9-21-25 - Kentucky Archery Big Bucks in September.

9-21-25 - Kentucky Archery Big Bucks in September.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
News Radio eight forty whas welcomes you to Jim Straighter Outdoors,
the area's leading authority on hunting and fishing. Jim Straighter
Outdoors is brought to you by Massioak Property's Heart Realty.
For the outdoor home of your dreams. Call Paul Thomas
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(00:23):
Visit them at Sportsman's Taxidermy dot Com. An Roth Heating
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(00:44):
call us at five seven one eight four eight four
inside Louisville and one eight hundred four four four eight
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relax and enjoy the next two hours of Jim Straighter
Outdoors on news Radio eight forty whas.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Off of the Gem Straight or Outdoors. We've got a
great show lined up for you. Folks tonight got big bucks.
We're talking monster bucks tonight, And honestly, we got to
give special thanks to Dale Weddle, a longtime friend of
mine for many many years, and he was kind enough

(01:23):
to set us up the interviews with these gentlemen and
you can check him out at Dale Weddle's Big Bucks
in Kentucky on Facebook and it is a fantastic Facebook page, Scott,
it is.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
And when you get a bunch of hunters that are
consistently putting big deer down, Jim in the early season
with archery equipment, with ranges being in close, tight and personal,
it's time to sit down and listen to what they're doing,
let them share their stories and hopefully the listeners will
be able to learn no matter how many years of

(02:00):
the halfcasts, that big Velvet Buck is a quest for
a lot of people that are traveling out of state
to come to Kentucky and a lot of residents in
Kentucky and tonight we've got a group of men that
have absolutely put down a lot of inches and they've
done it the right way and this ain't their first rodeo,
Jim Straighter.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
You're not kidding. These guys are very, very accomplished. We're
going to start out tonight with Nathan Jefferson and we're
gonna talk to him. He's from Bracken County and we'll
be with him right after this short break. The break
is presented by S Andbi Marine. You never get soaked
by my friends at SMI all right, we're talking now

(02:39):
with Nathan Jefferson, a big buck killing kind of guy.
And Nathan has killed lots of big deer in the
last three years. He's killed deer over one fifty and
one sixty with a bow and I scored big time. Scott.
I'll let you take it from here. It's an interesting story.

(03:01):
It is.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
This gentleman has got a Bracken County monster and I've
been keeping up with it since he shot the deer
on open An evening. And he's had some critics, but
I'm gonna I'm gonna take his back, Jim.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Nathan has killed a.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Deer that is as wide as a polarious ranger.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
The pictures don't lie.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
People want to talk about how folks push those arms
out and all that. So Nathan, I just want you
to know that Jim and I are super impressed with
your deer, and we would love to hear a little
bit about the story behind the history of the deer
you had and how everything unfolded that evening when you
when you finally got to put an arrow throing. Well, man,

(03:46):
I really do appreciate it, and I appreciate y'all having
me on that. All the critics has kind of really
blown me away, I mean, to be honest with you,
I mean, I know everybody's got something to say, but
you know, it's like you said, I mean, the measurements
don't lie.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
And he was a absolute.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
Magnificent, magnificent animal for me to take and I appreciate
you'll having me.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, tell us a little bit about the history you've
had with the deer, and just bring us all the
way through the hunt, from getting up in your stand
to having a deer come in behind you, and then
even if you got time, a little bit of what
happened with your girlfriend that evening and how you had
a busy night with the knife.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:26):
Well, I guess it all started there. I mean, the
first year I got the farm. It just I kind
of didn't really notice it at the time, but I
had this big frame pennsil Rack sixth corner, you know,
which would have been twenty twenty two. You know, I
guess he'd be a year and a half or you know,
maybe two years old that year, and then you know,
twenty twenty two, Roller's twenty twenty three rolls around that

(04:47):
he turns into this big frame, you know, big frame
kind of antlers go out and stop.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
But you know, you could tell that he had this.

Speaker 6 (04:53):
Huge potential to be something big one day and you know,
just a three year old deer that was running all
over the farm and didn't really pay much attention to him.
And last year he kind of started coming into his
potential that he had. He goes from an eighty inch
eight pointer to you know, one hundred and fifty five
hundred and sixty inch ten pointer that I was really

(05:15):
debating on killing and giving him the pass last year
was really really tough to do at you know, one
p fifty five full velvet opening day up O season.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
And this year go ahead, no, you go ahead, Nathan,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
But this year he really started coming into hisself.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
You know, first night I put the pic to the
camera out the next morning, I have his deer show
up that has huge frame, has everything, and knowing that
he made it another year really really kind of started
setting in because I knew he was going to be
something special.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
The more and more he started showing.

Speaker 6 (05:57):
Up, the bigger and bigger he got, and when he
really came to full growth, it was something seriously special
to see.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
When I started getting pictures.

Speaker 6 (06:07):
Of him full grown, and one ninety was nowhere near
my mind. I'm thinking one seventy five point eighty, you
know what I mean, But.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
Just how big he really is? Pictures? Do that, Dear
zero Justice.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
It's right, yes, sir, it is. Tell us about your setup,
if you would, Nathan.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
Hi, There's a there's a sea.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
There's a crp thicket that goes into some real good
south facing betting that's been logged and it's got a
lot of undergrowth in and it's kind of the really core.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
His bed.

Speaker 6 (06:42):
Yeah, it's like most deer do between their food and
their bed. It's summer, they're not up on their feet
traveling a lot. And there's an opposite hill from this
betting area that's a hard hardwood hill side. And this
hardwood hill side is close as close as I ever
wanted to get to the bed, and I hung a
standing there just for deer stayed off the farm as
much as possible, and Everts really tried to put a

(07:04):
whole lot of pressure in there because of you know,
you don't want to run a deer like that off
the farm.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
Especially with so many people hunting around you.

Speaker 6 (07:13):
The more and more that I kind of started getting
the pattern on the deer, he was very, very sporadic
because I had another camera on the opposite side of
the farm that he was hitting just as much. And
making that decision on which stand to hunt opening day
was tough because I.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
Really genuinely didn't have an exact.

Speaker 6 (07:31):
Idea where he was going to be at, and that
hardwood hardwood hillside had a lot of deer travel it
had all them deer was if they came out of
the bed and went towards my side of the farm
that I killed him on, they would come by me.

Speaker 5 (07:46):
So that's kind of how I had it set up.

Speaker 6 (07:47):
It was kind of like kind of a natural funnel
across this hillside that it wasn't something that he had
to be special.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
For him to come through. It was more of a natural,
natural area for him to cross through.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
And that's why I feel like I had a lot
of success because of it was more natural to him.
He didn't have to go out of his way to
get here. Everything kind of funneled right into where I was,
right out of his bed. So it worked out tremendously.
Knowing the farm that well, it all kind of ended
up paying off well.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
And you shared with me it got real up close
and personal when he came in, and that's that's something
I wish you'd share with the audience.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Well, I had started off a great evening that night.

Speaker 6 (08:30):
I had deer moving early. I'm four o'clock, which know
everybody knows that the weather opening evening was, I mean
magnificent for September. We're usually all up in there sweating
poor and sweat ninety degrees, but that temperature drop, I
knew deer was gonna be on their feet early. I
got in there extra early that night, and all the
deer movements started happening like I expected. I had a
probably one hundred and forty five inch deer come in

(08:52):
there and you know, feed around for a while and
into him and the other small buck he was with
ends up betting real close to my stand. And as
I'm sitting there, all I wanted was a drink of
water out of my back back. But when you got
a two deer betted that close, there ain't much movement
that you're gonna be able to get away with.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
So I toughed it out and everything kind of.

Speaker 6 (09:10):
Calmed down, and deer were laying down there, and the
bushes bedded down, and I pulled my phone out to
pass the time.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
I slipped it out of my pocket.

Speaker 6 (09:18):
As I'm sitting there playing on my phone, I hear
something walking directly beneath, like underneath my stand, and I said,
this is awesome.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
I just let a deer.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
Get up on me without paying attention to what I'm doing,
which is kind of funny to talk about now because
it worked out, but in reality, it could have been
way worse than what it was. But I look over
my shoulder and there is this three year old eight
pointer that ran with my big deer standing there sniffing
the poles.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
All that I took in there the night of.

Speaker 6 (09:44):
To trim shooting lanes, because that stand was never really
hunted before then. I mean, the first time I hunted
it was that morning, and I hunted it again that evening,
and I laid the pulse underneath my tree, and this
buck comes in and starts sniffing around on this poles aw,
and I'm like, oh, the big bucks here. So as

(10:05):
I'm turning back around to get my bow because I
know this deer, they're always together. It's September, they're bachelored up.
I spinning around. I'm spinning around to get my bow.
And as I put my hand on my bow and
look straight, this deer is standing at ten yards and
have how he got there and how he slipped in
there on me without me knowing.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
I still don't know to this day how it happened.

Speaker 6 (10:28):
And to look up and have a one hundred and
ninety inch deer at ten yards is caught with your
pants down feeling like, oh, what do I do?

Speaker 5 (10:36):
Now?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
You know?

Speaker 5 (10:37):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
It was.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
It was tough, It really was because at that moment
I had no idea what to do.

Speaker 5 (10:47):
It's kind of drew a blanket first, so how to progress.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
Well, as I I got spun back around, I started,
you know, looking for any little lane that I had
because he was on the uphill side of my tree stand.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
I'm probably give or take thirty feet up thirty thirty.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
Two feet up off the ground because this hillside's so
steep and he's on the uphill side. It's pretty much
right in front of me, and I'm having no idea
how I'm going to get this shot off. There's no
shooting lanes on this side of the stand. It is
my stands facing almost straight boards to the downhill side

(11:26):
of it, and this deer's on uphill side, so I
have to maneuver myself sideways in this hang on, and
when I go to stand up, it's worse, so there's
no standing up. So I had to squeeze an arrow
through a small v in a tree at ten yards,
oh my.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
And.

Speaker 6 (11:49):
Sitting down leaned over ten yards is a very very
very hard shot to make, because how often do you
go out in the yard and practice it's in yard
shot from thirty feet in the air, you know, so
so it it wasn't the easiest thing in the world
for me to be able to pull off.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'll bet so. As you made the shot, you had
to be just torn up with anxiety to have that
giant buck that close to all this working against you.
How'd you handle that? Honestly, you killed a bunch of
big deers. So I know that must have helped you,
But what were you telling yourself.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
As it happened.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
I the only thing I was really going through my
mind was, you know, excuse my language a little bit,
but was no effing way this deer is standing here,
you know, like that's I never in my life when
I ever thought that I'm going to get an opportunity
at this deer. And once the opportunity came, like came
into itself, I'm kind of really grateful what happened the
way it did, because if I would have watched that

(12:53):
deer walk all the way in.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
I don't even know if I could have pulled my
bow back. I really don't.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
I just it.

Speaker 6 (13:01):
I thought about that, and I told my girlfriend the
same thing at night. I said, I don't think I
could have pulled my bow back if I would have
watched him come off the way in, And it really
really set in. I make the shot, I see where
it hit him. I knew I double lunged him. As
soon as soon as I seen the arrow go all
the way in him, I knew I double lunged him.
I knew it was a great shot. So then it's
kind of the celebration type, but you know, I'm trying

(13:21):
to get spun around and watch this deer walk away.
And as he's running off, I see him cresting a
hill and I seen like the full potential of him
running away, and like it literally made me weak to
my knees, like I had to sit down because I
just it all hit me right then, like I just

(13:42):
shot in absolute hammer of a deer, and I didn't
even stand like I had to sit down, couldn't get
my phone out to call anybody right off because I
was shaking so bad.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
I couldn't even get my bow on the hangar.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
I couldn't stand up to like watch this deer the
way I should and listen every everything was I couldn't
hear nothing. I don't feel like it was almost like
I blacked out after it happened, because once I seen
him Christinola that hill and the sun shine through a
bunch of oak woods and you're watching a deer like that, No,
when you just made you just killed a deer like that,
You're like I just done something special.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
And the hardest thing about it all was walking.

Speaker 6 (14:20):
My rear end out of the woods and leaving my
deer in the woods and going home to get the
side beside to get him out, and I don't know,
I was ecstatic.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
What was it like when you put your hands on
I bet it blew your mind, didn't it.

Speaker 6 (14:36):
It was it was like something you watch on TV
when these you know, big time hunters pick up these
deer and you're just like, I don't know. I just
I didn't want to like put my hands on him
at first. And I know that sounds crazy. You know,
everybody thinks you want to run up and grab him.
But when I looked at him at first, I just
stood there and just pure awe, Like what did I
just do?

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Have had no.

Speaker 6 (14:57):
Clue, no clue what I just done because I knew
he was big, But once I'm standing there right up
on him, his full potential really just it blew me
completely away.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
It was just like something I've never seen before.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, I tell you special hats off from me and
brother cronin there. This is a magnificent buck and cool thing.
Is this at your first rodeo? As he said leading
into the show, real quick, your girlfriend killed a big
deer right on the heels of yours. We got about
three minutes left. Can you talk about that a little
bit for us.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
Oh well, I mean I was.

Speaker 6 (15:34):
I jumped in my side beside when I got home,
and I was about to load it up and go
get my deer or not. And then my phone rings
and it was my girlfriend calling, and I'm like.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
Why she calling me?

Speaker 6 (15:43):
It's still daylight. She shouldn't be calling me. Never, I
didn't think she was gonna kill this deer. This deer
kind of started to switching his patterns up after he
shut his velvet, quit showing up as much.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
She didn't think she was gonna kill him.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
I didn't either, She said she weed wasn't sure exactly
how big he was because camera pictures were very deceiving.
And when she called me and said I shot the
big ten, I just was like, no way. As my
first word, I thought she was lying. So I said,
did you make a good shot? She said, oh yeah,
he's laying here dead fifty yards and just kind of.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
I'm like, oh, okay, congratulations, honey, I'm on my way.
And I got over there and just it was.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Shared her name with everybody.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
Chloe Pampelli. Yes, she scored one hundred and fifty four inches.

Speaker 7 (16:28):
You know.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
The day the day after my Taxidermay scored Himan and
she didn't even want to take pictures with me.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
That night.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
She said, your deer makes mine look small.

Speaker 6 (16:37):
I said, honey, you just shot one hundred and fifty
four inch deer with a bow as your first compound
bow kill.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
Ever, I don't know why you're upset right now.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
You know she's sitting here thinking, like you know, she
didn't have nothing special there, And I'm telling her, like
your first deer with a compound bow as a female,
you kill it, it runs fifty yards and dies and
it's you know, one hundred and fifty four inches. I mean,
there's a lot of people that's never even killed one
hundred and fifty four inch dear with a boat.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
You better believe it. Well, you do realize you've spoiled
her writing, don't you.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
Oh, she's spoiled rotten.

Speaker 6 (17:12):
I mean she like, she's been with me for the
last three years and she killed a one forty another
one of another almost one forty with a crossbow last year,
and then turned around and kills a one fifty four
this year, and she's she's, uh, she's not gonna know.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
What to do here.

Speaker 6 (17:29):
In a couple of years when she's got to let
them one fifties walk.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I heard that. Hey, Nathan, to close this out, what
advice do you have or what are these big bucks
taught you that you'd like to share with the audience?

Speaker 6 (17:45):
You just my best, My best advice that I can
give anybody is, don't go in in there pushing these
deer and stepping on their toes. Find what's natural to
them and find where they like to travel naturally, and
go in there on the right wind.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
You can never hunt.

Speaker 6 (18:01):
A bad win if you you can think you're sprayed
down with everything on the shelves at Donald's.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Absolutely well. I can't tell you how much we appreciate
you sharing your story with us. And as I said before,
a big hat talk from us Garret Whas Radio A
one ninety plus. It's a buck of a lifetime partner.
We're proud of you.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Hey, thank you. This means the world.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Thank you, guys, Yes, sir, all right, folks got to
go to break here. This break presented by Marciel Properties,
Heart Realty. Paul Thomas is a broker all kind of
outdoor properties for sale. He's got cabbine on lakes and
streams farm, properties and wildlife management properties. Check out all
his current listings at mop h R Team realty dot com.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Got Devin Skipworth up from a county that has no
bad reputation over in Todd County, definitely an area where
several big bucks have come consistently year after year. And Devin,
what's going to be really interesting about your hundred and
seventy six inch giant. Not only was it in velvet,

(19:13):
but you shot him out of a ground blind and
that's going to be very appealing as we see that
a lot of our listeners are adapted more and more
each year to ground blinds, and they can kind of
be a hot set, especially in the early season. But
between the full moon and the pleasant temperatures we had
that day, I'm sure it was probably a little bit
better than what you expected for the opener. How you doing, Bud,

(19:36):
I'm doing great, gav here.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
Y'all, we're great.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
We're not deer hunting to night, nor are you because
you're tagged out, but we're going to listen to your story.

Speaker 8 (19:45):
Well, I'll be happy to tell it.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Let us know what happened, tell us a little bit
about the history of the deer, and just break it
down for us and go through with what you think
is important.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
For us to know.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
And Jim and I interject along the way.

Speaker 7 (20:03):
All right, So I've got a good buddy of mine,
Zach Man feel me and him kind of hunky. Somebody
gotten a neighbor's farm a few years ago, and and uh,
we just realized nobody was going in over there, and decided, Hey,
what what's gonna hurt to go over and just knock
on his door and ask him he'd allow us to hunt.

(20:24):
Sure enough he did, and and uh, we've had this
farm for a couple of years, and you know, uh, Zach,
he's got some coworkers. There's been good long friends with him.
So we've let some people come down there and there
a little hunting stuff, but we've never really had our
eyes on a on a good mature deer that we
really wanted to hunt up until this year. So we

(20:46):
decided we was just gonna put some cameras out here
early June and and bam, this steer it shows up,
and you know, we thought he's gonna look good, pretty good.
We thought, hey, it's probably a shooter. One of us
would probably go hunting, So we just kept uh, kept
going on early with the with the mineral sights and everything,
and then comes tom August started to started doing a

(21:07):
little feeding and stuff. And it's funny. We had this
deer showing up every day since the middle of June
or so. I don't know of one day that he
didn't show up in twenty four hours, whether it be
midnight or six thirty in the afternoon, but he was
there every single day. So I was telling Jim on

(21:27):
the phone earlier that this this story kind of gets
pretty funny because not even two or three weeks before
season comes in. Actually the week of season, I had
a fellow Parker's pickup truck right on my feed pile
and set the front front tier right on top of it.
And I called him and I said, I called my buddy.
I said that deer's gone. There ain't no way that

(21:49):
sucker is gonna be there. Like I said, this deer
was daylight and ninety five percent of the time, so
we knew he was there. Of course, we had some
other deer we were looking at too, so but I
told I told Zach there, I said, this deer is
now going to show up. He's he's he's gonna be gone.
He was there at eight thirty that morning or seven
thirty that morning, and eight thirty that morning the truck

(22:10):
was sitting on the seed file, so I could have,
you know, considered him gone. Second third pictures, I was
getting the people with chainsaws and they was moving logs around.
And like I said, I knew I was in this
Stier's core area because he was there so much and
so frequently. You know, you'd have him in the morning,
you'd have him in the evening. So I knew I
was there in his home, you know, his home bedding area.

(22:32):
But the setup was that I was in a big
bean field there and uh there was a pond in
the very very back and then in between the pond
and the woods was probably thirty yards and uh so
there was a funnel combing out or a mouse I
should say, into the woods, uh, coming out into this field,
and the pond bank was directly in front of it.

(22:53):
So Zach had an idea. He said, you know what,
I think we should put a ground line. There's an
old shooting house right there on top of us the
pond bank, and it was brush and all kinds of stuff.
And I would you couldn't have paid me to go
in there and get snake bit. So we stuck the
ground ground line right next to it, and it just
kind of looked natural, and and to be honest with you,
I was like, you know, I think it's gonna be fine.

(23:15):
So we cut us a little trail out, you know,
right there around the pond bank for easy access in
and out. And you still had your cover, you know,
if deer were in the field or something at night.
You know, we had it all planned out, and you know,
that way we could go around the pond bank, get in,
get out, never you know, bother anything. So but I
had him drop me off that evening. But uh, and

(23:38):
I flipped in there just as easy as I possibly could.
But you know, I didn't even hunt the deer. Opening day,
I hunted another deer because I you know, I thought
this deer was in the fifties all year long. Me
and him both agreed. We thought, hey, this deer is
in the fifties, and uh, you know, just kind of
take your pick whatever's showing up, so when we're gonna

(23:59):
go hunt. So I hunted another deer to open an
evening and I didn't see him, which was probably a
blessing and and uh something I woke up Sunday morning
and something in my body was telling me, He's like,
you got to go hunt this deer over here, and
so I called. He called Zach actually seen him at church,
and I said, you know, I'm gonna go hunt this deer,
and I need you to go drop me off whenever

(24:20):
I go down there. So he, uh, he took me
down there in the ranger and you know, just kind
of normal process that he pulled down there, like he
was putting out some corn. I think he even dumped
a bag of corn there. And I slipped in around
the pond bank and got into blind and he took
off and he went to his set up there, and
and uh, he wasn't. Fifteen twenty minutes later, I was

(24:42):
starting to see deer. Like you said earlier, you know,
the temperatures are just amazing. You couldn't have attle. I
can't remember a opening weekend. Uh, And well since I've
been hunting, I can't remember an opening weekend it was
that great. So but uh, fifteen to twenty minutes started
seeing some deer rolling in and it was some dough,

(25:04):
some small bucks, and they started to come in the
direction that I didn't even to come in actually, and
I was getting a little bit worried, and you know,
it's I had an ozonics running. I was spraying sent
away every five minutes and restuff there, urmosonics on turbo mode,
and I was doing everything I could, even though that

(25:25):
I wasn't sweating there. I don't think I was thinking.
I was doing everything I could to keep the scent
from getting out into that field where they were trying
to get wide of me and try to get a
little bit of my scent there. So on the cameras,
I was watching this deer. This deer was always either
coming from the mouth or coming from the north side
of me, and I knew he would come from that direction,

(25:48):
but it fooled me because all these other deer were
coming from the other direction. And I texted him while
I was sitting there and I said, you know what,
I'm about to blow this sucker out of here. It
was like, it's a bad mistake, bad mistake. And he
just he takes me back. He said, just he said,
just be patient, and he said, just uh, you know, starts,

(26:09):
he said, starts brainer sent away.

Speaker 9 (26:11):
That's I think that's what he.

Speaker 7 (26:12):
Told me, so, I just you could imagine I was
eating that stuff in that blind Uh, just sitting there,
just doubting myself down in it. But uh, two little
bucks pop out in front of the mouth there and
they're sitting there eating on the corn pile there, and uh,
I could tell something was up. The deer looked up
and looked back towards the north, and he just stared

(26:34):
there for about forty five seconds, just a strong stare.
You know, most of the time they'll they'll look up
and they'll go back to feeding, and uh, don't think
nothing about it. But this there was something about this
deer was telling me either somebody is walking across the
field on the other property or something's coming. And uh,
and I just in the back of my mind, I

(26:56):
knew it was this deer that was fixing to walk
through there, and it wouldn't. Probably thirty seconds later, I
look over to my left because I can't see from
my back because I've got this shooting house behind me.
Sure enough, it was just it was the deer out
of hunting, and he walked seven yards in front of
me and got around me to the corn pine, ran
all those other deer off and he wanted to be

(27:16):
you know, he was the big shot there. He was
you know, he he knew he was the boss man,
and he ran everybody else else off and uh he Uh,
of course, as soon as I've seen him, I pulled
back and full draw. So you could imagine how long
this was taking. It seemed like eternity, but in real
time it probably wouldn't that long. But uh, he got

(27:37):
within hot on twenty two yards, I believe, and he
turned his body to try to try to run off
another deer, and I just sent there right through the
lungs and and uh, my immediate reaction was, you know,
I could see, uh, I was shooting some mega meat
broadheads and when I tell you those things that are
just deadly, they is. I mean, it was just it

(27:59):
looked like a gir some scene there at that point
in time. But he took off running through the woods,
and I didn't see my arrow, and I thought, well,
he's got it with him. Because my adrenaline was pumping
so fast, I couldn't I couldn't tell you exactly what
happened in that thirty seconds that I pulled the trigger,
pulled the trigger on my release there, so like I said,
it's just it happened so quick. But I waited about

(28:22):
forty five minutes. And Zach actually was sitting there on
his phone and looking. We share cameras, and he had
sent me a text right before I'd shot and said
just be patient. So I immediately texted him back and said,
he shot, so I got ut.

Speaker 9 (28:43):
I got it.

Speaker 7 (28:44):
He said just stay in the blind for about thirty
forty minutes, and he said, I'll come get you. How
good a shot? I said, honestly, I think it's good,
but I really don't know. Last year, previously, in the
early season, I'd shot a deer and shot him high
and unfortunately he lived and UH but another hunter got
him in muzzleloader season. Of course, I was tickled to

(29:05):
death for him. But you know, I've been fortunate to
not make a a lethal shot. I guess with a
bow on a on a good buck for a long time,
and I knew my time was coming, and last year
it came, and I was, you know, hoping I didn't
make the same mistakes. So I gave him forty five
minutes and instead of going straight to UH, I guess

(29:27):
to the kill site. There I did my normal routine
where I'd walked around the pond bank, went out there,
got on the phone, called, you know, called my wife,
obviously my little boy. I've got a three year old.
Boys just eat up with deer hunting right now. And
H called and told them, got made a shot and
walked around backside of the pond bank and uh, I

(29:49):
saw my raw laying there, and my knock was lit
up and it looked like good blood. And I looked
down to my left and there's a chunk of lung
laying there on the corn file. So I knew it.
I knew then he wasn't too far. So it was
a it was a short season for me, which I
wouldn't trade it for nothing. But like I said, it's
a it was very well uh, very well played out.

(30:11):
I think Zach had a lot to do with helping
me as far as figuring out where I'm going to
put this ground line where he thinks he's coming from.
And uh, like I said, we just we hunt together
a little bit, and he's got a lot of brains
when it comes to that. And like I said, I
rely on him a lot, So I owe him a
big thank you for that one.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Devin, what did this big Bucks in particular, another big
bucks that you've harvest to teach you something. Well there
with the audience.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
If it taught me anything, it was really to uh
not pay attention more or less to a deer camera.
I mean as far as size goes, I mean, I've
been uh, I've always said it. You know, everybody can hunt.
He's one seventies, I guess one eighties. However, they want
to want to call him all year long, and it

(31:07):
just a lot of times you end up with heartbreak.
And I'm not saying that if you got a one
hundred and seventy don't go hunting, because you obviously need
to go hunting. But you know, this dear I thought
was one hundred and fifty five inch deer. I knew
it was a mature deer, but I wasn't gonna pass
him up. And you know, it's just as fun for
me to shoot a hundred and forty one hundred and
fifty inch deer that I know is mature than it

(31:29):
is to shoot a hundred and seventy inch deer. I
had zero other effect as far as feeling the same
way as I did when I shot one hundred and
forty five or I shot one hundred and sixty two
as I did as one hundred and seventy six, so uh,
you know, and when I shot this deer, I still
believed he was one hundred and fifty five inch dere
So you know, I just you know, I knew I

(31:52):
killed one hundred and fifty five inch deer. You know,
I didn't know that I had another twenty inches there
that I was looking for shooting too when I got
down there. So if it taught me anything, it's it's
you know, you can kill a mature deer and it
still be as big of a trophy as you can.
You let it be, I mean, And I think that's

(32:12):
that's what's most important even on hunting, you know, is
a lot of people get so tore up over a
deer's score, and and how you know, if it ain't
if it ain't big enough, you're letting people down. Well,
if that deers, if that deer's got your heart pumping,
and you shoot that deer, it's well worth the hunt
and you did what you set out to do. And
I think that's an accomplishment in itself. But like I said,

(32:36):
I think that's that's it taught me a little bit there.
You know, it's just because you think he's something, don't
mean he is. But like I said, in a lot
of times, you there's people out there that get ground shrinkets,
and uh, this particular buck was the exact opposite. So
when I that is true, go ahead there.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Devin, hats off to you. We really appreciate you sharing
your story. And folks, this is a massive, massive deer. Incidentally,
you can see these deer on my Facebook page at
gem straightor outdoors as we go through the program night
if you care too. And these the pictures tell the
stories all actually say, Devin, thank you so much for

(33:21):
spending time with us tonight.

Speaker 7 (33:24):
Hey, I appreciate y'all.

Speaker 8 (33:26):
It was an honor to be able to get on
here and tell my story.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
And we go to break.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
There's a lot of really nice deer just south of
you there in Todd County, So go spend you some
money and kill a couple those big Tennessee deer.

Speaker 7 (33:39):
Hey, I'm already working on it, sir.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
All right, folks, gotta go to break here. This break
is presented by s and by Marine. There's eleven four
hundred Westbrook Road.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
Go see them.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Remember you never get soaked by my friends at SMI
all right, folks, coming back from the news break, we're
gonna talk with Jonathan's Stewart, a big buck killing machine.
He's killed tons of big deer and this year's no exception.
We'll be back right after break talking to the Logan

(34:13):
County big buck slayer, Jonathan Stewart. Jonathan, Before we get going,
I'm going to brag on you, because I know you
don't like to brag folks. This is a gentleman that
in the last eight years, the smallest buck he's taken
was one hundred and forty three inch eight pointer, which

(34:34):
is a great big deer in itself. Personally, I love
big eights, and it takes a good eight to make
one forty plus. But he's killed. I'll give a quick rundown.
Twenty eighteen one hundred and sixty seven inch plus twenty
nineteen one hundred and fifty one plus twenty one forty

(34:54):
six and six eighth to twenty one nine pointer, one
sixty three, twenty twenty two, one sixty four, twenty twenty three,
one hundred and ninety two inch whopper twenty twenty four,
one hundred and forty three plus of course, this year
we're gonna talk about your giant velvet buck. Uh, Jonathan,

(35:18):
welcome a board, buddy. And I gotta tell you, I
gotta bound down to the guy that can kill him
like you do.

Speaker 10 (35:26):
Well, I'm just I'm just blessed to be able to
say some of my I appreciate y'all having me on tonight.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Well, it's our pleasure. I'm gonna let you just have
in here with your history with this buck and how
you strategize to kill him and walk us through it
if you would.

Speaker 10 (35:44):
Well, I always keep pictures of bucks in folders and
try to keep track of them over years times. And
I first noticed this buck in twenty twenty three and
he was an eight pointer. He was about one hundred
and ten twenty eight point, which you know the most
isn't anything to shrug your shoulders about. And then fast

(36:06):
forward to last year, he grew into a ten point,
probably in the one hundred and forty range, and uh,
I really saved him to keep an eye on him then,
because I know he could be something special this year. Uh,
fast forward to this year may or so, you know
when the bigger bucks start developing, and you can tell
the different characteristics. I picked up on him pretty quick

(36:29):
from his brow time design. Uh he's got short cooking
brow times and it was a dead giveaway.

Speaker 11 (36:37):
So you know, then the it was a time to
keep track of him.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (36:42):
He stayed in the same spot all through the summer.
He kind of went across the field of time or
two different you know, fence line and the little set
of the woods and you know, back and forth he was.
He was on beans, so he didn't really have much
of a reason to go anywhere else. Having having his
of the deer kind of helped me too, because I knew,

(37:03):
you know, about how long I had on him there
before he transitioned to a different.

Speaker 11 (37:07):
Spot, and.

Speaker 10 (37:09):
It uh, you know, having the history of it really
really made it a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
Accessible to get him, knowing where he would be. And
then start.

Speaker 10 (37:24):
About the time August rolls around, he uh he started
getting kind of wishy washy on me.

Speaker 7 (37:32):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (37:32):
Of course, you know, Kentucky's got the state wide feed
ban to August first.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
And uh, just men her on until then.

Speaker 10 (37:38):
But I started putting feed out August first, and here
he comes, just like clockwork. And uh, he he came
in like clockwork. For about a week, and then he
was sporadic again. You know, of course two three weeks
for a season, and a big whitetail gets sporadic, it
can kind of drive you up a wall, you know,
kind of kind of playing games with yourself.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
But I decided, you know, it was time to stop.

Speaker 10 (38:05):
Relying on cameras and go out to the farm and
put eyes on him. And so I started glass in
the bean field that he was stationed in most of
the time, and got eyes on him and kind of
figured out what he was doing.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
He was kind of sticking to the.

Speaker 10 (38:18):
Shady areas of the bean field and some low spots,
you know, to be out of at eyesight, and you know,
feel a little less threatened. I actually went in the
second week of August. I bought some cameras. They are
the stealth Cam Reveal or stealth Cam.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Three sixties Revolver three sixties.

Speaker 10 (38:43):
And what they do is they catch movement from three
hundred and sixty degree angle all the way around the camera. Well,
I bought two of those and put them on the
bean field in hopes if I could catch him at
least outfeeding.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
In the beans, whereas a normal.

Speaker 10 (38:57):
Single trigger camera might not catch you from a certain angle. Well,
that played big dividends in this deer, because a lot
of times I would catch him on the side angles,
whereas if you had the single trigger camera, he would
get by.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
And you never know he was there. So I pinpointed
him traveling.

Speaker 10 (39:16):
Alongside of a fence row that separates us in the
adjoining property and.

Speaker 11 (39:23):
Decided that was going to be the place to set.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
So I went in about a week before season. I
put a couple of sticks on a walnut tree, and.

Speaker 10 (39:34):
Between those two sticks and some branches, I was able
to get about sixteen to eighteen foot up. The tree
didn't need to be super high because it had pretty
good backdrop.

Speaker 11 (39:46):
Well, fast forward opening day, this.

Speaker 10 (39:48):
Buck had been seen as early as two in the
afternoon on the camera, So I knew that with the
conditions for opening day seventy degrees, light, rain, rising pressure,
and rising moon, there's no there's nothing you can get
better than the white tail woods than those conditions.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
So I knew that I had to be in early.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
So talk to my.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Wife, explained to her, you know that it's going to
be earlier day than.

Speaker 11 (40:16):
Normal because the weather conditions, everything was good.

Speaker 10 (40:19):
Left the house on time, got to the farm, changed
into my clothes to say a sent free as possible.
So I'm walking up the fence row to my deer stand.
It's about eleven forty five. I've got my hang on
on my back because I was actually I ordered it late,
was waiting for it to arrive. So my plan was
to climb up the tree and hang the millennium hang

(40:41):
on and you know, have a pretty comfortable set. Well,
this deer had different plants. I'd get about one hundred
yards from the set that I had created and I
looked through a gap in the fence row and they're
standing about one hundred and fifty yards from where I'm standing.
So with this going on, it forced me to sit

(41:04):
down and eventually lay down in the fence row.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
To avoid being spotted.

Speaker 10 (41:09):
And luckily the wind was born, you know, from them
to me, so I had that in my favor too.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
And.

Speaker 10 (41:17):
I wound up having to lay in that fence row
for over two hours.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
So I get there at eleven forty five.

Speaker 10 (41:24):
And I don't get into my tree till two fifteen
because of this dilemma. And something pretty cool going back
to the camera, uh, not having that camera in this situation,
I was watching for the deer to clear the beans.
All the deer had cleaned cleared the beans about twenty
to thirty minutes since last chicken, so I decided to

(41:46):
check it again.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
And I got an alert on my phone from my app.
And there's a.

Speaker 10 (41:50):
Waterway that runs up to the fence line of where
my set is hung.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
And I look in.

Speaker 10 (41:58):
All three of the larger bucks in the bachelor group
were standing about fifteen to twenty yards behind the tree
in the waterway of.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Where I was gonna be.

Speaker 10 (42:07):
So thank God for that camera because if not for
that camera, we wouldn't be having this discussion of night.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Anyways. Knowing that they were so.

Speaker 10 (42:17):
Close my idea I ditched it. I put the stand
in the fencero. I knew that I had a pretty
good set of limbs that I could stand on in
the walet tree, so I knew that that would limit movement.
So I just went for it and kind of pioneered it.
Climbed up into the tree about sixteen foot and just waited,

(42:39):
try to be as still and quiet as I could.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
About an hour or so later, had a few.

Speaker 10 (42:45):
Dozs fll on through the field, so that made me
feel pretty good. And then fast forward to about six
fifteen or so, I look up at about three hundred
yards across the banfield. I saw the tips of some
times going through the beans, and I looked at the
mo binoculars, and sure enough it was him and the
two other big ones. Well, this similar thing happened to

(43:11):
me in twenty three when I killed my one ninety two.
He came out into the field bet betted pretty close
to me in the beans and eventually went up phoneling
right to me. Well, I'd been having conversations through text
messages with my wife and you know, kind of letting
her know what was going on, and if he didn't
come in, it might be a late night, you know,

(43:33):
having to wait because the gout, you know, wait to
get down to be safe, to not get busted. Well,
she said, well, maybe it'll happen just like it did
on the last one, and he'll stroll on end in
plenty of time. Well, as I'm exchanging those texts, I
look up and I've got.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
A few dos coming underneath me to feed.

Speaker 10 (43:54):
But those feed for five or ten minutes, and I
look and they start looking across the field towards where
they was, bucks were bedded in the beans. Then I
see one of the deer that my buck had ran
with all summer long, about one hundred and fifty inch
nine point coming straight across the field right for him.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
Well, he comes in, starts.

Speaker 10 (44:14):
Feeding, and as he's coming in, I go ahead and
pick my bow up, clip my release on. I'm ready
to go, because you know, when you've got those mature
bucks right underneath, you can't.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Get away with much.

Speaker 10 (44:25):
So he starts doing the same thing that the doves
were doing. He starts looking back towards where he came from,
and I look out. Sure enough, one hundred hundred and
fifty yards away, here comes the giant tent and he
he comes in kind of slow.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Huh, Johnathan. I hate to do this, but folks, if
you'll stick with us here, I'm gonna let him finish
out after the break. This break is presented by Mosel
Property's Heart Realty. Check him out at MLP h R
T really dot com. Gonna continue on. He's got your
eyes on the buck. Take us home, buddy, all right?

Speaker 10 (45:07):
Tellus So, you know, look up across the field and
here he comes. As he's approaching, he's feeding rather slow,
and by now it's about the seven to fifteenth Central time,
so I've got I know, I got about ten.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
To fifteen minutes mix light.

Speaker 10 (45:26):
So as he's feeding in it's almost in my mind
it's like he's just not gonna come, he's gonna hang out.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
But he finally.

Speaker 10 (45:34):
Breaks from about that eighty yard mark and comes into
about thirty. Well, he stops behind one of my branches
on the walnut tree, and I go ahead and draw
my bow, and he kind of acts as if he's
gonna go hoarzonal in front of me.

Speaker 11 (45:48):
It's gonna give me a perfect thirty yard broadside shot. Well,
he had other ideas. He turned as he turned.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
To come horizonal.

Speaker 10 (45:56):
He came back head on again, and what felt like
ten minutes of holding the arrow, which was probably realistically
more like a minute, he finally stepped out. When he
stepped out from behind the branch quartered away from him
was at thirteen yards. So as soon as he stepped
out and offered the shot, I let the arrow go,

(46:17):
and I knew when I saw the halo aluminot light up,
I knew that.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
The shot was perfect.

Speaker 10 (46:24):
And he ran about eighty yards out into the beans and.

Speaker 11 (46:29):
Crashed, and it was, of course the first person.

Speaker 10 (46:33):
I always caused my wife and son to let him
know what's happened.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
And you don't know how bad I.

Speaker 10 (46:40):
Wanted to just walk straight out to the beans to
put my hands on him, but you know there's so
many nightmare stories about doing that, and you know I
didn't want to wind up making this one one of those.
So we went back to the farm to meet them
and a good buddy of mine and we went back
out to retreat.

Speaker 11 (47:01):
It just seems like a dream sometimes, you.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Know, it really does. I've had that same feeling on
some big animals that I've killed, where it's almost like
it was meant to happen, if that makes sense, and
you're just almost like an observer at that point. It's like, yep,
this is this is gonna happen. And I guess for me,

(47:29):
what would have shook me up a bit? Is you
watching him come that far? Because that I don't like that,
I'll be honest about.

Speaker 10 (47:36):
It, especially when you have one hundred and fifty plus
it's deer fifteen yards from you for about twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Yes, sir, now I'm close to you for that long yes, sir,
I'm with you one hundred percent. Johnson, you shared with
me the importance of even though that camera helped you
so much, much is not relying on cameras all the time.
You're big on glassing and it actually putting eyeballs on

(48:07):
the deer. Can you talk about that a bit and
then some other strategies that you think important to share here?

Speaker 10 (48:15):
Uh, yes, sir, I think, uh, I think trail cameras
and especially cellular cameras are great ways to locate and
pinpoint deer and ultimately hunt them and harvest them. But
I also think that, uh some hunters, even myself included,
at times, kind of get lost in the trail camera game.
And I think, uh, I think we chase the cameras

(48:38):
a little bit too much rather than put in the work,
you know, the physical the physical physical side of it,
of actually being there and putting in the work to
see what's going on, rather than just like relying on technology.
One of my the biggest thing to me that I've
learned since I started hunting was never be scared to adapt,

(49:01):
never be scared to learn more, because even though you
think you might know a lot, there's always more you
can learn.

Speaker 11 (49:07):
I've learned more in the last two years since.

Speaker 10 (49:11):
Killing my one ninety two that I think I might
have learned in my years of honey leading.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Up to that.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Particular? Did you learn there.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
As far as being successful?

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Uh? After the one ninety two you mentioned you feel
like you learned a lot more after that. What what
in particular? Well, he was.

Speaker 10 (49:34):
Kind of a deer that I had relied too much
on traip paron pictures. I actually going back to that
deer in particular, I had been feeding him in a
bean field and he was coming regularly, and he just
stopped coming regularly about two weeks before season. So I
had another camera on the other end of the bean

(49:55):
field that I started getting them on periodically. So I
set an observation stone, and I set an observation stand
with really no intention of having.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
A shot on him there.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
But you know that got me out there to be
able to try to locate him anyways. Nonetheless, and I
actually located him the night before I shot that deer
and knew that I was in the ballgame and relying
on those self cameras, had I just stuck.

Speaker 10 (50:28):
With those and not physically put in the work to
find the deer. This deer had been avoiding the camera
by one hundred and fifty yards in a certain direction
every day, and I wound up killing him on the
second nay and watching him from an observation.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Stand, not even up bait.

Speaker 10 (50:44):
So that is one thing that's the biggest tip that
I could give anybody is don't just rely on technology.
You've got to be willing to put in the time
and the effort to make it happen and not just
used to technology.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Well, one of the coolest things about your story, and
it's obvious that you're very thoughtful about how you go
about your honey, is the way you improvised there at
the last moments to get this deer hopefully a chance
to get in within range. And like you say, it's

(51:24):
it's fortunately it all worked out. But you know, every
little adjustment you made really led to your success.

Speaker 10 (51:32):
In my estimation, Yeah, and that's that's the definition of
growth from my honting experiences. That's something that I wouldn't
have done ten years ago, and I thank God that
I was able to grow and have success.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Well, Dules said, thanks so much for spending time with
us tonight. Again, hats off your You're a real testimony
what folks can do with the bowl and air. There's
no doubt about it. Folks have got to go to
break here. This break is presented by SMI Marine twenty
twenty fives and they're on sale with all kinds of incentives.

(52:09):
Twenty six is are on their way and troubleshoot any
of your problems with your boat. Remember you never get
soaked by my friends at SMI. All right, folks up
next to Dadam Huber from Cumberland County and Adam beautiful,
beautiful there. You've taken everyboddy. You're an extension agent down

(52:34):
Monroe County and you actually help people with farm and
wildlife management practices, so all this comes pretty easy for you.
Tell us about your buck and the hunt and how
this all enrolled for you.

Speaker 8 (52:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate you all have me on this afternoon. Yeah,
I mean kind of the story of this dear of
the deer that year and after season had ended, probably
I think in December. I of course, it had some
cameras out and I've gotten a photo of this deer,
and I knew that he was a young deer, probably

(53:12):
a three year old at that time. And I knew
that he was probably around the you know, one hundred
and thirty one hundred and thirty five minutes deer, just
a really good deer that would have really good potential,
you know, moving forward. And so that's kind of where
this story begins, is in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty
three year olds around and I had, of course, uh,

(53:34):
never gotten pictures this year before besides, you know, in
the in the late winter of twenty twenty two, and
so I wasn't really sure, you know, kind of what
was going to happen in twenty three, just kind of
being hopeful, you know, that I would get more and
more photos of this year, and so I of course
had my my cameras out, you know, as early as possible,
and I got some pictures of this deer. I believe

(53:57):
it's probably around uh September that first year, late August,
you know, first of both seasons, and twenty three, and
he'd grown into probably you know, mid one forties type
of deer with a uh double split G three on
one side, and so I was kind of excited about
hunting this year, even though I knew he was probably
around a four and a half year old deer. I
still knew that he you know, was and around here

(54:19):
where we're where we're at, you know, there's a lot
of hunting pressure and the farms that were hunting, you know,
not a lot of acres that were hunting around here,
and so, uh, you know, a lot of times lead
deer don't get to to grow to the age of that,
you know, uh, maturity that you know sometimes you would
like them to get, and so you just kind of
kind of kind of work with what you've got there.
But I knew that in twenty three, you know, I

(54:41):
was gonna hunt this deer, and so he started, uh,
you know, showing up on camera, and he showed up early,
and then he kind of left there and there and
the rut and uh and then come back a little
bit later on. And so I really didn't see him
at all that year, uh, you know, with my own
two eyes. And then of course it was just on
camera pretty much in twenty three. And then so twenty

(55:04):
three kind of kind of comes to a close, and
of course still getting some pictures of him throughout the
late season, and then twenty four rows around, and I
had kind of had it in my mind, you know,
I've got some history with this yeer now, and I
kind of knew a little bit of more about him,
you know, with having a full you know, kind of
a year and a half with experience with this deer.

(55:26):
And so I thought to myself, you know that this
farm that I'm hunting on, it is a cattle farm,
and in the area that I'm hunting in, there's really
no agriculture as far as crop land goes, mostly just
cattle farms, and so not a lot of you know,
good high protein feed for them, you know there during
the summertimes, you know, for anthro growth. And so I

(55:49):
decided I was going to put a food plot out
at the end of this pasture field. And so I
did that in twenty four and so that was the
first year that I had plant of this plot for
the year, and I had you know, pretty much planted
this food plot just for this particular deer. And so
in twenty four this deer started showing up uh a

(56:09):
ton during during August. If if both seasons would have started,
you know, the middle of August, I could have killed
this year. And he's out of twenty four and so
probably you know, up two weeks before both seasons started.
He was you know, from middle of July to August.
He was in there pretty much the all the time,
you know, midday, afternoons, mornings, pretty much you can set

(56:30):
your clock by, you know, the time that he would
would come out.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
And so.

Speaker 8 (56:35):
Both seasons started, and I really hunted this deer quite
a bit and tried to be you know, particular with
the times that I was going in and and be
be patient with him and and that kind of stuff,
and so, uh, it ended up not not working out.
You know, he kind of left during the rut and
then comes back later on. And so by this time

(56:57):
I've gotten a picture of this deer on the November
the twenty eighth, and he was, you know, at my
feeter and looking good and and was perfectly healthy. And
the next morning I went in and I actually end
up shooting another deer, one hundred and forty four inch
deer with my bow. This was, like I said, no,
we were twenty ninth at this point. And then I

(57:18):
didn't get another picture of this big deer until five
days later. And it's kind of a I guess the
I guess it all worked out good, and the good
old was kind of looking looking out for me, because
the next picture I got of this deer, he broke
half of his rack off, and so I was thinking
to myself, you know, after I shot this other deer,
I was kind of you know, I was excitedn't happy
if that I killed this other deer, But in the

(57:39):
back of my mind, I'm like, man, I should have
probably have waited, you know, because this deer's gonna be
late suson coming up, and these deer, you know, this
there may come up, you know and feeding into the
food plot that I planted, and it might be able
to get a shot him later on. But ended up
working out, you know, that I shot this other deer,
and so kind of my theory moving forward worked out
pretty well because late season this year was using this

(58:01):
food plot, I mean just every day, every night, every morning.
Well he was out there one afternoon. Of course, I
had sell cameras up. I got a picture on my phone,
went over and actually uh fit by an by a
turned yard's way and washed them through the spoting scope.
And that was the first time I ever laid my

(58:22):
eyes on him, you know, and uh, of course, like
I had half his rack broken off at that point,
so fast forward, you know, kind of late season goes
and ends, and then I ended up finding his shed
and and so I kind of put all these pieces
together of this puzzle, and I thought myself, and of
course I never really hunted the food plot that I planted.

(58:44):
I just planted that, you know, just to feed these
deer and and try to get them kind of you know,
used to to coming up into this field. And so
I'm trying to put all these pieces of this puzzle together.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
And at this.

Speaker 8 (58:55):
Point, I said, twenty four season ends, and now we're
into this this season now, And so I planted this
food plot again, uh, planet of soil beans and uh
and putting an Egyptian wheat screen around this field. And
so uh that was kind of you know where this
season kind of starts. And so for this setup, I've

(59:16):
got two lines on the edge of this field once
for and none of none of these stands are good
for or lines are good for a northern northernly wind.
And so of course, as everybody has talked about here tonight,
the front that we had come through, you know, was
was the northern front. And so on Friday afternoon I

(59:39):
went in and put up a new stand, uh, this
was a lock on tree stand on the it would
have been the west side of this field where this
deer is coming out. And prior to that, if I
my my I also was feeding corn as well, and
so I had you know, plants, soy beans actually turn

(01:00:00):
ups and kill as much a mixture of brassica's. And
so my other two stand locations were set up for
about a thirty yard shot. And because I wasn't expecting,
you know, this big northern front to come through, you know,
the first weekend, the boat boath set them, which actually
worked out perfect, you know, and a lot of good
deer got got killed that weekend, but that's something you

(01:00:21):
don't really expect, and so I had to kind of
work around that, and so I put this new stand
up on the other side of this field. And my
only problem with this was if I did get an
opportunity at this deer, he was going to be about
a sixty yard shot to where he was more likely
going to be standing. And so fast forward to Saturday,

(01:00:43):
the first day of season. I seen pretty much every
buck that had on camera except for three of them,
and of course the big deer was one of them,
and it was a young nice ten pointer and then
he had another young, smaller deer with him. So seen
every one of those deer except for those three on Saturday.
On Sunday, which is the day that I killed this year,

(01:01:04):
I get in there. Actually I had my wife drive
me into the stand both days, just because I figured that,
you know, these deer kind of you know, they hear
that sound, and usually whenever I go in there, I'm
feeding corn, and then of course I would leave, and
so that's kind of why I was thinking, these deer,
we'll we'll hear that, and I think that, you know,

(01:01:24):
there's fresh feed and they'll they won't think nothing of it.
So that's kind of my strategy that I had going
into this, was just having her drive in and dropped
me off. And so that's what we did. Got up
in the standing Sunday, and the first two deers I
seen was two of the ones I didn't see on Sunday.
So I've seen the young nice tend point and his
buddy that he was working, that he was running with,

(01:01:46):
and they were out there for probably five minutes, and
this other little young deer just comes busting out of
the woods and so it scared the daylight there of
these two other deer that's in the field, and so
they take off running. They run directly towards me and
kind of come in behind me and come and they
go like basically the direction that the wind was blowing.

(01:02:07):
But I'm kind of on the hillside and the wind's
kind of blowing off over into this holler, and that's
kind of the way that they went. So I'm thinking myself,
Oh goodness, that's not good. They're gonna go down there
and they're gonna blow the whole the whole one that's
gonna be busted up. And they actually never never did
mail me or anything. And so these other two deals
that come out into the field that scared these other

(01:02:29):
two off. They they kind of fed out for probably
they're probably out there for fifteen to twenty minutes, and
they kind of eased off, and then the field was
empty for probably seemed like twenty five thirty minutes. It
probably wouldn't that long, probably fifteen or twenty realistically. But
now I'm thinking myself, well, I'm not gonna gonna see
anything this afternoon. I've seen, you know, pretty much everything

(01:02:52):
that's hear besides the one I'm after, you know, between
the two days, and so I'm just kind of kind
of honestly down down on myself. I'm like, well, and
it's about thirty minutes till dark, you know, legal shooting
into legal shooting light. And then I kind of look
over and here comes this buck that I seen the
day prior, which is a mature eight pointer. He didn't
not a real high scorn deer, but he's mature deer.

(01:03:13):
I seen him. He comes out of this trail. It's
about fifty yards from him kind of uh walks up
to where the feed is. And so I'm already at
this point. I always is at the end of the
uh that's thing. I'm always standing up just to be
ready anyway. And so I've got my range finder in
my hand. I'm just you know, looking at him and
ranging him, and it's like sixty yards he's standing up there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
And then so I.

Speaker 8 (01:03:33):
Look over and I've got a gap and then some
tree limbs that are kind of hanging down. And then
once they get past these tree limbs, I can pretty
much see the entire field. I look over into this
gap and then I see the big deer come out
of this trail. So I'm thinking I'll talk to myself.
I'm like, there he is. So I grab my bow.
He gets past those tree limbs and I range him

(01:03:55):
in fifty yards and I move my dial. I lost
you a single pen sight, move my dial to few.
And then he takes off, trotting up to where the
other deer is at. And I'm like that one, I
might like to shoot this deer at sixty yards if
he is an opportunity, which I'm definitely confident in because
I've been practicing, you know, all summer, and I'm you know,
confident in myself and also the equipment that I'm using.

(01:04:16):
So you know, sixty yards obviously you'd got to shoot
him closer than that if possible, But you know, I'm,
you know, like, I'm definitely confident in that in my
ability to do so. But anyway, so he trots up
to the to the other deer, and then following this
big deer, the young tenpointerer that got scared earlier in

(01:04:36):
the afternoon, he walks out behind him as well, and
so they're all kind of up there at this point.
I he gets burning stops and I drew my bow back,
and then they kind of started running each other around
and then he gets where he's he runs around, he's
kind of like facing towards me. So I let down,
Like I said, this is sixty yards. I let down,
and he kind of stands there for a minute. Then

(01:04:59):
he starts angling away from him and the kind of stands
and walks broadside and just standing there kind of looking
over the hill. And so just to make sure again,
I arranged him it was sixty one yards. So I
drew my bow back. He standing on the broadside, And
the whole time I'm drawing my bow, I'm like telling myself,
I'm like, calm down, you know, calm down, you can

(01:05:20):
make this shot, you know. And I'm just trying to ease,
you know, ease myself into this. And uh so I
put my took my pen on him, settled in, and
I left the air flying it. I mean, it was
tracking perfect. He ducked into it. It sounded you know
once you if you bow hunting up you know much,
you know that whenever you hear that sounds it sounds

(01:05:41):
like you shot a ballooon. It just pops through loud.
And that air zipped right through him. I knew that
I had, you know, pretty much made a perfect shot,
so he he turns around and kind of runs you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Sir, I've got to go to break here, partner, but
hats off to you for ice water in your veins.
A sixty yard shot that, oh, I tell that Calver
is just crazy good. All right, folks, I gotta go
to break here. The break is presented by montil Property's
Heart real Tea check them out m O p at
h A r T realty dot com. All right, folks,

(01:06:16):
were with Justin dubaal Clinton County. Justin, I love big hs, buddy,
you took a giant Tell us about it, Justin. Can
you hear me? All right? Scott, Justin killed a monster

(01:06:53):
of an eight pointer and we're having some difficulty to
get him up. Justin.

Speaker 11 (01:06:58):
Are you with us?

Speaker 9 (01:07:00):
Yes, sir, I'm here.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Okay, Sorry about that? Brother? Uh tell us about tell us.
I don't know if you heard me, but I love
big eights and yours is an absolute whipper. Tell us
a short story, if you would, about how you patted
this bus and how you took him.

Speaker 9 (01:07:20):
All right, sir, Yeah, I was, of course very fortunate
to take him. Which those other guys here, it's been
on the air. They've killed some they've killed some giants,
so congratulations to them. And uh, I just had to
shoot the little the little cold, I guess, because I
mean them guys, they killed some big ones. But uh,

(01:07:41):
this deer here, he was, he done kind of what
the typical big deer like to do. He was unpredictable.
He was in a mix of hard woods and uh
uh crop fields. And when I set out this uh
this summer here to get started, you know, trying to

(01:08:03):
pinpoint him, I dedicated anywhere from six to eight cameras
on this deer on every trail I could possibly find
coming and going to the beanfields, because that's where he
where I initially found him, and he was coming and
going to. But also, of course like most big deer,

(01:08:26):
he was he was unpredictable because I would have him
a few times on on one camera and think I
had him pinpointed, and he would he would do that
for a few days and then he would do something differently.
And it was the same when when I would go
glass the field of it evening times watching him, he
would he would come in one way, which was usually

(01:08:48):
completely different from what all the other bucks did. He
was just a different animal. He uh he would take
one trail consistently and think I would have him pinpointed
and go watch him the next day and he'd take
a different trail. And it was all trails where you
had would have to hunt multiple winds, which was making

(01:09:09):
it really difficult on me because I tally could not
hunt him on a south wind. And I really don't
think if it had not been for that little front
that hit, I probably wouldn't be here talking to you guys,
because I really think that's the reason I was able
to harvest that deer and you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Killing me out of the drown barne that you set
up just before this.

Speaker 9 (01:09:33):
Correct, Yes, sir, Yes, I went in about three weeks
prior to season, which was pretty special to me. I
took my took my four year old son. He went
in with me and we trimed some cutting lane or
shooting lanes because it was it was pretty thick where
I did end up setting everything. I just the uh

(01:09:57):
try all the trail cam pictures. I just started using
my mineral sight and uh feeding feeding there the first
of August on the camera that I had even the
most which, like I said, he still was not consistent
at any spot he had a few different bedding areas,
so he was he was unpredictable. I mean, he was

(01:10:20):
usually like those bigger deer are. I mean he was
really giving me fits and told you that ground line right, yeah,
my my gut didn't think was a set in that
ground line. And I hope I got a north wind
and I did. It was just perfect scenario because I
really I don't think I would a harvested that deer

(01:10:41):
had not been for that weather front.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Well, and at twenty five yards out of a ground line,
that's that's what I call eyeball to eyeball, So I
know that had been really exciting. And folks, I want
to tell you, like our other guests, this is not
uh just the first big deer. He killed a one
point fifty seven fifteen horner two years ago and so

(01:11:08):
this is a good thing. Hey, Justin, thanks so much
for being with us. Folks. If you want to see
what I mean by big eight, go to Jim Straighter
Outdoors on Facebook and you'll see Justin's dear It is
a whopper eight and I love big eights. All right, everybody,
that's a wrap for tonight. We hope you enjoy these

(01:11:29):
dear stories. All these gentlemen are very accomplished Bowl hunters,
and hats off to them for their accomplishments. Be being
careed next week, same place, the same time. God bless everybody.