Public land nemesis

Is there a chance he hangs out in a spot he can see you or other hunters come in or out? Pretty crazy he came by middle of the day when you weren't out there.
 
Is there a chance he hangs out in a spot he can see you or other hunters come in or out? Pretty crazy he came by middle of the day when you weren't out there.
Being it was a Saturday my guess is he got bumped by waterfowl hunters and thats why he was there at that time.
 
PSA: never go into the woods without your weapon during the rut!

I had a nice Thanksgiving morning sit. About 830am one of the mature 10 points covered in the fresh snow came by my stand and gave me some nice views. I sat until 10am and then headed back to the kayak to get home for the Holiday.
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Trail cam pic of the morning buck.
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On the drive home I decided to stop and check a couple trail cams that are short 3ish minute walks from the truck. Since they were so close I just left the bow in the truck. NEVER DO THIS!!!
I shut the door on the one camera and turn around take two steps and I got two buck with 15 yards of me grunting and carrying on. A forkie and good 10 point. Not sure i would of shot him but would of been nice to of had my bow with me to make a choice.
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I watched him carry on very angrily for about 10 minutes taking pics with my phone. He was drooling, panting, snorting, grunting, stomping, bluff charging, and so on. It was awesome..well as awesome as it could of been without my bow or good camera.
 
I'm feeling back to normal now and will hunt this whole week starting this evening. Im off work so ill put the hours in the stand as long as I feel up to it.
Where do we mail the care packages to keep you in the field for the entire week. No more of these "I guess I should have hunted this morning because he was there when I wasn't."
 
Where do we mail the care packages to keep you in the field for the entire week. No more of these "I guess I should have hunted this morning because he was there when I wasn't."
Ok...ill be out there but I'm warning everyone dont get your hopes up. I have not seen him since the evening the day after Thanksgiving locked down with a doe and did not come closer than 105 yards that night. Usually December rolls in and I get pics every other day or so of him. Nothing at all this year. But there is 2 good bucks that have been in pretty much everyday and I probably will not pass either of them up at this point in the game. So there may be a deer pic but not the one we all want. Haha
 
With season winding down to the last days i decided I wait no longer for the nemesis. You could say this deer is nemesis #2 i guess. I have seen this buck with chief over the last 3 years for sure possibly 4 years. I gotta look thru all my pics to confirm. He is chiefs main running mate pre season and post rut. Rarely are they far apart those times of year except this season as I have no idea where chief is.

Yesterday afternoon I checked my cam when I got to the stand and at 130pm this buck meandered by so I was hoping he was bedded nearby. We have fresh snow and the woods were dead quiet. At about 445pm to my left he appeared at 25 yards and he did a big half circle around me and. Then slowly meandered into range. As he moved closer to a shooting lane I drew my bow and of course he stops forever. Finally after a couple minutes I guess he came into a shooting window. I take some breaths and let it fly. OH NO! I missed. My shot hit directly underneath him and the arrow stuck in the ground. Deflated I watched him run off, then he stops about a 100 yards out and starts looking around. After a few minutes he starts circling back around and he is coming back in from a different direction. He is working down a trail that I have a 40yd window on. I draw the bow again and he gets to the window and turns and walks directly at me. So here we go again holding full draw what seemed like forever. He gets to a log I have ranged at 22yds and he turns to cross it. Ok finally I have an angle to shoot. I let it fly and this one looked true. He takes off noticeably hobbled and goes into some brush about 60 yards away. I can see alot of blood from the stand on the snow so I get down a few minutes later and start sneaking towards where I last saw him. He is down but still alive. I position for another shot and when I draw my bow he took off. OH NO AGAIN! Luckily he only went about 50 yards and went back down and expired. I have put in a lot of hours hunting this area and
I'm beyond happy with this buck as I have a long history with him. I have seen him i think 3 times while hunting including yesterday and passed him up once this season on Thanksgiving morning before the no bow debacle.

Lots of character and over 40 inches of mass on him. Happy hunter and happy freezer!
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