December 4: A Buck Named Flyers
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
12/5/2011 12:00:00 AM
|
|
You can see the two sticker points clearly (off the G2s) that earned this buck his name "Flyers". He is a great deer, made to look even bigger by an 11 year old! |
2010 SEASON
We first got on Flyers last November when he showed up completely by surprise on one of our trail cameras. He was there at midday! I giant we had never seen before. My first reaction was that he was just cruising through the area during the rut and we would never see him again. Then he showed up again from the tree stand (about 1/2 mile away) late one evening in late November with just one beam - the other was broken off. He went past at 40 yards, but we didn't get very good footage because it was getting toward the end of legal shooting time and the camera were carrying that day didn't have the light-gathering power to pull him in.
Then while I was hunting another stand a couple of days before the first shotgun season in 2010 he came out to feed in a distant cornfield - about 250 yards away. We got some footage again, but nothing special. Then we got a few photos of him during the winter. Mike Prucha found the single side shed from Flyers in March of 2011 confirming that he had made it through the season and the winter.
 |
| This is what Flyers looked like in 2010, when I think he was 4 1/2 years old. He was already a good looking buck, but he developed the namesake sticker points the following year. |
2011 SEASON
We figured he was 4 1/2 years old in 2010 making him 5 1/2 this year - see I can count. As we started running cameras in September we began getting him regularly in two different spots about 1/4 mile apart. Almost all of the photos (except two) were after dark. He was following the script we have seen often with 5 1/2 year old bucks - they don't show up much during the day.
Flyers was a no show all season despite the fact that Mike Sawyer, Greg Clements and Frank Miniter all hunted hard throughout nearly every day of November in the buck's known core area. I stopped running the cameras in mid-to-late October so I am not sure if he was there the whole time, but I would guess that he was. The buck was a regular on the cameras leading up to that time, so I doubt he suddenly left. He remained noctural throughout November.
THE LESSON
 |
| This is very typical of what we were getting on the trail cameras in October when we were picking up this buck nearly every evening. I believe we got only two daylight photos of the buck in more than a month. |
DECEMBER 4, 2011
When he showed up 30 minutes before the end of legal shooting time last night, I instantly became a nervous wreck on the camera. I am sure Greg edited out all the mistakes I made, but just know that at one point while the buck was walking in, the monitor was actually showing colored bars. I was trying to up the gain and hit the wrong switch! Drew did great. With several deer only ten to twenty yards from the blind he was able to get into the window, get the gun up and finally make a really good (perfect) 80 yard shot on the buck.
We will shoot some better photos today with one of my higher-end still cameras, but I included a couple of shots of the buck that we took upon recovering him last night. He is an awesome buck and I am proud for Andrew that he was able to get him. However, every time one of these bucks goes down that we have so much history with, it makes me feel a bit sad. I always loved having them out there, testing us. When they are gone, some of the excitement of hunting the farm goes with them. After this season (we have now killed three of our long-term rivals) we are losing those bucks at an alarming rate. I am sure there will be others that step up to take their place, but in the meantime, the farm certainly feels emptier to me.
WHAT'S NEXT?
It is time for me retool for the Second Shotgun Season here and get ready to help our daughter shoot a deer or two. She has had bad luck on the show since we started filming the hunts, but we are both determined to change that this year. So keep an eye on the next episode and hopefully we can put something in front of miss Jordan.
Good luck!
