Life sometimes seems to pass you by. Especially if you let it. Although born and raised in Kansas I didn’t grow up bowhunting or seriously pursuing deer. After becoming addicted to the sport in 1993 in Wisconsin I was lucky enough to make one late season trip back to Kansas in 1994. I missed a nice-bodied eight-pointer by shooting at him with my 20-yard pin when he was standing at 30 – oh, the days before digital range-finder popularity… I bought a lifetime Kansas hunting license back in 2006, or so, and five years later still hadn’t made another trip for whitetails. With the motivation of my good high-school friend Big Will I was determined not to let life continue to pass me by in 2011.
The adventure to Kansas was scheduled from the start as a DIY public land effort. Despite the overall small amount of public hunting land in Kansas there are still opportunities. Will had given me a glimpse of those during a one-day turkey outing this spring. On this public land we had managed to see numerous turkeys and a herd of deer in the morning and call in a tom to eight or nine yards (no shot opportunity) that same afternoon. I thought there was a lot of potential.
So, I set my sights for a five-day weekday hunt the second week of October. Weekday to keep public hunting pressure at bay and travel during the second weekend of October to avoid Wisconsin’s youth gun deer hunt where I have to wear orange and deal with more guns than normal in the woods if I bowhunt. The truck was loaded up with all the gear including three extra kitchen sinks – a decoy and calls for one friend and two cases of Wisconsin bottled soda for another – and off it went for the ten-and-one-half-hour drive that seems to get longer every time.
Our outstanding lodging.
We met at our lodging, a cabin in a state park (these cabins can be found through-out Kansas in state parks and I highly recommend them), and headed out almost immediately Sunday evening to set up stands. I was looking for what I call a jump-off point. Some place decent to start hunting right away, but from where I can branch out after the first morning’s hunt. Will had gathered some local intelligence from his friends and we ended up under a very nice canopy of what I believed to be burr oaks, a member of the white oak family. The acorns from these trees were the size of ping-pong balls. I and my brother, when he joined us, were very much hoping one didn’t fall upon our heads.
The acorns here were gigantic.
If you must drink and hunt – do it this way.
The next morning found me in my stand and Will in his blind – he decided stands were not to his liking. Luckily, the night’s rain had stopped just as we walked out the door. This happened twice during the trip and its noise deadening effect became a relished friend. Not long into the hunt I saw movement that was blocked to Will in his blind and it didn’t take long for a yearling buck to come right in. Although we were trying to get him his first archery whitetail Will passed on the shot. However, the little buck and his momma were very skittish toward the blind and when she gave the alarm he took the hint and followed. I was pretty happy with this start.
After the morning hunt I did my normal “speed scout” (Greg Miller term) routine in an attempt to locate more stands for the rest of the week. One site in particular showed heavy browsing on some form of plant, had a “pinch-point” on one end, an adjacent bedding area and possessed plenty of suitable trees. Additionally, I stumbled on a doe and two yearlings while scouting it. It looked like the evening hunt was set.
Whatever this plant is the deer seemed to like it. Can you identify it?
Will took up residence back in his blind and I put a Lone Wolf Alpha Assault in a decent tree using the same brand climbing sticks then settled in for a relaxing afternoon and evening. Over the course of the next three hours I had turkeys feeding by (out of range) and others roosting within sixty yards, fox squirrels partaking in the abundant acorn crop and crows roosting only thirty yards away. The crows were a new experience. As sunset approached I began to think this great stand location might not produce, but it was only my second hunt, after all, and I had plenty of days to go.
How or why I saw the doe approach I’m not sure. For the third time this year, see Rainy Day Doe, a deer approached me from behind. As I attempted to turn in her direction she spotted me, spun and took one step in the direction she’d come from. I drew my Strother Infinity, estimated the range at thirty yards, spent an extra long time placing the pin in the growing darkness, triggered the release and… sent an arrow into her spine. She dropped on the spot, but wasn’t done yet. A quick check with the Nikon Monarch 800 told me the correct range was 25 yards and a second arrow to the kill zone finished the job.
My first Kansas archery whitetail.
She appeared to be a full-grown doe with an abnormally large head for her already large body size. Big Will helped me with pictures, field dressing and the carrying of equipment. I did finally remember to use the shoulder length AI (artificial insemination) field dressing gloves that Mrs. dustyvarmint bought me as a gag after we saw and heckled Camp Pug acquaintance Rock using them several years ago. Don’t tell anyone, but I really like them and just bought a four pack – very clean and tidy. I also got to try out the Deer Sleigh’r and can report positively on it. A separate field test report will follow in the future. I’m proud to say the doe was donated to a local venison donation program that supplies the meat to those in need. I’d originally done this as another Kansas hunting buddy is a major local organizer of the program, but it turns out this locker was part of another organization. Oh, well, it all goes to a good cause.
The Deer Sleigh’r.
The following day I passed on another doe and then didn’t see more deer until Thursday morning; my last hunt. We were plagued by unusually hot temperatures, into the upper 70’s during the afternoons, and a full moon. As for timing and the temperature I tried to strike a balance between time of season and pressure in the public woods. We only saw one other hunter during the trip, so that turned out well. For moon phase, that’s a lesson learned. While at home I tend to hunt when I can and pay less attention to moon phase. On a trip out of state I definitely could have planned for a better moon. We did, however, put deer in front of Big Will and my brother who took time from his busy job to spend an evening bowhunt with us. What more we could ask for I certainly don’t know – life stopped passing me by – at least on the Kansas whitetail front.
happy hunting, dv
If you liked this blog you may like the following:
- dv’s 2010 Bowhunting Year in Review
- Rainy Day Doe
- Into The Sunny Black
- Beating the 2009 Whitetail Bust
- 2010 Everyday Wisconsin Whitetail Bowhunting Successes
- Kansas Turkeys 2011 – Fightin’ and Sleepin’
- No Bird Left Behind – A Turkey Tale
- Turkey of the Dead
- Boar Attack – Anatomy Of A Hog Shot Gone Wrong
- Pronghorn – Rained Out
- African Archery Safari – Part 4, Hunt Day 1
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Copyright © Jerry E Long, 2009-2011
