Kansas Whitetail

[upper deck]

With the Kansas rifle season winding down I had made the decision to head up to the North Central part of the state instead of the SE part that I usually hunt. Since the beginning of Nov the big boys had disappeared in my usual spot. I had never hunted the NC part of the state but I know they kill some big deer up there.

I headed out Wed morning with hopes to visit a dealer on the way and get there before dark to do some scouting. As you can see by the picture the trip out there took a little longer than expected. The area I was to be hunting got between 10 -16 inches of snow Tues night. I was excited about being able to quickly see where the deer movement was, but I didn't think about the road situation.

You can see from the pics I didn't arrive with much time to scout so I would be going into Thurs. morning a little blind.

 

[upper deck]

Thurs Morning ended being extremely cold, the reading in the truck was -17 at my hunting spot. I sat on a hill over looking a milo field and not long after it was light enough to see I starting watching smaller bucks work there way along a few trees on the property line. So I ranged the trees at 400 yards to give myself a reference mark.

About 30 minutes later I had three more deer working from the south towards the creek bottom on the North side of the field along the same property line. I noticed one of the bucks looked decent,I didn't feel comfortable taking that shot of 400 yards and couldn't make any move because of the other deer in the field. I was able to get a few pics of him as I watched him work his way out of sight. I sat out in the milo until around 10:30 that morning.

I then decided to head a little further north to a pasture that has a large pond and some wooded draws. I wasn't sure if the roads would be clear to get there but I was going to find out. After picking my way though the good roads to get as close as I could I was able to park about a mile from the property. This ended up being a bust with no deer sightings and very little tracks. You can see some of the snow drifts in this area.

It was around 1:30 or 2:00 so I figured I better get to an area to sit for the evening. I headed to a area that had a river bottom that ran into a cut bean field. I got to the location and walked in to where the wooded river bottom met the field and to my surprise there were no tracks, I was very frustrated that I had wasted that time between the drive and the walk in and out.

I decided to head back to the milo field area and see if I could sneek into that area for the evening hunt. When I pulled up to the field I met another truck that also hunted that area and was going to sit out. After a short conversation with him I told him to go ahead and hunt and I would come back in the morning. So the rest of the evening I sat on a high spot on the road overlooking part of the field. Again I noticed the deer like to move along the East property line.

So my plan for Fri morning was to sit further East of where I had Thurs morning and hope the deer repeated there movement for one more day.

 

[upper deck]

Fri morning came very early to me. In fact I got going a little later than I wanted or needed to. As I left the truck that morning I noticed I only had ten minutes until you could legally shoot, which ended up being a huge part of the hunt. There was hardly any wind and about -8 as I slowly worked my way to the hill I wanted to sit on. As I approached the crest of the hill I looked to my left and noticed a buck looking at me, he looked to have a good frame but I wanted him to turn before I made my decision. What seemed like 5 minutes of us staring at each other he finally turned and I noticed it was that buck from Thurs morning. I quickly put the cross hairs on his shoulder and pulled the trigger, he made two hopes and disappeared over a small rise in the field. I thought I heard him go down but I just sat and waited for 15 minutes before I went looking for him.

As I was sitting there waiting to go look for this buck I noticed headlights along the creek bottom to the NW of me and about 10 -15 minutes later I saw three guys walking the woods. I then saw four more guys going in to walk the area to the NE of me as well. So within a half hour after sun rise there were 8 people hunting in this section including myself.

I then eased over the rise to see my buck piled up not 30 yards after he went out of my sight. I started looking at where I had hit him and noticed that someone else had an encounter with this buck the weekend prior I'm guessing. It looked like they had trying to shoot him running away and slid a bullet up the right side of him just inside the hide.

After taking some pics I had to make the 3/4 mile drag to get him back to my truck. I sure wished one of those other 7 hunters would have felt like helping but no such luck. I found your belt works great to help drag a deer if you don't have anything else.

 

[cornfed]

Nice mature buck,congratulations.My Iowa hunt went about the same,weather wise that is.This trophy hunting can be frustrating at times.Well done.

 

[mtmiller]

Great buck. Are you done for the season?

 

[upper deck]

mtmiller

I still may hunt MO for late season whitetail. Nothing real exciting. May try to get out and chase some KS pheasants.

 

[Oak]

Nice looking buck. Congrats!

 

[elk_hunter]

Wow, he's a dandy buck! Congrats UD!

 

[BOHNTR]

VERY nice......congrats.

 

[NVLongbow]

Very nice buck! Congratulations!

 

[1_pointer]

Great looking buck!! Congrats!!

 

[----]

Cool write up and an awesome buck, Congrats.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Good job on your buck!

 

[huntin' lunatic]

Way to go!

That's an awesome buck. Kansas beckons me, I hunt public land down here in Texas, but in the snow, that would be awesome. Is that Sitka gear you wearing? How didi it handle the cold? thanks

 

[Big Fin]

Very cool. Better year, very cold.

Congrats on a great buck. Very wide.

 

[upper deck]

Is that Sitka gear you wearing? How didi it handle the cold? thanks

I was wearing sitka gear, I loved the celcius bids but was not a big fan of the celcius coat. I prefer the 90% jacket much more with quality layers under. Love the sitka vests, this is one of my favorite pieces. I also had a sleeping indian wool coat with windstop on the first morning

Big Fin

Very wide

.

I put a rough tape on the deer and the inside spread was right around 20.5 inches

 

[schmalts]

great buck! was that some kind of private land or public land thing?

 

[Grizzley]

Great Buck and well deserved! Congrats! Maybe we could get together for some spot and stock Mulies in the Badlands next year!

 

[upper deck]

was that some kind of private land or public land thing?

It was on private land that a salesmen I work with owns. He doesn't hunt so he lets people hunt it. Also in that part of Kansas many of the sections are split up with many different land owners. I believe the section I was on had 6 or 8 different land owners.

 

[Buschy]

Ryan,

Great post and pics. Another great KS buck as well.

You are tipping over WT bucks on a regular basis bigger than I have ever had an opportunity at. Congratulations and keep up the hard work!