I got drawn for a managed hunt in Kansas City this fall. We were told to mark trees with flagging tape as a way of letting other hunters know where we were going to be. I picked a cedar tree because of its proximity to a bean field and the early scrape I had found nearby. I arrived early the opening morning to find some other guys stand already in place in my tree. My flagging tape was still there. I went back to the parking lot and ran into the other hunter. He claimed that since he had hunted that spot for the last 4 years and since I had flagged several nearby trees that I hogged all the spots so he had the right to take my tree. After I reminded him that the conservation agent had told us to manage ourselves, he begrudgingly offered to take the stand down. I told him to forget it and that karma was going to even this one out.
I did some more scouting after hunting from my secondary spot for a few days. I found four scrapes in a nice pocket where two draws of timber met. It over looked a valley to the south. Perfect for a buck checking on some does. I sat up over the trail in the only decent tree I could find. A honey locust...ouch.
My first sit in the stand was on Sunday and I was rewarded with a forky at first light. After he left I used my can call and a few grunts. Around 7am I sat down only to have a doe come in seconds later. I started to stand up but a nice buck was coming through the timber casually following her. I usually like to be standing but I decided to sit tight as they were already under 20 yards. They acted like they were going to cut behind me which was going to make for a tough quartering-to shot. But just then the doe turned and the buck paused and followed. I was already at full draw and just let him walk into my shooting lane. It was a perfect 15 yard shot right behind the shoulder blade.
Topic: KC Buck and Karma (with pics) (Read 1977 times)
