Monday morning, 11/3, was the coldest morning of the season thus far and with the rut fast approaching I knew that I had to get out and see what the forest was willing to offer up. Without any mature bucks showing up with any regularity at our hunting spots I decided to take a chance and hit an urban 25 acre creek bottom that has always been good to me. I got in early and set up a Primos Decoy quartering to me 25 yards out from my stand with one antler on his head. Underneath of him, I put some Kishels Thrasher 2, along with Lowes Buck Butter with Estrus Scent nearby.
I performed a 30 second rattling sequence followed with a few grunts at daylight and received no response. About 40 minutes later I did the same rattling and grunting sequence and within 10 minutes I hear the leaves start to crunch, as if someone is clumsily walking through the woods, I look around and see nothing. Then there was more crunching and in walks this big bodied buck all bristled up and mad, directly off of my left shoulder. He is 25 yards out and moving in fast. He stiff leggedly walks directly under my stand, to get downwind of the decoy, and then stops 20 yards to my right and postures up to the decoy. He was doing the “sideways I’m going to whoop your butt walk” this whole time and he was ready to fight. I couldn't immediately tell how big his rack was; I just saw his body size and knew he was a big mature shooter. This is the one picture of him, on the left, that I had from earlier this summer. Then he was a no show until yesterday.
He stood quartering away from me for a bit sizing up the decoy which gave me time to grab my Axiom, put the 20 yard crosshairs on him, and put an arrow into his lungs. He immediately did a mule kick and I could see blood flowing out of the entrance wound as he took off. He only ran about 50 yards, crossed the creek, and fell directly on the truck path, how convenient.
It was an incredible hunt, where everything went, for some unknown unexplainable reason, exactly as planned. However, it was over too quickly. The whole thing lasted only 20 to 25 seconds at the most! It left me standing 20 feet up in the air wondering what the hell just happened. As I was telling my father in law yesterday, as we discussed the details of the hunt, there is no way to describe the incredible rush of emotions that overtake you after events like this happen. It’s magical.
Hey, don't tell everyone about that Thrasher 2. 
