Story - 2014 Muzzleloader Buck

This spot was a couple years in the making. A couple years ago I was checking out a few different benches and found a spot that looked pretty good. I came back with a tree stand and hunted it. A few hours into the hunt I pulled out the binoculars to do a scan and when I brought them up, there was a deer dead center in the viewfinder just standing in the brush. I got the gun up before I could really tell what it was. As it walked off through the woods I saw horns once, but I couldn't tell how big they were, so I never pulled the trigger. I climbed down at the end of the hunt and did a little more scouting in that area. He was walking down a good trail and I had a much better view from the bench above.

This year I went to the higher bench and found a good tree to climb. A couple hours into the hunt I heard a squirrel barking behind me. As I turned to look, I spotted a deer making it's way parallel to me about 60 yards away. I spun around, got the scope on the last opening before the brush, and cocked the hammer. When it came through the last opening I saw good horns and squeezed the trigger. After the smoke cleared I didn't see or hear anything, so I figured he dropped pretty quick. I called Brent on the radio and told him he could come down in about 30 min. About 15 minutes later I looked to the right and saw a little fork-horn with a big hole in his leg. I couldn't believe how much his rack had shrunk in the last 15 minutes. I put one in his chest and he went down about 5 yards later. After that smoke cleared I saw a doe that had apparently been with him the whole time. She was slowly making her way back down the way that they had originally came. After dumping powder all over the place and finally getting a bullet shoved down the tube I took steady aim and jerked the trigger harder than I ever had before. I could see the crosshairs move about 2' before smoke filled the glass. Brent came on the radio and asked if I was done shooting up the woods, and I confirmed. He walked in while I was still in my tree to check my shot angles. I guess I was in a really good tree, because no matter where he was on the ground he couldn't see me. The buck was in plain sight, but we couldn't find blood on the doe. We found a spot on the ground where the bullet hit and it looked like it was about where her feet would have been. When I got to the buck, he was smaller that I originally thought, but bigger than I secondarily thought. I guess he was like the baby bear porridge. We got him dressed, dragged, hauled, skinned, quartered, butchered, froze, thawed, and ate.

I have tried a few different ways of horn saving.
1. Cut 90 degree angles from the top and back to cover on a plaque.
2. Boil the whole head for a European mount.
3. Cut from the back just below the ears to just below the eyes.

I think #3 will probably be my new way of doing it for these reasons.
1. It is easier to cut.
2. It can be presented Euro or covered.
3. It sets on the wall better with or without a plaque.
4. It sets in a pot better to boil off the meat.
5. It makes for easier brain access for tanning.

 

 

Story - The 2011 Lake Buck

Andrew and I went out for a quick bow hunt before work. This area we are hunting is pretty tight. We both climbed trees about 60 yards apart. About 8:00, Andrew decided to call it quits and go to work. As he was packing up, I noticed a few deer behind me coming down the hill. About that time Andrew slammed his car door as hard as he could (or so it seemed) and the deer spooked. I was mad. About 30 minutes later I saw a buck coming down where those does had been. As he was about to enter a thicker part I stopped him. I put the 40 yard pin on him and let one go. I heard a pop. I don't know if it was the arrow hitting a limb, the deer, or the ground, but he ran off. After a little bit I got down and checked out the arrow. It had blood on it, but it smelled pretty bad like it was hit too far back. There was a little blood trail, but I decided to go to work for a little bit and come back in a few hours. After telling the guys at work what had happened, Will and Robert wanted to come back out to help look for it. We got back to the woods and started following the blood trail. It went uphill and turned back towards the lake. Robert said "I bet he went to water." Will and Robert went on a body hunt while I stayed back looking for the trail. Robert hollered at me that he had found my buck. I ran down the hill expecting to see my deer laying there, but he was not. He was about 100 yards away flopping in the lake. I grabbed the crossbow and headed out after him. I was in my work clothes and my boots were about 1/2 from filling up with water. I shot him again in the neck with the crossbow and finished him off. He was still a little too far out to reach without my boots filling up so I grabbed a tow strap and lassoed him. He wasn't as big as I thought, but he was my biggest to date. That was the first deer that I had boiled the skull. It wasn't too difficult, but I probably won't do it again unless it is really worth it. 

 

 

 

 

Story - 2014 Doe Gun Hunt

Daniel and I went out for the doe gun hunt hoping to even see a deer. We were just going to do a quick hunt on the last morning of the season before I went to work. The place we were hunting is not remote by any means, so Daniel took the shotgun and I took the crossbow with the 44 revolver as backup. I climbed a tree in stand 1 and Daniel did the same in stand 2. A little after sunrise I had a yearling come by about 30 yards so I stuck it with an arrow. It ran off about 30 yards, laid down, and expired. About an hour later I decided to get down to start cleaning so I could get to work at a decent hour. As soon as my bow hit the ground I had 2 doe come up on me about 20 yards away. I pulled out the 44 while still in the treestand and shot at the closer one. It turned and ran up the hill and I shot at her again at about 50 yards just to make sure. I was for sure done now. I climbed down out of the tree and as I was packing up the stand I heard a racket behind me. Three deer were running down the hill straight at me. The first one noticed me about 10 yards away and froze. The second one ran past her about 10 yards to the left and stopped. The third one did the same on the right. I have heard Robert say several times on the radio "Boys, come help me! I am surrounded by deer!" I guess now I know what he is talking about. I shot at the first one, spun right, shot at the third one, spun left, then shot at the second one. I wanted to save one bullet just in case. I missed all three of those deer at point blank range. I guess I need to practice spinning in circles and shooting at moving targets more. Daniel texted and said he had one coming up and put a heart shot on her at about 40 yards. She ran about 40 and piled up. We cleaned deer for a few hours and I got to work about 2. Totally worth it.

 

 

Story - 2014 Gun Hunt

As Brent's grandpa used to say, "There are days you can't kill them, and there are days you can't keep from killing them." Saturday was a day we couldn't kill them. Sunday we decided to go hunt our newly gated deer community. Daniel stayed over in the highline, so I don't really know the specifics of what all happened over there.

5:45 - I took the RZR over and climbed a tree at stand 1 and hunted the main trail.
6:15 - Robert and Brent came over in the truck and Robert sat on the ground at stand 2 and Brent set up a blind at stand 3.
6:30 - Robert shot a little buck at the indian mound field with the 35 and he dropped in his tracks.
6:45 - Brent radioed that he saw a big buck and Robert started making his way around the big rock.
7:00 - I decided to move up and climb a tree in the top field.
7:15 - Brent saw a little buck chasing a doe and shot him with the 270.
7:16 - Robert came face to face with the doe that Brent's buck was chasing and shot her with the 35.
7:30 - I had a yearling come out into the top field and I shot it with the 308.

At some point Daniel threw a temper tantrum in the woods and started yelling and smashing dead limbs on standing trees. A doe came in to see what the heck was going on and he shot her with the 25.

We got to try out our new skinning system using a screw step, paracord, cable, pulley, walnut and the truck. It worked out pretty good. We also got to eat deer for almost every meal. Deer polish sausage with deer chili, barbecued deer rib sandwiched, and bacon covered jalapeno cream cheese stuffed backstrap.

Recipe - Stuffed Backstrap

 Take a backstrap and cut it almost all the way through the side like a hotdog bun. Pound out the meat a little to make it more of a uniform thickness. Place cream cheese and jalapenos in the middle and fold back over. Sprinkle some seasoning on the meat and top it with bacon. Roast in the oven at 350 for about 30 min or until the internal temp is 140. Turn the broiler on low to crisp up the bacon for about 10 minutes and pull out of the oven when the internal temp reaches 160.
 

 

 

  

Story - My First Deer



I didn't really grow up hunting. My dad took me shooting a lot, but we only really hunted squirrels a few times when I was younger. Dad still gets grossed out by touching fish and guts. When I got my drivers license at 16, my friend Michael and I would go dove, rabbit and squirrel hunting. It wasn't until I moved to Arkansas and lived out of town that I started deer hunting. My roommate and I started seeing deer around the house so we went and bought a couple cheap bows to practice with. We went out behind the house and made some treestands out of milk crates and forklift pallets. The first evening we actually hunted I had a doe come in about 20 yards and I shot right below her. She came back about 5 minutes later to the same spot and I put one right through the heart. She ran off about 50 yards and died. We had no idea what we were doing, so we left the guts in, tied her legs to a log, and carried her back to the house. We had Papa come guide us through the cleaning process. He hung her up by the neck, stuck a 6" fillet knife straight through the chest, and ripped straight down all the way to the bottom. That deer was probably the worst tasting meat I had ever eaten. About 30 deer later I am finally getting it right. It's amazing how experience has changed the process in which we do all our deer cleaning now.

The main things I did inefficiently were:

Field dressing at the house instead of on site

Carrying instead of dragging

Cutting straight through all the organs instead of cutting the skin and pulling the organs out

Laying the deer on a table and cutting off every piece of meat instead of quartering

Wrapping in butcher paper instead of vacuum sealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story - Spring 2012 Crappie



This was the first year we actually caught crappie at Beaver Lake. It lasted about two weeks before the flood came. If the fish are biting you had better go, because it wont last long.