Big T Tags One From the Big Box Stand

There are 2 ways to tell this story:

Version #1 I had seen some good deer sign behind my house and decided to put my camera up to see if I could catch anything on it. I did end up getting several pictures of two bucks, a decent 8 pointer and a good 6 pointer. I hunted the 8 pointer for the next 10 days. I was hunting “behind” my house on Oct 30th and had both the 6 and 8 pointers chasing does in the pine thickets just behind my house. After watching the chase for a while, I shot the deer below as he stepped out of the pine thicket. He managed to stumble/scramble backwards about 10 yards but that was it.

Version #2 I woke up on the morning of Oct 30th at about 6:45 and eased into the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee. Before starting the coffee maker, I decided to grab my binoculars and check the back yard. From the kitchen I can see most of the backyard, into the pine thicket that borders it and a corn pile I have about 75 yards from the back deck.

I quickly noticed 4 does standing right in the middle of the yard. I also saw a buck on the corn pile but couldn’t tell which one it was. As I scanned back up the yard into the pines I picked out the bigger buck, the 8 pointer, as he sat back in the woods watching the does. I eased back into the bedroom and warned my wife that I was headed upstairs to my “large box stand” and that she may hear my shoot soon…and to be prepared.

I eased upstairs, threw on some coveralls and slipped to the window of the unfinished room that connects to my office. There, at the window, I have a card table with my H & R slug gun, a shooting bag, hunting binocs, spitter, water bottle, etc…all layed out. Similar to what one would have in any normal box stand. The bigger deer had started moving out into the back yard towards the does. as he did that, the big 6 came from the corn pile to met him. They fought and postured a little bit but then both started chasing does. They would run the does down towards the swamp, back up to the pine thicket and right through the back yard.

I watched them chase for a while and then as the last does started leaving out the corner, I shot the deer as he stepped out of the pines. The 12 gauge H&R (RPG as our friend Gary from VA calls them) is damaging and was definitely more than this deer could take.

Two different stories, same result. The next one I shoot from or near the house will need to be bigger than this one…unless I’m just in the mood.

WALKER EVANS TAKES FIRST DEER

Walker was hunting with his Dad and trusty guide, Daryl, on November 6th when he took this buck…his first deer!  They were hunting in a ground blind on the edge of a bean field and Walker, using shooting sticks for a prop, shot the deer at about 50 yards with his rifle.  Congratulations Walker!  I’d say he is a good 10-15 years ahead of when most guys get to shoot their first deer…and he’s significantly more photogenic than the rest of us.  I don’t think his Dad taught him that.

Daddy Rabbit With a Wide One

Chad took this buck in Johnston County this week (Nov. 6th) with the 6MM. It came out behind a doe and met it’s fate mainly because of nice main beam length and width. Chad will post the measurements later but it was in the neighborhood of 19″ wide with main beams in the 22-23″ range. Good deer Daddy Rabbit.

Lauren’s First With the Smokepole

Lauren Daniels is on track to possibly kill more deer than most of “the fellas” this year.  She took this buck during blackpowder week. It’s her first with a muzzleloader.  I saw the video, which was awesome.  Again, congrats Lauren.  It’s your Dad’s turn to shoot another one now.

Daddy Rabbit and Little Rabbit

Lauren Daniels

2008 “No Regrets Tour” Chesepeake Bay

Back and ready to roll….

Hanging stands

Mr. Joe Bitty in stand…

This is what we’re looking for…

Rabid fox… needs killin

T throwing one of three arrows at him

Eric and T on the prowl

Day 1 – trip up and first evening hunt. (ERIC THEN MARTY TAKES OVER)

Afer weeks of anticipation, list making, shelf construction, gear gathering and mental preparation, the day had arrived to leave and we were excited to say the least. A big part of the enjoyment we have in this trip is discussing, and analyzing before we leave.

When we leave, we are prepared.

E seems to be at a loss for words, so I’m (Doc) taking over and tell it with more attention to the truth. The morning departure event was pretty efficient. All members of the party arrived on time and we quickly realized the value of having the trailer on this trip…nice call E or T or whoever decided to make that call. Of course for next year we will figure out how to really trick that thing out and make it as complicated as possible. We still managed to fill it up for the trip back so we’ll need a bigger one next year.

First evening hunt was a real eye opener for me. We drew numbers to decide the pecking order for choosing stands for the whole trip. This potentially straight-forward activity was quickly complicated by T and Joe. Travis invents this rotating scheme where the pecking order in the afternoon follows the order in which we drew numbers with each hunter moving up in the pecking order the next day. For morning hunts, the pecking order was immediately reversed based on number and each hunter moved up the next day. After we argued for a bit about what that meant, Joe whipped out his laptop and made an excel spreadsheet for the trip. The numbers as they were pulled from the hat were 1-Joe, 2-T, 3-Doc, 4-Eric.

I quickly started paying attention when everyone started picking their stands. Since I was the new guy I anticiapted some kind advice (manipulation) from my boys. I decided since I didn’t know any better I’d just go along with it. They put me in a good spot though…I wound up seeing 16 go to the field and night fell with two more under a holly tree straight below me that I couldn’t see to shoot. Everyone wound up seeing deer and Joe saw a nice one. Anticipation was high after the first afternoon hunt. The only downer…and it was a significant nuisance the whole trip…was the number of mosquitoes and seed ticks that tried to eat you any time you got out of the truck. Thanks to Thermacell for a great product and to Redhead for making a good bugsuit.

Day 2- First full day with a morning and evening hunt. (BY MARTY LAIL)

In the morning we got started late-as expected. I had my third shower in twelve hours and this one was particularly memorable since Joe was the first one to shower and used all the hot water. After this the policy of splash and dash was put in place by T and I personally made a secret oath to myself to get up at least fifteen minutes before everyone else and take the first shower, which wasn’t hard. Luckily no one caught on the whole trip and just thought I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited about going hunting.

I had second pick on this morning, and it was an easy one since E apparently made a “stellar” choice with pick one and went to a real lemon called “the lost field.” As best I could tell, this was the stand farthest away from the food in the opposite direction of the refuge where all the deer go to be protected during the day. A deer would near about have to be lost to go there, hence the name. My choice was the “hardwoods” stand on the advice of everyone else who thought this was historically the best stand. T chose “step 1″ which was the stand where I saw all the deer the first afternoon and I forget which stand Joe picked but it was one on a field edge where the deer were supposed to be gone early. No one killed a deer but the morning was eventful. Joe and T saw deer but no shooters. E didn’t see any lost souls but pushed a six pointer out when he was getting down which ran right by Joe who was at the truck on the phone with T. T was walking towards Joe, and , with cell phone warning from Joe according to Joe, saw the deer coming. T jumped behind a bush, drew on the deer as it came by and luckily it stopped broadside at about 65 yards. Since he is deadly at 70, T flung one and the story is that the deer whirled around right before the arrow got to him. Amazing cat-like reflexes. The deer bounded away unscathed as the band stopped playing. As for me, I never saw one in the “honey-hole” until 9:00 AM. At this point a doe comes trotting into the woods, likely running from the 70 yard assassin, and heads straight to my tree. Now I don’t know if you know what it is like to try to shoot a duck that is landing on your gun barrel, but that is the feeling I started to have as this deer started to get closer and closer. My main objective on this trip was to kill my first deer with a bow so I was in fling mode if you know what I mean. I drew back without issue as the deer never noticed me and when the deer trotted ten yards to my right I let it fly. Next, a loud “whack” and no idea regarding the flight of my arrow. “Would have been hard to miss that one” I thought as I sat in the stand getting it all together after what was likely my first kill. I just knew the loud whack I had heard was shoulder blade, but having missed one short by ten yards already this year and getting myself into an embarrassing situation with Joe, I thought I better get down and check it out on my own before I claimed to have shot at anything. Optimistically, I went to the spot on the lookout for the first drops of blood. Reality set in when I found my clean arrow sticking in the base of a tree where the deer had passed. The broadhead wouldn’t budge so I unscrewed it and put the arrow back in my quiver where no one would notice. When I got back to the truck I told them I didn’t shoot at anything, but after hearing T’s story I fessed up (since the deer never stopped moving) and started what came to be known as “the Shooter’s Club.” This club would eventually be joined by all and other interesting clubs would be formed soon.

After the morning hunt, I was starving and a little worried about eating since I have diabetes. Of course the promise of a big breakfast after the hunt was immediately broken because we were now going to move some stands so I sucked it up and went with T to move “step 1″. This was interesting and T is an ace at taking down and putting up stands. Even more amazing was the fact that he actually seemed to listen to some of the ideas I had about where to hang the stand, contrary to what everyone else had been saying. We made short work of it and marked a path to enter through the back since we had spooked a lot of deer from the field earlier that morning. We got covered up in seed ticks and I had my first roll down with the lint remover which is even better at removing seed ticks. After meeting Joe and E and then Travis having to hang their new stand too, we high-tailed it back to the house (outstanding house by the way Gary) and took shower number two before driving forty miles to the Mexican restaurant. By now it was early afternoon. We took a while there and then drove back to the house for a thirty minute nap before shower number three and we were off to sit the afternoon.

The afternoon sit consisted of T going to step 1 with first pick, me going to “inside step two” with pick number two, E going to “the hardwoods”, and Joe going to “step two” which was a field stand over a watering hole. T and E saw some deer but no shooters. I saw about eight does which were heading to the field about forty yards to my left. I felt pretty good about my left shot so when the second group of four went to the field and came barreling back in for some reason, I picked one out at thirty yards and got my fling on. It was about dark so I still had no idea about my shot, but this deer at least reacted when my arrow got there (the first one had never changed direction or flagged or anything, just kept walking) . I gave it ten minutes until I couldn’t hear any deer, turned on my red light and came down. I walked over to the kill zone and found my arrow where it should have been. My heart started beating faster when I saw my arrow with deer hair and white stuff all over it. I had made contact and was certain I had just killed my first deer with a bow. I marked the spot on my GPS, left an arrow, and toted the dirty arrow out to the field edge to rendezvous with Joe. I started thinking about that arrow along the way and wondered where all the red stuff was. When I got to Joe he informed me that he had just smoked a cow horn and we were both pretty jacked up. But then he looked at my arrow and I saw some concern in his eye. He had never seen an arrow that looked anything like that. He smelled it and it smelled like a deer. He saw the deer hair and confirmed it was deer hair. But I could tell he was …mystified. We phoned the boys and while they were in route he showed me his arrow and I recognized some pretty big differences. I anticipated some ridicule was coming. Joe’s deer was easy to find. It was a boiler room shot on a big cow horn and his arrow was red. After T and E arrived they looked at my arrow, scratched their heads, took a token look for blood, then quickly moved on to hauling Joe’s deer. So I became the first member of the “Hair and Fat Club” and Joe became the first member of the “Killer’s Club”. Nice work Joe. After that we stopped by Tom Dixon’s for some amazing steamed clams, cleaned Joe’s deer, and headed back for the last shower of the day. I was excited after so much action on this day and was looking forward to joining the “Killer’s Club” very soon.

Day 3- 2nd Full day (BY MARTY LAIL)

Morning of day three started with me getting up before any one else and taking a shower. I got the coffee ready and waited for everyone else to come down. I realized at this point that we would have to wash clothes this afternoon since everyone was starting to run out of things to wear. We had decided to start a little earlier to avoid spooking so many deer and were quickly on the move after downing apples, bananas, and breakfast bars. E did his make up in the truck, which was an event which I have failed to talk much about so far. We’ll just say we all had a lot of fun with that and painted up some pretty scary and meaningful faces. Just ask Hume Dixon, who got his first glimpse of us on afternoon number one in full paint and must think we are even stranger (stupider) than he already did.

I had pick number one and went with the newly relocated “step 1″stand. T had pick number two and chose “hardwoods.” Joe went back to inside step two while E went to the “sycamore” stand, which was actually in a sweet gum (go figure). E saw the most deer on that morning but no shooters. Joe may not have seen a deer, I can’t remember. T saw a good group of bucks but no shots. I had a lot of deer beside me walking in but didn’t scare them off so our new path seemed to have worked. However, after light only one doe come behind me that I couldn’t shoot. About eight o’clock I was getting bored when suddenly I noticed a shoulder and head sticking out from some big trees about sixty yards away. This immediately got my attention because of the size of the neck on this deer as well as the thick rack I could see sticking up from the side. He gave me one little look at his rack and as best I could tell he was at least eight. I had never seen a deer this big. He never got closer than sixty yards and walked quieter than any deer I’d seen so far. He also walked in a different direction than any of the other deer and was in no big hurry but didn’t stay in any one spot long. After about fifteen minutes I sent a text to T (haven’t mentioned the amount of texting going on yet either but you can imagine) to let him know a big rack was in the area. He hit me back that he had just seen the deer and had no shot either. My hunt ended with T walking up a logging trail to me and us having a serious conversation about the deer we had just seen. Along the way, T had walked in the vicinity of where the big buck had came from and found a cedar tree that was freshly shaved and a scrape with a wet spot in it. We put together that the big buck had just walked by the scrape and marked it with a pee. Needless to say, before we left the woods we moved “step one” stand again to get a shot on that rub and made one of those unspoken pacts that I wish I hadn’t had made. “Step 1″ was now big buck stand. I had first stand choice again in the afternoon and T had first choice in the morning so I knew we would both be back to that stand one more time hunting one deer. Anything else would be unacceptable. Another stand move was put in to play before we left that morning. A “black ladder” stand was placed on the field edge over a second watering hole and was to be hunted by any person who chose “the hardwoods” stand in the afternoon as a stand to move to during the last thiry minutes of the hunt since it was too dark to see deep in the woods. After that we skipped the shower and headed to Stingray’s for a huge breakfast.

After some target practice and a two-hour nap, the afternoon hunt of day three was on. I picked newly relocated “step one” stand, T went to “the hardwoods” and made the transition to the “black ladder” stand, E picked “inside step two” (his favorite stand) and Joe picked “step two” on the field edge. E saw deer and had shots for the first time of the hunt, and let me tell you, he was a little more than in need of this as the rest of us can attest. He had a good left on a deer at around thirty yards, pulled the trigger, but shot over the back. Welcome to “Shooter’s Club”. At this point either the deer didn’t run off or he had another one coming in fast. He quickly reached for his quiver, grabbed a second arrow, nocked it, only to have the notch fall off the arrow as he tried to draw back. I’m pretty sure it was the same arrow he had been twisting around earlier when we were target shooting and his shots weren’t to his liking. T didn’t have any shots at either spot. As for me, a doe walked under my stand at six o’clock and never noticed me. I had broadside after broadside at this one at twenty yards and in, but I kept thinking about that stupid unspoken pact I had with T. I texted the boys about it after she was gone and Joe said I should have shot. I hadn’t seen another deer by 6:45 but had in my mind that I was going to get down and sneak to the field edge before it got too dark to shoot out there. I tied up my bow and lowered it down. About the time I get three feet off the ground I heard footsteps behind me. I saw the shadowy figure of a big doe come directly under my stand while I was kneeling down dangling my bow. She stopped at my stand, reached over with her nose and nudged my bow, turned her head and kept walking. Not going to print what I was thinking. I climbed down and hit the field edge but did not see any in range. Joe had an adventure with another cow horn. This one came twenty yards on him and he flung. According to Joe he smacked the deer in the boiler room. However he could not find his arrow nor could he see his arrow in the deer as he continued to watch it walk back to the woods. All the boys convened at the kill site and tried to find a blood trail on where Joe saw the deer walk back in the woods. E seemed to have Joe’s back a bit on this story. Joe claimed that after hitting the deer the deer seemed disoriented and sort of lallygagged out of the field in a confused way. Then, E was the first man to the spot and saw a lallygagging deer kind of move off in the woods when he shined his light in where Joe said the deer went. We found one little spot that might have been a drop of blood but could not find anything else. Welcome to “Shooter’s Club” Joe. After putting in major time trying to find this one, we called it and headed to McDonald’s for supper since Joe had kept us out past closing time for all the good restaurants. The end of the trip was coming fast and I was pretty sure the doe that nosed my bow had put a curse on me. My expectations for the rest of the trip sank to an all time low.

I think I’ll let somebody else tell the day four story since I don’t want this deal to be limited to just my perspective. It was fun though, and I hope to get invited again next year. Thanks T, E, and Joe for putting up with my greenhorn ways. Big thanks to Gary for the house and Hume and Tom for being so hospitable and letting us hunt.

Day 4 – last day…better make it count.

So here’s the big buzz killer right out of the gates…we didn’t get a shot on a big deer the last day. Now that I’ve waited a few days to try and tie this thing up, my poor short-term memory may prohibit doing that with accurate detail.  You’ll have to give me a minute to put this together…

Okay, your minute is up T.

The last day (morning) was eventful, atleast for yours truly. We had continued our rotation by pick order, and Doc began the morning in the Sweet Gum (AKA Sycamore) tree, and moved shortly after assessing the field at day break, realizing his hunt would be limited to a random deer coming out of the field. Having good mentors, he chose to slip back to the Lost Field where he passed on a shot at a doe which fell out of range. Joe and T tag teamed the Hardwoods in Step One and deep in the woods, but left their sit with a full quiver, and anticipation of the final afternoon. Yours truly had to join a new club, and just before 7:30 I spotted two spikes making their way just behind my stand. We are not typically quick to shoot, but these two deer were mature bodied, simply lacking much on top. I drew as they crossed behind me, and determined I had only one window through the branches to shoot through. The deer were nose to tail headed away from me and the best shot would be on the second. It’s funny, atleast for me, I never “see” the arrow’s flight unless it is headed  towards a deer, and this one was. Hitting just in front of the right rear, it exited behind the left shoulder, collecting enough vitals to quickly end things. Although I was not ready for the hunt to end, the fellas could not get there fast enough. We found blood, well let me rephrase that, grape colored blood under T’s boot about 5 yards from the entry point. We thought we were on the hot trail when T noticed the grape vine above him. Hmmmm. Purple grapes and a leaf that had purple juice. You can add two and two together as we did and the combined seven college degrees kept looking for the real thing. Joe, who tells us he is color blind, used the excuse to meander a bit and shortly looked back at us, asking if we had found the blood yet. Maybe it was the wry smile, or just ‘Ol Bitty being ‘Ol Bitty that made us look twice, and we spied what he had picked up on. The deer lay against a downed tree. Success.

Soon after cleaning the deer, we focused on the final hunt that afternoon. Doc would take outside Step 2, Joe would hunt the Hardwoods and then move to the field’s edge at dusk, and Big T would sit inside the Taj Majal, er, the groundblind, which Teena had lent to us for our trip. Complete with latrine, Travis found himself particularly comfortable that afternoon, while I, to the shock of everyone, returned to my morning locale (which some think is my favorite stand). About this time in the trip we begin to realize our adventures in Chesapeake are coming to a close for the next twelve months, and although their is much anticipation for the final hunt, there is some remorse as the final day moves much too fast.

A pit stop at Venetos with our good friend Pedro adds plenty to our enjoyment of the final day, and we, well Joe, decides once is not enough, and we make the plan to order pizza for dinner after  the hunt as well. Don’t get me wrong, there was little arm twisting necessary on this action item of Joe’s, since Venetos is a definite bright spot on the barren landscape of food choices come dark on the Eastern Shore. Following the downing of “za”, we descended on the house to make preparations for the final evening hunt. Naps are a definite, with a Nascar race, pizza and cards on the evening’s agenda, so we all snooze while the wind blows outside.

Waking to windy conditions, we assure ourselves that the deer will move, because this is the Eastern Shore, and the wind blows all the time up here. So as we jump in the truck morale is high, and Doc decides it is time to paint a mural on his face. Of course, this being one of my strong suits, I encourage the endeavor, and even assist when it comes to the finishing touches. What he has morphed into will be a memory for some time. The unassuming fed has taken on the antlers of a ten point buck, complete with added foliage, so any deer which spotted him would only think he was King of the forest’s creatures. I too was talked into some kind of paint, but it paled in comparison, so shall not be discussed.

As the evening skies lost their light T had arrowed two deer from his lair, and Doc, Joe and I had sat on the edge of our seats, eagerly awaiting an opportunity which never came. The only thing Doc learned on his final hunt was that 65 degrees is indeed cold in Chesapeake, when your stand faces into the wind on the edge of a field. As for me, Travis and Joe, we were reminded that Chesapeake, and the monsters which live there,  will haunt us for the next twelve months….

Daddy Rabbit Breaks the Recurve Barrier

For years the fellas have talked about hunting with a recurve, thought about hunting with a recurve, and daydreamed about actually taking a deer with a recurve. Daddy Rabbit finally took that step last night. Chad, hunting with his trusty guide Trampas, took a buck last night on one of the food plots at the Daniels farm. Trampas isn’t actually a guide, I’d say now he’s more of a “good luck charm”, and one of our boys. Chad had a somewhat rough start to bow season this year, simply having trouble getting around deer. This is a guy that uses No Scent soap even on the days he doesn’t hunt and drinks Scent-Away spray so that he perspires it on hot days. With no explanation for the early season lack of success, he decided to switch things up and take the stick-and-string with him a few sits. This unlucky buck happened to be the first deer to work his way out onto Chad’s corn pile yesterday afternoon. One well placed shot as the deer was slightly quartering away sealed the deal. Congrats Daddy Rabbit. I know you’ve killed bigger deer but not any that will earn you bragging rights comparable to this. I had actually found my old recurve and placed it in the garage to start shooting it some. I think I’ll put it back in the attic, where mine belongs, and leave the stick and string to Chad.

Coyote Ugly

Some of the fellas have recently been discussing why we never get coyote pictures on our deer cameras. Well, here you go. This one came from the Johnston County area. According to inside information, the coyotes aren’t drawn to the corn or the leftover deer scent from deer visiting the corn pile (at least that’s what the coyote we asked said). Seems like the hunter is adding his own special blend around the edges of the corn pile. If I uncover any more specifics on the matter, I’ll repost later. I will say this…something smells a little “fishy” about this whole thing.

NOTE: I’ve put a couple more pictures below…some good ones. I’ve also heard tuna juice (I suppose from a can of tuna) and sardines.