This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here. 

GRANT: Pro staffers, Heath and Lindsey Martin, have had a great season. Heath arrowed a good buck out in Kansas and Lindsey captured it all on film.

HEATH: I got to say thanks to Lindsey, my wife. She runs the camera for me. We switch out. She’s been working and hunting as hard as I have.

GRANT: Heath also tagged a Boone and Crockett bear with his bow, in his home state of Arkansas. The couple has had a great season, and the only element missing was Lindsey tagging her first buck with a bow.

GRANT: It wasn’t for a lack of effort on Lindsey’s part. She’s hunted long and hard throughout the season and had some close calls. There were two giant bucks in Kansas that just slipped passed her – right out of range.

GRANT: Then, there was the giant six-pointer that walked right by the hay bale blind, but it was just too early in the morning for a shot.

GRANT: We know Lindsey’s a hunter. We’ve watched her harvest groundhogs…

LINDSEY: We caught him in the act.

GRANT: …wild hogs and turkeys.

GRANT: Lindsey’s even taken the Go Pro camera with her shotgun while tagging a turkey.

HEATH: Holy cow.

LINDSEY: That happened.

GRANT: But what’s missing from her hunting resume is tagging a buck with her bow, so after a long season of road trips to central Kansas, Heath and Lindsey are back home in Arkansas, and that’s where Heath discovers a nice pattern of bucks on a local property.

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GRANT: It’s now late January in Central Arkansas. Truly the late season and the bucks are grouping back up.

GRANT: But the key here is these bucks are showing up in daylight, during the late morning.

LINDSEY: Hi guys. It’s Heath and Lindsey and it’s late season here in central Arkansas, and Heath and I are hunting over a travel corridor where we’re getting a lot of pictures of some does and some bucks. Um, we’ve actually got some pictures of some bucks. They look like they’re grouping back up, so we’ll see.

GRANT: It’s a sunny, cool morning and Heath and Lindsey are setup by an old fence gap along a logging road.

GRANT: The fence gap is where Heath’s trail camera picked up the pattern of these bucks during mid-morning.

GRANT: By 9:00 A.M., they spot movement and it feels like the plan is coming together.

GRANT: Suddenly, there’s an eight point buck and Heath recognizes this buck as running with the larger ten point.

LINDSEY: (Whispering) (Inaudible)

GRANT: Sure enough, the ten pointer isn’t far behind. When the nice ten pointer gets within 40 yards, Lindsey draws her bow.

HEATH: (Whispering) (Inaudible)

GRANT:  At 40 plus yards, the ten pointer’s just out of her range.

GRANT: I appreciate that Lindsey knows her boundaries and doesn’t take a shot past her effective range. That takes a lot of maturity.

GRANT: It isn’t long, and suddenly, the ten point is back.

GRANT: Looks like the ten pointer is slowly working his way toward Lindsey. Could this finally be the day Lindsey tags a buck with her bow?

HEATH: (Whispering) (Inaudible)

LINDSEY: (Whispering) Thank you.

LINDSEY: Well, you got to give me a second to calm down there, so I got a little excited.

LINDSEY: I have been working on a getting a deer down with my bow for two long years. And it’s late season, here in Arkansas, and it’s a good feeling. I don’t know if you saw it – did we get it on camera, or not – but there’s a tree, and that’s a 35 yard shot, for me, which is pretty well my maximum limit. And so, we knew if he came in front of the tree, I was gonna get a shot. If he went behind the tree, no dice. And I got drawn on him, just in case, and at the last minute, he veered off and went behind the tree, and so, here’s the thing. I don’t know if you can see this on camera – but where he was walking was right on top of our shadow, and when I drew, he kind of paused, and he saw the motion, or something. And I think I shot a little faster than my cameraman was ready for. (Whispering) I’m sorry (inaudible). I know there’s no crying in the tree stand.

HEATH: (Whispering) It’s okay. You’ve worked hard for it. I love you.

LINDSEY: (Whispering) I love you.

LINDSEY: Not only was this the first, um, deer I’ve ever harvested with my bow, but this is actually the biggest buck I’ve ever harvested.

GRANT: I’m very proud of Lindsey. She had the discipline to continue practicing with her bow, throughout the season, pass up some tempting shots, and hold it together when the time was right. In addition, Heath’s scouting, stand placement, worked perfectly and provided Lindsey with a great opportunity. It’s interesting to note that this buck appears to have survived EHD, epizootic hemorrhagic disease. HD, hemorrhagic disease, has been studied for more than 50 years. And we know a lot about this disease although, there seems to be, recently, some new forms on the landscape. HD can kill deer rapidly – that’s called the acute form – or chronic, where they may, or may not die. It appears Lindsey’s buck had the chronic form of HD, and clearly, was going to survive the winter.

GRANT: Lindsey’s first buck with her bow, and it’s a good one. Congratulations, Lindsey.

GRANT: Adam and I also had a great deer season. It closed recently, in Missouri, but we weren’t about to miss the last afternoon of hunting.

GRANT: We picked up a pattern of deer using a food plot we call Gobbler Knob, using our Reconyx cameras.

GRANT: As we were entering that stand, as soon as Adam got up high enough, he saw deer across the plot and in the timber on the other side.

GRANT: Adam was able to get the camera on the tree and pull the bow up quietly, without alerting the deer.

GRANT: After quite some time, they fed out into the plot and I felt confident one of them would come within range.

GRANT: (Whispering) Is your camera over my right shoulder, now?

GRANT: Watch the behavior of these deer. It’s extremely calm, the sun is bright, and these deer are on red alert, even though we’ve only hunted this stand once before, during the entire season.

GRANT: Almost two hours later, they finally exit the plot, but during that whole time, they never offered a good shot.

GRANT: (Whispering) There’s two of them.

GRANT: Not long after those deer exited, four more deer entered the plot.

GRANT: These last four deer entered the plot closer than the first group, and I felt confident one of these would offer a opportunity to put some more tenderloins in the freezer.

GRANT: As they fed through the plot, they seemed to veer over and take the same path as the previous group.

GRANT: There were two fawns in the last group of deer we saw, and as they were feeding off through the woods, we could hear a couple more deer below them.

GRANT: As the sun dropped below the horizon, we now see antlers down with the fawns.

GRANT: It turned out to be a hit list buck we call Rocker, and our excitement is as high as ever during the entire season.

UNKNOWN: (Whispering) I think you’ve got a (inaudible).

GRANT: Rocker’s only 40 yards away, well within my effective range, but there’s simply too many limbs in the way to risk a shot.

GRANT: As darkness settled in, Rocker never presented a shot, but it was an extremely exciting way to end our season.

GRANT: (Whispering) That was the most exciting and tiring hunt I’ve had all year, from when we got up in the tree, before we sat down, we saw deer in the woods. And we, basically, have seen deer the entire three hours, ending up with one of our bucks, down here about 35 yards, but through the limbs, no shot. Apparently, after a doe that was receptive, and a couple other bucks. It was a thrilling hunt, even though we didn’t tag a deer.

GRANT: Seeing all those does, healthy fawns, and hit list buck that survived the season, I’m already pumped up for next year.

GRANT: We’ve had traps out and been catching a few predators, before the season closed. But now that season’s closed, I’m really focused on removing some more predators from The Proving Grounds, and we’ll share some additional techniques next week.

GRANT: Hope you have a chance to get outside and enjoy Creation this week, but most importantly, find the time every day to be quiet and listen to what the Creator is saying to you. Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv.