Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
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Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
*Disclaimer - Somewhat long winded story*
I'd like to start by saying this is the first buck tag I've filled in Since 2012. About 7 years ago I decided to start the process of passing all bucks that were not mature (My definition being 4.5 yrs old or older) along with also going to Bow Only. There are a lot of factors that likely went into why it took me so long to close the deal and put an arrow in a Mature buck but I'll just hit on the key points.
1.) Lack of time in the woods - (about 10-20 hunts per year) My job really only allows me time to hunt on weekends (outside of a couple of vacation days), on top of that my family life has made it difficult as well, for example last year I only spend 2 Mornings on Stand as I was building a salon for wife Oct 15th - Dec. 15th while working the day job and going to school. 2013, I got married in November, etc, etc
2.) Hunting and Killing mature bucks is HARD - Especially with a bow (see story below) - These suckers are just smart and absolute experts at surviving and it takes a lot more than just letting 2 and 3 yr olds walk to get real opportunities to kill a mature buck. In the past 5 years I have probably passed 30-35 110"-130" 2 and 3 yr olds in a total of probably 50 sits and have had a total of about 5 "Real" encounters while on stand with Mature Bucks 3 of which took place this past Saturday and Sunday morning.
3.) The TN terrain makes it tough - The farm that I spend the majority of my time hunting is pretty much all mature hardwoods on rolling TN hills. Elevation change from top to bottom is about 200 ft, hills are pretty steep but there’s no real good cover or military crest so bedding is very variable.
*I'm sure some of the more accomplished hunters here could have closed the deal in much shorter time but hey I'm learning*
So now I'll get into the story of my 11/12/17 Tennessee 10 point I call the "Redemption Buck"
The story really starts on 11/11/17, the rut is starting to pick up pretty good in the area and Saturday was the first solid Cold morning that fell on a weekend. Temps were in the upper 30s at first light and we had a strange East wind so I did some cyber scouting and chose to hunt a small saddle right where a short North to South running ridge meets a major East to West running ridge. As I’m walking into the saddle I see a nice sized oak tree that’s perfect for the XOP, only problem is there’s not much cover in the tree so I spot another tree about 15 yards further down in the saddle. I walk over and it has a whipped up sapling with 3 scrapes right under it and solid cover, so I setup there.
Of course right at first shooting light a large body mature buck (at least 5.5) walks in from behind me and thrashes a sapling about 10 yards from the “Other Tree”, I sit there with too much brush between us and can only watch wishing I had chosen the other tree. He circles around presenting no shot opportunities until he gets just downhill of me. Wind hasn’t picked up yet and thermals are still falling so of course he winds me and busts out, runs to next ridge over and blows a couple of times.
After this encounter I’m sitting there 15 minutes after shooting light torn on whether or not to move my stand as I just blew one of my very few real opportunities at a mature buck and couldn’t even draw back as no chance at a shot. I decide to hold tight, about 30 minutes later a real nice 3 yr old 8 point walks in and works the scrape right under me. I gave him the pass like I had on so many other 2 and 3 yr olds before him hoping to get a chance at him next year.
9am rolls around and I now have not seen any movement in over an hour. I’m contemplating shutting it down and doing a little scouting while moving my stand but I decide to hold tight til 10. At 9:30am a nice 10 point comes cruising down the ridge just like I expected might happen on the leeward side. I stand up, grab my bow and clip on my release! Heart racing as he approaches the perfect shooting lane, 15 yards, I begin to draw. Right at full draw I realize that my Limb Driver Pro-V arrow rest is not raising and my broadhead catches the front of my riser, arrow falls off and hits every limb on the way down. The buck pays no attention and continues to cruise down the ridge. I wiggle the rest as best I can thinking maybe some condensation had frozen and kept the rest from rising and knock another arrow. At this point the buck is 60 yards or so up the ridge and headed straight away so I threw out a prayer (makeshift bleat with my mouth). He turned 90* and started headed across the ridge so I let out another makeshift bleat, and sure nuff he turned another 90* and starts right back down the other side headed straight for me, this time 20 yards. I draw again and realize same dang thing is happening again (rest is non responsive) luckily my broadhead is rotated on this arrow and clears the riser. At full draw in a desperate attempt to get a shot on this buck I try to use my grip hand to bump the rest and make it rise, the finger tip of my glove catches the broadhead and the arrow makes a little twang sound startling the buck and he bounds off about 85 yards. At this point I am ready to throw my bow off the mountain in disbelieve that for the first time in 5 years I have drawn back on a buck not once but TWICE and my arrow rest malfunctioned both times. After waiting on the buck to ease off I climbed down moved my stand to the other tree and snuck out with the plan to work on my bow and go back in there the very next morning.
That afternoon I took my bow to the local archery shop and the bow tech took the rest off my bow. He said that the spring in the rest must have given out and it must have happened on my very last practice shot just a week prior. If I had taken one more practice shot the rest would have failed and I would have fixed it then. Talk about ultimate low… woof
Bought a new rest then and there, took my bow home and got a few shots threw it out to 50 yards. Good to go.
11/12/17 – Wind had shifted a little and was now out of the ESE, Still was a solid setup for that spot so I went back in there. Right at daylight a doe came in and fed around on the top of the ridge and shortly after that small bucks were chasing doe by me left and right.
Right at 7am I watch the 10 point from the day before skirt up the side of the hill and bed down about 100 yards out in front of me right in a blowdown. I waited patiently for what seemed like forever (about 40 minutes) when he finally got up and started heading my way. When got to about 25 yards away he turned to cross the ridge in the saddle and I drew for the 3rd time on this buck. This time everything functioned flawlessly and I released an arrow that promptly let the air out of both lungs. He ran about 75 yards down the side of the ridge toward the truck and crashed right at the base of the hill.
My first Pope and Young buck and I hope this leads to many more for years to come.
Sorry for the length but I hope you all enjoyed the story and I want to thank each and every member here on the beast as I’ve learned more from this site in the 3 years I’ve been following then the other 20 years I spent in the woods, reading books, and watching TV shows all combined.
I'd like to start by saying this is the first buck tag I've filled in Since 2012. About 7 years ago I decided to start the process of passing all bucks that were not mature (My definition being 4.5 yrs old or older) along with also going to Bow Only. There are a lot of factors that likely went into why it took me so long to close the deal and put an arrow in a Mature buck but I'll just hit on the key points.
1.) Lack of time in the woods - (about 10-20 hunts per year) My job really only allows me time to hunt on weekends (outside of a couple of vacation days), on top of that my family life has made it difficult as well, for example last year I only spend 2 Mornings on Stand as I was building a salon for wife Oct 15th - Dec. 15th while working the day job and going to school. 2013, I got married in November, etc, etc
2.) Hunting and Killing mature bucks is HARD - Especially with a bow (see story below) - These suckers are just smart and absolute experts at surviving and it takes a lot more than just letting 2 and 3 yr olds walk to get real opportunities to kill a mature buck. In the past 5 years I have probably passed 30-35 110"-130" 2 and 3 yr olds in a total of probably 50 sits and have had a total of about 5 "Real" encounters while on stand with Mature Bucks 3 of which took place this past Saturday and Sunday morning.
3.) The TN terrain makes it tough - The farm that I spend the majority of my time hunting is pretty much all mature hardwoods on rolling TN hills. Elevation change from top to bottom is about 200 ft, hills are pretty steep but there’s no real good cover or military crest so bedding is very variable.
*I'm sure some of the more accomplished hunters here could have closed the deal in much shorter time but hey I'm learning*
So now I'll get into the story of my 11/12/17 Tennessee 10 point I call the "Redemption Buck"
The story really starts on 11/11/17, the rut is starting to pick up pretty good in the area and Saturday was the first solid Cold morning that fell on a weekend. Temps were in the upper 30s at first light and we had a strange East wind so I did some cyber scouting and chose to hunt a small saddle right where a short North to South running ridge meets a major East to West running ridge. As I’m walking into the saddle I see a nice sized oak tree that’s perfect for the XOP, only problem is there’s not much cover in the tree so I spot another tree about 15 yards further down in the saddle. I walk over and it has a whipped up sapling with 3 scrapes right under it and solid cover, so I setup there.
Of course right at first shooting light a large body mature buck (at least 5.5) walks in from behind me and thrashes a sapling about 10 yards from the “Other Tree”, I sit there with too much brush between us and can only watch wishing I had chosen the other tree. He circles around presenting no shot opportunities until he gets just downhill of me. Wind hasn’t picked up yet and thermals are still falling so of course he winds me and busts out, runs to next ridge over and blows a couple of times.
After this encounter I’m sitting there 15 minutes after shooting light torn on whether or not to move my stand as I just blew one of my very few real opportunities at a mature buck and couldn’t even draw back as no chance at a shot. I decide to hold tight, about 30 minutes later a real nice 3 yr old 8 point walks in and works the scrape right under me. I gave him the pass like I had on so many other 2 and 3 yr olds before him hoping to get a chance at him next year.
9am rolls around and I now have not seen any movement in over an hour. I’m contemplating shutting it down and doing a little scouting while moving my stand but I decide to hold tight til 10. At 9:30am a nice 10 point comes cruising down the ridge just like I expected might happen on the leeward side. I stand up, grab my bow and clip on my release! Heart racing as he approaches the perfect shooting lane, 15 yards, I begin to draw. Right at full draw I realize that my Limb Driver Pro-V arrow rest is not raising and my broadhead catches the front of my riser, arrow falls off and hits every limb on the way down. The buck pays no attention and continues to cruise down the ridge. I wiggle the rest as best I can thinking maybe some condensation had frozen and kept the rest from rising and knock another arrow. At this point the buck is 60 yards or so up the ridge and headed straight away so I threw out a prayer (makeshift bleat with my mouth). He turned 90* and started headed across the ridge so I let out another makeshift bleat, and sure nuff he turned another 90* and starts right back down the other side headed straight for me, this time 20 yards. I draw again and realize same dang thing is happening again (rest is non responsive) luckily my broadhead is rotated on this arrow and clears the riser. At full draw in a desperate attempt to get a shot on this buck I try to use my grip hand to bump the rest and make it rise, the finger tip of my glove catches the broadhead and the arrow makes a little twang sound startling the buck and he bounds off about 85 yards. At this point I am ready to throw my bow off the mountain in disbelieve that for the first time in 5 years I have drawn back on a buck not once but TWICE and my arrow rest malfunctioned both times. After waiting on the buck to ease off I climbed down moved my stand to the other tree and snuck out with the plan to work on my bow and go back in there the very next morning.
That afternoon I took my bow to the local archery shop and the bow tech took the rest off my bow. He said that the spring in the rest must have given out and it must have happened on my very last practice shot just a week prior. If I had taken one more practice shot the rest would have failed and I would have fixed it then. Talk about ultimate low… woof
Bought a new rest then and there, took my bow home and got a few shots threw it out to 50 yards. Good to go.
11/12/17 – Wind had shifted a little and was now out of the ESE, Still was a solid setup for that spot so I went back in there. Right at daylight a doe came in and fed around on the top of the ridge and shortly after that small bucks were chasing doe by me left and right.
Right at 7am I watch the 10 point from the day before skirt up the side of the hill and bed down about 100 yards out in front of me right in a blowdown. I waited patiently for what seemed like forever (about 40 minutes) when he finally got up and started heading my way. When got to about 25 yards away he turned to cross the ridge in the saddle and I drew for the 3rd time on this buck. This time everything functioned flawlessly and I released an arrow that promptly let the air out of both lungs. He ran about 75 yards down the side of the ridge toward the truck and crashed right at the base of the hill.
My first Pope and Young buck and I hope this leads to many more for years to come.
Sorry for the length but I hope you all enjoyed the story and I want to thank each and every member here on the beast as I’ve learned more from this site in the 3 years I’ve been following then the other 20 years I spent in the woods, reading books, and watching TV shows all combined.
- SRWbowhunter
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Congrats great buck
- headgear
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Great buck!
- thwack16
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Awesome story man! I know all to well how hard it is to kill a net P&Y in the southeast. Got a feeling there are more to come for you though. Congrats!
- Edcyclopedia
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Great looking buck, well done!
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Congrats on a great buck
- backstraps
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
good job and congratulations on a dandy TN buck
- WV Bowhunter
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- SamPotter
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Nice one!
- jwilkstn
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Congratulations! Well deserved!
Not all those who wander are lost...
- Jackson Marsh
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Congrats on a dandy buck!
- creepingdeth
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
Great story...there are some on this site who are very efficient, and those who tend to struggle(including me ), but your story of redemption and your years of passing on smaller bucks tells us to hang in there, work hard, believe Good job
Yesterdays common sense is no longer common
- john1984
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Re: Redemption Buck TN 10 Point
I can't see the pics but Congrats anyways
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