Kansas (and MN) recap

[DaveT]

Crappie Rage said I could do the recap this year, I'll be including a MN deer and a lot more pictures.

Dad got us started before we even left for Kansas, he arrowed this one at his place in Hugo.

There were a total of six guys hunting in Kansas this year, the first of our group arrived Friday the 7th, the last on Monday the 10th. We didn't have a lot of huge bucks on camera this year, but we did have a lot of mature bucks and with the additional acreage we've secured permission to hunt on, confidence was high. The following bucks were all on the hit list, two of them are at least 6.5 years old.

[DaveT]

Here are my daughter's holding the sheds from last year. The drop tine buck didn't grow his drop this year and we only got a couple pictures of him all summer.

Jesse got the killing in Kansas started on the 9th with this solid ten pointer.

He was a little disappointed in himself for dropping the hammer so quickly into his hunt and he ended up grunting in to 11 yards and videoing this nice 145-150 class buck a couple days later while hunting on his doe tag.

[DaveT]

The weather was tough on us, the wind blew like crazy and the bottom dropped out of the thermometer. At the time it seemed like a logical thing to blame our slow season on. None of us hunting on our owned property was seeing the activity we're used to. Jesse and Matt, however, were seeing quite a few deer at the farmer's Mom's land and hadn't really even tried the big hill to the south where we got the picture of this guy.

[Hoyt4]

Nice

Can't wait to see more. Been wondering how you boys did since you left.

Since I sent you an e-mail and never heard back I knew you had to be in the great land of Kansas.

[DaveT]

The morning of November 12th was cold, still windy but I was tucked back on the lee side of a ridge so it was nice. That morning I got a text from my Dad that there were some dogs chasing deer on the property. I heard them barking a few minutes later and then a yearling buck came racing past, but no dogs were following it. CR was my ride back to camp and he texted me he wanted to get down at 9:30, I responded to just go back without me, I'm staying til 10:30. He decided to tough it out, too. At 9:53 I hear dogs barking to the south, look up and there's a big buck barreling right at my tree, 50 yards and closing fast! I immediately notice his right side and I don't recognize him, but decide to kill him if I can. I grab the bow and spin around as he's passing directly under my tree. Yank the bow back and he stops underneath me, I have no shot as he's on the wrong side of the tree. The dogs are close behind and he starts to run again, I half bleat/half shout and shoot as he stops...almost. He's quartering away strong and his stutter step results in a less than desirable shot. I realize at this point that I will never see this buck again. I'm pretty sure I got enough penetration through the ham to get up into his liver, but with three dogs on him he will run for miles. I send out the text and shortly thereafter my phone dies.

Had it kept working I would have received Crappie's texts. "Nice buck Dave. No dragging required" along with this photo.

[DaveT]

The buck ran a half mile circle, went past Uncle Dick, then trotted right to Crappie Rage, he made it 20 yards after CR's shot. This is the second time this has happened for us. Twice I have made a poor shot and the buck has went straight to CR to get finished off. That's what big brothers are for, right?

[DaveT]

November 14th Matt got a second chance at a buck he figured to be in the 160's, the buck waited him out until the last ticks of legal shooting light before giving him a shot. Anybody with 40 plus year old eyes knows how hard it is to shoot well in that circumstance and Matt's arrow only penetrated 2" at most. We grid searched for 5 hours and never found any blood, even after finding his broken shaft. Disappointing, but pretty confident this buck will make it.

Not much to report after that, unfortunately. CR, Dad, and Uncle all passed up some of our nice 3 year olds. In years past we probably would have killed one or more of these bucks.

We did have more issues with different dogs running deer on the property later the same day and could hear them off in the distance later that week. It has happened in the past and it has been our experience that the chasing only happens during the rut and they always are chasing a fairly mature buck. We believe it's because the bucks smell the most and are the easiest to trail. I believe the dogs may have chased a few bucks off the property before we got down there as well. That part of the trip was frustrating but otherwise we had a blast. We ate too much, drank too much, watched Hot Tub Time Machine for the 30th time. Still may go down for a late season hunt but it's pretty much over.

[triggertrav]

Gotta love KS! thanks for sharing and nice write up.

[Scoot]

Great stuff and excellent work!

[hugonian1]

I like your dads Hugo buck.

By chance did he get it north of County 4 & west of 61?

[mrklean]

Great recap some amazing looking deer

[DaveT]

I like your dads Hugo buck.

By chance did he get it north of County 4 & west of 61?

West of 61 and south of 4, but within a mile of 4. Do you have trail cam pics of it? That would be pretty cool to show Dad, he doesn't have any pics of this buck. His place is for sale as my Mom's health is getting worse and they need to move closer to town, 80 acres.

http://msp.themlsonline.com/details,84fc1be59367d2652c661fc74fe7aed2,1,results,4481808,9822-152nd-Street-N-Hugo-MN-55038.html

[hugonian1]

I might from last year.

I will do some looking back and if I do will share.

Great looking buck.

Kudos to your father. Great job closing the deal on a mature deer like that.

Congrats.