Today’s guest post from Flatlander, longtime friend of BIG DEER:
Hey Mike, reporting in on the last week of the Illinois archery season. We’ve had 10 inches of snow dumped upon us, and the deer are still a slave to their stomachs.
I’ve been playing cat and mouse with a buck we’ve called “Captain Hook” for his unique brow tines. He was elusive during the pre-rut and disappeared for almost 6 weeks. Most recent trail cams at Christmas revealed he was alive and back, moving among our food plots.
Cold temps and flooded low ground had deer on their feet on the warmest part of the day, when I had a close encounter with Captain Hook on New Year’s Eve. A doe below my stand didn’t like what she saw and blew the buck out of the area. Fast forward to this past Saturday night and the big 10 came in again only to wind me from several hundred yards. I’d apparently gotten sloppy on my ritual of scent control.
I went home and washed everything and stored it an ozone container…scrubbed my boots and even cut my hair short and scoured my body before the hunt. I went in as scent free as humanly possible.
An hour before sunset 33 deer came by including 6 nice bucks, one amazing 12-pointer in the mix but no shot.
The last deer to move through was Captain Hook, following a one horn buck in to the sugar beets. This was his one and only mistake this season, and it was my best day afield this year!
As you always say, “Hunt hard and stay after it. Success will come if diligent!”
Good luck to all in the coming year and God bless, Matt “Flatlander” Cheever
Way to stick with it Flatlander, congrats man!
Congrats Flatlander! That’s got to feel pretty darn good scoring so late on the one you were after all along. Great job man!
Awesome Flat! Way to stick with it, hunt hard, and make it count. Your one of the hardest working/hunting guys I know of and I love to see if pay off . Congrats on a dandy buck