Both Andy and I love to hear about your hunting adventures, both typical days and those exciting days that you harvest a trophy, especially a nice buck. We were lucky enough to have one of our readers, Gino, send us a summary of his harvest and some great pictures of a nice 8 pt trophy. I will let you read about his adventure in his own words, but I wanted to take a minute to congratulate Gino on his trophy and thank him for giving us the privilege to share his story with you. We believe that early season is sometimes the best time of year to harvest a curious buck and we are excited that Gino was able to take such a nice deer early in the season. It is refreshing to know that bigger bucks do still exist on public hunting lands and hopefully this story will serve as a reminder that Loch Raven has the right environment to generate some beautiful bucks.
Here is a little summary of Gino’s hunt...
I was able to sneak out of work around 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, October 5th. I got home, got scent free and headed out towards Loch Raven. We finally had a perfect NW wind for one of my key stand locations, so I headed there for the first time in a of couple weeks. I made it to my tree at about 4:15 p.m., tied off, pulled up my bow and pack and settled in. I let everything settle down for about 20 minutes or so, then let out a few grunt calls into the hollow to my right. It wasn't 5 minutes later and I turn to my right and there is a nice buck standing on the edge of the clearing about 35 yards away. Now its 4:45 p.m., so needless to say I was a little shocked to see such a nice buck so early in the evening. With all the greenery still on the ground, he snuck in and I never heard him which only added to the surprise. I immediately knew he was a shooter, so I quickly composed myself, got my bow ready, and he slowly fed through the clearing in front of me. In the meantime (which was about 30 seconds), I heard another deer coming in behind him. As you all know, typically this time of year the bucks are still in their bachelor groups and typically the smaller ones are leading the way. This got me a little excited thinking maybe there was even a bigger buck behind him. That excitement was quickly squashed as a small 4pt showed his face. Oh well...my focus instantly turned back on the 8pt in front of me. He fed right down the trail and I stopped him at 19 yards. I let the arrow fly and I absolutely smoked him. Double lunged him, complete pass through...he only went about 50 yards and expired.
16-3/4" inside spread, 8 pt, I believe he is 3-1/2" years old. He is by no means a giant, but I couldn't be happier with this deer from the heavily pressured Loch Raven grounds. I saw a bigger 10 pt before the season in this same general area, but there was no way I was going to be able to pass this guy up when he presented the perfect shot.
This proves that there are "good" deer out there at the local reservoirs that many of us hunt. With some good scouting, paying attention to the details (scent control, wind direction, etc.) and alot of luck, you can certainly be successful. Now I get to have some fun and take out a few does to help curb the massive doe population at Loch Raven. It's a little disappointing that my buck season is over so quickly, but also somewhat of a relief to get a nice one down this early!
Good luck and safe hunting to all this season!!
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