Bo and Scott's 2010 Hit List

"Potato Digger" (Bo harvested this deer on October 22nd. You can watch the hunt on MW Great Plains, Episode 10.)

 This year marks our third year chasing this now 5 1/2 year old stud.  As a 3 1/2 year old, Bo elected to pass him up early in the season and again in December, knowing that he was not quite fully mature.  The next spring, Scott found his right side while shed hunting.  During the summer of 2009, we got dozens of trail cam pictures of Digger, whether it was hitting salt licks in the summer or rubs and scrapes in the fall. 

Opening night of the archery season gave us our first and only encounter with Digger during the entire 2009 season.  Due to low light conditions and a slightly quartering-to shot opportunity at 35 yards, Bo elected to give Digger a pass, hoping for another chance at him during the remainder of the season.  In late March, Scott broke a 35 hour shedless streak to find Digger's matched set within 10 yards of each other, solidifying the fact that he indeed had made it through the winter months and was still living on the property.  Amazingly, all of his sheds, all of the encounters, and nearly all of the trail cam pictures have come within an 80 yard area.

With the first summer card pull from the property, we were pleasantly surprised to find Digger continuing to hit his normal licks.  Even though his tine length isn't the best on the property, his beams are phenomenal.  In 2009, his beams measured 26 inches and this year, they should measure close to 28 inches.  Couple that with a 20 inch inside spread and you're looking at a 150+ inch 8 point.  Since we have narrowed his core down to such a small area, a few strategically placed stands, blinds, and food plots should get us close to this legend early in the season.

"Crab Claw 9"

Our first and only encounter, with the Crab Claw "9" occurred during the fall of 2008.  Bo and his wife, Sarah, had the then upper 140's 3 1/2 year old within 50 yards, but he never offered a shot opportunity.  He was a regular on the trail cams, but seemed to disappear in late October.  However, during the spring of 2009, we found his matched set on the property, giving us hope he'd show up again in 2009.  Unfortunately, his sightings were very rare in 2009 and no sheds were found.  We had assumed the worst - that he had been harvested by a neighboring hunter. However, with the same card pull that brought us new pictures of Digger this summer, also provided us with new and numerous pictures of the now 5 1/2 year old Crab Claw "9" - and he has simply exploded. 

 The Crab Claw "9" is now a main frame 10 point with half a dozen kickers and a small, but evident drop tine.

Amazing to us, the Crab Claw "9" is running with Potato Digger this summer - what a bachelor group!  With the additional tine length and mass he has grown in the last two years, we are fairly confident he will gross close to Boone and Crockett this year.  We've gotten a lot of daytime pictures of Crab Claw "9" and we're hopeful to get on him in the early season as well.  If not, we'll look for him to check for does or respond to a decoy on one of our numerous food plots during the pre-rut.
 

"First Pull"

First Pull is another 5 1/2 year old buck that we will be chasing this year.  Last year, we had two encounters with him while on stand.  We elected to pass him both times, hoping that he would blow up this year - and man, were we right!  He has added easily 25 inches this year in mass and tine length.  It's not very often that you find a main frame 7 point that will gross close to 150 inches.  The one thing working against us with First Pull is the property he calls home.  We have seen him all over the 1100 acre parcel.  We're hoping he will limit his home core area to a smaller portion of this property during the fall months and we'll be able to pattern him a little better.  Standing crops will provide a major challenge to us if we choose to hunt this buck in the early season.  He is a buck that we plan to focus on during the rut and pre/rut after the crops are harvested from our farm.  
 

"Weight"

We are very fortunate this year to have three new properties to hunt that are within 15 minutes of our houses.  On the very first velvet scouting trip to one of the properties the "Three Amigos" emerged from the wood line into the bean field.  The "Three Amigos" consist of three bucks named Weight, Tilt and M&M.  Each time we have filmed this field, at least two of the three have appeared, with Weight being the most consistent.  Weight got his name due to him being a very wide 8 point.  We have strategically positioned stands to hunt Weight the first week of season to hopefully catch him on his summer patterns.  All three of the bucks appear to be at least 4 1/2 years old and will score over 140 inches so we wouldn't be surprised if any one of the three shows up on the Great Plains show.  Weight has an inside spread easily over 20 inches and very good tine length.

"Mr. T"
Mr. T ("T" is short for tines) is another mature 160 inch buck that resides in Bo's back yard and on a property we just recently acquired permission to bow hunt.  The first pictures on the first card pull on the property introduced us to this long tined giant.  Hopefully while filming velvet on this property in the coming weeks and some additional scouting, we'll be able to close the distance on this whitetail as the 2010 season progresses.  Mr. T is definitely a "no question" shooter that we will be chasing hard this year.  Look at that tine length!!
 

Mr. T is a testament of what food plots can do for a property.  Last year, we had zero quality bucks show up for the camera on our new food plot in Bo's back yard.  This year, Mr. T, along with a few quality 3 year olds have visited the food plot.  We can't wait to see what might follow some does to it during the rut!

Again, another shooter on a new property.  Right Hook, named for his distinctive hooked right brow tine, could also be named Hollywood for how much face time he has provided us on trail cameras this year.  Unfortunately, the property he resides on is all corn so we're not able to film velvet on this property.  However, by strategically placing numerous trail cams on this relatively small parcel, we have narrowed down his home core area in a matter of months.  He definitely feels very comfortable in one particular area on the property and we have gotten dozens of day time pictures of him.  Stands have been set for opening weekend with this particular buck in mind.  We feel that he is definitely a possibility for an early season harvest.  Right Hook is a heavy, main frame 8 point that should score in the low 140s.