I took today off, will be back in the stand tomorrow afternoon.

Back in the stand this afternoon, I have a bow hunter in a bow blind and I'm in a tower stand on another part of the ranch scouting for him. I just got a text from my THF bow hunter that as soon as I drove away from dropping him off a young buck came straight in to the sugar beet crush I had poured out. I will post up a picture from his blind he sent me.

It's starting off to be a good evening.

I have 7 doe and 3 yearling bucks that just came into my stand. I'm trying to post up pictures from phone, but photo bucket not working right now

My hunter just text me said he had a mid 130 8pt come in and he was thinking about sticking him when the feeder went off and the buck went into the brush, hunter said if the buck comes back it's time to launch an arrow.

This what I'm watching right now, couple young bucks, doe and yearlings. Sorry about quality taken from my flip phone, yes I'm old school. I didn't have any film for my poloroid

Deer rich environment!!

Thank you, but they eating bunches of DD protein and putting me in the poor house. I eats lots of bologna sandwiches.

Good morning to all, my bow hunter and I are back at it this morning, I put him back in the same pop up bow blind he sat in last night so if that bruiser 8pt comes back in or another buck that excites him he will have the opportunity to let an arrow fly. I'm back in the same tower doing some scouting.

Sure taking a long time for it to break day light this morning, I can hear the crunching of the corn and golden nuggets, but only see dark shadows.

Just got a text from my bow hunter, he said big heavy 8pt came in and started to chow down on sugar beet crush when another big buck came in and ran the first 8pt off the pile of sugar beet crush. Yep you quessed it, my bow hunter stuck the buck with an arrow at 27 yards. We are gonna give him plenty of time to expire. He said shot was true and the buck was digging as he was leaving. I will keep you updated

Looking forward to the pics

Well?!

Sorry, long day. We spent 7 hrs. trying to recover my bow hunters buck. We gave the buck a full hour before the initial attempt to locate was made. The bow hunter felt the location of contact with the arrow to the buck was good. We found a portion of the arrow broke off on the ground indicating over half the arrow remained in the buck. We found a fairly good blood trail about 30 yards from the broken arrow. We followed the blood trail for several hundred yards with drops of blood every couple feet. The buck made several circles and traveled up the mountain. The buck never seemed to stop and lay down and no time do we believe we jumped him or pushed him. When we lost blood we made small circles trying to pick the trail up with no success. We pulled out and I called my deer dog guy Dwayne, he said it would take him about an hour and that he was on the way. Dwayne and his 2 tracking dogs know the ranch and the mountain the buck headed up pretty good. Upon Dwayne's arrival it started to rain a bit, the dogs were turned out and picked up on the bucks blood and track immediately. The dogs extended the search another 700 yards past where we had stopped. The rain started coming down pretty hard washing the blood away, but the dogs stayed focused and continued the search by making circles trying to pick the trail back up, Dwayne's dogs work very well together trading lead constantly. This went on for several more hours and better than 3 miles of travel by the dogs shown by gps. We called the dogs back after several hours on what had turned into a cold trail. Dwayne and his dogs which were exhausted headed out from the ranch, but my hunter and I who were soaking wet started back at the beginning of the trail and made another attempt to locate the buck. We searched hard for another hour in the rain making small circles and looking under every group of trees and anything offering concealment. We called the search at around 5pm. The search started at around 8:30 am this morning and only took a small break of an hour to allow for Dwayne and his dogs to take over, and then we added another hour after Dwayne left. I feel we exhausted all possibilities at this time, but it doesn't take the thought of did we do everything possible to try to recover my hunters buck.

Sounds like you made a good effort. Sorry to hear about that one getting away.

I agree. You did much more than most folks would.

I'd say you did what you could.

Just want to thank you again John. Thank Dwayne again for me too please sir. The shot looked good, but the deer just never checked up after the shot to bleed out. I know he could not have gone too far, but can't beat mother nature sometimes. Hopefully he'll turn up soon. John is an amazing guide and my wife and I had a great time.

Back in the stand on this wet dreary day. My son Cody got to come home for an evening hunt and I have a THF member with his son in a bow blind. Let's hope for a good evening of hunting for all.

Good luck. I just got my second buck Sunday but I'm having withdraws from not hunting. Lol. I'm living vicariously through this thread right now!

I have a doe and a young buck at the feeder so far. The feeder just went off

also living vicariously through you John. until i see you this weekend my friend.

Already seeing some deer. Gonna be a good evening!

My son's got a big cull 6pt and a few doe out