With no deer on my September hit list we decided to go for a camping/hunting trip. The first few days of the season were pretty slow in action and ambition. It was quite warm and with the stories and laughter carrying on late into the night we just had a hard time getting up. The main goal was to get the kids "unplugged" for a bit and spend time with there Grandparents.

    The morning of Sept 3 it got cold and foggy. I was awoke by my son elbowing me excitedly telling me that he had heard an elk bugle. I confidently assured him that he was dreaming because I had years of training myself to respond to elk bugles and if there had been one my subconscious would have awoke me. I rolled over and told him to go back to sleep. In that moment a bull let a bugle go that sounded like he was standing in our fire pit.
    Springing to my feet I threw on my pants and bolted out the wall tent. Now we had pitched our wall tents with the doors facing each other and they were pretty close together. As I was coming out of our tent, my oldest son was coming out of the tent he was sharing with the Grandparents and we ran headlong into each other.

    "Did you hear the bull?!!" We both blurted at the same time. I told him to get Grandpa up and tell him to grab his gun. I ducked back in the tent and threw on a pair of Crocks.

    Huddling together I informed everyone that my calls and binos were all down in the boat about 40yards away and I figured the bull was " inside the wire". The fog was so think we couldn't see 20 yards. Needing my calls and binos we decided that just Grandpa and I would make our way to the boat and everyone else would stay in camp.

    Reaching the boat we gathered the gear we needed and I made a soft quiet cow call to see if we could locate him. He let a bugle go that sounded like he was in my pocket when infact he was just across the river. Getting Dad set up we waited for the fog to hopefully part and it did. He was standing 90 yards away straight on. We needed 6 on one side and just as the fog rolled in he gave a quick turn to show us the back split.

    Holding our breath we waited for another break. He bugled again and it sounded like he was moving away. We were just starting to talk about a plan to cross and go after him when the fog rolled out again. What I saw made my jaw drop. The bull had jumped in and was swimming across with just his head and antlers out of the water. He was a lot bigger than I had originally thought. As he went 5 feet behind the back of the boat Dad repositioned aiming on the down stream side. The bull got solid ground under his feet and started to come ashore. I had been coached by the outfitter that I had worked for to never shoot big animals in the water because it takes a lot of the fun out of it. Looking down at my Dad and seeing the excitement on his face I couldn't imagine the fun ever leaving this moment. No matter where the bull died so I told him to take him. Although my Dad was excited he was also thinking and shot him through the lungs. The bull lunged further onto dry land and went down. We couldn't believe what had happened. Neither one of us was wearing a shirt and we had just killed a cranker bull in camp.


  11. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    272

    Re: Waiting on a Whitetail

    I know this has turned into more than a white tail story but I am in the writing mood. Although my phone is dying. I will carry on tomorrow morning. Good night all.

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