Posted By Camo on October 29, 2010

My wife, Cece, and our friends, Harry and Stacie, and I arrived at BMR the evening of Saturday October 16^th for a 2 day hunt. We met Rick and Tammy at camp and listened to everyone’s stories of the afternoon hunts. We were already excited and ready to hunt, but listening to those stories really had us chomping at the bit to get into a stand. We had our first hunt on Sunday afternoon. Except for a couple of guys, everyone else had finished up and left the ranch. This meant we had the ranch to ourselves and had our pick of stands. We studied the map and finally decided on which stands we were going hunt. I chose to hunt Water Valley that evening. It was a very exciting, evening of hunting for me. Elk were bugling all around me. I saw several turkeys feeding on the wheat field along with several does. Unfortunately, nothing came within bow range. All of a sudden, the does ran off and out stepped a monster 7×7 love struck elk. He bugled around the field for a few minutes and then faded out of sight into the woods. About 30 minutes later, 5 more does came out and started grazing in the wheat field. As luck would have it, darkness fell before they could graze to within bow range. The next morning I had decided to hunt 6 Flats. I got to the stand and was set up about 6:30. About daylight I had a young doe come to feeder. After she ate her fill and spent several minutes frolicking with a jack rabbit, she went on her merry way. Other than a small button buck coming to the feeder, the rest of the morning hunt was relatively un-eventful. For the evening hunt, I once again decided to hunt 6 Flats. About 6 o’clock the deer started to enter the field on the far end. They were gradually feeding in my direction. After several minutes they had covered about half the field in my direction. This is when I noticed that a young 8 point buck had entered the field to my left. It didn’t take him long and he was chasing the does around the field. Unfortunately for me, the evening ended with the young 8 point chasing the does. The next morning my wife and I had decided to hunt 6 Flats and the Top of 8, as we did the previous morning. I had given my wife the choice of which stand she wanted to hunt as she had hunted the Top of 8 the previous morning. This morning she chose 6 Flats and I went to the Top of 8. Again, I was in the stand and set up at 6:30. Daylight came and there were no deer. The feeder went off at 8:00, and still there were no deer. It was 8:15 and I was sitting comfortably in my chair when suddenly a nice, tall-antlered buck walked in from my left towards the feeder. As quietly as I could, I sat up and came to full draw. Apparently, I wasn’t as quiet as I should have been, as the buck was now looking at the blind. Just as I released my arrow, the buck started to run and my arrow hit farther back than I had planned. I watched as the buck ran off with my arrow. I knew it wasn’t a very good shot, so I got my stuff together and went back to camp to give him some time. I called Tammy and told her the situation, and she agreed that we should give him some time, before tracking. I described the buck to Tammy and she told me that it sounded like it was a deer name Venus. I went inside and looked at the deer pictures on the wall, and low and behold, it was Venus. About 3 hours later Rick, Tammy, Cece, Harry, Stacie and I went to the Top of 8. I told the story of how things went on the hunt. Tammy brought Chili, her tracking dog, and it wasn’t long before we had picked up the blood trail, with Chili leading the way. It was just a few minutes before we found the buck piled up under a tree. It was then I realized why they call that stand the Top of 8, because it was a good ways back up the hill to the stand. Fortunately for me, my wife, Harry and Stacie helped me drag Venus back up the hill. Rick and Tammy run a top-notch outfit. Their hospitality is second to none. They have an outstanding knowledge of the deer herd and put forth great effort to make your hunt as memorable as possible. We will definitely be coming back again next year. Thanks again, Wade Brewer.

Category: Deer, Hunting Stories
Tags: bowhunting, whitetail