The much anticipated 2016 West Virginia buck season is already over and after a slow start to the first week my patience and persistence paid off on December 1. It all began back in October when a buck I was familiar with started showing up on my trail camera. He’s a wide rack 11 point that had a distinct bent tine on his left g2.
The bent tine was more noticeable last year as the buck gained mass with another year of added growth. I saw the bent tine 11 point two times last year during archery season but he was too far away for a shot both times. After the 2015 deer seasons came to an end I wondered if the buck made it.
I sat and pondered on the tractor while brush hogging and planting food plots this summer trying to picture in my mind what he would look like. Just like last year around mid-October I checked the card in my camera and there he was. I immediately noticed that the bent tine was more of a crook now and his antlers went from spindly to stout. He also sprouted a short tine between the main g2 and g3.
I vowed right then and there while looking at his picture that it was him or none for me this year. Throughout the month of October he showed up on 3 different nights but was random during his travels. By the time November rolled around and the rut started to kick in more daytime pictures began to appear.
I spent every chance I had trying to cross paths with the big buck the two weeks before buck season but never saw him. I knew he was there so I remained optimistic that sooner or later it would happen. Once buck season came in I concentrated on watching a field bottom as that’s where the majority of the does were hanging out.
I spent the first two days scanning the field for a big set of antlers and saw a couple of small bucks and several does but not the bent tine buck. On the third day my buddy Sammy joined me for an afternoon hunt. Being the nice guy that I am I offered to let him sit in the field bottom shanty while I moved up on top of the ridge.
Dad and I had built a new shanty on top of a finger ridge this summer and I hadn’t even hunted out of it so I decided to give it a try. Sammy dropped me off and then proceeded towards the field bottom. On his way walking in, he noticed some deer in the field. He was almost to the shanty when he heard a loud grunt and saw one of the deer take off. He raised his rifle to inspect the deer closer and sure enough there was ole bent tine. I had showed Sammy the trail camera picture so he took a few seconds to look the rack over to make sure it was him. Just as he was settling his crosshairs on the buck 4 does popped out in the far end of the field and as soon as he saw them he took off after them before Sammy could squeeze the trigger.
I was just above Sammy so after he sent me a text about the sighting I focused my attention to the way he said they went. We both sat on edge the rest of the evening but darkness fell. In the meantime guess where ole bent tine went? He chased those does right up to where I had my trail camera on out the ridge. I contemplated whether or not to sit in my blind there or the new shanty. I guessed wrong that day.
On Thanksgiving I had to decide where to sit once again and went back to the field bottom since Sammy saw him there the day before. My thoughts were that one of those many does down there was in heat and surely ole bent tine would be back down there after her. Well, for the second day in a row I was in the wrong place.
After dark I ran up to my camera and pulled the SD card. When I got home that night I checked the card and just shook my head. There was a picture of bent tine at 7:30 am, another at 8:30 am, another at 1:30 pm, another at 3:30 pm and one at 5:00 pm. He was literally right above me chasing does all day long while I waited and watched for him to come out in the field.
The first week of buck season came to an end but I wasn’t going to give up. As the second week started my hunting time was limited due to work. Finally on Thursday December 1 I managed to slip in my blind a couple hours before dark. I picked to sit in the blind this time because that’s where I was getting all of the pictures that were driving me crazy from. I wasn’t in the blind for 10 minutes and here came 3 does. Shortly later 3 more came down off the point and joined them in the food plot. I watched the does and thought this is great, I planted that clover back in the spring and it’s good to see the deer feeding on it. For some reason one of the last year’s fawns took off walking without stopping. I watched it walk out of sight to my left and thought it was kind of odd.
It was after 4:00 by then so I kept watching the does in the food plot to my right as I scanned to my left the way the little one went. About 20 minutes went by when all of a sudden a deer popped up in front of me. I grabbed my binoculars and saw it was a buck but not ole bent tine. It was actually a high rack young 8 point that I had seen several times over the course of going on 4 weeks now.
I put my binoculars down and then another deer came out right beside the 8 point. As soon as I looked at it all I could see was shiny antlers. “That has to be him” I said to myself as I tried to get a closer look with the binoculars. Meanwhile the bigger buck dropped his head and started smelling and following the way the little one went.
He was walking away from me and I was looking for a hole to shoot through but there weren’t any. There was a big maple tree in front of me that blocked my view of the buck for a few seconds. I kept waiting for it to come out on the other side but it never did. “Where did he go” I said to myself as I dropped my binoculars.
All of a sudden there he was coming in my direction. Instead of going on out the ridge he turned and came back towards the does. I knew it was now or never and grabbed my rifle and shooting stick. He continued to close the distance and just as I was getting into position he came into a clearing and stopped. I wasted no time and settled my crosshairs on the bucks’ chest as he was quartering towards me and squeezed the trigger.
He dropped immediately and never moved. I couldn’t believe that it was over and he was lying there 60 yards away. I grabbed my stuff and ran out of that blind to him and finally put my hands on those antlers. To say I was excited was an understatement!
My stubbornness, hard work, and patience all paid off and I couldn’t have been more thankful standing there on that ridge. As always I thanked the good lord above for giving me the opportunity to hunt such a magnificent animal. The 2016 buck season couldn’t have ended any better and it will be one that I never forget as long as I live.
