It’s easy for us hunters to think we know every deer in the area we’re hunting these days. Today’s trail camera technology is cheaper than ever, allowing us to blanket our spots with cameras that capture nearly every deer’s movement. If you’re like many hunters these days, you probably make an annual “hit list” of animals you hope to see once the season finally rolls around. However, whitetails are sneaky animals, and sometimes, they manage to avoid being seen until the hunter finally gets a shot at once. That’s the case with today’s hunt. Chase of DeerCo is hunting a key piece of property in Iowa. His goal is to harvest a specific buck that has appeared on trail camera.
This hunt takes place in the middle of the October lull, and the high winds aren’t helping Chase any. However, it isn’t long before he spots a giant buck trying to slip past him. The buck is in an odd position, forcing Chase to stand on the seat of his stand to get an angle for the shot. However, he nails a perfect shot through the vitals.
The only thing Chase knew was that this deer wasn’t his target buck. When they finally track the buck down and get a close look at the rack, they got quite the surprise! This buck had tons of kickers and stickers on his right side. There was enough non-typical antler to total around 205 inches, enough to make this buck a trophy in anyone’s book.
There are some key lessons to learn here. For one, it shows there is some value to hunting the October lull. We know many hunters who have ceased hunting that time of year because of how it slows. But you can’t harvest a big one sitting at home! The second lesson is to never assume there’s not a big one in the area just because you don’t have any photos of him. This mystery buck managed to evade all their scouting attempts only to make a surprise appearance during the season. Keep that in mind the next time you don’t have many promising photos of big bucks heading into the season. Once the bucks start cruising for does, you never know what may show up!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram For original videos, check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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