Finally shot my first public land whitetail. I can make an argument about how hard or easy public land elk hunting is. But trying to fill a tag on even a mature doe WT on a small piece of public is down right tough! Especially with a bunch of Elmer Fuds with guns!
I started hunting this spot on towards the end of archery season and there were a lot of mature deer around and a lot of Popers.
Even a week or two ago there were some giants around and a few mature does.
But after an all dayer on Tuesday then Thursday I believe it became apparent that the mature deer had been pressured out and I'd have to adjust my goals to the current situation.
Best as I can tell the pressure pushed the does off this little track of public and the bucks had no reason to come over. There were still a ton of deer and legit Boone and Crockett bucks on the other side of the fence. One of these bucks had a legit 26"+ tip to tip!
Finally Friday morning in my vein attempt to rattle that big deer onto public I looked down and this guy was keyed into my buck decoy.
He circled down wind of the decoy and at 25 yards I zipped a Simmons Swamp Shark into his heart.
Pretty cool experience to take my first trad buck after working so hard all season. Then I've never killed from a treestand. I grew up hunting on the ground. So learning how to treestand has been a lot of fun!
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