Brown County Hunt, Blown Chances And Lessons Learned
11-09-2008, 09:53 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Pingree Grove, IL
Posts: 1,204
Brown County Hunt, Blown Chances And Lessons Learned
First of all before I get started I would have never had the chance to go on this trip had I not taken a neighbor out last year and gotten him into bowhunting. Something I have often done is take people out to my hunting spot to share the place I may be losing soon, so they have an opportunity to hunt local areas.
We left for Brown early Wednesday morning and arrived around 10AM. We unloaded and quickly hopped on the four wheelers and scouted the property. There was an 80 acre parcel and a 22 acre parcel across the creek giving us 102 acres to hunt, we also had 44 acres across the street that we never even scouted or hunted. Here are a few pics of the house and barn.
Shortly after our scouting trip we selected a few spots to hunt, I set up off a ravine creek crossing on a ridge for mornings and right on the creek for afternoon hunts. Here are a few pics of where my set was located. The area would prove to be a great area for deer even though I got busted a couple of times!
After setting up my stands we went back up for lunch and mulled around the barn. My buddy Mike showed me his wife's cousin's antler collection of pick up's and those not big enough for the wall at home. There have been deer over 200" Non Typical and a few 170-180" Typicals through the years. Not bad considering the area gets heavy shotgun pressure. Here are some of the deer heads laying in the barn.
After seeing the potential of the deer on the property I was pumped. Needless to say that evening I'd get busted at 70 yards by what looked to be a typical 12 pointer that might go 170+. I was setting my bow hook and made too much noise not seeing him come down from the ridge.
The following morning I would whack a Coyote that was part of a pock of three chasing does. The coyote was moving slowly at 30 yards and I gut shot it. It laid down for 20 minutes and I thought it was dead only to get up and craw into a ravine into a hole dug under some tree roots. Later that day I was in my stand and facing up the ridge only to get busted by a 140" class 8 pointer coming from the creek. I was sitting down and reached for my bow and wham, he was out of there.
Day three saw little morning activity, the winds were blowing 30-40mph. On the afternoon hunt I passed on a spike and 110" 8 pointer and almost had a few does within range at sunset but no dice.
Day four I decided to move my climber to a spot a little further West where there were fresh rubs through a Cedar thicket, that almost paid off with a nice 150 class 10 pointer coming within 10 yards of my shooting lane until he turned and went after a doe. There would be another chance on a doe right before last light but I passed because I wasn't 100% sure I'd get a clean hit.
I am pumped to hunt this property again and should have the chance for years to come, all I can say about the Golden Triangle is "WOW". The deer were just starting to rut and if we had been there a week later the action would be incredible.
On a side note I ran into an issue with a leaking axle seal while down there. We went into town to a guy to have him pull the plug and top it off to see if we could make it home. The guy found it leaked half a quart and filled it and smiled saying "You should be alright getting back home, that'll be 5 dollars". I flipped him a twenty and told him to take the misses out to dinner. It is rare to find an area with such friendly and kind people, reminds me of where I grew up. I look forward to my next trip back down and next time I'll be dragging out a monster
We left for Brown early Wednesday morning and arrived around 10AM. We unloaded and quickly hopped on the four wheelers and scouted the property. There was an 80 acre parcel and a 22 acre parcel across the creek giving us 102 acres to hunt, we also had 44 acres across the street that we never even scouted or hunted. Here are a few pics of the house and barn.
Shortly after our scouting trip we selected a few spots to hunt, I set up off a ravine creek crossing on a ridge for mornings and right on the creek for afternoon hunts. Here are a few pics of where my set was located. The area would prove to be a great area for deer even though I got busted a couple of times!
After setting up my stands we went back up for lunch and mulled around the barn. My buddy Mike showed me his wife's cousin's antler collection of pick up's and those not big enough for the wall at home. There have been deer over 200" Non Typical and a few 170-180" Typicals through the years. Not bad considering the area gets heavy shotgun pressure. Here are some of the deer heads laying in the barn.
After seeing the potential of the deer on the property I was pumped. Needless to say that evening I'd get busted at 70 yards by what looked to be a typical 12 pointer that might go 170+. I was setting my bow hook and made too much noise not seeing him come down from the ridge.
The following morning I would whack a Coyote that was part of a pock of three chasing does. The coyote was moving slowly at 30 yards and I gut shot it. It laid down for 20 minutes and I thought it was dead only to get up and craw into a ravine into a hole dug under some tree roots. Later that day I was in my stand and facing up the ridge only to get busted by a 140" class 8 pointer coming from the creek. I was sitting down and reached for my bow and wham, he was out of there.
Day three saw little morning activity, the winds were blowing 30-40mph. On the afternoon hunt I passed on a spike and 110" 8 pointer and almost had a few does within range at sunset but no dice.
Day four I decided to move my climber to a spot a little further West where there were fresh rubs through a Cedar thicket, that almost paid off with a nice 150 class 10 pointer coming within 10 yards of my shooting lane until he turned and went after a doe. There would be another chance on a doe right before last light but I passed because I wasn't 100% sure I'd get a clean hit.
I am pumped to hunt this property again and should have the chance for years to come, all I can say about the Golden Triangle is "WOW". The deer were just starting to rut and if we had been there a week later the action would be incredible.
On a side note I ran into an issue with a leaking axle seal while down there. We went into town to a guy to have him pull the plug and top it off to see if we could make it home. The guy found it leaked half a quart and filled it and smiled saying "You should be alright getting back home, that'll be 5 dollars". I flipped him a twenty and told him to take the misses out to dinner. It is rare to find an area with such friendly and kind people, reminds me of where I grew up. I look forward to my next trip back down and next time I'll be dragging out a monster
