Big Buck Down!

Or like Lee and Tiffany Lakosky say…. BBD.

Bowhunting whitetail during the pre-rut in 2009  had a lot of bowhunters frustrated because of all the corn still standing in the Midwest. And for my two sons-in-law Joel and AJ and I, we were no exception.

Only 16% of the corn had been harvested by the first week of November according to the Ag dept. That’s the lowest number on record. We sat on stand (or in our treesaddles) 6-9 hours a day the first week of November and saw very does being chased. The standing corn was everywhere. It actually messed up our funnel situations we had planned on all year.

So we had to change gears and go to the harvested soybean fields because we had heard a neighbor who had 52 deer in their cut soys a few nights after they harvested the whole field. That’s a crazy number of deer no matter where you live.

So after prepping a new tree near the soys a few days earlier, I settled into my treesaddle around 1am for the rest of the day. Nothing showed until four does came out from the other side of the soybean field on my left 150 yards away. They moved my way and I decided to take the lead big doe at 25 yards.  When my 2-blade Rage went though both lungs, she just wheeled around and stood there. I had never seen that before. She started wobbling and then just tipped over.

Only 15 minutes of shooting light left when two more does came out from the same area and spotted the dead doe lying there. They walked over to within 2 feet of the dead doe when I heard footsteps coming from the woods on my right. I strained my eyes through the twilight to see a deer with a couple big white mainbeams. This was a shooter.

Once he crossed the fence row into the cut soybean field, I could see him a little better. I just tried to focus on his body making it to the next shooting lane through the branches. As he walked toward the two does, I put my 30 yard pin on him and let it fly.

I watched him as he took off across the field hoping he wouldn’t make it to the other side. He slowed down and tipped over about 15 yards short of the other side. Whew!

When I walked up on him in the dark, there was no ground shrinkage  at all. My best buck with a bow. He was a 3 1/2 year old and I figured his rack would score in the 130’s. It came out to 137.

The next day AJ saw a shooter buck similar to mine from the same tree but couldn’t get a shot off. Then Joel hunted from that tree the next day and saw an even bigger buck. Talk about a hot tree.

We will definitely be going back there in the spring to prep several more tress giving us multiple options for bowhunting whitetail in different wind. directions.