Thank you all for your patience. I'm not sure exactly how to do this so please bear with me. Sharing is half the fun and I'd like to share my success with all my brothers of the bow on TG, PBS and Stickbow. I have to admit I must be one sick dude as today is Nov. 3, 2011, it's 37 degrees out, I have a valid tag in my pocket and I'm sitting behind the computer!
I don't really know where to start because this quest encompassed years in the making. I guess I'll bring everyone up to speed starting on Oct. 28, 2009 when I missed Hurley. Live footage of him is in our latest DVD "Essential Encounters". Basically, I had a broadside shot at him but there was a horizontal branch halfway between he and I. I knew if I shot below it I'd hit him too low so tried to slide the shaft over top of the branch. I over compensated and shot right over his back. That's when I named him Hurley because I felt like hurling right about then.
A week or so later I lost control on a nice 6x5 standing broadside looking the other way and I was out. What an idiot. Last year, Halloween evening I had that B&C buck we nicknamed "Burly" do the same thing. I honestly thought about not shooting him because I had my heart set on Hurley. But a 173 3/8" 4x4 broadside under 15 yds. looking the other way was too much for me. After I shot Burly I continued to hunt with the camcorder even though I was having major camera problems. I ended up seeing Hurley five times and unfortuneately only got a few seconds of footage (which is also on Essential Encounters). The most memorable encounter he walked by at 25 yds. and the camera flashed "eject cassette" giving me zero footage and only memories. And my memory isn't so hot anymore.
But the next and most important sighting added a vital piece to the puzzle. One morning while walking out an old logging/slid road I came around a corner and there was Hurley working the overhead branch on a scrape along the road. I saw him before he saw me. I took a couple steps backwards and was digging the camera from my backpack when he stepped from the skid road and topped a small rise. Again, zero footage. BUT it gave me more knowledge of his undisturbed pattern and more importnatly, upon close inspection it revealed a very minor trail where he crossed. This episode ended up being a huge piece of the puzzle. About ten days ago while walking out after dark I came around the little dogleg in the skid trail and was shining my flashlight down the road as I walked. Something caught my eye in the exact place I saw him mentioned above. I could see two widely spaced eyes in the light and pieces of antler just above it. I had a strong feeling it was him. I turned the light out and just stood there a few minutes to let him move on hopefully without disturbing him.
A few mornings later on the way into stand in the dark I saw a smoking fresh scrape right where his little, minor trail left the skid road. Hurley tends to make very aggressive scrapes that were pawed deeply into the ground, actually making the scrapes concave. I was almost certain it was his scrape. Another piece of the puzzle.
The next morning, Oct. 29th, as Gene and I entered the skid road before light we were running a little late. I showed Gene the scrape. Because we were late, Gene took a trail camera from his pack, just set it on the ground pointing towards the overhead branch, turned it on and we walked away.
This is interesting stuff that all adds to the puzzle. That morning I never saw a single deer... zero. Gene saw two does. On the way out he pulled the chip from the camera laying on the ground. An hour later it revealed a giant bodied buck standing in the scrape but you couldn't see his head. I thought I recognized that body. Another piece of the puzzle.
That was three times I thought he'd crossed through there. We needed to get a stand in there.
Topic: Uncle Barry missed... update (Read 50544 times)
