Grand Adventure - Kansas!

[Guru]

That's a very well done start to this adventure...looking forward to a lot more  

[Altiman94]

Closely following this...I really want to hunt Kansas someday!!  

[John146]

Our next encounter came at a place Tim calls Cedar Draw. This is a place a few years back that Tim had an awesome encounter with an awesome buck. Tim doesn't shoot little bucks in Kansas - anything under Pope and Young. He had this 10 point buck they called Iceman which was right above P&Y and he kept passing him until the last morning of his hunt. He choose to take Iceman on the last day and 5 minutes after he shot, a true bruiser came in chasing does.

Tim took video of this deer they have since named "Murphy" (for Murphy's Law). He was a main frame 10 with 6 kickers and is one of those once in a lifetime bucks. Having already shot Iceman, Tim had to settle for video of this monster till he ran out of tape and of course he gave Tim multiple perfect shot opportunities!

We headed that way making all the noise that totally frozen lanscape makes and I was anxious to see what would happen in Cedar Draw.

 

I don't know how to edit and make a movie so you will just have to click the links in the order I put them to follow the storyline.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2HWHXxCgGA&feature=player_detailpage

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrOmKSKA0dY&feature=player_detailpage

[John146]

We set up our seats in Cedar Draw where the cedars meet the hardwood bottom. Tim was to my right and against a large tree while I was behind some short cedar trees which provided great frontal cover. I don't know how to communicate how weird it felt to "sneak" into a spot when sneaky was the last thing we were doing. I just had to get used to the fact that there was no being quiet in this weather. Every step was a loud crunch. Turns out the deer also crunch when they walk.

We had been there for about an hour and I heard a deer walking our way. It sounded like he was going to pop out 20 yards in front but when this spike buck showed up he was plum across the draw. I wonder if the noise bothers them too?

He came in to the corn we had in front of our set up and commenced to power munching. He was right in front of Tim but I could not get the camera high enough to video him where he was. Tim thought I had him on camera and then did something that I had never thought I would ever witness - he decided to ask the deer a question. Put your volume up - it happens quick.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1LSWfemWXwA

[John146]

Yes, Tim decided to ask the little buck, "You enjoying that?" Well it turns out deer don't like to be asked questions so he left pronto and I was left flabbergasted. ALL THIS NOISE was driving me crazy! The ice made noise, the branches breaking made noise and now my illustrious hunting partner is talking to the deer and making more noise. As you can tell by his laugh Tim was having a BLAST! First objective accomplished again.

I thought this hunt was over but about an hour later here comes a 4 point and he decided to hang out at 12 yards for quite some time. To be that close to deer on the ground just absolutley blows me away!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRk_c80_ZCI&feature=player_detailpage

[Jayrod]

Wow....what good videos keep em coming!!

[John146]

Well, things started to thaw out and we had a great Christmas dinner with John and his wife who drove up to Kansas to cook and have Christmas dinner with us. CRAZY HOSPITALITY!! We ate like pigs and discussed deer hunting constantly. We were seeing some deer while hunting but nothing in range and no big buck sightings so the strategy sessions were intense.

It was at this time that I got a neat Christmas present. I received a text from my wife with a picture of Steve North with a big deer in front of him. When I called her she informed me that Steve North had sent actual pictures to my house of a big 11 point he killed while using the SPOT 360 Hunting Seat. She wasn't supposed to open them up so she kind of messed up the surprise that Steve had planned but it was great.

I had met Steve about 10 years ago with Tim. We were on our way back from deer hunting in Missouri and we stopped at his house for a visit. This guy has killed some very big deer in his life and most from the ground. Steve broke his back in a tree stand accident about 25 years ago so hunting from the ground became a necessity for years. His detailed memory of every hunt is the most remarkable thing I remember about our first meeting. Simply amazing!

I called him that night to congratulate him on another fine deer. It is a main frame 10 with a 4" kicker coming out of the left G2. It was 21 1/2" wide inside and scored 163. His labrador retriever "Yeller" found it so this ones official name is "Yeller's Buck."

 

 

 

 

[John146]

Between Christams and New Years we continued hunting hard, sitting on average 6-8 hours a day and we started noticing that the deer seem to want to be high instead of in the bottoms. The acorns were all off the trees and all the ones we found were rotten inside. We are still not sure what the deer were keying on as a food source but there was some green grass scattered in the blue stem brown grass that had been clipped by deer.

I found Kansas, at least where we hunted to be a ground hunters dream. The terrain really limits where deer can move through cover and there was plenty of stuff to crawl into and hide.

When the open grass would meet the beginning of the creek draws you would have scattered Osage Trees and almost all of them had cedars growing at there base. The cedars would get a little thicker the further you moved downhill before ending in a wide open oak flat.

Here are some random pics of where we were and different set ups as well as views from where we were sitting.

Tim saw 3 coyotes cruise this bottom from this spot.

 

 

 

[John146]

Here is a typical set up for us with Tim in front and me behind when the cover let us set up this way. This was in "Death Valley" where 5 bucks were killed by 5 different hunters in 5 days 10 years ago. By the size of the rubs we found there are still some studs roaming the valley, we just did not see them this day.

 

 

 

[John146]

Some of the country side. Kansas is a beautiful place!!

 

 

 

 

[John146]

Critters and things.

 

 

 

An Osage Orange
 

 

Acorns have fallen
 

[Cyclic-Rivers]

This thread is Great.  Congrats on the doe and some nice footage you have.

[lilbobby]

Thanks for the adventure, great story and footage!

[Keith Zimmerman]

Thanks for sharing.  I love hunting KS.  Lots of big bucks and nice deer.  Kansas residents have the science down to an art.  Most of them will pass on 130s and 140s all day long.  Those are young deer.  Thats why they have so many nice bucks running around.

[Gen273]

Todd,

thanks for such a great thread!

[TRAP]

Thanks for the trip to KS

[rwbowman]

Loving it. Keep it coming!

[John146]

Remember part of the second objective was hopefully some history of the area. On some hunts these sorts of things just add a neat flavor to a new place. Well we had a chance meeting with the farmer that owns one of the properties we hunted and when I asked about the old buildings there he started telling me about his farm, his family and some history.

His Great Grandfather had this farm and we walked over to an old building that I thought was a shed. Turns out it was his GGF's House. He built it right after the Civil War. I guess it would have measured 16' x 20'. Makes you think back to the way things were and the people and how tough they had to be.

The front
 


The side
 

Then he took us over to his Grandfathers house. It was big with 2 chimneys and I thought it must have been quite the home back in the day. It was built in the 1920's and his GF was a prosperous farmer in those days. We went inside and there were LIFE Magazines from the 1940's inside.
 
 

 

[John146]

This old Fruit Cellar was a neat thing as well. The farmer told us there used to be a homestead up above it and this is where those folks would store their fruits, vegatables and some meats as well. They also find a lot of arrowheads along the river near by.

 

[John146]

Our trip was winding down to the last few days and though we were seeing a few deer the hunting was not what we had hoped. Tim had told me that during the 3 weeks he had been there in November no one had seen a shooter buck for the first time ever. That pattern was playing out with us as well but we were having a good time nonetheless.

Tim had in mind a spot on the property we had not went in yet called the Rock Draw and it had all the ingredients of where we had been seeing the deer moving. High grassy hills with denser cedars butting up to the oak flats. We hit fresh sign right where we thought we would and jumped a deer when we were picking out a spot to sit. Turns out we were in the right spot for some fur to show up and not just deer!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tJQC-EJW1rc

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VIokqVBIUYg

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jby9nLEmSdQ