Rut Report: Nov. 26 - Finally Shot a Buck!
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
11/26/2010 12:00:00 AM
Filed under:
journal
I have said it a few times in this blog: I feel like this year has been my most challenging ever for getting good bucks within bow range. Actually, it has been my most challenging ever for just seeing mature bucks. I saw very little crusing among mature bucks during the prime weeks of the rut. About the only time I even saw a mature buck was when I had a hot doe in the area. Otherwise, only a few young bucks each day - some days, no buck sightings at all.
I am going to spend some time trying to figure out what caused this strange situation. I think it is a combination of far fewer deer, maybe something with the moon. I'll try to sort it out over the next few weeks. We have aggressively harvested does all across southern Iowa these past several years and after two very hard winters back to back, this may be the result. Also, we now have tons of coyotes, far more than in the past and I know they will eat fawns. Maybe you throw it all together and end up here. However, the drop off has been severe from last year to this year - very sharp decline where you scratch your head and ask if it is even possible.
A number of people suggested that the week of Thanksgiving would be special. While I did shoot a very old buck on Wednesday morning, I would not say that there has been a ton of rut activity this week. It may have been the best week of the rut, but it was by no means rockin' - at least not here.
THE HUNT FOR "JAMIE"
Now to the buck. This old bugger is a deer we called "Jamie". I first saw this deer back in the 2006 season and he was about this same size, maybe a bit bigger. I would say he was at least 4 1/2 years old that year. I never saw him in 2007 and in 2008 (when I started to use trail cameras more) I got tons of nighttime photos of him, but no daytime photos. Jamie Brendes missed him on Halloween 2008 (thus the name) when he reluctantly followed a hot doe into a feeding area. That was the only sighting of the buck that year.
We never saw him in 2009 at all, despite tons of trail cam photos (again all at night).
Then this year we saw the buck on the morning Greg Clements shot "Lathrop" (November 15). Jamie snuck in behind us and I wasn't able to get any footage of him before he spotted us and bolted.
Next sighting was Tuesday evening when he was dogging a doe out in a bean stubble field. I am not sure if we got him filmed that evening or not. He was a long ways off, but it was full daylight.
Finally, Wednesday morning I was back in the same stand hoping for a better look at this buck. I still didn't know it was Jamie. He was there early dogging a doe. He ran her out of the wood lot and then came back again about 45 minutes later - alone. He was always in the brush and all I could tell was that it was a very mature buck. I grunted and he came stomping right up the ridge to me.
It wasn't until I went to recover the buck that I realized it was our old friend Jamie. I was ecstatic. I have never killed a buck I felt more excited about upon recovering it! I thought I had shot a mature buck, but I didn't realize I had shot one of the oldest (probably the oldest) bucks on our farm. Had I known that, I probably would have choked and shot him in the ear!
Anyway, we'll bring you the entire hunt on Monday's Main Show.
I have another buck tag (landowner tag), so in the meantime, I will be hunting feeding areas in the evenings. I have stopped hunting mornings for this season. Gotta get some work done at some point.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Good luck and please hunt safe.
