Whitetail Massacre of 2008

Enough of these fun-loving posts, it's time to get down to business.  If you don't already know, the heart of what WBS is all about centers around everything Whitetail.  We watch them, we grow them, we mount them, and we eat them, but above all we slay them.  For the past 30+ years we have been hunting the evasive whitetail deer and have had much success, but not a single year in memory surpasses the total amount of antlers that were harvested in 2008. Below are the pictures accompanied with their stories, hold on to your seats ladies and gentlemen. 

This 11 point beauty was taken on Saturday November 22nd 2008 at 7:16 AM Central Standard Time.  It was killed with a Semi-Automatic Winchester 243 at a distance of 130 yards. 

I had been sitting in the same spot under the same tree for the past 2 weekends waiting and watching and when I say watching I mean it. I cannot even recall how many whitetail I saw over those 2 weekends but it had to be at least 30.  I knew that a big buck was roaming the area due to all of the sign in the woods. We had spotted several large rubs in the area that couldn't have come from any of the "bite sized" deer that I had seen so far.  By the time Saturday the 22nd rolled around (which would be my last chance at a deer with a firearm in the 2008 season) I was beginning to think that he wasn't going to show.  Boy was I wrong. Not too terribly long after shooting light started that morning there he came, waltzing along the fence line that I had been watching.  If I were to have the choice of where I wanted him to come from, he had already picked it. I didn't have time to think twice, I got off 3 quick shots (hitting him with the first and second) and he fell after running only 35 yards.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked up to him and realized how big he was.  I had expected 8 or 10 points, not 11.  I proceeded to call the WBS deer recon and  pickup convoy and the rest is history.

-Marlin

Wow What a Year     by General Buck

I had just come off of a bow hunting weekend in which I saw at least 40 deer, including two really nice Bucks just out of bow range. Now it is gun season and I feel like I’m almost cheating with a scoped 30/30 in hand. I spent the first morning in my favorite hunting spot just off the west pond, six Bucks have gone to my freezer over the years from this perch, but not today, 3 small does walk by and nothing else. It was time to get back to the WBS cabin and see what the rest of the guys had done. I’ll let you read their stories in the rest of this blog.

That night was a complete shutout, something I hadn’t experienced in 2008, but tomorrow would be different. We got out of the sack at our traditional 4:30 when the GWH (Great White Hunter) began his morning rendition of some John Denver song. This morning I was going to sit in this year’s hotspot, or perhaps I should say one of the hot spots.

After walking past the stand about 30 yards and fumbling my way back and up the 16 foot ladder stand I could tell this was a perfect morning to hunt. Just in front of me was an open field that began about 40 yards away and went to a cross fence about 315 yards away. To my right was a thicket where for decades deer have hid and to my left was a dry creek separating me from a 20 acre field surrounded by timber.

All of a sudden all heck broke loose….a small doe busted out of the thicket and circled the field only to return to the thicket on the run. Immediately a young forked buck jumped from the ticket fifty yards down field and proceeded to run across the field into the creek and return as fast as he could run back into the thicket. Then from the left came three does dancing as if they were auditioning for some young buck, each one prancing and playing with the other. After they went out of sight another buck came out of the thicket on the dead run only to meet up with a doe I hadn’t seen on the opposite side of the field. I said out loud, this is a doggone deer rodeo. 

After about 10 minutes for regrouping another Buck exits the thicket this one a good body deer but a smallish rack, I had told myself I would wait for the trophy rack this year. The young Buck just browsed through the middle of the field taking his time quartering away from me, tempting me every step of the way. Then my mind starts to work on me,

Brad, David and Grant already have Bucks down, if you shoot this one at least you won’t get shut out, besides I always wondered if I could hit a deer from this distance. (I believed him to be around 250 yards away)  So, I put my cross hairs on the top of his back and squeezed the trigger and watched him run away. After a few minutes I got down and began to step off the yardage to the point I thought he was standing, 265 yards, no blood….darn, or maybe good, at least I didn’t wound him. After looking for about an hour for any sign of blood and finding none, I decided it would be smart to try to look into the thicket in the general direction he headed, not likely to help since you can’t see twenty feet, but much to my surprise there he laid, my seven pointer for 2008.