My Kansas Whitetail buck hunt.

I met my friend Chris in Kansas for our deer hunt. He arranged for us to stay at his uncles and sleep in a camper. It turned out to be a nice, warm & dry place to "camp". We were up and gone before light opening day. I hunted the same fields that I hunted last year, Chris hunted the timbered area, a mile or two away. The wind was really bad, but thankfully it was blowing the right direction, as to not mess up the fields I was watching. I wasn't seeing anything moving and after a few hours I decided to get up and move around a little to try to get my blood flowing again. That Kansas wind was downright Cold! I hiked over to the two track that Chris dropped me off at and tried to reach him on the radio, sure enough, he had his ears on and answered right away. Within minutes he was there to get me. I opened the door and he had that sheepish grin on his face, so I asked him, "was that you that shot earlier"? he said yes. I said buck or a doe, he said "both". I laughed and said, where are they at? he said under the tonneau cover. That's a good way to start out the hunt, two shots and two deer.
We talked it over for a few and decided to head over to Cackley and hunt the trees. With the strong wind and all, they'd more likely be holed up there. Once we got to our destination, our plan was to slowly still hunt into the wind and see if we could stalk into range on some deer and maybe get a shot. Chris stayed on the property line to the east, I parrelled him to the west a few hundred yards. We had hunted around a mile or so into the property, when I saw some deer bust out at the edge of the field 400-500 yards ahead of me. I stood still and through my rifle up onto my shooting sticks and found them in my scope. I see a buck and 4-5 does, not sure if the buck is a shooter or not, when all of a sudden I hear a shot from Chris' direction. The deer I'm watching decides to jump the creek and come my way. I can see the buck really well now, definitely he's a shooter. I follow him with my crosshairs, he running the whole way and finally stops in the woods, only 75 yards or so away. The does move by me and the buck follows, he stops, I place the crosshairs on his vitals and squeeze off. The does blow outta there, I'm looking for antlers but thankfully I don't see any. I precede into the timber to where he was standing. Blood, good blood. I track him for a few yards and there he is lying next to a big tree. I walked behind him and poked him. He's finished! I'm pumped, my first whitetail buck, that has antlers, I shot a button buck when I was a kid. I start walking over towards Chris, to see if he has his 3rd deer of the day. After 5 minutes or so I see him, sure enough he's killed another doe. 4 shots, 4 deer. He came over to see my buck and told me it was a good one. After kneeling my knee and Thanking God for blessing me with one of His critters. I gutted him out and hauled him out of the trees. Chris went and dressed his doe and dragged her to the truck and came over and helped me load mine. The butcher said he weighed close to 250. He should score score close to 145-150 after the broken browtine. I really enjoyed hunting in Kansas with Chris. He is a true comedian and had me in stitches the whole time.
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Hiker
my buck....
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Hiker
Chris & I with my buck...
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One things for sure. If someone had bet me we would have found you a shooter 4 hours into our opening day, I'd have lost. I can't remember a time I've shot 3 in a day, let alone opening day. It was definitly a great time and it ended too soon. I spent all day Sunday butchering 2 of the deer and making sausage and snack sticks. I got 34 steaks between my largest doe and buck, 18 pounds of snack sticks and 28 pounds of summer sausage adding only 2 pounds of pork to the summer sausage. I am going to do the last 2 deer this evening. My wife said she's tired of the grinder already. I reminded her I shot 6 deer last year and she replied "not at the same time." I will just bone them out tonight and butcher them this weekend. I'm tickled that you got your first whitetail buck and it was a nice one to boot. Now I just need to get my sorry @ss to get some points built up to get me a 30" muley! Chris
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killerbee
HOLY COW HIKER, YOUR ON A ROLE THIS YEAR!!! thats a great whitetail! congrats on another great buck this year :thumb
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AGCHAWK
Man Jeff, you've sure had one heck of a year!! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy either.

CONGRATS :not-worthy
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6x6 bull
Great Job Hiker!!!!! You and Chris did good. Looks like you had a good time with great success.You along with myself and many of the other muleymadness members were truly blessed this year.
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sneekeepete
Great Whitetail Hiker!!!! Congrats!!! :thumb I am still hunting for at least a decent buck here in North Carolina.
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Hiker
Thanks guys. This whitetail hunting is a great time, especially when you have someone like Chris to hunt with. I had a fun time last year and ended up with a doe. We saw a few bucks, passed on a few and I missed one that was running. The weather changed and the deer stayed low and wouldn't move until after dark. We tried a couple of drives but to no avail, kicked out a few does but no bucks that were big enough. I'm glad we tried it again this year. TGWH had been telling me I'd like whitetail hunting for 4-5 years now and he was right. They are totally different then muleys, hair, smell, size, habitat and most everything. I love to see them run across a open field with their tails up waving "goodbye". They also taste a lot better than mule deer, at least the one we had. My family really enjoyed eating that doe, Chris tells me there's a huge difference between a doe and a old buck. So I guess we''ll see, if the buck tastes really strong, the family might demand I be a doe whitetail hunter. lol
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waynedevore
MAN! Hiker that's a darn good Buck. They are a whole different world hunting then Muleys, It sure is great to do both. I enjoyed your hunt to, good job telling the story. Most of the time even a rutting White Tail buck is good eating. The deer up here feed heavily on corn and other crops, a big buck will have 20-40 pounds of fat to trim off.
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MuleyMadness
Great buck Jeff! :thumb
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tommycaller
Great job! You guys did well! It's funny that I have hunted whitetails all of my life but, I really enjoy hunting the muleys....go figure! lol I guess it's just a welcome change.
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Nice job Jeff... very nice buck.... :thumb

Wayne is right on...In MN the rut is usually just starting and the bucks sometimes are very fat....WI on the other hand starts two weeks later and most of the larger bucks have run all their fat off...Some older bucks are good to eat...but some are strictly sausage grinders...Does on the other hand are always delicious....I usually fry up a couple of chops right while I am butchering...If they are strong at all I will make a lot more sausage out of the remainder...No one can say they had a gamey peperoni stick..Can they? (???)

Congrats again on a fine whitetail,
Randy
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BOHNTR
That's awesome Hiker.......big time congratulations. You've done something I've wanted to do for a few years now.......take a whitetail.......okay, I'm officially jealous now! :)
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That is one big prime deer! Nice buck.
Mark
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obxman58
BACKSTRAPS ON THE GRILL!!!!
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Hiker
Randy,
That's a great idea on testing the meat first.

Roy, These whitetails are a blast. I think you'd really enjoy hunting them. Great tablefare to boot.

Mark , Thanks my friend. He sure seemed heavy.

Rick, sounds good. Yummy!
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Cowgirl In CO
Congrats Dad!! That is a wonderful buck! =D> =D>
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tracker
Good job Dad :thumb
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southwind
Nice job!

If I had known you were hunting in Kansas I would of caught up with you and bought dinner. Great job.
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Hiker
Southwind, that is a great idea. Next time I'm over lets try and hook up.
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