For an extended weekend every November, a group of friends have been taking off work or school to get together and head out to western Kansas to drink beer and chase whitetails. This has turned into a tradition that I hope to keep going for years to come. This picture was from the trip that started it all: Saturday November 18, 2006. Goodman and Bayes had taken off work Thursday and Friday and had already been hunting for two days when I arrived Friday night. We discussed strategy for the next morning's hunt. Bayes and Goodman would travel to a piece of land they had permission on about 20 minutes away while I would stay close, then we would all meet up for lunch. I don't recall what I saw that next morning, but I didn't shoot any deer, so I crawled down from my treestand around 11:30 a.m. and headed to the truck. No phone messages yet, they must still be sitting. Finally around 12:30 pm I got a phone call saying they had two bucks hit! Bayes had hit a nice 10 pointer, but was afraid the shot was a little high and noticed he didn't get much arrow penetration. He went over to tell Goodman the news and noticed Goodman was smiling ear to ear. He had just arrowed a deer himself! They quickly found goodman's deer then called me to come help look for Bayes' deer. We spent midday searching for sign but found no blood. I left them two to go back to another treestand for an evening hunt. As I climbed down the hill towards my stand, I noticed other hunters were on the property crawling under the fence and stalking a deer near my stand. I assumed they had permission and didn't want to disturb them ,so I snuck down the hill a ways and set up on the hillside behind a cedar tree. As evening approached I heard a deer coming out of the big draw to the south of me. It passed about 40 yards through some trees as I studied it's rack debating whether or not to take a shot. By the time I made up my mind to try a shot, the deer was past me. I quickly reached for my grunt call to attempt to turn the deer back. A few short grunts caused the buck to make a 90 degree left turn, sending him on a path along the fenceline that would put him about 35 yards straight north of me when he cleared a big cedar tree. I was already at full draw as the buck's rack cleared the cedar, and when his vitals were visible I released the arrow. It was a perfect shot, and I watched the buck fall not 80 yards away! It was an unbelievable Saturday, and we all agreed we'd try to repeat the feat again the following year.
For an extended weekend every November, a group of friends have been taking off work or school to get together and head out to western Kansas to drink beer and chase whitetails. This has turned into a tradition that I hope to keep going for years to come. This picture was from the trip that started it all: Saturday November 18, 2006. Goodman and Bayes had taken off work Thursday and Friday and had already been hunting for two days when I arrived Friday night. We discussed strategy for the next morning's hunt. Bayes and Goodman would travel to a piece of land they had permission on about 20 minutes away while I would stay close, then we would all meet up for lunch. I don't recall what I saw that next morning, but I didn't shoot any deer, so I crawled down from my treestand around 11:30 a.m. and headed to the truck. No phone messages yet, they must still be sitting. Finally around 12:30 pm I got a phone call saying they had two bucks hit! Bayes had hit a nice 10 pointer, but was afraid the shot was a little high and noticed he didn't get much arrow penetration. He went over to tell Goodman the news and noticed Goodman was smiling ear to ear. He had just arrowed a deer himself! They quickly found goodman's deer then called me to come help look for Bayes' deer. We spent midday searching for sign but found no blood. I left them two to go back to another treestand for an evening hunt. As I climbed down the hill towards my stand, I noticed other hunters were on the property crawling under the fence and stalking a deer near my stand. I assumed they had permission and didn't want to disturb them ,so I snuck down the hill a ways and set up on the hillside behind a cedar tree. As evening approached I heard a deer coming out of the big draw to the south of me. It passed about 40 yards through some trees as I studied it's rack debating whether or not to take a shot. By the time I made up my mind to try a shot, the deer was past me. I quickly reached for my grunt call to attempt to turn the deer back. A few short grunts caused the buck to make a 90 degree left turn, sending him on a path along the fenceline that would put him about 35 yards straight north of me when he cleared a big cedar tree. I was already at full draw as the buck's rack cleared the cedar, and when his vitals were visible I released the arrow. It was a perfect shot, and I watched the buck fall not 80 yards away! It was an unbelievable Saturday, and we all agreed we'd try to repeat the feat again the following year.
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