My Kansas Whitetail buck hunt.
Hiker
12/10/08 4:17pm
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.
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.
12,685
CONGRATS :not-worthy
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
Mark
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!
If I had known you were hunting in Kansas I would of caught up with you and bought dinner. Great job.