February Bucks By Robert Hoague
Feb 23, 2009 - 6:58:44 AM
After the gobblers dissapeared into the trees I waited patiently and
silently. Later on the sun shoved itself past the tree tops and
daylight began to loose its bright edge. In the trees in front of the
blind, over a hundred yards away, some antlers caught my eye. I tried
for a picture but I couldn't get focused on the buck because of all the
surrounding trees. Two more bucks were tagging along behind it.
The trail the deer were on at the moment was one that passed my ground
blind abour 15 yards from the right side. Between the trees and the
blind was a relatively open area mostly full of tall weeds and dried
grass. I got ready to take a pic, if I got the chance.
Before they left the cover of the trees they stood inside the edge and watched for any problem. Finally they were ok with everything and
cleared the trees about 70 yards in front of me. I framed them up in
the camera, zoomed in all I could and took a pic. The light was too low
and the deer were very blurry.
I took a few more pictures but they were no better. I sat my camera
down and got my binoculars. The lead buck's main beams were several
inches past his ears, nice and wide. The next buck was similar but it
only had one side of its rack. And the 3rd was an 8-point with long
main beams that went up, but he wann't that wide, just inside his ears.
As they came closer I noticed that the lead buck had broken main beams
on both sides. The right antler had snapped off after the very long and
impressive G2. The other beam was broken after the G3. There was no way
to tell how many points he had started the Fall with.
When it was closer I noticed that the second buck's missing left antler
was actually a broken main beam. It was about 4 inches long and the
brow tine was broken off. When they got over to where I was, 25 yards
to my right, a 4th buck (that I had not seen) intercepted them. An
8-point and its antlers were heavier than the others but the rack was
not as wide and the tines were not as long.
Something needs to be said at this point, this is a MLD Permit hunt and
bucks are off limits for me. So I was out of luck as far as shooting a
buck. But in the luck in terms of seeing some impressive bucks and buck
action.
The intercepting buck was on the trail the wild turkeys had used
earlier and the two largest bucks fell in with it. The narrow racked
buck held up and watched attentively somewhere off to my right. The
three bucks stopped 10 to 15 yards from me. I was eating them up with
my binoculars when I saw another deer shove its head and neck out in
the middle of the pack of bucks. This deer did not have antlers. And
there was enough daylight for a shot.
I BowTeched up and waited for a clear shot at this new antlerless deer.
It took a couple of steps in front of the bucks and I now had a perfectly clear broadside shot. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The neck on this deer was very big around, noticably thicker than the
necks of the other bucks. And it's front end was blockier and larger.
Hmmmmmmm again.
What we had here was a big, mature buck that had lost both its antlers already.
I picked the binoculars back up and watched until I couldn't see them any longer.
Rick picked me up just after dark and I told him what had transpired.
We ate some sandwiches and called it a day. A good day in the deer and
turkey woods.
