Big Buck Down!

Well its been awhile since I posted but my favorite hunting seasons are heating up. This past weekend I was joined on an inspection trip to Buffalo Springs Outfitters in Gallatin MO by Jim & Wes Dyer of McMinnville, TN. This intrepid father/son team has been featured on previous year’s posts with their adventures chasing Toms with yours truly at Top Gun Hunting Club.

I had previously visited Jud Whitfield of Buffalo Springs Outfitters last April to conduct the turkey hunting inspection trip and was so impressed with the property I had to come back. The Dyer’s picked me up early on Friday, Nov. 21st and off we went for the 10 hour drive to Gallatin MO.

Jud’s hunting property includes tower blinds, ground blinds, & tree stands overlooking food plots, grain fields, and wooded hollows. Northern Missouri had an outstanding acorn crop so the deer were really focused on feeding in the hollows. There was also a little chasing going on as bucks were looking for those does who had not been bred the previous month.

At Outdoor Connections, our motto is helping folks take the trip of a lifetime but little did I know that this would be one of those trips for me. The second afternoon, guide Rob Stark led me to a ladder stand set up on the edge of a pasture that was bordered by two deep acorn filled hollows. Our goal was to intersect a big buck moving between those hollows to feed or check out the women. The wind was in our favor but blowing about 25 miles per hour. Once in the stand, my goal was to hang on as it seemed like we were rocking more and more. About 30 minutes into our hunt, 2 does pushed out of the left hollow into the pasture and loped to the other other side as if being chased. For 5 minutes nothing happened and I began fiddling with my smart phone to get the score of the Titans/Jets game. As I pecked away, I was interupted by Rob whispering, “Big deer! in the woods where the does were!” I quickly put my phone away andlooked up to see a massive whitetail buck amble out into the pasture on the trail of those does.

Most of the time when hunting with a guide and you spot a deer, some conversation goes on about the deer’s antlers, his age, the length of his brow tines, is he a shooter, etc…. All Rob said was, “shoot him!” and I said, “No *&^%!” I am miserable free hand shot and this deer was about 200 yards standing in the pasture and I had no rest so of course I missed him. He turned around and ran back to the edge of the woods and stopped not sure what that noise was in the high wind and than trotted directly towards us. Everytime I sit down in a stand, I visualize the shots I may have to take and where I can get a good rest. Now with the deer on the tree line, I was able to get a good rest on the oak tree. Rob whispered, “let him keep coming” but I now had a good rest. “The first time he gets broadside, I’m taking a shot”. About 125 yards, he stopped quartering toward me slightly, and I settled the crosshairs on his front shoulder and squeezed.

Rob immediatly said, “You hit him!” as the deer crashed into the woods. Due to the thickness of some low scrub trees, we could only see movement as we thought he had jumped a fence onto a neighboring farm. We decided to sit for about 30 minutes and than go look at where I had shot him and than trail him to the last place we had seen him. That 30 minutes seemed like 30 hours. After we carefully climbed down the stand, I glassed towards we had last seen him and realized that I was looking at antlers. Big Buck Down!

I can’t tell you the feeling as I held him for the first time. Mass, brow tine length, big main beams, and a big body made up my biggest whitetail deer ever! Preliminary scoring has him somewhere between 150 and 160 inches. I’ll keep you posted as I get him mounted. Wes Dyer also scored on his first nice buck – a mature 8 point. Jud Whitfield also took a 130″ class 8 pt. the final evening of the season. Well my buck is now in the process of being mounted at Hands On Taxidermy. Scott Hand does magnificent work as you can see on his website and I can’t wait to see him on my office wall.

I’ll be back at Buffalo Springs this spring to chase turkeys. We saw flocks of turkeys and mature gobblers everywhere. We also heard a lot of gobbling which is unusual for the winter. If you want to experience Buffalo Springs or other Outdoor Connection properties, give me a call at 615-604-0581 or write me at huntfishlive@gmail.com

Until next time,

Tight Lines & Struttin Toms