Things have been slow lately as the farm I have been filming my buddy Tyler Grey on has standing corn all the way around it still. The farmer has been working on taking it out, but it has been slow – with the dry summer we had here in the midwest some farmers have had problems with their corn being too moldy for the elevator to take.
With the rut in full swing we knew it was going to be just a matter of time before a mature buck would have to come out of the corn. It was hot for November 15, 62 degrees, as we climbed into the our ameristep tree stand, got set up and had to spray down with our Code Blue 360 scent eliminator again to cover up the sweat. The afternoon wore on as we tried grunting & rattling but had no response.
Finally, as the sun started to set, we heard deer running in the corn. I got the camera turned around and looked to see what was coming. To my suprise, it was a doe being chased by a nice mature buck and she was drawing him right to us. I was getting it all on film but managed to get myself all twisted up in the tree arm and had to turn all the way around to unwrap myself as they were closing in fast.
The doe came down to 15 yards while the buck stayed up at about 30 yards. Tyler thought that the buck was going to run on through to the opening he had but of course, like they do, he stopped right behind a tree and stood there for what seemed like forever. Tyler did a good job holding his Elite back as long as he could, but finally his arm gave out and he had to let it down. This buck literally stood there for 15 minutes – while he knew something wasn’t quite right, the doe had no clue we were there and that buck was not going to leave her. He had us both shaken up as he finally started to work his way down to the doe.
As the buck started to bump the doe around again, he came within what we thought was about 30 yards of us. Tyler stopped him with a grunt and already had his Elite drawn back, setting his Spott Hogg sights on the kill zone. Tyler asked if I had him, I said ” Yes”, and he pulled the trigger on his Scotts Release letting the Easton arrow fly. Watching the screen on the video camera, I saw the arrow fly right over his back sticking the Rage into the ground. Both our hearts sank as we watched him run off into the sunset.
Looking back and analyzing what happened, we think that Tyler just rushed the shot and used the wrong pin. After the fact we used our Nikon Range Finder to find out that he was 25 not 30 yards, and with rushing the shot he was not set like he should have been. I guess in all this we learned some lessons the hard way – to always use your Nikon Range Finder before not after the shot, to make sure you don’t rush the shot, to be set & squeeze the Scotts Release so you don’t pull your shot. Hang with us as we are still chasing these giant Iowa Whitetails. Working Class Whitetails Pro Staff Justin Davison