Well, I thought my season was over but the oldest boy had to get revenge on his younger brother whom just shot his first buck this year, which also happened to be bigger than his......so......off we rode out this morning, one last time. My oldest only wanted to hunt today, even though he could still hunt till next weekend with the special "youth season" ongoing. Kids these days and their priorities.....ha! Speaking of priorities, I told him to lay out everything last night that he would need for today. Anyone think that happened....he's 13? Nope. 45 minutes later than anticipated we are off and I am already perturbed. A pet peeve of mine if you will. If we are leaving at 5, you had better be in the car by 4:55. But I digress.....

We decided on a blind that sits on top of a dried up pond damn. It has for some reason or another had some allure for larger bucks in late December early January. Though the traffic isn't heavy, what is there is usually mature and a potential shooter. Got in around 5:50. By 6:30 I could make out the silhouette of a deer but couldn't see antlers. I was pretty sure he was a buck those with the stained rear hocks and darker larger body. By 6:55 I knew we had a buck but the size I was uncertain about. By the time we had enough light we both knew he wasn't a shooter. A very nice young 8 with budding G4's that would make him a 10 pt next year. We decided to pass. By 8:30 the 5 does and the young 8 had exited. There was no reason to sit here any longer. Deer only come in to this spot to either, a) bed down at night in or b) feed on the corn and then move on. I proposed the following: 1) stay here and hope for something to come in, or move about a mile due south to my tower blind that sits at the mouth of a huge draw that winds up to the top of the mesa above and hunt for predators....bobcats to be exact. He chose to move on to the next location.

We made it back to the track, picked up the FoxPro and off we went to the next blind. By 9am I had unloaded all of my gear and my son in the tower blind. I grabbed the FoxPro and walked 100 yds out from the blind to set it up. Let me preface this by saying, I have NEVER used this electronic game caller before and honestly didn't know much about how to use it. What I did know is that all of the reviews I had read online said that bobcats love them some "woodpecker" calls. That's all I needed to know. Forget the direction to the game call...... I am a man. I got this. I placed the call just out from a bush, hid the accessory speaker in the bush and mounted the "woodpecker thing-a-ma-jig" on the side of the call that was supposed to dance around and put that cat into a trance. Volume cranked up - CHECK, Front and Rear speakers on - CHECK. Scroll down to the first woodpecker sound I saw - "LIGHTS CAMER ACTION". The shrill of the woodpecker was in full effect. I walked back to the blind with the symphony playing full bore (can you tell I have no idea what I am doing ). I climb up the ladder, into the blind (my son isn't even paying attention. He is reading a book). I shut the door and sit down while mashing the button to get the woodpecker to dance.......but he aint dancing . Right about then - BOBCAT, BOBCAT as I am hitting my son in the arm to get his attention. Anyone ever seen that movie Zootopia where there is that DMV employee that's a sloth and takes forever to do something. That was my son at this moment. I could tell there was no time to wait. The bobcat was coming in quick and I had no freaking clue had to work the remote. The speakers are still blaring full blast, this plastic thing that looks like a 2D red/black/white woodpecker is limp as all get out. I am sure the Bobcat is think, "just what on God's green Earth is happening right about now"...... and that's when I took matters into my own hands and grabbed my .243 and put and end to it. Yes......in under 5 minutes I had turned on the Foxpro, made it back to my blind, sat down, called in a Bobcat and killed a Bobcat. My son and I were utterly amazed. Well, we thought, if it's that easy lets keep calling

I get out of the blind, grab the bobcat and move him away from the call and up underneath the blind. By now I have figured out how to work the remote but I still cant get "woody" to do his thing. Oh well, we got things to kill. With experience under my belt I have figured out how to adjust the volume, mute/pause the volume etc. I let it go for about 60 seconds then fade out the sound for about a 2-5 minute pause and then cranked it back up. We did this for about the next 20 minutes. By now my son had his gun at the ready like he was going to drawn down with a long gun on someone in a duel behind the OK Corral. We are looking hard, scanning back and forth for any sign of predator size movement when I see tall antlers walking into view from left to right. I start hitting my son again in the arm... BIG BUCK, BIG BUCK - get ready to shoot!!! He dang near bounced that rifle off every wall and window seal in that blind trying to get it out the window and the buck. Thank goodness "Ole Woody" was still going full bore and did a heck of a job drowning out all of his excess noise. 5 steps into a clearing, 50 yds away, I grunted, he paused and looked at us, and I said "SHOOT HIM, SHOOT HIM". Without a pause, my son at the ready dropped the hammer. We had a buck down. Excite was abounding. Why on Earth would a buck come walking in to a "woodpecker" show down? No idea, but he did and my son made him pay. So in less than 25 minutes we have a bobcat and and sweet split G3 12 point buck on the ground. First words out of my sons mouth......IS IT BIGGER THAN ANDYNS (his brother)? YES, and then some.

What an outstanding season of hunting you and your family have had. Well done and congratulations.

Awesome story! Congrats on the great harvest

Great write up!!! Congrats

Congrats to both of y'all, really enjoyed the read!

Outstanding read. Woodpecker is limp as all get out Congrats on a very nice buck guys

couldn't agree more

Very well done, even with the new gear. Outstanding buck and congrats on the cat. By the way, I'm a huge fan of the sloth in Zootopia.

As far as the woodpecker going limp...oh, let's just save that discussion for another time.

Congrats!!

Great story. Congrats to all of y'all on a great season.

nice story and congrat to the hunter

That is awesome! Congrats to yall

Great 25 minutes of hunting with your son congrats to you both, especially your boy heck of a nice buck


but I still cant get "woody" to do his thing. IS IT BIGGER THAN ANDYNS (his brother)? YES, and then some.

Looks a trip to the taxidermist is in your future!

yep, great write up too!

X's 2!!!

That is a happy young man right there! Good job Dad, sounds like y'all had a very eventful hunt.

Congrats!

Nice, thanks for sharing.

Wow, great story! Congrats to you and your boy sir!

Awesome story and congrats to you both!

Story time... A few years ago my brother took me varmint hunting in Breckenridge with ffread for my bachelor party. Made the first stand in late afternoon. We nestle down on the edge looking down into a pretty good little draw, my brother at about the 6 oclock position me at about 9 oclock, call and woodpecker decoy hanging out of a tree at the bottom of the draw. Ffread fires off the woodpecker in distress and we're looking down into the draw intently. Never saw a cat, but I catch movement over by my brother and see a large mature buck standing about 5 feet behind him and above him also looking down into the draw. Neither of them knew the other was there. I still laugh when I think about it.

So, I guess long story short, FoxPro's woodpecker calls work pretty well for large bucks too...

Russell