By Justin Rieg
It's not to often, if ever, that I get hung up on chasing a certain buck or bucks. But the past few seasons have been spent on just that. Which as any bow hunter knows can be an absolute roller coaster of emotions. One minute you can be at an all time low, completely stumped and within a few seconds it can all change into the highest of highs. This is just a slight insight on the trials and tribulations of just what it entailed to endure all the ups and downs over my last few years spent in the deer woods.
This story begins in August of 2016, I was cutting it down to the wire on scouting as to where I wanted to hang my stands to start off the archery season. With not much time to go and scout a entirely new property, I settled with the property I hunted the year before in which I had no luck. Without much thought, I decided to throw a trail camera along an old logging trail in the timber between a massive hay field and a deep drainage ditch.
My hastily made decision paid off, on my first card pull in September of that year. It revealed there was quite a few deer passing through this funnel. Mainly three very impressive 8 point bucks that all had their own unique characteristics to their racks. The chase was on at that point to catch up with at least one of these beautiful whitetails once the season opened up.
Fast forward October 8th of that season, it was a warm breezy day but I was in dire need of some time spent in a tree among nature. So doing what any bow hunter does when the season is in, I told a little white lie to get out of work early enough to get in the stand. I arrived to my hunting grounds with more than enough time to get in and settled, but being anxious, I rushed to get dressed and start the walk to my stand. Making my way in as quick and quietly as I could, thinking to myself how horribly I was failing at doing so. Soon i figured out just how terrible of a job I was doing at being stealthy on my entrance. In a matter of time I was within 35 yards of my stand and heard the sound we all dread hearing walking in, the sound of a doe snorting and the sight of two "white flags" vanishing off deeper in to the timber. I was busted, I thought that was a sure bet that any deer in the Tri-County were now alerted to my presence.
I remember finally getting in my stand feeling defeated within the first hour of being in the woods. The rest of the evening was completely dead, not even a single squirrel rummaging through the dry leaves in search of acorns. As shooting light was drawn closer to an end and my empty stomach starting to grumble, I decided to start gathering my things for the journey back to the truck. As I was reaching for my pack hanging beside me, I heard the sound of rustling leaves.
Without hesitation I grabbed my bow and readied myself to inspect just who the culprit of the noise was.
Scanning through all the undergrowth, I caught a glimpse of antler. Lo and behold, walking in my direction was the biggest of the 8 points I had inventoried on my trail camera. 25 yards slowly making his way closer and closer feeding on acorns on the forest floor. With his head down he passed behind a tree giving me an opportunity to come to draw, only to have an issue with my harness keeping me from coming to full draw and settle in to take a shot. As quietly as I could manage, I shifted my body to free my range of motion. Then it happened, the undeniable sound of a treestand platform creaking in the silent timber. Within a split second he stopped, turned and bolted back the way he came. Leaving me at an all time low, to have the biggest whitetail I've ever encountered at 13 yards and I completely blew it.
The rest of my 2016 season wasn't a total lose though. I not only learned more about how the deer were using the property, I also harvested a big old doe out of the exact same stand I had the encounter with the "Big 8" in. With the season coming to an end, it left me wanting to do something to improve the deer habitat and give me a slight upper hand for the 2017 season.
I started off my improvements in early June by adding a mineral site using an uprooted tree stump I found. I've had the best luck using this method with just about any kind of mineral or attractant. Then in early August of 2017 I took a chance at planting my first real "Kill Plot" using North Ridge Wildlife Forage's Ridge Reaper No-Till mix.
Within just a few weeks it was already sprouted and filling out to be a lush mix of greens for the deer to graze on and use as a staging area before making their way into the bigger fields surrounding the property. My trail camera captured a good number of deer using the plot as opening day drew closer. I had some high hopes of catching up to one of the big and unique 8's roaming the property having them yet again in my inventory of bucks.
Over the course of the first month of the season I had my fair share of chances at harvesting a doe in this little food plot I had created, but wanted to hold out and put a tag on some antlers. My first opportunity came on October 26th as the daylight was coming to an end.
The sound of trotting hooves coming from my right had my full attention as I intently waited for an animal to show itself. Within a few seconds a small doe appeared and started sniffing around, inspecting a licking branch at the end of the plot. A little disappointed at what I saw, I turned to hang my bow back on it's hanger when I caught sight of one of the 8's entering the plot directly across from me. Having no idea I was there and his attention on the doe, I quickly came to full draw and waited for him to present a shot. As he turned to the does direction, he began to sprint across the plot. I frantically tried to stop him, when he did stop however, it happened to be right behind the "Y" of a sapling which left me with no shot and yet again the feeling of defeat as i could hear the sound of snapping branches while he chased her away.
Little did I know what else the 2017 season had to throw at me. The evening of November 7th I found myself in my stand hanging over the food plot again, and now with more visibility of the woods around me with the foliage pretty much all fallen from the trees. It was a pretty uneventful hunt until a lone doe came flying past my stand at roughly 70 yards. Within seconds tailing behind her was a nice 6 point followed by one of the 8's. I helplessly watched them disappear off into the brush. I stood there grunting with no avail, they were dead set on where the doe was heading. That was the ending to another season the 8's could chalk up as a win on the scoreboard.
Heading into the 2018 I was determined to get one of these giants patterned and harvested. In mid summer, I hung a camera over my mineral site again to collect inventory and determine if the 8's were still running this property. The first card pull was all the evidence needed to come to the conclusion that they were indeed still alive and growing their next set of antlers. Leading up closer to the season opener, they became less and less frequent in the area. Panic set in as the feeling that they were once again going to completely stump me after they lost their velvet.
The 2018 season started off as most archery seasons do, slow. Looking back at my hunting journal, I never saw a single deer the first 4 sits of the season. October 26th marked the first sit where i finally had a good encounter and deer in range. It was about 10 minutes after climbing into my daughter's ladder stand on the edge of my plot, a doe came cruising by followed a few minutes later by a good buck. With no shot available thanks to a bunch of saplings, I had to watch him disappear into the timber and the all to familiar feeling of disappointment set in.
After that hunt, the decision was made to move a stand 30-40 yards off the edge of the plot. Giving me more shooting lanes and setting me up over a trail that I watched doe travel the past season. November 8th, 2018 is a morning that I'll never forget, getting in my stand a touch after 7am. There was a good frost the night before and the temps in the mid twenties, you know the type of November mornings you dream all year about.
After about an hour of sitting there, gazing blankly waiting for a deer to appear in sight. There was a loud crack behind me followed by the sound of rustling leaves, before i could even turn to get my eyes on what was happening 2 big doe bolted past me at 22 yards in an all out run. Quickly, I stood up and grabbed my bow and used my range finder to get an idea of how far they were when they came past. The minutes that followed seemed like hours as I watched the biggest of the 8's come out of the thicket behind my stand at about 80 yards, followed just steps behind by two other good bucks. They were content just pushing these two doe around, who by this point circled completely around me and were back between the bucks and I. After hitting my grunt tube a few times, it became apparent that they only had one thing on their minds. Yet again another encounter that the "Big 8" could mark down as a win and was the last good sit I had that season.
The 2018 regular archery season ended just as many seasons have in the past, with me still holding a buck tag. I once again put the big 8's in the back of my mind in hopes of chasing them again in the 2019 season. Roughly a month later, the week after rifle season to be exact I caught word of a good buck being shot roughly 800 yards away on a neighboring property. A buddy of mine sent me a picture of this good buck, a giant of an 8 point with an very impressive spread. As soon as I saw him I knew it was one of the 8's I've been chasing over the past few years. A mix of frustration and joy overtook me, the time spent day dreaming, the preseason scouting, going through trail camera pictures, searching for shed antlers. It all ended with a text message, at least for one of those beautiful creatures. It is the final chapter of saga of the "Triple 8's" as I became to know them.
I still have high hopes that I will catch up with one of the "Big 8's" in the 2019 season. I feel like setting your goals on harvesting an animal such as a mature buck, or any critter is just another one of those things that keep you in the woods longer. Because like as many of us have heard before "All it takes is a few seconds".