Hunting Low - The exception to the rule, the hunt for "Fresh Prince"

[James]

I thought I would take a slightly more educational slant to my kill zone story this year. I captured this entire hunt on film and will try to get it up on the Beast channel sometime soon.

Land/Setup Context
This hunt occurred on a permission farm in WI hill country. The farm is not managed per se, but we pass the young bucks and usually have been able to hold off on the 3yo's. So we always get a 4yo or older around. But we're not planting food plots or manipulating the land in any way. Just hunting smart and keeping pressure low. Always hang and hunts, and very minimal impact.

This year I faced many challenges with the property that I won't get into. Long story short, the shooters were more difficult than normal to get on to or see. By the time the rut rolled around, I believed two of the mature bucks in the area to either have been already killed or really moved off from frequenting the property.

I was going on day 7 of my rutcation, bouncing between this farm, another and my small home acreage. Friday the 5th called for exceptionally strong S winds (gusts to 40mph). There was a portion of the property I hadn't really focused any energy on, but to hunt it meant hunting extremely low near the bottom. This is something we generally frown on in hunting hill country. But, I decided to make an exception. In this case my wind would be blowing from the S to N up this drainage. I would lose out to any deer coming from my N potentially, but this left deer from the S which is where I expected them. I knew winds would be swirling, and they were. I brought with me a bottle of fresh Whitcombs doe pee. (I know what you're thinking, stay with me). I normally would never even think about a scent or waste my money. But I knew I would be hunting low and my wind swirling. I figured a strong scent soaked sponge at my tree might just help mix up my scent enough to help somewhat. Did it help? I'm not sure, but I know it did not hurt. I was getting whiffs of it occasionally right from the start, my simpleton nose could certainly smell it.

After sneaking straight to my tree, setting up my stand. I got in clean with the gusty wind cover. I was still cooling off from my hike in when I heard footsteps to my left. This big old boy we nicknamed Fresh Prince due to his high rack had just come off a bedding point right below me. He walked into my 20 yard shooting lane and the rest is history.

So do I recommend hunting low? Well maybe, but not with any regulatory and avoid it if you can. In this case it paid off to explore a small fringe spot. This buck was a regular on cameras, but only ever at night. "100% nocturnal". This day I figured out his route and capitliized with a non-standard way of manipulating a low hill country spot. My nephew got to come along on his first buck drag. He loved it.

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buck-2.jpg

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[hunting_dad]

Congrats. Cool looking buck

[john1984]

Gr8 buck

[muddy]

You look like you're down 30#

Congrats on the buck

[Jackson Marsh]

Congrats James on a great looking buck. Looking forward to the video. There are a ton of factors to take into account on a low hunt in hill country...glad you were able to pull it off.

[greenhorndave]

Great buck and recap.

[Dewey]

Great buck James. Congrats.

[Kokes]

Nice job James that’s a great buck.
Can’t wait to see the footage!

[backstraps]

Very nice James
Congratulations

[Haus86]

Congrats James!

[Ryan549]

Great buck! Way to go in there and make it happen

[Edcyclopedia]

Bucktacular!

[wrusch]

Great write up, congrats James!

[isitseasonyet?]

Awesome buck! I hunted low this year too and it paid of with a buck. The swirly wind was definitely iffy at times.

Cool story!

[Huntress13]

Woohoo! Great buck. Look forward to the video!