Kentucky 2021 - Excitement, Pride, Proud, Frustration, Bad Decisions

UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Took me a while to get in the mood to tell my Kentucky 2021 tale. If I'd not lived it I absolutely wouldn't believe it. It's a true tale of joy/pride with my son's deer on this trip, coupled with my mishaps and bad decisions 'settling' for a 12 pointer, but not proud of how it all happened. The 12 was by far the smallest buck I shot at.... :oops:

I took my youngest son with me to Kentucky this year and all year leading up to this trip I grilled it into his head....'if you shoot a Rutherford County deer in Kentucky then we're fighting the instant your foot hits the ground getting out of the stand' 'Don't shoot one that's not out beyond its ears' blah blah blah you know the drill, why shoot something there that you see all the time at home..... The first morning we were both hunting the same farm. We got Adam in stand first then myself. I was in a lone oak in the middle of a 15 or so acre field that was beautiful. Over my left shoulder the field narrowed and turned left following a creek and knew the deer would be coming from that direction. In front of me was a nice food plot. I had at least 100 turkey in the field from daylight to dark. At one point I had about 40 turkey right under me and had a few that tried to fly up and investigate me. After they gave me the stink eye they decided to move off thankfully. I saw several deer throughout the day. Had a really nice 8 hot on a doe first thing, but let him walk. Then had a text from Adam telling me he'd just seen that same 8 on the same doe about 20 minutes before. As soon as he'd sent that text I heard him shoot... He sends a text telling me he shot an 8 pointer and he HOPES it's big enough and hopes I'm not mad at him for shooting it. He was experiencing ground shrinkage in his mind, doubt and second thoughts. For that matter from his description I was having doubts as to what he'd shot too. While waiting to hear from him on what he actually shot I had several more deer come in on me. I had a four pointer chase a doe all the way around the tree I was in and then run right below me. The doe stopped and semi squatted, but the buck was so dumb he didn't even know what to do. She waited a moment when the buck made no move on her she just walked away leaving him standing there huffing and puffing. Adam sends me a text with a picture FINALLY(I was chomping at the bit) telling me he got a nice one, an eight with two stickers. I could tell the picture showed a good deer, but the picture really didn't do it justice. I'll admit I wasn't excited for him until after I saw it in person.

I finished out the first day seeing several deer and passing on them all, just wasn't what I was looking for. Rest of the trip incoming....

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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Second day of the hunt I decided to go to a different farm due to wind direction and incoming inclement weather. Went to the same farm I hunted last year where I killed the 11 pointer on the transmission right of way. I was excited hunting with the Sako S20 in 300 Win Mag. Got up in the Hawk Denali ladder stand(Extremely comfortable stand) plopped my gun in the rifle holder like an idiot, pointed the barrel to my left instead of resting it on the rail, but in hand. I sat all morning only seeing two does. This farm was completely different from the one day before. Every doe the day before had a buck dead on its rear chasing it like mad. Today the two doe I saw were casually walking around with zero action. I try my best to stay off my phone, but get a text from Adam asking me if I'd seen anything. I pickup my phone and type a response at about 9am... MISTAKE.... before I press send I glance up and right across the right of way there stands a huge buck with his head down nibbling at browse at the edge not 20 yards away from where I shot the 11 the year before. His rack looked like a freaking umbrella hanging towards the ground, but that wasn't what totally startled me. This deer looked like a small bull, he was huge. His neck looked like a trash can. I blew it..... without realizing it I literally said DAMN out loud. He immediately looks up and right at me. The Sako is still in the holder and I know I've screwed up. He isn't moving and neither am I. He finally looks to the side slightly and I think it's now or never. I pickup the gun get it swung around to where if I could just get the gun on my shoulder I could make the shot. He looks back at me and trots off into the brush. I do manage to get the gun up and could have sent a round his way, but couldn't bring myself to take the shot. I was beyond frustrated and so very mad at myself. About an hour later the rain started hard... I bailed out of the ladder stand and made the nearly 3/4 mile trek to a box stand to stay dry. Get in the box stand and no sooner than I get there I have two four pointers and a three pointer come out into the field and are sparring in front of me. I could care less about those deer. I had the umbrella brute on my mind. When the rain stopped the three small bucks were still right in the edge of the field when I bailed out of the box to get back in that ladder stand for the evening sit. Nada..... didn't see another deer that day. I was dejected and disgusted with myself over that whole deal. Completely my fault and I deserved what I got, well didn't get.... To this day I'm STILL kicking myself in the arse over it.....

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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
This is LONG.... Third day the wind and weather was right. I desperately wanted back on that farm from the day before. Got in stand well before daylight. The layout of that transmission right of way was like a T the Transmission RW is the top of the T and the access road going downhill is the body of the T. To my left I've got a couple hundred yards to shoot then to the right there's about 300 yards with a slight bend to the right. The stand is situated right at the T with the access trail/road 20 yards to my right. There's a small 12 inch diameter oak with finger sized limbs sticking out into the transmission right of way (important) right at eye level. The distance across the right of way is 85 yards. Right at daylight two does pop out of the brush/cedars across from me and go to my right followed closely by an eight and a seven pointer, neither were what I was after. Then about ten minutes later two more does pop out and go the exact same route as the others. I can hear them in the woods and decided to grunt a bit with the Deadly Attraction Game Call I had. No sooner than I grunted two does came down the access trail/road right to my right then crossed back across the right of way. Then I heard something else coming. Turn to look over my shoulder and almost had a stroke. Here comes a main frame twelve with split brow tines. Reason I know exactly what he had is because he stopped right beside me at twenty yards RIGHT BEHIND that freaking oak. I just knew I had this deer because he was on those does, but he'd stopped at that tree. I'm not stupid this time I had the gun in my hands and am eager for him to take those few steps into the right of way and knew he was going to be mine. He was significantly bigger than the umbrella buck from the day before and that's saying something. At any rate here he goes he starts across the right of way as I'm lifting the gun to my shoulder. All of a sudden the gun strap drags across the shooting rail and makes the slightest sound.... the buck bolts and runs right to my right on the other side of the access road and out of sight. I'm freaking out and my stomach is in my throat. I've never had this kind of luck in my 38 years of hunting. In fact I've always had quite the opposite luck and have scored deer that I think I shouldn't have at times. At any rate here I am kicking myself again when the fourteen comes back out.... I'm thinking it's on again, but he's behind that oak and those finger limbs are between us. He starts to go across the right of way then starts bearing back to the right going out of view. I decide I've gotta pick a spot thru those limbs and shoot this deer. He stops in a clearing and I fire..... instantly see dirt fly about two feet to his right, but can't see where I hit a limb. The buck runs off up the hill.... I'm beside myself..... I sit for a moment in disbelief then get down to make sure I didn't hit this buck and the dirt flew from an exit. I'm thinking how could I possibly miss this deer, no way I missed this deer. I get down and look and look and look for blood, sign and or a dead deer. Forgot to mention I'm shooting Winchester Extreme Points in the 300 Win Mag(I'll never ever hunt with them again btw)..... after looking for a good while and knowing I'm in the exact spot he was standing. I can plainly see where the bullet dug up the ground..... give up and head back to the stand. Climb up and literally when my butt hit the seat two does come into the right of way directly across from me. They are followed by a spike and another doe behind him. The first two does cross and go right where the fourteen went to my right. The spike goes to the middle of the rw then turns to the left and heads on down the road. The third doe comes into the rw a little nervous. I could tell she didn't like something, she is bobbing her head tipping her nose up and stomps about 10 yards to my left. I KNOW she smells me. I look down and see why. I had unzipped my jacket while I was looking for blood/deer when I shot at the fourteen. Again I'm calling myself a DA. Suddenly she looks back over her shoulder up the transmission right of way to my right. I follow her too and here comes the biggest buck I've ever seen in my entire life, no clue how many points this deer had. He's very very tall, he's extremely wide and he's a brute. I have plenty of time because he's oblivious to me and the doe is frozen in place looking at him. He runs up and stops semi quartering to me at 90 yards. I put the crosshairs right between his left shoulder and brisket and am steady as a rock. I refused to look at his head because he was so big. I gently squeezed the trigger and boom, he just stands there for a moment, no kick, nothing then runs out of the right of way. I'm completely confused. I do NOT get buck fever until I see the deer on the ground, then I get tore up. I did NOT have buck fever in any way. He ran into the brush at the only cedar tree in that spot so I get down and go to look for blood/deer again. I look for about 45 minutes because I've never wanted a deer so bad in my life. Nothing, nada, no blood, no deer and the brush is pretty clear so you could see him if he were laying out there. I want to throw that Sako up into the woods and forget about it at this point. I step back out into the RW to go to the ladder so I can message someone to get me because something is wrong with this gun to my way of thinking. As I step out I look back down the right of way and what do you know.... Umbrella buck is right in front of me heading away from me. I simply can't believe it...... He's about 60 yards from me and turns broadside. I put the gun up and fire, yep he just stands there. I cycle another round and fire again. He looks at me and slowly walks out of the right of way up to my left...... on the off chance I go and look for a long time to see if I can see blood or a deer on this guy...... NOPE. I'm beyond pissed.... The only thing I can think is that the scope got bumped somehow. I go back to the ladder stand and prop the gun up on the tree then walk up and sit my butt on one of the ladder rungs. I'm done... simply disgusted and DONE. I text Adam to ask him if he can recall bumping the High Country he was using up against the Sako at any time. I've always told him if he bumps, drops or even think it's possible to knock a scope off to just tell me so I can check zero. He responded back that he hadn't. All of a sudden I hear bleats and grunts. I look to my left and here come two does about 30 yards away from me with a decent buck right behind them and another doe behind him. Remember the gun is leaned up against the tree. I'm 15 feet away on the ladder rung. The two does look up at me then turn to their right and go up into the woods. The buck sees me then he turns and goes to his left down into a depression. I'm actually filming him with my phone at this time not even considering shooting after what all I'd been thru. The other doe is just standing about 50 yards away. While the buck was in that depression I just say Frak that deer and stop recording and grab the gun. Sure enough that buck comes back up out of the hole and stands broadside to me. I'm so frustrated I toss the gun up and do something unethical. Yes I'll admit it. I put the crosshairs right in front of this bucks hams due to the dirt flying to the left of the fourteen and pull the trigger. I instantly KNOW I've hit this deer, he rears up spins around and goes out of the right of way obviously hurt..... I call for help. I was already exhausted from tracking the other deer. If you know Western Kentucky you'll be on flat ground one moment then off in a 200 foot deep hole then right back up a 100 to 300 foot rock hill. Once my friends get there I tell my tragic tale then we start looking. It took 50 yards before we found any blood, probably due to the rough terrain, but once we found the blood it was a literal river of blood. There was bone, clots of blood big as my fist, just blood everywhere. We tracked this deer for hundreds of yards. I'm about to die because I'm already exhausted. Then it occurs to us if we track much further we'll be on the neighbors farm and well there's some bad blood there. We get to the neighboring farm and twenty feet across the fence we see my deer wallowing lolling his head back and he's about dead. I have ONE bullet left and I know this gun is off not by inches, but by feet. Before I can get up there and anchor him to the spot he gets up and stumbles off out of site on the other farm. We decide to pull out and think on what to do due to the bad blood..... CONT
 

UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
I was in misery for multiple reasons at this point. My buddy calls the farm owner doubtful he'd let us recover the deer, but thankfully he had a heart and said go get my deer. I could have kissed the old boy at this point. After dark we went back out there and still tracked this deer another 200 yards down down down down dowwwnnnn into the holler before we found him. Thank God my son and two others had come with us because I did NOT want to drag that deer out of that hole. We were able to get the Polaris within 200 yards of him, but man what a horrible 200 yards to drag him. I drug a short way, but my son and the other young strapping fella drug the majority. I'd brought four rifles with us on this trip, but could have cared less about shooting a doe after my ordeal. I can't really say I learned anything other than to pay attention to the things I already knew. I've always harped to my son to stay off his phone, that very thing burned me this time around. If anyone else including my son had told me this story I'd say they were full of crap. I'm sure some/most of you will think the same thing or that I'm just an idiot. I couldn't argue with you either way, but it's absolutely the truth. My buddy from Missouri sat on that farm the next day. He saw the second buck I saw the day before and he agreed with me. It's the biggest deer he's ever seen too and he's killed some massive deer. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get a shot at it....... Yes I'm going back next year and YES I'm going back to that same farm......

Attaching video of the buck I actually hit/recovered. Gun against tree. I'm leaned against the ladder totally gutted at the time.

 
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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
In retrospect I really should have passed on the 12. I was frustrated beyond belief and shot him out of anger. I do regret it in ways, but after the earlier events I was happy to be done with it. This deer bled like this for 500+ yards. It was a solid shoulder hit with a fragmentation/deflection. I've never been a fan of shoulder shots. I prefer just behind the shoulder. The bullet exited the bottom of the brisket. His death run ground up splintered bone into his chest cavity the whole way. When we found him he had no blood left in him.




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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Adam's 8 behind my 12. I'm so proud and happy for him. I do wish he'd took a bit longer than 45 minutes on his very first Kentucky hunt. He did wind up killing two additional does and had shooter bucks all over him while doing that. He had a seven pointer trying to breed one of the does he had on the ground for hours after he shot her, so he had a wonderful experience. The seven even bedded down right at his stand and refused to leave until he got out of the stand. He was guarding the dead doe. Even if I'd not killed a thing that would have made me extremely happy.

He actually recorded a short video right after he shot that I didn't know about. I didn't even see this until after we got back home. It cracks me up because he can't hold the phone still, but I KNOW what he's feeling when he's recording it. He hadn't even ground checked the buck at the time. I love it.

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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Just to add to this. I've said it for years and I'll say it again. Deer are incredibly tough animals. They are twice as tough when they are in full rut. This deer probably wouldn't have taken a step after being hit with that 300 Win Mag if he wasn't in rut, we were all dumbfounded at how far he ran. His shoulder was destroyed, his chest cavity was hamburger.

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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Another add to this story. After my deal two of my buddies moved to this farm trying to score one of the bucks I shot at. Mark saw the one that blew my mind and Ed(Runs his own guide service in NY) killed this buck. I never saw this one and am very happy for him. He shot it right after Adam and I left to come home. I'm going to pick this one up at the end of February on our way back from the Catfish Conference. Dropping this one off at my buddy Bill Crowder's shop William's Taxidermy here in Rutherford County.


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UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Great story! I love the fact that you worked the brand names in on all the gear! Sponsorships are coming your way! Sounds like a great trip
Hey I give credit where credit is due for the most part. Heck I forgot the most important endorsement. This whole thing wouldn't have been possible without my friend Francis Whitfill at Ghost Holler Whitetails. Great guy, honest outfit and a man you could learn a lot from if you'll listen.
 

nchunter

Twelve Pointer
Thanks for the write up, enjoyed reading it.
After all the bad luck in the beginning I was sure there was going to be a pic of the “umbrella buck” on the ground at the end.
Maybe next year.
 

UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Congratulations to both of you. Thanks for the story. What did you ever figure out about your rifle?

Jim
After several trips to the range I think somewhere in a truck/Polaris ride it took a very hard hit after arriving in Kentucky. We did find one slightly loose screw on the Warne rings I have on that Sako, but am not sure that was enough. Either way I remounted the scope. I tore it all down to inspect everything. I also installed that Area 419 Hellfire Muzzle Brake. The gun is back to shooting less than an inch group at 200 yards and is dead on zeroed in.

The irony of it all is that I had originally intended on using the Savage Ultralight in 6.5PRC as my primary. Because I hadn't shot a deer with that caliber I opted for the 300. Irony upon irony.
 

UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
Thanks for the write up, enjoyed reading it.
After all the bad luck in the beginning I was sure there was going to be a pic of the “umbrella buck” on the ground at the end.
Maybe next year.
I don't want that umbrella buck now.... that second buck was incredible.... not saying I wouldn't shoot the 14 if it made it thru the season OR the umbrella buck, but wow that second buck... he was something you'd almost see on a pen hunt. He was so big I couldn't even let myself look at his headgear a second time. I just knew I wanted to shoot that one bad baaad baaad...
 

Cyperry

Ten Pointer
Contributor
After several trips to the range I think somewhere in a truck/Polaris ride it took a very hard hit after arriving in Kentucky. We did find one slightly loose screw on the Warne rings I have on that Sako, but am not sure that was enough. Either way I remounted the scope. I tore it all down to inspect everything. I also installed that Area 419 Hellfire Muzzle Brake. The gun is back to shooting less than an inch group at 200 yards and is dead on zeroed in.

The irony of it all is that I had originally intended on using the Savage Ultralight in 6.5PRC as my primary. Because I hadn't shot a deer with that caliber I opted for the 300. Irony upon irony.
What scope are you using?
 

UncleFester

Old Mossy Horns
What scope are you using?
Vortex Strike Eagle, it does have exposed adjustment knobs, but I don't think the scope itself was the issue. I've been back to the range 6 times and shot it extensively after remount and zero. We speculated the knob may have been spun somehow, but don't think that happened either.
 
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30/06

Twelve Pointer
I’d buy that land before the wife changes her mind. Brickinridge county has some high dollar real estate, there are counties with similar potential with much better land prices. Overall KY is the best land value running in the Midwest.

Only word of caution is pay attention to the community you buy in. Some places are mostly crack heads that’ll steal anything they can get their hands on, other places have some really, really good folks.
 
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Cyperry

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Vortex Strike Eagle, it does have exposed adjustment knobs, but I don't think the scope itself was the issue. I've been back to the range 6 times and shot it extensively after remount and zero. We speculated the knob may have been spun somehow, but don't think that happened either.
If it got hit at all, it had most likely lost zero. Ive had a few vortex loose zero from just riding around vibrating. Combine the travel with a loose ring screw, I’d say your zero was quite a bit different. Anyways, I’m glad it all worked out.
 
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