Kentucky Bow Hunt: Buck Down! (Episode 100 Transcript)
This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here.
GRANT: Welcome to our 100th episode. This week we’ve got a bunch of hunts coming to you. Bucks, does, groundhogs. Sit still cause we’re starting now.
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GRANT: 300 ‘n 96 miles to go.
GRANT: Adam, Matt and I drove over to Cadiz, Kentucky, Tuesday to hunt with a friend of mine, Terry Hamby. While waiting on road construction near the Ohio River bridge we were talking deer hunting, of course, with the flag man. He gave some advice that proved to be prophetic.
FLAG MAN: Just be patient and be still and you’ll kill a big one.
GRANT: All right. Be safe. That’s America’s deer hunter right there. Hard working man, got two sons, takes them hunting on the weekends. That’s what makes deer hunting great.
TERRY: …sure about bear. Or on it.
GRANT: This is an annual hunt where a friend of mine from South Carolina and one from Montana meets at Mr. Hamby’s place in Kentucky and our mission is to have fun, a lot of fellowship and help Mr. Hamby manage his property.
GRANT: Oh, he’s offering challenges.
TERRY: Oooooooo.
GRANT: Look at that. We grabbed a few Muddy stands. Did a little scouting. Got our stands up and got ready to hunt.
GRANT: (Whispering) It’s down. Heard the grass. I love to hear the grass.
GRANT: That is a magnum. Good, gosh almighty. Always good to get the first one on the meat pole. You know, looking at the size of this doe and knowing the history of the property and all the management aspects, I don’t doubt they’ll have a mature buck swing in here soon.
GRANT: Mr. Hamby and Matt were hunting from a Redneck blind we put up earlier this summer.
TERRY: (Whispering) October the 12th here in Western Kentucky. Hopefully a big buck will, uh, come into our sights this afternoon.
GRANT: They did see some does, but not close enough for a shot. Thursday morning CJ and Matt went back to the stand where I took the first doe. Now CJ’s went old school and brought his recurve. He’s been practicing a bunch – wasn’t long before he was gripping that recurve.
CJ: (Softly) Just spotted some deer. Right at daylight down in the bottom but, nothing close yet.
CJ: (Whispering) Man, I love hunting with a stick bow. A place like this where there’s a lot of deer. Beautiful morning. Great hunt.
CJ: Well, here’s my Kentucky doe. She only went about 65 or 70 yards from the stand. I was fortunate enough to make a good hit with my recurve and I’m very excited about taking her back to South Carolina with me.
GRANT: While scouting, Matt and I found a hardwood draw that had a couple of active scrapes and some acorns dropping. So that afternoon, Adam and I are up a tree, overlooking one of those acorn trees and a scrape.
GRANT: Adam and I watched a doe and two fawns pass by the stand. But at 40 yards and a strong crosswind, she got a free pass for today.
GRANT: (Whispering) That old doe and a couple fawns went out exactly as we approached this stand. You can see the road up there where we walked in. And because we make that extra effort, and it is extra effort, to do a good job with our scent control, they didn’t know we were here.
GRANT: That same afternoon, a groundhog came out at about 35 yards. Seems like those food plot munchers are following me around these days.
GRANT: (Whispering) Are you ready? Groundhog is due in deer camp tonight!
GRANT: Andrew and Matt did some scouting one afternoon and found a food plot with a lot of sign.
ANDREW: (Whispering) We just threw up this ground blind today, largely on the basis of all the sign in this food plot. It’s getting hammered and so we’re hoping that maybe if we get in its kitchen, you know, we’ll…we’ll see a good buck.
ANDREW: (Whispering) (Inaudible)
GRANT: Unfortunately, the buck didn’t close the gap and it never got in range.
GRANT: Friday afternoon Adam and I selected a new stand site that was a little different setup. It’s only 50 yards off a food plot, close to a bedding area; acorns falling at the stand site and the food plot had been planted in Eagle Seed beans. They were heavily browsed but the inner planted wheat had kept the field green and deer coming. Just as we’re settling in – I hadn’t even put my release on yet – I spot a doe coming out a bedding area towards the oaks. I was hoping she’d stop, but she kept on moving and went right under the stand.
GRANT: (Whispering) Say when. (Inaudible)
GRANT: (Whispering) My second doe of this Kentucky trip. We’re here to help the landowner because all of his summer crops got consumed. He obviously had more deer than forage. So, we’re here to harvest does and hopefully see a mature buck.
GRANT: (Whispering) I’m having daydreams about springtime in Kentucky.
GRANT: When you hear those very slow, stop/go footsteps it usually means buck. That buck stood ten yards from the base of our tree for five minutes staring at the doe I had already shot. Adam could get a view, but all I could see was a tine every now and then through the thick hickory leaves.
GRANT: Finally, I could hear the buck backing up and I thought all opportunities were gone.
GRANT: I kept staring for a glimpse of the buck and about 40 yards out I caught movement behind a cedar tree.
GRANT: (Whispering) What’s (Inaudible) now?
ADAM: (Inaudible)
GRANT: (Whispering) Give it to me, bro. That was phenomenal. We’d shot a doe earlier; dropped her right over here. He come up right – no shot at all at about 10 yards. We’d left these branches for a background cover so our silhouette would be broken up. Stood there and stood there. I could just see the glint of the tines. Knew it was a good deer. Walking off my heart sunk and a doe and fawn out in front of me figuring they were gonna bust me. Turned out they were about 35 yards. Come back in. Perfect.
GRANT: Got a little help to show up and we’ve recovered the arrow. We’ve got sign stem to stern of the arrow, so we’re ready to pick up the trail and go down the hill. We heard a good tumble, so hopefully this won’t be too tough.
GRANT: Wanted to see something and – oh yeah – baby, baby, come to me. Look at that. Man, yeah. At the end of about a 70 yard trail downhill – I think the last 10 yards I was sliding. We were just blessed to find this huge Kentucky buck. I was just thrilled. I’m most thrilled to have a hunt unraveled. Had to hold and wait and patient. Didn’t risk a shot – did not have a good shot. Waited and sure enough as we were blessed, it walked around in front of us – made a great shot and a short blood trail and get to celebrate it with friends. You know, enjoying Creation doesn’t get any better than that.
GRANT: Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv.
GRANT: It takes a real archer to pick out a finger. Anyone can hit the whole body of a balloon.
UNKNOWN: Oooo! Oooo.
TERRY: The winner is Dr. Grant Woods and I get to present him with the trophy for 2011.
GRANT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for fair and honest competition.
ANDREW: It was fun.
TERRY: I’m not sure about fair.
CJ: Or honest. (Laughter)