Weapon: Hoyt Trykon XL
Arrows: Beman Hawk 400, Rage Two Blade
Date: 10/11/2009
Camo: Mossy Oak
Location: ClarkCounty
Conditions: Cloudy, 38 degrees

Work Weekend
 


Fellow pro-staffers, and good friends, Mark and Matt Casper and myself headed North to my dad’s property in Clark County for our annual work weekend to prepare for the upcoming rifle season. With everyone’s busy schedule, kids, etc. finding a weekend to get up there is challenging.


I headed up Friday afternoon early enough to hunt Friday evening. Mark and Matt was not able to head up till Saturday afternoon. The forecast for the weekend was perfect…..overcast and cool. Friday night I saw three in my honey hole so I couldn’t ask for a better start to the weekend.


Saturday morning I awoke to a heavy frost, the first one for the year. The night before I had decided to hunt a farm we call Bono’s. Bono’s is an 80+ acre tracking that is mostly set-aside, but there are a few draws that are natural funnels. Over the years it has produced several good bucks. The particular stand I was going to hunt had two does harvested out of it by prostaffers Mark and Jason last year.


The morning got off to a great start. As the sun rose over the hill and it started melting the frost of the trees and the leaves were raining down. At about 7:30 or so I saw 3 does out in the field which was out of range. About a half an hour or so passed and I heard a splash to the North. When I turned that direction I saw two nice sized does headed my direction. They milled around 20 yards in front of me before the bigger doe offered a nice quartering away broadside shot. I had watched these deer for about 10 minutes, so I had time to relax and get my nerves in check. I put the pin right on her and squeezed the trigger. Whack! She looked up at me and walked off. After she got out of sight I got down to see what happened, and there was my new Rage 2 blade broadhead buried in an oak tree. After looking back through my window I had clipped a toothpick sized branch and my arrow had deflected. I dug my $13+ broadhead out of the tree and crawled back up in stand.


Saturday evening I was not able to hunt because of a wedding. My cousin Tom, who is an avid bowhunter, decided to get hitched in October…..what was he thinking? Mark and Matt made it up early enough that afternoon to hunt that evening. Mark headed to the bowl, a hardwoods thicket where he had seen several last year. Matt brought his climber and hunted a Maple thicket on a creek bottom on the other side of Bono’s. Matt had an encounter with a pope and younger that he will never forget.


Sunday morning we awoke to cloudy skies and slightly warmer temps….still in the 30’s though. Matt wanted to hunt the Maples again in hopes of seeing his big boy and Mark wanted to head back to the bowl. I decided to hunt the stand on Bono’s that I had hunted the previous morning. Matt and I were in our stands real early, which I like to do even though it generally doesn’t happen that way. It was a still morning, no wind, and for the first hour, no deer…..the squirrels weren’t even out. At ~7 I went through a series of grunts on the Primos Buck Roar. Finally about 7:30 I heard a deer working its way towards me, but was behind me. The tree the ladder stand is in is a thick forked tree and you cannot see behind you. Finally the deer stepped in my view to the right….it was a forky. I watched him for 10 minutes or so then heard another deer walking in behind me but to my left. I couldn’t take my eyes off the forky because he was looking my direction. The forky turned enough so that I could peek over my left shoulder and there stood a shooter buck. My first view of him, all I could see was rack and my heart began to race. The forky turned and worked his way behind me out of sight so now I could focus on this big 9 pointer…..the biggest buck I have ever had that close. For the longest time he was so close that I could not shoot even if I had the opportunity. He worked in front of me for about 5 minutes or so. He would look up at me then go back to munching on grass. We played this game for what seemed like forever. Finally he got out in front of me nearly in the same tracks as the doe I missed the morning before. He was quartering away at a steep angle. I put the pin on his back rib, grunted at him to get him to stop, and then squeezed the trigger. I buried all but 6 inches of the arrow in his boiler room. He kicked like a mule and ran down the draw. I could see him most of the way, but right before he got out of sight he stopped. He stood there looked around, and then continued on. I was in complete disbelief, because I knew I had drilled him. I turned back to see if the forky was still to my right, and there stood a nice 8 pointer. I sat in the tree another 10 minutes, seemed like 7 hours, before I got down. I went over to where he was standing and just a few drops of blood. I walked up to the truck to get Mark and the 4-wheeler. After a couple hours Mark and I was back at my stand and I was explaining everything to Mark. Mark was looking for blood and I headed to the last spot I saw him. I crossed the creek and when walking up the bank there he was. He didn’t go 80 yards. All I could see was rack. I was jumping around like a kid in a candy store…..I had just harvested a pope and younger with my Hoyt Trykon……first deer with that bow. Picture time!

It was an awesome hunt that I will never forget. The final score came in at 142 Gross, and 132 Net. Matt had found the shed off this deer earlier this year in turkey season. Matt found the side with the forked G2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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