Deer action was slow for dad this morning. He only saw 3 does.
To be honest, I felt a little guilty for having the kind of morning I had. Here were the cardinal direction views from my stand.
Hardwoods with a major creek 40 yards to my north.
Timber 300 yards to my west.
Corner of the beanfield with the creek running 30 yards inside the woods edge to my east. Sexy.
Many, many acres of soybeans to my south. Notice how wet it was in Kansas. Water laying everywhere. That’s the reason many of the beans have not been cut out of the fields yet.
I didn’t have to wait too long before an unidentified deer crossed the creek about 75 yards to my west. I was trying to find it in my binoculars when I heard another deer coming from my south just inside the woods line from the soybeans.
All I can think is “Are you kidding me?”. First real deer sighting in Kansas and it is a buck I would slam in a New York second back home in Alabama. Not really a hard decision in Kansas though…pass. At 15 yards.
20 minutes after he passes through, a group of 4 antlerless deer came through too fast for a picture, but they were being pestered by a tall antlered forkhorn. Very vocal with lots of grunting and bleating.
About half an hour passed before I heard a deer jump in the creek to my north and head towards my stand. I eased my head around to see Mr. 10 point from 45 minutes ago coming back through. This time he passed by at about 30 yards.
Not long after this doe came by at 10 yards…
…followed 5 minutes later by her buttonhead fawn…
and then guess who…
…him again. This time at 12 yards. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. I drew my bow and settled the pin in tight to his crease, then let my bow down before my instincts kicked in. Just to say I did.
The morning wasn’t over yet as I had this little broke up buck come through with his tongue hanging out chasing a doe.
To wrap the morning up, I had Mr. 10 point come through a fourth and final time at 40 yards and spotted a decent looking buck chasing a couple deer around at the far end of the soybean field I was hunting over. They were well over 500 yards away, but I could definitely make out a rack on the buck. Nothing past that though. The last flurry of activity was at 9:45 a.m. and I got down at 11:00 a.m. with my final tally for the morning resting at 14 deer – 4 of which were unique bucks.
What a first morning in Kansas. If this in any indication…
