About a year and a half ago, my buddy and I were discussing going on a whitetail hunt. He had been on several hunts over the years and had still not shot a buck and wanted to try his hand at a good buck once more. I had only hunted once about 20 years ago and have never shot one. I agreed to go along and was super excited to try again. He had done some research and found an outfitter in the Sandhills of Nebraska for an archery hunt. Not knowing anything about the area, I just went along since the cost was very reasonable. So after the long wait, the time had finally come for us to make the drive to Nebraska. 4 of us ended up making the trip.
As we drove into Western Nebraska, the area looked pretty cool. I was getting excited as the area was mostly long rolling hills and fairly flat overall. I was thinking to myself, if I was a whitetail, this area would do
We continued our drive and as we got further, the terrain started to change. If you have never been to the Sandhills, there is water everywhere and there isn't a tree for miles. It really is an interesting place. Now that we're in the middle of the Sandhills, I'm now thinking to myself, how in the hell do you hunt whitetails in this area? We had been told that is was mostly spot and stalk and some blind hunting and it finally started to sink in about the type of hunt we were in for. This was a sunrise from the last day of hunting so you can see what the area looks like.
I took a crossbow as my weapon of choice. I had never hunted with one and thought it would be cool to give it a try. I have hunted archery off and on over the years in Utah but it has never really been my favorite type of hunting. When we arrived at the lodge, the outfitter went over the typical day of hunting. We would try to spot and stalk in the morning and then sit in a blind in the evening if we wanted. So after dinner, it was off to bed we go. We woke up early and went to the property we were scheduled to hunt on. It was approximately 15000 acres with several large lakes. The area held mule deer, whitetail, antelope and all kinds of birds.
That first morning we glassed the bottoms near the lakes. We saw quite a few does but no bucks that morning. After lunch we had decided to try and sit in a blind on a different property. We didn't see much that evening and hoped for more action the next morning. Unfortunately the next day wasn't much better. We hit both properties and basically was a rerun of the day before. That morning though we did push a nice buck off the road and up into the hills. We decided not to pursue that buck as we hoped it would not go far and would settle into his normal routine. The next day we hit the other property in the morning and only saw mule deer. The wind was blowing very hard and the Temps had dropped a bit. We decided in the evening we'd sit in the blinds at the other property. That evening was uneventful until I saw a couple does at about 150 yards. They fed out of sight and things got very boring. Light was fading fast and as I looked out the side window, I caught the glimpse of a deer standing on the horizon. It was clear immediately that it was a buck and it looked like a good one. I throw up the range finder and he's at 126 yards. That buck decided to stand there and not move an inch for the next 15 minutes. I was able to get a good picture of him with cell phone, well as good as you can get with fading light and full zoom.
Unfortunately the buck never came any closer. He went out of sight on the other side of they hill and I didn't get a chance at a shot. I was excited though as I finally got a good look at a pretty nice buck. One that I would have been super proud of to have shot especially with it being my first whitetail. The next day had some action again. The next morning we were back at the same spot I had seen the buck the night before and we had two smaller bucks feeding right towards us. They ended up bedding down along the shoreline of on the lakes and close to the hill we were gassing from. It was a short 75 yard walk to get into position. I set up on one side and my brother in law set up on the other. The way the terrain was, we were basically on a hillside looking down at them almost like we were in a tree stand. They had no options other than to go out the bottom or up the hill between us. We thought we were in a great setup that one of us would at least get a shot. Well short story is, the bigger buck somehow snuck past us and no shooting ever happened. That day was super hot. It was around 92 degrees at midday and I finally gave up and said I need some shade so I went and sat in a blind. Even though it was hot outside, the blind was cool and I didn't feel like I was about to die anymore. That evening brought in some nasty storms right at dark and all I saw was one small buck running past me faster than any deer I've ever seen run.
We were now on our last day to hunt. The wind shifted and was now blowing out of the north. This changed things up a bit and allowed for us to do a good amount of walking through the hills without blowing our scent out in front of us. Our hope was to get to an area we hadn't been able to hunt yet due yo the wind causing problems. We slowly hiked through the hills and covered about a mile and a half. We got to where we could see the bottom of another lake area and we did not see one deer. A bit frustrated we started hiking back through the hills, now with the wind at our back. Definitely not ideal but what do you do. As we got back close to where all of the action had happened the past two days, we see a glimpse of two bucks. One was a dandy. Our guide said who is up and selfishly I said I am. It was about 7am when we saw the bucks. They were feeding back to the north. We walked quickly around them and caught them in a big bowl. They were at 116 yards. Still too far. We decided to watch them and they slowly work out of sight. This allowed us to try and get closer. As we crested the next hill, they were now at 96 yards. Again still too far. We let them do their thing again and this time the big buck disappeared. It took the smaller buck about 5-10 minutes to finally feed out of sight.
Once we could move, we walked to the top of the ridge and found the small buck bedded below us at 20 yards. The big buck was still nowhere to be found. We kept looking and could not turn up the bigger buck. I was thinking he just kept feeding and split from the smaller buck. We decided to back off and circle around to get a better look into the small bowl that the smaller buck bedded in. As we crested the hill, we immediately found the small buck. Still no sign of the bigger buck. My guide at this point was standing on the top of the ridge looking around when he almost immediately dropped down and looks at me. His eyes are wide and he points and says, I found him. That of course got me excited as well. He backs off and walks over to me and is describing what he saw. After making a plan, we slowly belly crawled about 10 yards to the top of the ridge and he is trying to explain to me where the buck is bedded. He tells me he's 55 yards. I'm scanning the bowl and I struggled to find him. Finally the buck turns his head and I catch the movement of his antlers. At this point, the wait was on to see when he'd finally stand up for me to get a shot.
The picture above was taken about 30 minutes of laying on our bellies peaking over the ridge. This was also from my cell phone. We were also able to get a good picture through the binos with the cell phone as well.
This was a good buck. Short frame but very heavy. Just a great solid buck. It is now about 2 hours later and still no movement. The sun was now out from behind the clouds and it was getting hot. No choice but to suffer through the heat. A few minutes later, the small buck got up and started feeding. My guide looked at me and whispered to me that the small buck will eventually get the big buck up. We laid there for what felt like forever as the small buck fed. Eventually the small buck started feeding up above the big buck. He then turns around and walks right to the big buck, sniffs the air as if he didn't know the big buck was there and runs past the big buck. This startled the big buck and he jumped up and ran about 5 yards and stopped. This was the opportunity I had been patiently waiting for. The making of a perfect scenario and what dreams are made of. Unfortunately the situation didn't play out as I had rehearsed in my head over and over again. After he jumped and ran, He stopped facing directly away from us. My only shot being a Texas heart shot. Sadly... I panicked. The shot went off, and I lost sight of the arrow. All I knew was that I for sure hit him, but no clue if it went where I was aiming. The buck ran off, stopped and looked back at us wondering what the hell just happened. My guide said to me blood is running down his leg. He stood there for about 15 seconds and then ran off over the ridge and out of sight. We worked our way over to where he stopped and looked back and this is what we walked up onto.
After seeing this, I felt pretty good that my shot hit something important. I convinced myself that I had to hit the artery there as it went up into the guts and chest area. A bit later we started tracking and followed a pretty good blood trail. 100 yards....200 yards.... 300 yards.... And then 400 yards. He stopped again and left another pool of blood.
While I was previously convinced we would find him dead soon, as we kept tracking him further and further, I was now starting to have serious doubts. 2.5 miles and 5 hours later we had tracked him to an area with a bunch of cattails. The cattails were 6-8 feet tall and super thick. He had gone right into them as we could see the blood trail a few feet up the cattails at the entry point. I stayed out as my bro in law and guide walked through the cattails. I was working my way around the edge in hopes of a shot when I looked up and there was a buck standing looking at me at about 150 yards. I threw up my binos and tried to find blood or some sign that it was the same buck. He looked at me, started to walk and I saw his back end dropping every time he tried to take a step. It was definitely him. He gingerly worked his way into the next set of cattails.
We did the same thing on the next set of cattails. I stayed out while the others walked through. Sadly, we never saw the buck come out of the cattails. We pushed a couple bucks out but never him. We figured he may have died right in the middle some place and we would have to walk right on top of him to find him. It was about 5pm at this point and we decided to backtrack a bit. We were able to pick up the blood trail in the second set of cattails. By now it was very sparse. What we found was startling. He had been able to exit the cattails and then the blood trail was gone. Once he left the cattails, there was nothing for him to go to except back into the hills or stay down in the flat area with no hiding spots. We were stumped. We had no idea how he got past us or where he went. I had lost all hope. At this point I had to make a decision. Because of my bad shot, my brother in law was wasting valuable hunting time helping me find the deer so I had to decide if we'd continue looking or not. I told them, go find a deer for you to shoot. My dreams of a good whitetail were crushed. In a few hours we'd be in bed and leaving for home the next morning. I was not looking forward to the drive home. It sucks having no real good choice as to how to proceed but, sadly that's the nature of hunting. It's a roller coaster of emotions. So many ups and downs. That morning we were packing up and one of the other guides in camp said he'd go out and continue to look for it. I was extremely appreciative of that gesture but knew that the chances were slim to none of finding him.
To be continued....
As we drove into Western Nebraska, the area looked pretty cool. I was getting excited as the area was mostly long rolling hills and fairly flat overall. I was thinking to myself, if I was a whitetail, this area would do
We continued our drive and as we got further, the terrain started to change. If you have never been to the Sandhills, there is water everywhere and there isn't a tree for miles. It really is an interesting place. Now that we're in the middle of the Sandhills, I'm now thinking to myself, how in the hell do you hunt whitetails in this area? We had been told that is was mostly spot and stalk and some blind hunting and it finally started to sink in about the type of hunt we were in for. This was a sunrise from the last day of hunting so you can see what the area looks like.I took a crossbow as my weapon of choice. I had never hunted with one and thought it would be cool to give it a try. I have hunted archery off and on over the years in Utah but it has never really been my favorite type of hunting. When we arrived at the lodge, the outfitter went over the typical day of hunting. We would try to spot and stalk in the morning and then sit in a blind in the evening if we wanted. So after dinner, it was off to bed we go. We woke up early and went to the property we were scheduled to hunt on. It was approximately 15000 acres with several large lakes. The area held mule deer, whitetail, antelope and all kinds of birds.
That first morning we glassed the bottoms near the lakes. We saw quite a few does but no bucks that morning. After lunch we had decided to try and sit in a blind on a different property. We didn't see much that evening and hoped for more action the next morning. Unfortunately the next day wasn't much better. We hit both properties and basically was a rerun of the day before. That morning though we did push a nice buck off the road and up into the hills. We decided not to pursue that buck as we hoped it would not go far and would settle into his normal routine. The next day we hit the other property in the morning and only saw mule deer. The wind was blowing very hard and the Temps had dropped a bit. We decided in the evening we'd sit in the blinds at the other property. That evening was uneventful until I saw a couple does at about 150 yards. They fed out of sight and things got very boring. Light was fading fast and as I looked out the side window, I caught the glimpse of a deer standing on the horizon. It was clear immediately that it was a buck and it looked like a good one. I throw up the range finder and he's at 126 yards. That buck decided to stand there and not move an inch for the next 15 minutes. I was able to get a good picture of him with cell phone, well as good as you can get with fading light and full zoom.
Unfortunately the buck never came any closer. He went out of sight on the other side of they hill and I didn't get a chance at a shot. I was excited though as I finally got a good look at a pretty nice buck. One that I would have been super proud of to have shot especially with it being my first whitetail. The next day had some action again. The next morning we were back at the same spot I had seen the buck the night before and we had two smaller bucks feeding right towards us. They ended up bedding down along the shoreline of on the lakes and close to the hill we were gassing from. It was a short 75 yard walk to get into position. I set up on one side and my brother in law set up on the other. The way the terrain was, we were basically on a hillside looking down at them almost like we were in a tree stand. They had no options other than to go out the bottom or up the hill between us. We thought we were in a great setup that one of us would at least get a shot. Well short story is, the bigger buck somehow snuck past us and no shooting ever happened. That day was super hot. It was around 92 degrees at midday and I finally gave up and said I need some shade so I went and sat in a blind. Even though it was hot outside, the blind was cool and I didn't feel like I was about to die anymore. That evening brought in some nasty storms right at dark and all I saw was one small buck running past me faster than any deer I've ever seen run.
We were now on our last day to hunt. The wind shifted and was now blowing out of the north. This changed things up a bit and allowed for us to do a good amount of walking through the hills without blowing our scent out in front of us. Our hope was to get to an area we hadn't been able to hunt yet due yo the wind causing problems. We slowly hiked through the hills and covered about a mile and a half. We got to where we could see the bottom of another lake area and we did not see one deer. A bit frustrated we started hiking back through the hills, now with the wind at our back. Definitely not ideal but what do you do. As we got back close to where all of the action had happened the past two days, we see a glimpse of two bucks. One was a dandy. Our guide said who is up and selfishly I said I am. It was about 7am when we saw the bucks. They were feeding back to the north. We walked quickly around them and caught them in a big bowl. They were at 116 yards. Still too far. We decided to watch them and they slowly work out of sight. This allowed us to try and get closer. As we crested the next hill, they were now at 96 yards. Again still too far. We let them do their thing again and this time the big buck disappeared. It took the smaller buck about 5-10 minutes to finally feed out of sight.
Once we could move, we walked to the top of the ridge and found the small buck bedded below us at 20 yards. The big buck was still nowhere to be found. We kept looking and could not turn up the bigger buck. I was thinking he just kept feeding and split from the smaller buck. We decided to back off and circle around to get a better look into the small bowl that the smaller buck bedded in. As we crested the hill, we immediately found the small buck. Still no sign of the bigger buck. My guide at this point was standing on the top of the ridge looking around when he almost immediately dropped down and looks at me. His eyes are wide and he points and says, I found him. That of course got me excited as well. He backs off and walks over to me and is describing what he saw. After making a plan, we slowly belly crawled about 10 yards to the top of the ridge and he is trying to explain to me where the buck is bedded. He tells me he's 55 yards. I'm scanning the bowl and I struggled to find him. Finally the buck turns his head and I catch the movement of his antlers. At this point, the wait was on to see when he'd finally stand up for me to get a shot.
The picture above was taken about 30 minutes of laying on our bellies peaking over the ridge. This was also from my cell phone. We were also able to get a good picture through the binos with the cell phone as well.
This was a good buck. Short frame but very heavy. Just a great solid buck. It is now about 2 hours later and still no movement. The sun was now out from behind the clouds and it was getting hot. No choice but to suffer through the heat. A few minutes later, the small buck got up and started feeding. My guide looked at me and whispered to me that the small buck will eventually get the big buck up. We laid there for what felt like forever as the small buck fed. Eventually the small buck started feeding up above the big buck. He then turns around and walks right to the big buck, sniffs the air as if he didn't know the big buck was there and runs past the big buck. This startled the big buck and he jumped up and ran about 5 yards and stopped. This was the opportunity I had been patiently waiting for. The making of a perfect scenario and what dreams are made of. Unfortunately the situation didn't play out as I had rehearsed in my head over and over again. After he jumped and ran, He stopped facing directly away from us. My only shot being a Texas heart shot. Sadly... I panicked. The shot went off, and I lost sight of the arrow. All I knew was that I for sure hit him, but no clue if it went where I was aiming. The buck ran off, stopped and looked back at us wondering what the hell just happened. My guide said to me blood is running down his leg. He stood there for about 15 seconds and then ran off over the ridge and out of sight. We worked our way over to where he stopped and looked back and this is what we walked up onto.
After seeing this, I felt pretty good that my shot hit something important. I convinced myself that I had to hit the artery there as it went up into the guts and chest area. A bit later we started tracking and followed a pretty good blood trail. 100 yards....200 yards.... 300 yards.... And then 400 yards. He stopped again and left another pool of blood.
While I was previously convinced we would find him dead soon, as we kept tracking him further and further, I was now starting to have serious doubts. 2.5 miles and 5 hours later we had tracked him to an area with a bunch of cattails. The cattails were 6-8 feet tall and super thick. He had gone right into them as we could see the blood trail a few feet up the cattails at the entry point. I stayed out as my bro in law and guide walked through the cattails. I was working my way around the edge in hopes of a shot when I looked up and there was a buck standing looking at me at about 150 yards. I threw up my binos and tried to find blood or some sign that it was the same buck. He looked at me, started to walk and I saw his back end dropping every time he tried to take a step. It was definitely him. He gingerly worked his way into the next set of cattails.
We did the same thing on the next set of cattails. I stayed out while the others walked through. Sadly, we never saw the buck come out of the cattails. We pushed a couple bucks out but never him. We figured he may have died right in the middle some place and we would have to walk right on top of him to find him. It was about 5pm at this point and we decided to backtrack a bit. We were able to pick up the blood trail in the second set of cattails. By now it was very sparse. What we found was startling. He had been able to exit the cattails and then the blood trail was gone. Once he left the cattails, there was nothing for him to go to except back into the hills or stay down in the flat area with no hiding spots. We were stumped. We had no idea how he got past us or where he went. I had lost all hope. At this point I had to make a decision. Because of my bad shot, my brother in law was wasting valuable hunting time helping me find the deer so I had to decide if we'd continue looking or not. I told them, go find a deer for you to shoot. My dreams of a good whitetail were crushed. In a few hours we'd be in bed and leaving for home the next morning. I was not looking forward to the drive home. It sucks having no real good choice as to how to proceed but, sadly that's the nature of hunting. It's a roller coaster of emotions. So many ups and downs. That morning we were packing up and one of the other guides in camp said he'd go out and continue to look for it. I was extremely appreciative of that gesture but knew that the chances were slim to none of finding him.
To be continued....
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