Facing A Sea of Corn
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
8/21/2010 12:00:00 AM
Filed under:
winke's blog
For the past two summers I have been like a kid in a candy store filming bucks during the summer. We have had alfalfa and soybeans to bring them out in the open where we can study them and film them. Man, what a difference a year makes. This year the entire farm (save for one small 3-acre field) is planted to corn. The bucks are not showing themsleves. For first time in years, I don't have a real hit list - at least not yet.
I have one buck on the list right now. It is the one we called Broken Beam Jr last year. He was a young buck that Chad filmed during the summer, I passed him up in early December after seeing him a few times. Scott Prucha found his sheds in early March. For sure he was not more than 3 1/2 years old last year, but maybe he was even 2 1/2; he looked very young. He likely would have scored in the upper 150s with his entire rack intact. That is possible even at 2 1/2 with genetically superior deer. Bucks in captivity have scored well over 200 inches at that age. So to hit 155+ at 2 1/2 is not impossible in the wild.
I filmed him a few weeks ago in a small bean patch in the same area where we were seeing him last year but now he is a bonafide stud that would have to push 180 inches. I am guessing he is 4 1/2 years old, but as I said, he could be just 3 1/2. I have seen 3 1/2 year old bucks in this area (bucks that were known to be 3 1/2) that scored in the 180s, so it is possible he is a 3 1/2 year old. I need to see him this fall to have a better idea. But for now, he is on the hit list and likely will stay there. It would sure be tough to let a buck that size go, but if I am ever going to to shoot 200 inch buck, I'll have to let a few genetically superior bucks like this walk by me at some point. Besides, there are a couple of bucks left over from last year that I really want to see. I am sure that a couple of them will blow my hair back when they come past in late October or early November. I would just love to get a look at them before that.
So, I'm going to keep you updated in my quest to fill the hit list. I'll get out every evening this coming week and see what I can come up with. Last year at this time I had 16 bucks on my hit list. This year I have one - probably one. I'll show you everything I find next Monday, August 30 on our first Hit List episode of the year.
