2019 Nebraska hunt story

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BRoth82
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2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby BRoth82 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 3:19 am

Well guys here's my 2019 Nebraska public land story, this was my first solo out of state deer hunt. it's a long story so I hope you enjoy reading it.

This story starts off at the end of last year, a buddy and I decided to go to Nebraska for their rifle deer hunt. Being the tags are over the counter, and that they allow you to harvest an any deer (except mule deer does) and an antlerless whitetail doe the decision was made, and we picked out an area of the map we wanted to focus on. The area we went you have the possibility to see both whitetails and mule deer, we would be happy with either. We hunted hard for 4 days and I came home with a small forky mulie buck (my first mule deer), we covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of hunters and a few deer. The thing that stood out to me the most was how close to the road most of the hunting pressure was, if you went a ¼ mile from any road or 2 track there were not many people. At the end of our trip we stopped and an overlooked piece of public and had it all to ourselves we also saw the most deer of the trip that last afternoon, including one shooter buck.
Fast forward to February 2019.
I like to plan trips out way in advance, some people think I’m nuts to be planning a trip out West deer hunting 10 months before the season opens, but that’s how I roll. I started out asking my friends and family if any of them wanted to head out there with me, after telling them about the miles you need to cover and the amount of work it takes all of them passed on the opportunity. My buddy that went with me last year had several elk hunts planned so he wouldn’t be able to make it either, this was quickly turning into a solo trip and I was more than happy with that.
My plan shifted very quickly from where we need to camp, to I can sleep in the backseat of my truck and be extremely mobile. After my experience last year with where the pressure was, and what type of terrain to expect, I started to layout my plan of attack. The plan last year was to focus on areas that looked good on the map and cover ground to find deer, this worked for the most part but with the heavy pressure and limited amount of public ground you ended up walking where other guys hunted that morning. This year my plan was to pattern the people more so than the deer, I hate hunting by people and if that meant I wouldn’t see as many deer I was ok with that. I also wanted to harvest a nice doe right away, to get meat in the cooler then focus on a big buck. I started pouring over the public areas that I wanted to cover, looking at any deep canyons in between the parking areas and the far end of the public pieces, I called a bunch of DNR officers and biologists to figure out if there were any access roads that weren’t shown on the maps and to my surprise there were several of them. This made me change my approach to a couple of the parcels I wanted to look at.
After months of pouring over maps and convincing my wife that I wasn’t going to die out there, the tags finally went on sale and I was now locked into going back out West. The fall quickly passed, I guess it was a good thing that I tagged out on a public land buck here in MN on my second sit, so I could focus more on my upcoming hunt. As I was going through my gear I decided that if I were to be able to fill both my tags my cooler that I was going to use might not be big enough for all the meat (MN law dictates that you can’t bring the head or spine of a deer back into MN), I went out and bought a 120 quart cooler and could now use my 75 quart as over flow if needed. I got everything but my cold food loaded in my truck on Thursday night, with the plan being that I’d leave Friday afternoon so I could hunt Saturday (opener) through Tuesday and be home Tuesday night. Let’s just say that I was glad I had a couple meetings on Friday because my mind was already wondering what the weekend was going to bring.
Soon Friday afternoon was here, with all my gear in the truck I said a quick goodbye to my wife and kids, and I was on the road heading West. I arrived at my first spot well after dark, I arranged my gear for the morning, set my alarm and crawled into my sleeping bag in the backseat. Between the excitement of opening morning and a seat buckle poking into my ribs all night I didn’t get much sleep, soon I found myself wide awake, when I rolled over to see what time it was my phone said…. 3:45am. Legal shooting time was around 7:05, the moon was so bright that I ended up just standing outside for an hour or so staring up at the stars, listening to coyotes howling in the distance. It was a beautiful night with a slight breeze out of the SW and cool at 35 degs, I crawled back into the truck and tried my best to get a little more sleep. That never happed and eventually at 5:00 I decided that I’ll start my mile plus walk back to where I wanted to setup for the morning, so I gathered all my gear grabbed my rifle and headed out. The moon was so bright that a headlamp wasn’t needed, looking at my map and the distant lights on the horizon, I lined up the direction I wanted to head and started walking. It was such a peaceful walk that was only interrupted by the flushing of rooster pheasants and prairie chickens, the first couple really scared the crap out of me but by the 4th or 5th one it wasn’t a big deal anymore. After about a half an hour I was at my location, I found a suitable tree to lean against then sat down, waiting for the day to start. Eventually the eastern sky started to get lighter and lighter, then legal shooting time arrived.
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Day 1:
As shooting time neared, I stood up and prepared my gear, right at legal shooting time I looked across in front of me, 500 yards away I can see a shape moving then another and finally another. I pulled up my binos and could make out that the first deer is a doe, the second is a decent 8 pointer and the third is a smaller 8. Soon both bucks square off and start pushing each other around for a minute or so, before the smaller one gives up and wonders off. Not 10 minutes later I looked to my south and can see a deer working along a tree line that I ranged earlier at 183 yards, I was able to see that he was a small basket 8 pointer. I decided to grunt at him to see what would happen, he heard the grunt and ended up getting to 40-50 yards from me before he caught my wind and slowly walked off. In my mind I’m thinking I have already seen more deer in the first 10 minutes of shooting light than I have in the last 2 years bow hunting in MN. The next 3 hours would become a rollercoaster of highs and lows and excitement that I as a hunter live for. You know you’re seeing a lot of deer when you start tracking them on your phone so you can remember all of them, here are my notes from the morning up until 10:35 when I harvested the doe.
7:05am: 2-8 pointers fighting over a doe 500 yards NE of me
7:15am: Basket 8 pointer traveling along tree line grunted to 40-50 yards SE of me
7:20am: Doe traveling along tree line
7:35am: Doe traveling along tree line, lining up to take the shot. Wait she’s looking behind her, holy crap big buck huge body. Line up on him and touched off a shot, stupid glasses fogged up and couldn’t see to get another shot. Found a little blood where he was standing, turned and ranged tree I was standing by 285 yards, crap I bet I shot low. Tracked for 650 yards or so and only a couple drops of blood. Thinking in my mind there goes my chance at the biggest buck I’ve ever had a shot at, and quite possibly the only chance of the trip.
8:15am: Bumped a doe while working back to my original spot
9:36am: Big doe and 2 fawns 500 yards NE of me
9:45am: Really big 8 pointer with short tines 500 yards NE
10:15am: Nice 8 pointer and fork horn cruising SE tree line
10:35am: Nice doe along SE tree line decided to take her, good shot dropped in 30 yards.
I walk up to my doe still in awe of the morning I’ve had, if my trip would have ended there, I would have went home very happy, little did I know what the rest of the day and the next had in store. I started to break down the doe and carried out the first of 2 loads. My OnX maps showed that I was 1.4 miles from the truck, I took half the meat on the first load and then came back and packed up the other half on the second trip. I arrived at the truck with the last load around 1:30pm, I put everything on top of the ice I had in the cooler, then sat down to rest and reflect on the incredible morning that I had. Never in my wildest dreams (and I had many of them leading up to this trip) would have I thought that the first morning I would have seen so many deer and nice bucks.
After resting for an hour or so and eating lunch I decided that since the winds shifted to the NW I would sit on the South side of the tree line, I sat down right next to a tiny cedar tree that had a rub on it and started the wait it was 3:05pm. The rest of the evening was just as good as the morning, here’s my timeline from the first afternoon.
3:26pm: Small buck cruising NE corner 650 yards away
3:39pm: 2 does NE corner
3:51pm: 2 more does NE corner
4:03pm: Nice 8 pointer NE corner
4:11pm: Small buck and another nice 8 NE corner
4:30pm: Small doe tree line where I sat in the AM
Totals for day 1:
Deer seen: 24
Bucks: 11 (passed up shots at 3 different bucks in range, grazed a big buck)
Miles traveled: 7.43
Notes: I would have liked to sit in the NE corner but the property lines are just to close to where the deer are crossing, sleeping if you can call it that, in the backseat of a truck is not in the slightest bit comfortable. Debating if I should go check out all these other places, I have marked on my map, but having a really hard time leaving deer to hopefully find deer. I decided I’m going to stay and hunt the South side of tree line in the morning.
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Day 2:
Again a restless night I work up at 4:15am this morning (nice I got an extra half hour of sleep), again I decided that around 5:00am I’d start my trek back to where I sat last night, now that I had some meat in the cooler, I would pass any buck up that didn’t get me really excited. I was going to sit until 9:00 and then still hunt into the wind and scout for a place to sit that evening. Here are my notes from the second morning until 9:00 when I started to still hunt.
7:22am: Small buck NE corner
7:32am: Nice 8 pointer NE corner
7:38am: Small 8 pointer working tree line at 110 yards, decided to pass
7:52am: 2- nice bucks and a small buck NE corner
7:55am: Small buck working tree line I sat on yesterday morning
7:57am: Yet another nice buck NE corner
8:06am: 3 pointer walked right up to me circled downwind at 30 yards and walked off
8:21am: Small buck NE corner
8:27am: doe NE corner
At 9:00 I got up and started to slowly work my way NW into the wind, my plan was to figure out where all the deer were going, that were using the tree line yesterday. I started following their trail down into the coulee and up the other side and then to the edge of the next steep draw, in my mind I’m thinking this would be a perfect spot to sit and look over some new country. I marked a great tree to sit under on OnX and then turned to start making my way back towards my truck. I hadn’t gone more than 50 yards when I heard a loud “Boom, followed by another Boom” then the hiss of a bullet going by me. I threw up my binos to see 2 guys sitting on a slight hill “Boom” another shot, then I pick up a doe and a nice 8 pointer high tailing it out of there. All three shots were a miss. I started walking along a drainage towards the truck and thought dang my wind is blowing right into it, I need to get to the other side so I don’t blow everything out of there, I take 2 more steps and a doe and a big buck bust out of the draw and into the trees. All I could see was he had a good right side and a funky looking left side, still big just curved in tight like it had been damaged in velvet. The time is only 9:38am, I cross over to the other side and keep making my way to my truck, I get to about 100 yards or so from where the 2 guys shot (they left right after the shots, never did see them look for blood at all), I looked up and can see a deer trotting right towards me, it’s a small buck. He is obviously on the trail of the doe, so I drop down into the bottom of the draw and he heads right towards me nose to the ground, he ended up walking past me at 32 yards. I took some video of him as he cruised past me, he poked around for close to half an hour trying to figure out where the doe went. Finally at 11:00 I make it back to my truck and eat lunch, the plan is to walk the 1.5 miles down to the deep coulee to hunt that afternoon, shortly after I finished eating lunch, the guys that shot and missed the deer drive up and we get to talking. It turns out that one of the guys started deer hunting last year and took a doe, I suggested that he go sit where I had been hunting since I’ve seen lots of bucks down there. They were awesome guys, and as we made our way back in out to hunt, we all agreed that if either shot a deer to let the other know and we’ll all help get the deer out.
I arrived at my chosen place to sit at 1:30pm, I was overlooking a coulee that was 100 yards across and about 50’ deep, there is a heavy trail straight across from me. After sitting for a half hour or so I hear a whoosh, then a crunch in the grass, I looked over to see that a hawk had caught a mouse not 15 yards from me, I took that as a good omen of things to come. A little after 3 I looked up and across the coulee I see a doe jump the fence and head my way, in my mind I think “Oh yeah game on”, I look behind her and all I can see is a heavy wide rack coming towards the fence. He looks like an angus bull; his body is that huge. As he jumps the fence, I could hear the twang as his hooves hit the top strand, he follows the doe right down the path in front of me. My thought is I’m going to let him get a little ways into the coulee before I shoot so if he decides to run, he would hopefully head my way. I center the cross hairs on the center of the back on what would have been the biggest buck I’ve ever shot at (the one the previous morning was bigger). He’s heading straight at me but at a very steep downward angle that I can see his entire back, I hold the crosshairs in between his shoulder blades and touch off the shot..
He kicks out to the left and keeps heading my way, I have a quick shot before he disappears, so I touch off another round, a big poof of dirt goes flying into the air. I look to my right and the doe is coming right at me at 50 yards, she ends up passing by me at 15 yards or so, I look down where she appeared out of the bottom of the coulee and there the buck is standing. He’s slightly obstructed by some dead trees; I shoot again, and branches fall but he doesn’t move. Now I’m out of bullets, I scramble to my pack and start digging through pockets until I find my box of shells, I quickly rip open the box and dump out 2 shells. I throw one in the tube slam the bolt closed and square up his front shoulder, then touch off the shot. “Smack he takes 3 steps and tips over”. The time was 3:20PM.
I quickly reload and walk down to him, seeing he’s done I text my wife letting her know that I just shot a big buck. I stood over him in awe of his impressive body and rack, I couldn’t believe what just happened. I started taking pictures with my cell phone, to try and capture the moment as best as I could, then I started to cape him and quarter him. My first shot hit him in the front shoulder just going through the hide and meat, my last shot took out the same shoulder, both lungs and heart. I broke him down fairly quickly, I strapped the cape and head onto my pack for the first load out, I made it back to my truck at 5:08pm. I put the cape and rack in my truck and dumped everything possible out of my pack except a water bottle, then headed back to get another load. On my way back to the buck, I ran into the guys I talked about before, they had seen several bucks but the big ones never crossed the fence, I told them I got one down and right away one of the younger guys says alright, he gives his gun and pack to his dad and says lets go get him. I gave him the game bag with a rear quarter and a backstrap, I took the other bag with the other rear quarter, the front shoulder, and all of the trim meat and we headed out. We had an awesome conversation on the way back to the truck, I offered him meat or a meal on me for helping me get that buck out of there, both of which he declined. We got back to the truck just as the last rays of light faded on the horizon.
Totals for day 2:
Deer seen: 18
Bucks: 14
Miles traveled: 8.7
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After filling both tags I decided that I was going to head home a day and a half early, the next morning I woke up again at 4:30am and decided to cape the buck out on my tailgate by headlamp. It went really well, and I was on the road home by 7:30am.
All in all it was a great trip with many highs and only one low, looking back at the decisions I made it can’t think of anything I would have changed. What lead to my success was having a plan to be mobile and get away from people (I only saw 3 people that were hunting within a mile of me). Also to stay put when I was on deer and not move to a different location to hopefully find deer, not be afraid to do something on my own. Also if you shoot a nice doe and a big body buck you need a lot of cooler space, I ended up filling the 120 quart and still had to put half the doe in the 75 quart cooler. MY buck is the biggest buck I have harvested to date, and talking to several people regarding body size we all agreed that he would have dressed close to or over 220#’s.
I’ll be headed back out there next year hopefully with my dad in tow.
Totals for the trip:
Deer: 42
Bucks: 25
Miles hiked: 16.13miles
Hunted: 1.5 days
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CajunSwampStalker
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby CajunSwampStalker » Tue Nov 26, 2019 3:56 am

Very nice !! Thanks for sharing your journey :clap:
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muddy
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby muddy » Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:08 am

Congrats
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thwack16
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby thwack16 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:22 am

Awesome story and great buck! Congrats!
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Edcyclopedia
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:24 am

Spectacular! :clap:
Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
Joe68
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Joe68 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:25 pm

Sounds like a great adventure. Congrats on the kills. Great buck.
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backstraps
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby backstraps » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:30 pm

WOW!! Sounded like a great time! Very detailed and fun story to follow you on!
Congrats on a very nice BUCK!! :clap: :clap:
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john1984
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby john1984 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:31 pm

:clap:
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stash59
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby stash59 » Tue Nov 26, 2019 4:15 pm

8-) :clap: :dance:
Happiness is a large gutpile!!!!!!!
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Dewey
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:30 pm

Incredible few days of hunting that you will always remember. Doesn’t get any better than that. Congrats. :clap:
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Jackson Marsh
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:40 pm

That's a great looking buck 8-) . Heck of a trip sounds like a ton of fun. Congrats :clap: :clap:
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Motivated
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Motivated » Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:51 pm

Great work! Congratulations!
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DhD
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby DhD » Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:12 pm

That end of the state feels forever away. I'm gonna have to take a week and hit the Sandhills next year.
I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
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Matt Gill
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby Matt Gill » Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:30 pm

Congrats on a successful hunt!
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BJ99Robinson
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Re: 2019 Nebraska hunt story

Unread postby BJ99Robinson » Tue Jan 07, 2020 6:10 am

Nice job!!!


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