2 Nebraska bucks a week apart (long story hopefully not rambling!)

Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
1,033
I've been meaning to put something together for my first "share" with rokslide but haven't had time. I decided with 8 to 12 inches of snow coming, today is as good as any!

Background:
Being a father of 3, ages 8, 5, and 18months I have to budget my hunting time so that my lovely wife does not go crazy. Combine the 3 kiddos with her full-time job in special Education, masters classes, and helping with extracurriculars at school and I am extremely thankful for the times I do make it out into the woods. That being said we work hard to respect each others time, hobbies and events. So when I took an 8 day trip west to chase elk in september I knew I was carving time off of the whitetail calendar! (Which I was totally ok with!)

After striking out elk hunting (awesome hunt with several encounters just no dead elk) I fell back into my routine at work and home and thought more about missed opportunities on elk than whitetail hunting.

Story time:
Fast forward to November. In Nebraska the surest way to tell that the bucks have started to cruise for does is to take a quick trip down the interstate. As soon as the road kill ratio tips heavily toward bucks you know it's begun! Most years this happens around Holloween and it did again this year but things were slower with lots of standing corn keeping deer hidden. Even so I talked it over with my wife and decided that I would squeeze in a morning bow hunt on 11/3. I hadn't been out after deer yet and figured I would give it one shot before gun season opened the following weekend. Normally this time of year I would sit all day but my wife had a function to attend at 1p.m so I told her I would be home no later that 11:30.

The area I hunt is primarily canyon pastures with broad gentle tops, punctuated by sharp canyons. The property I hunt is 240 acres, but only about 50 acres regularly hold deer. The area where the deer concentrate is a North to South running canyon with small east to west finger canyons splitting off. This 50 acres is fenced off from the main pasture and hasn't been grazed in over 10 years due to the way fences had to run. This is great for me though as the grass is normally two to three foot deep and sumac, plum thickets, and other woody vegetation has moved in to create amazing cover.

So on the morning of Nov 3rd I left my 8 year old son sleeping at home and headed down to hunt the morning alone. He normally comes along but I did not have a blind set up so he stayed home. I like to get set in the dark but when I arrived it was raining. . . Hard! I decided to wait it out in the pickup and did not make the 200 yard walk into my stand until 5 minutes after legal shooting light.

To clarify I call my spot a "stand" but it is not a tree stand. In this area there are few trees suited to hold a tree stand, fortunately God provided the answer. The canyon walls are 40 to 50 verticle feet above the canyon floor and sprinkled with a few cedar trees. My "stand" is a small bench behind a 10ft tall cedar located about 15ft down from the crest of the hill. This gives me a great background and allows me to draw while deer move behind the cedar.

So I arrive and get situated just in time for 2 does and a fork horn whitetail to stroll by. I was excited thinking things were going to be moving alot! The next two hours slid by with 0 deer and not even the ever present squirrel family making an appearance. So around 9:45 I decided to slip out and head home, giving my wife some extra time to get ready. As I climbed up the canyon wall I caught movement to the north west and noticed a doe trotting along and not far behind was a small 3x3 buck. He wasn't chasing but was interested. This didn't change my mind so I took a few more steps headed for home. Just as I started to skyline I caught more movement farther out. I pulled the binoculars up and saw a buck moving through a cut cane field. I could tell he was decent but with the light background I couldn't make out how good he was. I decided I better stick around to find out.

He was cruising for sure, walking at a brisk pace and headed my way. The only problem was the doe and small buck were moving south along the property boundary in a line that would take them past me at about 120yrds across the canyon, I figured he would do the same. Knowing I only had about an hour and a half to do something I decided to be aggressive. I dropped my pack, went down my side of the canyon and back up the other side. I immediately realized my error upon reaching the far side. Due to the roll of the hill I could no longer see any deer! Given the location of the property line I elected to creep forward to a place where I could see down into a finger canyon to the north, the main canyon to the east, and could see the fence line to the west. This punt me by a small down tree, with a thicket extending from the fence down to about 7 yards on my left. In my mind I could turn partway around and shoot the trail on my side of the fence where the thicket started about 25yrds over my left shoulder if needed.

Two minutes later this is right where the doe came out, hard over my left shoulder and just on my side of the fence. . . Not ideal. As I contemplated if I would shoot a deer ON THE LINE I heard movement back to my right, I slowly turned to see the small buck enter the finger canyon. Moments later he was followed by a medium sized 4x4, I hesitated and the smaller buck moved away, I figured that decided it, they would go north and I'd give the 4x4 another year. Just then the 4x4 turned south and started coming towards me. I knelt in the grass and decided I wouldn't shoot when he went on the far side of the thicket and walked the fence line. To my amazement I saw times coming up the hill on my side of the thicket. I drew my bow and waited, all resolve to pass on the 2.5 year old gone now. He slowly walked up the hill and stopped to rub a small tree. I began to shake as I'd been holding my bow for a bit now and was on the ground with a deer close. He moved forward again and I released. He was quartering slightly away at 7 yrds and my arrow had enough momentum to ricochet off the thicket and travel 60yrds after a clean pass through. He had no clue what happened. He jumped at the sound and stood statue still staring at the area where the arrow had gone. I could see blood pumping out and didn't move for another arrow. He began walking again and just made the canyon edge when he tipped over.

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I was able to do a quick field dress and load up and even made it home in time for the wife to get ready for her event that day.

My son wasn't thrilled that he got left behind, but understood and pitched in on hanging and skinning! But only after he solicited a guarantee that he would get to go the following weekend for rifle!

Midway through the next week the forecast changed and the rifle opener went from sunny and 50 to overcast, 14°s with a 20 mph wind. But I had promised my son so I had to figure it out. Luckily grandpa (my dad) came to the rescue. My dad hasn't deer hunted in 15 years for various reasons. But the opportunity to come hunt with his some and grandson was one he didn't want to pass up.

It snowed Friday morning and my dad and I set up a blind for himself and my son to sit in. We set it up overlooking the main canyon and right across from where I shot my buck with my bow. They had chairs, a buddy heater and a cook stove, in other words they were all set and ready for the opener. We jumped a 3x3 as we set up and my dad said he would probably take any buck just so my son could experience it, I told him to take a doe before the poor 3x3. At this point I wasn't certain where I was going to sit as I had put them in the "Prime" spot. I was fortunate to run into the neighbor that owns a half section just north of ours, and after a short conversation obtained permission to hunt his land in exchange for posting no trespassing signs and monitoring the ground opening weekend.

Saturday morning came blowing in at 12° with winds gusting to 30mph, in other words it was cold!! I have never been one to hunt from the truck, not judging just personal preference. But I sat tight for the first 2 hours of light.

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View for the first two hours overlooking a transition area. . . Nothing was moving

Around 9:45 or 10:00 I got restless, I also got a call saying the heater in the ground blind wasn't keeping up and nothing was moving. I told my dad I was going to walk the neighbors finger canyons back toward them, working slow. So I moved the pickup to the last hill before the main canyon and bundled up.

I circled up to the northern property line and began slowly checking finger canyons with the south wind in my face. The second finger I eased up to had a buck bedded in the bottom. We saw each other at the same time and he stood and trotted about 10 yards climbing partway out of the finger. He was a mainframe 4x4 with good mass but a broken G3 on his right side. A good deer but not what I was after having already shot a buck with my bow. He didn't know what I was but knew he didn't want to find out and headed over the hilltop.
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I skirted the fingers top edge and started climbing the hill between myself and the next finger. As the far rim of the next finger came into view I began scanning. 2 more steps and I could see halfway down the far side. I catch movement and the same buck I just bumped is moving up the far side. He stops and lays down. I decided what the heck I'll back out and go get my dad and son, and have my dad shoot him if he wants to.

My Boy was all for it! He hadn't seen a deer shot before and was itching to get there, on the way he reminded me of how I missed a running shot on an incredible buck the year before with him watching. I swollow the memory and wounded pride as we park and I walked them close and told them to follow my tracks. I stayed a few steps back, taking in the scene. My dad crept up and took a knee, waited for my son to get where he could see and fired a shot. I couldn't see the deer at this point due to the hill and being a few steps back. But he came up the hill moving left and took another bullet before heading left and down to the bottom. Moments later a deer appears to the right moving up the canyon and proceeds to wobble, lay down, and slide to the bottom of the canyon. I immediately accuse my father of shooting two deer as I saw the deer he shot go out of sight to the left. He denies it and starts walking forward with my son.

I follow still a few steps behind and hear something crash to the left headed for the top of the canyon. I see a buck running in the trees and again accuse my father of shooting 2 bucks as I throw my rifle up expecting to shoot a wounded deer when he clears the trees. To my surprise the buck breaks cover at a dead run and angles hard left, I take note of his wide heavy rack as I swing to get ahead of him. I touch the trigger with the cross hairs a foot ahead of his shoulder. He immediately goes down sliding in the snow. I faintly hear my son and father celebrate but I'm to focused to pay attention, I work the bolt as I take several quick steps up the hill. I stop and put another shot through the vitals as the buck attempts to lift his head. I realize I'm shaking as the adrenaline leaves and the cold seeps back in. Now I can celebrate the harvest and the joys of doubling up with my dad with my son watching!

Dad's buck
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My son with myBuck
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The two bucks together
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I learned afterwords that from my dad's vantage he could see his buck the whole time and knew for certain he was only shooting at one deer. Had myself earlier or my dad when he came taken two steps farther forward we would have seen the larger buck bedded in the bottom but it all worked out in the end!
 
OP
S
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
1,033
Thanks everyone, it was amazing and my son brings it up about every other day which is what I love!
 
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
885
Location
CO
Congrats on a few nice deer! Awesome that three generations of hunters got to share such great memories.
 

Yota

FNG
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
20
Location
Tulsa, OK
Congratulations to you and your family. Thanks for sharing your wonderful hunting experience.
 

Marko

FNG
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
19
Congrats on a great hunt. The smile on that young man's face is priceless. Enjoy the memories.
 
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