Charlie's Hunting Camp
2009 Deer Season
Archery
This year I had planned to take an entire week off for bow hunting and I chose the first week of November. I know many guys like to hunt a little closer to the rut but my experience has been that the pre-rut searching period yields the most buck activity. Last years success on November 3rd certainly helped to convince me if I had any doubt. Once again I had my trail camera out in a few spots and my brother in law also had his out so we were able to do some stealthy pre-season scouting. I seemed to get pictures of the same small 5 point buck no matter where I put my camera, it was actually comical. I got him in velvet, then 2 more times in hard horn from different locations on the land I hunt. He was very mobile. A few nice 2.5 year old 6 pointers had been seen along with some spikes and scrubby racks. The buck that caught my attention from my brother in laws camera was a real nice 8 pointer. I knew I would be passing up anything smaller as long as I knew he was still alive. I passed on that same small 5 pointer that I had captured on camera one afternoon early in the season when I decided to hunt by a small field from a camp chair. It was really more of a scouting hunt but I thought a nice fat doe might come out before dark as they had in this location in years past. About an hour before dark while watching and taking pictures with my phone camera of squirrels and chipmunks, I heard a different sort of crunching sound and found myself staring at the 5 point buck a mere 20 yards away. Instead of entering the field, he turned back and walked in my direction offering me more than a few opportunities to draw and kill him before he stopped only about 5 yards from me.
There was no way I was using up my archery buck tag that early. Not with this guy running around.
A few of us hunted hard during archery with hopes of getting a crack at the big 8 but he never showed during daylight hours. I hunted 9 days straight from a variety of stand locations during that first week in November. I saw a decent amount of game but not as much deer activity as I would have liked. A mature doe never offered an opportunity and only two 4 pointers and a button buck came close enough to consider, which I didn't. I saw a big raccoon and red fox and also had a cool encounter with a big gobbler but I didn't release an arrow on any of them, although I tried my best to take that turkey.
Brother in law Charlie did score with stick and string on November 4th. Charlie heard some crashing in the brush just as I was checking in with him (via text) to see if he had seen any action. He thought the big 8 might be coming out but it turned out to be one of the nice 6 pointers we had seen. The aggressive buck responded to some aggressive grunting and made the mistake of getting within 30 yards of Charlie.
Gun Season
When the firearm season was about to begin, I had heard from family members that a neighbor had scored on a nice 8 pointer with his bow on Thursday the 18th. The only picture we had was a camera photo from the back of a pick up truck. He looked similar to the deer in the photos Charlie had from his trail camera but we weren't confident that they were the same animal. He was a nice 8 pointer, that's for sure.
Our neighbors archery 8
pointer
Either way, I have to admit that I thought that "our" deer might have been harvested. I still had high hopes going into opening day because we always see some deer and usually someone gets one on that first day. We were still seeing some good rubs and scrapes as well so we thought there might be another nice one in the area. The first 3 days of the season were pretty slow for me and others. The weather was warm and the deer seemed to not be moving too much. Tuesday the 24th I saw quite a few does in the morning but no bucks. I had to go home in the middle of the day to take care of an unexpected errand and actually contemplated not driving the 35 minutes back in the afternoon thinking I would get in the woods late. I decided to hunt and picked a spot that was close to where I could park my vehicle and get in without disturbing my hunting partners. It was another warm afternoon and I grabbed only my gun and ammo and headed to my stand. I was settled in sometime after 3pm and figured I had an hour and a half of hunting. I had a good vantage point of a neighboring farm field to glass and had a smaller field in front of me to watch. Behind me was some thick brush and plenty of woods. Normally I wouldn't expect anything to come from that direction but the slight east wind was blowing my scent out in front of me so the possibility was there. I enjoyed watching a flock of turkeys in the farmers field harassing some crows while they fought over manure (yuck). Right around 4pm, the farmers truck drove along the big field to my right and dropped off someone to hunt at the field edge, and I thought I was late! Anyway, I figured that pretty much ruined any chance of anything coming from that direction so I focused on the field in front of me and figured if I was lucky something might come out way down the other end before dark. I had been watching one lone grey squirrel to my left running up and down a young hickory tree and that was about it. A few minutes passed and I heard crunching in the leaves to my left and slightly behind me. Thinking that it was the squirrel again I turned nonchalantly to watch him some more and found myself staring at a big 8 pointer who was now almost in bow range! I was in no position to raise my gun to shoot and my heart started to pound as I forced myself to come up with a plan and not blow this. He was looking into the field before entering it and seemed very relaxed. He hadn't seen or sensed me yet. With my hidden right hand, I reached down and cranked the scope from 9x to 3x. This would be a close shot. I decided to let him walk past me and shoot him in the field when I could raise my gun without being in his peripheral vision. This proved to be very nerve racking and I was having a bad case of buck fever but I maintained my composure long enough to let him get about 45 yards out and 30 yards to my left. He was just walking casually as I slowly shouldered my Remington Model 7 and when the cross hairs found his vitals I said "hey" in a loud voice. He stopped and turned to look in my direction, I settled and squeezed. He kicked at the report and ran about 30 yards down into what I knew to be a nasty rabbit thicket. I heard crashing immediately and took my first breath in like 15 minutes. I chambered another round and gathered my thoughts before slowly climbing down the ladder. When I went to where he was standing, I easily saw the big hoof prints where he kicked up and ran but didn't see any blood. I followed in the direction I saw him go and still didn't see any. I got nervous but knew that I couldn't have missed him, could I? I took a walk around the brush hillside before getting right on his track. No big tracks in the mud came out of the thicket so my spirits lifted again. I returned to the shot site and went in after him before it got dark. I could see his track easily but still no blood, then finally I found blood although it quit just as quickly as it started and now I didn't see any more tracks either. I stood there collecting my thoughts and tried putting the puzzle pieces together when suddenly the unmistakable smell of a mature buck entered my nostrils and I said to myself, or maybe audibly, "you're in here". Long story short, he took a hard right off the deer trail for his final adrenaline fueled burst and ended up in the midst of the nastiest honeysuckle thicket imaginable. All in all he only went about 50-60 yards. The lack of a blood trail revealed itself when I examined my shot placement. It was a perfect heart shot from a quartering away angle. The 7mm bullet turned off his pump and he died before he could run far enough to bleed out.
Well, if you've already compared the photos you know that I did in fact get the buck that my brother in law got on his trail camera. It was very exciting to say the least. The first call was to him, after all I needed some help getting the beast out of the rabbit thicket. As soon as he saw him, he knew. "That's him", he said. We now both knew that 2 really nice 8 pointers were taken very close to each other. Throw in the nice 11 I got with the bow last year and it is obvious that we have a good gene pool going and the potential for trophy bucks. I realize that antler size is not the only way to measure a trophy or a successful hunt, but I was certainly "tickled" to get him as they say.
Brother in Law Gordie connected on an old ridge runner this year. His buck only had a few teeth in the front of his mouth, weighed 175lbs dressed and was as long as his truck bed. Although his antlers seemed to be past peak, this was definitely the dominant buck in the area he was hunting and a good deer to take.
Here's 15 year old Keith Parrino with his very first deer! Keith was hunting near Sharon Springs, NY on Thanksgiving day with family when he connected with this trophy. Keith was hunting with his shotgun and while on watch this tremendous buck was pushed his way. Keith wasn't about to let this one get away so he emptied his shotgun as the buck passed by. One of the slugs found the sweet spot and the buck started to crash not too far away. Shortly after that, another family member not knowing if the buck was going to get up, sent another slug toward him. Unfortunately, he shot his left antler in half. Luckily, it was right there and it's nothing a good taxidermist can't remedy. To say Keith was excited when he saw what he had gotten would be an understatement. Of course we all told him it may be a long time before he has another opportunity at such a huge racked buck.
Keith with his 11 point buck, look at the mass and those brow tines! Keith's left hand is holding the rack in place where it was broken. Congratulations on a great deer Keith!
Click on the year in the links below for some more photos and stories of my deer hunting seasons.